192. Please give me a refund.
192. Please give me a refund.
"...What's this now?"
The next morning.
When I went to throw away the chocolate wrapper, I noticed a slip of paper tucked into the back of the packaging.
Numbers that were probably a phone number. I stared at the number for a moment, mulling it over.
'What number is this?'
A brief moment of pondering.
The reasonable conclusion I could draw from it was.
"....You've really done it now!"
No wonder I'd thought she came back so late.
*************
I decided to think it over carefully.
Our child, who normally stayed quiet.
One day, she suddenly came crawling in past 3 a.m., crying and sobbing.
She wept so hard her eyes might pop out, and she nearly shrieked.
No matter how you looked at her, she didn't look normal.
On top of that, she wouldn't answer even when I asked what happened.
'I'm anxious.'
I couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but it was an oddly unsettling situation.
And yet, on the chocolate she'd given me as a 'gift,' there was even a 'phone number' written on it?
No matter how you looked at it, it could only mean one thing.
"I'm sooo sorry about our child!!!"
".....???"
The child who'd come back after making a mess.
A kind-hearted adult who happened to be passing by must have helped her.
But it wasn't something that could be smoothed over with mere goodwill; it was a matter serious enough to warrant a claim for damages.
That conclusion at least fit together in my head.
"..........."
"Tsk. Bow your head. That's no way to treat someone who helped you!"
"..................."
Rhea looked up at me with extremely displeased eyes.
When she tried to forcefully lift her head, I grabbed it and pushed it down, making her bow repeatedly....
"Um... I... actually received help from that child..."
".....Huh?"
...
..
.
To sum up the situation, it went like this.
While returning from shopping as usual, a strange man whose name she didn't know suddenly grabbed and abducted her. Then he abruptly showed her a phone screen, casting [Look Here (Kochiomi Ro)]. Even now, it was incomprehensible, but the man just sent her back like that. After that, her feet carried her back to the man of their own accord, day after day. Every day, the man made her [Look Here (Kochiomi Ro)], and gradually she came to feel that whatever he said was perfectly natural. Going to the container where the man was after work. Aimlessly staring at the man's phone as well.
"Even... selling my own body..."
And so, that day.
She stepped into the red-light district for the first time.
She prepared to receive customers and waited aimlessly for a client to come.
It was a situation that, if things had gone even slightly wrong, could have left her with a stain she'd never be able to wash away.
"But then that child stepped in for me... I really can't say how fortunate I am."
"............."
Ultimately, she was able to come home without her body being defiled.
And during this whole process, she said she'd left her phone number out of a desire to repay her gratitude—whether for taxi fare or just a general sense of thankfulness.
I quietly turned my body toward Rhea and....
"Sorry."
".............."
I bowed my head all the way down.
No, well... the circumstances were just too plausible, you know?
In the first place, when you see a kid who comes back late at night, do you normally think, 'Oh, she must have been exhausted rescuing wrongfully trapped women in the red-light district!'?
If only she'd said something, even late, but she kept her mouth completely shut—how was I supposed to know the whole story?
Am I the weird one here? Am I the only one being weird?
"...Not being trusted is already a familiar thing for me."
"I'm so sorryyyyy!!!"
That one line just popped out of Rhea.
It stabbed my conscience mercilessly, so I bowed my head again and again.
Alright, Rhea. What should I do?
Shall I order everything on the menu from top to bottom?
Should I do a grand bow? A full genuflection?!
".............."
Rhea looked down at me without a word.
Just silently. Quietly. With a gaze that seemed to wonder how long I'd keep this up.
In my haste, I ordered at least a hot cocoa and handed it to Rhea.
"......!"
Her expression seemed to soften a little, as if the sweet taste pleased her.
As expected. No matter how small, a woman is still a woman, huh.
"A honey bread + cafe latte combo!"
"..........Hmph."
When a woman gets upset, feed her something sweet.
Once sweetness entered her mouth, her expression gradually relaxed.
On top of that, I even clapped my hands and praised Rhea.
"You went all the way there all on your own and helped those women who'd been unfairly captured? Our Rhea is amazing. She must have been so grateful, right? That lady in front of us... uh..."
...Would she get mad if I called her 'ma'am'?
No, that's not what matters now.
"That pretty lady in front of us must have been so thankful she even gave you her contact info, right?"
You're my pride.
Rhea, you're my number one!
Without our Rhea, how would those women have even managed?
"....Hmph....Hmm....Hmm...."
Ujjujju. Ujjujjujju.
Pretending not to, her gaze kept softening.
Whether the merciless shower of praise eased her mood, Rhea silently tore the honey bread apart and popped it into her mouth.
'For now... did she calm down?'
A light sigh.
At the same time, I closed my eyes and recalled.
'[Look Here (Kochiomi Ro)], huh...'
No matter how I looked at it, this had to be Kochiomi Ro's doing.
Except the one thing I couldn't understand was that Kochiomi Ro was supposed to be the boss of Part 2.
Part 1 hadn't even properly ended yet, and the Part 2 boss was already starting to move, like...
...Well, from the time of Minerva onwards, I'd already realized that the original story's information had practically turned into garbage.
'Come to think of it, I'm one to talk.'
