“Th-that person just now. They probably held onto their ticket and suddenly showed up after a week had passed……?”
As they walked, Yuna spoke. Ian glanced at the lump-of-flesh puppy brushing past right beside him and nodded.
“That seems highly likely. It was a sudden transfer, after all.”
“Y-yeah…… If they had passed through the main gate like us, that wouldn’t have happened…… If we had stayed still for a week, something t-terrible almost would have happened…… Hehe…….”
Leaving behind Yuna’s thoughtless laughter, Ian glanced behind him.
The Administration agent had already been cleanly disassembled long ago. Torn and ripped body parts rolled across the floor, and maggots sporting human heads picked them up and ate them.
Around the corpse, staff and guests alike swarmed indiscriminately, continuously stuffing something red into their mouths.
It was a rather grotesque sight. Ian turned his head.
The very phrase “forced transfer” had sounded extremely ominous, but he hadn’t expected the theme park to classify them as intruders. Moreover, since they had dropped them in the middle of the plaza, it was practically no different from telling them to just die.
More than that, he hadn’t expected an Administration agent to die so futilely.
The cartel had possessed information about the theme park, whereas the Administration seemed to have failed to do so.
No, perhaps they had deliberately waited in order to gather information.
Whatever the case, it was certain that the Administration had begun intervening in the theme park.
He didn’t know when they would storm this place, but the chances were highest that it would be in the near future. The possibility that they might enter today couldn’t be ruled out either.
‘This is going to be a headache.’
They still had a little leeway, but they could no longer afford to move leisurely. Ian let out a deep sigh and tapped Yuna’s shoulder.
“Hieeek!!”
Startled by the sudden touch, Yuna jumped in fright, but he paid her no heed and opened his mouth.
“Let’s hurry. I think it would be best to clear at least one or two more attractions ahead of the Administration.”
“Ah, u-ung…….”
Ian walked alongside the now-calmed Yuna, following the map drawn in the pamphlet.
They arrived at the Haunted House. From the outside, it looked no different from an ordinary haunted house, but the letters written on the sign were human corpses.
A bizarre sight with blood dripping drop by drop and limbs dangling limply.
They were probably victims who had challenged the Haunted House and failed. It was a regrettable sight, but there was no time to wallow in sentiment.
“……The pamphlet changed.”
Standing before the Haunted House, the pamphlet’s contents—which had provided an overview of the theme park—changed into a guide for the Haunted House. Ian and Yuna slowly read through the rules of the Haunted House.
[Haunted House]
[This attraction operates unmanned.]
[The Haunted House has various ghost friends and a murderous ghost to add thrill! The prickly and sensitive ghost friends won’t leave their assigned areas, but the murderous ghost will begin tracking you the moment you enter the Haunted House! What happens if you’re caught? It might not be so bad to experience it at least once!]
[Rule 1. Our ghost friends in the Haunted House are extremely sensitive. If you do something to offend them or scream, they will personally rip out your heart and brain!]
[Rule 2. Our kind murderous ghost will track, capture, and kill you. If you have a personality that enjoys torture, try getting caught on purpose!]
The rules were simpler than expected.
Don’t offend the ghosts and avoid the murderous ghost. That was far better than having all sorts of complicated rules. Ian nodded, folded the pamphlet, and stuffed it into his pocket.
“I-it seems manageable…… Are we going in right away……?”
Yuna asked.
Ian was about to nod when he stopped at a thought that had inadvertently come to mind. Then, he lightly placed his hand on the wall of the Haunted House.
“Let’s test one thing before we go.”
“Ung…… Okay…….”
Yuna stepped back, and Ian activated his magic while holding his grimoire.
“Be reborn anew.”
Crack!
The moment he uttered the spell, the wall’s form distorted. The wall rippled as if waves were crashing against it, and not a single straight line from before could be found.
However, a nearby theme park employee paid no heed to the changed outer wall and continued walking straight ahead.
That signified one thing.
‘Recreation doesn’t count as property damage or causing a disturbance.’
