3 bar menu

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 625: Morgenroth Following the God Elephant Part 1

「…… Ahh, sleepy. So sleepy.」

It’s been almost all night spent on gaming because I played the game to the last possible moment for the first time in a long time. So can you really blame me for thinking that the need to go to school was somewhat annoying right now? For the time being, I drank Riot Blood at a convenience store and borrowed energy in advance, while running my drowsy brain on some miso engine with glucose and caffeine.

「Ogogogogogogo…… And my brain trembles even more today. Go figure.」

No way, could it be that those were the so called “withdrawal symptoms”…… No, impossible! It’s probably just a slight cold. It’s getting a little cold out here. Soon it would be suitable to call this weather winter rather than autumn.

「G-Good morning.」

「Nhaah, ahh…… Good morning, Saiga-san. Long time no see.」

「Fufu, that’s right, you can say that again.」

No, seriously, it’s really been a while…… I wonder how long has it been since I have logged out of ShanFro? An hour? Maybe something more? But unlike me, who is the picture of someone who did not get enough sleep at night and left the house in a hurry, Rei-san was looking as good as usual. You couldn’t even tell that she was gaming alongside me all night long.

Is Saiga-san really just some scary monster to be able to look so fine after a whole night of gaming? Or is that perhaps some skill that only real—life-successful people have available to them?

「Ah, umm…… This is……It’s about ShangriLa Frontier.」

「Hm? Yeah?」

「Umm, it’s about one of those last things that we have heard……」

「Ahh. Something about things being done in a roundabout way?」

「Yes.」

I asked the “Brave Fish”…… No, the existence that lives inside of the Leviathan and has access to everything that is inside of it, especially data, to search for two pieces of information that were going to prove crucial in my battle against the Orchestra.

One of them was the details about that music player, which I assumed to be the provisional body of the Unique Monster “Orchestra of the Gloomy Melody”. And the result of that info search turned out to be surprisingly not all too good. All I got to know was that this music player was made before the Era of the Gods came to pass in this planet, even before humanity managed to invent the technology that would allow it to reach to the stars. So this means that this music box is just some stupid antique that was created before humans managed to leave the Earth. And that’s it.

That “Brave Fish” even went on to say that things like that can be found scattered around the world if you were only to look carefully for them. So in a sense for us players it would be like finding tools and artefacts from the Edo Period and decorating the walls of our houses with them. They look nice, for sure, but they do not possess any practical application…… I mean, why would you even assume that a fossil could still have practical application?

And then there was that other matter. The one about “Elise Jitter Doll”, the name that the music player displayed when booting up and playing. If I were to take a wild guess here, I would say that it would be the name of the Diva who was singing all the arias during the Orchestra battle. The answer to this was extremely simple, clear and concise.

「IF YOU WISH TO KNOW MORE ABOUT “JITTER DOLL”, YOU SHOULD TRY TO ASK ABOUT IT INSIDE OF THE BEHEMOTH INSTEAD OF THE LEVIATHAN. AFTER ALL, THAT SHIP IS WHERE ANDREW JITTER DOLL WAS DWELLING……IT IS ALSO A PLACE WHERE THE FIRST CONQUEST DOLLS WERE ORIGINALLY CREATED.」

Ah, I see, so in other words it’s basically: “Go to Behemoth because you can’t understand this matter with Leviathan alone.” It was just a refreshing throw, I won’t lie…… No, to be honest, I was already expecting something like that to happen. I don’t think the Orchestra and the Conquest Dolls are completely unrelated to one another, and if they were all the creations of Jitter Doll, than it all started to make sense. Also, it’s good to know that Behemoth is the birthplace of the Conquest Dolls. At least it gives me something to work with for the time being……

However, thanks to Rei-san’s efforts, “Brave Fish” presented us with some information, probably because she was able to get through the event scene with the maximum likability. Which was something I would be unable to do.

It was the information about Behemoth’s AI, the “Ivory Maiden”. By its very nature, she was supposedly the “Mother of all Players”…… although that last one bit was added by the Brave Fish with such a twisted expression that it was something that we were probably better of taking with a grain of salt. She also mentioned that if she was to describe her with one word, it would have certainly been “overprotective”.

「NO MATTER HOW KIND AND HOSPITABLE THE IVORY MAIDEN MAY SEEM TO YOU NEXT GENERATION PRIMITIVE HUMAN BEINGS, IT IS JUST A FAÇADE. THE TRUTH IS, SHE JUST WISHES TO VERIFY YOUR POTENTIAL MORE THAN ANYTHING…… WELL, I HAVE BEEN DOING BASICALLY THE SAME THING, BUT HER VERIFICATION IS GOING TO BE A MORE DIRECT ONE.」

Are you even allowed to say something like that? In dating sims, that would amount to a hint, and hints are always something that people scoff at in those kinds of situations.

「…… Rakuro-kun, are you, umm…… going to try and reach the Behemoth…… next?」

「Well, yeah, that’s what I was going to do, anyways. Originally I was going to verify the connections of the Orchestra and see if I can use them in fight against it, so Behemoth is the most likely place where I can find possible clues.」

The coordinates of the Behemoth are also about eighty percent accurate, and as luck would have it, it is located somewhere on the New Continent. So I am going to go there in search for new information. Speaking of pluses and minuses, it is clear that the probability of finding what I am looking for there is closer to plus than to minus, but I guess that it would be best to not get my hopes up too soon.

「Umm, if you did not mind……」

「Hmm? Oh, of course. If you wish to go there with me and help me capture that place, Rei-san, then you are more than welcome to join me. That is, if you don’t mind……」

「Y-Yes! Please! Umm, this time around I’ll make sure to be on time and to not be late!」

「No, I mean, maybe we should rest a little bit first. I mean, it’s not like we are being pressed for time or anything like that……」

However, this time around our circumstances are greatly different. We don’t just happen to meet in front of a convenience store like in the summer, but we go to school and go back home together…… That’s why people are already suspicious of us dating one another. However, even if it is not the case here, it is still fun and amusing to just talk with Rei-san on our way. Yeah.