(5/23)

“So, um… Why don’t we introduce ourselves?” Yuki suggested, after the swiping of sweets had come to an end.

The others had been more famished than they let on, as they had continued to steal from Yuki and wolfed down the food. They had taken so much from her that, by the end, she had closed her eyes and begun guessing based off touch alone whose hand was doing the grabbing. At that point, Yuki realized she had yet to learn the others’ names, hence the proposal.

“I’ll start,” she continued as five pairs of eyes trained on her. “My name’s Yuki, and this is my twenty-eighth game. Since I have the most experience here, I hope I can help everyone escape this building.”

“You’ve played that many?” one of them asked. The others were probably thinking the same. “If this is your twenty-eighth game, you must be swimming in cash. Why are you still playing?”

“Well… I don’t do it for the money.” Yuki felt somewhat embarrassed to explain. “I’m aiming to set a new record for consecutive games cleared. My goal is ninety-nine.”

“Huh? A record…for these death games?”

“Yeah… That’s right.”

“Breaking the streak means you die, right?”

“Yep.”

“And the survival rate is seventy percent, yeah? So ninety-nine games means…”

“Don’t start calculating the odds. It’s too scary to think about.”

“Why in the world would you put yourself through that…?”

“Because I’m cut out for it.” Having been posed the same question countless times before, Yuki responded almost immediately. “People tend to want to play to their strengths. For me, this is it.”

The room fell to a hush. The gazes trained on Yuki regained the caution they had shed. Maybe it was a mistake to have explained. She might have been better off fabricating a justification for her choice of career.

“So, um…” Yuki spoke, unwilling to let the silence linger. She gestured to the maid sitting directly across from her, the one who had first snatched the muffin out of her hand. “Can you go next?”

“I’m Kinko.”

The girl had distinctive blond pigtails, which appeared ever more dazzling against the monochrome backdrop of the room. Some girls had such frail, scrawny bodies that they would provoke worry in anyone who saw them, and Kinko was one such young lady. Her neck was so thin that it seemed as if it would snap with the lightest of touches, and her fingers were so slender that Yuki wondered if there were any bones in them to begin with. Her delicate build was evident even underneath her maid outfit, which was the embodiment of loose-fitting clothing. She had the smallest frame of the six girls in the room, and she appeared to be the youngest as well. But considering the girl’s comparatively serious facial expression and how she’d behaved earlier, Yuki deemed her capable of thinking and acting for herself.

“This is my first game. I’m here to pay off a debt.”

“Debt?” Yuki tilted her head to one side. The girl didn’t look like the kind of person to go into debt. “Never would’ve guessed.”

“It’s not mine. It’s my father’s.”

“…Aren’t you not liable for that as a child?”

“Sure, but I figured it was necessary to pay back what was borrowed.”

Yuki was at a loss for words. The girl across from her was that kind of person. Yuki was certainly in no position to judge, but anyone willing to risk their life in a death game for a paltry sum was off in one way or another. For some people, this showed a disregard for their own life, while for others, it reflected an inability to accurately assess costs and benefits. What made Kinko off was obvious: She was responsible to a fault.

Kinko turned to her right. Next to her sat the maid who’d been crying this whole time. As if judging the girl to be in no condition to speak, she instead gestured to the maid sitting diagonally across the table from her.

“Can you go next?”

She had pointed to the maid playing in her second game.

“The name’s Kokuto,” said the girl in a comparatively relaxed tone. “This is my second go-round as a player, but my first game was two years ago, so I’m practically a beginner. The reason I’m here is, well, let’s just say I need cash to cover living expenses.”

Kokuto had a shady aura about her, like the kind that belonged to a tabloid gossip columnist who only ever wrote tasteless articles or a prison dealer who would smuggle in anything requested of her. It signaled that she was involved with the shadows of society. However, like the other maids, she had a rather attractive face, so behind the darkness emanating from her lay a hint of charm, as though she were a delinquent girl struggling to put on a tough act.

Since these death games were a form of show business, the girls who were invited to participate were generally attractive. Accordingly, one of the few benefits of being a player was the opportunity to easily get close to gorgeous girls, but even so, there was no way of knowing how long those bonds would last.

“If you’re only doing this for living expenses, does that mean you’re not in an urgent bind?” Kinko asked.

“Not really, but not having money is like being in a bind. I’m not in any debt, though.”

“Why not just work some normal job?”

“Give me a break.” Kokuto shrugged. “Being a wage slave is essentially trading away your life for money. This option was far more appealing. Wouldn’t you agree, Yuki?”

With the ball in her court, Yuki forced a smile. “I don’t know about that.”

“Next,” Kokuto said, relinquishing her hold on the conversation. “Can you speak?”