The magic of Recreation maintained the constituent elements of an object as they were, only altering its form. It didn’t touch the total mass itself.
Ian didn’t know if that was scientifically possible. To begin with, magic itself was a power that defied science; quibbling over such things was unbecoming of a mage.
Anyway.
It had been proven that Recreation magic could be used without any risk in the theme park. Ian turned to Yuna with a slight smile.
“Let’s go. Don’t stray.”
“Yeah…… But that, d-did you do that……?”
“Then who else would have?”
At Ian’s firm answer, Yuna’s mouth fell wide open.
“……Th-that’s amazing magic. You forcefully twisted such a large wall like that, yet there’s no price to pay……?”
“Strictly speaking, it’s not that there isn’t one. It consumes ether, after all. Repeated use gives me a bit of a headache too.”
“Ah, no matter how you look at it, that’s impossible…… Even grimoires on the level of Lemegeton or the Necronomicon can’t do something like that…….”
Yuna murmured, running her fingers along the wall.
Ian would have liked to let her quietly study the magic, but they didn’t have much time right now. It was a situation where they needed to clear as many attractions as possible before the Administration entered and before something went wrong in the theme park.
It was a sorry matter, but no, actually he wasn’t sorry at all; either way, they didn’t have the leisure to be immersed in admiration right now.
So Ian forcefully grabbed Yuna’s arm and entered the Haunted House. Yuna let out a “Heeeek” sound and blushed, but there was work to be done.
Creak, clank!
And so they entered the Haunted House.
The entrance slammed shut, and a long corridor stretched out before their eyes.
A corridor with no light whatsoever, illuminating the surroundings solely by candle flames. From a window hanging at its end, bizarrely shaped faces and arms suddenly popped up.
“…….”
Corpses were strewn across the ceiling as if metal chunks stuck to a magnet. In several rooms along the corridor, women dressed in mourning attire peeked their heads through the doors and giggled.
“Ugh…… Gross…….”
Yuna, who had been blushing until just moments ago, switched gears in an instant. Though Ian said nothing, he felt a similar sentiment.
This wasn’t a place to linger for long. Ian immediately unfolded his grimoire and placed his hand on the wall.
He manifested Recreation directly, creating a new route in the corridor that had previously contained only straight lines.
Crack!!
-??
-???!?!
Monsters that had been licking their lips in wait for prey were startled and leaped out of their rooms.
Not a chance. Ian changed the doors of the rooms they had been in into walls.
With a loud crashing sound, they roared and began pounding on the walls.
Ian ignored them completely and walked straight down the newly opened route.
Yuna, who had been blankly staring at his back for a moment, followed him with a slightly excited expression.
“This is really incredibly amazing magic! You can remodel an entire space!”
“…….”
“Just what kind of grimoire did you pick up to use magic like this? Is it something written by Merlin? Hm? Hmm?”
As if her timid and withdrawn behavior up until now had been a lie, she blushed and exhaled heavily through her nose. Ian let out a small laugh and forcibly punched a path toward the exit.
Boom!
A large hole with “Exit” written above it appeared at the end of the straight path. Ian walked toward the exit while answering Yuna’s question.
“It’s just a somewhat amazing grimoire, that’s all. At least that’s what I think.”
At those words, the grimoire in Ian’s hand trembled.
It was a gesture of shyness, like a girl who had just received a confession.
*
Thanks to Ian’s magic, the Haunted House was wrapped up simply. They didn’t encounter any of the ghosts waiting inside, nor did they run into the murderous ghost.
They cleared the first attraction just like that. Ian and Yuna moved their feet without hesitation, heading straight to finish the second ride.
Their destination was the Bumper Cars.
The attraction’s rule was to drive a bumper car and hold out until the time limit without being destroyed by other vehicles. It was similar to a kind of battle royale.
However, unlike ordinary bumper cars, the vehicles operated by guests were merely small compact cars, while the autonomous vehicles were all as massive as freight trucks.
Monstrous trucks of such caliber that if they collided with a wall, the wall would be the one shattering instead.
