103. I Hate the Worst and the Second-Worst
103. I Hate the Worst and the Second-Worst
The next day arrived.
I let out a long yawn and got up from my spot.
Seeing the sun just peeking over the horizon, it was probably around 7 o'clock.
'Let's see, today is...'
What should I do?
Conquering the dungeon was a good option, but no matter the task, rushing things was never wise.
If you just looked at everything we accomplished in a single day yesterday alone, in-game time-wise, it was roughly a quota that would take about 4 days of nonstop grinding to achieve.
Besides, taking Minerva's mental breakdown into account, I figured it was definitely better to rest.
"Honestly, I'm a bit worn out too."
I called it 'charm,'
but truthfully, from a guy's perspective, it was practically 'being in heat.'
Thankfully, my pants were made of a stiff material, and I was always positioned either in front of or behind Minerva, so I didn't get caught—but if we had been walking side-by-side, I would have been busted instantly, right?
'On top of that, it's been almost over two weeks since I've... relieved myself.'
They say once a monk tastes meat, he'll burn down the temple.
A man who's learned the taste of sex can no longer be satisfied alone.
...Well, that sounded a bit vulgar, but I also genuinely longed to simply lean on someone.
I mean, even if I'm a guy... a person is still a person!
I'm exhausted and tired too! I was physically living through an ordeal that would end in a few lines of text, so how could I endure it with a sane mind!
Even worse, after repeatedly getting half-aroused by the Sirens, snapping out of it, getting aroused again, and snapping out of it, in my heart of hearts, I felt like I wanted to just head to the red-light district behind the clubs on the city outskirts—
"Huh?"
—Red-light district...?
Red-light district. Whorehouse. Brothel.
Simply put, a place where women sell their bodies,
and Put another way, an extremely easy place for them to snatch men's seeds.
".....Come to think of it,"
there was an event in the red-light district, too.
Though, frankly speaking, calling it an event was a bit of a stretch. While carrying out an event mission, there was a side mission to clean up an illegal red-light district, right? So, happy to have a mission, I shut the place down, and I remembered a Siren popping out, leaving me utterly bewildered.
At the time, I brushed past it thinking, what's the problem in just taking down a Siren as a monster... but....
"Hmmmm?"
The Siren's dungeon right out in the sea ahead.
The red-light district. The Sirens appearing there. Their purpose and reason for it—wasn't it already as clear as if I were holding it in my hand?
"Wait... hold on a sec?"
What was the event sequence again?
Under the assumption that missions were handled normally, you'd push the main event while clearing out side missions in between.
But what about us right now? To hell with side missions, we charged straight ahead, damn it.
'If so, the result would be...'
...Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.
Hoping it wasn't the case, but just in case, I hurriedly opened the door and headed to where Minerva was.
"Minerva, are you in there?"
'────'
A murmuring sound.
The sound of someone arguing, their voices clashing and bickering.
"....You son of a..!"
Trouble was brewing.
An incident had erupted.
To put it simply, the start of an NTR event.
In the original work, the Protagonist just idiotically brushed past it, going 'Looks like they're really busy~', but you think I, having seen it clearly, would let that slide?
Taaang!
"FBI OPEN UP! You sons of bitches!"
I pulled out Agape and switched it into a gun.
I shot the door handle off, broke it, and barged inside.
"You sons of bitches! No saving allowed, and an NTR event is an irreversible crime.....
.....Huh?"
"...Chrono..?"
Inside Minerva's room.
To be precise, the sleeping quarters where Minerva and Mai slept.
"Oo....ah, auuuugh!!"
"Huh? H-hold on! Hey!"
Minerva, with her head bowed deeply, was pushing me out with all her might.
I tried to hold my ground, but perhaps I hadn't yet overcome the stat difference, or perhaps it was true that Paladins were strong from birth—I was helplessly shoved backward by Minerva's hand strength.
'No, why?'
Sure, she was only in her underwear, so she might be embarrassed.
Sure, she might be flustered seeing Mai diligently filming even in this chaotic situation.
But, "Why is your bed all broken?"
"Kk-eut.....!!"
Her body froze stiff.
At the same time, Minerva put intense strength into the hand pushing my shoulder.
"Gi... aaaaaagh....!!!"
"Kya? A-are you okay?"
"In your eyes, does this look okay....?"
The pain was as if the flesh of my shoulder was about to tear off.
It was clearly damn painful, yet strangely familiar, and I wondered why—then I realized Mars used to do this kind of thing often, didn't she?
'Mars....'
Before I could even sink into sentiment,
Minerva took a step back from me and bowed her head deeply in apology.
"I'm sorry! That is... I definitely did not do it with any malice...."
"...Um."
I'm sure she didn't rip at my shoulder with malice.
I let it slide and asked Minerva again.
"So, what was all that ruckus in the next room?"
A murmuring sound.
The sound of something crashing and toppling over.
It made a noise like someone was halfway being raped, so I thought it was an NTR event and booted the door open to get in.
"That.... euk... auuuugh....!"
"...???"
Before she could speak, Minerva collapsed wearily out of her own exhaustion.
At the same time, Mai, who had been in the back, trudged up to me and said,
"She said she was embarrassed."
