Chapter 239

No Stopping Until There’s a Punishment Game!

After the slope were barriers like a Tarzan rope, rock climbing wall, and a wall you had to pass through while maintaining a given pose . But Leona made it through all of them in high spirits .

So now, what stood before Leona and them now was a barrier much unlike those prior .

“Hyaah! I-it moved!? D-do I really have to put my hand in it!? I-is it a living thing!?”

“Ah, the rule is that we can’t tell you the answer . Do your best, Michiru!”

“Not even a hint? Uuu, how frustrating!”

Michiru was nervous as she thrust her hand into the box whose contents she couldn’t see . Only one face of the box was open-faced, which allowed Leona and Suira, who were sitting right in front of that face, to see inside . Well, it’s one of those popular ‘guess the contents’ game .

By the way, I put a mandarin orange in it . Did it move, or did it just tumble about? That second-guess inducing nature is used often .

“Frog, it’s a frog!”

[Whoops, unfortunate, you’re wrong~! The correct answer was ‘mandarin orange’!]

“Eeeh, no way, that can’t be it! It moved!”

[Now for the punishment game . Come in~]

With that, a Golem entered the room . It was wearing black tights for no reason in particular and held a paper fan-shaped slapstick in its hands .

“E-eh, wai—who’s that!? … Ow!”

It made a great slapping sound when it struck the top of Michiru’s head .

The sound itself was rather loud, but it didn’t really do and damage-like damage to her .

Now that Michiru had been struck, the Golem withdrew .

[Alright, here’s your consolation candy . Next challenger, step right up~]

“Yaaay, a candy~! Om nom . ”

“Ah, I’ll go up next, Leona-sama . ”

I switched the contents in the box when Suira was getting ready . This time, it was a pear .

Suira felt it up . After seeing what Michiru looked like a bit before, she probably thought that being hesitant wouldn’t work out . Doing it this way was much more efficient than being timid, it’s the right way to go about it .

“I got it . It’s a pear . ”

[Amazing, that is correct! Boom boom bang bang~! Ah, here’s the pear as your reward . ]

“Isn’t that just what you had inside it?”

Like that, Suira got the correct answer without anything too interesting happening . And so it was finally Leona’s turn .

Naturally, I prepared a special item for Leona .

“It’s finally my turn! … I wonder what’s inside?”

Leona quickly put her hand into the hole on the box’s side . Using that timing, I made it so that the other two could see what was inside the box .

“Eh, wait, is that alright?”

“W-wow… eh, we can’t give any hints, alright? But do your best, Leona-samaaa~!”

“Craaap! So this is the pattern where the third person gets something weird!? Gaah, what is it!? A snake? A frog? Or maybe a human head!?”

[Buh-boo! Wroooong~ . Time for the punishment game~]

With that, the slapstick-wielding Golem made another appearance .

“Eh, ah, wait, that just now wasn’t my answer! Eh, I can’t?”

[You answered with your hand in the box, so it’s an answer . ]

“The heck’s that! At least let me answer properly!”

[… Oh well, I’ll let you have one more try since you’re whining about it . So, your answer~?]

“Kaay! Hmm, what is it…”

The slapstick-wielding Golem stepped back unwillingly . Leona fumbled her hand about in the box once again .

She could feel something with her hand . It felt soft, jiggly… her fingers seemed to press into it if she put any strength into them… was it a big fluid steam bun?

“Eh, wait, it’s food? Ah, that’s not my answer!”

[I wonder? That’d be a hint~ . Ah, but if I had to say, I wouldn’t eat it… but I’m a Golem after all!]

“Ahaha, something a Golem wouldn’t eat huh~… . Hmm, this feeling…”

It felt like it would deform itself to her fist and felt comfortable to the touch .

Leona felt it tremble . There’s no mistaking it, it was alive . It was a living thing .

“… Is it a Slime?”

[Is that… your final answer?]

“It is!”

A drum roll suddenly started to play out of nowhere .

