104. You Just Have to Sing Better Than the Siren
104. You Just Have to Sing Better Than the Siren
He lost his beloved wife.
He lost his beloved daughter.
His wife's family, their daily life, collapsed.
The man couldn't endure it.
So he drew his sword, intending to kill the villain who destroyed his family.
But he couldn't. He lacked the strength, lacking the combat power.
Ultimately, it was he himself who collapsed.
It would have been better if he had died right then and there, but this villain was a demonic beast beyond human measure.
He didn't kill him.
Instead, he abandoned him at his own workplace.
With an air of leisure as if saying, come find me again anytime.
The man raged, and realized his own powerlessness.
Therefore, he told his comrades of this matter, and stepped forward to join forces and eliminate the source of this disaster.
...That seemed to be the plot up to the point we got captured.
"Is that them?"
"Yes... those sons of bitches! These, these bastards who wouldn't be enough even if you chewed them up and killed them!"
""Huuurgh.....""
We sat in the interrogation room with both hands bound.
Before us, the figure of the man shedding tears and pouring out his grievances was exactly the image of a man who had lost his family.
"Then, do you have anything to say?"
"....Excuse me, do you perhaps think I did something wrong?"
"This is a place prepared to hear both sides of the story."
"Then what about this thing on my wrist?"
"Given the circumstances, you are the perpetrator, so it's just a formality."
"A formality, you say...."
They slapped handcuffs on us as a formality.
With that meaning, I asked the staff member before us.
"Do you have any proof that I committed something?"
"Are you denying the crime right now?"
"No, you need to have committed a crime to know if there's a crime or not...."
"Proof would be──"
...Ah, wait.
No way, right?
I looked at the staff member with a nervous heart.
Soon the staff member stood up from their seat and declared,
"──This person's tears are the strongest evidence!"
"Kya....!"
I got to hear that one here.
Indeed, I remembered it as a line that came out for a collab event or something as a meme once, but hearing it in reality made my jaw drop utterly.
My mind was rattled like it went through a thresher.
"You may or may not know, but even if there is a principle of presumption of innocence, there is no principle of presumption of guilt. If you claim tears are evidence without concrete proof and present them, then law and ordinances become meaningless in this world. And I believe a fact of that caliber is something any employee of the Athena Guild should be sufficiently aware of."
"Then, are you saying that this guild member is lying while even shedding tears?"
"....Chrono."
"Tch."
I wanted to argue, why are you looking at me there,
but honestly, this was an item with no answer for Minerva.
Just looking at it, it didn't even seem to have a shred of logic to it.
I took Agape out from my chest and switched it into a keyboard.
"!,....Right now, did you just draw a weapon?"
"Does a musical instrument look like a weapon to you now?"
"You are strict offenders. It is only proper to be vigilant."
"Anyway, if everyone has received some blessing, you can at least distinguish what's bad and what's good, right?"
Ignoring the staff member's reaction, I chose a song.
The chord was naturally B Chord.
Difficulty was Master level.
Next, I played the song like before and activated [Power Chord]───
Siren's Tears
BAD END. 3─Birth As Many As You Kill
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"I have committed a sin worthy of death......!"
"Well, that's the law of things."
NTR Event Avoidance Success
...
..
.
There were plenty of circumstances that could cause a misunderstanding.
The guild members were collapsed, covered in blood,
screaming with tears of blood, begging that the person who killed their family be caught and killed,
"You damned bastards!"
"Hey, why are you letting those sons of bitches go!"
"Don't you know killing civilians means summary execution?!"
"Excuse me... please listen to me....!!"
Did only one person use that red-light district where Siren was?
Ultimately, the employees charmed by Siren collectively rose up, and talk of capturing the criminals who caught and pulverized Siren and tearing them to death came out, which led to this mess seemingly.
Ah, of course, what's obvious was obvious,
"Oh... Owek.....!"
"Let's die. Yeah! I think dying would work!"
"A saengseonbaki... I'm a saengseonbaki....!!"
"That's why I'm asking you to listen to me!!!"
After treating the mental contamination with B Chord, a crushing sense of reality hit them and they tried to die.
Ultimately, only the staff member stopping people from wringing their necks suffered, well.
'Anyway, did I avoid the NTR Event with this?'
Actually, once you were dragged to the interrogation room, it was a direct route to an NTR Event.
What could the original Protagonist do within the event? Eventually, the original Protagonist and Minerva were dragged to prison, and while Minerva was gang-raped in her own way, the original Protagonist got beaten up fervently.
"I'm glad the [Power Chord] worked well."
If I hadn't had [Power Chord], there was only one of two things I could have done.
Follow along like the original and get dragged to prison before facing an NTR event.
Or strike another deal with Cronus, stop time, and run away.
Probably, whether it was the former or the latter, I felt like I would have regretted both.
"I'm sorry, Chrono, Minerva. The situation turned so bad that I couldn't help but...."
"...I will report this matter to father."