"Embarrassed?"
"Mm.... hrm, hrm-hrm, 'Ah', 'Ahh', [Ahhh—]"
"Oh!"
After clearing her throat a few times, Mai started mimicking Minerva's voice.
Then, adding facial expressions unlike herself, Mai began channeling the spirit of that very moment.
"[Ahhh.... why did I.... this... idiot... idi-oting! Sea cucumber guts! The 7th tentacle of a jellyfish!]"
"....?"
Following that oddly disorienting string of curses,
"[Will you remember? Of course you can't forget, you idiot....! Then what do I do? What should I do....
.....Get on my knees and beg?]
"Ho."
A mental breakdown.
"[Just doing that seems too insufficient... with sincerity, with earnestness...
....A naked dogeza?]
"Crazy."
As expected of an NTR game heroine,
her thought process wiring was a little messed up.
"[Augh.... idiot. Such an idiot.... a moron... worthless and useless uugh...!]"
Mai's passionate performance continued.
She stamped her feet on the floor as if kicking it, thump-thump,
pounded her fists as if hitting the blanket,
and eventually even stretched the blanket out as if tearing it, jjuu-ook.
After a scene that roughly explained why the room looked like a pigsty—
"[.....Mai?]"
"[W-wait a second. Don't tell me that cell phone....]"
─She discovered Mai's existence.
"[,...It's not, right? It has to be not. Voyeurism is strictly a crime, you know?]"
Her eyes gradually lost their light, and finally,
"[Voyeurism is! A crime! A bad child who committed a crime! Deserves punishment! Punish... guk, why are you so fast?!]"
She went as far as mimicking the motion of flailing her hands around.
After seeing all that, I only had one thing to say.
"You could have just shown me the video you took."
"? Already deleted it though?"
"No, why."
"Because it's a bad thing to do. Mai doesn't do bad things. Mai is a good kid."
"Well, that's.... uh...."
Given that she already committed voyeurism, she seemed a bit far from good, but still.
"Is that statement true?"
"Huh? Yeah. It's true. Mai doesn't lie. Wanna check?"
"....She really, means it."
"Yup! Because Mai is a good Heavenly Demon!"
Minerva gradually regained her composure at Mai's words.
Actually, I already knew all the details since Mai had eagerly explained everything through charades, but it seemed that under the assumption of the worst-case scenario, this lesser evil scenario conversely had a good effect on Minerva's mental state.
"...I'm sorry, Chrono. I couldn't help myself."
"It's okay. It could happen... I guess?"
"If you're going to console me, please do it properly."
"Yeah! It could totally happen!"
Her eyes, somehow, found their reason again.
Only then did Minerva seem to register her own appearance; clad in her underwear, she half-shut the door to hide herself behind it.
"Thank you for your concern. However.... even if it was urgent, I don't think entering a lady's room without permission is a good thing."
"No, well.... there was a valid reason for tha—ah, fine. I'm sorry. My bad. I'll be more careful going forward. Happy now?"
"............"
"Huh?"
What did she say?
It seemed like she muttered something,
but she spoke too quietly, and I missed her voice.
"What did you say?"
When I finally asked again,
"It was nothing!"
...Minerva said as she closed the door.
Strictly speaking, I could open it again since I shot the handle off with my gun, but I decided to leave that topic for later.
'So Ultimately, the worst was avoided.'
Just as Minerva escaped her worst-case scenario,
I too escaped my worst-case scenario.
Now, was all that remained just waiting?
─Ka-talk!
"Huh?"
Just as I calmly returned to my room, washed up, and got ready, a text message came in.
[Heavenly Demon siMai: What the purple-haired woman said]
[Heavenly Demon siMai: '....I'm sorry']
[Heavenly Demon siMai: Me, did good?]
"Well, look at that."
Now Mai was going beyond voyeurism and even eyeing the realm of wiretapping.
[Chrono: (Thumbs up hedgehog)]
[Chrono: From now on, only delete the photos or videos I tell you to delete.]
[Heavenly Demon siMai:? Voyeurism is a bad thing]
"Who are you to say that now?"
[Chrono: Why do you take pictures if you're going to delete them anyway?]
[Heavenly Demon siMai: Because they were born photogenic, so I took them]
[Chrono:......]
"....Ugh."
She was walking a tightrope on the very edge of criminality.
I seriously worried about what exactly you would become in the future...
As an aside,
"Still, it's a relief."
The worst I had imagined did not come to pass.
The worst.
The worst-case scenario here meant—well, let's be frank, we had basically committed something akin to a crime, right?
We beat up a person in our own guild with a knife,
killed the being that guild member considered his 'wife,'
and even killed those he considered his 'wife's family.'
From that guild member's perspective, we were essentially the killers of his entire family.
So, if things had flowed truly unluckily, I had been uneasy that the guild member who'd awakened might return with the other Sirens' stallions and pull off a BAD END revolving-door gangbang on Minerva... but....
"Sure enough, things in the world don't always flow exactly as predicted."
It was fortunate that the worst was avoided.
"Chrono, Minerva, you two are under arrest for assaulting a guild member and murdering a civilian."
"".....???""
But that didn't mean the lesser evil was a good thing...?