Ch.313313 – The Chairman’s Banquet 3

<313 – The Chairman’s Banquet 3>

The meeting is adjourned.

You’re free to spend your time as you wish now.

You may return to your accommodations on the 10th floor and get some rest.

The students eagerly awaited the Chairman’s declaration of freedom.

Despite their burning gazes like workers yearning for revolution, the Chairman didn’t feel the slightest bit of impatience.

He neither lacked the power to be concerned about mere students’ opinions, nor was his personal conviction shallow.

Rather, he felt curious.

‘Except for the Heugmag princess, she’s uniquely grasped the true value of this opportunity.’

The opportunity to eat any dish one desires.

It’s an opportunity that those who haven’t realized the truth—that collection equals power in this world—cannot appreciate.

Only those who grasp enormous power understand the principles and logic of the world.

Diverse experiences.

Rich collections.

In this world, one’s capacity as a collector directly connects to personal strength.

Swinging a sword ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times makes one stronger, but to grow stronger afterward requires ten thousand swings, a hundred thousand swings, a million swings.

If that effort could be replaced by eating a few types of food.

If eating one rare dish could substitute for ten million, a hundred million, or a billion sword swings.

Unless one were a fool, they wouldn’t stubbornly stick to just swinging a sword.

‘When collections of the same type accumulate, their value increases.’

Just as sword practice becomes less effective the more you do it, food provides diminishing returns of power the more you eat.

So for a one-time opportunity, it made sense to eat food you hadn’t tried before.

But you can’t eat food you don’t even know the name of.

You can’t order what you don’t know.

Yet this child boldly placed an order.

“I’d like the <Ten-Thousand-Year Sap Medicinal Soup> please!”

Trees that have lived a hundred years house fairies.

Thousand-year trees are absolutely swarming with them.

Let alone ten-thousand-year trees, which attract pointy-eared elves from who knows where, babbling nonsense about world trees and preventing anyone from approaching.

To boil the sap of such ancient trees and still have enough to call it a soup would require an extraordinary amount of sap.

The very idea is so sacrilegious that elves and fairies would never reveal it, and it’s a dish so audacious that even non-elves couldn’t conceive of it.

That’s what made it interesting.

“That dish will require some time. How long will it take to gather the ingredients and prepare it?”

“Three days will be necessary.”

At the Chief of Staff’s answer, the Chairman gave Ddidda a warm smile.

“Exceptional creativity is always admirable. To honor your remarkable idea, I’ll serve you another unique dish before the <Ten-Thousand-Year Sap Medicinal Soup> is ready in three days.”

“Wow, two uniques! Buy one get one free!”

Instead, the dish served was a sponsor-exclusive food from Monthly Gourmet.

As soon as a knife touched the seemingly normal dish, screams erupted from the food.

The already tense banquet table now echoed with someone’s screams and sobbing sounds.

“What on earth did you give Ddidda?”

“It’s the <Steak of Lamentation>, a sponsor product from Monthly Gourmet. Of course, as it’s a limited unique-grade dish, I cannot offer it to everyone.”

“Ddidda. Don’t eat that.”

Even Giselle turned serious, and Isabelle grew angry.

Even those who had been reading the room felt this food was clearly problematic.

“Why not?”

“I’ll make you something just as delicious without having to eat that.”

Ddidda looked down at her plate with obvious reluctance.

“But unique dishes are so rare…”

Her bold reaction revealed something.

Ddidda doesn’t discriminate against food.

No matter how immoral the food might be.

She has no collector’s restrictions.

It was evidence that her potential for strength was greater than anyone’s.

The range of one’s tastes is as important as one’s potential talent.

The wider the range, the less picky one is.

The collection grows more diverse.

Diverse collections lead to strength.

The more boundaries one crosses, the stronger the collector becomes.

“I’ll try one bite and then decide!”

Ddidda finally brought the fork with a piece of steak to her mouth.

The moment her teeth touched the meat, a scream burst forth with the meat juices: “Kyaaaaa!”

The scream came not from Ddidda but from the meat being chewed by her teeth.

‘Swallow it. And prove it. That your growth potential is this extraordinary!’

The Chairman, in a rare display, watched someone with expectation.

Those in power do not have faith.

They know how futile such an act is.

Instead of believing, the powerful put on shackles.

