Chapter 390
Day 91 – Nighttime, White Weirdo Inn
The Idiots, who thought it was a good idea to sneak in while no one was there, were caught red-handed, mouths full of meat, and sentenced to the punishment of cabbage-only hotpot. Now, with pitiful, dejected expressions, they sit quietly, gazing at their meatless cabbage buckets with sad eyes. Hey, cabbage is tasty too, okay?
Meanwhile, the Geeks have either frozen stiff or turned to stone from a single smile from the Beautiful Sister-san, or maybe they are overwhelmed and trying to blend with the air? Are they being busy? Idle? Geekings? Whether the case, they remain geeks. Not sure if that counts as a status effect, but it’s definitely abnormal. I mean, they are the Geeks, after all.
「Thank you for the meal. This was the most delicious food I’ve ever had. I came here to apologize, and instead everyone has been so kind to me…So much so that I’m pained by your generosity…」
「No need to get all emotional about it. After all, the carnivorous girls here would keep eating until their stomachs are painfully full, and then they still keep eating until their skirts get too tight, and they’ll still make room for dessert, creating a real danger of destroying their armor by bursting out of it, so instead of emotionally torturing yourself, just do One More Set and you’re good? I mean, that doesn’t really solve anything, but that’s why they end up going one more set every night anyway. And if you call us right now, on top of Nice Body making One More Set you will even get Dance Dance Revo-san, perfect for trimming the waistline, and a bonus Bounce-Bounce class from Slime-sensei! What a value for a dinner? And there’s dessert too?」
For some reason, Sister-san, though a bit tense, is joining in the sukiyaki battle. She apparently came along as the designated apologizer, but she’s clearly been swept up in the atmosphere and overwhelmed by the high school girl power. Yeah, you can’t fight that.
「「「Dessert! Smoothies! Wait, why are there ten kinds?! How could you do this to us!」」」
「Come on, just pick one! Why are you all so dead set on trying every single flavor? Usually, the fun part is choosing while you agonize over the options, not deciding from the start that you’re going to take them all and then getting mad at the universe like it was some sort of a conspiracy?」
「「「「But we refuse! We want them all!」」」」
They refused. Even Sister-san looks bewildered now, staring down the ten types of smoothies. The church folks she came with had mushroom bento boxes sent to them too, so they should have recovered their strength by now. That’s how exhausted they were, not just physically, but mentally too, having come to an enemy land in their church garb, practically collapsing under the pressure. So this is probably why they were dragged in by sheer force of girl-power to eat and now, drink smoothies. Every time she opens her mouth to apologize, they drown her out and rope her into their pace, making her one of them. Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san are both smiling at the scene… because they’ve been through the same thing. They, too, once tried to keep their distance, saying they weren’t human, that they were monsters, and thus tried acting like silent servants. But in the end, they were overwhelmed by the sheer high school girl energy and forced to join the group. That’s why they’re watching all this with nostalgic smiles.
However, Sister-san herself still hadn’t fully grasped the situation. She is just following along and sipping the smoothies as she’s told, darting her eyes in confusion as she tried each one. Those are special smoothies, super sweet and with recovery mushroom toppings, great for restoring stamina and even boosting vitality. Yep, we drink them every night?
「My Father, Mellotosam, asked me to pass along a message, so I will explain on behalf of the lord. 「Heya! MeriMeri Mart!」 Don’t interrupt! And if you’re going to interrupt, at least remember the name correctly before butting in! Also, please don’t open a fictional shop like MeriMeri Mart out of nowhere! Ahem. So, this is Sister Arianna-san, sent as part of the delegation from the Theocracy to the frontier. Please don’t give her any weird nicknames, no calling her AriAri-san or anything! Arianna-san belongs to one of the oldest groups within the Church, known as the Traditionalist Faction. They’re not only free of any hostility toward the frontier, they’re actually the only faction actively advocating for support. They’re against beastman discrimination and slavery as well. She’s a good person. Don’t bully her. And definitely don’t use that scary smile to intimidate her until she blacks out from fear!」
「Hold up! Wait a minute! What’s with this whole 『using scary smile to intimidate her until she blacks out from fear』 bit while looking right at me? Is this a diss? I was smiling with a warm, peaceful, kind, gentle, affectionate, and thoroughly polite smile, wasn’t I?! What’s with all of you looking away at the same time?! And the fake whistling?! And why is someone whistling Ride of the Valkyries?! What kind of hellish Apocalypse Now moment is this?! Also, I’m not crying yet, so Armored Pres-san, Dancing Girl-san, even Slime-san, you can all stop getting ready to console me! And why is Sister-san looking so shocked after fainting from my gentle smile?! What’s with that super astonished, thunderstruck, the-sky-just-fell-on-me level of expression?! Honestly, I’m the one shocked here with how expressive your face is!」
What the hell is this treatment for just smiling normally?! If I glare, they get mad, but if I smile, I get criticized? What am I supposed to do then? Should I go with a cool and emotionless character then? But wait, when I tried that the other day I was warned that I look like I’m plotting something! I don’t know what face I should make! Some would say that smiling is the answer, and then someone fainted from it! [1] Alright, let’s go with Flat Gaze instead.
