Otherside Picnic by Iori Miyazawa

Author:Iori Miyazawa [MIYAZAWA, IORI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2021-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

3

I stepped from stepping stone to stepping stone along the white gravel path to the front garden.

There was a green lawn spread out on either side of us. The path carved through it like a white river, and there was a large, blackish garden stone at the end of it. Stone lanterns were placed at bends in the path. The pines in the garden were bright green and shapely, almost as if a gardener had worked on them. Straw mats were wrapped around some of the trees, and bamboo poles and rope made of straw had been used to create enclosures to protect others from the snow.

“This is different from what we usually see...” Toriko said in a quiet voice. “Buildings on this side always seem more ruined.”

“Yeah. It’s too neat and tidy.”

This place was too clean, too orderly. The buildings we encountered always either looked like they had been brought to this side from the surface and left to fall to ruin, or were pseudo-buildings that had been abandoned at some bizarre point in the construction process. This mansion was different. No matter where you looked, it was properly maintained.

Unlike other places, nothing seemed suspicious here. At a glance, it looked like an oasis of safety, cut off from the area around it. Yet I still felt restless. There was no sign of danger, but it felt awkward being here.

Toriko seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. “Oh... There’s nobody here,” she mumbled.

That was what felt wrong about this place. If we wandered into a mansion like this in the surface world, we’d have heard at least some noise, like the voices and sounds made by the people living there. Even if we couldn’t hear them, I’m pretty sure we’d still have this vague sense that there were people inside.

There was none of that here. The mansion looked perfectly lived-in, but it didn’t feel like anyone was here at all.

Nothing happened on our way to the entrance. We came to a stop in front of a retro-style door made with wooden lattice and frosted glass. The hot spring hotel in Seibu-Chichibu had been old too, but this place looked better built and maintained.

“It’s like the set of a movie,” I said, and Toriko nodded.

“It feels too good to be true. Maybe when we go inside we’ll find nothing but walls?”

“I guess we should take a look...”

Normally, it would have been dark on the other side of the frosted glass, and I’d have hesitated to open the door, but this time I could see it was brightly lit. I just didn’t know how to feel.

I checked for glitches again before opening the door. I thought it might rattle, but the door slid open easily, like it had been oiled.

There was a small stone-paved entranceway with a raised threshold leading into a broader entrance hall. On the right-hand side of the stone floor there was a shoe cupboard that came up to about my chest. There were potted plants and a small porcelain puppy sitting on top of it.

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