Because if you don’t obey, your neck tightens and you suffer.

If they believe in anything, it’s in the pain felt by those who are leashed, not in someone’s goodwill or free will.

Yet he believed in Ddidda.

Her absurd notion of calling him “Papa.”

Her unpredictable and extraordinary behavior.

All of these things planted expectations.

That this child could do it.

That she could become a unique existence like himself.

That she would be the unique talent who could bring new changes to his collection that had reached its limits.

Ddidda, who had captured the Chairman’s expectations.

She responded to those expectations.

“Meeeh.”

By spitting out the chewed steak back onto the plate.

“My goodness. Are you a picky eater?”

“Papa, that’s going too far. It’s not just making sounds—there’s actually a soul in there!”

“That’s what makes it so special. A soul is an extraordinary being. So Soul Food can be said to be a truly unique dish in the world.”

“By that logic, human flesh would count for the collection too! No matter how important collecting is, crossing that line makes us no different from demons of the demon realm.”

“How unfortunate. Perhaps it was too early for a young child.”

Ddidda cleared her plate.

Not by eating it, but by throwing it in the trash.

“I’ll count this as having received the food.”

“Very well. Still, I hope you won’t show such pickiness at our meal three days from now.”

“Of course not! The Ten-Thousand-Year Sap Medicinal Soup isn’t made with souls or human flesh.”

The students were relieved that Ddidda hadn’t crossed the line.

What an amusing sight.

But is that really true?

In this world, you only see as much as you know.

The ten-thousand-year tree sap that must be seized to make the soup Ddidda requested.

They couldn’t even imagine how many troops the Foundation would mobilize to collect it.

If they knew how many elves and fairies would die trying to stop the Foundation, they would rather recommend eating the Steak of Lamentation—the death toll would be on a completely different scale.

Yet they don’t tell her not to eat the Ten-Thousand-Year Sap Medicinal Soup.

Because they don’t know the price of making the dish.

So this is pickiness.

Spitting out screams that can be seen and heard, while happily swallowing screams from far away that can neither be seen nor heard—a child’s selective eating.

And that made her all the more appealing.

Ddidda’s way of life and philosophy fulfilled the Chairman’s expectations.

This child is interesting.

Even more so than he had thought after reading Tail’s report or hearing Jona’s testimony.

“Chief of Staff. I absolutely want to watch my daughter eat the Ten-Thousand-Year Sap Medicinal Soup with my own eyes.”

“We’ve already organized an expedition. We plan to mobilize elite private organizations, including the Esonia Exploration Team, to lure the elves to the border area and seize the ten-thousand-year tree in the meantime.”

“I won’t interfere with the operation. Just meet the deadline. There won’t be a second chance. No matter what sacrifices must be made, wasting my time will not be tolerated.”

This was a directive.

Given directly from the Chairman to the Chief of Staff.

Those who disobey directives pay a tremendous price.

Either by receiving an even more difficult directive.

Or by paying with their body or the rest of their life a price greater than any benefit gained from fulfilling the directive.

This expedition was prepared with the expectation of tremendous bloodshed.

If one person had to pay that price with their body, what kind of suffering would be required to repay it?

The Chief of Staff didn’t even want to imagine.

Because the repayment would be extremely harsh, spanning a period that would feel like eons to an individual.

“Jona Wiheomhae. You’ve come to serve quite a frightening young lady.”

“I believe the young miss is just venting. She nearly lost her friends because of the Chairman’s test.”

“Are you saying she’s questioning whether the Foundation has the right to test them?”

In a private conversation away from the banquet.

On the stairway between floors.

Away from the Chairman’s eyes, the Chief of Staff asked Jona, the butler who had directly taught and watched over Ddidda, for his thoughts on today’s events.

“No family, no matter the father and daughter, is always harmonious without ever fighting. The young miss has reasons to throw tantrums, doesn’t she?”

“She claims to be that Chairman’s daughter, and indeed, it wouldn’t be strange to call her the Little Chairman.”

The Chief of Staff’s face grew troubled.

Thinking that if she threw two tantrums, the Foundation might stagger.

Of course, this was just his own exaggeration born from having to carry out a life-threatening directive because of a child’s tantrum.

It was merely a matter of invading the lair of barbaric sub-races who worship ancient trees while hiding in forests.

The Foundation’s power was far too immense to stagger from something like this.