149. Can Show You in 60 Seconds.
149. Can Show You in 60 Seconds.
"I-I'll turn myself in."
"......Hmm.."
Minerva opened her mouth abruptly.
I swallowed everything I had in my mouth and asked Minerva.
"Turn yourself in for what?"
"I thought about it all last night."
What she had done.
What she had committed.
And the answer she reached at the end was──to confess her sins and regain the light.
"If things continue this way, it will cause trouble for Chrono as well. So before that, I will resolve this matter myself."
".....Is that so?"
A good intention.
A good meaning.
I asked Minerva, who was like that.
"So, do you think everything will go well if you turn yourself in?"
"...I have learned that the very first step to making amends for a mistake is to reveal one's own sin and repent."
"Is that so?"
Minerva would be perfect in politics.
Incorruptibly clean, an era where all the underlings die off and the even lower underlings would find life livable seemed to be coming.
I drank more of my soup and continued Minerva's words.
"If you turn yourself in, how exactly do you plan to do it?"
"...I intend to speak about how my misunderstandings and delusions caused a scandal for the guild."
"Isn't it already too late for that? I already brought you here."
"That's....true, but...."
If she was going to turn herself in, she should have done it quickly in the first place.
Minerva had already become akin to a deserter the moment she left the hospital.
But now Minerva would confess her sins? If that happened, it would clearly affect me as well, since I was keeping Minerva at my place.
And this point was likely a situation Minerva didn't particularly want.
Even the problem didn't end there.
"If you turn yourself in right now, do you think everyone will forgive you?"
"....I intend to accept it all willingly, as it is the price for my sins."
"Really?"
Sorry, you can't go into politics.
The moment you enter politics, I can see a fate where you'd get saddled with everyone else's crimes and go straight to jail.
I pushed the plate over to Mai, who was asking for sausage beside me, and said.
"So, was everything you said before bullshit?"
"Pardon?"
"The things you said in front of the broadcast cameras. Are you saying none of that came from the heart?"
"....That's not true."
Minerva shook her head.
Minerva clutched her chopsticks tightly with both hands, her lips trembling.
"Even if I set aside this particular incident...the Athena Guild was rotten."
"Intercepting someone's efforts, claiming another's major achievements as their own..."
"And on the field, instead of helping each other, they actually tried to hinder...."
Minerva slowly unravelled the things that had been piling up until now.
Things she thought were natural in the Athena Guild, which were actually never natural at all.
She hadn't known when she was under the shadow of the Guild Master, but by being beside me, she'd learned the truth about the guild.
And more than anything.
"....And on top of that, the actions Athena, the Main God, took toward Chrono."
".........."
Disappointment even toward the Main God she served.
Even toward Athena.
Minerva simply bowed her head and tightened her grip on her chopsticks.
"If all of these are acts of 'wisdom,' and if Athena considers all these actions to be 'wise'──"
I...
Perhaps I am....
[An 'oracle' has arrived]
[Goddess Athena: Minerva, that is merely the wisdom of 'humans.' It is by no means the wisdom I bestowed upon you....]
'....Well.'
Athena sent an oracle as if trying to refute Minerva's words.
As far as my own experiences went, it was a hard no, but I didn't know why she was sending the oracle to me instead of Minerva in front of me.
[Goddess Athena :...I ask this of you. Please let Minerva know my will in my stead.]
'Why don't you do it yourself?'
Since Minerva is your apostle right now, you should be able to send oracles quite easily?
[Goddess Athena :....The child is covering her ears and eyes from me.]
'.....?'
What does that mean?
[Goddess Athena : My child is refusing to listen to me!]
'You're really something else.'
[Goddess Athena : Minerva...my wise and prudent child, how could...!]
'...........'
If she truly doesn't know, that's serious in its own way.
I lightly rested my chin on my hand and asked Athena.
'If I tell her on your behalf, what'll you give me in return?'
[Goddess Athena :...As an apostle, as a believer, and as a hero who will lead all people, does saving a woman in distress require compensation?]
'You don't mind if I recruit her to believe in Hera instead, right?'
[Goddess Athena : Are you even human?]
Athena marveled at my proposal in turn.
[Goddess Athena :....Perhaps you've forgotten, but I ask just in case: what awaits an apostate is only divine punishment.]
"Then at that moment, you die and I die. That's it."
[Goddess Athena :...........]
"............"
A standoff of nerves.
Ultimately, the one to raise the white flag first was Athena.
[Goddess Athena : Hooooh....Fine. Because I can't say I did everything perfectly either.]
A light sigh.
At the same time, a new window appeared before my eyes.
[Emergency Mission]
[Pacify the Apostle of Athena]
─An emergency mission issued by Athena
1. Console Minerva's heart and solidify her will toward her Main God (0/1)
Reward: One small favor.
'....I'd rather she just give me an olive tree like before.'
Hermes ate and ran, and now Athena was boldly trying to run too.
