The Living Exhibition
The exhibition was alive.
"Kyaaah!! Teacher! Even the dinosaur fossil has awakened! What do we do!? Should we run away now and head back to the club room? There's no need to experience death, right!?"
Rozaria cried out urgently beside me. But I had no intention of running. After all, this was just the beginning of our real plan.
I immediately put on a despairing expression.
"Damn it! Look at that terrifying dinosaur fossil! Ugh! It's just bones, but it's so massive and horrific!"
I shouted, widening my eyes and acting out exaggerated fear. My voice seemed to pour oil on Rozaria's panic.
"Exactly! Just seeing those bones move is so creepy, but imagine if flesh and skin attached to them and it became a real living monster—how much more terrifying would that be!?"
"Kyaaak!! Rone, don't say such horrible things! Don't you know ghost stories feed on people's resentment to gain power!? What if saying that here makes the dinosaur fossil actually come back to life in its 'living state'!?"
Rone and Elaine piled on. Their voices carried a tremble that sounded like genuine fear.
Rozaria's eyes widened even more at their words. Her face seemed to envision the horrific future where their words came true.
And then Rozaria's horrific imagination became reality.
Crunch, cruuunch—an eerie sound erupted from the dinosaur fossil's joints.
Dark red flesh began sprouting between the ribs that had only bones left. Veins bulged on the dry skull, and real eyeballs filled the empty sockets.
And finally.
"GRRROOOAAAR!!!"
A roar that shook the exhibition hall exploded out. Even our illusory animal allies froze for a moment, glancing around at the earth-shaking boom. It was the revival of the true tyrant that had dominated ecosystems tens of millions of years ago.
Perfect. Just as I predicted.
This was our real plan. As anyone would guess, it exploited her Gift: Pure Wish.
I hadn't told her the real plan from the start precisely for this moment.
When the orneriness creature suddenly stopped moving, I realized it upon seeing Rozaria's reaction. It was due to her Gift.
Previously, against the Letter of Misfortune ghost story, Rozaria couldn't use her Gift's power because she didn't properly understand its mechanism.
Her Gift only activates if she truly believes it.
Conversely, if she truly believes, it exerts influence.
"Kyaaah!! Teacher! Rone! Elaine! The dinosaur has revived in its real living form!"
Rozaria plunged deeper into panic upon seeing the resurrected dinosaur. Sorry as it was, this situation was ideal for her. The more genuine fear and despair she felt, the more her Gift activated.
It would be a problem if she sensed something off and calmed down now. This plan had only just begun.
We revived the dinosaur. But simply reviving it held no meaning.
This ghost story was different from when I was overlaid as the murderer. Back then, since I was directly affected by the ghost story, I could partially control it myself.
But the dinosaur was a completely independent entity. Uncontrollable.
So we had to make it controllable.
This is where Rozalia's Gift properties came back into play. It activates on true belief—even if untrue.
Thinking a real creature like the orneriness one couldn't exist stopped its movement despite its reality, while unreal illusory animals moved fine because she believed in them.
The orneriness existed, but the illusory ones didn't—yet the effects reversed.
In other words, for ghost stories, what she believes becomes truth. She treats existing things as nonexistent and nonexistent things as real.
Then, couldn't she distort the form of something already existing?
Now was the time to implant the truth (fake) into her.
"Calm down, Rozalia! Calm down and think!"
"...Ah. Sorry. I got too excited. We can't give up hope yet, right!?"
"That dinosaur's appearance is too weird from the start. Is that really what a true dinosaur looked like?"
"...What are you talking about in a situation like this?"
Indeed. But I deliberately ignored her words and continued.
To reshape the ferocious dinosaur into something we could control, we needed to strengthen it once more.
"The fossil didn't revert to its living form properly— that shape is all wrong. Look closely. That dinosaur has tough, dry skin draped over it."
"What does that have to do with anything all of a sudden...?"
"But real dinosaurs were covered in feathers! Not those hideous scales, but colorful feathers! That's a mistaken reconstruction."
"Teacher! Why are you saying this out of nowhere!? Have you been possessed by the ghost story!?"
But was my statement too out-of-left-field in the chaotic situation? Far from convinced, Rozaria looked at me with worried eyes.
No choice. Without this level of chaos, I couldn't guide her Gift as intended.
