183. A feeling of my stomach slowly melting.
183. A feeling of my stomach slowly melting.
If I were to state the result first,
"Guild Master...?"
"What."
"The fact that you were bedridden in the hospital room recently..."
"So you're bitching at me?"
"Ah, n-no. It's nothing."
The Ares Guild Master was alive and well.
"Thank you again for today, Rhea♬. This is the milk for today."
"──Jorororok."
It wasn't the real Guild Master but Rhea's illusion, but if it looked the same on the outside, it was not something easily brushed off.
So to speak, it was the same principle as someone who had been attacked by a lion before flinching just by looking at a picture of a lion.
"Ah, and to Chrono... I'm truly sorry. If there is anything you desire, I will do my best to comply."
"No. I went too far as well... and besides, it's not entirely incomprehensible..."
The case of me and Mars's mother.
For now, I decided to forgive her.
At first, I couldn't understand it at all, and I didn't even want to understand, but after having a deep conversation with Mars once, a bit of reason seemed to return.
'Besides, I wasn't exactly without a criminal record myself.'
For example, all that sort of stuff I did to Minerva.
Having the experience that when the direction of love went wrong, the outcome could be the worst, I decided to let it pass as mutual fault.
"What kind of bullshit is that! I, that kind of bag of bones──Ah, Aaaargh!!"
"You should keep your head down quietly if you lost. Do you want the laws of the Ares Guild to fly away too?"
"Eungkkiyaaaaaaargh!!"
In the midst of it, Mars's father screamed he couldn't forgive even if dirt got in his eyes, but in the first place, he was a person who could barely just move now.
Should I say, by Ares Guild standards, he had no right to speak whatsoever.
The person himself talked like that, but it seemed he ultimately accepted the fact that he lost.
"Anyway, when will I be fully grown?"
In my case, as I absorbed time and simultaneously released the absorbed 'Karma (Grudge),' my body returned to its original state a bit.
Before, I was at a complete elementary schooler level, but now, should I say I grew to somewhere between a middle schooler and a high schooler?
School was about to start soon, so it was also questionable when I would be fully grown.
Well, they said this too would be resolved with time, so it would be something I'd have to wait and see for now.
"Then what's left now is..."
"...You came?"
The relationship with Mars.
Although the process got a bit strangely twisted, thanks to that, it was an opportunity to know each other's sincerity well.
As such, I hoped to approach Mars more sincerely, and Mars also called me, saying she had something to tell me.
What was it?
Just what would I hear?
I fiddled with the ring in my pocket as I waited for Mars's words, and──
"Let's break up for a while."
"........???"
─I was served a breakup notice.
*********************
[I can't live like this.]
"................."
She was living perfectly well, though.
[I want to be by your side as myself.]
".............."
She was already sufficiently Mars herself.
[Wait for me. Until I confess to you again.]
".......Wow."
This is, well, what.
I slowly got up.
"Do you need anything, Master?"
"..........."
There were many things to say, in many ways.
Especially, I wanted to tell her to stop with the 'Master' sound, but.
'First, the urgent matter.'
I asked Minerva.
"Athena didn't order it, right?"
"Huh?"
"That kind of... thing with Mars. Setting up a situation where it feels like she's being taken away."
"That was entirely an idea that came from me. But... did it not go well?"
It went beyond the level of 'not going well.'
"I got dumped."
"........Huh?"
"She said to wait until she becomes a more Mars-like Mars."
"......Ah."
Ah? Ah?
A look that suggested she knew something.
I turned my body toward Minerva.
"If you can't explain the reason I got dumped by Mars in a way that I can accept, I might really get angry."
"Are you going to punish me...?"
"No, fuck."
Why was she blushing there?
Minerva said it was a joke with a fake cough and answered my question.
"As Chrono knows, Mars is a woman with strong confidence."
"That is true."
"But currently, Mars is in a state where her confidence is so lowered that she can't maintain herself if she's by Chrono's side."
"It's a bit funny... for me to ask why."
Mars's confidence.
The basis of that confidence was her 'own martial power.'
The formula of the Ares Guild.
Strength. Power. Martial ability. Inasmuch as that directly connected to 'confidence.'
My side, which had thoroughly broken Mars to the level of trauma and to the point of inducing PTSD, became a place she was busy wanting to escape from for the sake of living, confidence or otherwise, from Mars's perspective.
Love is love, but it was a case of that being that, and this being this.
"So that's why she asked me to wait..."
"So that she can have confidence by Chrono's side. So that she can be 'Mars' and not simply Chrono's 'sexual release dog.' It probably meant Mars asking for time to become a 'woman' worthy of Chrono."
"Is that so..."
...Right. I roughly understood the meaning.
However, at this point, one thing came out.
"If I take the motion of being NTR'd in front of Mars again this time..."
"Chrono."
"!"
Minerva approached right up to my face.
"Chrono, do you wish for Mars to become a 'bitch' rather than 'Mars'?"
"That's..."
...Maybe I wanted it a bit, no.
"The future Chrono wishes for is a future where Mars is by Chrono's side as Mars-like, isn't it?"
"Well... that's right."
