The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: It feels like a Type B situation where the usual methods don’t work.

Stella devours people. Her own way of expressing love is ‘to consume.’

This distortion will likely never be cured.

While a transition to normal sensibilities is impossible, as was the case with Joanne, changes or deterioration can still occur.

Of course, how these changes will affect me is a matter of luck.

A change for the better is an idealistic notion. Joanne’s so-called reformation, or rather deterioration, resulted from a fluke, and it gave birth to even stronger tendencies than before.

The answer derived from this conclusion is, ‘As long as we can understand their tendencies, we should not try to change them.’

After all, to calculate and transform a person’s heart is a feat that’s impossible without some convenient magic.

Therefore, the possibility of changing Stella’s tendencies is slim, and even if it were possible, it would likely only lead to deterioration.

As per the initial goal, I should keep contact with the Executive to an absolute minimum.

However, to make matters worse, since Whip Fanitusk set upon me, I had no choice but to make contact with Stella.

If I’m not mistaken, Stella has taken some interest in me after I ate human flesh.

That’s why I was prepared to escape at any moment from the instant I knocked on the door.

However, the situation changed far too quickly.

“Excuse me――”

Before I could finish speaking, my right arm was pulled, and my field of vision rotated 180 degrees.

As I felt the impact on my back, the heavy sound of the door closing echoed throughout the room.

My vision flickered, and sparks flew. Groaning, I rolled on the ground, trying to grasp the situation when――

There she was, straddling over my waist while holding down her skirt.

Stella Belmont. With eyes like a starved beast, she glared at me and pinned my wrists to the ground with a ridiculous grip.

“…I have to taste it…”

There are certainly people in the world who cannot be understood or conversed with.

They live by their own rules and worldview, and at times, they turn into monsters that deviate significantly from the norms of society and the rules of ordinary people.

This was precisely one of those times.

In my own way, I tried to understand the heart of the other person, and as a result, unlike the former Joanne who hesitated to amputate my limbs and was troubled by being caught between her own desires, Stella is a monster that has completely lost its restraints.

When faced with such a situation, Stella was a person who was even less controllable than Joanne.

(Stella’s desires have increased far beyond the original work!? Why! I might be responsible for Joanne, but I’ve hardly had any contact with Stella—)

…….

He didn’t know. About the type of person who unilaterally observes a subject and accumulates emotions.

Stella had been observing all along ever since she met him. In the holy land of Metashim, in the torture chamber, in a private room, inside a carriage, she was always watching him.

Without his knowledge, she had been refining her inner passion.

……

In an attempt to escape from Stella, I thrashed with all my might to break free from the restraints.

No matter how much I struggled, only my chest spasmed, and my arms wouldn’t move an inch. Even when I tried to kick with my legs, she dodged as if riding a horse.

How much strength could be sleeping in Stella’s slender body?

Stella, observing my resistance impassively, moistened her thin lips with her bright red tongue.

It looked like a signal that her mouth was about to open wide.

The girl straddling my waist brought her face closer, and I clenched my back teeth, unable to even scream.

The air accumulated at the nape of my neck was sucked in, and then licked off as if being scraped away by her tongue. The sensation of a mass of flesh being pushed up.

At that moment, I somehow managed to become calm.

(Calm down. This is just a second-rate mad love. Compared to Joanne’s immense love, this should be nothing more than a self-indulgent appetite… it must be!)

While feeling as if my brain inside my skull is being seen through, I look straight back into Stella’s eyes.

“――Stella-sama, is something wrong?”

I knew what she wanted.

She wanted to indulge in her desires and savor my very marrow.

Resistance would only stir her excitement, and the kind of reaction she expects would only entice her appetite.

That’s probably the case. So, I deliberately asked her gently.

Stella lifted her face while sticking out her tongue.

Her expression was distorted.

“…Oakley has changed… The you that Stella liked was from before… The flavor that used to melt away now has the unnecessary aftertaste of Joanne’s flavor mixed in…..”

