“Uwah!”
“Kyaa!”
“Someone’s collapsed again! Bring a stretcher, quick!”
“Cleaning crew, please handle this urgently!”
Kent felt that ever since Al, Emily, and Hanako entered the haunted house, the screams from inside had increased, with more people fainting and wetting themselves. The transport and cleaning crews seemed to be extremely busy.
“Speaking of which, I haven’t seen the three of them come out yet.”
Despite a considerable amount of time passing, Kent had not seen Al, Emily, or Hanako emerge.
“Hey, Kent, help me carry this guy.”
“Wha- Okay.”
Bobby asked, and Kent decided to help carry a collapsed customer to the infirmary by stretcher. This task preoccupied him so much that the three of them completely slipped his mind.
“Sorry to bother you right after you got back, but could you carry this person too?”
“Understood. Well then, Bobby, let’s carry him.”
“Roger that.”
After delivering the person to the infirmary, they returned to find another customer needing transport, and Kent and Bobby had to go back the way they came.
“Surely there are no more, right?”
“I wish that were true, but…”
Kent and Bobby shuttled back and forth between the classroom and the infirmary several times. They were so exhausted they didn’t have the energy to count how many times they’d made the trip.
“I can’t take it anymore. Give me a little break.”
“Me too.”
Several members of the transport team were slumped in front of the classroom, panting. The customers who witnessed this seemed intrigued by how scary it must be, and the line of people waiting to enter actually grew longer.
“Everyone’s so nosy. Even with this many people being transported, the line is getting longer. It looks like more work for us,” Bobby said with a weary expression.
“Speaking of which, I don’t see Josette anywhere.”
“I think she left a little while ago with Patty. Didn’t you hear, Kent?”
“Now that you mention it, I think I recall them saying they had something to discuss and leaving together.”
Kent vaguely looked for Josette but couldn’t find her, so he asked Bobby. Prompted by Bobby, he remembered they had left together a short while ago.
“Oh, I see. If you didn’t hear, then it’s fine.”
“What? You say that like you know something?”
“Nope, I don’t know anything at all.”
Bobby said with a meaningful expression.
“Oh my, taking a break here, are we?”
“Tch, I didn’t want to see your face at a time like this.”
“Did you say something?”
“No, nothing at all.”
As Kent and Bobby sat resting in the hallway, they were suddenly addressed. The speaker was Cedric.
“Hey, Kent, did you do something? You’re clearly getting hostile looks.”
“Well, a lot’s happened.”
Bobby asked in a low voice.
“What are you whispering about? This is why I dislike commoners.”
“And what business do you, the noble Cedric, have here?”
“I find it irritating that it’s your class’s event, but as an aristocrat, I must check out exhibits sponsored by the Royal Family.”
Cedric said, glaring down at Kent. Kent, feeling slightly annoyed, indirectly asked about his business. Cedric was accompanied by two male students, who seemed to be his entourage, though Kent couldn’t tell if they were classmates or juniors.
“Hey, you guys, get out of the way. Lord Cedric is passing through.”
“Hey, there are customers in line. Don’t cut in line!”
“What’s a commoner like you saying? I told you to move!”
Cedric’s two attendants pushed their way through the line of waiting customers and cut to the front. Kent tried to stop them, but they paid him no mind.
“Um… the explanation before entering…”
“Silence. Are you trying to order Lord Cedric around?”
“N-no…”
“Don’t cause unnecessary trouble. Now, Lord Cedric, please.”
“Ah.”
Without heeding the words of the female student at the reception, Cedric and his two attendants entered the haunted house.
“If nobles can wield their power like that, there’s nothing we can do… If Josette were here, she might have handled it, but she needs to focus on her own tasks, so I guess this is unavoidable.”
Bobby said regretfully.
“Emily, Hanako, did you see that?”
“We saw it clearly. We will identify him as an enemy of Master.”
“I’ll stick my finger in his P-hole and make his back teeth chatter.”
From inside, three figures watched the scene.
“Even if it’s a haunted house, it’s just a prop, so it’s not scary at all. Right, Cedric?”
“Indeed. Ghosts don’t exist. To stir up fear simply by making it dark is a child’s trick. I don’t know why the Royal Family would invest in something like this. If it weren’t for Father’s orders, this would be a waste of time.”
Cedric and his two attendants entered with a confident air, but that confidence quickly vanished.
(Status manipulation… Fear)
Hanako muttered softly.
“Hey, isn’t something wrong? I’m suddenly trembling.”
“Th-that’s impossible… WAAAH!”
“What is this feeling…?”
