After I returned, the remaining monsters were swiftly dealt with.

Most of the monsters, having lost their purpose after the Stele was destroyed, scattered, leaving relatively few to be dealt with.

“Ke-en... Waaah!”

Once all the monsters were taken care of, Raphne clung to me, tears streaming down her face as we took a short break at the Stele.

“There, there, calm down. It's okay now.”

I tried to soothe Raphne, who seemed to be crying tears of relief after all the worry she had endured.

“Why are you so skinny! Waaah!”

It appeared her tears weren't just out of relief.

‘...I have lost a lot of weight.’

Although it had been a week here, it was a year over there.

Currently, I was in a state not much different from when I used Calorie Burn.

Thanks to that, I was able to greatly assist in dealing with the remaining monsters.

Before the diet, I would have been supporting from the rear alongside Emily.

But now, I could confidently go to the front lines and take down the monsters.

Adrian, seeing me like this for the first time, looked quite surprised and impressed.

“You're like a completely different person from a week ago... Amazing.”

His words, filled with awe, made me feel a bit proud.

And somehow, even Siegfried, listening nearby, seemed pleased and was smiling.

Mary and Emily, who knew about my weight loss, weren't too surprised.

However, they somehow couldn’t meet my eyes like they usually did.

So, the one left was Raphne.

I thought she might congratulate me on my weight loss as well.

“Sobbing, Ken... Just how much did you starve yourself?”

Grabbing my face and speaking like a worried mother, she continued to cry.

"It's okay, Raphne. Honestly, I'm healthier than before."

I lifted my arm to show her my muscles. Unlike before, you could clearly see the muscle definition.

At that moment, I made eye contact with Emily, who was staring at my arm in a daze from behind Raphne. As soon as our eyes met, she quickly turned her head away.

"But you're all skin and bones!"

Despite my confident display, Raphne only cried harder.

"Still, I'm just so glad you made it back safely."

While I was trying to calm Raphne down, Mary approached from behind, her voice sounding hoarse.

At the sound, I turned my head.

She hugged me from behind, pressing her body against mine.

Her hands on my shoulders were trembling.

"I was really worried about you..."

"I'm sorry. But I truly had no other choice but to go alone."

No matter what, I couldn't let them spend a year in that hell.

It's enough for just one person to endure the pain.

In the end, everything turned out fine.

"That’s right! You should have at least talked to us about it!"

Emily, also blushing, approached me briskly after listening to Mary.

"Ouch, ouch!"

"Take that!

This is your punishment! Making us worried sick like that… sobbing…”

Soon, tears formed in her eyes as she looked at me.

She must have been holding back her feelings, but seeing Raphne cry the loudest, she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“But... sobbing... aren't you hungry? Are you okay not eating?”

As she was crying out in anger, she suddenly asked this, tears streaming down her face.

Worried about me more than being angry, she put her hand on my face.

“It’s okay. I’ve lost all the extra weight, so I don’t need to eat right away.”

I explained it simply to Emily, who seemed to mistakenly think I had used Calorie Burn.

I meant it to reassure her, but Emily, tears still falling, placed her hand on my face again.

“Ugh, really seeing you so skinny… sobbing... how much did you suffer?”

Then, she lowered her head deeply and rested her forehead on my shoulder.

'Am I really that skinny now?'

I haven’t had a chance to see myself as Hell was all just swamps.

In my mind, I was at a normal weight.

…But to those who were used to seeing me mostly chubby, I suppose I must seem so thin now.

Still, it’s a relief that we could reunite without anyone getting hurt.

Looking around at my comrades welcoming my return,

I smiled and said,

“Shall we head back to the city for today?

I want to eat something delicious.”

Growl...

As I spoke, my stomach let out a growl of hunger.

And the first to react to that familiar sound was Raphne.

“Ken! You’re hungry! Sobbing, I’ll make you anything you want! Let’s, let’s eat quickly!”

“Oh, actually, I’ve been craving Raphne’s cooking.”

“Sobbing, alright, I’ll go… Ugh, waaah!”

When I expressed my honest craving for her cooking, Raphne, who had been holding back her tears, started crying again.

After sitting down a little longer to calm them, we finally left the 10th floor and headed back to the city.

We had the shortcut key we aimed for, but challenging the 100th floor right now would be impossible.

Having survived for a year and exhausted after the monster rush, both I and my comrades needed rest.

On our way back to the city.

“Ken.”

As we walked leisurely, the monster attacks subsiding, Adrian called me.

Wondering what it was, I turned to see him looking at me with an unusually serious face, devoid of his usual playful smile.

“Thank you.”

“…Not ‘good job’?”

Perplexed by the sudden gratitude, I tilted my head.

“It was originally something I was supposed to do.”

“…Ah.”

He was referring to the purpose of this journey.

It was about removing the destined fate given to Raphne.

Removing that fate would also stop the Demon Tribe’s invasion.

Originally, all of that was his duty as a royal.

He was grateful for that.

"It's nothing. I did it because I wanted to."

"...No, but it was something that could have cost you your life."

Adrian, avoiding eye contact out of guilt, continued speaking.

