108. Club BBC
108. Club BBC
The result of the battle.
Unanimous victory for Chrono.
"I will acknowledge your skill──however!"
What was needed for the raid was, after all, the 'orchestra (ensemble)', so
"Until the day arrives, I ask that you move under my command."
"Huh?"
Having lost in skill,
He now seemed to be trying to suppress them through sheer numbers.
"...Do you intend to keep this up to the very end?"
Unable to watch any longer, Minerva approached and snapped at him, but the conductor merely lowered his head, refusing to back down or retreat.
"Because it is the Guild Master's command."
"Ugh.....!"
He simply repeated the same words.
Ultimately, it was a situation that had veered from the worst possible outcome to merely a lesser evil.
Amidst it all, Chrono smiled as if he knew nothing, and spoke.
"It's fine. Since we're doing this together, I'm satisfied."
"Chrono....!"
No.
This, this wasn't right.
Minerva took another step forward, trying to argue the situation, but Chrono stayed calmly in place as if he didn't want that.
No,
Beyond just staying in place,
"It wasn't even a performance done with my own skill in the first place, so he probably saw that point accurately, I guess."
"Excuse me....?"
He was disparaging himself.
It wasn't his own skill.
He hadn't done it with his own power.
"What on earth does that...."
Minerva floundered at the incomprehensible nonsense.
Ignoring her, Chrono continued.
"Actually, there's a 'blessing' placed on this instrument. And not just any shoddy instrument sold on the market—it's the blessing of 'Ur', no less."
"Well....of course....."
She knew.
She had been watching from beside him; as if she wouldn't know.
But looking at Chrono's tone and behavior, though it was directed at Minerva, it wasn't for Minerva's sake.
"Since I showed this kind of performance thanks to the 'blessing' and not my real skill, that makes it plus-minus zero, doesn't it? Something like, 'Your skill is lacking, but your gear carries you, so I'll let you join the ensemble to that extent.'"
"....Ho-oh"
The conductor's eyes gleamed.
No, not just him, but the other players also glinted at Chrono's instrument with keen interest.
'What if...?'
'If only I could have that instrument....'
Material desire.
Greed.
Eyes slick with avarice.
"Well, it's a blessing that can only be used by me, so transferring it to someone else or anything like that is impossible, but still!"
""""............""""
Their greed cooled slightly at Chrono's follow-up words, but...
"....Welcome, to my orchestra."
The conductor's eyes still flickered with desire.
...
..
.
"Why on earth did you tell such a lie?!"
"A lie?"
After the ensemble practice ended,
on the way back to the guild lodgings,
"The effects of your instrument, Chrono... the 'Agape'. From start to finish, every single thing you said was a lie."
"Wasn't it?"
"'Wasn't it,' you say....."
She wore a frustrated expression.
Of course, everything was flowing exactly as I wanted.
'Looking at their eyes, they had the perfect look for causing trouble'
I leaked information about the instrument.
I diverted their attention to the 'instrument's performance' instead of my own skill.
And just as I predicted, all the members of the orchestra turned their gazes toward my 'instrument'.
'Makes sense, really'
Some nameless academy student A with less experience, less ability, and seemingly less skill than them.
Yet, as it turned out, he was a powerhouse who wouldn't lose even if he fought the entire orchestra and could instead crush them?
The story that it was all actually just gear carried by items was far more rationally acceptable.
Especially since this was a place where gods truly existed.
In this world setting, if even a person utterly ignorant of music claimed they became a master of performance through a god's blessing, people would accept it as 'well, that could happen'.
"Chrono, I really hope it's not true, I want to believe it's not... but...
...No, nevermind. Please pretend you didn't hear that."
"...??"
Minerva stopped mid-sentence.
However, she pursed her lips tightly and spoke to me carefully,
"All of this... you planned it, didn't you?"
".........."
Chills.
Had she borrowed Athena's wisdom and read my thoughts?
A question where 'by any chance' overlapped with 'no way'. Fortunately, judging by Minerva's eyes, it seemed she was purely asking out of worry for me.
'Well, that's a relief then'
Without particularly denying or affirming it, I moved my feet.
'It should be around this time...'
Like that, right near the lodgings,
between a slightly secluded alleyway,
─...!...!...!...!
"....Hm?"
A strange beat rang in the ears.
Thump-thump, at the vibration pounding against her ears, Minerva tilted her head.
"This sound is..."
Electronic sounds.
Mechanical sounds.
Mixed with the voices of people.
An ordinary person would have just ignored it and passed by, but Minerva blankly turned her head and gazed into the alleyway.
"....A guitar."
The sound of a guitar.
An electric guitar.
An amplifier.
The sound of cheering people blending with drums.
Though the sound itself was small, as the saying goes, day words are heard by the birds, and night words by the rats. At the sound rising from below, Minerva vacantly turned her head to the side.
'Just according to the event.'
I smiled as if I were a certain boy holding a Death Note.
I grabbed Minerva's wrist and led her deeper into the alleyway.
"W-Wait a moment?! Where are you suddenly taking me?!"
"Just follow me for now."
Though she verbally pretended to dislike it, Minerva didn't resist much.
As we headed precisely in the direction the sound came from, she was now moving her own feet forward while putting on a show with her mouth of 'No, I don't like it, don't make me do this!'
"Chrono, I have to go out for practice again tomorrow. We need to return to the guild quickly...."
"You came all the way here and you're going to just turn back?"
