70. Let's Get Married
70. Let's Get Married
First, to state the conclusion,
"Well, I've heard that gods really do just dish things out however they damn well please sometimes...."
"...Huuuuu."
I barely managed to understand.
To be precise, I survived thanks to her knowing my tastes so well.
'No matter how hungry I am, I wouldn't go as far as a kid....'
She had said my taste was busty women with plump asses like Mars, and only then could she let it slide.
In addition, the white wings attached to the girl's back and the faint divinity, among various other things, provided plenty of evidence that she wasn't 'human' in the first place, so that was part of it too.
"Still though... huh? Does it even make sense for a master to get pushed around by their summon like this?"
"Looking at the sorry state you're in, it'd make sense even if you hated it, wouldn't it?"
".....True enough."
Both arms, both legs in casts—legendary fashion.
Mars looked down at me blankly and asked casually,
"You're alive, right?"
"I'm alive. Thanks to you, I lived."
"Thanks to me?"
"Yeah."
I answered simply.
"I almost fucking died. That talisman you gave me, you know? I barely survived thanks to that."
"...You really did almost die..."
No,
I ended up in this state and she still doubted me?
Was she thinking I'd put on a performance wrapping both arms and both legs in casts just to deceive her? I looked up at Mars.
".............."
"....Uh, hey. Why are you crying?"
Tuk.
Tududuk.
Tears fell.
It wasn't just flowing—it was outright falling.
"Euk───fuck...!"
Mars roughly wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
She tried somehow to hide the tears, but she couldn't conceal the ones falling in between.
"Eu....heu....eup, kkeuyuk....heu-eup....!"
"...Don't cry. Why are you crying? I'm the one who actually wants to cry."
"Th-that's... why...!!"
Because...
Because I'm such a fucking idiot...!!
....The reason for crying was remarkably novel.
Mars finally collapsed to her knees on the floor and buried her face in the bedsheet.
"Fuck....fuck! Fuuuuuuuck!!!"
"....Didn't they teach you to be quiet around patients?"
"Kkeu-eup....! Kkeok.....kkeuyuk....!"
"Yeah, good girl."
I wanted to at least stroke her head, but with my hands and feet in this state, it was impossible.
Still, when I reassured her with just words, Mars hiccuped and swallowed her breath, her tears.
"Fu....uck....useless, useless piece of shit...! Why did you run away... why, whyyy...! You didn't think about staying and fighting alongside me, you just ran away...!"
Th-this useless bastard! Useless bitch!
How the hell can someone like you be the Apostle of Ares!
She tried to keep her voice down as much as possible, but the words that eventually spilled out soured my mood too.
'But what could I do?'
It was obvious her mental state was shattered.
If anything, it was a relief she hadn't snapped to her senses and charged in trying to fight.
If that had happened, between fighting and protecting, wouldn't my head have cracked in more ways than one?
"Sorry... sorry... I-I'll do better from now on... so even if it seems like I'll die—no, even if I do die, I'll die right beside you...!"
"No, if it looks like you'll die, at least one of us needs to survive."
"Then fuck it, I'll die and you live!"
"Oh."
That loyalty just—
"Thinking you died, for a whole fucking week I felt like absolute shit!"
"Oooh.....?"
...That's loyalty, right?
In any case, when someone cries like that for one person, I shouldn't attach weird meanings to it.
With a pure heart, opening my whole heart, I answered toward Mars.
"Hey. You know what I thought about while I was stabbing that troll bastard in the heart?"
"Kkeu-eu-euyuk.....what... what, that you wanted to fucking slap my cheek to hell?"
"No."
"Then my ass? Fuck, you want me to go grab a whip right now?"
"What the hell kind of bastard do you normally see me as...."
The situation was getting subtly weird somehow, but whatever, I let it go.
I smiled at Mars as much as I could and said,
"I love you."
"!..........."
The words I'd wanted to convey.
"Truly, sincerely. I love you."
"........Uu....euyuk...."
With no ulterior motive, just my genuine, whole heart.
At first it was because I hit Bond Rank 10, and on top of my reaction to that, I'd grown fond of her in various ways.
There was a feeling of not wanting to lose her, and a purely physical desire too.
"So, Mars."
