Bloodstained Pamphlet
I carefully unfolded the paper, making sure not to tear it along the thick, dried bloodstains that crusted its surface.
“Hmm…”
“What is it? What is it? Let me see too!”
“Yeah, fine. We’ll look together.”
Unfortunately, what was written on the pamphlet wasn’t a neat, orderly manual. It was closer to a survivor’s notebook—fragmented notes containing only the bare minimum of truly necessary information.
[Escape possible. Collect five tokens.]
“Look at this! Something just fell out!”
Right as Diablo spoke, a single sheet of paper slipped from one of the pamphlet’s folded creases and fluttered to the ground.
“Let’s check it out!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.”
What had fallen was a stamp card. The cute, decorative card had five empty circles on it.
“Looks like these are the tokens.”
“Any idea how we’re supposed to fill them?”
“If we’re thinking normally, riding the attractions probably stamps them for us.”
“Heee, I see.”
“?”
Diablo’s attitude struck me as slightly odd, but since it wasn’t worth pressing right now, I let it slide.
[Memory will be erased upon escape. Tokens collected once cannot be collected again.]
“………”
“………”
We both fell silent at that part. We already knew the other had noticed. There was an unspoken agreement between us to stay quiet about sensitive topics.
“Look, look! It seems like this place is divided into three zones!”
Instead, Diablo made a big fuss and pointed out the pamphlet’s original content that wasn’t stained with blood. Since basic information about this place was important too, I played along with his attempt to change the subject.
“Yeah. Divine Island, Magical Castle, and Adventure World, huh.”
Divine was a bit unexpected, but the other two were common names used in amusement parks, so they felt familiar.
The entrance area is Divine Island, Magical Castle is to the left, and Adventure World is to the right.
[The area closest to the entrance is the easiest. The deeper you go, the more difficult it becomes.]
It was useful information, but a little disappointing. It was clear that Divine Island was easy, but the other two were simply split left and right.
“What do you think, Diablo? Which one looks deeper to you?”
“Umm… I dunno? I’m not sure!”
“Useless.”
“Hey! You’re not supposed to say that out loud!”
As expected, he didn’t provide any real information. Yet the way he acted and spoke made it hard to hate him. Truly cunning.
Looks like that’s the end of the writing.
The bloody letters scrawled across the pamphlet ended there. It had even less information than those notoriously unfriendly cursed manuals.
From here on, I’d have to figure things out myself.
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
“Yeah, yeah. Stop pestering me.”
From the small things—like the true identity of the mascot (presumably an evil god) clinging to my side—to the big things, like the secrets of this world itself.
“This is gonna be fun, right?”
I came here to kill it, after all.
“Waaaaaaaaa—”
Splash. Thud.
“…Isn’t that a human head?”
“Y-yeah, it is. Whoa, that’s shocking.”
It was an extremely shocking welcome that instantly told me exactly what kind of place this was. After all, the head of the man riding the roller coaster right in front of me had just been sliced clean off with a whoosh and rolled right to my feet.
“Waaaaaaaaa!”
The decapitated torso was spurting a fountain of blood like something out of a slasher movie, but that sight only lasted a brief moment. The roller coaster sped off into the distance at terrifying speed. Whether the screams coming from the people on it had changed or not was impossible for me to tell.
One thing was certain, though.
“Looks like you have to risk your life just to have fun here.”
“Y-yeah… this is weird…”
“Let’s go.”
I dragged Diablo, who was speaking in a dazed voice, toward our first destination.
[Attraction Name]
“The name sounded so grand I was worried, but it’s exactly what I expected. Thank goodness.”
“Uh, hey. What is this?”
Diablo’s voice as he asked me the question was strangely filled with bewilderment. Had something not gone according to his plan?
Not my problem.
No—in fact, since he was my enemy, this was actually a good thing.
“Well, as you can see, it’s a spinning teacup ride. They changed the name a bit to fit the ‘Divine’ theme.”
Here, the “grail” referred to the Holy Grail. I’d been worried a Viking ship might show up, but thankfully it really was a bowl-shaped ride.
The reason I chose the spinning teacups as our first ride was simple. Unless someone spun the central disk, there weren’t any particularly dangerous gimmicks. At the same time, since there were no seatbelts or safety bars, it would be easy to escape in an emergency. Plus, the spinning nature of the attraction made it perfect for observing the outside and the other passengers.
“There’s no better ride for gathering information.”
“Really? Looks fun.”