"I am utterly ashamed...."
The staff member bowed their head deeply.
Minerva still glared at the staff member with an expressionless face as if she remained deeply displeased.
"I truly, truly am disappointed. That our Athena Guild employs an absurd act like the principle of presumption of guilt, and even has an 'illogical person' who claims tears as evidence."
"I am truly... sincerely sorry....!!"
The staff member couldn't even lift their head.
Perhaps realizing this would never end if it went on, Minerva stopped her reprimand and abruptly turned her head...
...Why is she looking at me?
"What does Chrono think would be best to do?"
"I am...."
What, would be best to do.
As I silently stared at Minerva, a growling sound suddenly came from my stomach.
"...Let's eat first, for now."
"............"
We skipped breakfast.
And it was already lunchtime?
***********************
First, to state today's schedule immediately,
"I'm going to rest today."
"Resting, huh. It's standard to rest the day after going to a dungeon, but hearing 'rest' from Chrono's mouth feels a bit unfamiliar."
"? Didn't we rest when it was time to rest?"
"Battle rest and normal rest are strictly different things."
Her voice had lowered by about 2 degrees.
Intuiting that I shouldn't joke about this topic, I immediately changed the subject.
"We're planning to do a boss raid next, right? But since the location is inside Siren's Cave, that means whether we like it or not, we'll be fighting while receiving a mental debuff."
"That's.... there's no helping it. There's no choice but to endure with your body."
"Do you remember that the result of enduring with your body was that thing yesterday?"
"Uugh....."
"Th-then,
wearing earplugs, or...?"
"If it were that easy, wouldn't everyone wear earplugs and go in?"
"Sure enough, it doesn't work...."
"Practically, yeah."
Thus, resisting the debuff by blocking your ears was a pass.
At the answer that wouldn't come out, Minerva's shoulders drooped down.
"Then what should I do....?"
"Why are you looking at me?"
"Because it seems like Chrono would know the correct answer?"
".......Kkeueung."
Since it wasn't exactly wrong, it was hard to deny.
Actually, according to the original, it was around this time the Protagonist's party started feeling helpless.
Soon after that, the strategy for Siren and the character story for Minerva would intertwine, starting an event exclusive to Minerva....
'....What should I do?'
Do it? Or not?
After agonizing over whether to show her the answer key in my hand or not, I asked Minerva.
"A hard-earned valuable enlightenment and excellent result gained through hardship, or an easy and light enlightenment and excellent result gained without any hardship. Which of these two will you choose?"
".....I..."
Minerva agonized.
However, I already knew.
'She'll probably choose the first one.'
Minerva was a model student character, diligent, diligent, and diligent to the very end.
As such, rather than a cunning and easy method like the latter, she would choose to agonize over it herself.
Because Minerva was 'that kind of character'.
Even though I gave her a choice, the answer practically seemed fixed.
Diligently stepping through events one by one and progressing steadily.
It would be different if a Main God interfered and we were doing a speed run, but if not, it was right to reduce variables.
'Following the original as much as possible is correct.'
We had already strayed quite far from the original, but still, adhering to the original made predicting the situations ahead easier.
If some troll jumped out again like last time, I might seriously want to kill myself.
"Now... then you have to choose, right? Sure enough, Minerva, do you prefer the side of diligently stepping through things one by one?"
I calculated in my head how to progress the event from now on.
Like that,
"I'll go with the easy and light enlightenment and excellent result."
"Yes. I was waiting for those words──
──Huh?"
Minerva completely shattered my premise.
'No, why.'
Why are you acting like this.
You weren't this kind of kid.
In my bewilderment, as I silently stared at Minerva, Minerva answered me without batting an eye.
"The old me would have thought sincerity was the most important. But the current me──thought, isn't going out of your way to take a difficult path the same as just buying yourself hardship."
"................."
What the.
Minerva got corrupted.
Who did this. Come out right now.
"They are all things I learned from Chrono."
".....Ah-ha!"
She says it's because of me.
...Could you perhaps give an example?
"An example... well, even looking at today's incident, isn't it like that? Rather than explaining one by one with your mouth, a method of forcibly releasing the charm state and making them realize. I learned that sometimes resolving things with force is easier and simpler than persuading them logically until your mouth hurts."
It's all thanks to Chrono.
Thank you.
"Really... being with Chrono, I feel like I'm learning something new every single day!"
".....Th-that, is really fortunate."
Ah-ha.
Ah-hahaha...
'....Where did it start going wrong?'
Minerva was no longer the Minerva I knew.
She had become Minerva Mk.2.
As a side note,
"Guess there's no choice."
Minerva wanted an easy and light answer key.
"The easiest way to overcome Siren's charm is...."
I couldn't help it and pulled out the answer key, showing it to her.
"Just sing better than Siren."
"....Excuse me?"
"A loud voice would be good, too."
"..............."
They say fight fire with fire, or was it poison with poison.
It was a saying perfectly suited for a moment like this.