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Volume 3 Chapter 13.2

Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes

「Still, although I know I am in no place to say this, if you still do not dislike me as a person, I would ask you to please let me remain by you as a friend.」

「Of course. There wasn’t any problem with you personally, Primula. As a person, even I think you’re great. I just couldn’t see you in the way that you wanted, but I always was grateful to have you around.」

「That’s more than enough, then.」

　Primula said, lowering her head once and then leaving. At times like these, there was only one thing for men to do: watch them leave.

「No matter how many times I do this, it’s really tough, y’know……」

　Once Primula was completely out of sight, Tatsuya sighed as he expressed his innermost thoughts. Rejecting someone was tough not only on the one who confessed, but the one who rejected them as well. For Tatsuya, he was very similar to Hiroshi in how he wanted to avoid any confrontations–just in a slightly different way.

「I’d better do something to improve my mood too now.」

　Everything, including the results, was already obvious from the beginning, but it wouldn’t do for him to have a sunken expression on his face just because of that. In order to raise his spirits, Tatsuya opted to walk all the way back to the temporary base rather than use transportation magic.

「Now this is just vexing……」

「It’s rare to find figures that look so obviously evil.」

「If any normal person were to look at this, I bet their sanity parameters would plummet into the danger zone.」

　Opening the package that Makoto had given him, Hiroshi’s initial impression was probably the same impression anyone would get by looking at it.

「So what do you think？」

「Makoto-san, what the heck do ya expect me to say when ya thrust this creepy thing at me?」

「Ah, sorry sorry. How troublesome do you think the figure will be？」

「If we’re just breakin’ it then we can do it, but it’s gotta be in the right way or else things’ll prolly get sour.」

　After carefully scrutinizing the item, Hiroshi conveyed his thoughts straight to them, not even bothering to discuss how he arrived at the conclusion.

「So what even is that thing？」

「Interferes with the mental state of the target that it touches, making their thoughts go haywire. Think of it as dementia that constantly gets worse.」

「And apparently the person afflicted by this has no idea that they’re going mad, nor does anyone around them until the condition has worsened enough for them to notice.」

「Yup, that’s the gist, y’all. But it’s still different from dementia cuz ye can still remember that fact, so it’ll be even more of a drag than usual.」

　The troublesome thing about all of this was that it wasn’t miasma infiltrating one’s train of thought. It was unclear what type of mind control it was. All they knew was that restoring someone back to normal would be quite a hassle without counseling-related skills.

「Hiroshi-kun, can you take care of this by tomorrow morning?」

「Well yeah, gotta do somethin’ about it.」

　Hiroshi answered carelessly as he stared gloomily at the evil god figure. It occasionally would exhibit an intimidating aura. Despite being able to change one’s cognition and thoughts, the figure was actually ineffective as long as you kept using your mental resistance from the outside. And Hiroshi’s mental resistance had already been powerful enough from the outset to practically cancel out any sort of grand magic, plus his skill had been secretly increasing with all the crafting he had done up to this point and even more so after arriving in Farlane. No evil idol could match up to his mental game.

「Then let’s cleanse it lightly before beginnin’.」

「How are we going to do that？」

「I already had Elle make sum holy water before we left Wulls, so I’m plannin’ to use it up. By the way, this holy water is made with super effective ingredients: highly pure water, leftover solmizen juice, and the remaining lifeforce ocean fertilizer all mixed together. I bet it could cleanse Barold’s counterpart.」

「Why does this item sound so cheap……」

「I mean, solmizen is already fishy enough as a crop…」

　They commented as they poured out half of the bottle onto the evil god figure. As she looked at the figure clearly writhing in agony, Mio thought up a meddlesome prank.

「Haru, can you sing holy songs？」

「Well sure I can, but why？」

「I want to test something.」

　Understanding what Mio meant by testing things out, Haruna figured it would be fun to follow along and try singing several typical holy songs. The figure now seemed to be in even more pain. Haruna herself happened to be secular other than participating in the occasional shinto tradition, so she didn’t have an ounce of faith toward any god, but sure enough, even the songs of an infidel such as her were working their magic.

「It’s working, it’s working.」

「Looks it is weak to purification skills after all.」

「I sorta feel like all we need is for Tatsuya to come back and use his Flames of Judgement attack.」

　The girls began twittering on about whatever they pleased. And as for what Hiroshi was doing……

「Alright, got it all recorded.」

「Recorded? Oh, what, you mean that cassette recorder thingy?」

「Nah, that’s literally what it is, mate.」

　It was unclear when he had made it, but sure enough, Hiroshi had been recording Haruna’s songs with the cassette recorder. Then again, though it looked like a cassette recorder, the medium used to record was a lot more similar to something else…

　Incidentally, the reason why Haruna knew about the recorder was quite simple: because it played quite an active role in the entertainment field. Mio had barely seen the item outside of old manga, but Makoto had never seen it even once, so she had not initially understood what it was that Hiroshi had taken out.

