The Chocolate Experiment

——— Minho ———

"How are your burns?" Mira asked me after the match and the heat of the battle was over - literally. 

"It stings a little but I don't think my skin's peeling off or anything"

"Good to hear. We should probably go see a Healer for that."

"A Healer?"

"Yeah, you don't have Healers in your Human World?"

"Of course we do. But it's not 'magical' healing though."

"Herbs and stuff then?"

"Yes, and surgery."

"What is a surgery?"

"They use knives to cut you open, fix your bones, fix your organs, whatever."

"S…scary… we don't do that here."

"How do you treat internal injuries then?"

"Mostly medicine and magic. If we want to 'move' parts inside the body, like putting broken bones together, we don't cut people open. That sounds so primitive."

"Well, that's why Humans have developed so many good anesthetics and tranquilizers. You know, like the one I used against King Kong."

"Right, that was impressive indeed. Of course, we also have herbs that make you sleepy, but I don't think anything can put a monster of that size to sleep."

"It wasn't easy, you know?"

"Well, you did well." Mira showed her rare genuine smile. 

Perhaps it was my good performances in the contest, or perhaps it was the hardships we went through. But I could feel that we were finally starting to get along. 

A little. 

"So, how do YOU feel? You must have used a lot of mana too."

"Well, it's nothi-, heck. Yeah, I'm so tired. Chocolates helped but I don't think anything can substitute a good sleep. Although I could never have enough chocolates, heh."

"We could ask Celestine for some more. We should really stock up if we are going to last throughout the whole tournament."

"I don't want to rely on her too much. She's been very kind… unexpectedly. But she will be our opponent at some point after all. What if she try to poison me?"

"Mira, have some trust in your friends…"

"Who's my friend?"

"Celestine."

"Pfft, you are so naive. She isn't a 'friend'."

"You don't think of her as such?"

"She's an ally. A useful ally. She's used you, and now we are using her. There's no such thing as free lunch."

"Ha! We have that saying in our world too."

"Heh~, perhaps there really is some truth in that then."

This suddenly gave me an idea though.

"Wait… wait… wait… How stupid could I be?!!!"

"Well, I won't argue that you are not stupid, but what is it now, Minho?"

"I could summon chocolates from my world!"

"Eeeeehhhh?!"

"It won't be as good as Celestine's, but think about it - we can have an INFINITE amount of chocolates, right? Oh God, not only that - we can summon ALL kinds of food. We won't have to eat that yucky bread anymore!"

"You… you are right! Do it now! Do it now!"

With great excitement and in a triumphant mood, I spat out a chocolate bar from my world that was rather popular. 

"Try it!" I passed it on to Mira. 

"Yew, it's got your spit on the package."

"Sigh… it's not like you are that hygienic…"

:Chop:

Mira landed her usual chop on my head with her hand, but there wasn't real force behind it. 

Perhaps she was just that tired. 

"Right. I'll open it for you."

I unwrapped the package and fed it to Mira, who gratefully accepted it with open mouth and took a big bite. She closed her eyes as if to savor the taste, but within seconds, she spat it out and started vomiting.

"Huh?! What?! What's wrong, Mira?!"

I hit her on the back to help her throw up and it felt like she puked out more than she's actually eaten. 

"Bleurgh…"

"What is it?"

"It tastes like puke… bleurgh…"

What? Maybe she's not used to the taste of chocolate from the Human world? But it can't be that bad though. 

I took the bite of the chocolate bar myself, and instantly spat it out and started to vomit as well. 

"Fucking hell… this is like… the worst thing I ever - bleurgh…"

It was an odd feeling. 

I realized I wasn't just throwing up because it tasted horrible, but I felt like something in my body was fundamentally rejecting it, as if something that should never enter the stomach has invaded it and my body was repulsing it out with all its might. 

"Let… let me try something else…"

Well, maybe it was a problem with chocolate. Then… how about something simpler and safer? Like a can of Coke?

I summoned and spat out a can and offered it to Mira, but she was so repulsed and traumatized by the chocolate that she waved me off. 

"You… you try it, Human…"

"Fine."

I opened the can and took a sip, and before it could even travel down my throat all the way to reach my stomach, vomit exploded out of my mouth.

"Bleeeeeurrrgh…"

It wasn't only that my body didn't want it, or couldn't take it. Just as was the case with chocolate, it tasted absolutely horrible. 

What's more worrying was that it felt like both Mira and I were feeling drowsy, as if vomiting had made us lose more energy than the food it would have given us. 

"I… I will try the final test."

With that, I regurgitated some sugar cubes. I was quite scared by this point, but being able to summon food would give us an infinite supply of energy as if it were in perpetual motion.

"Bleeeurgh"

I puked out the cubes of sugar and some more stuff that I didn't even know was in my stomach (I didn't even eat that much today!) and depressingly, even sugar tasted like powder of shit. 

"I don't understand…"

I lay on the ground on my back, and Mira did the same. We were so disgusted and exhausted that we both needed a good lie down and recovery. 

I was too nauseous to think properly but still tried to come up with explanations as to why I couldn't summon food, but between the panting and gasping for air, Mira spoke. 

"Minho… I think I know why we can't do this."

"Why…?"

"It's… it's the law of the universe… an eternal truth. The truth that no magic can overcome…"

"What is that?"

"There is no free lunch."

She was right. 

It was true in my world, and it was true in her world. 

There is no free lunch.