The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 310 Cat Pago (23) - Rule Book "3,000 yen." In front of the ticket booth, Popuri received the ticket with trembling hands. The ticket with its stiff paper texture boasted a quite pretty design for a disposable item, but what filled Popuri's mind wasn't artistic sentiment, but just the feeling that it was such a waste she could die. Even the cost of enjoying proper cultural activities would be regrettable, and since supernatural entities were involved, the chance of having a normal viewing experience was already ruined, so how much worse could it be? She wanted to just ignore the ticket and everything else and charge right in, but this type of supernatural story often treated the ticket itself as something like 'participation qualification', so there was no choice. "In the first place, even after clearly hearing Hinosaka explain that she 'was supposed to come with a friend', giving only one single-person ticket as a gift, what kind of behavior is that...." "Um, Hanamori? If it's hard for you, I can pay for it." Perhaps feeling sorry for the sight of her clutching the ticket with trembling hands, Hinosaka offered those words. Popuri shook her head. "It's okay. They say friends shouldn't carelessly depend on each other when it comes to money." "Hahaha, then I'll at least buy you a meal after this is over! Since you came here because of me in the first place, I should do at least this much!" Hinosaka made a gesture as if flexing her arms while saying this playfully. That each of her flashy movements didn't feel excessive but rather felt like eye candy could be called a talent. Popuri didn't refuse even this much. Convenience store expired lunch boxes and rice balls might fill the body's needs, but they couldn't fill a girl's heart. While being aware of the baseball bat in her backpack and Pago's presence, Popuri left the ticket booth with Hinosaka and stepped toward the art museum entrance. "Oh my, customer. Just a moment please." The guide's voice was low. After looking at Hinosaka's ticket, she bent her waist at a 90-degree angle in an extremely polite manner. "Not that way, please come this way. I'll escort you to the 2nd floor VIP exclusive section." "Oh, ah, yes. Let's go, Hanamori. This way, she says." As Popuri and Hinosaka tried to move together in that direction, the guide's voice rang out once more. "No, customer. Only one VIP guest can go upstairs." "Then that's fine. We'll just go to the 1st floor together. Do we need to buy tickets separately?" Before Popuri could even complain about anything, Hinosaka's sharp response cut the other party in two. A slight emotion resembling perplexity appeared in the guide's businesslike smile. Popuri carefully observed the other person's face. At least it wasn't a supernatural entity disguised as a human. If anything, it was more like the face of an office worker confronted with a situation outside the established manual. "Please wait a moment." After saying that, the guide spoke into a wireless communicator in the back about something, then soon returned with a smiling face. "I understand. Then please both of you enjoy viewing the 1st floor first. In the meantime, I'll prepare a VIP ticket for your companion as well." It was an eerie level of kindness. No, at this point it was more in the realm of obsession than kindness. An intense determination to bring Hinosaka to that VIP area by any means necessary. Hinosaka also seemed to feel a strange eeriness as her expression stiffened slightly, but perhaps remembering Pago's advice that 'completely refusing an invitation is not good', she nodded for now. After entering, in the corridor. After confirming there were no other people around, Hinosaka let out a long sigh. "Phew, this is really nerve-wracking. Hanamori, you've really managed to do this kind of thing multiple times." "I didn't particularly do it multiple times because I wanted to either." The art museum's structure was centered around a large central lobby with four different galleries branching out like stems, and at each gallery entrance, keywords like Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Temperance were displayed like signs. However, the gallery entrances seemed not to be open yet, as customers could be seen unable to enter the galleries and murmuring in the lobby. "When on earth is this going to start? We've been waiting for 30 minutes now!" "What kind of art museum has a separate waiting time?" "Honey, the lighting here sucks. Selfies don't come out well either." "Hey, put the shutter on silent. This is an art museum." While there were some exhibits in the central lobby so there weren't no visitors enjoying them normally, since the entrances to the four galleries that clearly looked like they had something special were firmly blocked, considerable irritation showed on the customers' faces. From the perspective of museum management, it was the worst possible situation. Just as Popuri was frowning wondering what kind of nonsense this was, the lights illuminating the central lobby suddenly went out all at once. Despite it being midday, the space without a single window was plunged into darkness, and only the light from people's smartphones flickered chaotically. "What, what?! Is it a power outage?" "Ah, seriously!! What kind of art museum has service like this!!" As voices mixed with bewilderment and irritation echoed around, someone's voice rang out from the speakers. Due to recent experiences, Popuri now got goosebumps just hearing the characteristic crackling sound of speakers, so she reflexively tensed her hands. [─Dear visitors.] [I will inform you of this museum's viewing rules.] [The Gallery of Wisdom, the Gallery of Justice, the Gallery of Courage, the Gallery of Temperance. Inside each of the four galleries, stamps are prepared.] [Please collect all four stamps on the back of your ticket. Visitors who do not collect all the stamps will not be able to leave.] Pop! As soon as the lights came on with flashy illumination, sighs of relief mixed with irritated complaints burst out from all around the lobby. "Ah, what was that. I was really startled." "Is this some kind of escape room cafe concept event?" "Guide! Call the person in charge! This isn't kids playing around!" Everyone seemed to dismiss the announcement from the speakers as merely part of an 'immersive exhibition'. But Popuri's perspective was different. Where her gaze was directed. At the front entrance where they had just walked in, instead of a firmly closed door, there was only a very smooth and solid marble wall standing there. "Ha, seriously. This is unbelievable. I'm not watching this! Give me a refund!" One visitor who couldn't stand it anymore strode toward the entrance, then soon faced the wall and let