✧ Chapter 59 ✧

Princess Candiere hugged Peppie with a fondness unseen before between the group. During this interaction, Mister Lollipop gave his thanks to the team while handing the letter to the princess.

Then he knelt right next to Cherry.

“Hey, thanks for your bravery today. From my deepest wishes, I would love for you and your friends to come back one day cause it was dandy good time to spend. I will miss you all.”

Cherry nodded with a peaceful sense of happiness within her knowing that what she did was worth the world to him.

Requesting to be sent to the Gumdrop Hillsides, he waved goodbye. Once Eternika had teleported him there, a clear sign of issues began to arise from what Princess Candiere was about to ask.

“So… Where is Ararima and the others? Did they return home?”

Peppie felt uncomfortable with the question being posed, but digested this precaution in her head anyway.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news your Highness, but they have disappeared somewhere else. I don’t exactly know where, but I did find one of Ararima’s friends who rescued me from the horrific things that happened beyond the boarded door.”

This hurt Princess Candiere at her heart to hear. While the two of them were coming to terms with these news, Styra intervened out of extreme confusion.

“Don’t mean to ruin anything between you guys but, how exactly did Princess Candiere find us here? I thought she would be at the cafe.”

“Oh, I have eyes everywhere darling. Every visitor that comes into this world is filtered through the daily selection process. That said, your arrival almost went overlooked. We aren’t really used to the methods of otherworldly travel.”

Otherworldly travel? Styra couldn’t understand what she meant by this.

In fact, she was becoming suspicious of her joyous attitude altogether. This began to peak Eternika’s interest as well, taking these thoughts he was hearing from Styra more seriously.

“What is this daily selection process you speak of?” asked the weapon.

“Come with me to the cafe. I’ll show you what we have in store,” she said with a wink and a cheery smile.

By the time they arrived at the entrance, Princess Candiere was already there ahead of them. This baffled Eternika, knowing full well that something was wrong if anyone else beside Styra could surpass its speed.

Regardless of this observation, the group walked into “The Heart Of Tartropolatté” with extreme awe.

The sight of this colorful town was packed with thousands upon thousands of bobbly-headed creatures with macaroni-shaped bodies called Bibbly Bubbles. Striped candy canes decorated the expansive trail like street lights. Ice cream cone houses and buildings lined across the sides with raspberry sherbet flavored rooftops. As if that wasn’t enough, small, pudgy, cat-eared Pikpies could be seen scattering around with no legs, searching for all types of sweet pies to nibble at.

And finally, in the middle of it all, a giant rocky statue of Princess Candiere stood tall above the crowds below.

“Welcome visitors to the sweetest spectacle of our scrumptious town! Let me take you on a small tour of our finest locales,” said Princess Candiere with unhinged excitement.

As the three of them followed the princess (with Peppie floating right beside her), Styra and Eternika specifically noticed themselves passing a place called Niantom Elementary from their peripheral vision. It looked to be some sort of small schoolhouse located amidst the wackiness that was going on.

Something was clearly being hinted at to them about a certain other world that had connections to this one. Such a hidden detail seemed to uncover more about the deeper history of Tartropolatté itself.

Only a few things proceeded to boggle their minds. If The Traveller was behind the construction of a planet that existed solely to tether people into its simulated environment, what motive did this monster really have for doing it? Was he a troubled man seeking the same kind of hatred Voltaze did?

Questions ensued subconsciously during the mystifying tour. In the meantime, they got to visit a decently sized theme park which Princess Candiere owned in private. She referred to it being “in the works” which made them wonder why exactly she would make one to begin with.

Regardless, there were many playful attractions including the Marshmallow Merry-Go-Round, Leaning Waffle Tower, Pikpie Playground, Carrot Cake Cruise, and even an unfinished rollercoaster ride with blue raspberry lemonade-flavored licorice tracks.

“We were thinking of calling it the Licorice Express, but it got confusing to settle on a proper name since we also used gingerbread to build the train carts. It sounded way too formal for something that’s supposed to be exciting as well,” she mentioned.

While Styra, Cherry, and Eternika would have brushed off this harmless information, they could see that Peppie looked uncomfortable. Almost as if whatever she was witnessing had snapped something inside of her.

When they were approaching near the cafe, Styra jumped in front of The Candy Princess who was getting sidetracked and talking senselessly for what felt like hours. The impatience reached a boiling point and she could see that this “small tour” was stalling their mission.

“Okay, we get it! That was a great theme park and all, but we need to double down on what’s important. Ararima could still be in that cafe! We tried to listen patiently to see where you were going with this. Instead you kept talking about something else that has nothing to deal with why we came here to begin with. I don’t want to be disrespectful or anything, but can we please start getting this done?”

Everything suddenly went quiet as the Bibbly Bubbles and Pikpies were staring at them directly. It was the strangest circumstance to ever happen, meaning that whatever Styra said must’ve been a bit too much.

At least that was what everyone thought.

Clasping her hands together in a resting position away from the left side of her face, Princess Candiere closed her eyes cheerfully while processing an appropriate response to give.

