155. The Storm Blows Twice.
155. The Storm Blows Twice.
Public opinion was a current.
And once a 'current' began to form, it soon became a storm, a tsunami that swept everything away.
Waves that most people could never withstand. Even if the person was innocent, the waves left nothing behind in their wake.
Even the 'innocent' faced this, so
what if that person was a 'sinner' filled to the brim with crimes?
And what if that person was from a so-called 'upper class,' far more successful than oneself?
[Athena Guild Tax Evasion Allegations]
[Athena Guild Human Trafficking Suspicions]
[Athena Guild Drug Smuggling]
[Athena Guild Exposé Incident]
[Athena Guild Minerva]
[Queen Siren Subjugation Battle]
"....Well, it's completely fucked."
He had only typed in Athena, but countless search results scrolled down.
The situation showed the public sentiment toward the Athena Guild at a glance.
[?? But isn't this a bit weird? The leaps in logic are way too extreme;;;;]
[↳ Part-timer cut]
[↳ Comment part-timer, how pathetic]
[↳↳ The Athena Guild is just pathetic]
"Hoo boy...."
Even wanting to counter somehow was futile.
In a situation where blocking even one was difficult, three or four pieces of fodder to tear apart came pouring in, so hands were bound to be full.
Moreover, the information being scattered on the internet was not just information about 'corruption.'
"If you do it like this, like thiiiis──it's done!"
Merk typed quickly and uploaded another post.
If earlier she had posed as an Athena Guild contract employee, this time she was using the name of an Athena Guild full-time employee to post.
At first, she wondered if simply spreading information about corruption would be enough, but Merk urgently opposed that.
'Rather than lighting a spark and then nurturing it, handing it over already on fire makes it burn far better?'
'.......;;;'
Simple exposure wasn't enough.
With such a delicious source at hand, throwing it out as-is was like chewing up the finest wagyu raw.
Merk, who had her own sense of professional pride, could never let it go and uploaded it only after personally cooking each piece.
Given the volume, she did say in the middle that she'd done it for nothing, but since the reactions grew so massive, she herself had become 'one who enjoys it.'
[No;;; Even if we grant that, that doesn't mean the Athena Guild kidnapped them, does it?]
[↳ Part-timer cut]
[↳↳ Part-timer cut. Don't do that; think a bit. Even if the shady shit is true, there's no evidence of kidnapping.]
[↳↳↳ Change your ID and come back]
"....Fuuuung."
"Why. Something not working?"
The comments were coming up fast.
Merk wore a sullen expression for a moment, then asked me.
"How am I supposed to prove they were kidnapped....?"
"How is that anything special? Just have Mars raid any Athena Guild branch, then have me and Minerva come out of the warehouse there."
"But there's no basis."
"You just roughly attach a basis."
If we bought some accessories at the market right now, shared them with Mars, and said, 'In truth, a tracking spell was placed on these!', wouldn't everyone buy it?
"Buuuut──then wouldn't people say, why didn't you rescue them sooner?"
"....That's true too."
Because we couldn't drag Mars into getting cursed at just to take down the Athena Guild.
Of course, the people doing the cursing would be a tiny minority, but I didn't even want that tiny minority to curse at Mars.
'Evidence... evidence, you say....?'
Evidence that we were kidnapped.
In truth, we hadn't actually been kidnapped, so it was only natural that no evidence existed, but as I'd said before, a basis was something you could attach however you liked.
"Mai. Come to think of it, you took a lot of photos at the Athena Guild, right?"
".....??"
Ever since I bought her a phone, Mai had taken so many photos and videos that it wouldn't be strange to call her that all day.
I had planned to take the phone from Mai and look around for usable photos──
"No."
"Hey hey, don't be stubborn."
"No means no."
"You think I'm doing this because I like it?"
"Gaaal!!!"
"Seriously, saying 'gal' and shit."
Are you still pushing the 'Heavenly Demon' persona?
When I forcibly took Mai's phone and tried to open it, the phone had a lock on it.
".....Mai."
"The Heavenly Demon's Secret Record only opens its door to the rightful successor."
"Haaaaah...."
A password Mai made, huh.
Nothing really came to mind...
'....No way.'
I entered the day Mai first arrived.
[─Incorrect password─]
"Tsk."
Not her birthday.
Then, maybe my birthday?
[─Incorrect password─]
"..........."
"Hurry up and give it back."
Not my birthday either.
'Then what's left is....'
Excluding your birthday, my birthday.
Besides that, there was a day that could become a memory──there was.
"No way.....?"
With a feeling of 'just in case,' I entered 'that day.'
[Ding-a-ling♬]
"......"
Yeah.
