102. Trash Like Sea Cucumber Innards
102. Trash Like Sea Cucumber Innards
Once we learned the true nature of the Sirens,
Bang! Ba-bang!
"Minerva, don't go in too deep. You'll turn into a fish hatchery at this rate."
Skkkrrrk!
"Please don't say such terrifying things, Chrono!"
My gun barrel showed no mercy, and Minerva's blade tip was deeply stained with blood.
"P-please spare me!"
"I won't spare you!"
There was no hesitation left.
It was simply the repetition of killing, killing, and killing.
"Sister...!"
"....Chrono"
"OK"
Whenever her blade edge was about to dull midway through, Minerva immediately turned her head toward me.
I finished off the Siren she left behind, then switched Agape to a keyboard and played the B Chord, dispelling the mental debuff.
"Haaah... somehow it feels like I'm getting charmed more and more easily. Is it just my imagination?"
"It's not your imagination. The charm intervals are actually getting shorter."
"Eep..."
It wasn't particularly strange.
Right now, this was the heart of enemy territory, and the cave especially had conditions that made sound echo well.
Countless Sirens, plus a sealed space for sound.
As we gradually pushed deeper into such a place, wasn't this akin to a foolish party venturing into Cthulhu's embrace to clear the darkest of dungeons?
Simply put, it was like walking right into a tiger's den.
'If there's a silver lining, it's that we weren't kidnapped and dragged here but are walking in on our own two feet.'
I immediately activated [Power Chord] and removed the debuff.
"Phew. Somehow, I'm a bit tired."
"That's because you actually are tired."
"..........."
I was removing the debuff with [Power Chord], but getting charmed and uncharmed repeatedly inevitably built up fatigue regardless.
On top of that, we weren't just advancing - we were moving forward while slaughtering Sirens.
Even ordinary combat caused stress, and with the added constant debuff, it was only natural that exhaustion was doubled.
"Still, it's fortunate. Since you came once beforehand and cleared out monsters, the combat itself became easier, and thanks to Chrono, even if I get charmed, you can dispel it."
"Though the basic premise includes that I must not get charmed myself."
"I believe in you, Chrono!"
".....Fine."
How very touching that she trusted me.
I slowly controlled my breathing and sharpened my focus.
'I mean, it's a bit of a tricky thing, but...'
Was it oddly familiar?
Or was it oddly weak?
'It's way weaker than Mai.'
Maybe because I'd already tasted something disgustedly spicy once, the Siren's charm barely cracked a speck of dust on me.
It wasn't that there was no impact at all, but objectively, it was extremely minimal.
"Now, Chrono! This is no time to be standing around! While we're dawdling like this, those guild people are probably suffering!"
".....Tch."
In contrast, Minerva's condition didn't look very good.
I kept dispelling the debuff with the B Chord, but it seemed her worn-down mental stamina hadn't recovered, as Minerva was now speaking in full banmal.
Moreover, with her increased chatter and incessant babbling, she looked like she was half out of her mind.
'If we go in any deeper, things could really go south.'
I'd been a bit greedy and wanted to explore the Siren hatchery beyond the boss room, but it seemed we should only clean up to just before the boss room and head back.
Anyway, even this much was an enormous amount of progress for a single day's work.
"Minerva, can you hold on just a little longer?"
"I can do this all day long!"
".....Fine."
I'll go only as far as the boss room and then come back.
...
..
.
The place where the red coral had scattered.
After arriving just before the boss room, we fled out of the dungeon without looking back.
"Why? I can still fight more, I tell you!"
"Eugh."
To be precise, I'd dragged her out half-forcefully.
Anyway, going further in was impossible.
The likelihood was high that Minerva's clear-eyed madness would turn into heart-eyed lewdness.
'At any rate, we've done almost everything we can.'
We came during the day and killed the annoying monsters.
We came at night and dealt with all the Sirens blocking the boss room.
Put another way, all that remained was to check our condition again and defeat the first boss - the mid-boss.
So, for the boss hunt, we needed to go back and rest now, but...
"You said we needed a key. The key to enter the boss room! How can we leave when we haven't even found the key yet!"
"...Wait a moment."
Even without her pestering me, the final key would come to us on its own.
I soothed Minerva as I exited the dungeon and headed out toward the bay.
And then,
"Who on earth... who could do such a thing...!"
"Oh."
Found it.
The boss room key.
"!...You people....you people killed her...?"
A man crying while cradling a Siren's corpse in his arms.
This was exactly the event I'd predicted, so without any warning, I raised my gun and pulled the trigger, aiming at the man's leg.
─Claaang!
"Ah, as expected?"
"You... bastard!"
Unlike other people, he didn't collapse from being shot.
That was expected, since that man was from the Athena Guild.
As such, he could endure a bullet fired with no real force behind it with just his body.
'So, to clear this event, I have to endure for a bit while moving forward, but...'
I subtly glanced back.
"Attacking Chrono...? I won't forgive you!"
"Oh dear."
Minerva, wearing an obviously angry expression on her face, drew her rapier.
She immediately swung her sword at the Athena guild member charging toward me, and before we knew it, they had begun pointing their blades at each other.
"You filthy murdering bastards! How dare you kill my woman, my beloved lover!"
