The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Starts off in agony

Celestia has been brainwashed, and several days have passed in despair.

As I predicted, Saren and Cress did not come to the rescue, and the noble warrior of the Orthodox faith, Celestia, had become a devout Heretic.

Even I felt like my heart was about to snap, and I thought many times that it might be easier to just die.

I wondered if I was born under an unlucky star, as everything I do backfires, and I’ve grown sick of my own existence.

I alone, powerless, cannot change the world.

All I can do now is to influence the people around me to move the world. But, in trying to indirectly move the world, various missteps occur.

Not being able to destroy the Heretics on my own, I must continue this approach, which is mentally taxing.

Is it all my fault?

Alfie’s death, everything…

“Hey Oakley, you’ve been looking down lately.”

“…Yeah, well”

In a newly constructed Executive-only room—Joanne’s chamber, I was completely at her mercy.

I was made to sit cross-legged on the bed, with my body snugly wedged between her thighs.

Forced to support her body, my arms, limp and powerless, were being toyed with at her whim.

Joanne was touching my palms as if kneading them in her hands.

“What’s going on? We smashed Daskell to bits, turned Celestia into a puppet, and we, the Aaros Temple Order, are overwhelmingly dominant… Things have been going great for us lately, haven’t they? Is there something bothering you?”

That was precisely the root of my worries.

The fall of Metashim was as per the official history, but the collapse of Daskell, Alfie’s death, and Celestia’s brainwashing were truly weighing on my mind.

I felt as if I was being strangled by silk threads, both mentally and in terms of the situation at hand.

If I continue down my own path, I have a feeling that the outcome will be even more horrific than the dark descent of Alfie.

The orthodox faith will be completely destroyed, and I will be driven to suicide by the powerlessness of being unable to do anything, while the Holy Nation Geluid will be shrouded in shadow and become a nation of heretics—something like that.

If that happens, it’ll just be a depressingly sad ending. I wouldn’t be able to face the deceased Alfie.

The only good thing that’s happened in the past few days is that my work has been recognized, and it seems I’ll be given a private room near the Executive suite. It’s been decided that I’ll be rewarded for my significant contribution to the Daskell surprise attack operation.

I’ve heard that other believers who have made notable achievements in other branches have also been given private rooms.

Sighing without answering, Joanne presses the top of her head against my chin.

“Oakley, they say it’s good to have some physical contact with your lover when you’re feeling down.”

“Is that so…”

But that’s already happening the whole time. And it’s one-sided.

I’ve been nothing but Joanne’s toy since a while ago. Forced into a pseudo-embrace from behind, the semi-compulsory physical contact doesn’t stop.

“Could it be… you hate me?”

“That’s not it.”

“Right, I know that… but…”

As Joanne wraps her arms around my neck, she seems dissatisfied with my indecisive demeanor.

I do feel somewhat sorry, but in this dead-end situation, it would be far stranger to be lively, so I hope she can forgive me.

Joanne grunts, ‘hmm, hmm’, at my still dazed self. Just when I thought she might exclaim in surprise, she claps her hands together with a ‘pop.’

“Ah, I’ve got it. You’re scared of Celestia, aren’t you?”

“Ah…”

“We had a tough time with that one too, so I guess it’s no wonder you’d be scared, especially since you don’t have healing magic. Encountering her three times and nearly getting killed each time… Even if you’re told that such a person has suddenly become an ally, you can’t mentally accept it because of your past memories.”

“…I see, maybe I’m thinking like that subconsciously.”

Neither too close nor too far. I’m happy to have become allies with Celestia, but that happiness only comes when we’re on the side of the orthodox church.

Even if we become allies on the heretical side, the situation is too dire to feel any joy.

Just like Joanne said, I also don’t know how to interact with Celestia, who has tried to take my life three times… What should I really do.

“Well, forget about that woman. You’ve got me… Joanne Sagamix, the super beautiful girl.”

(I wonder if she’s aware of how cute she is…)

Joanne brought my hand to her throat and, with silent pressure, conveyed the message to ‘touch’.

Complying with her desire, I caressed her under the chin with the tips of my fingers, as if tickling her.

Purring like a cat in need of affection, Joanne narrowed her eyes contentedly and said,

“I actually wanted you to choke me.”

” ….. ”

Then she grabbed my hand, which had been touching her chin, and guided it to the side of her neck, where the thick veins pulsed.

Her emerald eyes seemed to test me. Eyes that swirled like a vortex, threatening to draw me into a spiral of madness.

I, on the verge of being swallowed by that insanity, pushed her hand away with a tone that was almost admonishing.

“…I don’t have such tastes. So I’ll have to decline.”

“I know. I tried it just in case.”

It looked like a pretty serious gaze, though?

Somehow, I feel like I’m being increasingly tossed around by Joanne.

Quite some time ago, perhaps since that desperate kiss with her, I think her personality has subtly changed compared to that time.

She was supposed to be just a fanatically limb-tearing yandere, but no matter how I think about it, she has acquired tastes and a personality that is not in the original work.

This also must be my fault. After all, I’m the one who has been aggressively raising Joanne’s affection by kissing her and taking baths together, and I’m even the one who instilled the fetish for body exchanging.

They say a girl often picks up her boyfriend’s hobbies, but is this what they mean…?

