The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

"......."

So, what exactly are you planning to do with this?

Well, buying a figure was fine, sure.

But seriously, did she really buy it just to mess with me?

As someone who once tried to collect—no, more accurately, attempted to collect—figures, I wasn’t about to criticize buying one.

Still, figures, even if they’re technically classified as "toys," are never something you actually "play" with.

Especially with bishoujo figures—even if they’re made as articulated action figures, they’re nothing like sturdy children’s toys.

They’re meant to be posed in specific positions and just admired.

Not that Alice was planning to play with it, anyway.

Besides, this figure didn’t even have any moving joints.

"...I bought it for the stream!"

Under my lukewarm stare, Alice hastily defended herself.

There was no way she could carry around that huge figure box through the subway and downtown Hongdae, so we had come home first. We ate lunch at home.

I wasn’t blaming Alice for that, but still...

"Are you planning to do an unboxing or something?"

First Claire brought up the horror game stream idea, and now Alice was coming up with an unboxing stream idea.

Of course, even if Alice’s idea went through, it would only be about ten minutes of content at most.

If it were a PC, console, or some electronics, there’d at least be room for usage reviews. But with figures, it’s purely about showing them.

Which is exactly why you have to buy them carefully.

The excitement peaks when you order it, wait for it to arrive, and unbox it.

After that, it just sits somewhere in your room.

If it’s not something you really love, you’ll inevitably wonder, Why the hell did I buy this?

When I was a teenager—before I even knew about Azerna Chronicles—during my first plunge into otaku life, I used to buy tons of cheap trading figures, each costing around 10,000 to 20,000 won.

Because they were so cheap, naturally, most of them were low-quality junk.

Right before I enlisted in the military, I had a massive wave of disillusionment and sold them all off.

Since then, I made a rule: if it wasn’t expensive and top-quality, I wouldn’t buy it.

(Not that I could afford much after buying just the Alice figure...)

"...That was exactly what I was thinking. Is that bad?"

Judging from Alice’s face, she really had bought it just to tease me during an unboxing.

In that case, shouldn’t she show off her own figure too?

I had accidentally provoked her by buying the Alice figure first, so if she was buying mine for revenge, it all made sense.

"I don’t think it’s a bad idea. But... are you sure you won’t regret it?"

"Regret?"

"I mean, the figure wasn’t cheap.

Decorations like these often get boring quickly after you buy them."

"What are you talking about? I’m planning to bring it back with me."

Alice answered with such pure, shining eyes that I was momentarily speechless. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"...Really?"

"Of course. There are lots of statues in the Imperial Palace hallways too, right?"

"..."

Uh.

Wait a second.

Was she talking about the busts of the former emperors lined up along the corridors?

"Not just busts. There were full {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} statues too."

Sure, there were.

They existed.

"But those are statues of real historical figures. They’re like portraits hung on the walls—records of how they looked."

"There’s stuff like that here too, like posters."

Well...

She wasn’t wrong.

There were posters.

There was even a poster from a game released six months ago still proudly taped up in the game shop window.

People buying games would stop and glance at it all the time.

But that's different!

Trying to stay calm, I explained:

"Anyway, the statues in the palace are meant to record real historical figures—"

"But there are statues of mythical heroes too.

Even local village heroes have statues sometimes."

That’s true, but—!

"So, you’re planning to decorate your room with it?"

"Why else would I spend 140,000 won on it?"

...

Well.

That’s true.

It’s true, but—damn it.

I had no idea how to explain to someone from a world where there was no concept of "otaku"—where even similar ideas like collecting porcelain or wine were seen as classy noble hobbies—that over here, being an "otaku" was a whole different thing.

In their world, collecting things was viewed as an elegant, cultured pastime.

...No wonder she didn’t get it.

And no, visiting a few places wasn’t enough to make her understand the cultural difference here.

Yeah, that's how it is.

"...Alright."

I stood up from my seat.

There were still over six hours left before stream time.

Getting to the nearest Animate would take way less time than it took to get to Gukjeon.

If I couldn’t explain it logically, I would make her feel it emotionally.

"We still have a lot of time. Would you like to go somewhere with me?"

"Where?"

"...Somewhere deeply connected to the figure you just bought."

They sold original source material there, so maybe there would even be some Azerna Chronicles books.

But when I said "deeply connected," I didn’t just mean the franchise.

I meant the broader otaku culture.

"Where is it?"

Claire, who had been listening eagerly, asked with sparkling eyes.

What was she, a puppy?

How could she look that excited just because we were going out?

They had both been cooped up at home for days after coming here.

I had no idea how they hadn’t gone stir-crazy.

"It’s kind of like a bookstore... but it only sells a certain genre of novels and comics.

The vibe’s a bit like where we went today."

Alice seemed to have some idea of what kind of place I meant, but didn’t know exactly.

Well, unless you really dive deep, it’s hard to know places like Gukjeon or Yongsan by anything more than general area names.

Even new otaku are often amazed that places like this exist in Korea at all.

"It’s not that far. Want to go?"

"Yes!"

Claire said immediately.

"I don’t mind.

What about dinner, though?"

Alice stood up too.

"Let’s eat out.

We should have plenty of time."

At that, Claire’s face lit up brightly.

Alice shrugged as if to say, "Well, why not."

Neither of them was short on money yet anyway.

And if they ran low, I fully intended to cover them.

Unless, of course, Alice decided to go on a figure shopping spree...

*

And then my plan failed spectacularly.

Thinking back, Hongdae wasn’t some otaku paradise.

In fact, otaku made up a tiny fraction of the population there.

It was mostly a place where young people wandered around eating and drinking.

I already knew there were tons of buskers performing on the streets, so I made sure to avoid that area and head straight to the target location through the underground.

A store selling manga, figures, and various character goods.

When we arrived, I turned to them and asked:

"What do you think?"

"What do you mean?"

Alice blinked at me in confusion.

"I mean—what do you think of the people here?"

"Hmm."

Alice glanced around, then answered:

"People enjoying their hobbies?

Everyone looks happy, like they’re living their lives doing what they love."

She answered so naturally, like she didn’t even understand what the problem was.

"Yeah! They all look so happy!"

Claire chimed in brightly.

...Yeah.

They did look happy.

I had spent so much time with these two that I had completely forgotten something:

they were, at their core, fundamentally righteous.

And being righteous meant not judging others with prejudice.

Plus, this was a totally different world from the one they came from.

There was no way for them to have any built-in biases.

There were just too many things here that were conceptually alien to them.

And thinking about it— The stereotypical "gross otaku" you sometimes hear about was actually pretty rare.

Most of the people here were dressed neatly.

And honestly, maybe there was an event happening, because there were tons of girls here too.

There weren’t many people who gave off obvious "otaku" vibes.

"......."

Well.

I dunno.

Whatever happens, happens.