[… …]

“… …”

A dozen or so seconds passed with them staring at each other . Once it started to feel like it might go on for too long, a ‘Ta-daaa!’ sound played as the drum roll ceased .

[Unfortunate! The correct answer was ‘Jelly’!]

“So close!! But wait, isn’t a Slime good enough!? It’s super close to a Jelly!”

[Yeah, that’s why I let you try again . You would have gotten it if you said them both over the two tries . But alas, you got it wrong . You missed a 50% chance after losing the 100% chance, what an incredibly fair contest it was~ . Alright then, time for the punishment game . ]

The slapstick-wielding Golem appeared for a third time . Standing next to Leona, it resolutely held up the slapstick .

“Kyaah~♪ Be gentle with m—kyaah… hauu♪”

The slapstick came down onto Leona’s head with a loud bang .

… The Golem and Leona stopped moving for a moment afterwards as though to enjoy the moment, but both started to move immediately upon hearing the Host’s, Euma’s, voice .

[Alright, good job, Golem-san . Leona, here’s your participation prize candy . Please move on to the next room through the door to your right . ]

“Kaaay~ . Let’s go, Suira, Michiru!”

“” Okay, Leona-sama! “”

Leona and the rest headed into the next room in high spirits .

Moreover, the next room’s barrier was piping hot oden . [1]

*

After Leona and the others left, the slapstick-wielding Golem put its hands to its head and slowly detached it .

… To be exact, it was Setsuna taking off a paper mache Golem helmet .

“Puah! Aah, that Golem head was so hot…”

“Good work, Setsuna-san~”

In order to set up an opportunity for Setsuna to get a hit in on Leona, I prepared the rule that the Golem would [Strike the person’s head with a slapstick if they lost as a punishment game] .

Leona kept avoiding the punishment game, but she finally had one . Unexpectedly, Suira hadn’t been missing either . Even for Michiru, that was her first punishment game .

Also unexpectedly, they were also able to make it through the physical-type variety games since Leona was supporting them… Well, after trying so many random things to make her have a punishment game, I finally prepared a barrier that had a practically fixed loss .

With all that going on, we had Setsuna get inside a Golem . Then, we had her hit Leona on the head with the slapstick… In other words, the goal of Setsuna wanting to hit Leona was fulfilled .

Assuming her wish got fulfilled one-sidedly with this, I won’t need to do something like cooling Leona down after attacking her . Otherwise, I’d have to show her Setsuna getting out from inside the Golem at some point .

… I hope she’ll accept this as her wish being fulfilled .

“So, you did hit Leona with the slapstick~… was that enough~?”

“Mmm, I thought that it wouldn’t be any good if I couldn’t hit Grandma straight up, but it feels like the curse has broken . I want to check, so could you help me take this off?”

“Yep yep, comes right off~”

Nerune slipped out from inside the Golem with Nerune’s help . Setsuna’s clothes and skin were covered with sweat due to her wearing the paper mache suit the whole time while waiting for Leona to get a punishment game .

“Hmm… mm . Hmmm…”

Setsuna felt around her body like she was groping herself .

It didn’t look like anything had changed from the looks of it, but—

“… Un, the curse has lifted . ”

Setsuna’s face grew delicate . The curse was lifted, but was there something else?”

“That’s the most important thing~”

“Thank you, Nerune-san . ”

“Yeah~, now for our reward~? You can pay with your body if you want~”

“Un, I’ll promise to do anything that I can do . I could even work for a month if you want . ”

“Hmmm~ . I’ll just try asking my superiors~… By the way, what did Leona do to you~?”

“… U-umm… M-my body has a secret…”

Setsuna squirmed as though she was embarrassed .

I wanted to ask as well . Just what did Leona do?

“I was cursed to believe that I was originally just an ordinary girl …! She even made Nayuta think that!”

… Eh, you were like that from the start?

Heeeh…

Footnotes:

Oden is a Japanese one pot winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon, konjac, and processed fishcakes stewed in a light, soy-flavored dashi broth . Ingredients vary according to region and between each household .