Just by enjoying yourself at SANCTUARY, anyone can experience the life of a "happy idol."

It's like, if you do something, you'll be happy—you get rewarded for it. Once people learn that, they'll keep repeating it over and over.

And Tenshouin filled that "something" in with "being an idol."

If you eat a meal, you'll feel full and satisfied. If you go to sleep in your bed, you'll get some good rest and feel good in body and soul.

If you listen when someone tells you to wait, you'll get a treat.

"To be an idol is to be happy."

I see. So then SANCTUARY is a facility for operant conditioning1—for "teaching" people that.

I don't think that's a very good way to phrase it... But well, it is just like training a dog.

You teach them what'll get them rewarded and what'll get them punished. It sticks in their minds.

Yep. By going over it a bunch of times, it eventually turns into common sense.

In the past, society's collective conclusion was that you gotta go to a good college and get hired at a successful company in order to be happy.

This is 'cause people who'd actually lived that experience during the economic boom were yelling off the rooftops that it was true, that it's just common sense.

But it was just an illusion kids picked up on naturally, since that's what they were taught their entire lives.

Plenty of my classmates at school say the same thing too.

None of them know what the future has in store, but they hold tight to this belief that they'll absolutely, definitely be happy if they keep going in that direction.

And yeah, I think there's lots of people who can be happy with that sort of thing.

But everyone who had that kind of happy ending in their own life story keeps regurgitating the same old narrative, and even now we talk about it like it's just how things are supposed to be.

I'm pretty sure Tenshouin is trying to weave his own "common sense" narrative: That becoming an idol will make you happy.

Let's say some people never forget the great experience they had in SANCTUARY and actually become idols.

If they really get to be successful and happy⁠—

Then the fantasy sold to you at SANCTUARY becomes reality. The more you rinse and repeat, the more real that fantasy becomes.

And after enough time, that narrative becomes the norm—it becomes common sense.

What was supposed to be a dream turns into reality.

It might sound like a joke now, but there's also a chance it'll come true.

No, that's exactly what's being set up here at SANCTUARY.

And now the world has ES.

For all the people who want to turn the dreams they had at SANCTUARY into reality, there's an idol utopia created with the best environment possible just for them.

The ideal place where everything you need to be an idol is readily available.

There's plenty of stuff I can't stand about ES, but that much is true.

Yeah. It's like an independent nation of idols made by and for idols. It's something that's never existed anywhere before.

Your chances of success are higher if you work for ES than if you go indie. You can't even begin to compare the two.

You got that right. If ES is an idol manufacturing plant which turns aspiring idols into the real deal⁠—

Then this SANCTUARY is the field where those aspiring idols are grown. It's land cultivated for growing the crops that ES will eventually harvest.

.........

Hehe. Is it 'cause I'm talking about Tenshouin so coldly that you're giving me that nasty look? Or maybe you're just upset in general?

That guy doesn't just talk big about his ideals—he actually works to influence reality and change the system.

Regardless of right and wrong, I can at least appreciate his effort.

He's serious, isn't he? He's really, seriously trying to change the world.

To reshape it according to his ideals.

.........

Back then, he was rushing things too much. That's why he failed. The clever and imposing Five Eccentrics took pity on their enemy and led him to an outcome where he could just barely say he succeeded.

But that wasn't enough for him, huh? This time, in order to properly realize his ideals, he'll take every measure imaginable to carry out his revolution.

Maybe that's exactly what ES and SANCTUARY were built for.

To be honest, I find it a little scary. I thought he was mellowing out lately, but it turns out it's far from that.

Be careful, Momo-chin.

Huh? Me?

Yeah. I heard you've been a fan of fine for a while now, so you must know the path they followed back then too.

You guys have been so chummy and happy lately, it's almost funny to watch as an outsider.

But Tenshouin will cut you down mercilessly if you get in the way of his ideals.

.........

Hehe. Eichi-sama adores the young master though, so that outcome will never happen.

...Of course, now that I've learned more about him, I can hardly say that with complete certainty.

But please be at ease, Nito-sama. If a sorrowful future exists for Young Master, then I shall risk my own life to prevent it.

Don't throw your life away like it's no big deal, moron.

...I'm fine, Nito-senpai. It's not like I'm going to be an innocent child who doesn't know anything forever.

Kids are well aware of what grown-ups are trying so hard to hide from us, since they act so unnatural about it.

.........