165. Even Titans ignore the small things.
165. Even Titans ignore the small things.
He told her everything.
That everything which had happened at the Athena Guild was true,
that the one who had orchestrated it all was the Guild Master of the Athena Guild—none other than Minerva's father—
and furthermore, that he had colluded with a 'hypnotist' who could now even create 'ability-sealing handcuffs.'
"So, if by any chance... I mean, just hypothetically speaking..."
"He wasn't corrupted by hypnosis; he was just always that kind of person."
"...Yes. That's right. Because my father was that kind of man."
Minerva accepted the fact calmly.
How could she accept it so readily—what if I had lied?
When I asked if she wasn't suspicious, Minerva answered with a bitter smile.
"Even if I were... the only place left for me now is by Chrono's side."
"...Surprisingly, if you actually looked, you might find one pretty easily?"
"I don't want to. Even if there were one, if it's not Chrono's side, I'd hate it."
"......."
It was like a Bond MAX kind of thing.
Minerva, who had actually spoken those words, buried her face in my chest as if embarrassed, and I silently stroked Minerva's back.
'I was prepared for this.'
All that remained was taking responsibility.
I let out a light breath and went over future matters in my head.
'First....'
Living together with Minerva was confirmed.
After that, there were things I needed to discuss with Mars,
and after that──Protagonist's family.
"Hmm...."
Protagonist's family.
Just as he clearly acted without a father, there was no father.
Instead, there was one mother and one older sister above him.
'And that means both of them got NTR'd....'
I'd said it before, but it was currently summer vacation.
And in the original, summer vacation was time for power-ups or raising affection with the heroines──however...
...as if daring you to call it anything but an eroge, his mother and older sister were also included as sub-heroines.
'The mother's side was definitely a pot-bellied middle-aged man, and the sister's side was a blonde delinquent with a tan, right?'
Since they weren't 'main heroines' who were part of the Twelve Olympians anyway, even if they got NTR'd, there wouldn't be any problem with the event flow.
".....Haaah."
That was, if this world had proceeded exactly like the 'original.'
'On top of that, most of the first-year heroines are already... in that situation...'
All of the Part 1 heroines except Merk had ended up remaining by my side.
Yuno still had a choice left to her, and Merk also remained by Protagonist's side.
However, the very notion that Yuno still had a choice meant that the main heroine of the original was on the verge of turning her back, and Merk's route had gone wrong from the very start.
Ultimately, virtually all of the Part 1 heroines had turned their eyes away.
So, from Protagonist's perspective──they had all been NTR'd, hadn't they?
"........Tsk."
Perhaps this body was faithfully following its own purpose.
Wasn't I diligently carrying out NTR day by day, very methodically?
Just as the thought even crossed my mind that, for the person involved, what was NTR to others might be pure love,
"...I'm sorry, Chrono."
"Hm? All of a sudden?"
Minerva apologized.
Minerva held me tight and murmured.
"Because of me... it must be really hard for you... right?"
".....Ah."
Come to think of it, I'd been sighing continuously.
I told Minerva it was alright, that it wasn't because of her, but Minerva's furrowed eyebrows remained as they were.
"...I've thought about the future."
"About the future?"
"Yes. About my future. About our future."
Minerva drew a light breath.
A gaze of determination. The gaze of one who looked squarely at her own future.
Arriving at its conclusion, Minerva's answer was──
"I shall become a maid!"
".........?"
A maid declaration.
...It was a combination of words that oddly sounded like the title of an anime OST.
"There are two options for me."
"One is to give up on the Academy and inherit the position of Athena Guild's successor."
As the initial whistleblower and the daughter of the Guild Master, public opinion wasn't bad.
Furthermore, if a PR campaign played out with the feel of newly inherited divinity, she could secure at least a portion, if not entirely.
After that, she could live not as a student cadet of the Academy, but as the Guild Master of the Athena Guild.
"But... to be honest, I hate that."
It was absolutely not because she hated Goddess Athena.
Even if there could be a little ill feeling, she was still the goddess who had extended her hand to her.
She didn't want to hate her, be reluctant toward her, or back down now after all this.
"Because I've already seen their true faces."
But──it wasn't about the people of the Athena Guild.
"To a place like that... if I were in such a place, I wouldn't last a day and would end up running away."
If such a situation actually came upon her right now, she wouldn't run away.
But the fact that such weak words emerged showed that Minerva's perception of the Athena Guild was the worst.
The memory of that day—being deceived by people, swept up in instigation and fabrication, and finally confined to a mental hospital with her limbs restrained—still made her body flinch and tremble just thinking about it.
And above all—
"And if... I leave, the time I can spend with Chrono will disappear...."
When there wasn't much time to begin with.
Let alone if she were to operate a guild on top of that, how much time would be eaten away?
Energy consumed as well.
Body tired as well.
Even having to send her own resting place far away—for Minerva, it was the worst of the worst.
Therefore, Minerva said:
"I want to attend the Academy together with Chrono."
In order to stay by Chrono's side.
In order to get far away from the filthy Athena Guild.
....However, if things went this way, one question arose:
"So, how does that suddenly connect to saying you'll become a maid?"
Chrono's question.
To this, Minerva answered:
"What's left for me is nothing but this one body...."
