The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Mechanical Pencil and Robe

I had a strange dream. An insignificant yet unforgettable memory from the distant past came back to life.

“███-kun, I’ll give this to you!”

I received a mechanical pencil from a girl in my class. I can’t remember when it happened or even who the girl was, but I think we were just friends of friends. A very faint relationship.

Having received the gift, I continued to use that mechanical pencil with great care.

The mechanical pencil was a plain design, the kind sold everywhere. Perhaps she didn’t like the design and just wanted to get rid of it while maintaining appearances.

In any case, I kept using it until it was worn out. Even though it wasn’t easy to use, for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to part with it. I think I might have started to become interested in the girl who gave it to me.

One day, the mechanical pencil broke. If it had been any other pencil without sentimental value, I would have thrown it away immediately, but I couldn’t bring myself to discard the broken pencil.

Instead, I decided to store it carefully in my ‘treasure box.’

I wonder why. I can’t remember anything about the girl, but somehow I can recall the pencil.

…

Joanne saw something special in my robe and was furious when it was destroyed. Even though she disliked it, it was a robe given to her by a subordinate, so she must have been somewhat pleased.

From what I’ve seen of the relationship between the ordinary Believer and the Executive, opportunities to receive gifts must have been rare. It reminds me of my previous life, where I hardly ever received presents.

That robe might have been to Joanne what a mechanical pencil is to me.

Slowly, my consciousness rises…

“…Ugh, where is this…”

When I woke up, I was in the midst of prickly hay.

There was a strange smell. My body started to itch, so I jumped up to escape, and then the chaotic surroundings came into view.

(What the heck is this…)

The bodies of orthodox soldiers and heretical soldiers were piled upon each other. A lifeless, pale, severed head was glaring at me.

Gradually, I began to remember what happened before I lost consciousness.

We were duped by false information and ambushed by the Orthodox Army and Celestia. Then, I was blown away by the aftermath of the battle and knocked out…

…Where is Joanne? And Celestia too? Maybe they’re still fighting.

Those two monsters won’t die so easily. Not a single cell can be left in this world to kill them. If there still are corpses of the mob, it’s safe to be optimistic.

The real fight begins when even the corpses disappear and the terrain becomes uneven.

Even if Joanne’s death isn’t confirmed, the situation is still bad. There might be Orthodox soldiers who survived just like me.

If it comes down to one-on-one with an Orthodox soldier, I’ll probably lose due to the difference in the quality of food and amount of sleep.

For a moment, I thought about abandoning the mission and escaping from the Temple Order, but having my face remembered by the executives of both the Orthodox and Heretical Orders was the worst.

I have neither the confidence nor the ability to escape from both of their information networks.

The illusion of simply discarding the ‘marked’ pendant and vanishing has faded. I pull myself together and begin searching for Joanne.

(…It’s a terrible sight. Even though there are soldiers equipped with plate armor, they’ve been torn apart as if their armor was mere paper…)

As I walk along the edge of the village, I encounter the unrecognizable remains of Orthodox soldiers, as if they had been at the center of an explosion.

The jagged tears in the corpses, like paper roughly ripped apart, indicate they were torn by a tremendous force.

Sometimes the corpse was covered with a pile of arrows, reminding me of what a tragedy it was.

The Orthodox army normally tends to avoid friendly fire. It must have been Joanne’s strategy to exploit this. She charged right into the heart of the Orthodox forces, using soldiers as shields while she killed them one by one.

The arrows embedded in the corpses from their comrades tell the tale. Celestia must have been unable to intervene.

As usual, the Executives are adept at picking the best solutions…

(…I might as well take some equipment.)

Having lost my crossbow, I decided to borrow one from an enemy corpse. Perhaps due to rigor mortis, the soldier’s body refuses to release its grip on the crossbow.

As I brace myself, adopting a posture like pulling a turnip from the ground, the mountain of corpses in front of me begins to lift.

“What the—”

“――Damn Heretic scum! No matter how many I kill, they swarm like insects!!”

A soldier suddenly emerged from among the corpses, brandishing his longsword and thrusting it forward.

I barely managed to yank out my crossbow in time and tumbled backward to avoid the enemy’s attack. Rolling on the ground, I let loose a bolt from my crossbow.

The man received the arrow with the back of his left hand, narrowly avoiding a fatal wound.

A few more shots would likely finish him off, but there was no time to reload the crossbow. Drawing my iron sword, I steeled myself to confront the dying soldier.

The man had a large gash on his shoulder, exposing the bone. The bleeding from the wound wouldn’t stop. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, and even with treatment, his fate was most likely sealed in death.