What she set her password to wasn't something for me to meddle in, so it could be that.
But still... no matter what....
"You didn't have to set 'the day we first did it' as your password...."
I felt like I'd done something really, terribly bad.
If only I'd gotten it wrong, I wouldn't have felt like this.
"Password. A special day. The most precious day to Mai...."
"....When you come at me like that, I really become trash!"
Whatever.
First, I went into the album and checked if there were any usable photos or videos.
As I checked and looked through one by one, what I realized was──wow, you really like me a lot, huh?
"About half are photos of me. What are you planning to use all of them for?"
"For collecting. For appreciation. For use."
"For use... huh?"
The last one seemed a bit weird, but it's just my imagination, right?
Besides that, there were videos of Yuno and me, videos of Minerva and me, videos of Mai and me──I mean, don't you like me way too much?
"Kuuuuung...."
Would it have been better to just tell Mai to find them?
Or would it have been better to hand the phone over to Merk?
No matter how I played it, the situation where I became trash didn't change, so it seemed best to just see it myself and end it.
"....Huh?"
Finally, after scrolling down more than halfway, I barely found one video.
Unlike the other videos, I wasn't in it.
But that didn't mean Minerva or other girls were in it either.
'Then, perhaps this time was....'
Around when I was preparing for the orchestra performance with Minerva, maybe.
It looked like a video Mai had taken while playing around with the phone for a while...
[─Clank, creeeeak....]
"....This..."
Someone came in.
They carefully entered the room, looked around, then soon opened the closet door and took something out.
[.....I'm sorry, but this is all for Lady Minerva's sake...!]
A guitar. They held an electric guitar.
[Tzing!... Tzing!....]
First, they pulled out the strings.
They loosened the head of the electric guitar, pulled out all the strings, and turned it into a bare mountain of a guitar.
Next, they pulled a small hammer from their bosom and──
[──Kwajik!]
".....Hmmm."
The sight of them smashing the guitar with all their might.
After that, putting the half-ruined guitar back into the guitar case and leaving as if nothing was wrong was incredibly irritating, but...
'If anything, this is good.'
At this moment, it was a very good piece of footage.
"Merk, can you put this to use?"
"This is.....oh!"
The moment I showed her the video, Merk's eyes sparkled.
Immediately, I sent the video to Merk, who added more fuel to the public opinion fire, and now even Neotube live broadcasts began covering the Athena Guild.
"The story about the guitar was told by MinaeMinae, right? And we can see from the video that they could enter a room freely, right? Then──the possibility arises that they could freely enter a room and kidnap Chrono!"
That alone wouldn't be proof that I had been kidnapped, but
"From the moment the possibility 'they could be kidnapped' arises, it can already hold sufficient 'basis'!"
"From the moment the possibility 'they could be kidnapped' arises, it can already hold sufficient 'basis'!"
Exactly.
It didn't have to be precise proof.
As long as you gave people 'a basis to think that way,' whatever the outcome, people would get swept up in public opinion and become unable to think anything else.
Just like putting blinders on racehorses,
driving public opinion in one direction, like a shepherd herding a flock of sheep.
"Haaaaah....this is so good♡. Chrono, do you happen to have other things? Something more, more entertaining!"
"Other things, well..."
I told Merk about the things I'd suffered at the Athena Guild.
For example, sending an instrument to be serviced and having it come back completely ruined,
or marking a path with coral heads for Garu and having them eaten up entirely, and so on.
"Hey, Chrono. It's a bit funny to ask this now, but....
....Are you okay?"
"........Mm."
After listening to the whole story, Merk looked at me with a bit of genuine sympathy, and I slowly began to feel just what kind of things I'd gone through.
'Indeed, it really was hopeless....'
Ahh.
The days of that shitty company.
Now they were the past, impossible to return to, but shitty things were still shitty.
As an aside,
"I used the phone well──what's gotten into you again?"
".....Hmph."
When I returned the phone, Mai snatched it back and puffed up her cheeks.
"Mai is sulking."
"..........."
A truly sulking child doesn't puff up their cheeks or pretend to sulk asking to be noticed.
'Still, it seemed like her feelings were a bit hurt.'
Indeed, I'd arbitrarily flipped through her album files and seen all her dark histories, so it was justified.
No matter how much I treated her like a child, we had to respect each other's privacy, but I'd completely ignored that because the situation was urgent.
"Sorry."
"....Is saying sorry with words everything?"
Eyes that seemed to want something.
Fine.
What would you like to receive in return for my apology?
I asked Mai what she wanted.
And so,
"A baby."
".....What?"
"I want a baby."
"..............."
As it turned out, she said she wanted to raise a puppy.