out a stunned voice. "Huh? The door... where did it go?" Only then did people start to notice the strangeness of the situation one by one and become flustered. The central lobby entrance they had come through. The door that should have been the passage leading to the exit had somehow turned into a wall with nothing there. The man who had approached the door talking about refunds frantically felt around the wall in confusion. "No, how is this possible." "Wait, move aside! Like a movie set, they must have disguised it with styrofoam or something, huh?" Other visitors nearby also rushed to touch the wall, knock on it, and even tried kicking it, but the wall didn't budge at all. Among the people panicking in confusion, Hinosaka whispered to Popuri. "Um, excuse me. Hanamori. Everyone's been talking about a wall since earlier, but by any chance, does that door look like a wall to you now?" Popuri blinked her eyes. Then after glancing around at the surroundings, she asked back. "It doesn't look that way to you, Hinosaka?" "Yeah, it just looks like a door to me." "Wait, let me see your ticket." Popuri compared her ticket with Hinosaka's ticket. Four empty spaces that seemed to be for stamps had somehow newly appeared on her ticket, but while Hinosaka's ticket also had spaces, those spaces were already completely filled with stamps. Pago, who had somehow emerged from a gap in the bag, saw this and said. "Favoritism to this extent is now in the realm of admiration." Popuri asked. "Hinosaka, would you like to go out first, even if it's by yourself?" "Absolutely not." "I see, I thought that would be your answer. I asked as a matter of courtesy." Given Hinosaka's personality, she wouldn't welcome this kind of privilege, and considering the other party's 'persistence' in the first place, even if Hinosaka escaped alone, they would never let her go back quietly. "Pago." "What is it, blackie." "Some property damage in a fire situation would fall within the legally permissible range, right?" "Let's just go with that." Having received firm assurance(?), Popuri nodded her head. And she took out her baseball bat. *** Art museum 2nd floor. "What a truly foolish young lady. If she had simply accepted my invitation, by now we could have been viewing art together here." Supernatural entities harm people. This is close to an absolute rule of this world. Among the beings that commonly appear in folklore and ghost stories, there are benevolent entities like 'guardian spirits' or 'mountain gods' that benefit people, but even such beings exist in a somehow distorted and twisted form in this world. Guardian spirits may protect the person in question but harm other humans, and mountain gods harm those who break rules under the pretext of 'divine punishment'. Even if they occasionally provide benefits, those benefits never exceed the harm they cause. Conversely, as long as they follow that total balance rule, meaning 'helping this human would actually be harmful to humanity', supernatural entities will also help people. The museum director was exactly this type of case. He was merely an aspiring artist who had failed to get into art school, but one day while wandering lost, he discovered this 'art museum' and gained the position of director through a contract that was placed at the reception desk. (E/N: Oh no, not the artist who failed to get into art school) The museum granted him overwhelming artistic talent and also gave him supernatural immunity that ensured he would never be caught or exposed for any crimes committed within the museum. A happy life where he obtained the honor of a genius artist, enormous wealth, and even social power. Of course, there was a price to pay. Periodically offering people as 'visitors' to this museum. And adding new 'artworks' to the museum. The former wasn't particularly difficult. After all, any incidents or accidents that occurred in this museum would never lead to major investigations or social incidents. No matter how many people died or disappeared, even though there were clear records of them all visiting the museum. All of it would end up being vaguely dismissed and forgotten. So there was no need to particularly worry about risk management. If there was one difficulty, it was that the 'visitors' the museum favored had to be those with high interest in art itself or artistic insight and sensibility, but the director had already figured out the trick for this too. First, feed it plenty with free public viewings to fill its belly. Then let it also consume the truly discerning customers who came for the paid exhibitions. Well, lately there were often duds mixed in among the paying customers, but that wasn't a big burden since he could just maintain the exhibition until the museum was satisfied. After all, it wasn't the director's own life at stake. What was really important was the latter. The second price. Adding new artworks to the museum. And they had to be very artistic, aesthetic, and suited to the museum's taste. "I've failed every time so far... but this time is different. With that young lady, I can definitely complete a masterpiece." He had an intuition the moment he first saw her. That beautiful face and body. And the character and nobility that could be felt just from exchanging a few words. She was an ideal being both as a model and as material. After first meeting her, he couldn't begin to describe how anxiously he waited for the day she would return. Ah, but soon now. Just a little longer and he could meet her. He had finished all preparations to repeatedly cut and heal her, extract her blood while preventing it from losing its pigment for use as paint, and to turn her soul itself into a jewel for display. "Right now she seems to be holding out inside, but soon she won't be able to endure it and will come running." It was somewhat ridiculous for him to evaluate the museum where he served as director this way, but the 1st floor museum was absolutely not a space humans could endure. The four galleries with concepts of wisdom, justice, courage, and order were called museums but were essentially no different from slaughterhouses. The museum too wouldn't deliberately harm new artwork, meaning the material that would become part of itself, so that girl named Hinosaka would surely come to his side alive. Then he would very kindly comfort and console her. And at the moment when she was most at ease, he would use her as his material. Anticipating that pleasant ecstasy, the museum director drank deeply from his wine. *** "Hanamori. What are you doing right now?" "I'm making a rule book." "Ah, I see. Safety rules we have to follow? Like a manual ghost story, that kind of thing? I've seen it too!" "No? It's a rule book for beating up supernatural entities if they don't follow the rules." "?"