180. Shh. We're having sex right now.
180. Shh. We're having sex right now.
The food wouldn't go down easily.
"Then Mama will step out for a bit?"
"!"
Step out, she said.
She rose from her seat.
She packed her bag and stood up.
She could do that.
Unlike me, Mama was busy.
Even just with guild-related work, she was working while looking at all sorts of eye-spinning documents.
So, for me, there was no reason to stop such a Mama.
"Mars?"
But why.
One hand was clutching the end of Mama's sleeve.
"Fufu♪ Mars is still a baby, huh?"
"Ah....."
Like a child tugging at it, as if telling her not to go.
"But it's no use. Mama will go out first, okay?"
"............."
In reality, it was completely different.
Ultimately, the hand detached from the sleeve, and all she could do was watch Mama grow distant.
After Mama's back had completely vanished, what remained for Mars was only the cold air.
...
..
.
She picked up her sword.
She grasped the sword with both hands.
"Huuuu...!"
Her feet were shoulder-width apart.
Her gaze was slightly above straight ahead.
She tensed the muscles of her entire body and accumulated power.
As if a bomb just before explosion was stuffed full of gunpowder,
as if a nuclear shell originated from a tightly compressed mass of atoms,
she compressed the power flowing through her entire body into one point, gathering, concentrating, and──
──Paaang!
"....Haaaaa."
She burst it in an instant.
The pleasant sensation felt in her hand.
The practice dummy tore sharply and collapsed to the floor.
Surely, when she cut through so easily, her mood should have improved, she should have felt refreshed, and the complicated thoughts in her head should have vanished completely.
"............"
It was not at all.
Something was off.
Should she say it didn't come into her grasp?
Something inside her seemed to be floating.
It was the same with the swordsmanship just before.
A swordsmanship that outwardly had nothing bad.
But something was lacking. She felt that lack.
Yet she couldn't pinpoint what that lack was.
"Krrrr.... Ahhh, aaaa!"
Ultimately, the frustration only piled up, and all she could do was scream.
She tossed the sword she was holding to the side almost like throwing it away, and Mars immediately flopped backward onto the floor.
"Aaaa.... Aaaa! Aaaaaak!"
She screamed.
It wasn't refreshing at all.
She kept feeling uncomfortable.
Only the sense of unease grew, and the fact that she was averting her eyes and avoiding the issue flickered before her eyes.
".....Aaa..."
Avoidance.
Clear avoidance.
Right now, maybe, I really thought it couldn't be that....
"....Ha."
No, what do you mean, no.
Let's be honest, Mars.
You're approaching yourself honestly.
What was the principle of the Ares Guild, as a believer of Ares?
Wasn't it to hold your head high with no falsehoods before yourself?
So let's hold my head high before myself.
"I'm... avoiding Chrono."
It felt like the correct answer.
With that one sentence, her heart felt a little lighter.
"I... love Chrono."
This was also the correct answer.
An undeniable correct answer.
"I."
And...
"...was scared."
A painfully obvious correct answer.
Mars closed both eyes.
She recalled the memory of that day, that moment.
[I'll undo the brainwashing for you, Mars.]
"............"
Just remembering it made the muscles of her entire body freeze stiff.
Not tensing her muscles to explode,
but a phenomenon where the muscles of her entire body tensed to run away, tensed excessively, so that her body couldn't move instead.
They call this being 'petrified with fear.'
".....Fuck."
Her heart pounded heavily.
The sensation of cold blood flowing from her heart, heavily and unpleasantly, freezing the muscles of her entire body.
A feeling of refusing to resist from the very soul itself, because of terror. Because of despair.
"Sh....iiip...!"
She stretched out her right hand.
She grabbed the sword at her fingertips.
"H-ha! H,aaa....."
The moment she held the sword, an overwhelming sense of security bloomed.
From the hand gripping the sword, from the sword itself, a warm heat climbed up and began to slowly thaw her coldly tensed muscles.
This was a routine, a phenomenon like a habit.
That was why, even when facing Chrono in the Underground Arena, she had barely been able to stand against him while holding the sword.
Because holding a sword made her body move even if she hated it. That was how large and deep the meaning of the sword was to Mars.
"...Partner, she called it."
Something like, even if the whole world betrayed you, your sword alone would not betray you.
She used to wonder what kind of talk that was, saying a sword had a will and could betray, but now Mars understood.
Because just holding a single sword in her hand gave her the confidence that she could resist and endure.
"I was... scared. Yeah. Fuck, I can't deny that, but."
With confidence came stubbornness.
With stubbornness, fighting spirit flared up.
Fighting spirit. Boiling fighting spirit and even defiance toward the world.
The mindset of tearing and crushing the one who oppresses her in reverse.
She didn't know about daily life, but at least in 'this kind of situation,' it was the best.
[Mars....]
"....Yeah."
She recalled.
She recalled the Chrono of that day.
Like looking into the deep sea,
an unfathomable being. An instinctive fear from an existence one couldn't even estimate.
As if cloaked in a hood that materialized shadows,
a scythe of dark ink-light that oozed thickly as if vomiting blood.
A death god. The image of death. An absolute standard one dared not defy.
"Kahat!"
