The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#290 Cat Pago (3) - Hidden Stairs Generally speaking, being a cat mom is irresponsible pleasure, while being chosen as a butler is responsible pleasure. Between them lies as vast a gap as playing with your nephew versus playing with your own child. When strictly evaluated by the above criteria, Popuri's position was closer to a butler than a cat mom. She had to bear the immediate costs of a cat house, toys, and even treats. What annoyed Popuri most was that after she had prepared everything like that, Pago would only poke at things once or twice and then completely ignore them afterward. "Then why did you tell me to buy them in the first place!?" "It's a rare short cat life. I should experience what it's like at least once, shouldn't I?" He would then meow hatefully, displaying such shamelessness that even Popuri, who was usually evaluated as gentle and well-behaved, couldn't help but glare at him. A single high school girl's thin wallet had turned into an empty void, and that's what he had to say about it? Later, she did hear the additional explanation that 'as long as supernatural entities exist as supernatural entities in this world, they must receive compensation for their help,' but it was still unclear whether that was really the case or just an excuse. If the price for helping her escape from the hospital was a high school girl's monthly living expenses, well, it would be on the cheap side, but... "Hanamori, Hanamori. What do you think?" What brought Popuri's consciousness back to reality from her thoughts was the urging of her deskmate friend. Hinosaka, a female student with brown dumpling-style hair who clearly projected an image of "I'm overflowing with life force!", was waiting for Popuri's answer with sparkling, glittering eyes. Additionally, Hinosaka was the only one with sparkling eyes, and the other two female students who seemed to have been talking with Hinosaka nearby had no sparkle in their eyes whatsoever. If anything, their gazes were closer to 'Hey, isn't hanging out with us fun?' or 'I don't know why Hinosaka plays with such a gloomy kid.' Feeling her loner instincts being sharply provoked, Popuri tried hard to avoid the piercing gazes and asked back. "What do you mean by how is it... what?" "Eh, weren't you listening? I'm talking about the 'Hidden Stairs' story!" Popuri desperately suppressed what she almost blurted out as "Eck." She had heard enough without needing to hear more. No matter how she thought about it, any story that would come up here with such a title could only be a ghost story. While it was common for high school girls their age to be like that, Hinosaka was particularly the type to be enthusiastic about such ghost stories. "You know the stairs at our school? If you go to the 4th floor in the middle of the night while counting the stairs as you move, you can supposedly reach the 4th floor of a school in another world, not our original school!" Even though no one had particularly asked, Hinosaka continued her explanation on her own. The fact that this was 100% goodwill made Popuri's cheek twitch, unable to either laugh or cry. "Popuri, you're an expert on these kinds of ghost stories, right? What do you think?" That was right. That title of "ghost story expert" was the problem. In the past, Popuri had been active in investigating supernatural entities and ghost stories. She thought that knowing the enemy was necessary to plan for either survival or avoidance. Her middle school years were when this reached its peak, and it was also the time when she would seriously go around advising the students around her about "taboos that shouldn't be done," telling them not to do certain things. ...Well, after learning that those actions, which Popuri had thought were goodwill on her part, were treated by those around her similarly to how peer male students talked about dark flame dragons or magic eyes, she immediately stopped. Popuri from that time must have been quite impressive, as Hinosaka would actively drag Popuri into things whenever there were ghost story-related topics like this. "...Isn't it too vague a ghost story?" Glance. While gauging the reactions of the other female students except Hinosaka, Popuri began to give as safe an answer as possible. "Vague, you say?" "Starting with 'middle of the night' - the range is too broad. Is around 9 PM okay, or does it have to be dawn? And 'while moving to the 4th floor' is the same way. It's unclear whether you're supposed to count the stairs going up from the 3rd to 4th floor, or going down from the 5th to 4th floor, right?" This was also a characteristic of ghost stories that generally went up and