「Okay, so I get that it’s a cassette recorder, but what are you using it for? And what do you mean by saying you have it recorded?」

「Well it’s obviously the songs Haruna-san was singin’ just now.」

「Wha–？」

　Hiroshi replied without hesitating. Despite anticipating this answer of his, Haruna couldn’t help but let out a strange voice as she gaped in shock. Apparently it was just too much for her brain to handle that her voice was being recorded in another world.

「Sensei, when’d you make that tape recorder？」

「Yer actin’ like I never have time on my hands.」

「Fair enough.」

　Ignoring Haruna’s stiff posture, Hiroshi continued their carefree conversation as he set the tape recorder in front of the idol. Was he imagining things, or was the idol quivering in fear?

「Uh, um, I wonder what, we do now?」

「Whaddya mean ya wonder? Obviously we’re gonna replay Haruna-san’s voice ‘n see what happens.」

　Haruna had briefly come out of her daze to inquire about what Hiroshi was trying to accomplish, but his answer only threw her back into a daze. Singing was one thing, but hearing your own voice from a recording is actually quite embarrassing, especially if it isn’t your profession. Haruna also fell into this category.

　The songs they listened to with the radio while traveling in the minivan consisted of songs from plants or the earth, whatever had a frequency. Occasionally they came across a god singing, but it didn’t really bother them.

「Alright, let’s give it a flick.」

　Completely ignoring Haruna’s demeanor, Hiroshi got right to playing the recording. Soon after he pressed the switch, the first song Haruna had sung earlier began playing. Compared to the actual singing, the power was not as effective, but still had an incredible impact, overwhelming the entire room. Playing this music would probably be more than enough for a wrapped offering.

「Ooo～、look at it thrash around!」

「I guess all we need is a recording of her voice.」

「But the damage is less than the actual song would do.」

　The idol moved around in pain like some ripoff flower rock. Hiroshi and the others analyzed the effects as they watched it. Meanwhile, much like the idol, Haruna was thrashing around, but in embarrassment.

「Well now we know what to do.」

「And that is？」

「Cut it up into a decent size, seal it in holy water, ‘n then we try endlessly repeatin’ the song from earlier inside a soundproof room for about a night?」

「Yeah, that sounds like it’ll do the trick.」

「Maybe we could even cleanse Barold’s whole body？」

　Hiroshi had come up with an extremely brutal idea. Makoto and Mio found it to be very enticing. It’s often said that you should get the job done thoroughly, but…maybe not this thoroughly.

「W-Why does it feel like my song is being treated like jaian recital……」

「I guess even though we’d pay all our money to hear these songs, they just don’t see it the same way?」

「I realize they’re weak to this stuff, but it’s still shocking to hear……」

　Even though she understood the situation, this was simply too much for Haruna to bear. Unlike her mother or sister, she was not aiming to be a singer, so she did not have much pride in her singing, but she still had some confidence. Of course this improper use of her singing would make her sad.

「But wow, guess this was no surprise coming from you.」

「I totally assumed that a recording would have zero effect in this case.」

　Makoto and Mio weren’t sure whether to be exasperated or impressed by all this. Haruna probably didn’t even have to be the one to sing to eliminate such a small fry.

　But that was no comfort to Haruna. She could have sung a less serious song and it would have worked just as well.

「Ah～、now I kinda feel pissed……」

「Haruna-san？」

「Hiroshi-kun, stop that song real quick.」

「Ah, mm, kay.」

　Intimidated by Haruna’s gaze, Hiroshi nodded his head frantically as he stopped the recording. If this were anyone else, it would have been around the time where they should check on the idol’s sanity in a few seconds, but now that the song had stopped playing, the idol went back to its normal demeanor. 

「So whatcha doin’？」

「I figured we didn’t need a specifically holy song, so I want to test something.」

　She put power into her voice and began singing…the Heart Sutra. And this wasn’t even the chant, but a rock remix.

「H-Haruna……？」

「Ah～、I think she’s angry this time……」

　The idol was now writhing in several times the agony it had been earlier. Once Haruna had finished the rock version, she moved on to the gospel version. The idol continued to feel pain. Then there was the death metal version, the pop version, the ballad version, and pretty much any other arrange she could think of.

「Phew. I feel better now.」

　Once she had finished up the enka version, Haruna sighed with a refreshed look on her face. Each of these was high level and enough to turn the room into a solemn atmosphere.