185. A stage with the 'Goddess'.
185. A stage with the 'Goddess'.
Kung. Kung. Kung. Kung.
An intense beat resonated from the speakers on the ceiling.
Waves of sound that filled and overflowed the entire space.
Just that alone made his heart pound fiercely.
[Hee~~~~~~ha!]
[Are you ready to enjoy yourselves, everyone!]
[[[[[Yeeeeeeessss!!!!!]]]]]
People.
An insane amount of people.
Perhaps because it was summer, or maybe it was like this from the start.
Women who looked like they might or might not be wearing clothes shook their hips, and men lewdly followed behind them.
Females and males. A scene of pseudo mating.
Beneath the flickering, strobing darkness, beneath the pounding, leaping heart, humans cast off the mask called 'reason' and returned to 'primal instinct'——no, they mustn't!
"Ah...."
"Not alcohol, give me juice. Juice."
Of all things, he'd almost gone down the black guy NTR course.
I hurriedly removed the glass placed in front of Hestia.
A regretful gaze. I didn't care, and did you know you almost got your front and back blown wide open by those black guys earlier?
"Still...since we're at a club anyway...."
"...No way."
She still looked regretful.
But Sure enough, I absolutely could not permit alcohol.
If she was going to drink, she could do it quietly at home, under the condition that she ignored it when the delivery driver asked her to accept a package or the pizza shop guy came by.
'But why the pizza shop?'
Delivery aside, why did events like that happen only with pizza shops?
"Heung....Heuheum....♪"
Anyway, regardless, Hestia sipped her juice and enjoyed the underground club's atmosphere.
She tapped her feet to the beat and lightly shook her shoulders — it was obvious she wanted to mix in among them.
'She looks like she's having fun.'
At first she seemed so reluctant...
...No, maybe that wasn't it either?
'She was a promising sprout of nightlife from the start, after all.'
I briefly recalled that time.
*************
A bench near the station.
Watching Hestia enjoying herself while looking at the fountain, Minerva and Mai spoke.
"Alone under the sun...."
"Does she not feel the heat? Invulnerability to cold and heat?"
Just as they said.
She sat on a bench with not a speck of shade in the blazing midday sun, savoring the fountain.
Outwardly it might have looked very beautiful, but upon closer inspection, it was full of psycho-like aspects.
The sensible temperature was nearly 40 degrees that day.
Yet on such a day, she sat on a bench with no shade just to savor a fountain?
It was the perfect thing to do right before collapsing from heatstroke and being carted off in an ambulance.
'But she is the Goddess of the Hearth, after all.'
A woman who had spent her entire life with fire.
This level of heat was probably just an everyday occurrence to her.
I lightly dismissed this debate and approached Hestia.
"Hey, Hestia."
"........Heuheung....heung...♬"
"....?"
She pretended not to know and ignored me.
Even though she'd already glanced at me sideways, she ignored me.
An expression that looked like she wanted something.
'...Ah, no way.'
No way. I thought it was no way upon no way.
"....Pretty lady over there. Would you like to come hang out with me?"
"Hm? Sorry, but I can't. I already have plans."
What a coincidentally packed schedule that was.
Only then could I catch on to how Hestia's NTR quest had unfolded.
'Because from Hestia's position, going by her own volition is impossible.'
She was a virgin goddess who guarded the hearth.
There was no way such a woman could go to a place of entertainment by herself.
So someone had to drag her there forcibly.
In Geum Taeyang's case, he pushed aggressively so she went along.
In Jupiter's incest route, since 'incest' itself was a form of 'entertainment' in that era, it had to be that way.
"Ha...."
As expected of NTR Academy.
Its historical accuracy was solid even in subtle parts.
Ultimately, I let out a small sigh and spoke to Hestia again.
"Hanging out with me is definitely more fun than plans like those....haaaa..."
Ah, I really couldn't do this.
I felt a reality check coming on mid-sentence.
What kind of half-assed Geum Taeyang move was this?
Finally, as I hung my head and just sighed, Hestia pursed her lips and whispered softly.
"It's a promise I made a few days ago with 'those men'..."
"......Wow."
Okay.
You are a magnificent Greek goddess.
I lightly clapped and said to Hestia.
"If you keep coming at me like that, shall I drag you there by force?"
"You...you're a worse kid than I thought? Stop this before I report you to the pol—
—Huh?"
I stopped time.
I synchronized the time of Hestia's body, excluding her 'mind,' and brought her to the club.
Put another way, she'd experienced something akin to teleportation in terms of sensation.
"Y-you...you! I'll report you to the police right now....h-huh?"
"Looking for your phone? Here it is?"
Of course I had confiscated the phone.
"Eut....this isn't right. Please...please, okay? You weren't a bad kid like this..."
A half-pleading appearance.
In contrast, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly probably meant she gave it a passing grade.
"Do you want to get your phone back and go home?"
".....Yeah."
Outwardly, she seemed very anxious.
But looking at her two eyes filled with delight and pleasure, I made a declaration toward Hestia.
"Then hang out with me for a bit."
".....I-if it's like that, then."
It couldn't be helped.
Hestia no longer hid her smile and took my hand, stepping forward.
...
..
.
"Hmm."
The result after looking back on it.
She just seemed to need a justification.