down 'easily' in people's mouths. To put it nicely, they had flexibility; to put it badly, they felt roughly patched together haphazardly. If it were a ghost story with clear conditions, it would be easy to verify, so if someone said 'I tried it but it didn't work,' that would be the end of it, but if the conditions are ambiguous, verification becomes impossible or difficult. You could also say it extends the story's life force. That's why it commonly floats around as gossip among many people. "Oh, that's true. Hanamori! As expected of an expert!" "Um, Hinosaka-san. I'd prefer if you didn't call me an expert..." (E/N: Somehow, I don't feel like changing the honorifics.) "Hey, no need to be modest!" This isn't modesty, it's shame, Hinosaka-san. Words she couldn't dare say openly, Popuri only grumbled internally. To Popuri, who was fundamentally clumsy with interpersonal relationships, a super popular person who encompassed not just half the class but the entire grade was the ultimate mismatch by existence itself. Hinosaka, who seemed quite satisfied with Popuri's answer, kept nodding her head repeatedly. To such Hinosaka, the other female students spoke up. "Then we'll have no choice but to find out the detailed conditions ourselves." "Infiltrating at night is a bit... what do you think, Hinosaka?" "Infiltration and such things are illegal, so that's bad. Let's just say we're studying in the library and get permission from the teacher!" "That only works because you're favored by the teachers, Hinosaka..." "It's fine! I'll say we're studying together!" Watching them efficiently plan their ghost story investigation, Popuri spoke carefully. "Um, I think it would be better if you stopped this." Giggle, giggle. Stop. The sound of girls at their prime laughing and chattering boisterously suddenly stopping had as much eeriness as horror movie BGM suddenly cutting off in the middle of the night. Before Hinosaka could ask anything, the female student who had been sending disapproving glances at Popuri spoke first. Her tone was slightly confrontational. "Stop it? Why?" "Well, it might be dangerous." "Come on. What's dangerous about it? We're just making some memories at school." "Right, right, we won't be able to do things like this after we graduate, right?" When the other female students also pressed her as if in agreement, Popuri couldn't answer anything and lowered her head. Hinosaka hurriedly waved her hands. "Now, now, now! That's enough! Hanamori is saying this out of concern! You shouldn't react so sharply! Specifically, for my mental health! Whine whine!" At Hinosaka's appearance of making fists with both hands and doing comical gestures beside her eyes, the female students who had been sharp just moments before burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs and asking what that was. Avoiding the two people's gazes, Hinosaka squinted her eyes and spoke only with lip movements. -Sorry! Popuri shook her head with a bitter smile. With the thought that people and supernatural entities could swap at any time, the reason Popuri, who was wary of others from the start, could get along reasonably well in class was because Hinosaka acted as a bridge. She still didn't understand why Hinosaka called them comrades with similar feelings, but anyway, this wasn't something that particularly needed an apology. '...Well, nothing much will happen with such a vague ghost story.' Unlike Popuri, who constitutionally tended to attract such things, ordinary people don't get immediately involved just because they whisper and gossip about ghost stories. It wasn't even some strange abandoned house or suicide spot, just playing around a bit at school. Nothing would happen. Thinking this way, Popuri lightly brushed off this matter. The next day. Hinosaka did not come to school. *** "Oh, Hinosaka is absent due to a cold." Popuri didn't trust the teacher's words at all. It was now the height of summer. With athletic ability among the top in the class and thorough self-management, it was a season that didn't fit at all for Hinosaka to be absent due to a cold. More than anything, the pale, ashen faces of the two female students who had conspired with Hinosaka yesterday about the ghost story investigation clearly revealed that something had happened. Break time. Popuri immediately went to find the two female students. She asked straightforwardly. "Yesterday's ghost story exploration. What happened?" The faces of female students A and B (Popuri couldn't remember their surnames) hardened stiffly. But soon A distorted her expression and fiercely rebelled. "What are you talking about? Why are you speaking like you're interrogating us?" "I'll ask once more. What