I went to sleep.

Yeah. Like, being honest, what else did you expect me to do? Sure, I had just found out some world-shattering information. I had just realized that this was so much bigger than I could ever anticipate, while also being so much smaller than I had expected. Finally, I had probably become the very first human being from my world to make contact with an extraterrestrial species.

But I was also very tired. Very tired. You try spending an entire day walking around, using Magic, being accidentally racist, and then committing some arson. It’s draining stuff. So, instead of sitting up like some cool protagonist trying to figure things out, I went to bed and drooled until someone knocked on my door in the morning,

That someone was Earnest Blest. He had woken up before anyone else, as expected, and come here to wake me up soon after that.

“Good morning, innkeeper!” He beamed bright enough to cover up for the lack of a nearby sun. “How do you do today? Ready to make some breakfast?”

Then it set in. Right then, looking at this chef, the weight of it all finally set in. My legs buckled, and my shoulders dropped, sending an unbearable weight across my body. It took all of my willpower to keep standing and not throw up in front of the chef.

He had been here for twenty-three years. For that long, he had been looping this same routine, over and over again. None of the people in the inn even realized that they were in space. They did not even know what space was, or that they were in danger from a fungus trying to kill them all. To them, this was just another day at the Northflame Inn, back in their own world.

“I’m sorry, innkeeper.” Earnest’s expression soured, and a frown replaced his grin. “I know, I know. It’s my job to make the food, and I’m the one who should be doing it. It was stupid of me to even ask. You’ve probably got so much other stuff to do, and-”

“No, it’s alright!” I suddenly came back to life at this sad admission. “You did nothing wrong, Earnest. I wouldn’t have agreed to do it if I were busy, got it? Come on. Let me wash my face first, and then we’ll get to it!”

With that, almost like a cartoon character snapping back to their original position, the smile on the man’s face returned. “Thank you very much! I’ll be waiting for you in the kitchen, ma’am. Is there any prep you want me to do until then?”

“No, uh…let’s figure it out together.”

Earnest gave me a short salute to further cement his status as comic relief extraordinaire, and then walked away to the Kitchen. I got out, too, and closed the door behind me. Then, quickly heading to the women’s washroom and grabbing some water from the barrel in there, I splashed it on my face.

He had not been in the loop. Or, well, he had…but he had been stopped by the fungus from doing anything. For almost twenty-three years, all Earnest had really done was die. He had died repeatedly to the noxious, claustrophobic effect of the fungus that had trapped him on the Third Floor.

Because to the Cube, the mold was not alive, was it? It clicked into place almost instantly, seeing as it was the only answer that made sense. The Cube restored the original states of everything in the inn, but it had not been able to do so for the mold.

Poltrick had lost a leg, and it hadn’t grown back, because it had been devoured by the mold. A rug had suddenly appeared in the Innkeeper’s Room, even though it was not there before. Then, it had persisted into this next loop as well. Was the mold exactly like the inn for the Cube? If so, then what was that? What connected the two, if not their non-living status?

Either the creators of the Cube had lied to me, or they hadn’t shared everything they knew. Either one of those two options, or they themselves were not aware of some of these loops. At the end of the end, regardless of whether these beings were ‘good guys’ or not, they hadn’t actually lived in the Northflame Inn. They hadn’t experienced it all themselves.

On that front, I had more information than they did. That was why they wanted to partner with me. The inn was nothing more than a minor headache; they had been spending money to keep spectating for twenty-three years. No wonder they were so enthusiastic about me contacting them. They needed me just as much as I needed them.

Right. Anyway, time for breakfast.

_____________

 

With some help from Earnest, I was able to find out more about the different cooking ingredients of this world. And catching on to what he was saying, I was also able to figure out the name of their planet. It was quite literally, for some reason, called the True World. That was its official designation.

The True World had flora and fauna that were quite similar to Earth, but with some minor differences. Probably because Earth had conditions that were perfectly suited to life, which meant that other planets with life would also be similar. And similar elements led to similar products. Purple potatoes were just a quirk. They were still potatoes.

By using this newfound knowledge, I was able to cook up something interesting. It hadn’t taken long until I had realized that the food of the True World was functional more than it was beautiful. To them, food was nothing more than a daily requirement to keep living. The culture of food as something to be savored had never quite taken off.

Obviously, that needed fixing. All while keeping their taste palates intact.

As I had found out, these people liked their vegetables. Nay, they loved their vegetables. They also liked their eggs, but that was not on my mind today. This morning, veggies would reign supreme.

Everyone except Bella had quite enjoyed the bread sauce, which I was guessing was because of its texture. To keep that same vibe, while ensuring the elf enjoyed it too, I decided to make something that had actual coherence. I looked for a drupe. Those are the slightly fleshy, quite fibrous fruits that contain a seed in the middle. A peach, or a coconut, for example.

Once I got one from Earnest, I decided to hand grind it down to a paste and then mix it with some spices to create a dipping sauce. It was fresh, it was cold, and it screamed summer. To go with that, then, some bread would be good. It would be great, but it would make it functional. Bread and dip. What was more functional than that?

Instead of that, then, I decided to go with potatoes. Using some boiled, mashed potatoes as a base, I added other finely chopped vegetables to the mix. This helped create a fairly healthy dish that, when coated and fried, would be quite familiar to the residents of the Northflame. Familiar, while also being new enough to warrant some wonder.

I decided to keep the seasoning on these fried vegetable patties as light as possible. Mostly salt, so that it could contrast with the cold pulpiness of the fruit sauce. The potatoes were smooth, the vegetables in them provided some crunch, and the sauce itself contained the graininess that was reminiscent of the bread sauce. Some parsley on the top, and the garnishing was taken care of as well.

