Chapter 60 – Ah~ It’s Ruined~ (2)
The morning was bright, and Elia got up from her bed with wide eyes. Normally, her daily routine would be to wake up before the sun rises, before her colleagues wake up, and after washing her face, pray to Goddess Luminous.
However, now Elia was in a situation where she woke up later than Viola, who was the laziest among the hero’s companions. It was not like the girl who always thoroughly restrained herself and led a regular life, and this, of course, was greatly influenced by what happened the night before.
“…Ha.”
Elia’s heart was very disturbed the moment her faith in the goddess Luminous, which had never been shaken ever since she was the youngest she could remember, was shaken. And because of his presence that squeezed into it, I couldn’t sleep comfortably.
“You’re crazy, Elia. Even if you’re crazy, you’re still crazy.”
Elia covered her tired face with both hands and bowed her head. Apparently, he shuddered in fear that he might really die when he thrust a sharp weapon made of magic mist into his throat, but when he got away from him and lay down on the bed, his face never left his mind. And Elia judged that she was not in her right mind.
The moment her faith was shaken and the door to her heart opened, he cast a spell inside her to prevent her from doing nonsense, while spying on her dark desires.
If there is a problem, at this time Elia did not lose her reason even in the midst of confusion, so she also unintentionally witnessed the dark side of herself that he identified. And the secret desires of oneself unexpectedly encountered, the dark desires that can never be disclosed to others…
“It was the first time that human being had such an expression on his face. Yes, I guess… I must be weird…”
The dark desire that he himself was not aware of, it was a terrible sight that was difficult to describe in words. And Elia couldn’t believe that she had such a desire. Somewhere in my heart I acknowledged that it was true, but I also rationally rejected it and pushed it away.
“…Whoa, let’s calm down. Nothing happened yesterday.”
Elia desperately denied her dark side and regained her normal self. After hastily washing and praying, she went downstairs, where her colleagues were waiting. The tower of the Smoke Witch Cigarette Tabacona is divided into ten floors, each with six to eight rooms, and in the center is a mechanical device that can move up and down stairs and an elevator? Elia went downstairs through the stairs.
Women such as Hawk, Viola, and Elia occupied the second floor, the hero and Gordon occupied the third floor, and the owner of the tower, Tabacona, had a room on the ninth floor.
“Huh? Elia, are you okay?”
“Uh, huh? All of a sudden?”
“No… I was a little worried. You, who usually got up earlier than anyone else to get ready, came last today. So I was wondering if something happened.”
“Ah…”
In response to Luke’s sincere concern, Elia unknowingly tried to reveal her circumstances as usual. Elia was Luke’s childhood friend who grew up in the same village before he was chosen as a hero, and she never avoided an answer when Luke asked something like this.
However, not today. The moment Elia was about to mention what happened yesterday with Ragnar Armageddon, a scene unfolded before her eyes with a tingling sensation in her chest.
It was his own dark desire that he unintentionally witnessed yesterday. Another side of himself that he had been desperately denying and rejecting just a moment ago.
My own heart that I don’t want anyone to know. Even if it was a colleague, even if it was Luke, whom he had known for a long time, he could never reveal this much. Yeah, never like this…
“…Elia?”
At Luke’s worried call, Elia suddenly regained her sanity. The pain in her chest and the hallucinations before her eyes were gone, but she realized she had to choose her words carefully. That moment ago… It was probably a kind of warning from Ragnar Armageddon to keep the deal he made with him yesterday.
“Uh, yes. I’m fine. I just couldn’t sleep, so I was a little restless, but I was tired…”
“Okay? Then don’t overdo it and take a break.”
“Huh? But…”
“Because Ellia is diligent. She usually works harder than anyone else, so if you feel unwell, it’s better to just rest. Get well rested and get well soon.”
It’s not because I’m not particularly in good physical condition that I couldn’t sleep, and it doesn’t affect my daily life to the extent that I didn’t sleep for one night. But Elia was a bit tired, and needed time to clear her still confused mind. So she picked her choice that she would never have normally done.
“…Then, shall we take a little rest today?”
