181. Before I'm late again.
181. Before I'm late again.
She was anxious.
No matter what, she was anxious.
The house was empty. Mars paced around the living room and thought.
'Clearly... so, it sounds like that 'little bastard's' voice.'
The blonde-haired little girl who always stuck close to Chrono.
She had suddenly turned into an adult now — was a servant demon's growth normally that fast? But anyway, it seemed to be the 'servant demon's' voice.
"Kkeu-eung..."
She called Chrono, and the servant demon picked up instead.
If someone asked whether such a thing was possible, given that bastard's personality, it did seem like it could happen.
Since he had a strangely clueless side, he probably wouldn't think anything of it even if someone watched porn on his phone.
However, what captured Mars's thoughts here was the 'content' that followed.
[Shh—I'm in the middle of yas.]
"...What do you mean, yas! Yas!"
If it's yas, then it meant that thing.
The commonly known terms: mating, union.
A servant demon who brazenly said she was in the middle of mating and told her to shut up before hanging up.
If you asked where she learned to act like that, well, her master was Chrono—but looking at Chrono, it was understandable that the kind of servant demon who'd come from him would be like that.
Because he was such a screw-loose guy.
It wasn't strange that a screw-loose master produced a screw-loose servant demon.
"...But still, fuck, isn't this too much?"
"Shut up because I'm in the middle of yas?"
"In the middle of yas? Cheating? And she says it right in front of the girlfriend?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"I'm going right now."
"Just you wait, you fucker."
Mars grabbed the door handle to put on her shoes and leave.
"...But."
Even if she set aside the yas.
Who could the partner possibly be?
She didn't even need to think about it to know.
[I'll trust only in Chrono!]
"........."
Mama's phone call.
She had clearly been singling out Chrono.
Then, the person currently engaging in union with Chrono was probably...
"...Nah, no way, right?"
No matter what, that was going way too far.
On top of that, Mom knew full well that she liked that bastard, so doing something like stealing him away——well, it was the kind of family that would do that?
"Fuck?"
From the start, Papa himself was a crazy bastard who had stolen someone else's woman.
Since the very principle of Ares Guild was the law of the jungle, stealing another man's woman was said to have been a common occurrence in the old days.
So, conversely, it wouldn't be entirely impossible that something similar was happening to her right now...
"No."
Denial.
"That can't be."
Denial.
"No matter what, that's way too far."
Her intuition was frantically affirming it, but something in her heart was desperately denying it.
She denied it. She had to deny it. Something like that could never happen in reality.
So it wasn't real. That sort of thing would never happen—
"Ah!"
—Tiririring!
The sudden sound of a cell phone ringing.
It was Chrono's call. A call came from Chrono.
"........."
Around 5 PM.
A call that came at an ambiguous time, neither too late nor too early.
Mars suppressed her strange uneasiness and answered the phone.
"Hello...?"
[....Mars.]
A voice came through the receiver.
Chrono's voice.
But it sounded somewhat lower than usual. A mood that seemed almost depressed.
[I... right now I'm at the 'Magma Love Hotel' next to the guild. Room 203.]
"...Why?"
[....You already know.]
"Hey....."
The words that followed were somewhat difficult to react to.
Words that blocked Mars from even answering.
[They said that if I defeat your father, I have to take her as proof... That if I don't, you and your family will all face hardship.]
"Hey."
[............]
"Don't do it."
Mars spoke.
She told him not to do it.
Please, don't do something like that.
"You... do you think I can't take responsibility for my own family?"
The words that came out were forced.
In truth, she knew.
She couldn't help but understand what Chrono was saying right away.
Because it was a story about her family. Because it was about her guild.
"The bastards who touch my family—I won't forgive them! I can! I can tear them all apart and kill them with my own hands!"
But the end of a toothless tiger was to be slowly culled and fall into ruin.
To avoid that, someone had to be embraced, and the representative of that could be none other than the number one female.
Such precedents. Such examples. And since she herself was a child born from such circumstances, she couldn't possibly be ignorant of the meaning behind what Chrono was saying.
[Mars.]
"I said don't do it... I told you not to!"
[...............]
"If you do it, I'll really kill you. I'll really, really kill you...!"
A murmuring noise from behind the phone.
Mars cried out with all her might.
She prayed that it would reach Chrono on the other side of the phone.
[....But, Mars.]
And the words that came at the end were.
[You're weaker than your dad, you know.]
"What...?"
Denial.
And that denial was based on ability.
[Weaker than me,]
[and weaker than your dad—]
[Do you really think you can protect your house with your own strength alone...?]
"What...?"
She could do it.
She had to.
She was supposed to say that—but the words wouldn't come out.
[You... you can?]
"............"
Because it was in front of Chrono.
In front of the male to whom she had knelt.
She couldn't even dare to lift her head.
All that existed was a sense of her own powerlessness.
[....Sorry. I went too far with my words.]
".....Chrono."
Mars spoke.
She asked Chrono.
"Do you... do you really absolutely have to do it...?"
[.....Sorry.]
