WHEREIN THE SINNERS EACH SHARE THEIR IMPRESSIONS OF THE HAUNTED MANSION (before battle)
Nay, tease me not, jest me not as though my venture is one for fools.
I have already explained that you do not know of true adventure.
We shall soon walk a path of suffering, its intensity unprecedented and monumental.
Do you not see the grand gate of adventure risen, unlatched before us?
Thus, silence your prattling and resume the preparations; let us leave posthaste.
…….
... This is quite odd, however.
…….
Since when was Rocinante given the gift of speech?
While we had our reservations, we took the path Sansón opened for us and made it to the next Area.
I'm worried about Xichun and the other Fixers. They were assigned Area 2, right? I hope they're alright...
Xichun will be okay, I'm sure. Oh, that reminds me... I have a funny family in-joke to share...
Oho, let's hear it.
It goes like this. Any of our siblings who managed to survive on their own up to the age of thirteen in our household will probably be a-okay even if they were to be tossed out to the middle of the Outskirts! Hehe...
... Ahm. Okay, we should hurry. I bet Area 2's just as bad... if not worse, than Area 1. If something bad were to happen to your sister in front your eyes -
Then I will gather her remains and lay them in her final resting place when I return home, whenever that may be.
Xichun would have done the same for me.
... Yeah?
... Anyways~ Whew! Ain't this place a bit drafty, fellas?
This place feels very different from Area 1.
Unlike Area 1, which was extremely gaudy and overtly decorated...
... this place is teeming with ominous, depressing silence.
Yeah. This place is... how should I put it... It's eerily quiet. Almost spooky, even...
Welp, I hope this is the good kind of quiet~
Y'know, what if it's just quiet down here because the Fixers who made it here first already took out all the Bloodfiends?
<It is pretty suffocating to just sit here, not knowing who won the fight... or if there even was a fight.>
Let's try not to get added to that wall of missing persons posters...
How much time do we have until La Manchaland closes?
Five hours, by my estimation.
Nice, nice. I'd say we're moving at a decent pace. Hey, what if we're the first group that managed to activate their Area's device?
Well, we did suffer some losses...
Losses? I believe we've only pruned a traitor in our midst.
Yet... aught sits ill at the back of my mind still.
It was not as though we passed the first Area by our own will and effort; it was the command of the man in his magician's outfit by which we were 'made' to pass through.
Well... he was a pretty weird Bloodfiend.
R-right? And... I couldn't quite tell what it was, but there was something familiar about him...
Something familiar? Hm, I guess he did seem kinda similar to Ryōshū, in that artsy-fartsy way.
…….
Ryōshū quietly let out a cloud of smoke. It briefly lingered midair before turning into a bizarre shape.
T-that's cute... is that a cat-shaped plume?
Hoo... It's you. Weeping and sniveling.
An expression of the consequences, should you mistranslate me in the future.
<…….>
Ooh...? Huh, this place is pretty neat.
<Ooh, what is it?>
Look here, on the map. They have an infirmary.
'Guests injured on a ride, guests who need a moment to calm down, or any Bloodfiends who are in urgent need of blood, you can find help here!'...
Huh, ain't that awfully nice of them.
They said that La Manchaland was intended to be where Bloodfiends and humans can peacefully, happily coexist.
Maybe... a long, long time ago... it really did work for a while. At least according to the descriptions on this map.
Nonsense! 'Twould be an impossible task, most evidently!
An adventure such as this cannot possibly exist in any tale of Don Quixote. A place to coexist with villains...? Pah, absurd...
Hmm, this subject doth remind me of a case Lord Siegfried had once resolved.
A battle atop a bridge, it was! Back then, the villains suggested a compromise most devious, not unlike the one suggested by the wicked ones who inhabit this place.
They sought to seduce him with promises of riches and power, to have him stand with them!
Yet Lord Siegfried refused to bend his knee!
He answered their suggestion with but a mighty socking against the villain's jaw...!
Oh, that one-hour edit of the 'battle'? Wasn't it pretty obvious that it was staged -
... and declared thusly!
'Thou shan't make a purchasable product of I, Siegfried, with thy contemptible money!'
AND! Fired off his super special laser beam cannon at the villain! ZWAAAAAHHHH -
Attention, men.
... A timely intervention from Outis put a stop to Don Quixote's story.
There are remains of Bloodbags strewn about in close proximity to this attraction.
It's called... let's see. 'Haunted: Bloody Mary'...
Hm. Is this one of those, uh, 'haunted mansion' attractions?
Hey, Sinclair. Do ya think these haunted mansions have actual -
S-stop right there! Hey, my parents took me to an amusement park too, okay? S-so don't think you can use this to tease me or scare me like -
... It was a genuine question. I've never been to an amusement park, you know.
Ahh...
I-I'm sorry.
Eh, don'tcha worry about it! So, do these places actually have ghosts or nah?
I-I'm fairly sure they have some pretty cheap-looking animatronics or mannequins at worst.
As attractions of that category often admit guests of all ages, including children, they do not place real paranatural entities such as ghosts inside them. However, they often install various tools and visual effects to stimulate fear responses in their guests.
Yeah, these are usually family attractions.
Where's your family? Your siblings?
I never had anyone, not even on the day I was born. I've only known... the cold... the loneliness...
Then let me…
... grant you the will to live.
The family I shall grant you will forever be by your side. Come with me.