"How dare you bare your fangs at my comrade, the Great Demon Hell Kaiser!"
The sight of them swinging their swords, spewing hatred at each other.
And of course, predictably, Minerva had been in the dungeon nearly the entire day and had barely just come out.
"Hng...?! Wh-why... my body won't move...??"
"Uryaaaaaa!!!"
Put another way, her stamina was incomparably depleted.
On top of that, her mental strength had been ground down to nothing in Siren's dungeon, so seizing victory was impossible from the start.
"For my wife!"
"Kk...! Agh, kyaaak?!!"
Minerva staggered helplessly, pushed and pulled by the blade as if being toyed with.
Quietly, I suppressed my presence and took the guild member's rear.
"Dieeeee!!!"
At the moment he was about to deliver the final blow to the fallen Minerva—
"[Triple Step]"
"──Uoh?!"
I closed the distance in an instant.
The skills, unfortunately, could not be chained.
The inevitable skill delay existed.
──However, that was only when it came to 'skills.'
"Liver Blow!"
"Geugh...??!"
A pure punch without any skill.
Since I mixed in no skills, the raw destructive power was weak, but because I struck a vital point, it was enough to stop his movements for a moment.
And in that frozen moment, the chain of skills continued again.
"[Point-Blank Shot]"
"───!!!"
Baaaang!!!
Passive bonus damage.
Critical damage landing right after a stun.
If I'd aimed for the head and pulled the trigger, he would've died without even a shred of resistance, but...
"Geu... guh...!"
The guild member clutched his stomach and collapsed, losing consciousness.
Suppressing fire. I deliberately aimed and shot at the most heavily armored spot.
"As much as I wanted to shoot him right in the head,"
If he actually died from that, the event would get twisted.
I'd end up being swayed this way and that by the guild master somewhere, and eventually see the father-daughter incest NTR ending, or something like that.
I then reached into the guild member's chest and rummaged around.
"Ah... here it is. This."
Siren's Scale.
Specifically, the 'rainbow-colored scale covering the most intimate area' that grew in their most precious place.
Now, if we took this and brought it to the door in front of the boss room, the door would open on its own, and we could enter the hatchery.
'There were broadly two ways to obtain it.'
One was getting it through an event like this.
The other was being defeated by a Siren and becoming a seed supplier for the Sirens.
And as I've mentioned multiple times already, the latter case was a guaranteed direct route to an NTR BAD END.
"Actually, it can also drop with a disgustingly low probability from killing Sirens, but..."
Should I say that happens almost never?
Anyway, having obtained everything we needed, I approached Minerva and spoke.
"Now we have the key too, so let's take that mister and head back to the guild."
"......Chrono..."
"Hm?"
Minerva stared up at me blankly.
"I... why am I..."
"...Hey?"
No, wait...
"Why am I... so pathetic...?"
"...All of a sudden?"
Tears streamed down.
She shed tears as if grieving, staring at me as she vented her discontent.
"I haven't been of any help at all since coming here. Getting charmed by Sirens, failing to notice even the dungeon's traps, failing to protect Chrono as a knight on the front line, every time, constantly putting Chrono in danger..."
"Minerva? Hello? Are you listening?"
"I'm... I'm garbage. I can't even do the one thing I'm supposedly capable of when it really matters. Garbage, idiot, moron, this... this sea cucumber guts garbage...!"
"........Umm."
What kind of curse was that?
I quietly looked at Minerva, trying to understand the situation.
'So, if I had to put it simply, it's this?'
The girl's mental state had snapped.
Usually, stress-inducing events included things like doing combat in dungeons, discord among team members, falling into traps, and various other things──
──Among those, it was most appropriate to assume that losing the fight against the guild member in front of her was the trigger that shattered Minerva's mentality.
"I want to die... Yes. If it must be so, I want to die by Chrono's hand."
She muttered that Chrono had the right to kill her, but where on earth was such a right?
I forced myself to reach out and try to pull Minerva up.
"Don't do this here. Go back and get some sleep. You'll feel a bit better after sleeping and waking up."
"I want to sleep... I want to sleep forever..."
Yeah.
Right.
"I want to keep sleeping like this, in Chrono's arms, forever..."
"...Minerva."
I spoke toward Minerva.
Sincerely, putting truth into my words.
"Don't say anything and just sleep."
Because if you keep this up, when tomorrow comes, you'll really want to die.
I hoisted Minerva onto my back, then called Mai on my phone, and without missing the guild member either, we brought them to the guild.
"...Chrono."
"Why? Back to your senses?"
"Chrono... Chrono... Chrono-oooo..."
"...Have you lost your mind?"
We handed over the guild member mister at the guild.
As we headed toward Minerva's quarters with Minerva on my back—
"...Chrono."
"Yeah. Why'd you call?"
Minerva buried her face in my back.
"....................."
"...Why'd you call me and then say nothing?"
Minerva didn't say anything.
As if dead, as if asleep, she buried her face in my back.
'...Jeez.'
On the surface, she seemed to be asleep.
But she didn't know.
'If you're going to pretend, you should've faked your breathing properly too.'
The warm breath against my back was so ticklish it was burdensome.
It was exactly as if she was making a show of it, telling me to know, telling me to notice.