"No, don't apologize."
[But... there's no other way.]
"Don't give me that bullshit... that dogshit talk!"
[I love you. At least these words are sincere......
....Hello..?]
"Yaaaaah────!!!"
From the other side of the phone.
She heard it. Another person's voice.
Not a man but a woman. And a voice that was far too familiar.
[Thank you, Chrono. For accepting my unreasonable demand.]
[....Once will... be enough, right?]
"Hey... hey, you motherfucker! Don't do it! Hey! I said don't do it! I told you not to!"
Mom
and Chrono
[Yes. Once you conceive just one child, that'll be the end of it♪]
[....Huh?]
[A child born between two people is the very proof of a blood alliance, isn't it?]
[That... that's different from what you said before—mmf...?!]
"Huuuuuh───?!!"
No.
She couldn't listen to this any longer.
Her breath tightened sharply.
Her lungs constricted tightly.
A cold sweat ran down her body, and her mind grew distant.
Her breath quickened, and her fist began to clench tightly.
[Ma’am──mmf... Gueup, your tongue...]
[Huh-hoot♩ How cute.]
"..........."
No words would even come out anymore.
Right before her eyes. In front of her own two eyes.
Her lover. The man she loved. With her own mother, something like... something like that...
'....Why.'
This wasn't right.
'Why.'
It wasn't right.
This... this kind of thing...
'Whyyy...!'
She wanted to be angry at Mama.
But she couldn't be angry.
Because it wasn't that she didn't understand Mama's situation.
She wanted to be angry at Chrono.
But she couldn't be angry.
Because Chrono hadn't created this situation of his own free will either.
She couldn't be angry at anyone.
But she wanted to be angry at everyone.
It was suffocating. Her chest felt clogged. Her vision blurred and her breath came in short gasps.
"F...uck..."
She was angry.
At whom?
"F...uck...!"
At herself.
Probably.
No, definitely.
"You fuck...ing... bastard, aaah....."
Disgusting sounds came through the phone.
The sound of flesh mixing. The sound of saliva and skin brushing against each other.
It gradually grew thicker. More intense.
It echoed stickily. Moaning sounds. Panting sounds.
That small sound, which barely rang out from the phone, felt as if it were booming throughout the entire room.
"Eu... euh... ah..."
She hated it...
The very situation that the person she loved, the person she liked,
was panting in the arms of some other bitch, not her, was utterly despicable.
And on top of that, it wasn't simply Chrono's infidelity,
but purely her own fault, her own inadequacy—if she, if only she had done just a little better...
'If I had... told Chrono in advance.'
That the test was just a test.
That there might be exaggerated talk, but it would all be lies.
That he would never do anything weird between them.
'If I had... stopped it quickly.'
When Mama picked up the phone,
if she hadn't been scared of Mama and had just blocked her right then.
'No, if from the very beginning...'
If she had drawn her sword first and told them not to set up some weird test like that in the first place.
If, even if it meant drawing her sword against Mama and Papa, she had begged them please, please not to do anything strange.
If only she had asked them, not by the 'Ares Guild' way, but just as a parent, to simply look upon him as a person.
[Eut....!]
"......!!"
The sound of climax.
The sound of Chrono panting.
No.
Don't go.
Don't you feel it by someone else's hand, not mine...!
She rushed toward the phone and grabbed it with both hands.
[Ah... aahh.....!]
"......."
A familiar sound. A familiar moan.
It wasn't. It was. No. But it was true.
A single voice echoed inside her dizzy head.
[As expected... is it because he's young? It's incredibly thick... sticky... Once it goes in, she might get pregnant on the spot♪]
"Ah."
Dejection.
A feeling of power draining away.
At the same time, a sense of helplessness engraved deep into her bones.
From the phone, which had fallen limply beneath her collapsed hands, a voice flowed out.
[Then... shall we gradually move on to the 'main broadcast'?]
".........Main broadcast."
Not yet.
Not yet, they hadn't done it.
He hadn't entered her yet.
With that single thought, Mars rose from her spot.
"Magma Love Hotel. Room 203."
She knew the place. She also knew the location.
Then what she had to do was obvious.
'But——'
"——Shut up."
She erased the 'excuse' rising in her heart.
But this, that—she didn't give a shit. Why should she care?
'But'
"Shut up."
She gripped her sword tightly.
'But'
"Stow it."
She kicked the door open and went outside.
'But'
"Please, you bastard."
And she addressed the self that kept hesitating.
"I said move before it's late again!"
As an aside,
[I said move before it's late agaiiiin!]
""............""
We had all pretended not to hear, but in truth, we had all been listening, every last bit of it.
After slyly turning off the phone's speaker function, I asked Mai.
"Hey, are you enjoying this by any chance?"
"Huh? Mai doesn't know about that."
For someone who claimed not to know, her acting was way too skilled.
When I stared at her with slightly suspicious eyes, Mai spoke calmly.
"Mai absolutely, absolutely did not repay it exactly as she felt it."
"..........."
I really must have treated her quite disappointingly.