For the guests of the Northflame Inn – A Heart Attack in Summer. The former because of the fried patties, and the latter because of the drupe sauce. Enjoy!

And enjoy it, they did. Other than Carol complaining to Earnest about making me cook, the Bar and Restaurant was nothing but smiles all morning. And that, too, was mitigated by Earnest being too pleased about the dish. Even Poltrick came to tell me that breakfast had been wonderful. Could it get better than that?

Apparently not, because soon after breakfast, Bella approached me with an unhappy expression. Almost instantly, the moment I lay eyes on her frown, I started to calculate the many ways in which the breakfast could have displeased her. In the end, though, it ended up being none of that.

“Innkeeper?” The elf started. “I appear to have lost my ring. I think…it might have fallen down somewhere when I bumped into the twins this morning. Somewhere on the First Floor, maybe? I can’t seem to find it. If Miss Carol could help me out…”

Carol had, unfortunately, dragged Earnest away to the Third Floor to shout at him properly. They probably had a thing or two to work about her cooking.

“Carol is slightly busy with work.” I decided to go with that. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find it. I’m free enough.”

“Oh, is that alright? I can go and try myself again if you have some work!”

“No, no. Why does everyone assume I’m busy? I’m never busy. Let’s go and get it.”

So, the two of us walked on over to the first floor and started looking. The main corridor of the floor, which connected to every other room, was not exactly well-lit. The chandeliers were restricted to the rooms themselves, and the corridor had only a few lanterns lighting the way. You weren’t, after all, supposed to live in the corridors.

That meant that we had to spend most of our time scraping the floors and sniffing around like police dogs trying to find that ring. As Bella explained, it was silver with a blue gem embedded in it. Both of them were colors that should have been immediately visible on the floor, but for some reason weren’t.

“It’s my mother’s.” She whispered as we combed through the area in front of Poltrick’s room. “It’s…the last thing she ever gave me, innkeeper. I really, really can’t lose it. Thank you for helping me out.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied while trying not to look at her. Everything she had told me yesterday was still fresh in my mind. “I ended up reminding you of something bad, so consider this me covering up for it. I’m not very knowledgeable about different species, so I tend to say stupid stuff without thinking about it. I wasn’t trying to be rude…”

“That’s not it, innkeeper.” She chuckled. “Your question was not wrong or rude. Elves do have some fantastic food. It’s just that I…personally do not want to think about home. I have my reasons, and I would rather not share them with everyone. Thinking about it just brought back a lot of memories, that’s it.”

I did not reply to that. Instead, relying on the hope that she was looking at me, I just nodded and continued to survey the floor. But no matter how much I looked, there was no sign of the ring in any way. Every inch of this corridor had been checked to no avail. If the ring had fallen down, then it hadn’t fallen down here.

Standing up, I stretched my arms with a yawn. “Are you sure it was the First Floor, Bella?”

She stood up too, nodding. “It was on my hand when I was coming down the spiral staircase. I remember because I felt it. Then, the inns were talking to Poltrick right there, and we ended up bumping. I had been fiddling with the ring, so it probably got loosened because of that. Then the crash probably made it fall down.”

“Hmm.” I looked at the last bit of the First Floor that we hadn’t checked yet. The room, which looked like it had been burnt, and then redecorated to hide it. The one right next to Room 101. “Should we check everywhere, just to be safe?”

“I don’t think it will be there, but sure…”

The two of us, even with Bella’s confidence, headed to the Burnt Room. The moment we took the first step in, though, that confidence was shattered. Right in the middle of the room, between all of the random stools, was a tiny, shining ring. Silver and blue, just like the elf had claimed, it sat there on the out-of-place rug.

She gasped, “But…how? I never even came close to this place…”

“I don’t know,” I replied, picking it up and handing it to her. “Maybe it just rolled here or something? Rings can do that, since they’re round and stuff.”

“I…guess.” Though confused, the elf put on the ring and smiled. Then, taking her time to consider what had happened, she just stood there.

I took the time to look around a little, too. How had the ring ended up here? It should have been in the main corridor, but it had somehow found its way out of there and rolled all the way into this room. I had claimed that it was probably natural, but there was no way that it was. Something had influenced it to get there, and there had to be a reason for it to have happened.

The burnt room was as suspicious as ever. A crest-like symbol on the ceiling, for instance, attracted my attention. It was some kind of big cat’s face, with eagle’s wings protruding from its sides. If it was trying to be intimidating, it was failing horribly. The thing was funnier than it had any right to be. But it was there, and it was something that I had disregarded before because of how ugly the room looked.

I wondered what it meant.

“Uh, innkeeper?” The elf called out to me.

“Yeah, Bella?”

“Sorry about all of that.” She bowed down. “Both about this, and what happened last night. Thank you for helping me out today and understanding me yesterday. If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know. Anything, really, will be fine! I know you think this itself makes us even, but I don’t. Please let me know if I can be of help.”

“Oh no, please don’t. We’re good. Carol, Earnest, and I have it all figured o-”

I do not know what possessed me. I did not even know that the desperation of wanting to get out of here had been so deep-seated. After everything that had happened, even if I had tried to act as normally as possible, the horror of it all had certainly started to creep in. Because the mold was unrelated to the Cube. Because if we weren’t fast, it could actually kill us.

For those reasons, my mind jumped straight to the Third Floor and the Luxury Suite.

“Actually, there is something.”