113. Where Did It Start Going Wrong?
113. Where Did It Start Going Wrong?
In front of the boss room
The members of the Athena Guild all had a moment for a final check.
The boss
The final battlefield
A place where a single small mistake could immediately lead to death
If it were the me of the past, I might have just let it slide with an 'I see,' but having tasted the spicy flavor once, no, maybe twice, I made a firm and unwavering resolution this time.
'Absolutely not going to step forward'
Because this wasn't an event where you stepped forward and did something in the first place.
From the very moment the heroine Minerva was checking her violin, this was not an event where I'd go out front and fight.
The fighting was entirely the responsibility of the Athena Guild
I had just gotten my instrument back from a guild member to check it with Minerva──
"Kyaa.....!"
──Exactly the sight I had predicted.
What was definitely a keyboard when it left my arms
Somehow returned as a bro/ken key/boa/rd.
It wasn't visibly wrecked on the outside.
'But it's only the outside that's perfectly fine'
What on earth did they do to it?
I casually applied force to the keyboard and pried the inside open.
"...You dunked it in seawater entirely, didn't you?"
A sea-scent rising from within.
What is this, an ocean view? Why the hell was sand powder coming out of a keyboard?
Even if I flipped it over and tapped it out, the keyboard, already soaked in seawater, was in an irrecoverable state.
"Chrono, that thing in your hand...."
"...Sorry. The ensemble won't work."
"........S...."
"Hm?"
S, and what?
I raised my head and looked at Minerva.
"S...such fucking... worthless people.....!"
"......Hic!"
The gradually increasing turbulence of her emotions
A clearly exposed feeling of rage
Minerva tried to walk straight toward the conductor, but my stride blocked her before she could.
"Let me go."
"Minerva."
"I said let me go, Chrono."
"Am I struggling, or are you struggling?"
"Because Chrono isn't struggling, so at least I am!"
"What kind of logic is that...."
Were you gradually turning into Mars?
I forcibly sent Minerva back and approached the conductor.
"Hey Mister, why is my keyboard in this state?"
"I am not quite sure what you mean."
"No, it came back as trash."
"Tuning is not my field. Please go and argue that with the tuner yourself."
"Hmm......"
So he said.
I subtly turned my head and looked at Minerva.
"....Was this...a guild...?"
"Heh"
What would have happened if Minerva had gone up and argued?
What would have happened? The process would have gotten somewhat complicated, but it would have unfolded just like the current situation.
In that process, Minerva would have felt even more disgust, but the direction of that rage would have been quite different from now.
If it were a situation only I suffered from, there would only be rage and disgust toward the Athena Guild
But if she stepped forward herself and nothing changed, she might have harbored disgust at the very predicament she found herself in.
Breaking out of an egg certainly comes with great stress, but if you apply more than a certain amount of stress, life simply becomes a boiled egg.
I said I had no choice, that I would have to drop out of the ensemble, and I excused myself from the spot.
"Chrono"
"What"
As soon as I stepped aside, Minerva approached me immediately.
With an expression that looked like she had so much to say, so much that she couldn't say anything at all,
She just pressed firmly on her chest and raised her head to look at me.
"Chrono...are you okay?"
"With what."
"I asked if you're okay. Even with this, even with this kind of treatment...!"
"You're saying something weird"
"What do you mean weird. What's weird is──"
"──Isn't this all a situation you went through?"
".....!!"
A shudder
An intuition
A brief silence
And the realization that followed
"Something I went through...I went through......"
"The degree might be a bit different, but isn't that and this pretty much the same thing? At least from my perspective."
"I...went through the same thing as Chrono...?"
The turbulence in her eyes grew even more violent.
"What you felt earlier, it's the same as what I felt watching you."
"................"
I put a period on it.
Minerva fell silent.
She exhaled deeply, slowly, quietly.
"....Chrono."
"What"
She asked toward me.
"My stomach is churning."
"Take some medicine."
"My head is dizzy."
"Wouldn't it get better if you rested a bit?"
"I'm disgusted."
"You'll feel better if you throw up."
"...I want to die."
"People who really want to die die without saying they want to."
".............."
".............."
Minerva looked at me quietly and asked.
"Is it...because of me?"
"No, it's not"
"............"
"I'm saying that probably because you saw me in this shitty situation and you're asking if it's your fault."
"What is that. You knew everything from the start."
Well, that's true.
Because I know the story to some extent.
That's why I'm like this, Minerva.
"If you're doing this on purpose even though you know everything, then at least it's not because you're bad."
"....Chrono"
What should I do?
Minerva's question
Originally, it wasn't something I was meant to answer──it was something the goddess Athena, who would one day descend, was supposed to say, but
'This much should be fine, right?'
I spoke toward Minerva.
"Do as you damn well please."
"Eh?"
"That's what they call Greek wisdom."
"......Did you perhaps hear that from someone?"
"Probably Athena?"
"That's blasphemy against the goddess."
No it's not
I heard it all
You're just like that because you don't know the Greek wisdom yet
'Truthfully, I don't really know it either, though'
Anyway, that was that.
******************
The door of the boss room
When the Queen's chamber opened, visible inside were countless Siren and
"Y-you disgusting human bastards!! How dare you covet the Queen's blessed time!"
In the center of the room, Queen Siren, who was in the midst of laying her eggs
"Look here! Protect the Queen! Slaughter all those villains and drive them from this place!"
However, on the contrary, most of the Siren had gathered to protect the Queen, so a large-scale battle was about to break out.
"Never be defeated! We are the army of the Goddess!"
""""Waaaaaah!!!""""
