Feast of Illusions (1)

A few moments after the awful shower, I left my room to eat breakfast.

There's a dining hall located close to the room [B-4]. If I recall correctly, the dining hall is at the centre of this place.

Not to mention, the hallways were also similar to luxurious private school halls. And the door looked like they came straight out of a movie.

Surprisingly there weren't any maids or servants that would bring you food and other stuff. Considering how this place looks like, at least one servant will seem reasonable.

What I'm saying is that how can this house even be tidied? I don't think a single person can clean the whole place.

Even though there aren't any workers, everything looks great, no signs of any issues. This place defines perfection.

After a short while, I reached the dining hall. Once again, everything seemed magnificent. There were multiple tables, but all of them were empty.

I wonder why the place is so empty…

There was food everywhere, on the other hand, there were no signs of someone else present besides me.

After a few minutes of silence, I took a plate and grabbed some food, not questioning if they're meant for me.

But I was too hungry to care, quickly, I took a seat, and started my breakfast. I devoured everything, each bite of the tender meat was heavenly. The bread was extremely soft, even after being toasted upon perfection.

Unfortunately, paradise isn't forever, the meal was devoured in an instant. There was a bunch more food, but my stomach couldn't possibly handle it. If I could eat more, I would do it in an instant.

Sadly, there wasn't any room left, even for a dessert…

Then my I suddenly began to speak.

"Who could've thought of a magnificent dish like this!" I said, praising the chef who made this.

Although he wasn't present, I wanted to at least make him feel proud of himself and his dedication towards this amazing food.

The food seemed like a buffet, but none of the food was touched before I came. And for a buffet the quality seemed insanely high.

A few moments later, I realized that I might've done something unacceptable…

My happy, delightful expression quickly turned into a sombre one.

"W-was this perhaps for a party, or something important…?" I whispered to myself, unaware if the food wasn't meant for me.

Of course not, it wasn't meant for me…

However it's less likely the case, since the food would've gone bad if it wasn't eaten quickly. It would still be eatable, but the taste wouldn't be the same. And there is not a single person here, in this dining hall.

I looked around once again, checking every corner to see if there was anyone. I let out a sigh of relief.

"As expected!" I said, feeling a bit relieved that no one was there.

But the truth is that it isn't good, I haven't had any human interaction for the last two weeks… Excluding the 'ghost' from earlier.

It feels depressing that each time I speak, it's always towards myself, and not someone else who listens.

I couldn't help but feel lonely again as if everyone abandoned me. However, I don't think 'abandoned' is the right word, since I was just a mere child to Hiroshi. Yet, I'm curious but scared at the same time about what Hiroshi sees in me.

The fact that Hiroshi took someone, a stranger in without any hesitation still leaves me wondering.

In the meantime, the food was beginning to get cold, which meant that it wasn't for a party—or for whatever it was. Or it could be that the guests are late.

But once again it was likely not the case, since no one's present in the hall.

The fact that there's no one in this dining hall, made me think about the time when I conversed with Hiroshi and Lucy, which made me recall the memories in the quietness.

After another minute of silence, I stood up from the chair and walked back to the table where all the food was located.

"This will all go to waste if no one's eating it," I uttered with a proud expression.

Taking a huge plate, I loaded it with everything, the meat, vegetables, and this time also some delicious dessert. The plate was stacked, it had a bit of everything which made the plate look like a plate full of shit.

"bon appétit…" I said, my appetite being worse than ever.

After taking one bite I instantly felt stuffed, realizing that my stomach was still digesting the food from earlier.

I wanted to throw up, but I kept eating, one bite after another until the plate was empty again.

"I—"

I didn't even have the energy to speak after eating that much food.

The food completely disappeared into my stomach, it genuinely felt like I didn't need to eat anything for the next week.

It didn't even taste good this time, everything felt forced and I didn't even have any appetite. It was a worse experience than eating nothing at all. For the next time, I'd rather avoid overeating, and especially those fancy food. Because I've probably just eaten a man's monthly salary worth of food which tasted like absolute shit.

Instead of the paradise I felt earlier, it was absolute hell this time.

Well, at least I don't need to eat anything else today. which means I have more free time to do nothing in my room. And with 'nothing' I mean exactly nothing besides writing in the diary.

- - -

"…"

The darkness surrounding me suddenly disappeared.

My vision was blurry, my muscles were sore and my body didn't have any energy. It seemed like I had fallen asleep, but I was woken up by something urgent.

Moments later, my face suddenly began to turn pale and quickly made me want to throw up.

"M-my stomach…" I said, while I tried to calm myself down, but as expected it didn't work at all.

It must've been the food. It seemed like my body couldn't handle all that. Dammit… I shouldn't have eaten that much, I didn't calculate the consequences.

How stupid of me…

I couldn't think of anything besides the pain in my stomach.

It was an urgent 'one'.

- - -

Desperately, I tried to stand up and walk to the nearest washroom. But the unfortunate happened, my legs lost the will to stand as soon as I stood up from the chair. Instantly after trying to stand, I fell, as if my body lost all the strength.

What the heck is going on…

Not to mention, for some reason everything hurts, all I did was eat, and suddenly this happened.

And it wasn't just physical, it was mental as well. It felt like I couldn't think like usual, and as soon as I tried to think about something, I got an awful headache.

Slow, and calm. That's all I need right now.

Calm, calm!

But as soon as I thought about calm the opposite happened. For some reason, I was more stressed than before after I thought about the word 'calm'.

I was breathing faster and faster, sweating more and more, and my mind was thinking so hard that it couldn't function properly.

Then, I saw something that was supposed to be impossible, something that should be gone.

…The food?

The table was still full of food, and there wasn't any sign that somebody had eaten it. And the strange part is that it wasn't cold, it seemed fresh, even fresher than when I first saw it.

This can't be… I ate most of it, but it looked like everything was restored as if no one had touched it.

And…

The plates… they're all gone from the table.

The place where I ate looked clean before I even sat on it.

More importantly, how did I fall asleep? I wasn't really tired when I was eating.

Just what is going on…?

It was as if I'd gone back in time, but I knew that couldn't be possible.

It wouldn't make sense, I knew that I was just eating some crap and then decided to take a small break before going back to my room.

Nothing is and was making sense either way.

In the meantime, the pain got worse, and then it became clear that I needed to do something.

Tch…

All I could do was lie on the ground, powerless, there wasn't anything I could do.

At one point it felt fatal, the pain worsened every second. It was so painful that I wanted to end it all right on the spot. But I stayed conscious, enduring the agony. This was something different than a regular stomachache. There is no way that a normal stomachache is like this.

"…"

Eventually, the pain was too much, and my vision slowly started to fade while I lay on the ground.