The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Visceral Chance, Flat-chan (Petanko-chan)

As I pushed open the door to Joanne’s room with my foot, the orderly interior that belied her chaotic personality came into view.

Perhaps she was mindful of her appearance in her own way, as I noticed the fancy-looking comb and mirror, among other accessories, placed on her desk.

―Come to think of it, when we were in contact earlier, her hair might have been silkier than usual.

It became unclear after being covered in blood, but being shown this side of her evokes a strange feeling.

Before laying her on the bed, I wipe off the blood and flesh clinging to her body and spread a towel over the sheets. Even after cleaning off all the visible dirt, the smell of iron lingered, but I had no energy left to bathe an unconscious person.

After putting Joanne to bed, I lay down next to her, fitting myself into the space beside her.

As soon as I lay down, an irresistible drowsiness overtook me, and I obediently closed my eyes to my desire.

I had intended to close my eyes only lightly, but in the next moment, sunlight was streaming in.

It was less like sleep and more like a loss of consciousness akin to fainting.

Feeling an intense fatigue and repeated waves of sleepiness, I was tempted by the desire to fall back asleep and turn over.

Then, sliding sideways, Joanne’s dozing face came into my view.

Her gaze was as affectionate as ever. Her eyes, spiraling into even greater chaos, peered into mine.

Seeing my surprised expression, something that was neither a smile nor embarrassment began to form on her lips.

“…Mm. Good morning, Oakley.”

“Joanne-sama… Have you awakened?”

“About an hour ago.”

Ever since I woke up, it must have been an hour that she continued to gaze at my sleeping face.

Despite all that had happened, her cheeks were tinged with a feigned innocence.

“Nice to meet you, or should I say, long time no see… Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes, well… Are you okay, Joanne-sama?”

“Me? I haven’t changed. At least, not subjectively.”

She seemed changed yet unchanged.

Her tone was as usual, but the atmosphere she carried felt somehow more approachable—or perhaps even further removed from this world—like an odd coexistence of the abnormal and the normal.

Faced with Joanne’s aura, I was at a loss for how to react.

I had brainwashed Joanne through memory transfer, pulling her to my side as an ally.

However, the brainwashing I performed wasn’t the result of easily discernible abilities like those of Pork or Aaros.

I was anxious whether her mind had truly come over to my side.

Because it forcibly implants the other self and makes it easier to conform to it—it’s more like a type of mental contamination.

Affection towards me and a sense of belonging to the Orthodox faith have been implanted, making it easier to understand her actions.

“…Shall we talk for a while?”

“Before that, I want to take a bath. My body is sticky.”

“Me too.”

“Then it’s decided. When was the last time we took a bath together?”

Joanne hasn’t become a convenient existence that listens to all my commands.

Rather, because her mind has merged with my chaotic spirit, there’s a fear that she has acquired a strange cunningness, caution, recklessness, and even greater determination.

On the other hand, I’m not fully aware of my own mental state. That’s what scares me the most.

I can’t completely dismiss the possibility that I might have worsened Joanne’s mental state, which I had somewhat understood.

Of course, I’m hoping for a positive change, but due to my nature, I can’t help but worry.

What has changed, and what hasn’t?

I guess I’ll have to confirm it while having a conversation with her.

We step into the large public bath to cleanse our bloodied bodies.

Perhaps the smell was terrible, as those we passed by—mainly Pork—gave us incredibly nasty looks.

Since I was at it, I asked around and found out that a whole day had passed since Pork entered my room.

It’s no wonder there was a stench, considering I hadn’t washed my blood-covered body for an entire day.

I strip off all my clothes in the changing room and stand in front of the mirror.

—A hideous scar, like a suture mark, runs vertically from below my Adam’s apple to my lower abdomen.

I trace the vertical line with my finger.

Touching it causes pain. That pain was proof that the act from the other day was not a dream.

The healing magic of an Executive is less effective when used on others.

