Chapter 29
Translator: True Detective
## Chapter 29
**7. Dystopia Outlaw (3)**
Commonly, people think that if someone is a noble, they would enjoy a somewhat decadent and luxurious life.
Well, to say the conclusion first, such speculation could be considered a considerable misunderstanding.
Because being a noble absolutely didn't mean they unconditionally had such tastes.
It might be different if there were more of them with cultural hobbies like reading or watching plays.
Traditionally, the tribe called nobles preferred to have hobbies that looked quite sophisticated to others.
Anyway, because of that, they hoped to enjoy their cultural hobbies together with others rather than enjoying them alone in the corner of their homes.
As a result, a place called a 'Salon' was born in the Empire, where humans with literary hobbies gathered together to share related stories.
However, it was truly problematic to think of the salon as a club where people with the same hobbies gather ha-ha ho-ho.
Because that place was a battlefield.
Just like the keyboard battles happening in the Dimensional Gallery, a battlefield itself where they use their tongues as weapons to cruelly and sharply trample the opponent!
And now.
A song roughly copying 「I Really Want to Stay at Your House」, the OST of 「Outlaw」 which is not an exaggeration to say is the most popular in the Empire currently, is flowing softly.
In this place where it's not an exaggeration to say all the promising nobles and intellectuals of the Empire have gathered.
Truly elegant and high-level discussions were going back and forth without rest.
“I will speak from the conclusion. The main love line of the work called 「Dystopia Outlaw」 must certainly be the David and Lucy couple!”
Count Celine, who is recently receiving evaluations as a great literary figure through the serialization of the novel 「I Was Banished from the Hero Party, Got SSS-Rank Ability and Started My Bloody Revenge!」 in the ‘Empire Daily’, opened his mouth.
“The one and only woman who had a meeting with the protagonist David from episode 1, the introduction of the anime, and has been supporting him by his side ever since.... A woman who formed a relationship deep enough to even share a promise to go to the moon together someday.... If such Lucy is not the main wife, who else would be the true heroine of the work called 「Outlaw」!”
“Right! Right!”
“Besides, she is even pretty!”
“Phew.... Actually I fell in love at first sight as soon as I saw Lucy on the screen....”
“I'm sorry but your love is an impossible dream to realize. Because Lucy is already a woman who can be called the protagonist's companion.”
“Ugh! Have a beautiful love! Both of you!”
As soon as Count Celine's words ended, countless requests for handshakes poured toward him.
Actually, such a reaction from the public was a matter of course if you think about it.
Because in the work called 「Dystopia Outlaw」, it was not an exaggeration to say Lucy was the character with the highest proportion following the protagonist.
Also, because the mysterious and dreamy sense the character Lucy gives off had fascinated countless viewers a long time ago.
Honestly speaking, if someone says the character Lucy doesn't end up with the protagonist now, she was playing an important role in the story development to the extent that that would make even less sense.
However, in this world, there are also those who want to do hip-hop in the underground, not the mainstream.
Like a certain reaper somewhere who says they want to sing freely, not for money, there existed people raising a banner against the mainstream opinion affirmed by the majority.
“I am sorry, Count. I don't think I can express agreement with the Count's opinion.”
“...What did you say?”
The identity of the reactionary element daring to refute the great literary figure's opinion head-on was none other than a woman covering half of her face with a mask.
However, she was a beauty to the extent that one could clearly know the fact that she is beautiful just by the contour of the half-revealed face.
“Nice to meet you for the first time, Count. I am one of the collateral branches of the Astaroth Ducal Family, Ren. It is an honor to meet the great literary figure of the Empire like this.”
“...Now that I see, you were a young lady of a noble family.”
No wonder, she captivated the gazes of people around her just by sitting still, it was because she was of the collateral bloodline of the Ducal Family.
But suddenly, Count Celine ended up tilting his head unintentionally.
‘Hmm, I feel like I've met that woman about once sometime....’
But that was also momentary.
‘...Was it just my mood.’
Because no matter how much he searched his memory, he had never met a woman named ‘Ren’.
Like that, concluding that he must have been mistaken, the Count slowly opens his mouth towards the young lady in front of his eyes.
“So... what on earth is it that the young lady wants to say?”
“It's simple. Because I just wanted to say the woman who will ultimately end up with the protagonist in 「Outlaw」 is... not Lucy but Rebecca.”
“Hah?”
For a moment, the majority of the people here, including Count Celine, unintentionally made a dumbfounded expression.
Rebecca.
Unlike Lucy who appeared from a whopping episode 1, a character who can be called a latecomer revealing her appearance quite a while after the story started.