My own actions, the Part 1 boss, had changed from the start.
There was no reason the Part 2 boss couldn't change too.
No, if anything, having been expelled from the academy, he might be acting more boldly and aggressively to get revenge.
"To the point of building a red-light district outside the city, no less..."
For now, I remembered.
A Bad End that surfaces if you let Kochiomi Ro keep operating.
The ending where all Twelve Apostles become infected by Kochiomi Ro's brainwashing and turn into puppets.
Since he's a big shot who can even hypnotize the gods' apostles, swallowing up ordinary people would be child's play.
And now that he'd left the academy, the scale of his operation had swelled beyond imagination.
".......Hmm."
A sudden thought.
Hypnosis is ultimately a 'mental' issue, right?
And if you considered the principle, it was just more complex and detailed—its true nature was close to 'Charm' or 'Allure.'
Just like Queen Siren's, or the 'Wise Mother and Good Wife' and 'Enchanting Beauty' that Mai once cast on me.
And the way to resolve it was in the [Power Chord].
'...Maybe I can finish this easily.'
It was only an assumption for now, so there was nothing to be done.
I wrapped up my thoughts and lifted my head.
"Anyway, I'm glad nothing huge ended up happening."
"Truly... I barely survived thanks to that child..."
The gaze she directed at Rhea.
Eyes that wanted nothing but to express gratitude, to repay her.
I rose from my seat, looked at the woman in front of me, and said,
"Please send the call before 10 o'clock. I'll take care of bringing her."
"Pardon?"
"After all, it's my... little sister who did the good deed, not me. I did absolutely nothing."
"Ah....."
On top of that, whether I intended it or not, I had pulled a goddamn troll move—I had no right to ride on her coattails for free.
I told Rhea to enjoy herself, then got up from my seat and headed for the exit──
"──Rhea?"
"..........."
I couldn't leave.
A small hand held tightly onto my sleeve just as I tried to stand.
'Maybe...'
To me, the one who'd just told her to bow her head...
"You want me to stay together with you...?"
[Heck, we're practically kin!]
I somehow felt like a Busan man was projected behind Rhea's back.
I never imagined our child had that kind of big-hearted woman quality.
As I looked at Rhea again with a vessel as wide as the great ocean, Rhea quietly shook her head.
"...No?"
".........."
Nod nod.
She said she didn't mean for us to be together.
...Then what does it mean right now?
"................."
".........??"
Silence.
Without giving me an answer, there was no way to know.
Rhea, as if she felt frustrated by the situation too, picked up the note in front of her and placed it in my hand.
".....Huh?"
The note with the woman's phone number, now in my hand.
What was that supposed to mean?
"So... you want me to receive the repayment instead of you?"
".............."
Rhea nodded.
But, Rhea. This is because you did a good deed, not me. I did absolutely nothing, you know?
In the first place, that older—no, young lady? What should I call her? Anyway, she came here wanting to repay *you*, not me, the unrelated party.
"..............."
Rhea grew more and more shrunken.
I was getting just as frustrated, right around the time I was about to order an iced Americano.
"I'm here!"
"....Mai?"
Mai suddenly appeared.
She said she'd barely managed to follow using the 'Wise Mother and Good Wife' trait... Now that I think about it, you weren't around last night either, were you?
"Don't tell me you two went out together?"
"Huh? Rhea told you everything?"
"Rhea...? No, never mind that."
So you two went out together? To the red-light district? Why?
The situation just wasn't adding up.
Mai continued,
"Rhea said she wanted to give Big Brother a present."
"..........Uh, yeah."
That's a bit bewildering.
Let's hear her out for now.
"She thought about what Big Brother likes. What you want. The result she came up with──Big Brother likes women, right?"
".......Hey?"
The process sounded off.
Mai kept talking.
"Since you like women, she decided to give you a woman as a present. But she didn't have money. So──she decided to sell her own body to earn some."
".............."
Really?
I turned my head toward Rhea.
"...........?"
She was nibbling on her honey bread as if wondering if she'd done something wrong.
Right. The kid has a few things a bit... off. If Mai is like that right now, there's no way Rhea would be different.
Still...
"You call yourself her older sister... and instead of stopping her when she went off the rails, what were you doing!"
"The look in her eyes said she'd go alone even if I stopped her."
"Still, there are limits..."
"I planned to step in and help if it got dangerous. And no matter how tough it got, if we called Big Brother, you'd stop time and come help us, right?"
"Well, that's..."
Sure, that's true, but.
The idea that it all circled back to them having 'something to rely on' and that's why they let it play out—it was disorienting in many ways.
So. The two of them really went into the red-light district together and came back?
"The process is a bit different, but... overall it's similar. Anyway, after that, it's just as Big Brother already knows."
".....It's insane."
So, what's the conclusion?
A chill was creeping up my spine, suggesting it was about to be a completely absurd wrap-up.
"It's simple."
Mai looked at the note with the phone number on it and said,
"The note we received as repayment."
Put another way, the woman who had to 'repay the favor.'
The woman right in front of Chrono's eyes.
"We're giving her to Big Brother as a present."
"............"
"Of course, for 'that' kind of purpose."
"Ah, fuck."
I really want a refund.