She pointed to the weeping maid. Crying was the natural human response to being forced to play a death game, but Yuki found the sight refreshing. In a certain sense, that girl, more than anyone else in the room, was savoring everything the game had to offer.

In a high-pitched voice, the girl spoke up. “I’m Momono… I—I shouldn’t be here. I was tricked…”

“Tricked?”

“She says she didn’t sign up for this,” Kinko explained. “Apparently, someone offered her an easy, high-paying job, but when she followed them, she got knocked out and woke up here. Seems like she’s had it rough.”

“Ah…” Yuki reacted. There wasn’t anything else for her to say.

A small number of players were brought into these games through direct invitations—in other words, from being scouted. There was a myriad of reasons why the organizers would want to approach potential players: if a game lacked enough participants or if they came across an absolute stunner, for instance.

Yuki was convinced that Momono had been scouted for the latter reason. The girl was, by all standards, an extraordinary specimen. First of all, her hair was pink. Her voice was so high, anyone would worry for her vocal cords. Although it was difficult to notice with how much she was crying, she was the prettiest of the six girls in the room. But above all else, her most salient feature was her voluptuous body. A maid outfit normally didn’t reveal the contours of its wearer’s physique, but that rule certainly didn’t apply to Momono. Maybe she had been stuffed in a costume one size smaller than appropriate, but every inch was bursting at the seams. And the biggest difference was that she was the only one wearing a miniskirt. After sizing the girl up, Yuki determined the most sensuous aspect of her body to be the thighs jutting out of her skirt. Perhaps as an act of caution, Momono had positioned her chair farther away from the table than anyone else, allowing Yuki to get a glimpse of the girl’s thighs from her seat. They were quite girthy and certainly appeared large enough to support the girl’s plump upper body. The portion of skin that was exposed between her frilly miniskirt and her white knee-high socks glistened brilliantly against the world of black and white. Yuki felt a genuine desire to touch them. In any case, every aspect of Momono seemed inviting. She had to be popular with guys.

“I don’t care about the money as long as I can get home in one piece.”

After saying that, Momono fell silent. Although she didn’t indicate someone to go after her, the maid sitting to her right—the one who had been rubbing Momono’s back—began to speak.

“My name’s Beniya. I knew of these games beforehand, but this is my first time participating in one. I’m here for the same reason as Kinko—to pay off debts.”

The girl had short scarlet-colored hair. Like the others, she also had an attractive face, but hers had a different type of appeal. To use a rather trite description, Beniya had a princely demeanor; she was the kind of girl who would be popular with other girls. She was about as tall as the average man, and her arms and legs were noticeably longer than those of the other maids. Her slender frame was the polar opposite of Momono’s. She had the most dominant aura out of everyone in the room, but in sharp contrast to her outward appearance, her expression indicated that she was being swept up in the game, suggesting a lack of mental fortitude. Perhaps she had resorted to stroking Momono’s back to maintain her composure by associating with someone who looked more anxious than she was.

Beniya continued, “Although in my case, my liabilities are entirely of my own making.”

Liabilities. There was something curious about her choice of terminology.

“Do you run some sort of business?” Yuki asked.

“You could say that. I incurred some costs along the way.”

Her tone implied an unwillingness to delve into the specifics, so Yuki refrained from prying any deeper.

Beniya encouraged the last maid—sitting directly across from her—to speak.

“…oi.” The girl’s voice was barely audible.

“Um, what was that?” Yuki prompted.

“I’m Aoi.” The girl seemed to be doing her best to speak up, but even then, her voice remained soft. “This is my first-ever game.”

She was the very picture of timidity, with shaggy blue hair and a nervous expression. She was clearly hunching forward, and her gaze was shifting rapidly between the table and the other maids. Yuki had no memory of the girl saying anything prior to this moment. It seemed she wasn’t one for conversation.

“I’m here because…I, um, had no other choice.”

Aoi neglected to explain any further, so the exact circumstances that brought her to the game remained a mystery, but Yuki surmised that the girl’s reasons were similar to her own. Aoi displayed a conspicuous lack of social skills, which meant she likely had to resort to playing death games to make any money. Eventually, she could very well end up walking the same path as Yuki as a player.

After the introductions concluded, Yuki took another look around. To bring the topic to a close, she said, “Great. It’ll only be for a little while, but let’s get through this and try to clear the game with as many of us alive as possible.”

Her remark was greeted by the other maids’ overlapping voices.

“Let’s do this.” “Hoping for the best.” “I appreciate your help.”

“So what exactly do we have to do?” asked Kokuto.

“Well, this is an escape game,” Yuki answered. “It’s time we start exploring.”