Tokyo Soft Rice King.

Kuroba Akira followed him into the school. He could see large vertical banners hanging down from the front of the school's teaching buildings, similar to restaurant banners in shopping malls. However, these banners were all handmade by the students themselves, reflecting their enthusiasm.

Akira Kuroba also saw the banner for his class's haunted house... and felt a little embarrassed because he had written the words on it.

Even though it had been a long time since he had written anything, and even Kuroba Akira himself thought his handwriting was ugly, everyone in the class thought that Kuroba Akira's Chinese characters had the most Chinese style, so they decided to let him write them.

It seems that cultural genes still remain in his body... The words he wrote in high school in his previous life continued into his high school life in this world.

Then, he participated in the preparations for the entire cultural festival. When the festival officially started, Akira Kuroba finally had a real sense of being a student.

This is what youth feels like...

Isn't it good too?

Let's be good students today.

Chapter 230 A Cultural Festival in Calm and Tranquil (Part Two)

Upon entering the school, I received a bunch of informational materials at the student union reception desk at the entrance. These materials included information on booth locations, program schedules, and a check-in sheet, making it seem quite formal.

This is also the material that will be distributed when the event opens to the public tomorrow. Today is actually a kind of rehearsal. We need to make a good impression when receiving foreign guests.

The attendance sheet is similar to a pass in an amusement park, recording what activities each student participated in and how many times they participated. It is then used to tally which class is the most popular and award prizes to the group.

After Akira Kuroba and Ryota Sumitomo returned to the classroom together, they helped set up the scene. Ryota Sumitomo was going to dress up as a ghost, so Akira Kuroba was completely free.

In reality, about 80% of the students are quite free during the cultural festival. Although everyone needs to work together during the preparation stage, on the day of the festival, there are not many staff members actually needed for operations. Moreover, they take turns working every half day, giving each student a chance to visit the festival. They can just discuss the layout in advance.

For someone like Kuroba Akira, who is part of the logistics team, there's nothing to do with the operation of the haunted house in the class. So what he has to do next is act as a customer, go around eating, drinking and having fun, and contribute to the revenue of each class.

He happened to have some money left today; it was the money Sister Hong gave him for the bus fare this morning, and he still had some left.

Five thousand yen isn't a lot, but it's not a small amount either; it should be enough to visit a cultural festival.

So, where should we go first?

Kuroba Akira began to look through the introductory materials in his hand.

Hibiya High School's cultural festival is mainly divided into three parts: game challenges, management simulation, and stage performances...

The game challenge refers to shows like the haunted house that Kuroba Akira's class does. Besides that, there are also ninja challenge games, escape room murder games, Western showdown games, and so on... They seem quite interesting.

The management simulation game is basically just various food stalls; there are no maid cafes or serenity, so we'll skip that.

Stage performances refer to theatrical performances, band performances, and club performances, which are held on stages set up in stadiums and playgrounds.

In stage performances, most of the opportunities for theatrical performances are given to the senior high school classes. After all, for the graduating senior high school students, this is the last cultural festival worth commemorating, so they will put on a masterpiece that combines the achievements of the past three years.

According to the program, there is one performance in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning performance is mainly a theatrical performance, while the afternoon performance is by community groups. In the evening, a band will play, and a bonfire will be lit.

Accompanied by music, a dance activity unfolds... I think it's that kind of activity where boys and girls hold hands and dance folk dances together.

So this bonfire party seems to be an annual confession event as well.

Who knows, there might even be a legend about couples dancing together at a bonfire party who end up spending their lives together... Well, it's none of my business anyway.

After all, in the eyes of most students, Kuroba Akira was already dating Anri Hitomi.

After seeing everything, Kuroba Akira didn't have any particular place he wanted to visit, or rather, he felt that none of them were as good as the haunted house in his class.

However, there are already long queues at our own haunted house, and it would take at least an hour to get a ride, so we'll just have to come back another time.

Kuroba Akira didn't expect that Chinese-style haunted houses would be so popular. Maybe it's because of the good theme?

The theme was "ghost marriage," which was suggested by Kuroba Akira. The main inspiration actually came from a horror game he played in his previous life, the Paper Wedding series. Kuroba Akira even copied down some of the puzzles from the game and put them into the haunted house.

Moreover, the overall style is no longer based on the outdated jump scares, but is more like an escape room.

The entire set is darkened, guided by light (flashlights), with a straight-line map design that doesn't go around in circles. Small traps and plot performances are placed along the way, and there are eerie sound effects throughout. Finally, there is a light chase to get the adrenaline pumping. The whole experience takes about ten minutes.

Rather than 'playing', the focus is on 'watching', which makes it much more novel compared to traditional haunted houses.

After Kuroba Akira proposed the entire process, it was immediately adopted by the class, who praised his idea as excellent. This was also an important reason why Kuroba Akira was able to reconcile with his classmates after 'stealing' the class monitor.

It can only be said that Kuroba Akira is quite skilled at creating hype and plot twists.

Of course, Akira Kuroba believes the reason for its popularity is this...

Kuroba Akira pulled out the program list in his hand, which included promotional materials for each class's own program. Among them, Class 1 of Grade 1's "Ghost Wedding" featured a bride wearing a traditional Chinese wedding dress lying with her eyes closed in a coffin...

It was none other than the class monitor, Anri Hitomi.

This promotional image alone outshines all the other classes' programs.

Rather than 'frightening,' this should be described as 'stunning,' giving people a breathtaking sense of beauty.