No, I feel it’s a little different.

At any rate, Joanne, who was supposed to exist only within the given text, seems to have formed a more complex and bizarre mental structure and personality due to my intervention, perhaps because of her madness.

It’s just a hunch, but I have a feeling that it would be bad if our relationship were to progress any further.

It’s as if I’m nurturing some sort of bomb inside her. A vague sense of unease is coiling in my chest.

“Joanne-sama, thank you very much. I feel a bit better now. I remembered something I have to do, so I will take my leave—”

“Hey,you think you can just satisfy yourself and leave? I have no intention of letting you go just yet.”

“…Understood.”

Joanne rotates her body on the tatami mat to face me, her eyes changing to the color of a carnivorous predator hunting its prey the moment I mention leaving.

A slightly exasperated expression, as if to say, ‘Where do you think you’re going, leaving me behind?’ Yet within that anger, I catch a glimpse of her serious intent, and it overwhelms me with an inescapable anxiety.

Looking around the room, there are no knives. No pruning shears either.

A slight sense of relief passes through me. At least for today, it seems unlikely that my manhood will grotesquely bloom like a chrysanthemum flower.

(What a predicament. It was almost time to finish extracting most of the information from Celestia, who is about to be released, and I wanted to go see her right away…)

I need to meet with Celestia to confirm what kind of brainwashing has been applied.

According to the original story, her memories before the brainwashing should carry over, and there shouldn’t be any significant changes to her personality…

―My perception has changed.

I can’t ignore this. Such changes are important. Especially for maneuvering within the heretical cult in the future.

(For now, there seems to be no way to break Aaros’s brainwashing… Even if her former comrades call out to ‘remember us’, it probably won’t change anything. In the original work, the only way to break Aaros’s brainwashing was something like a ‘brainwashing reversal’…)

In the Alfie dark fall route, there’s a scene where Cress Walker, the third in the hierarchy of the orthodox church, attempts a ‘brainwashing reversal’ on the protagonist.

This is a desperate measure to bring Alfie, who has fallen into darkness like Celestia, back to sanity by tampering with the electrical signals in the brain to forcibly restore the original personality.

According to the results of the original work, the ‘brainwashing reversal’ ended in failure, but without relying on the magic user Cress, who can manipulate thunder and electricity, Celestia’s brainwashing is unlikely to be undone.

(Aaros wouldn’t use such fragile brainwashing that could be broken just by fighting with an orthodox Executive… I should at least look into whether some kind of drug can erase the brainwashing.)

“Hey Oakley, you were thinking about another woman just now, weren’t you?”

“No, I was only thinking about you, Joanne-sama.”

“…you sure have a way with your words,”

I was snapped back to reality by Joanne’s voice, tinged with an exasperated laugh.

Just below my gaze, her petite body was very close to me.

Beneath the slender, white neck I had been touching just moments ago, I could see the delicate curves of her collarbones.

Our bodies were pressed so closely that her shirt’s neckline had become carelessly loose, and my eyes were irresistibly drawn to the enchanting twin peaks peeking out from the wide-open collar.

“…Are you that interested? You’re always looking… you’re quite the honest one.”

“No, that’s not it――mmph!”

After her beguiling smile, everything went dark.

I wasn’t sure what had happened, but it seems that now I’ve ended up in a position where my face is buried in Joanne’s chest.

“This makes you feel better, doesn’t it? I wanted to do the exchange… but that was before—no, never mind. We should learn the normal way too…”

Joanne’s left hand gently stroked my hair, moving back and forth across the back of my head.

Her right hand was unforgiving, pressing down from my shoulder to my back to ensure I couldn’t escape.

Her whispering voice at my ear. The warmth I could feel. The sweet scent mixed with blood. And then, the twin mounds dimly visible—beneath their skin, I could clearly see the vein-like capillaries pulsating.

Being made to experience Joanne with all five senses, my mind was filled with 90% astonishment and 10% relief.

“Amazing.”

“Amazing?”

“You’re amazing, Joanne-sama.”

“That’s right. I am amazing, you know.”

The feeling of being downcast recovered just a little bit.

As I lifted my face, I continued to let her stroke my head as she pleased.

Pure, 100%, madness of love was poured into me. My brain felt like it was melting. Strangely, it didn’t feel unpleasant.

After a while of this physical affection, I was released by a satisfied Joanne.

Certainly, my spirits were lifted, but perhaps it would be more accurate to say they had been driven out.

…To think that skinship with Joanne could recharge my energy for a reboot—if I had told my past self before getting involved with her, I would have been surprised.

It’s a bad sign that my spirit is being eroded.

First of all, Joanne is someone I will have to kill someday, so I shouldn’t get too emotionally involved..

I must maintain an appropriate distance, let her guard down, and use her as a stepping stone to climb up to an Executive.

After that, I can kill her at any time.

Isn’t Joanne just that kind of person? I must not forget that.

―Suddenly I felt a sharp pain.

(…?)

Even though I had only confirmed the premise, I felt an inexplicable pain in my chest.

Without understanding the cause of the sharp pain in my chest, I left her room to meet Celestia.

***

(TL/N: It would be easier (and happier) for him to forget his heart of justice and learn to become an actual heretics tbh…)