Regarding the surveillance work on Jupiter and Protagonist, she needed an unavoidable 'justification' to 'play with someone.'
"Hey....actually, I left my wallet behind...."
"...I'll pay for everything, so just don't drink alcohol."
"Wow! As expected of our Hero!"
"Keuek."
Hestia was as happy as if she'd uncorked a bottle of Dom Pérignon.
After that, she was continuously ordering non-alcoholic cocktails, saying that since she was at a club, cocktails were a must.
"That woman. Weird."
"Chrono. This honestly isn't something it's my place to comment on...but I still think you should be discriminating in your relationships with women."
Mai was openly averse.
Minerva offered indirect advice.
Yeah. I knew that. She was the older sister of the Protagonist who gets NTR'd — how could she be normal?
'The only relatively normal conscience is the mother side, at least.'
That side was literally a textbook NTR victim, after all.
However, since she was a stepmother, when the Protagonist wanted motherly affection, she was a crazy stepmother who went from breastfeeding all the way to casting 'return to my womb.'
"Oh."
Come to think of it, in mythology, Zeus's stepmother was a beastkin, right?
So she was a 'step' mother because she was a 'sheep' mother?
Was this also the meddling of the producers who were crazy about historical accuracy?
Though strictly speaking, it might have been a goat, not a sheep.
Whatever it was, the fact that the producers were crazy about historical accuracy didn't change.
"Kya....! Getting drunk, getting drunk!"
The unleashed Hestia didn't stop.
She was practically chugging non-alcoholic cocktails as if they were real alcohol.
"Hey, pretty lady over there, want to try this too?"
"Euhng....should I have just a taste then? Kkyareureuk!"
"Ah, shit."
Not as if they were real alcohol — they were actually real alcohol.
I stopped time, swapped the glasses, and brought Hestia back.
"Ah.....!"
She looked regretful.
But separately from that, I had to say something about this.
"I. Told. You. Not. To. Drink!"
"....This isn't alcohol, though?"
"If you say it's a beverage containing alcohol, I'll bring Spirytus and put you to sleep."
"Kkyak! Being assaulted by Hero~~♡"
Ah. This goddess had lost her mind.
Because it was entertainment after a long time, she'd completely lost her mind.
I let out the sighs that were welling up again and warned Hestia.
"If you drink recklessly in a place like this...you'll really get it from both ends, front and back, so please, please be careful."
"Eyy...our Hero will save me anyway!"
"How can you be sure?"
"You know that perfectly well♪"
".........."
Maybe because her entertainment mode was ON, every single reply was disgustingly flippant.
But was the fact that she wasn't exactly wrong a glimpse of her divine aspect?
"So Hero...just one glass. Okay? Even in the temple, a drink or two was tolerated for the apostles!"
"Driving me crazy."
No, she was just a monster defeated by desire.
As if she'd already had a few tastes, Hestia clung to me excessively.
'In-game, she was a bit different though.'
No, back then Geum Taeyang had clung to her first, so maybe she hadn't needed to cling.
Thinking back, he'd suddenly shoved something inappropriate at her, and seeing as she'd sucked on it without particularly refusing...
...I'd thought it was the typical easy-hoe progression unique to NTR games, but reality was crueler than genre convenience.
"Stop."
"Please stop."
"Eue...?"
When she was halfway clinging, Mai and Minerva stepped forward and separated Hestia and me.
The two of them soon glared at me, their eyes telling me I needed to do something about that woman, and fast.
'Even without those looks,'
I was only going along with it because I had a purpose.
Feeling that the time was gradually approaching, I stared at the front stage.
[Then the next act is───Destroy Metal City, everyone give them a big round of applause!]
"".....???""
Destroy Metal City.
The band name for me, Mai, and Minerva.
I rose from my seat, looked at the two of them, and said.
"We can just stop time."
""Ah.""
Why were they acting like this wasn't a daily occurrence?
I turned slightly back to look at Hestia and said.
"Open your eyes wide and watch."
"I'll look forward to it, our Hero♪"
Just don't expect too much.
As a side note.
Keyboard: Timeless Spirit (Chrono)
Bass: Alexander Wisdom (Athena)
Drums: Sky Devil (Mai)
[Hell Kaiser II is...not there! What is this, a fake DMC?!]
"Keuk...."
If it were up to me, I would've sent him to electric guitar too.
But Minerva adamantly refused, waving her hands, saying she absolutely couldn't become Hell Kaiser II leaving me aside.
Then I tried to make Mai do it, but Mai could only play drums.
As for me, I was a keyboard one-tool, so there was no other way——
—Clang!
[What?! Suddenly the window break...O-oh, woaaaaah! Hell Kaiser! Hell Kaiser II has appeared!]
"She's heeeere?!!"
Someone suddenly barged in.
A blue-haired woman wearing a mask.
Soon she skillfully plugged her jack into the speaker, then gave me a greeting with her eyes and said.
"It's been a while, Chrono!"
"U....Ur Nuniiiiiiim!!!"
Ur, no——Hell Kaiser II, joining complete.
[DMC....the perfect, flawless DMC has arrived!]
Along with the DJ's astonished shout.
"Now, let's do this, you bastards!!!"
""""""Waaaaaaahhh!!!""""""
A stage with the 'Goddess' was born.