"To be honest, I didn't fully believe you at first. I just speculated that someone who had come back from the dead might know something I didn't."

He was referring to the previous Curse of the Grim Reaper incident.

The miraculous resurrection where I had impossibly returned from death.

"I'm curious about how you know such things, but I won't ask. I have many secrets myself, just like you."

"...You're not going to ask?"

"For me, the results are more important than your personal reasons."

Indeed, he hadn't shown much doubt even when I first mentioned my intention to conquer the Tower.

He simply believed in the outcome I had achieved with the Grim Reaper's Curse incident and followed my lead.

He could clearly see my determination to save Raphne.

"So, I can only thank you. You provided a solution to Raphne's problem, which I had been unsure about for a long time... and you even risked your life."

"It's not over yet. The final hurdle still remains."

"That's the part I'm not worried about."

Adrian smiled at me.

It wasn't his usual playful smile mocking others.

It was a smile filled with respect and expectation.

"I believe you'll be able to achieve it in the end. I had been doubtful before, but now... I am convinced."

Feeling embarrassed by his trust-filled words, I scratched my head.

Taking in Adrian's gratitude and feeling a strange sense of satisfaction, we finally arrived in the city.

"M-Mm, it's delicious!!"

Moved to tears, I tasted the special exclusive dish Raphne had prepared just for me.

"Eat up! Here! Try this too! And this!"

"W-Wait! Hold on, slowly…"

Noticing the severity of my diet-induced transformation, Raphne kept pushing more food toward my mouth without taking a single bite herself.

"Stop it, Raphne. Honestly, while Ken was cute before, don't you think he's much better now?"

Emily, who was sitting beside and eating with Raphne, helped to calm her down.

"Definitely, his old look was cute, but now, uh..."

Mary, seemingly agreeing with Emily, also pitched in and looked at me. When our eyes met, she blushed and lowered her head.

‘...What are they saying?’

I can understand that I look better now after dieting.

But to say I was cute before dieting?

That fat, ugly guy?

‘They all saw me with rose tinted glasses.’

I felt grateful that they had seen any aspect of me as cute.

Of course, there is one person who might be a bit much.

“W-What are you all talking about! Sob, Ken has gotten so skinny!! Now I can't even bury my face in his soft belly anymore!!”

“W-Wait, Raphne!”

I tried to stop her from saying such embarrassing things in front of the others.

“…Bury in his belly?”

“Her face?”

Finally, it seemed to have reached the ears of the two, who now looked at me with strange expressions.

“No, what Raphne meant was...”

━Bang!

My attempt at an excuse was cut short by the sound of Emily slamming her hand on the table.

Emily was clenching her fist and glaring at me.

“I-I have never done anything like that━!”

“…Huh?”

“N-Neither have I. Never once.”

“…M-Mary too?”

I was taken aback by their unexpected words.

I had thought they would say something like ‘Shameless!’ or ‘Pervert! Die!’

But instead, they were glaring at me with indignant faces.

"Why did you lose weight when we never even had a chance to try it!"

"That's right. It feels like we missed out on something, so I'm not happy."

"B-But both of you were just saying that it was good I lost weight…"

As I was flustered by their sudden change in attitude, another voice came from across the table.

"Oh, is it that good? I want to try it too."

Even Adrian, who was eating with us, joined in.

His serious smile as he looked at me made a chill run down my spine.

"It certainly was soft and squishy before."

Even Siegfried, who had been quietly eating meat, chimed in.

"Eek! P-Please, both of you stop!"

Caught up in the sudden fantasies of these perverts, I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself and tried to scoot away.

"Ken! Here, eat another bite quickly!"

"Mmmpf!"

"I'll give you mine! Eat this too!"

"Mmpf!"

"Have some of mine as well.

…Is it possible to gain weight and then lose it again?"

"Ugh…"

A relentless barrage of ‘just one more bite’ continued.

It felt even more exhausting than a monster rush as the never-ending food kept coming into my mouth.

The meal I'd longed for over the past year ended in culinary torment.

"Hmph..."

In the quiet and dark forest, a cold female voice echoed through the oddly purple and eerie foliage.

"Master, you certainly tricked me well."

There, seated beside a sword embedded in a tree, was a woman petting a monster.

Around her, countless monsters lay sleeping. This woman, Tirfione, muttered words of resentment as she suddenly blushed.

"...Ahh, you're so clever!"

The thought of the man who had betrayed her caused her to express emotions of longing.

"But if you think this means we are parted, you are mistaken. Haha."

With her cheeks flushed, she gazed at the moon and touched her lips, smiling as she spoke.

"...The master-servant contract has ◯◯◯◯◯◯◯..."

Recalling the taste of her master's blood, Tirfione dreamed of the day she would meet him again.

"Very soon... the moment when you need me will come."

She then stood up and approached the sword, her true form.

Grasping the handle, she tugged on it with the force to pull it out immediately.

"...Ugh!! But this is too much!! Embedding it like this means I can't pull it out!!"

Despite her desperate efforts, Tirfione could not free herself. She voiced her frustration toward her unyielding true form.

It wasn't until the next day that she, with the help of a monster, she managed to pull out the sword.

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