The Late Cook Ascends the Tower - The Late Cook Ascends the Tower chapter 15

15 – 15. The first order.

ToE passes an event only when the event becomes poisonous to me or when I die if I select the event.

Without a single useful attack card, rejecting the event is like committing suicide.

Even though this is an event with class-only artifacts.

『You decide to find a clue to the dish the customer wants in her memory.』

I chose an option.

The front of my eyes is colored with bright light.

**

There is nothing here.

I am just on a pure white plane, and nothing really exists other than that.

It’s white even in front of your eyes, and it’s white everywhere you turn your head.

If you raise your hand, you can see the palm of a young baby.

I instinctively noticed.

The thoughts and emotions flowing into my head right now are Dana’s, not mine.

This body is also Dana’s, not mine.

I become Dana and watch her memories.

In her head, nothing existed like a pure white world.

Without thoughts or emotions, there is only one thing you can know.

This is where I need to be, and standing here is my entire role.

She stood still here and kept her own part.

Spent so many nights.

Then one day, a change came to the world.

A single strand of grass sprouting on the white flat floor was the beginning.

The grass soon becomes a bush, the bush spreads endlessly to form a field, and a tree grows.

Trees become forests.

Even the white sky was dyed blue, leaving only a slight trace of white.

There was darkness and stars at night.

She preferred a full night to an empty white world.

And as the world changed, something began to grow inside her too.

It’s cold.

It’s hot.

Hungry.

Her thoughts that make her unable to stand still.

During the day, they grazed grass to cover themselves, and at night, they survived the cold in the bushes.

After many more decades, she found her door at the mouth of the forest.

People entered through that door.

The first person I met was a certain man.

The man cut some grass in front of the door and built a small hut there.

Then he went into the tower and never came back.

The second person I met was a woman.

After spending a year in the cabin, she moved into the tower.

He didn’t come back either.

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The time I stayed outside the city to avoid people gradually increased.

People from the door were always busy.

There were people who built houses, and there were people who joined together.

But in common, they must have entered the tower.

There were some who went in once and came back, but usually they didn’t come back a second time.

She is neither the person who taught her her language nor the person who gave her her home.

One day I entered the tower and became something that didn’t exist.

She enjoyed being with people once in a while, but the ending was always painful.

Everything goes back to how it was once they enter the tower.

Like the days when she was standing alone on a white flat surface, a feeling of emptiness would fill her heart.

So she hated doors.

At some point, the number of days I wished that the door would not open forever increased.

So she stopped socializing and decided to just stand still and pass the time as usual.

By the time she was forgotten by people like that, she had someone to talk to her about.

“Hey, what are you doing there?”

Even if you ignore it, it will keep chasing you, and it won’t even enter the tower.

She is a strange woman who always gets together with people and laughs.

The woman gathered people and made a village.

The huts became solid brick houses, and those who used to enter the tower alone stayed in the village longer as a group.

“Are you running away again? Please come to my house today.”

At first, she didn’t like her because she kept talking to her.

After her years, going to see her became Dana’s routine.

Because she doesn’t enter the tower.

She stayed in the village even though countless people went into the tower and all the villagers changed their faces to strangers.

Always by her side making something, Dana would always listen to her stories.

“Yes. I’m going to make a tavern. It would be nice if you could help. Shall we do it together?”

She didn’t know what it was at first, but Dana liked the pub.

A bar is always standing in the same place and waiting.

There, she and Dana cooked every day.

When someone brings something from the tower, she cooks it, and people come to the tavern to eat it.

Of all the dishes she cooks, Dana’s favorite is soup.

The soup is white, sticky, and has soft potatoes and tender meat.

“Ugh, Dana… Today is chicken soup, is that okay?”

There were plenty of better ones, but that was the best.

Because I can eat it most often.

She complained every day that it was the most common ingredient.

Sitting in her kitchen and watching her make the soup seemed like it would last forever.

That way, you can see the same scenery every day, say the same words every day, and see the people you saw today tomorrow.

I liked that people came to the tavern to hang out instead of going into the tower.

No matter how they entered the tower, if they remembered this place and came back, they were greeted with joy.

The tavern gradually became known, and the tavern became Dana’s treasure.

At some point, she calls Dana her daughter, and Dana calls her her mother.

She decorates her tavern with her, makes her furniture, and sometimes even trains,

Meeting people, someone disappearing.

She stayed by Dana’s side for a very long time.

I spent all of her days with her.

As her memories with her piled up, her Dana’s body gradually grew and became her current appearance.

Then it was one day.

The end came without warning.