…Judging by the luxurious decorations on his armor compared to the surrounding soldiers, the man appeared to be of a captain’s rank or similar.

“Our lord… I am on my way to you now.”

“…!”

When you talk about a squad leader, you’re referring to a veteran soldier who has fought through battles with Heretics.

In the original story, they would be an opponent not even worth considering, but for me, they’re a boss-level formidable enemy. Even on the brink of death, a hard fight is inevitable.

But hey, what’s the point of getting scared of anyone other than the Executives, right? Before getting killed, you’ve got no choice but to kill.

With all the fighting spirit I could muster, I dove into the enemy’s bosom and thrust my sword with all my might.

A clear, ringing sound echoed, and the two of us were locked in a clash of blades.

“Haaah…!”

Despite being on the brink of death, I was being pushed back by the man’s abnormal strength. My hips felt like they were about to shatter. As our powers were in a deadlock, I made a split-second decision and kicked up into the enemy’s flank.

“Ugh!”

The force imbued in the sword slackens just a bit. Seizing the opportunity, I launched an offensive and quickly gained the upper hand.

The opponent is on the brink of death. The candle’s flame is nearly extinguished.

However, sensing the captain’s peril, the Orthodox soldiers who should have been dead came back to life, clinging to my ankle.

(How can this be—ridiculous!)

My stance is disrupted, and My vision wavers; a dull impact and heat, then a sword pierces through my chest.

“Ughh!!”

Before I had a chance to arch back from the pain, the back of my head violently collided with the ground.

The man who had mounted me held his sword in a reverse grip, poised to strike down at any moment.

“Wait――”

In the next instant, the upper half of the man above me was sheared off by a violent gust, followed shortly by a shockwave and a cloud of dust that sent the clinging man flying.

After being slammed into the ground by some force, I tumbled around for a while before lifting my face.

In my line of sight, I could see a rock deeply embedded in the ground, smoke billowing out of it.

――A throw to the ‘Marker’.

Joanne must have sensed my crisis and thrown a rock to help me. Just as I felt a moment of relief, I gasped in pain like an electric current running through my chest.

“Ah…ow, it hurts…”

Thanks to my ribs, it wasn’t a fatal injury, but it still hurt very much. The wound visible through the gap in my clothes was wide open, with yellow fat peeking out.

After slowly regulating my breathing, I pondered why Joanne hadn’t thrown her head and ‘transferred’ it to me.

…Could it be that Joanne is still fighting Celestia?

Looking in the direction from which the rock had come, I heard a faint noise.

Squinting in that direction, I saw the landscape unnaturally distorted.

It had to be Celestia’s wind magic. Following the sound, I ran towards it.

“…!!”

Witnessing the scene before me, I was rendered speechless. A girl resembling Joanne, with no existence above her neck, and Celestia, with half of her face severed, were fighting each other while their insides spilled out.

How much resolve does one need to become such an Asura…I was utterly devastated.

“If every single cell is obliterated, then even you cannot resurrect!!”

Joanne, with her head destroyed, had lost her field of vision and couldn’t pinpoint the enemy’s location. She was thrashing wildly.

There’s only a lag of a few seconds until the regeneration of her head, but conversely, that means there are a few seconds of respite.

For them with their superior combat abilities, those few seconds should be a significant advantage—

—This is bad. Joanne is going to be killed.

Sensing an ominous premonition, I screamed, not caring that my wounds were tearing open.

“Joanne, wake up already!!”

I hate Joanne. I can’t tell what she’s thinking, she worships a heretical cult leader, and she keeps an eye on me.

Despite that, I didn’t want Joanne to die, not out of any calculation but from a complex and bizarre sincerity.

――Now that I think about it, I can understand why rocks flew to save me at that time and why Joanne’s head was blown off, putting her in a disadvantageous situation.

During the battle with Celestia, Joanne pushed herself too far and threw rocks to save me.

(I don’t get it… Why!? That’s not like ‘Joanne’ at all!!)

You were supposed to be the kind of person who would swallow a few sacrifices for the sake of victory.

A cold-blooded zealot who only had eyes for the cult leader, with no blood or tears for anyone else.

…Why?

Celestia, standing over Joanne, screams as she dyes her silver hair with blood.

“This is the end!!”

Celestia’s silver hair streams behind her. As soon as her palms come together, she thrusts out the heel of her hand, beginning to condense her power. The atmosphere quivers, and the wind converges at her hands.

Could it be that is the secret technique against the Executive, which was supposed to be created in the middle of the original work—

“Blow up!!”

The wind sweeps across the land. The air bullet, compressed to the extreme, is fired, reaching Joanne’s body with a thunderous roar.

The next moment, Joanne’s physical form was carved away from this world.