...so on and so forth, her heart pounded filthily in warning, but
'Still, he's just Chrono, right?'
Still, he was just one person. The same kind of person as me.
And there was no reason to be scared of such a 'same person.'
So pick up your sword. Rouse your fighting spirit.
[Mars! I'll definitely undo the brainwashing for you!]
Thus she hollered that she was normal, you fucking bastard!
Soon, Mars swung her sword at the Chrono she had conjured in her mind.
The result──was roughly 7 matches, 7 losses, the greatest achievement being that the fist she threw at the end hit Chrono's chin.
******************
"Heuaaaa~~~! Fuck!"
It felt damn good.
At least she felt more refreshed inside than before.
After training, as she showered and walked home, Mars felt that the 'mark' Chrono left on her had faded just a little.
'Yeah. Fuck, this is right.'
She was scared? That was because she was still 'pathetic enough to be scared.'
So wouldn't it just be a matter of building up her own skills so she'd never be scared again?
Later, even if Chrono did a sword dance, if she became strong enough to subdue him with an iron claw like Mama, it would be over.
"Wellll... it seems a bit tough, though."
Still, if she just put in eeeeffort, wouldn't it work out somehow?
Come to think of it, as far as Mars knew, there weren't many things that couldn't be done with effort.
In short, things like the wealth gap? Eh, if you just become insanely strong, money just follows along anyway.
The point was, if you become biologically crazily strong, you don't need to be scared anymore. That was what it meant.
"What? The laws of the world? The death gods?"
What's the big deal about that?
You had to chew up and devour things like that to hear people say, 'Ah, that bastard's pretty good,' didn't you?
This was effort for that. Muscle for that.
Things that blocked the path ahead could just be ground down and swallowed with the sword gripped in both hands.
'This time it stopped at the chin.'
If she kept working hard, the day she won would come one day.
And on that day, she would approach Chrono again and say it with her head held high.
"My child shall... this was something Papa said."
What should a woman say?
She decided to ask Mama about this part later, and...
"....Hm."
Her phone.
"...Hm hm."
Should she try calling?
"Hm... hm-hm... hmm..."
It's just that she might freak out again if she met him in person.
No, there was no guarantee she'd definitely freak out, right? But she was confident she could stand with both legs straight.
But still, there was that possibility, that what-if... so...
"...Still, a phone call is..."
Wouldn't it be okay?
Couldn't she endure it?
"....Hm hm.... hm..."
In truth, all these worries were meaningless.
Because if it were 'only' these worries, she wouldn't have even thought about calling in the first place.
For Mars, even more than the worry of whether she could endure seeing Chrono...
"....Just in case, in the bathroom."
The desire to be with Chrono was much greater.
Ultimately, as a compromise of sorts, Mars decided to make the call from the bathroom.
"............."
At some point, there she was, sitting demurely in the bathroom, staring intently at her phone.
The fact that she hesitated right in front of Chrono's number even though she had fully input it was quite unlike her, but that part should be understood and passed over as a complicated and subtle maiden's heart.
"Sh...iii, what even is this, really!"
Perhaps even she found it a bit embarrassing.
Finally, Mars called Chrono.
─Turururu.... Turururu...
"Hoooooo....."
As the ringing tone lengthened, so did the burning in her heart.
Was this a mistake? Was she too hasty? Would it have been better to call from the shower room instead of the bathroom, completely undressed?
After waiting for the ringtone, indulging in all sorts of bizarre regrets,
─Chalkak!
"!H...hello...?"
The ringtone. The hopeful word, 'Hello.'
The reply that came back was...
[Shh.]
"...Huh?"
[I'm having sex right now.]
".....???"
It was a vaguely familiar girl's voice.
As an aside,
"What are you doing with my phone?"
"Nothing."
"I heard the phone ring earlier?"
"Nothing."
"............"
"It really is nothing."
I didn't know what that meant.
Anyway, since it was a kid who would have handed the phone to me if it was really serious, I decided to let it go.
It was probably a spam call or something like that. In any case, what was important now wasn't that kind of 'petty call.'
"Is that really 'that person'..."
"..........."
Mars Mama's eyes opened blankly as she looked at the man's figure.
The man's appearance was so identical it could be called the twin of Mars Papa she had seen before, but the reality was completely different.
"All of that is made with 'illusions,' right?"
Rhea's trait. [Resident of Dreams and Night]
They said she had a trait where the boundaries of her body were ambiguous and she handled dreams and illusions.
This time, by disrupting the body's boundaries and inflating it through illusions, she succeeded in making the outward appearance of 'Mars Papa.'
'The problem is that if it's hit by a somewhat strong impact, it'll burst.'
Mama said she'd handle that part, so it should be fine.
Now, the next important thing was this.
"Mai, can you copy it?"
"Very possible."
Mai's trait wasn't simply [Wise Mother and Good Wife].
Like Rhea, it was unreasonable to mold herself freely enough to turn into a man, but she still possessed the [Transformation] trait.
─Duduk... Dudeuk....
".....Eou."
Regardless of the process, Mai had transformed her appearance into Mars Mama.
After she dyed her hair bright red and caught her breath, I gave her water and asked if it was that hard.
"Reducing the chest was the hardest."
"............."
Hey, hey.
The madam behind you can hear you.