“Are you really going?”

“Yes. Her daughter gave me courage. I will go up the tower.”

“What’s on it?”

“I don’t know. But Kevin said there is a God? You made my wish come true how is it? Will it be fun?”

“Can I not go?”

“Yes. No.”

She put her hands on Dana’s cheeks and said.

“Dana, nothing is permanent in this world. It’s very easy to stay in one place… But there comes a moment when you must move forward.”

She stood at the door with a bunch of people and waved her hand at Dana.

And disappeared through the door.

The door closed, and the day without her began.

[I don’t know now, but the day will come when you will understand. Don’t starve, let’s meet again, my daughter.]

Dana really didn’t know.

A reason to leave this town and a reason to climb the tower.

So I hated her for disappearing into the tower, but after her door was closed she returned to the tavern and filled her pot with ingredients.

Greet her guests, hand out food.

I kept her shop.

It was sad that she was gone, but Dana’s other feelings were filling her heart before she met her.

It was not an uncontrollably empty heart like emptiness, but a feeling like longing, maybe one day it might be filled.

Because entering the tower doesn’t mean everyone disappears.

One day, she guarded her tavern, imagining that she would open the door casually and come back.

Now, Dana is not a guest in the village, but a part of it.

Everyone liked her.

Dana also loved the people who came to the store to see her.

Now, though, no one lingers as long as she does.

Even if people enter the tower one day, I wanted to remain here and be their home to return to.

Dana misses her as much as her.

Because longing hurts.

If you wait for others here, at least they won’t get sick.

After that, time continued to flow.

Memory accelerates.

The town is getting bigger and there are shops.

The tavern is getting old.

Memories faster, faster.

The worn-out door has been opened and closed thousands of times.

And then when it finally broke. A man entered the tavern.

It’s me.

Looking directly into Dana’s memories is very convenient, but at the same time harsh.

Her emotions pour into me like a flood.

So now I know why it was me.

She has the same black hair and black eyes as hers, and a similar knife bag.

After that, the times we spent together in the kitchen and the meaningless words.

Because her unknown behavior of wiping kitchen utensils every day and her back as she devoted herself in the kitchen for a long time overlapped with mine.

I messed with her memory without asking her permission.

I was not just a victim, but I was being assaulted by both sides.

So she was curious about me.

『You are now closing the booklet. And we decide to follow the clues we found in her memory.”

**

After that voice, we went back to Dana’s room.

It’s tiring to get involved with others, but being directly injected with memories and emotions is to the point of death.

So, even if you want to argue with me when I said I was chasing clues…

I need to sleep now.

Maybe it was contaminated by Dana.

I am so used to the old bed and blanket that I can’t stand to sleep.

I feel like when I wake up tomorrow morning, the kitchen will smell like chicken soup.

I feel like someone will welcome me.

I have many thoughts besides that.

For now…

Let’s go to sleep and think about tomorrow.

**

When I opened my eyes again, I saw the sun just rising.

Is it dawn now? Then… I slept since almost noon, so even if I slept soundly, I slept too much.

I tidied up the futon and left the room.

And when I went down the stairs, I saw Dana in the hall.

She’s lying on her bench, asleep with her mouth open.

‘Why are you sleeping like that? I’m sorry.’

I went back to Dana’s room and grabbed a blanket from her.

And be careful, I tried to cover Dana and get out of her store.

A voice comes from the back of the head.

“Ehh… Are you awake? To go…?”

Wow… There is absolutely nothing you can do with this game.

“Go up and sleep. You catch a cold.”

“That’s how it should be… And goodbye to you too… Don’t do anything dangerous. And since what you said yesterday is true… Come again…”

In her memory, Dana’s mother was like that.

It is said that there is a god at the top of the tower that grants wishes.

It looks like a supernatural being, but it is surprisingly official.

Because it is written on the TOE setting page.

But I can’t agree.

It must be the devil, not God.

“Hey, are you going to eat today?”

“Bob? Um… No. Won’t eat I want to feel the thrill of meat longer. It was really delicious, right?”

“Good. Then starve yourself today.”

“What? Is that goodbye to your world? Or is it just plain banter?”

“I mean just starve. I’ll cook for you when you get back, so empty your stomach.”

A coward who digs into people’s hearts and eventually makes them do nonsense, no matter how you look at it, it’s the devil.

I blew it all up yesterday, but I think I’ll be very busy today.

Now I need to get the ingredients for the soup, and I have to go to the store.

I have to take care of my precious 1,000 gold relics, membership cards, and exclusive relics for events.

I think I still have to stay in this town a little longer.