「Hey, Haruka-kun. If you look at people like you’re about to curse them to death, the ones who aren’t used to it might actually burst into tears from fear, okay? Just… oh wait, that is your usual face!」
「WHAT did you think my face looked like until now?!」
「「「Once again, welcome, Arianna-san.」」」
My words slide by. That was some solid ignoring power! Not even a lazy river flows this smoothly! That was some zero-resistance, perfectly-lubricated, waterslide-level of getting brushed off!
In the end, the Girls used their overwhelming girl-power to steer the conversation with small talk and question bombardment to prevent Sister-san from apologizing, extracting only the necessary information. And for some reason, I’m Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san are covering my mouth? They aren’t doing a thing when on the blindfold duty, but they take their mouth-gag duty very seriously? I tried licking to test the situation, but they wouldn’t let go. That being the case, I attempted the forbidden triple-stack sensitivity combo, then gently licked the cute palms in a horizontal eight figure…
「…kuh…」「…Mmmh.」
As their breaths are gradually getting rougher, hints of sweet ecstasy are starting to leak through their voices. Putting lots of『Mucus』on the tongue, I thoroughly lick their palms, making sure to go through the gaps between fingers as well. Now looking like they were on the verge of jumping at me, they were trembling slightly, pressing their bodies against mine, rubbing thighs together, their hips shaking. As I caressed their palms with my lips and ran my tongue over their fingers, the voices that they hardly could suppress fell on my neck as hot breaths and tickled my ears as seductive moans.
「AaaAh…」「MMmhhgh…」
The two beautiful faces were already melting with a seductive charm, their eyes watering and their lips trembling as they looked at me with upturned eyes. Their skin was flushed a pale pink and a sweet scent was drifting from them, as they were rubbing their slightly feverish bodies against mine from both sides…
「「「You there!! Just how indecent of a scene you have to make from trying to cover his mouth?! There’s this thick, suspicious aura floating around, so Arianna-san, who isn’t used to this, is so red she’s steaming! Lewd stuff is banned!」」」
「Well, I was bored? Just sitting here gagged and doing nothing is kind of a form of abuse, you know? And it is pretty obvious how a Highschool Boy-san left alone would spend his idle time…mmph!!」
Gagged again. If I push it any further, they might stop me from breathing as well, so I’d better just stay put for now. Maybe try the Flat Gaze again? (*Staaaaaaare…*)
「「「Stop! That look scares Arianna-san! Why are you looking at her with those the-darkness-deeper-than-the-abyss-itself eyes?!」」」
All I did was stare for a bit, and now I’m getting insulted for it! I mean, if you’re not going to let me do anything, at least let me go back to my room and do some side work, but instead I have to sit here with my eyes and mouth covered like some sort of a hostage. And apparently licking is no-no too.
I can’t see or speak, so I just sit and listen, piecing the info together. It sounds like this group of Sister Girl belongs to a fringe faction, or a branch, pretty much treated as heretics by the current Church. Basically, what you could call fundamentalists. However, in the modern age the word invokes the image of zealots bent on enforcing ancient dogmas without regard for context, but at its core, it simply means faithfully following the acts and teachings of their god. By contrast, non-fundamentalist sects reinterpret divine teachings to better fit modern trends, or even twist those teachings to serve their own reasons, like growing the congregation or maintaining relevance. So really, neither side is completely clean.
Just think about it, if your god’s teachings get an annual update, isn’t that a little scary? I mean, if someone can revise divine scripture, maybe that person is the new god? Anyone who can amend the word of God must think they outrank God, no?
Anyway, Sister Girl and company are fundamentalists, and the fact that they’re treated as heretics means the Church was revising so hard that it became far too removed from its foundational principles. Well, probably because of money or power, like it usually goes in such cases. So, yeah, the modern Church are the ones doing business in the name of their god.
Still, to think it’s a complete reversal at this point? Originally, the idea was for all races to cooperate, to spread the knowledge of magic and magical tools, enrich the world, and support the Frontier. But now they’re doing the exact opposite, rejecting demi-humans, engaging in slave trade, hoarding technology for profit, seizing power, and even going so far as to intentionally oppress the Frontier because they don’t want the magic stone producing region to stabilize. Honestly, I’d like to ask what kind of twisted interpretation could possibly justify such a complete reversal of doctrine, but hearing it would probably just piss me off.
Stuff like this isn’t unique to another world either, I’ve already heard similar stories more than enough times. In the end, if God was truly right, then no revisions would be necessary, so either God was wrong, or the Church is. Either way, it is wrong, so I don’t really care?
At this point, the enemy of my enemy is my friend-type line of thinking might start sounding tempting, but really, the enemy of your enemy is usually just another enemy, and even allies are often enemies too. In such a case, if everyone is an enemy, it’d probably be easier to deal with. Having clumsy alliances just makes things messy with compromises, concessions and so on, creating a room for division.
And so, after getting out the general outline of the situation, the girls left for the bath, taking Sister-san with them.
[TL Notes:
[1] Neon Genesis Evangelion Reference.
]
Comment (0)