Diablo, who had already shaken off his earlier confusion, said that and stuck close to my side.
This feels incredibly strange.
Visual information and memories triggered instinctive disgust, while at the same time I felt a natural sense of closeness. I doubted I’d ever get used to this creature.
“Will you be riding?”
As we approached the entrance, an attendant wearing a uniform the color of dried blood asked me. The voice sounded feminine, but there was a strange static-like noise mixed in. Her appearance resembled a ticket booth employee—human-shaped but mechanical—and her head was a speaker. What made her different from the others was that I couldn’t sense even the slightest trace of a soul from this attendant.
“Ah, yes. We’re riding.”
“Could you show me your ticket?”
At the attendant’s request, I obediently showed her the bracelet I’d received at the ticket booth.
“Confirmed. Please enjoy your time!”
As expected, it seemed to function as an unlimited pass. Without any further interference, she let us inside right away.
I’d like to know how she’d react if I wasn’t wearing it, though.
Thinking about a wish that would be difficult to fulfill right now, I sat down inside one of the Holy Grail cups. It was narrower than a normal coffee cup and the backrest was quite tall, but it wasn’t anything too strange.
“Has everyone boarded? Then we will now begin our journey on the [Blood Holy Grail]~”
With a creak, the moment the attendant finished speaking, I felt the floor begin to move. And at the same time, I witnessed an absurd scene.
“Whoa! It’s moving!”
“I’m cranking the spin speed to maximum, so get ready!”
“Bring it on!”
“Mommy~”
The other cups that had definitely been empty before we got on were now filled with people. They were wearing modern clothes and looked like ordinary people at first glance.
…As I thought, I can’t sense any souls from these people either.
In other words, they were like golems molded from flesh. I wondered why they had suddenly appeared, but that question was quickly answered.
“Ah, dear guests, while using the [Blood Holy Grail], please refrain from sticking your head or arms outside the cup, and do not stand up from your seats.”
As the central disk on the floor began to rotate, the attendant gave the safety instructions. They were the kind of ordinary safety rules you’d hear anywhere. Even if you didn’t follow them, they were closer to formalities with an extremely low chance of actually leading to danger.
The rules!
But at the same time, they were the rules my companion had warned me about.
“Kyaa~”
“Spin tornado!”
“Faster, faster!”
At the very beginning, nothing special happened. Just normal conversation and a normal scene. That was all. After all, no one had broken the rules yet.
“Yahoo! Not getting blown away!”
But a short while later, a voice that stood out among the ordinary chatter rang out, and I was soon able to identify who it belonged to.
Slice. Splurt.
Of course—as soon as he stood up, his head flew off and he collapsed back into his seat. There was no way I could miss that.
“Ah, sir. That’s dangerous, so please don’t stand up~”
Right after, the attendant’s relaxed voice belatedly explained the situation.
“Kyaaa!!”
“Someone died!”
“What the hell is this?!”
Screams and shouts erupted from the other cups.
Stay as close to the center as possible without touching the walls.
One of the rules had also said not to stick any body parts outside. If you accidentally reached your arm out due to centrifugal force and it got sliced off, it would be a total disaster. Since I still didn’t know what had killed the guy who stood up, I had to be careful.
“Shit, this is insane! Who’d keep riding something like this?!”
And then I heard a very typical line. Luckily, the person who said it was in my line of sight, so I could see exactly what he was doing.
“I’m getting out of here!”
The man said that and placed his hands on the rim of the cup. He was probably planning to grab the edge and hoist himself over like climbing a wall.
Slice.
“Gaaah—!”
But the moment his fingers gripped the outer part, they were severed. As he screamed in pain and tried to stand, his head flew off too.
Up to this point, it seemed like the story of an idiot, but still within the realm of possibility. What came next, however, was something I had never expected.
“Kyaaaack!!”
“W-we have to run!”
“We need to escape!”
“I don’t want to die!”
Even though the man had just demonstrated with his own body how useless escape attempts were, the other passengers all fell into a collective panic and began trying to get out of the grail.
Slice. Splurt.
And every single one of those attempts was cut short by invisible blades. Everyone who panicked had parts of their bodies—or their heads—severed, spraying fountains of blood.
“Yes, this concludes the operation of the [Blood Holy Grail]! Did you have a happy time? The exit door is on your left after you get off.”
When the attendant announced the end of the ride, I was the only living person left. True to its name, the attraction was now sloshing with freshly squeezed blood.