“No hard feelings darling. Forgive me. It’s just that I love to share my artistic architecture with new visitors. Come, come! Let me make it up to you with a special rehearsal from my dear customers and I,” she said with a beaming smile.

Immediately into this, an orchestra of Bibbly Bubbles appeared at her whim to perform some sort of classical upbeat song as the entire community began to dance.

“Umm, Cherry… Does this kind of stuff happen in the game?” asked Styra.

Cherry was about to answer before being interrupted by Princess Candiere who almost completely frightened her from the overenthusiastic behavior she was letting loose.

“Hahaha! Of course it does darling! It’s our job to pleasure our guests with a fun-filled experience on the first day.”

Dancing through the streets of this candy town, the princess sang with jovial energy as she spun around candy canes and floated across rooftops before leading the team into her cafe.

No sooner did they arrive inside, every single Bibbly Bubble surrounded them in a way that formed this path upstairs toward the seventh floor. There on the main stage, they could see Berrybop, Tangerina, and Jitterjam creating a lively show for the audience. Disco party lights flickered, jukebox machines began to move on their own to the beat, and glittery gift boxes could be seen popping into different customers' grasps that had won a prize.

Admittedly, because Styra never visited a cafe before, she was floored by how bright and beautiful a place like that could look.

Albeit, it was a lot more fancier than any other place she ever saw too. Seeing vanilla cookie seats, crystal glass tables that were covered with checkered tablecloths, ice cream-decorated lanterns, and golden donut chandeliers enriched the interior with an iconic yet fashionable design all the same.

Mesmerized by these unique features, Styra began to feel a sense of both wonder and amazement at everything.

It didn’t however distract her from the true goal at hand.

Styra’s suspicions of Princess Candiere became concrete. No matter where they went she wouldn’t falter. Whether that was watching the Lollipopsicles play onstage or getting served a raspberry cream pie (which instantly turned into a favorite dessert for her), the clues were coming together.

Once the masses of Bibbly Bubbles faded out at exactly 6 PM, Princess Candiere closed the cafe. She then walked over next to the table where the newcomers were occupying themselves at and stood there while watching Cherry munch down on her vanilla sundae.

“Now that it’s six o'clock at night and I’ve shown you everything our cafe offers thus far, it’s time I tell you the truth.”

Hearing this instantly changed Styra’s perspective on what was going on beforehand with seemingly not getting anywhere at first. It suddenly began to make a bit of sense.

“Wait a minute… Are you saying all of that was some sort of act? I know Peppie said something about not saying violent words around a certain time. The question I have is, why do you follow all of these rules? The Traveller doesn’t strike me as someone who would allow anyone to live, y’know? I mean look at Ararima.”

“I second this reasoning. I don’t understand what he did when I was in a place called The Candy Room which seemed to be themed after you too,” added Cherry.

A look of fear struck the princess’s face as she knew exactly what she was talking about.

“You entered The Candy Room? Oh no… Oh heavens no! This is much worse than I thought…”

“Hold on. You’re telling me that, while I was knocked out, Ararima somehow managed to get us inside one of the most dangerous rooms in this entire cafe?” asked Peppie who was just as much in the dark about it having happened.

“It seems so. What Cherry is saying could imply that we are in deep trouble. Although, I do have records of how we can handle this situation in case it goes too far.”

Confused by what exactly was being discussed, Styra, Cherry, and Eternika saw an old book pop into Princess Candiere’s hand as she flipped through multiple pages to figure out what was going on.

“Aha! Here it is. My records state that the last reported incident similar to this had occurred on October 4th, 1997. However, this entry was written by a man named William Peterson. He states that he had premonitions featuring visions of people from other worlds who would get sent to The Candy Room in the future. Of those who he saw, there were seven names documented in his notes before he seemingly vanished. Our staff believed at the time that the names are connected to The Books Of Fate that The Traveller created.”

Surprised by the information presented in front of them, Styra wondered about The Traveller’s ties to UVOCA. If Cat Nakahara worked with him to bring their psychopathic ideas to life, what role did Voltaze have in it?

She had to know.

Upon asking about this particular question to the princess, she was shocked to learn that there was a lead in this regard. A Dream Academy High student, who went by the name Suyashi Junie, encountered this strange creature in the school’s bathroom during a heavy thunderstorm. The report’s description closely fit the physical features of Voltaze that Styra saw.

The only problem was that it wasn’t necessarily the most accurate depiction she could trust.

“From what I’m gathering so far, William discovered that the murders would happen through foresight. Maybe The Candy Room itself grants knowledge of future events. The only catch is how tragic they all are,” she theorized.

“Certainly sounds likely. Anyone that has been awake in The Candy Room for more than a minute has been tested to experience extreme hallucinations, high blood pressure, and in rare cases, a loss of memory. That is why I am a lot more concerned for your friend overall.”

Gripping onto the logical points that were told to her, Styra’s anxiety heightened as she looked at Cherry who slowly licked halfway through her ice cream.

She definitely heard what was said, but something else was catching her attention.

Something all too familiar…