No wonder Yoimiya said that teaming up with her would guarantee a win. Indeed, being so captivated by her cuteness made it easy to forget about fear.
[Yoimiya: "Don't run, let me take a look!"]
From Yoimiya's tone, it almost sounded like she was saying, "Let me check if you're developing properly!" Unfortunately, the lavender melons darted away quickly, and Yoimiya, the big sister, couldn't catch them, so she reluctantly moved on.
As they walked, Yoimiya noticed a shadow on the ground in the distance. It looked like a child's shadow, but there was nothing there, making it particularly eerie. In the illustration, processed through Lucian's "filter," the scene looked even more unsettling. The unknown is what sparks fear, and this illustration made readers feel like something invisible was lurking nearby. Is that cabinet moving?
It was getting late, and the surroundings were too dark, gradually drawing readers into the atmosphere. You had to admit, this second round of the trial was definitely more intense than the first. It wasn't just the organizers' arrangements for scary elements in the story—it was Lucian's clear improvement in crafting a terrifying atmosphere with his horror filter. That beast! Releasing this book for us to read at night! And we don't even have a beautiful girl by our side to read it with! Morons!
In the story, Paimon was also terrified, but she had Yoimiya to comfort her.
[Yoimiya asked gently: "Paimon, are you tired? Want to take a break?"]
Before they could rest, the tanuki statues nearby suddenly moved, all turning to face them, and the candles providing light began to flicker out one by one. This scared Paimon out of her wits, and she bolted. The Traveler and Yoimiya chased after Paimon, only to be stopped by ghostly lanterns floating in the air. Unlike the Xiao lanterns, these lanterns hovered motionlessly and would suddenly vanish.
Yoimiya, curious about how they worked, said to the Traveler:
["Traveler, can I borrow your shoulders? I want to stand on them to pluck one down!"]
This made readers, who were still caught up in the fear, suddenly think of a question: Standing on shoulders? Would she take off her shoes? Unfortunately, Yoimiya didn't end up standing on the Traveler's shoulders, and even when they found the "fan," readers still didn't know whether Yoimiya had taken off her shoes that day. We still don't know the name of the shoes we saw that day.
Speaking of which, there was also Thoma, who wasn't exactly a "proper" guy. During the first round, he felt like someone was watching him and worried it might be someone causing trouble, so he went to catch them. A retainer of the Yashiro Commission, working even on his day off—talk about dedication. Unfortunately, the person was too fast and got away.
[Paimon: "Is there a chance they weren't causing trouble but were here to scare people?"]
[Thoma: "Coming to a test of courage to scare people? Hmm… I suppose there are weird folks like that…"]
Weird folks? Ayato sighed helplessly. Is there a chance that person was someone I specifically arranged? The retainer was dedicated, but that dedication was misplaced. How could a test of courage not have NPCs? Even if props were used, someone had to operate them. Readers were amused, unable to tell who was actually causing trouble now.
That said, partnering with Thoma was a great experience. He usually enjoyed listening to ghost stories, so he was unfazed by the test of courage's little tricks. Onikabuto? No problem. When they encountered the cat, he even had dried fish on hand to feed it. When they saw that eerie shadow, which wasn't too scary, he started adding to the "lore."
["Speaking of which, I once heard a ghost story. There were four children who played together every day. One day, one of them suddenly disappeared."]
Lucian thoughtfully included an illustration so readers didn't have to imagine it themselves. The image showed four cheerful children holding hands, playing a game. One, two, three little friends, holding hands and playing with snowballs. In the next image, one of the four children was gone, leaving only three.
["One day, while they were chatting, one child suddenly gave a strange smile. That child said… 'He's back.'"]
In the illustration, one child wore a chilling smile. The dark, oppressive background hid their eyes, showing only the exaggerated curve of their mouth, almost inhuman. It gave readers a sense of the "uncanny valley."
["The other children, confused, followed his pointing finger to the ground."]
On the ground was an extra shadow, its hand holding the shadows of the others, all linked hand in hand. Only two children remained…
Of the two, one was panicking, while the other seemed eerily calm. Looking back, the calm one now had that same exaggerated smile. Only one child remained…
The shadow behind gripped their hand, linking them hand in hand…
This didn't just scare Paimon—Thoma's story, amplified by Lucian's work, scared the readers too. They shouted, "Shikikan, I love you! My darling, I'm obsessed with you!"
Little Furina even sent Lucian a lightning-fast message to "praise" him. Then she immediately covered her eyes, too scared to uncover them for a while, her ahoge drooping. But after a moment, she realized covering her eyes made it too dark! Losing all sense of her surroundings made her even more afraid. After a mental struggle, Furina shakily parted her fingers but didn't dare open her eyes, terrified she'd see something frightening the moment she did.
After a while, Furina cautiously cracked her eyes open, only to find a figure standing right in front of her. Without time to confirm if it was a hallucination, Furina flopped onto the bed, "dead." She didn't dare make big movements, pretending to be dead while slowly pulling the blanket over herself. With the blanket covering her, she finally felt a bit safer.
Lucian, puzzled, said: "What's wrong? Didn't you say you were scared?"
You were the one who sent me a ton of messages complaining about being scared. I teleported over right away to keep you company, so why are you acting like this?
Furina shot up like a corpse reanimated, grabbing Lucian's face with both hands and saying: "Don't just show up like that at a time like this!"
Though Lucian let her pinch his face without resisting, his speech came out slurred: "Isn't this the trick I use on Paimon?"
Despite her complaints, Lucian's presence did ease Furina's fear, and she finally felt brave enough to keep reading. By the way, Furina was the only one who'd message Lucian about being scared, since everyone else had someone with them. Others would, at most, curse him out a bit.
Ahem, back to the story. Thoma's route was done, and now it was finally Sayu's turn—the one readers were most curious about. Why on earth was she at the test of courage?
Not just readers, but everyone who knew Sayu was curious. By all accounts, Sayu didn't seem like someone who'd join this kind of event.
[Paimon asked: "Huh, Sayu, you're here for the test of courage too?"]
[Sayu replied: "Yeah, phew… The test of courage is scary, so I close my eyes, and then I'm not scared."]
Furina chimed in: That's a lie! Closing your eyes makes it more scary. Personal experience, you know.
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice · Furina: About the Test of Courage
"That darn Lucian, why'd he draw it so scary! As the God of Justice, I think I should judge him on everyone's behalf!"