Currently, after becoming the protagonist's comrade, she was securing her own presence and screen time and receiving support from many viewers.
Count Celine was also nodding his head with a warm smile whenever Rebecca was active.
Yeah, the Count admits it too.
Rebecca was also an attractive woman comparable to Lucy, and at the same time, she was indeed a character who could easily take the position of true heroine if it were a different work.
But at the same time, that was it.
To the Count's thinking, there was no woman to build a lovey-dovey love line with the protagonist David in 「Outlaw」 other than Lucy!
“What a ridiculous remark, young lady. In any work in the world, something called narrative is bound to exist. And Lucy is in a genuine couple relationship with the protagonist, building their own narrative from a whopping episode 1!”
“How rude, it's pure love.”
“...What?”
Ren looked at Count Celine with eyes as if looking at an ignorant person.
“Is the Count saying it is true love only when a long time must pass unconditionally? Pure love is not like that. Even if it hasn't been long since they met, as long as that emotion is sincere, that exactly is true pure love!”
“That's right, the young lady's words are right!”
“Indeed, the young lady is a learned person! Yes, of course! Rebecca, who shows pure love only towards the protagonist, is exactly the main wife of the work called 「Outlaw」!”
Simultaneously with Ren's ‘How rude, it's pure love’ declaration, those who had been thinking Rebecca was the true heroine of 「Outlaw」 until now started sending her a standing ovation.
That's right.
Actually, even in a colonized state where the salon was completely occupied by the Lucy faction, they were a kind of resistance cheering for the character called Rebecca deep in their hearts!
However, there was no way the Lucy faction would just watch a mere reactionary element run wild in the sacred salon.
The salon soon transformed into a space overflowing with bloodshed washing blood with blood.
“Please, if you are an intellectual of the Empire, let's support the combination of the protagonist and Rebecca!”
“Hah? Are you declaring war right now saying you don't like the love line of the protagonist and Lucy...?”
“You bastard, you're doing this because you want a war with us right?”
A Civil War about to happen between the Lucy faction and the Rebecca faction.
“Stooop! Everyone, let's stop the fighting here!!! Lives are precious!”
“...What?”
“Where is the reason to support only one of Lucy and Rebecca necessarily! If the protagonist flirts and dates both of them at the same time! Wouldn't all these conflicts also disappear naturally!”
“Hmm... certainly....”
“According to Imperial Law, a noble can marry two or more women indeed. But the protagonist is not a noble....”
“Haha, isn't that something resolved if His Majesty bestows a noble title upon him?”
“...But can a title be bestowed upon a character in an anime too?”
Accepting all opinions of the Lucy faction and Rebecca faction, up to the Tangpyeong faction (Impartial faction) claiming that if the protagonist forms a harem, all problems are solved.
Just around that time when the conflict of opinions among the factions in the salon was reaching its climax like that.
“Hmm, it was a quite informative discussion time than I thought.”
“...Your Majesty.”
The noble young lady Ren, who can be called the very person who ignited the fuse regarding this whole situation... that is, the Empress of the Empire, was already in a state of taking refuge outside the salon.
“By the way, that Count fellow who raised his voice saying Lucy is the true heroine of 「Outlaw」 in front of Us, what was his name again?”
“It is Count Celine, currently in charge of duties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
“Ah, it was a name like that. I knew the fact that the guy is a writer, but I couldn't remember his name.”
The Empress, nodding her head as if she finally remembered, spoke in a tone as if it was no big deal.
“Fire that guy. Tomorrow right away.”
“...Yes?”
“He is an idiot-like fellow who cannot even grasp from where to where the love line of the work called 「Outlaw」 is heading. Trusting what of such a fellow can we entrust the Empire's foreign affairs to him?”
“.....”
Like that, the Empress turned a promising novelist and diplomat of the Empire into a ‘resting middle-aged man’ in an instant.
However, as if her anger was still not relieved, she was making a somewhat sullen expression.
“...Ignorant fellows beyond measure. Why on earth do those guys not acknowledge the protagonist-Rebecca combination? When We look at it, the love line of those two is a truly perfect combination beyond measure....”
However, that was also momentary, the Empress was making a much calmer expression than just a moment ago.
Yeah, even if she lays out refutations making her mouth hurt like just now, what would change.
Anyway, a few days later, if only 「Outlaw」 is aired to the end, all controversies related to the love line will end in an instant!
“Three days from now... no, two days left.”
The eve of the storm.
From now on, I will not bother refuting those who ridicule Us in the salon.
Only the result will tell whether you were pathetic, or We were pathetic.
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