To my eyes, it looked like a massive parfait, but Hina-chan ate the entire thing with relish from start to finish, truly driving home the saying that there's always room for dessert. Well, even so, after finishing it all, she said, "Still, that really was a bit on the large side, wasn't it?" which I thought was still plenty endearing. At the very least, compared to Alice's strong style of pushing the restaurant's actual inventory to its absolute limits, Hina-chan felt completely normal.
At any rate, our meal at the restaurant came to an end, and we headed off to our next stop: the Ice Area. True to its name, this place was an area of snow and ice, featuring buildings and paths sculpted as if made of frost, along with drifts of snow piled up here and there. While the scenery was easy to picture from the name, it remained a magical, deeply fantastical sight. The buildings looked icy, but they weren't actually made of real ice; that was merely their aesthetic design.
"Every single area is really so elaborate, aren't they?"
"It's certainly exciting just looking around... So, Hina-chan, which attraction should we visit first?"
"Hmm, I think this Ice Mirror Labyrinth looks pretty good! It's easy to picture, isn't it?"
"Yeah, going by the name, it sounds like a mirror maze, and it seems like fun."
It was an attraction that was easy to grasp and seemed typical for an amusement park, but... the theme parks I went to as a child never had any mirror mazes. However, with the fantastical atmosphere of this Ice Area, a mirror labyrinth set inside an icy building sounded like it would have great ambiance. I checked with the others just in case, but no one had any objections, so we decided to head to the Ice Mirror Labyrinth first.
When we arrived, it turned out to be quite a massive building. If the maze was this scale, the difficulty might be fairly high... Ah, no, it was also possible that it was simply large so multiple pairs could make their way through simultaneously, just like the Forest Castle. Stepping inside, we found a beautiful reception counter resembling a hotel lobby, and... what was that? Numerous portraits hanging along the walls caught my eye.
"...What are those paintings?"
"They have a somewhat eerie vibe, don't they?"
Aoi-chan tilted her head as she looked at the portraits, and Hina-chan murmured that the paintings felt creepy. Now that she mentioned it, they really did feel a bit uncanny... While they were definitely portraits, the color palette was somehow rather dark. There was no consistency among the depicted figures either. There were men, women, people who looked like humankind, and people who looked like demons—a wide variety.
Wondering about this, we headed to the reception counter, where we learned that this attraction was a maze format where people tackled the goal in pairs. As expected, multiple groups could start at the same time. We could either decide our pairs beforehand or be sorted randomly upon teleportation, just like in the Forest Castle. Since there were ten of us, we would be divided into five pairs, so we decided to let the system split us randomly and stepped onto the magic circle together.
Enveloped in dazzling light, we were teleported to what seemed to be the starting room, and... I spotted Hina-chan right beside me.
"Ah, Kaito-senpai! We're together!"
"Looks like it. I'm in your hands."
"Yes! Let's do our best together!"
It seemed I was paired with Hina-chan, which meant the two of us would take on the mirror labyrinth together. However... in the center of this starting room, there was a magic tool-like device labeled "Please touch here first," and beyond that stood a large door... beside which a single stylish lantern was placed.
"...Should we touch it?"
"It probably explains the rules or something, right?"
"I see! Then I'll touch it!"
When Hina-chan touched the magic tool... a sinister, spine-chilling melody began to play, followed by the reverberation of an eerie voice.
"This is the labyrinth where the terrifying Mirror Monster dwells. Thus far, forty-three souls have been dragged into the mirrors, and to this day, those souls continue to wander within. The portraits at the entrance of this labyrinth belong to those past victims. I was the one commissioned for the monster subjugation... However, if someone is now listening to this recorded voice of mine, it likely means that I, too, have become the forty-fourth victim. You have been deceived by the Mirror Monster and brought here. So that whoever listens to this does not become the next victim after me, I leave behind all the information I possess... Please, whoever is listening to this, escape safely from the mirror labyrinth."
Hmm, huh? This introduction feels kind of different from what I expected... No, tackling a maze is just as imagined, but the atmosphere feels completely off...
"U-Um, K-Kaito-senpai... I-Is this, by any chance... the scary kind of attraction...?"
"Yeah. It feels kinda like... a panic horror, where we have to make our escape while avoiding this Mirror Monster..."
The intro was purely that of a horror attraction, making it unmistakably of that genre. It was true that when I first saw the map, I expected the Dark Area to house things like haunted houses, but since each individual area was so vast, it wasn't strange for there to be a horror attraction here too. I probably should have suspected something the moment I saw the creepy vibe at the entrance... In any case, while the attraction seems to have a completely different flavor than imagined, I wonder how it'll turn out...
Serious-senpai: "A-A horror attraction means there's a slight possibility of a serious development...?"
???: "Of course it's serious, ssu."
Serious-senpai: "Eh? C-Can I really expect a serious development?"
???: "Yes, please look forward to it greatly! You can even have seconds of development, ssu!"
Serious-senpai: "O-Ohh..."
???: "Don't hold back, let's get hyped enough to make up for all the past chapters, ssu!"
Serious-senpai: "Fortune has come in the most unexpected place... My era has finally arrived..."
???: "..."
Serious-senpai: "Being alone in a horror attraction with a timid underclassman... I thought for sure it was a setup for a lovey-dovey event, but what do you know, it was your signature move of subverting expectations!"
???: "........."
Serious-senpai: "I give this kind of surprise a grand welcome! Now then, let us dive into a relentless serious development!"
???: "Commencing the lovey-dovey event starting right now, ssu!!"
Serious-senpai: "I knew it! DAMMIT ALL!!"