It was the second day of the festival, and many people were setting up the next phase of their stores. Something people did to continue receiving customers was to change things up. It was a common tactic, but others just changed the prices in order to meet the supply or demand.

The maze was no exception. They were now all helping together, since there was no need to advertise. The maze was plenty big enough as it is. However, they had to change that boring ending.

It was found that Abigail was exceptional at placing and using traps, even if she couldn’t make them. But now she planned to. It was decided she would run the regular maze by herself. Since it could be done without actually having a boss fight now, it became a lot more popular.

Nolan kept at his Changeling Dungeon, and had slightly changed the story. He liked the idea that he was just projecting onto the family that he was in fact the monster. It made for a well-rounded story line. He felt it weird to have a completely psycho and paranoid person to play as…or maybe…nah, he was thinking too much.

Meanwhile, on Bucco’s side.

>>>

“Hey, are you going to see Nolan’s side? It is awesome! I nearly got scared!”

Two kids were walking together, one girl and one boy. The boy and girl were too young by a modern world’s interpretation, but they were currently old enough in this world to be intimately involved. They were children of noble families and they were probably going to be forced into marriage if they weren’t careful.

“…No, I was plenty scared as it was with the regular one.”

“Then let’s go see Bucco’s new trip, since I am paying.”

“…alright.”

The girl was shy and the boy was reckless. But, he already noticed that going through this kind of thing made girls more susceptible to touching. He already had his arm squeezed tightly in the girl’s embrace last time, what would happen now?

With lewd thoughts, the boy approached Yidris. He eyed her momentarily, secretly thinking about her body figure underneath all of the robe, but he returned to the girl at his side.

“Zack, you got a couple headed your way.”

“Ah, great!”

Zack had appeared, but he was dressed in a butler’s uniform. He led the two down a long hallway. They passed several rooms with metal bars as Zack explained several dangerous stories of the unmoving bodies that rested inside. In the last cell, there was the bloody figure of the mass murderer costume wearing Bucco.

“Ah, right here we have an astounding specimen. He just so happens to be the great killer…Jason.”

“Who?”

“He once had a loving mother and a great home, but he went crazy when an opposing army came in and wrecked everything. He was terribly burned in the fire and developed a strong affinity towards it. Well, that is not the worst part. His mother was raped and murdered right in front of him so he went mad and destroyed the entire squadron by himself.”

Indeed, a flame sprouted from the ground and was sent towards Zack, followed by a slam to the bars.

“Yikes! Be careful! Haha, let’s move on, shall we?”

As Zack led them around a corner, a loud banging could be heard. On the wall behind Zack, a shadow loomed. The girl had turned around at the noise and pointed at the shadow. Zack turned to look and then a large hand came out and grabbed him, pulling him off to the side. After several loud crashes and sounds of destruction, two shadows could now be seen on the wall.

The girl was too frightened to move, desperately clinging onto the boy’s arm. At first, he was happy. Then the shadows looked strange. A large object was being wielded by Bucco – Jason, and the shadow brought it down onto the shadow of Zack. A squishing sound could be heard and red liquid splattered onto the wall and floor. The shadow moved closer to the wall, becoming smaller and smaller. Then, a hand reached around the corner. It was charred and blackened, but it was definitely a hand.

The plain white mask loomed over at them and fire seemed to come out of the hole for his mouth.

It was at this point the boy was scared out of his wits. He collapsed onto the ground and the girl with him. However, this woke her up and she reached over, picked the boy up, threw him over her shoulder, and started running at an extremely fast pace.

She was a warrior, after all. She developed her strength. But now her fight or flight mode kicked in and she was running to survive. However, loud sounds of walls being broken were coming from all over, and as she turned a corner, the wall to her right broke, revealing the quiet white mask.

She screamed and kept running for what appeared to be the exit. The entire way, that crazy man never stopped chasing her until she was out. She collapsed onto the ground, ignoring the strange smell on her shoulder. She looked over at the healer she came in with and tightly hugged him.

“I’m so glad you are safe.”

“M-me t-too…”

He clung to her, refusing to let go. He had seen the murderer chasing after them at break neck pace, feeling like his life was about to end more than once. Now that he was safe, he collapsed onto the ground asleep, resting on her shoulder.

A large man came out of the dungeon, covered in black soot, making him appear burned.

“Yo, it seems it worked.”

“Hush.”

“Hehehe, whatever.”

Bucco went back inside, but the warrior girl calmly brushed the healer’s hair as she obsessively stared at him. After listening to her classmate about being able to get close to the one she loved through this experience, she had quickly got her friend to go with her and become her boyfriend.

She was not going to let him go. Not when he was now indebted to her. When he woke up, she princess carried him back to the dorms to let him get cleaned up. It was kind of bizarre, but it seemed to be a really common scene now. Girls were luring in the boys by pretending to be scared and then saving the boys when danger arrives, making their feelings come true.

It would seem men were simpler than the women.