"...Depending on how you hear it, those are words that could be very misunderstood."
Minerva said:
In order to attend the Academy, and to enter and operate within the Dormitory, money was necessary.
But unfortunately, the money Minerva had on hand right now was absolutely zero.
Though one might think she could inherit something from her biological father since she won the lawsuit, at the very moment she inherited it, Minerva had to become the Guild Master of the Athena Guild.
The responsibility came exactly with the inheritance.
Ultimately, the worst-case scenario previously mentioned would unfold before her eyes, so inheritance was out of the question.
Therefore, the only remaining method was getting a loan, but even that was impossible.
Because Minerva was the 'Athena Guild's successor.'
No matter how much she severed ties and denied it, as long as the world's eyes viewed her as the 'Athena Guild's successor,' things like bank loans or loans exclusive for ability users—anything remotely worth trying—were all ruled out.
Thus, only one thing remained.
Entrusting her body to Chrono.
"Before... you said it, didn't you? That you could at least feed and house someone like me."
"I, I did?"
"But even so, just receiving without doing anything is the very definition of an indolent person, trash itself."
"Ohh...?"
"Therefore!"
Gradually, strength filled Minerva's voice.
Without realizing it, Minerva was even mixing in formal speech as she made her declaration toward Chrono.
"I have decided to be employed as a maid for Chrono!"
"........?"
"Cleaning, laundry, cooking—no matter what hard labor, I will dedicate my body and carry it out!"
"..............Hm."
Cleaning.
Laundry.
Cooking.
No matter what hard labor, she would dedicate her body and carry it out.
In exchange for that: feed her, house her, and guarantee her future—she said.
"...Hey, Minerva. Something I'm curious about."
"Yes?"
A curiosity welling up inside Chrono's chest.
"...What makes that any different from a marriage of convenience?"
"Marriage of... convenience? What is that?"
"I mean, it should be called a shortened form of employment marriage instead of just employment. Whatever."
The point was, I didn't know how it was different from a wife declaration.
".....Wife?"
Me? Chrono's?
"............."
"....?"
A sudden silence.
A dumbfounded expression.
A vacant gaze.
And—
"Kkhut──!!"
Her ears and cheeks starting to redden.
The corners of her lips trembling subtly. A strangely happy, bewildered expression.
At the end of those emotions that seemed complicated in many ways──
"I am a maid... only a maid to the last...!"
".....Ffffuck."
─All she did was bury her face in Chrono's chest and thrash about.
Witnessing this process in real time before his very eyes, Chrono's impression was as follows.
'There wasn't an Event CG for this.'
It was a cuteness hazardous to the heart.
************
YO! If anyone asks my name, I'll say it
[Look Here (Kochiomi Ro)] hey ♬
Alright, here again today. Here again today, we are!
[Jupiter....]
[Mom, go in and get some rest now. I'll keep an eye on Ter for you.]
"Only his family is coming, is this for real...!"
What about the apostles of the Twelve Olympians? The girls? Where did all the females go?
If it's like this, there's no reason I went to the trouble of using up precious capacity to hypnotize one nurse and even attach a small cam!
"But even so, targeting his family...."
They weren't apostles of the Twelve Olympians.
Practically a waste of capacity.
In my situation where I had to conserve, share, swap, and reuse my already insufficient capacity as much as possible, recklessly spreading octopus tentacles was a taboo among taboos.
"Master ♬ Shall I give you a shoulder massage?"
"...If you suddenly go for my chest or down below like last time, you'll get in trouble."
"Because Master is so cute.... Teehee ♬"
".........."
I curse you, past me.
No. Before that, honestly, if I had just saved a tiny bit of the capacity I used on my older sister, things wouldn't have escalated this far....
"Ah, right! Today's dish is delicious kimchi-jjigae!"
"...And the pork?"
"Half pork, half kimchi!"
"Kyah...!"
Now that I thought about it, maybe it was a necessary expense after all.
Because it had freed me from the previous one-tool of just jeyuk-bokkeum and dak-dori-tang.
Kochiomi Ro diligently peeked at the situation through the small cam and watched to see if anyone else was coming.
And then—
[Excuse me.... Huh? Who's that older sister?]
[....She's Ter's older sister. Who are you?]
"......?"
Another woman appeared for the first time.
[Hello! I'm Merk, Ter's girlfriend!]
"Oh, fuuu."
This feeling of her womb tingling.
Kochiomi Ro sensed it intuitively.
This woman was the one.
This woman was precisely an apostle of the Twelve Olympians.
Even though her appearance was like a cutting board, and no matter how you looked at her she was a loli,
just as she was about to rejoice that a corner of the Twelve Apostles had appeared—
[Mission]
[Cyclops likes big breasts....]
-This is a mission issued by Cyclops
-Flat chests are a sin... The Titans have liked big things for generations....
1. Train Jupiter's mother (presumed) (0/1)
2. Train Jupiter's older sister (presumed) (0/1)
Reward: Cyclops' Shackles removed for 1 hour for each successful training count
Failure: I guess it's still better to be alive.
".....Shiiiiit!"
If I'd known this, I'd have started the strategy already.
After a full week of the schedule being blown to bits, Kochiomi Ro resolved:
'Once the work's done, you're first.'
Was it Merk?
I will never, never, absolutely never forget this.