21. NTR Rank 1
21. NTR Rank 1
A heroine lay collapsed before my eyes.
At this moment, choose the most appropriate answer.
1. Help her.
2. Life is cruel. Put a bullet between her eyebrows.
3. If you just leave her alone, a teacher will take her anyway.
4. Isn't option 3 the closest to the right answer?
5. Commit suicide(?)
"Fuck."
A single curse slipped out unconsciously.
I stared at Mars without moving.
"Hoo... hoo..."
Her breaths were slightly dry.
Her face, reflected in the moonlight, looked a bit redder than usual.
Her lips were parched. Her hair was stuck to her skin. Her skin looked dry, as if she had stopped sweating entirely.
'She looks sick.'
Normally, at this stage, it was right for a teacher to take her away.
If she collapsed on the spot, the severity must have been considerable.
But the teacher hadn't taken Mars away and had left her alone until she collapsed.
...Left her alone? No, that wasn't it. Thinking back on Mars's personality, it probably wasn't that she was left alone, but rather——
"She refused, didn't she? To go back."
I spoke with my head lowered.
No answer came.
"I know you're there, ma'am."
"...Hmm. I didn't think I was obvious enough for a cadet to notice."
"You really are there...?"
"........."
I took a stab in the dark on the off chance, and I really didn't expect you to actually be there.
The teacher, who had been subtly concealing herself behind a tree, soon approached Mars.
"Step aside, Cadet Chrono."
"What are you planning to do?"
"I must take her."
"........."
It was a natural course of action.
The teacher slowly walked toward Mars——and I blocked her path.
"...Cadet Chrono?"
"............"
Perhaps
It might have been nothing more than my own delusion, but
"The kid, she said it while looking at me."
Thank goodness.
Thank goodness it's Chrono.
Only after confirming my face could Mars release the tension in her body and collapse.
"She probably hit her limit long before. But she didn't want to collapse, didn't want to give up. So she endured with guts, with spite, with sheer stubbornness."
"...However, Cadet Chrono. As it stands, Cadet Mars is no longer in a condition to continue this exam."
"That was true even before she saw me, wasn't it?"
".....What do you mean?"
It didn't mean anything in particular.
I just, vaguely remembered.
"If I hadn't been here, Mars would have kept enduring until tomorrow."
Event Condition 1. When Mars's Bond Rank was 0
Event Condition 2. When Minerva's Bond Rank was 1 or higher
Event Condition 3. When no contact had been made on the island until Day 3
The special event
'Mars's Resistance' would begin.
"Endure, endure, endure again, and then—"
The event content was simple.
You could roughly think of it as a raid boss, with the content being to form a party with Minerva and subjugate Mars.
"She probably... would have taken at least one more person down by any means necessary."
During that process, Mars would trigger her Frenzy beyond its limits, enter the 'Advent' state, and duel the Protagonist.
But this, well, should I call it the so-called trope?
That trope where someone is trash when they join your party, but the moment they appear as an enemy, they show strength on par with the final boss.
During the event raid, that trope activated without fail, and a damn difficult raid would begin.
Of course, upon victory, Mars's Bond Rank would increase by 1 and the 'Advent' skill tree would unlock, a route primarily used for speedruns——but that was something only done on a Strong New Game or by rotten veterans.
And the Protagonist, whether he intended to or not, had pulled that trigger, but—
"But in the midst of all that, she met me, relaxed her tension, and collapsed like this...."
Honestly, this was outside my expectations.
Even if Mars were to collapse in the first place, the place she was supposed to collapse wasn't here but somewhere else, a special event map prepared for it.
So why didn't she go there, but instead accurately pinpointed and came to where I was?
"....Haaaaaaah."
In my heart, I wanted to just give up.
Leave her alone, pretend I didn't see anything.
But really, no, honestly, she could've just collapsed without a word, so why did she say such a thing at the very end....
"Please don't take her."
Ultimately, I pulled the collapsed Mars into my arms.
"I'll, somehow manage."
".....Cadet Chrono."
The teacher looked at me calmly, as if pondering something, and asked.
"Helping someone in a survival environment means losing that much of your own, means incurring a risk burden on yourself."
Especially for Cadet Mars, who had barely escaped being chased by someone, that risk burden would be doubled.
"Even so, will you still take care of Cadet Mars?"
"....If I leave Mars here pretending not to know her in this situation, who will save me the next time I fall into a situation like this?"
In truth, even aside from that——
I didn't want to pretend not to see a struggling girl right in front of my eyes.
"Even if it becomes a burden to you?"
"I can handle it."
"You won't be able to advance to Class A."
"If I was aiming for advancement in the first place, I wouldn't have taken a 10kg penalty."
"....There's nothing in this that will benefit you."
"Why wouldn't there be a benefit?"
I answered towards the teacher.
"I'll gain a friend here."
"....Do as you please."
The teacher soon scattered like mist and disappeared from sight.
She had completely left——or not quite. I could feel a presence watching from somewhere.
'So she'll keep watching until the very end.'
Anyway, since I'd already taken on the task, it was right to do my best.