Not a single drop of blood, not a fragment of a cell remained after that strike.

“Haa…haa… With this, finally… it’s settled…”

I collapsed on the spot.

The balance had been disrupted.

Having exhausted her power, Celestia fell to her knees. Glaring at me, as if to say she wouldn’t let a witness escape, she unleashed a wind magic spell without any preparatory movements.

I no longer have the strength to dodge attacks. With an inexplicable sense of weakness and fatigue, I closed my eyes without resistance, prepared for death.

“———”

Then the pendant around my neck is trembling like a chick breaking through its eggshell.

“…?”

The expected impact never comes.

Wondering what’s happening, I open my eyes wide, and there, standing before me is a naked girl.

“I’m back~~”

A frivolous, husky female voice sounded in the area.

A long, long silence. No one knew what had happened.

As I was dumbfounded with a pale face, Celestia let out a pained scream, her hair wildly disheveled.

“Jo… Joanne…!? Why!? You were supposed to be destroyed without a single cell left after that last blow…!!”

“I had him carry a piece of flesh if me. You probably didn’t know that.”

“――!!”

Celestia’s expression turned fierce, as if she had bitten into a bitter bug, lamenting her own foolishness yet unable to fully swallow the boiling anger within her.

It was Joanne’s words that finally jogged her memory. The marker.

The piece of earlobe she had placed inside the pendant was her ‘flesh piece’ itself. Her cells had not been completely destroyed from this world.

Overwhelmed with relief, I let out a huge sigh and my knees gave way.

“…I never imagined that I would be the one to say it, but let’s meet again next time, Joanne… I will definitely kill you next time.”

Celestia, in despair over Joanne’s revival, blurred her own figure and fled. For some reason, Joanne did not pursue her.

As I looked up at her to ask why, my eyes met with those of Joanne, standing naked before me.

“Oakley, you okay?”

She healed the wound on my chest. And then, she began to speak haltingly.

“Oakley… I think I’m going crazy…”

“Yes…?”

“I would do anything to please Guru-sama. I would gladly accept any mission he gives me, and I would die happily for it. But… Oakley… when you’re involved, I keep making bad decisions.”

“What are you saying…”

Even though the trouble should have passed, I was seized by an odd sense of fear.

“First off, the scene where you were attacked by the Orthodox soldiers… In order to defeat Celestia, I shouldn’t have turned my back and thrown a rock. I got my head blown off and she took the upper hand because of that.”

Joanne’s confessions just doesn’t stop.

“And just now too. I should have pursued the weakened Celestia. Whether I could catch her since she’s fast on her feet is another matter… But I was worried about your wounds and couldn’t chase after her.”

She doesn’t stop.

“I’ve been thinking about it. Over and over…”

She won’t stop.

On the contrary, her passion accelerates.

“But I’ve finally understood… The meaning of these emotions…”

Those eyes.

Those cold, staring, spiraling eyes. Eyes that are the exact same temperature as the moment she said, “This might be in the way.”

“Oakley feels the same way, right?”

A state of mind incomprehensible to ordinary people. A being one should not involve themselves with.

The meaning described by the original fans, I was about to learn it firsthand.

“Yes, that’s right.”

――My world turned upside down.

“It seems like we’re mutually in love'”

Chills ran through my entire body.

I shuddered from the bottom of my heart for the first time in my life hearing the name of an emotion too heavy, one that leaped over ‘trust’ and ‘friendship’.

I had been acting somewhat like a bystander or a mob. Just like in the world within a game, I took advantage of that similarity to avoid facing reality.

I treated the Executives as Named ‘characters,’ never trying to see them as individual human beings.

――Joanne was alive.

She spoke words not given by the scenario writer, thought freely, and fell in love with someone. Just as the protagonist… made her fall in love in that way…

“…”

I felt as if my thought processes had come to a halt, and I could sense each of my eyeballs moving independently.

“Hey, Oakley. Could you… put that robe on me one more time?”

A reality more painful than any defeat, more agonizing than any death, was closing in.

Ah, I am―

“…Hehe. Only you and Guru-sama try to cover up my naked body.”

The time is high noon. The fog has cleared, and there are no clouds.

However, my field of vision is reflecting a darkness darker than the night.

“Take this as a memento of our mutual love, my ring finger. I wanted to exchange it before my earlobe rotted away… hehe, this saves me the trouble.”

“…”

With those words, Joanne opened the pendant hanging around my neck and began diligently stuffing the finger inside.

My thoughts finally started to turn again.

Understanding everything that was happening, I managed to plaster a pleasant smile on my face.

The stuffed finger, it’s cute like a snail.

Yeah, let everything go to hell.