The scars from the human experimentation conducted some time ago were etched all over, but they had faded considerably over time.

However, I faintly think that this wound, where my belly was sliced open, will never disappear.

Beyond this wound, Joanne’s organs are laid out. And inside her small torso, my organs are also housed.

Thinking about that, it felt like the blood was dancing wildly throughout my body.

(…I see, I am getting excited now. It seems that Joanne’s s*xual preferences have transferred to me without my noticing. This is an invasion more irreversible than I imagined.)

This excitement was unmistakably that of sexual arousal.

I want to hear the sounds of my digestive organs living inside her.

I want to feel her pulsating inside me all the time.

The desire to caress her with the same affection one would have for a pregnant woman must be due to the corrupting influence of Joanne.

The person I was before would never have had such a perverse preference.

I was supposed to be utterly normal… although I can’t say that with absolute confidence.

(If Joanne has been transformed more than my own contamination, it seems like it would become much easier to talk…)

The worst development would be the perversion of my inner norms, starting with my s*xual preferences. Being consumed by the ongoing mental contamination.

If the original relationship was ‘sane me and mad Joanne’, and at the end of the changes it becomes ‘mad me and sane Joanne’, then the relationship would just be reversed and it would be meaningless.

The best outcome would be the eradication of the Heretic by the tag team of ‘sane person and sane person’.

I’ll decide not to think about the term of ‘mad person and mad person’.

(…Perhaps, even the results of this mental contamination could be used in the upcoming strategy. It would be foolish not to utilize the chaos of madness and sanity that ordinary people do not possess.)

No one can understand my current mental state.

The ability of Juanquiro to see through false statements might as well be neutralized.

Even now, when I am cornered, there are things I can do.

No matter how much I am pushed, I will not despair in reality.

Lost in thought in front of the mirror, I was startled when suddenly someone took my hand.

It seemed that Joanne was inviting me to the bathhouse.

“Oakley, shall we go in?”

“Yes.”

…..

As I comb through Joanne’s hair with the warm water, water that resembles melted red ribbons flows down to the floor.

I was a bit afraid of infections due to uncleanliness, but it’s too late to worry about that now, as we’re exchanging organs without any reservation.

While we wash each other’s bodies, my gaze is drawn to her torso.

I’ve become uncomfortably familiar with her body. If anything, I’ve seen even deeper inside.

Seeing her naked doesn’t excite me; instead, imagining her insides evokes a complex feeling mixed with arousal and nausea.

The arousal is from Joanne, the nausea is from me. We’re at odds again. Because I haven’t been dyed with the sweet euphoria, I’ll probably be doomed to suffer forever.

That’s the path I’ve chosen.

After thoroughly washing every corner of our bodies, we soak in the bathtub.

Clumps of blood that couldn’t be washed away drift in the water. An odd silence flows between us.

Since Joanne remained silent no matter how much time passed, I decided to cut to the chase.

“…I assume you understand my purpose, but let me ask you again… Will you join me in destroying the Aaros Temple Order?”

A moment of tension.

There seemed to be a ripple in the water stretched over the bathtub.

After a brief pause, Joanne approached me. Her swirling emerald eyes were serious, and she gave me a clear answer to my question.

“Yes. It will be a long journey, but I’m counting on you.”

Her words seemed sincere—well, I had no choice but to believe her.

Effectively, this meant that one more Executive had joined the Kenneth Orthodox faction—maintaining the balance of seven against seven.

Since overt betrayal was not an option, we would have to lie low as before until the right moment came.

Just what is this eeriness?

It sounds good to call her a comrade, but her presence is both an opportunity and a risk.

Is it a manifestation of fear towards the unknown, or is it that I feel uneasy about her being too understanding…

Anyway, I have no choice but to move forward. Joanne traced the scars on my body with her finger, then, placing her hand on my chin, she continued the conversation.

“I get what you want to do. If that’s your big goal, then your immediate objective must be to break Celestia’s brainwashing, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“What method do you plan to use? Surely you’re not thinking of using the same one as me…”

“…I don’t have the physical strength to endure that right now.”