".....Ugh..."
She knew she shouldn't.
She really knew she shouldn't do this, but....
A continuous internal conflict. Yet, because her body was honest,
"One... just one hour."
"Alright."
Ultimately, in front of the club entrance,
Minerva tightly squeezed my hand and declared.
I wasn't quite sure who that statement was really for, but....
[KILLLLLLLLLLL───☆]
"Kyaaaaaa!!! Big Brotherrrrr!!!!"
...At the very least, it didn't seem to be for me.
**************
Those who are perceptive might have already caught on, but
Minerva's event is fundamentally based on her growth.
The reality that suppressed her.
The Athena Guild heiress,
and the shackles from her father, the Athena Guild Master.
The wingbeats of a small fledgling struggling to break free from it all.
'When I first read through the event story carefully, I really...'
I even admired it, thinking, ah, there's a reason why her tastes are a bit twisted.
Though I did doubt the creators' intention—was it really necessary to blacken-awaken a perfectly fine girl into a heavy metal fanatic?—now, I could understand them fully.
After all,
"Ch-Chrono....my heart is beating so fast....!!"
"....Whoa."
A gap moe attribute always works, no matter when or where.
If Mars was the type who acted the same inside and out, Minerva was the type who appeared one way but inside was actually the world's most innocent maiden.
The result of that was right in front of me, panting and trembling with both hands.
"Drink some water while you're at it. You might collapse from dehydration at this rate."
"....I did not jump around so excessively without self-control."
"You didn't jump excessively, but you bounced around for 2 hours straight?"
"Pardon...?"
She looked at me as if wondering what I meant.
I took out my phone and showed her the clock.
"It's already been 2 hours since we arrived at this club."
"...Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
"Well. You were enjoying yourself so much, I thought it'd be bad to interrupt."
"Please do interrupt things like that!"
Ugh.
If I interrupted, the event would fall apart, so how could I?
Since time had passed anyway, I pushed Minerva's back, telling her to enjoy it to the fullest while we were here.
"N-No... this won't do. I have practice again tomorrow."
Minerva refused.
She was so flustered she was even using formal speech, trying to go back, but
"Minerva, do you know? Most fatigue comes from mental stress. Physical fatigue itself doesn't actually impact things that greatly, so they say."
"...What do you mean?"
"What do you think it means?"
It means, by using [Power Chord],
things like mental 'stress' can be completely erased.
"....!!!"
She probably knows it herself.
Siren's dungeon. The endless feast of B Chord she'd heard there.
Though she ultimately did lose her mind, that was a rampage caused by 'Charm', not because she collapsed from exhaustion.
"Play when you play, work when you work."
"Don't worry. I'll make sure it absolutely won't disrupt the schedule."
".......Chrono..."
I handed an 'indulgence' toward Minerva.
Now, how would Minerva react?
If it were the Minerva who had never tasted it, who hadn't even started, she would have refused.
She would have stepped back, saying that if she let herself lose her mind once, it would ruin things later.
But what about someone who had tasted it once?
If her body was already heated to the boiling point, and she was telling herself she had to go back by sheer will and obsessive compulsion, but her instincts were actually dying to play?
"One....hour....."
It worked.
It had no choice but to work.
"Just, one... hour... if it's just that....."
Because, she had been honest with her desires once.
Because she had surrendered her body to her desires.
"Really, is one hour enough?"
"........."
But, this alone wasn't enough.
'Still not enough.'
She had become honest with her desires,
but even so, she had only become 'honest' at best.
"You're clumsy, Minerva. You're far too clumsy at expressing your own desires, at releasing your heart!"
"Ch-ro...no....?"
I took 'Agape' into my hand.
I then changed its form into that of an 'electric guitar' and placed it in Minerva's hands.
"You want to go up on stage, don't you?"
"───!!!"
"You say the problem is that your face will be seen?"
Then don't worry about it.
I immediately got a mask from the nearby bartender and handed it to Minerva.
"If you hide it with this, there's no problem, right?"
"Th-This... this is...."
"You're still saying you'll be obviously recognizable? Come on, think about it carefully."
Who would dare imagine
that the Athena Guild heiress would be headbanging and strumming an electric guitar in a sleazy club like this?
"Even so...."
"They'll probably just think, 'Ah, she's kind of a similar person,' and move on."
And Minerva,
if you really hadn't wanted to do this,
"Why did you accept that mask, then?"
"............."
She wavered.
She wavered, and wavered, and finally, she slowly placed the mask over her mouth.
'Ku-hu... ku-hu-hu-hu...!'
It's difficult to tempt someone who is running forward earnestly.
But putting someone who has already fallen down once to sleep under the covers—that's simply too easy.
On top of that, when combined with appropriate excuses and self-rationalization, it was the icing on the cake.
"Go, Minerva. No, the goddess of the battlefield returned from hell──'Minae'."
As a finishing touch,
I erased the tiny sliver of reason left in Minerva with the power of 'chuunibyou' and 'concept'.
"Ugh... uuugh.....!!!"
Her fists trembled.
She clutched the electric guitar tightly to her chest.
And then, with her head deeply bowed, she muttered and spoke.
"I'll...be back..!"
That day,
a new wind, a storm, struck Club BBC (Big Black Club).
As an aside,
"How about a drink?"
"I'll pass."
As you can tell by the name, if you accept 5 or more drinks from the bartender, the well-endowed black men show you an NTR event.