"Then, I think waiting here is for the sake of Mars, and also for Chrono's sake."
"Mm..."
And then.
Minerva added one more word.
"As for a bitch exclusively for Chrono... isn't just one like myself enough?"
"..........Um."
Minerva.
You seem to have changed to be a bit more proactive than before.
Have you been going on some strange sites without me knowing?
"Mai taught me in various ways!"
"Mai! Where is Mai!"
Right, thou art the root of all evil.
Thou shalt pay the price right now for making Minerva learn unwholesome things.
I immediately got up and ran towards the room where Mai was.
─Burst!
"Is it here!......Ah?"
"...What do you want?"
As I opened the door and went in.
"Mai, studying right now."
"While watching porn?"
Let's suppose watching AV could be a thing.
However, if her hands were down below and fidgeting like usual, I would have asked what she was doing in broad daylight, and if she lived so starved, but.
"The Heavenly Demon is an existence that learns through all of creation. Mai, busy right now."
"...Right."
Mai, even scribbling in a notebook with glasses.
Faced with the appearance truly oozing a 'I am studying' force, I had nothing to say in return.
Fine.
If you were happy, then that's a good thing.
However, if there was one point I could foresee.
"By any chance... are you also studying following Mai?"
"Recently, as a kind of indirect practice, I was with a cucumber and eggplant─"
"─Stop."
Because there was one pervert in the house, I felt like perverts were being mass-produced one by one, two by two.
If Rhea joined later, would that mean three perverts?
Somehow, I couldn't picture a normal future at all.
'Why.'
Surely it wasn't like this at first.
Of course, the fact that I didn't really touch Mai even when she watched porn from a young age could have been a problem if it was a problem, but still, to think it would develop this far.
'Why is this.'
I agonized.
I agonized and agonized again.
What kind of performance I had to put on to stop the pervert cultivation plan of my household.
"Right."
The thought was long, the answer was simple.
"Let's go out and play."
"".....??""
...
..
.
What was the reason for watching porn?
Of course, being horny was part of it, but the biggest reason was 'having nothing to do.'
It was similar to how your eyes spin when you see something like [Suggestive pic upvote] or [Famous Idol XX, nip slip leak] while endlessly surfing the internet because you have nothing to do.
So conversely, I just had to make something for them to do here.
However, if I truly made them do labor, backlash would naturally arise, so─
"It's been a long time. Walking out without any thoughts like this..."
"Heavenly Demon Rolling Board... Today too, Mai gets one step closer to Heavenly Demon."
─Here, I had no choice but to pull out the outdoor date card.
Maybe because we just ate when hungry and rested when we wanted to rest without thinking, the atmosphere was such that no one disliked it.
Just.
That thing.
"Maid outfit...?"
"Blonde big breasts... a younger brother?"
"The one next to her looks like a younger brother?"
"The kid is embarrassed."
"................"
My insides were, chilling.
So I asked Minerva.
"Minerva. Didn't you have any other casual clothes?"
"I am Chrono's maid now. I am just doing my best as a maid."
"Tsk."
That's not what I meant.
"And Mai. You... that... do you want to keep going on about the Heavenly Demon?"
"The Heavenly Demon must be confident in any place. Big Brother, are you embarrassed of me?"
"Very embarrassed."
"But Mai isn't embarrassed, so it doesn't matter!"
"She's learning weird things from somewhere and copying them."
My stomach is melting.
It's a feeling of my stomach lining slowly melting.
It was good that I brought the kids out, just stop watching porn, but I didn't know why my nerves were being continuously tortured both inside and outside.
After that, we roughly drank coffee, walked a bit on the street, entered a game center, and....
"Level 24 on Double? Is that woman a god?!"
"Swiftness is the refinement of a maid...!"
Signboard breaking, and.
─Kwaaaaaaang!!!
"She broke... the punching machine?!"
"Heavenly Demon Divine Art─Heavenly Demon Punch."
Property damage, and so on.
"Kill me."
Ultimately, I discharged first, sat on a bench near the station, and declared surrender.
"Sorry... I got a little carried away..."
"...Should I buy you carrot juice?"
The two women, who only then caught on.
I waved my hand, telling the two to go play for now, and the two moved their steps somewhere together.
"Huaaaaa...."
A deeply settled sigh.
I thought it would end with a moderate walk, but where did that overflowing energy come from?
I sighed a few more times, spacing out and looking around.
'...Life, indeed.'
People passing by on the street.
People browsing shops.
Amidst people moving busily to various places in various clothes.
"So, miss, don't you want to go do 'something good' with us?"
"I'm telling you, hanging out with us will definitely be more fun?"
"Hey... I said I don't want to!"
I caught the scent of Geum Taeyang NTR.
As a side note.
"Hestia, what are you doing there?"
"Huh? Oh... that's..."
"Are they bad people? Should I call the police?"
"Ah......"
I went right over and gave him an earful.
"Hey... guys, we're talking right now?"
"Just go away without interrupting?"
When I held up my phone and said I'd call the police, the two who immediately tried to intimidate me──well, I wasn't sure about them.
"Hello, is this the police?"
""...........""
Life is live, they say.