There was no way they could endure if left alone. So Ian once again set out to remodel the trucks through the magic of Recreation.
But Yuna was faster.
“Th-this time, I’ll do it. I think I’m better suited for this…….”
“……You want to?”
Ian had been curious about Yuna’s magic anyway.
He stepped back and watched the magic she used.
“Hup.”
Yuna pulled out a long wooden staff from inside her guitar case.
It was a staff that looked like something a typical mage would carry. She tapped the compact car that she and Ian would ride while chanting.
“Let the enlightened one command thee; become a treasure harder than anything else.”
Swoosh.
The moment her magic finished, the car’s durability changed. From an ordinary compact car, it now possessed hardness that would put tanks to shame.
Yuna didn’t stop there; she changed the trucks’ durability too.
“Let the one melted into truth command thee; become mud softer than anything else.”
This time, unlike before, the trucks’ bodies became extremely soft. Poking them with a finger would leave a deep dent. They seemed even softer than silken tofu.
Ian tapped the truck’s bumper, which wobbled with each hit, and let out a grunt.
‘A magic that controls the hardness of objects, huh.’
It was simple if you called it simple, but it wasn’t that easy to look at it so simply.
If used on a person, simply beating on them could make their body burst.
Even aside from that, it was an extremely versatile magic. It could make the unbreakable breakable, and vice versa…… Creating an absolutely unbreakable shield wouldn’t be difficult for her either.
‘Recreation alone can’t do this. Changing form is possible, but altering elemental composition, rigidity, or hardness is impossible.’
Suppose Ian used Recreation on toilet paper to make a giant shield.
Even so, toilet paper was still toilet paper. It could be lightly torn. On the other hand, if Yuna used her magic to raise the toilet paper shield’s hardness to the extreme, that shield would never be pierced or torn.
“…….”
Contrary to her fragile and timid personality, her magic was truly remarkable. Ian turned to Yuna while marveling internally.
“Heok…… Heok……!”
Perhaps exhausted from the consecutive magic use, Yuna collapsed onto the floor with a somewhat pale face, gasping for breath. Ian crouched beside her and asked.
“Is fatigue the price of your magic?”
“Nooo…… It draws a bit of blooood……”
Yuna answered, shaking her head from anemia.
“U-usually it takes about 100ml per car…… But since I cast it on 8 of them…… Probably around 800ml of blood evaporated……”
Despite her ridiculous appearance, the content was gravely serious. Ian let out a hollow laugh and forcibly laid her down.
“Then that’s serious. Lie down and rest for a bit.”
“……Hehe, it f-feels nice being worried about…… But there’s no need to worry…… I carry medicine for times like theeese……”
Saying so, she fumbled in her pocket and pulled out a red pill, chewing it without water. After a moment, color returned to her deathly pale face.
“Phew……! I think I’ll live…….”
“What kind of medicine is it? Something like rapid blood regeneration?”
“K-kind of. It’s medicine refined from ghoul blood; it supplies roughly 200ml of blood to the body…… And improves condition too…… But if you eat more than two a day, your head explodes and you die on the spot……”
“……Huh.”
“M-more importantly, let’s go now. We have to finish the Bumper Cars before the magic wears off.”
At her words, Ian nodded and grabbed Yuna’s hand to help her up.
The two entered the wide field without a moment’s hesitation, riding the car whose durability had been hardened. Fortunately, the car drove automatically up to that point.
Soon, the softened trucks entered the field. Since the magic only reacted to external impacts, the driving itself seemed to work fine.
[Then, the match begins! Start!]
Vrooom!!
The moment the announcement came from the speakers hanging above the field, trucks rushed in from all directions and charged toward the car where Yuna and Ian sat close together.
It was a scene that would have terrified an ordinary person, but the two sat still without any reaction.
And so, the moment the trucks and compact car collided.
Booooom!!
The mushy trucks were crushed like pudding and scattered in all directions. Meanwhile, the car the two rode in didn’t budge an inch.
‘The performance is solid.’
Ian watched the crumpling trucks and placed a cigarette in his mouth.
And so they finished the second attraction as well.