Immediately after Hanako’s murmur, the three felt a strange atmosphere and began to tremble violently. Just then, the surrounding darkness brightened slightly. They found themselves in a dense jungle overgrown with plants.
“This is supposed to be a classroom, but what is this place? It’s covered in plants.”
“Ugh, my arm— Uwah, blood, blood—”
Cedric and his attendants were shocked by the sudden change in scenery. But at that moment, one of the attendants’ arms fell off. A large amount of blood gushed out.
“Did you really cut it off? I can’t heal anything outside of the shop, you know?”
Emily, holding a blood-stained dagger, said nervously to Al.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll reattach it cleanly later, so go wild. Just don’t kill them. I mean, resurrection is impossible.”
“Understood. Then, let’s move on.”
Saying that, Emily raised her dagger and began to attack the other attendant.
“Uwahhh! My leg…”
Losing a leg and unable to stand, one of the attendants collapsed on the spot.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Get up. Ah, your leg is gone.”
Seeing one of his attendants lose a leg, Cedric’s terror reached its peak. He realized that if two of them were incapacitated, he would be next. Cedric abandoned the injured attendants and tried to return to the entrance.
“Ah well. He ran off and left his companions. It can’t be helped. I guess I’ll have these two ‘retire’. Okay, healing complete.”
She collected the severed arm and leg of the remaining two attendants and reattached them with healing magic.
(Space manipulation… Movement)
When Hanako muttered softly, the two attendants disappeared.
“Hey, there are two people collapsed here! Bring a stretcher, quick!”
The two suddenly reappeared, teleported to a slightly wider area within the haunted house. A student working as a scare actor spotted them, unconscious on the ground, and called for help. The transport team then carried them on stretchers to the infirmary.
“What in the world is going on here? Is this really just a prop?”
Cedric tried to return to the entrance, but despite walking a considerable distance, he couldn’t get outside. The surroundings had suddenly become pitch black, and he no longer knew where he was walking.
“Fuu.”
“Gyah!”
Someone suddenly blew air into his ear, and Cedric screamed.
“To be surprised by just that is quite amusing… Well then, let’s try again.”
Emily, who Kent had always thought was more than just a simple fairy, ran towards Cedric without a sound and quickly withdrew after gently blowing into his ear.
“I knew you weren’t ordinary, but for a lower-class fairy, you have amazing abilities.”
“I’m amazed that you can warp space and turn a narrow passage into such a vast area.”
“Heh, this much is easy.”
Hanako said cheerfully, facing Al and Emily, who were astonished. Al and Emily looked surprised by Hanako’s ability to manipulate space and transform what was originally a narrow passage into a vast area.
“I never imagined you were a fairy. If you hadn’t become Marie’s child, even I wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Indeed. I had suspected something was strange, but that was the deciding factor.”
Al and Emily said, recalling the events of a short while ago.
“Well then, shall we finish this?”
With that, Al began preparing to summon plants.
“Let’s make it a bit brighter,” Hanako murmured softly. The space brightened, and their surroundings became clearly visible.
“Where are we? Why are we in a barren wasteland with nothing here?”
There was no sign of human presence in the area, which was a barren wasteland surrounded by a large pile of rocks.
“Ah, is that a Venus flytrap? But it’s too big.”
The Venus flytrap is a famous carnivorous plant, known for trapping insects and other prey by closing its two leaves. However, the Venus flytrap that appeared before Cedric was enormous, its leaves alone being larger than a person.
“Ugh, what is this? Let go, hey, stop it, stop it!”
Suddenly, vines wrapped around Cedric’s legs, pulling him up and slowly carrying him towards the two slowly opening leaves.
“Ugh, no, stop! The leaves are closing. It’s hot! Hot! Help me!”
Once the vines released him onto the open leaves, Cedric fell onto the giant Venus flytrap, and the leaves closed. As they shut, an intense pain struck Cedric, and he cried out for help.
“Is this enough?”
“Yes. I feel much better.”
“I’ll let you off the hook for today.”
“That’s something the victim would say!”
Al and Emily instinctively interjected as Hanako uttered those lines.
(Space manipulation… Movement)
When Hanako muttered, Cedric was teleported to the corridor where the haunted house entrance was located.
“Ugh, stop it! Help me!”
Cedric rolled around on the corridor floor, crying for help. Those in line to enter the haunted house, as well as Kent and Bobby, watched the scene.
“…Huh? Is this outside? Did I get out? …Huh?”
Cedric came to his senses and looked around. He noticed people staring at him with curious eyes.
“Tch, Kent, you—! Don’t think you’ve won because of this!”
Shouting that, Cedric ran off.