But
The me right now was a little different from back then.
If back then it was just 'inevitably' and 'sexually' drawn to her,
"Marry me."
"......You fu-ucking, bastard...!"
Fuck....
Fuu-uuuck...!
Mars's eyes trembled softly.
Her lips wobbled and twitched sloppily, then stretched all the way down, then went back up again—it was so damn cute that
"I'll let you live with only blood on your hands."
"Kkeuk... eup, heuaaaaahhh!!!"
Mars threw herself right into my arms.
"Fuck! FUUUUCK!!"
I'm gonna have babies!
I'm gonna have a fuckton of your babies!
I'm gonna pop out a full raid team (32 people)!
"Me too... me toooooo...!"
I'm gonna make your kids live with only blood on their hands tooooooo!!!!
...
..
.
For the record,
"Um, patient? It's about time for your medication..."
"".............""
This was a hospital.
"And the patients in the other rooms are complaining it's too noisy..."
""..........Ah.""
Not only was I not alone here,
"On top of that, your friends are waiting outside right now..."
"Huh?"
Friends? All of a sudden?
What's that supposed to mean, nurse?
I hastily looked past the door.
"H-Hi..?"
"....I saw and heard nothing."
"Well... I do have Ter, soooo?"
"....Oh my."
What the hell, why was everyone here?
Wondering what was going on, I looked at Mars.
".....Ah."
"Hey."
She seemed to have forgotten.
Well, if someone you thought had died turned out to be alive, I'd probably be surprised too.
I acknowledged it.
Anyway, a sexy and cute girlfriend was nice to look at no matter what she did.
....If you ask whether something's gotten into my eyes, YES I AM!
*****************
Once we sorted out the story,
"For a whole week...?"
"Yeah. Mars was incredibly worried, you know? For the first three days, she just sat in the hospital room and stared only at Chrono, they say?"
".....Really?"
"...What, jealous?"
How could I be jealous.
It was simply adorable.
Mars turned her head aside as if embarrassed, but maybe because of that, I could see her brightly flushed cheeks and earlobes without her hiding them.
'So cute!'
This uselessly cute aspect—
No, now it was usefully cute.
I enjoyed it when I saw it. That alone was more than enough purpose.
"Ah, speaking of which, Mars. Aren't you going to show 'that'?"
"!,....'That'... well... uhm...."
At Yuno's words, Mars mumbled for a moment.
Then she got up from her spot, opened the wardrobe across the room, and started taking something out.
"....Oh... oooh....!"
A small paper bag.
From inside it came a single headband.
Mars put it on and showed it to me.
"How is it. Wanna bend me over and fuck me from behind right now?"
"....Whoa."
I wanted to put a leash on her right then and there and pound her from behind.
I mean, I had some doubts about what the hell I was doing in front of other people, but
"But you know what?"
Mars softly put her mouth to my ear and said,
"Actually, there's a tail too."
".........."
Th-that, by tail, you mean...
"If you do it while pulling on it, it'd be fucking amazing, right?"
"Ah."
This fucking bitch, seriously.
"....Chrono, you seem full of energy."
"..............."
I ignored Merk's words.
I mean, man, when your girlfriend—hello?—brings fanservice CG like that when you haven't even gotten tired of the novelty yet, a guy's heart just gives right in.
If my body had been normal, I'd have pounced on her right then, you know?
"Th-that's all coming out."
"Huh? What is?"
"Chrono's thoughts are...."
"..........Um."
Seems the medicine was kicking in rather well.
Come to think of it, my head was a bit hazy and my body hurt less—the drug effects were gradually circulating.
"Hmmmn?"
"....Hey?"
Merk had a strange look in her eyes.
Then she casually asked me,
"What type of girl does Chrono like?"
"A woman like Mars."
"..............."
"What."
Jealous?
Pure love was supposed to be confident.
"Oooh... then! Then the next favorite person! Pick one from among us!"
"Uhhm...."
The next favorite person among them, huh.
That was already decided.
"Yuno."
"Ehhh? The reason?"
"Because she's pitiful."
"...........?"
"Uh... am I, why am I being treated as a pitiful child?"
Was she asking because she really didn't know?
"Watching you get strung along with hope torture is frustrating, that's why."