Compromise.
First time is hard, second time is easy.
Life is too hard to push one’s beliefs as they are, and humans sometimes compromise in situations that confront them. Things like looking for a replacement when you don’t have something you want, or saying that since you usually study hard, you can play for as long as today. And a man who has compromised once will compromise again when a similar situation arises. Of course, there are cases where this is not the case, but humans who have compromised once before will compromise again with a very high probability.
Because that’s the easy way. It is a road that can be reached easily and quickly without having to deliberately go far.
If she was the usual Elia, who was more thorough with herself than anyone else, even when Luke asked if she would take a break while worrying, she would never have rested unless she was really on the verge of collapsing. However, Elia, who was more tired than usual because her mind was disturbed by Rag or Armageddon and had lost her sleep, gave in to temptation too easily.
The power of Ragnar Armageddon is to ‘corrupt’ the target by discovering her opponent’s dark desire and making it manifest. However, in the case of a person with a weak will, or a person whose mind is shaken for some reason, even if Baron Armageddon does not particularly stimulate, just confirming the person’s dark desire will gradually reveal that tendency. Even if it’s something you haven’t been aware of yet.
Ranger Hawk or Huntress in the warrior party are the most representative examples.
She suffered the pain of being her companion several times in the past, and in order to be freed from that pain, she became a strong elf who did not need her companion and could exist alone. However, on one side of her, there was a desire to be loved by the opposite sex as a woman, and in a state of distraction at the thought that she might lose a colleague again, that desire was fulfilled with even the slightest stimulus from Ragnar Armageddon. It exploded so much that it reached the point where it opened its crotch to its own enemies.
The situation is not much different for Elia. Ragnar Armageddon did not write a whisper of corruption to Elia, but she, in a state where her lifelong belief in God was shaken, faced a dark desire she herself did not know, even if she did not like it, just because he confirmed her desire. It was a situation I was gradually drawn to.
As there is a saying that imagination is free, no matter how ugly your desires are, as long as you hold them alone without harming others, there is no big problem. A dark desire is an instinct that rationally understands what should not be revealed, but instinctively wants to follow it. It cannot be denied that dark desire is also one of his wishes.
But no one would have imagined.
This caring, sincere, self-disciplined, naive saintess who is very shy about sexual things…
Somewhere in her heart, she harbors a lust so insidious that even her baron, Ragnar Armageddon, who is said to be the incarnation of sexual desire, resigns.
*
“…It’s an unfamiliar ceiling.”
I must have closed my eyes at Mystrina’s mansion for the last time, but why did the first ceiling greet me when I opened my eyes? It’s not a normal ceiling either, it’s just a bizarre ceiling that looks like it’s inside the body of a monster.
I got up from bed Fortunately, the bed was normal and in good condition. As such, it did not fit in the slightest with the grotesque atmosphere of the room. In a six-walled room that arouses disgust and fear in the viewer at the same time, as if looking at it for just 10 seconds, your mental power will be cut off. The bed is made of a clean and fluffy cotton blanket and a mattress that is so good that you can fall asleep the moment you lie down. Rani. What is this gap?
[Ah, finally woke up. No, now that I think about it, this place is not real, so the expression that it happened doesn’t really fit?]
“…Who are you?”
[Ah, I mean. I’m late in introducing myself.]
A black shadow sitting on a throne made of red meat tentacles greeted me very warmly. It was hard to tell if it was a man or a woman, and the neutral voice, which was sometimes interspersed with noise, contained clear goodwill towards me, so it was quite embarrassing for me as a first-timer.
[Nice to meet you, Baron Ragnar Armageddon. I am one of the audience watching Luminus’ play, the one who lent the power you are using now, and I am your ardent fan.]
“And it looks like you’re the one who brought me here.”
[Anyway, if you want to have a private conversation, there’s no better option than pulling them into my space.]
From head to toe, the shadow was a heterogeneous figure composed only of black solid colors without distinction of light and shade. Of course, I couldn’t even tell what clothes he was wearing or what his face looked like. Because it was all black. But for some reason, I got the feeling that the shadow was smiling at me. No, he probably does. The Luminous Goddess said that there is one audience member who is kind to me. Is this the person?