But what could I do about this anyway?
Refusing right now just because I didn't like it left the IF scenario completely hopeless.
In the most extreme case, who knew if I'd get backstabbed and pass out at a crucial moment just like I did.
"Minerva"
Thus, I spoke to Minerva.
"They say heroes have many hardships through the ages."
"....Pardon?"
"Simply put, the gods interfere a lot."
"............"
A peculiar look.
At the look that said she'd hear me out for now, I continued speaking to Minerva.
"In the first place, gods are beings without mercy for humans, Minerva."
"Frankly, just because we look up to them, is there any obligation for them to look down on us?"
"..........."
A blank expression, as if she never expected I'd speak this far.
Following that, I said.
"There have been times when humans 'served gods as they pleased,' but have the Main Gods ever stepped forward because they 'cherished' humans?"
"Chrono...there is a contradiction in those words."
"You mean why the gods of this era lend power to humans?"
"....According to your words, Chrono, the Main Gods have no reason to protect humans."
No reason to protect, she said.
I posed a question to Minerva.
"Right now, who's eliminating the Abyss invasions and dungeons?"
"....That is, Ultimately, to protect us from the Abyss──"
"If the Abyss kills all humans, where do they go next?"
".....Even if that were true, you must not diminish the value of the grace bestowed by the Main Gods!"
Minerva raised her head and shouted.
It was a reaction born of instinct and learning.
But since that too was 'faith' directed toward the gods.
[Goddess Athena : She finally understands...!]
""───!!""
At the same time, Athena's oracle rang loudly through the room.
"Athena......."
[Goddess Athena : My child....Minerva, my one and only apostle....]
"........I am..."
[Goddess Athena : It's alright. Because it's alright.... Let us talk calmly.]
A path once connected was thin, but perhaps not severed.
Ultimately, I stopped talking and decided to clear away the bowls instead.
"I wasn't finished talking yet..."
If it's good, it's good.
If the person involved was satisfied, wasn't that enough?
I took the empty bowls in my hands and put them in the sink.
"..........."
"Huh? You need to use this?"
Mai stood behind me.
Thinking she might have come to wash her hands, I gave her a bit of space, and Mai said to me.
"There was a contradiction in what Big Brother said."
"A contradiction? What contradiction?"
"Big Brother said. The Main Gods 'rarely cherished' humans."
"Right?"
You could probably count those times on one hand.
But what about it?
"Mm-mm...That's not true."
To my question, Mai shook her head and said.
"If that were true, then 'heroes' would never have been born."
".........Hmm."
The 'heroes' Mai talked about probably meant the heroes of the Greek era.
And the pinnacle among them was surely──Heracles, the great hero whose name was the same as my current title.
"Mai knows. The reason Mai was born. The reason Mai is by Big Brother's side."
"Part of that was certainly the desire to make Big Brother ‘hers’..."
"...Surely, there must have also been a heart that wanted to become 'one' with Big Brother."
"Hey, hey. If you're gonna say weird stuff, go inside and look at your phone."
"Otherwise, how could they have made Mai into such a pretty young girl?"
"............"
It was a bit annoying because she was so confident.
But it was also true, so it was baffling.
'She is pretty.'
And this lent persuasive power to Mai's words.
If they truly wanted to 'brainwash' someone, was there a need to make them into such a form?
They'd just turn them into a hideous lump of pink tentacle flesh and wash their brain.
"Because Mai was with Big Brother, Mai knows what kind of heart you have."
Mai spoke.
She spoke while tightly holding onto my sleeve.
"Minerva is the same way right now. Goddess Athena made a ‘request’ to Big Brother for the sake of her child."
"That's because I can receive 'oracles'──"
"She 'requested.' Not an 'order.'"
"......."
A request, not an order.
And the reason she made a request...
"Mai thinks it's because she didn't want to repeat the same thing as last time."
"...So what's the conclusion?"
The words were going in circles.
When I asked Mai directly, Mai answered.
"I can show you in 60 seconds."
".....Are you joking?"
I didn't get the meaning.
As an aside
The meaning of the 60 seconds Mai mentioned was...
[? It's just normal though?]
[The instruments in their hands are all cheap?]
[No, no, even if they're cheap, they sound normal if they receive a blessing]
"....This is..."
It was the ad wait time for a Neotube live broadcast, and from the looks of it, it was the Athena Guild's broadcast.
The title was [A Concert for the Hero Called by the Goddess's Name─The Heroes]
Right now, when public opinion and stocks were at an all-time low because of Minerva.
The Guild Master's desperate, tear-soaked ass-show to somehow raise stock prices.
And it seemed the orchestra that stepped up as the vanguard, the heroes of the Queen Siren subjugation, had stepped forward...
[I'm at the scene, and the orchestra members' faces are all rotting. Something must've gone wrong.]
[This garbage...are the heroes of the subjugation?]
"....Ur."
Just where were you and what were you doing right now?