Despite the class monitor's repeated refusals, the class insisted and decided that the class monitor would be the "signboard girl," who would be the main bride in the "ghost marriage."

At Hibiya High School, who doesn't know Hitomi Asari?

She might not be particularly famous in her second or third year of high school, but in her first year, she was a household name. After all, whenever the exam results were released, Anri Hitomi was always number one.

So, the students who were amazed by the promotional pictures inquired around and heard that the beautiful ghost bride was actually Anri Hitomi. They would definitely come to visit the place with the idea of ​​seeing her in person.

Even a high school cultural festival can have a 'celebrity effect'...

However, although the class monitor is the main character in the promotional picture, there is actually no actor who needs to play the 'ghost bride', because the ghost bride is a prop made of a human model and is part of the scary part.

After all, what their class was ultimately going to do was create a haunted house, meant to evoke human fear, not to provoke courage.

Wouldn't this be considered 'cover fraud'?

But sorry, high school students, this is just the cover strategy of shameless light novel authors!

Although the class monitor doesn't dress up as a ghost bride inside the haunted house, as the mascot, she still has to wear a wedding dress at the entrance in the morning to promote the haunted house, which is the 'finishing touch' of the entire haunted house.

Students visiting the haunted house might wonder, upon seeing the actress playing the ghost bride, Hitomi Anri, sitting at the entrance, what exactly is the ghost bride in the haunted house? Or, is there even a ghost bride inside? Is it just a case of false advertising?

Then, going in with doubts, I fell into Kuroba Akira's script.

After watching a 'performance' and understanding the whole story, the players were already a bit scared by the environment and the final chase. When they finally met the class monitor, the 'real ghost bride,' she smiled and asked, 'How did it feel? Was my story interesting?'

Looking back at the 'plot' now, it's quite unsettling to realize that the ghost bride sitting at the door is actually spreading her story through a haunted house.

Hitomi Anri... she can't really be a ghost, can she?!

If someone really gets that into the role, then the design of this haunted house can be considered a huge success.

To put it simply, it's a puzzle-solving haunted house with some meta elements.

However, since the entire process and storyline were designed by Kuroba Akira, when he came to play, it was as if he had been spoiled, so his experience would probably be quite different.

After guiding the first group of players into the haunted house

Just as Kuroba Akira was about to leave after the first group of players had already gone in, Anri Hitomi called him back.

"Wise ruler, are you leaving?"

"Yeah, judging from the queue, it'll probably take an hour to get on the ride. I think I'll go look around somewhere else first."

"It might get even more popular later, let's get a number first."

As she spoke, Anri Hitomi handed Kuroba Akira a queue number, which happened to be number 100, and then smiled and said to him.

"Come over around noon, um... around 11:30, that should be about your turn, Mingjun."

"oh oh……"

Kuroba Akira nodded and accepted the queue number.

Was the timing so perfect?

"It'll be time for our shift to change by then, so let's go to the cultural festival together afterwards?"

"Okay, I'll wait for you."

This was something we had agreed on beforehand—to accompany the class monitor to the cultural festival. Since the class monitor had to be the mascot in the morning, we could only go together in the afternoon.

"Class monitor, are there any stalls or shows you'd like to visit or see? I can skip those for now, and we can go together later."

"It's alright, Mingjun, you don't need to worry about me. Just go and explore wherever you're interested in. Anyway, there are special programs for the afternoon, right? We can still watch those programs together then."

"Alright... then I'll go check on Shiori's class first..."

Are you talking about me?

Just then, Shiori Shirai and Moe Aizono arrived together.

The two people came over and saw Anri Hitomi dressed in red, and then they exclaimed in admiration.

"Wow~ Hitomi, this is really gorgeous."

"Wow... Hitomi-chan! So pretty...! Really pretty! Completely different from the white kimono...it's a whole different style!"

"Hehe, thank you."

Having probably grown accustomed to praise, Anri Hitomi's reaction was rather ordinary, but she glanced at Kuroba Akira intentionally or unintentionally, because Kuroba Akira was the only one who had never praised her.

To be precise, she hadn't said 'beautiful' yet, only 'the effect is really good,' and Anri Hitomi still held a grudge about it.

After all, this man lives with a stunningly beautiful woman who's practically otherworldly, so his standards must have been raised too high.

Even if she wears a wedding dress and makeup, she still can't compare to that woman?

That's really hurtful to one's self-esteem... But Hitomi Anri knows she can't compete in terms of looks, so she doesn't feel particularly resentful.

Moreover, being too beautiful isn't necessarily a good thing; you'll be constantly stared at when you're out and about, and you won't have any freedom at all.

Although that's what she said, it was just a way for Anri Hitomi to comfort herself. She still wanted to hear Kuroba Akira say that she was 'beautiful' in person, but she wouldn't insist on 'beautiful', as that would be too exaggerated.

Shiori Shirai joked.

"Why don't you guys just set up a paid service for taking photos with the signboard girl? It might even make more money than the haunted house."

Kuroba Akira then complained.

"That's putting the cart before the horse. Besides, we can't have the class monitor sitting here all day. It's not good for the girls who will be on duty next."

"That's true."

"Shiori and Momo, are you here to visit the haunted house too?"

"We originally just came to see Hitomi, but..."

Shiori Shirai glanced at the promotional image for the haunted house again and asked Akira Kuroba a question.

"A ghost marriage... wasn't this also your idea, wise ruler?"

"Oh? How did you know?"