[All discussions with Luminus have already ended. From the situation the young goddess is in, to her birthplace, everything.]
“What’s the story you want to do with me personally?”
[Okay… Then, first, let’s check what kind of situation you’re in. Do you have any idea what methods are being used by those who hinder you?]
“I’m guessing roughly. Of course, I haven’t been convinced by Luminus-nim, so it’s just an unfounded guess.”
[Ho-oh, is it? Then, where can I hear it?]
To be honest, this situation was unexpected for me. Being a being who can summon an being from another god’s world to his own world so easily means that the being in front of him is a being of a much higher rank than the Luminous Goddess. And since this world is outside the stage, even if I tell you what I’ve learned, there won’t be any distractions. Maybe by proving my abilities here, I might be able to drive out the intruders with the help of this audience.
“First of all… The obstruction was to end the journey of the hero chosen by the goddess Luminus and ruin the play she had set up. The method used for that was to hinder the growth of the hero’s party. The default value of the heroine’s hero is ‘ ‘Overcoming adversity’. It is a characteristic that grows rapidly whenever it overcomes hardships with a low probability of success. A group of individuals can defeat the darkness that can never be defeated even if the armies of various countries unite, and this dramatic growth is due to the correction of the main character. It is possible because of this.
So the saboteurs decided to take advantage of that trait of the hero. If you grow faster as you overcome difficult trials, you deliberately lower the difficulty of the trials to lower the growth of the warrior. In the short term, the warrior’s journey seems to be very smooth, but the growth of the warrior who did not receive the benefits of ‘overcoming adversity’ is below the average size set previously, so it is bound to be blocked by a wall someday, and then naturally the warrior’s journey will fail. It’s a very stealthy and natural way to ruin a play.
Perhaps the saboteurs were going to drastically weaken the four bosses with Chaos Fragments so that the hero could easily defeat them, and then have the hero be lashed out by the final boss, the Immortal Dragon. However, the plan is blocked along the way. The defeat of the warrior party, which was scheduled for the Immortal Dragon, happened on the line of the third boss, that Ragnar Armageddon.”
[Then why did their plan fail along the way?]
“Because I wasn’t in their reckoning. The saboteurs used ‘some kind of means’ to weaken the enemies the hero would defeat, but unfortunately I didn’t belong to the horse that could be controlled by that ‘some kind of means’, so their plan was in the way. It’s over. If the hero loses in the final boss battle, it’s over, but the level of defeat in the third boss battle before that can be dismissed as a kind of ‘unconditional defeat event’.”
[Then what do you think that ‘some kind of means’ is?]
“…”
Here is the problem. The oracle given to me by the Goddess Luminous, ‘Cherry Blossom Branches in Full Bloom’. The branches of the cherry blossoms that bloom in spring were lowered in autumn, that is probably a sign of the ‘some kind of means’ used by the saboteurs. And among the conversations I had with the goddess Luminous, there was only one content related to ‘cherry blossoms’. It was a story that came up by chance while having a conversation on a different subject, but since nothing else comes to mind, I’m probably right about what I think.
“That ‘some kind of means’… At first, I thought a lot about what it was. The only thing a god can use power outside of his field is in the world he’s assigned to. At the point when the warriors’ party made a plan to naturally perish, the saboteurs tried to handle the matter secretly without leaving any evidence that they were involved in the matter, but there If you use it, it’s a joke. If that’s the case, I can’t help but think that it’s the work of a god in charge of a field that exists in common between the two people who were killed earlier, but doesn’t exist for me, but if that were the case, there’s no way they’d come up with a plan that got stuck in the middle.”
[So, did you find out?]
“Yes. The ‘branch in full bloom’ that Goddess Luminus gave me as an oracle is proof. To be honest, there was only one story with ‘cherry blossoms’ in the conversations I had with Goddess Luminus.”
I said to the shadow that was presumed to be looking at me full of anticipation.
“Dear audience, have you ever seen the movie ‘The X’?”