happened during the ghost story exploration?" "I don't know!! We didn't do anything!!" Popuri's eyes quickly scanned the surroundings. After confirming there were no onlookers around, Popuri struck female student A's earlobe. There wasn't the characteristic loud sound of slapping someone's cheek. Because she had struck above the ear with the hard part of her palm. A collapsed without even being able to scream, and B froze. While forcibly holding up A's body as she was about to fall, Popuri spoke in a voice devoid of warmth. "This is a story where someone might die. Are you two confident you can handle it if Hinosaka-san dies?" Hic, they made choking sounds. Eventually, the two of them spoke about what had happened last night in slightly moisture-laden voices. "It, it was verification. We tried counting stairs while going up from the 3rd to 4th floor, then counting stairs while going down from the 5th to 4th floor. One person would actually move on the stairs, while the other two waited at the starting and ending points." First, the role of going up from the 3rd to 4th floor was Hinosaka's. Nothing happened then. But the experiment of going down from the 5th to 4th floor. The experiment where A walked while counting stairs, with Hinosaka waiting at the starting point on the 5th floor and B at the destination on the 4th floor, was different. "In, in the first experiment, we normally counted thirteen and that was the end! We arrived at the 4th floor! But, but in the second one, for some reason fourteen, fifteen, the next stairs kept appearing!!" A, who was going down the stairs, was terrified and tried to turn back, but for some reason her legs kept going down the stairs on their own, and her mouth also kept counting numbers by itself. At that moment when A was in panic. From behind her back, Hinosaka's voice could be heard counting numbers with terrifying momentum - one, two, three, four, five, six!! - and then someone grabbed A's wrist and forcibly pulled her upward. When A lost her balance and was sitting on the stairs, B explained with a pale face: 'You disappeared the moment you counted fourteen.' 'Hinosaka ran down counting stairs with terrifying momentum and disappeared the same way, then you came back.' "We, we weren't just keeping our mouths shut!! The teacher said not to make weird noises because the kids might get confused!!" "Right! We did what we could!" "Haah..." Popuri grabbed her forehead. It was such a meddlesome episode typical of her that there were no words to comment. She could understand why the teacher mentioned a cold. If the school teacher allowed students to study on their own and rumors spread that one of them went missing, how would that spread? The school wouldn't seriously believe that she 'disappeared on the stairs' anyway, and would probably think of it as something like running away. They didn't even know when a police report would be made. "Ha, Hanamori. You can help, right? You're an expert on this stuff, aren't you?" "Please help Hinosaka, okay?" As if they had already erased the memory of getting hit once, the two people clung to Popuri. After appropriately detaching them, Popuri immediately applied for early dismissal. If she was going to move around wildly at night, she needed to sleep in advance and replenish her stamina. Comfortable sneakers. An outer coat known for its durability. Even a baseball bat that a nearby scrap dealer uncle had made for fun, then put up for cheap after a retired baseball player evaluated it as 'This is just a blunt weapon, you know? Playing baseball with this would destroy your wrists and elbows.' Fully armed, Popuri left her one-room apartment where she lived alone. She had no intention of getting formal permission from the school to enter. She wasn't well-regarded by the school like Hinosaka, and there was no way they'd permit night raids when a disappearance had occurred recently. There was simply no method other than trespassing from the beginning. "Your eyes are frighteningly fierce. Are you planning to bury someone?" The moment she opened the door and stepped out, someone asked in a playful voice. Looking at the heterochromatic eyes cat yawning on the villa's communal corridor railing, Popuri said. "Your comrade." "Drop the prejudice that all supernatural entities are on the same side. Humans would also find it ridiculous if you lumped them all together as being on one side, wouldn't they?" "Then will you help?" "Hmm. What's the motive? Is it worth risking your life for?" "Helping the only friend in class who talks to me first." "Indeed, that's worth the risk." Pago jumped onto Popuri's shoulder. The duo of one human and one cat set out on their way like that.