"....If Chrono were my lover, what would you do?"
"If you were my lover...."
Right.
As far as I knew from my original story knowledge,
"I'd have to get you pregnant."
".......Huh?"
"Because the anxiety disorder you have gets better if you get pregnant."
"................"
This was that thing, what was it.
In Yuno's case, if she entered a dungeon and her mental state broke down, she would demand impregnation sex.
There was only one way to fix this. Getting pregnant and carrying a child herself restored her mentality.
Conversely, even if she was raped by other NTR villains and ended up with child, she'd devote herself to that child and her mentality would recover.
This was precisely why she could become the true main heroine of NTR Academy.
At first, when she got NTR'd, her mentality would chip away, but if you just went "oh well" and glossed over it after seeing her mind recover at some point, you'd eventually get to see the shocking and horrifying CG where she actually already had a home and child with Geum Taeyang.
'It's shocking in so many ways, that one....'
How was she supposed to be the true Protagonist, yet she got impregnated by all sorts of villains?
Finally, there was even the Queen of the Abyss route where she got impregnated and corrupted by the monsters of the Abyss.
Unlocking that one itself was nearly impossible...
...Instead, if you did unlock it, a new H CG would be unlocked.
Put another way, it was a CG you could only see by deliberately NTR-ing Yuno, letting the Abyss monsters impregnate her, then overcoming that and mounting her again—a grotesque process to get through, and───why did I know all that?
'Heh.'
I was the bastard who deserved to die.
But back then, I really wanted to see it so badly.
"I'm sorrryyy....."
"....Chrono."
"I just, whenever I look at you, I can't help but feel sorry. I really, really want you to be happyyy....."
"............."
Without a word, Yuno held my hand tightly.
"Hooom, well then. Looks like it's already decided, but who's your third favorite?"
"Third?"
Merk's question.
If it was the third favorite among these, well...
"Minerva."
"Booo—so that means I'm last place?"
"Uh....."
Well, yeah.
"I mean, you're a thief, after all."
".........Huh?"
I knew because I'd been burned once.
And I'd been burned pretty, quite severely—so I knew.
"You go around pickpocketing academy kids' pockets, right?"
".........I don't?"
"And when things blow up, you slip out like it wasn't you."
"....I said I don't?"
"You keep that up and later no one's gonna believe you."
"It's not! I said it's not! I said it's not!"
Bbyaaaaaah, Merk screamed.
Then she got up, huffed and puffed, and turned away as she said,
"I'm disappointed in Chrono! I never imagined you'd see Merk as a bad person like that!"
"It's not imagination, it's reality."
"Eut.....uu-euyuk!"
Merk ran out of the hospital room.
I had no intention of stopping her. I had no plans to raise her affection in the first place, and Mars alone was enough for me.
As I lay there vacantly on the bed, Yuno continued asking me.
"Chrono. Is everything you said earlier true?"
"Y-yeah... it's all true. When I first found out about it, I grabbed the back of my neck too....."
"...Then, could it be, Ter as well...?"
"He's probably giving them to her, calling them gifts. Although the price will keep getting steeper."
He probably couldn't stop.
Because I'd been the same at first.
The more the amount I gave increased, the more my Bond Rank went up.
'But who could have known...'
Whether you spent money or not wasn't actually what mattered.
If anything, when you spent money, the events at important choice points would disappear.
What they call the "just get screwed if you don't know" pattern.
"......I-I'll be heading back now."
"Eeeh~~~ go back safe~~~"
Yuno also got up.
"...Chrono."
"Hmm?"
As for Minerva,
"Merk is my friend."
"Yeah... she is, isn't she...?"
"Groundless slander against my friend is... difficult for me to just let slide."
"Do you really think it's groundless?"
"..............."
Probably not.
On top of that,
"You already know too, don't you?"
"....She promised me she would never do it again."
"A promise..."
Making a promise with a thief?
Wasn't that like putting fish in front of a cat?
"What I remember is... right."
That was probably it.
"Merk's room, the small safe under her bed."
"What?"
"The password is probably... uhm....."
"............"
So,
tooo...
...
..
.
"Keo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o........"
"....Chrono? Are you perhaps asleep?"
The medicine's effects were,
stronger than I thought.