I lifted Mars into my arms.
"Kkyuk...?!"
The so-called 'princess carry.'
However, Mars's physique itself was enough to devour me, so I couldn't even jokingly say she was 'light.'
"...Did I say I'd help for nothing?"
Thankfully, I'd trained regularly so I could endure it; if it had been me on the first day in this situation, dragging her along would have been the best I could do.
"First, let's lay her down."
I opened the tent and unzipped the sleeping bag.
Opening the long zipper on the side, the sleeping bag separated like a blanket and a mattress.
In my heart I wanted to just tell her to get in herself, but with her in this state, I had no choice.
"For now, let's say this is done."
I activated Present Sight toward Mars.
Name: Mars
Status: Poisoned, Starvation, Dehydration, Exhaustion
-Apostle of Ares. As Lord Cronus watched, he clicked his tongue, saying, 'It doesn't seem like a bad idea to just leave her to die like that...'.
"....Heumi."
Lord Cronus is scary.
First, to treat the poisoning symptoms, I rummaged through my bag and took out an antidote potion.
Actually, I hadn't brought it myself; I received it from Minerva earlier.
"Now, I just need to get her to drink this——"
"...Cough!... Ugh... Uuuu....."
Mars kept letting out dry coughs.
It didn't look like she would just drink on her own if I held the opening to her lips.
So that meant I had to somehow get her to drink it myself, but....
"...Is this right?"
A method suddenly flashed through my head.
Was this right? It was something I'd only seen in books, in novels—would it actually be fitting in reality?
Even when I thought about it myself, it was absurd, but I really couldn't think of a better method.
"Sssss... Anyway, she probably won't hit me later."
To begin with, she looked to be in such bad shape that she wouldn't remember well anyway.
I immediately put my thought into action.
*************
Meanwhile, around that time, in Ter's case.
".....Hmm."
He was waiting.
Continuously, waiting.
It was about time for her to come soon, but——
"Ter, what are you doing there?"
"Huh? Ah. Nothing."
Sending Yuno, who showed a slight interest, back to her spot and waiting again, Ter.
"Hi Ter! Were you waiting for me?"
"...Merk."
However, the person he was waiting for didn't come, and someone completely different showed up.
"Hehe, just kidding! Kidding!"
Merk cleared her throat a few times and then clasped her hands behind her back and said.
"Ter, join hands with us!"
"...Join hands?"
"Exactly as it sounds, Ter."
Merk explained.
Recently, Mars had attacked the base where Minerva and Merk were staying.
They had gone out to counterattack but ultimately missed her, and now Minerva was out searching again, while Merk had been going around looking for allies who could become fighting strength.
"It was tough hiding and moving around while searching constantly, you know? Without the Main God, who knows how many times it could've been a disaster!"
"....So, you're saying I should join too?"
"It's not a threat. Just a suggestion, that's all."
"............"
Ter covered his mouth with his hand and briefly sank into thought.
'Strange...'
Something had changed.
Though I didn't know from where, the big picture had changed at some point.
'...The future changed?'
Definitely, before, Mars had stayed around this area.
Avoiding the search, hiding her body among the densely wooded forest—thinking back on how hard the final battle was, even now those surroundings vividly flickered in my mind.
A fixed future.
A past already once experienced.
Because of that, I moved to take a step further and recruit Mars, but something went awry right at the end.
'If it's become like this, then indeed...'
Should I join? No, no. No matter what, no way.
Even if I couldn't make her an ally, she must not become an enemy.
To prepare for Ragnarok, the Great War that would befall Earth in the future, I needed to share love with the eleven women.
And since Mars was also included among those eleven women above——
"Sorry. As I said, I——"
Right before he could say, I don't think I can join.
A single message floated before Ter's eyes.
[Apostle of Ares — NTR Rank 1]
[Lord Zeus expresses discomfort.]
"......Huh?"
Why?
How come?
For a moment, Ter stood dumbfounded by the incomprehensible message, the sequence of letters.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?"
".............."
Ter quietly stared at the message window.
'NTR?'
Mars? To someone?
That foul-tempered, tyrant-like, whiny tomboy who annoyed everyone?
I couldn't understand it, and it didn't make sense.
That personality wreck, being embraced by someone—— that was just——
"——Ah."
Chrono.
The male cadet whom Yuno had introduced as one of her team members when he teamed up with Minerva and Merk.
Certainly, at the karaoke, Mars had shown a continuous display of disliking and pushing him away, so I'd brushed it off thinking Mars was just being Mars——but perhaps, he might be the culprit of this incident.
"....Merk."
"Decided?"
"Yeah."
Ter made his decision.
"The search operation, I'll help out too."
"Okay! A strong person like Ter is always welcome!"
Find Mars.
Break her with the sword and win the duel.
Build a bond, raise her affection, and make her look only at me again, even now.
Resolving that he would overcome the NTR villain's clutches, Ter extended his hand toward Merk.
"....What? Mars?!!"
As it turned out, it was an arbitrary action without any explanation to Yuno——
But to Ter, whose eyes had already turned to the NTR villain, that was not a matter of much importance.