Because some troublesome little girl had secretly meddled behind the scenes, quietly swapping all the "normal" and "abnormal" dishes on the banquet tables, it was no surprise that, after all the "guests" except Annie had tearfully eaten every last bite of the delicious food amid their hesitation, anxiety, surprise, and suspicion, licked their plates clean to make sure nothing had been left behind, and sat in their seats waiting for fate's verdict...
Quite unexpectedly!
They waited for a long time—maybe a full fifteen minutes. Under normal circumstances, the effects should have kicked in by then, with people dropping dead one after another. But nothing at all happened.
Anyway, amid their unease and astonishment, they looked from one person to another. In the end, they found that everyone was alive and well, and not a single person looked contaminated or as if they were about to drop dead from poison.
Even the old wraith standing off to the side—the butler—had a peculiar look in his eyes at this strange turn of events. As for what was going on in his chaotic, muddled mind, no one could say.
Perhaps even he, a wraith himself, had no idea why things had turned out this way?
"..."
After a while, once he was sure he seemed to be fine, the high school student in the filthy uniform shakily stood up.
First, he looked at his hands. Then he rubbed his round belly after finishing that huge basin of soup. Finally, he asked in disbelief:
"What's going on?"
"Not one of us died?"
"Did we just see a ghost?"
His fingers were still trembling slightly. He stared again at the bottom of the basin he had just licked clean, his Adam's apple bobbing as he tried to make sense of what had happened.
"Yeah..."
Then