"GRRROOOAAAR!!"
The fully restored dinosaur spotted us—not fleeing amid the chaos—and approached.
"Teacher! We have to run now!"
Damn. If only Rozaria's Gift took hold, the ghost story would be half-solved! This was the crucial part...!!
I couldn't give up.
"Think about it! This is really important! How could such a huge creature without fur or feathers preserve body heat? It would've frozen to death long ago!"
"No, even so..."
Even as the dinosaur closed in, I persisted in "convincing" Rozaria.
Your held Gift Advice activates.
Advice grants strong persuasiveness when conveying correct information to enlighten the unaware or correct misinformation through words and actions.
Your words receive strong persuasiveness correction.
And at that moment, the newly strengthened Gift Advice, acquired from resolving the manual ghost story, activated.
"W-Well, that does make sense..."
Rozaria's eyes began to waver. Until now, deep in panic, she wouldn't listen no matter how I tried to persuade her. But with the new Gift's power activating, she finally started to heed and be convinced by my words.
"GRRROOOAAAR!!"
The moment she acquiesced, the dinosaur—now right upon us—writhed in agony.
Colorful feathers, like mixed paints, began sprouting over its dark scales.
My persuasion was working. Confirming the dinosaur's form changing in real time, I continued.
"That's not all. Look at those cheeks torn to the sides, exposing teeth. Is that really a true dinosaur reconstruction? Did you know dinosaurs might have had lips and cheeks?"
This wasn't wrong either. Right before my death in my previous life, among scholars, a hot topic was the hypothesis that Tyrannosaurus might have been covered in colorful feathers head to toe, with thick lips and chubby cheeks—an appearance comically unfit for its tyrant nickname!
Your words receive strong persuasiveness correction.
And Advice activated once more.
"N-No, is that... really true?"
Disbelief mixed into her voice. My advice was taking hold, altering the dinosaur image in her mind.
Who knew Advice could be used this way? If so, it was practically a superior version of the gaslighting effect.
"KRRRROOOAR!!!"
The dinosaur transformed again. Covered head to toe in colorful feathers, now with thick lips and plump cheeks, giving it a somewhat dumb look.
Good. Almost there. Just the final step left.
Adding feathers, lips, and cheeks was mere prep for the last phase. To turn the dinosaur into a tamable creature, we needed to shift its image from fearsome predator to ridiculous one.
"Yes! And that's not all! Dinosaurs' main diet was actually small creatures like plants or bugs, not huge animals! So it shouldn't be a threat to humans either!"
"Is that true!?"
"Yes. Of course...!"
Come on, activate once more. My Gift Advice!
Advice activation failed.
Advice exerts full power when imparting correct knowledge or beneficial info for growth. It cannot activate for falsehoods, deception, or harmful info absorption.
Additionally, Advice grows stronger with deeper trust. Deceiving to damage trust greatly impairs its power.
"...Huh?"
It failed here? So Advice wasn't a complete gaslighting superior after all!
"Kyaaak!! That's a lie!!"
"KRRRROOOAR!!!"
With the final, most crucial persuasion failing, the dinosaur grew ferocious again.
"Wait just a moment!! Rozaria. Look closely at that ridiculous feathered creature!! Could something like that really be the savage prehistoric tyrant you admired!?"
"Y-Yes. A cute creature like that can't be the tyrant lizard I looked up to!!"
In the final moment, Elaine and Rone joined to help persuade Rozaria. With desperate Elaine and somehow sorrowful Rone's cries, the last puzzle piece fell into place.
"...Come to think of it, it does look kinda cute and gentle?"
"Kwooong...?"
The dinosaur's roar turned even stranger. The dominating cry from its torn mouth was blocked by cheeks and lips, becoming a mumbling sound like failing to swallow something.
The savage aura dominating its massive body diluted, replaced by a puzzled expression staring at us.
Its pure, harmless form no longer carried the fierce pride of nature's apex tyrant.
I looked at Rozaria. She cautiously reached out, stroking the dinosaur's head thick with feathers, and it meekly closed its eyes, enjoying her touch.
Beside her, Rone watched the scene with a hollow expression.
Success.
We had finally succeeded in domesticating the tyrant lizard into a completely harmless livestock for humans.
The weapon to defeat the exhibition ghost story was complete.
Created by the exhibition ghost story itself.