All the members of the Athena Guild shouted out and prepared for the coming war, and
"Now then, let us all begin as well!"
"Haaaaah...."
Minerva also lifted her violin and braced it against her chin.
'Queen Siren Subjugation'
Phase 1
Clash
The Athena Guild and the mobs started clashing and brawling, and
"Big Brother....!"
"Us, let's not fight each other?"
"Wow! It's a guy I know!"
A few Siren raised their hands and chose acceptance instead of counter-attacking.
Did they throw their bodies in front of swords because they wanted to die?
"Ugh...!"
"You are....."
"...I...cannot cut down a child...!"
No
Not that.
This place was the Siren's dungeon
A den of evil spirits that charm and enchant people and ultimately devour them, so
"Big Brother... won't you come with me?"
"Yeah... let's go──Keohup...!"
"I love you, my dear♥"
"Me...too──Kaaaak....!"
The warriors, already enchanted by the evil spirits, by the Siren, began throwing their bodies and choosing death.
No, if only death was chosen, that would be fortunate.
"You...trying to kill my wife!"
"What? Get a grip, you fish-fucking bastard!"
"A fish! How dare you insult my wife!"
"Th-this crazy bastard?!!"
Conversely, the groups that fell into charm and charged back with their swords raised.
A common, widespread schism. Rebellion. Cracks that opened into civil war.
The enemy's numbers were already large, so each and every one of these schisms was fatal.
"Keuk...! Everyone, be careful of the charm!"
"Isn't the orchestra ready yet!"
They needed 'something' to sever the debuff.
And the very thing that played that role, the thing that erased the debuff.
"Everyone, pour a little more soul into it! Passionately! Let us ring out a hymn to Athena to erase the noise of those creatures!"
"Huuuuu....!!"
That was the condition for clearing phase 1.
Those already seduced by the Siren couldn't be helped, but protecting at least the remaining people to maintain the army's force.
Perhaps because the orchestra wasn't a bunch of random amateurs, the number of people causing schisms gradually decreased, and eventually, just as all the guild members began moving toward a single goal──
"Why do you interfere with the Queen! I just...I just wish to live! Is living such a sinful thing?!"
Queen Siren moved into action.
However, rather than stepping forward to fell enemies, she merely shed tears and appealed in a voice steeped in emotion.
Right
"....I just want to live..."
"Are we...perhaps doing something terribly cruel....?"
With a 'voice' steeped in emotion
Queen Siren's voice. The 'charm' contained in that voice.
It became an intense 'debuff' that could no longer be covered by 'ordinary performance' alone, and it swept over the Athena Guild──however
"Lady Minerva!"
"Huh....huhut...!!"
Minerva's solo
Receiving the full support of the Athena Guild, Minerva unfolded a violin solo piece.
The high notes created by the violin's strings and bow couldn't completely block all of Queen Siren's sound, but they began helping them at a level that was at least better than nothing.
Thanks to that, people did not turn into enemies, but they also didn't actively go on the offensive.
"Hey, handsome over there... won't you play with me?"
"Instead of that, why don't you get comfortable with us here?"
Amidst that, a situation arose where a few Siren raided the back-row group, but
─Taang! Tang! Tadadadang!
"Ugh, extreme hate"
It just pisses me off when bitches who look like anglerfish try to sweet-talk me like that.
I just raised my gun and shot them right between the eyebrows to kill them.
'Isn't it just about holding out like this anyway'
Even if it continued on like this, they couldn't subjugate Queen Siren.
Right now, Queen Siren's charm just wasn't working, but the Queen's charm would gradually cover the entire Athena Guild.
Minerva, knowing this, would try to block it with all her might, but Ultimately, everyone would be pacified and effectively fall into a combat-incapable state.
After that, one by one, they'd be slaughtered by the Siren, and at the moment of crisis,
When Minerva eventually crumbles, saying she can't do it with her own strength, the original Protagonist says to her:
[Sing, Minerva!]
That the Minerva he knew was someone who could play a far greater piece than this.
The Protagonist tells her not the violin, but to play the electric guitar.
There was no way an electric guitar would be present in this situation, but coincidentally, she had brought the electric guitar she won as a reward last time, and at the Protagonist's urging to play it,
[...Since it's come to this, let's give it a shot!]
Minerva was flustered, but soon, with nothing left to lose in a situation already over, at the very end, she began to show death metal that melted her own wretched life into it.
A life oppressed her entire life
Days that were nothing but suffocating
Rage, regret, lament, and despair directed at a life always lived conforming to her surroundings
At the end of it, Minerva said.
[If there is a next time....]
That she would live a little more freely.
And at that moment, Minerva's 'Bond Rank unlock condition' was opened, and simultaneously, the goddess Athena, moved by the piece, descended in a limited manner into Minerva's body, erasing all danger and despair, and everyone survived and returned──that was the story
"Keuaaaaaaah!!"
"My arm...is go──ne...!"
"Keohup, keuk....keureureuk....."
The guild members being torn apart, ripped to shreds, and dying at the hands of the Siren.
"Become the Queen's sacrifice!"
"Th-this...crazy, bast......"
Schisms and betrayals
By now, the event should have triggered, but
"Die...diediediediediiiiiiie!!!"
Queen Siren abandoned laying her eggs and diverted all that power into strengthening herself, and
"......Why..."
The strings of the electric guitar she had received as a reward were severed, as if someone had forcibly ripped them out.
From one to ten
Everything under a situation that had deviated from her common sense, from her expectations,
"Chrono...."
Minerva asked.
"This too...was all, something you planned...?"
"..............."
I couldn't give any answer.
'Just how'
Where did it all start to go wrong?