“If you had the physical strength, is that what you intended to do?”

With a splash, Joanne stirs the water.

That’s right. If I had the physical strength and my pure insides, I would have intended to do the same.

However, for the next few weeks, it would be wise to avoid any acts of physically cutting open my body.

“I have it in mind to use ‘my organs’ to spread contamination.”

“What do you mean?”

“To transplant ‘my organs’, which are contained within Joanne-sama into Celestia, and thereby cause the next wave of mental contamination.”

“That is… how should I put it…. quite something.”

Joanne slightly recoils, her face contorting with reluctance.

She recoiled even though I only responded because she asked for it; it hurt my heart.

“However, this plan is also an unknown variable.”

In Japan, there is no such case as a secondary organ transplant.

In other words, whether memory transfer occurs during a secondary transplant is completely unknown.

Will the consciousness of the original owner, which is me, transfer, or will it be the consciousness of the current owner, Joanne, or will memory transfer not occur at all—no one knows the outcome.

There are plenty of excuses to convince Celestia to swap the organs, but there are unavoidable risks involved since both are serving as Executives.

To be specific about the current situation, the risk would occur if Joanne, who possesses my organs, suffers a severe injury that results in the loss of her physical body.

Although Joanne can be revived from my ring finger, the organs housed in my torso will be forcibly taken to fill her inside.

Ordinary humans would die immediately if they lost their internal organs.

Moreover, in this case, my original organs have vanished, leaving my torso empty.

Death is inevitable.

…It’s a devilish idea, but there is a method that involves applying the technology of the womb bag to cultivate emergency spare organs for myself—anyway, it’s a strategy I’d rather not try out of desperation.

However, it’s strange to consider not taking risks at this point.

I have survived so far by walking a tightrope with no safety net, betting everything on a single shot.

Since I’ll need to continue performing dangerous tightrope acts anyway, there’s no time to be picky about the methods.

I’ve decided to transplant the organs inside Joanne into Celestia’s body.

Given that my ideas are trusted by the heretical Executive, Pork and Juanquiro will likely be convinced.

“As another method, we could rely on Kenneth of the Orthodox Executive’s Cress to undo the brainwashing.”

“Hmm.”

“However, I plan to start by transplanting my former organs into Celestia.”

It seemed that Joanne was convinced by my opinion.

Perhaps because my thought process was somewhat copied, I felt that our conversation became more understandable.

“What will we do after we undo Celestia’s brainwashing?”

“Celestia knows too much about the Aaros Temple Order. After returning to the orthodoxy, she should use that knowledge to navigate the situation skillfully. We will carry out further internal operations to drive the Aaros Temple Order to ruin.”

“What specifically?”

“We’ll assassinate either Pork-sama or Juanquiro-sama, and I’ll slip into the vacant Executive seat. It’s about reducing the number of the temple Executives.”

“…That’s quite a bold move. If it goes well, Oakley and I will end up on the orthodox side… so you’re saying we can create a favorable situation of nine against five.”

Joanne nodded as if surprised.

It’s easy to say with words, but it’s uncertain how much time it will take to undo Celestia’s brainwashing in the first place.

If memory transfer doesn’t occur, we’ll have no choice but to resort to the roundabout method through Cress, and we might end up having to dabble in the heretical ‘organ cultivation’ and fix the world with methods that would make a Heretic dumbfounded.

Even regarding the mid-term goal of ‘Executive promotion,’ the world situation is likely to have changed significantly by the time I take my seat as an Executive.

There is still time before Aaros’s plan is executed, but there is not a single day to rest.

“Anyway, our primary goal is the elimination of Celestia’s brainwashing. Let’s proceed with the plan immediately.”

Thus, the discussion following Joanne’s awakening proceeded solemnly.

…However, why is it?

Every time I gazed into Joanne’s madness-filled eyes, I found myself unable to trust her.