“I am still who I am.”

“…Different… I don’t understand the principle, but Joanne’s remnants are causing irreversible and extremely malevolent changes… That child, that child, that child has done something unnecessary!”

I couldn’t understand more than half of what she said.

However, I vaguely understood that she was referring to memory transfer and mental erosion due to organ transplantation.

“I have a favor to ask.”

“…What?”

“Could you please get off of me?”

“…”

Stella obediently lifted her thick-soled loafers, but she did not move off of me.

Instead of moving away, her black shoes were pressed against my chest. It was a sign of her refusal.

Tormented by the grinding of the shoe sole, I glared at her with irritation.

“…I truly want to eat you… but I also truly want to help you… Oakley has been driven mad by Joanne, I want to somehow save him.”

“No one stays the same forever. Besides, I am still sane.”

“…I should have stopped Joanne back then… If I had, Oakley would have only needed a heart transplant…”

“The transplant was something I wished for.”

“…You were made to wish for it.”

“I can’t deny that…”

“I hate Joanne for dyeing Oakley in a different color… Drifting further and further away from the flavors Stella likes…”

She was crying.

With a serious face, tears of clear water streamed from both her eyes.

My spirit was left behind by the difference in the heat that separated us.

Stella, who is always scowling, is crying?

Does she want to eat me that badly?

I still couldn’t understand. A discomfort similar to displeasure pierced through my chest.

Watching her tears flow endlessly, I even thought that maybe I was the strange one.

A twisted preference that seemed like a pure enlargement of the ‘so cute I could eat you up’ feeling that normal humans have, without reason or foundation, and boundlessly distorted.

She wanted to taste her targeted prey, cooked exactly the way she wanted, without leaving anything behind.

Like a child’s selfishness, her action principle was about to swallow my spirit.

Unlike Joanne, there’s no dialogue to be had. It can’t be cured or changed. No hope for alteration from external stimuli.

This woman is hopelessly incapable of dialogue, and it’s a loss just to be involved.

A monster like an antlion wearing human skin.

“Ah, such a good smell, such a wonderful body, why Joanne? …Isn’t Stella good enough for Oakley?… It’s true that Stella started taking an interest in you after Joanne, but, just because of that, to suffer this much…”

I can’t say I’m completely unable to empathize with her emotions.

It’s the phenomenon of feeling pain on one’s own accord upon learning that a person one has taken an interest in has a partner.

However, the accompanying elements are utterly rotten. They’re off the rails.

Devouring people—the zeal with which Stella can get so heated over such a grotesque act makes her appear to me as a profoundly abhorrent monstrous aberration.

“…Stella has gone mad… She shouldn’t be laying hands on a capable Believer, but the more I think about it, the hungrier I get… I think it’s your fault, you know? …Anyway, I want to restore you to your original state right now… I’ll mobilize all my knowledge to somehow manage it… and then I’ll enjoy eating you—”

In any case, Stella’s emotions are on the verge of exploding right now.

I must calm her down as she spouts incoherent things. Facing her approaching visage, I desperately spat out my words.

“While I am indeed influenced by Joanne-sama to some extent, I will never be completely dyed in Joanne-sama’s colors. I am myself, and that will never change. Besides, today is not the day to die—we have a mission. Isn’t that right?”

“…To fulfill Lord Aaros’s ambition.”

“Yes, that’s right. So, how about you eat me after your ambition has been realized…”

That’s right. I will always stay true to myself.

Even if I change due to the irreversible erosion called memory transfer, I want to be an extension of myself.

My goal is chaos. I admire a person like Joanne, who continues to be herself even after being completely defeated by her other self. Like her, I should maintain a mad sense of self so intense that it makes me feel fear.

And the day when Aaros’s ambition is fulfilled will never come.

Because by the time everything is over, Stella will be dead.

Even if that day comes, the world will be so filled with despair that my own life or death will seem trivial. At that time, I wouldn’t care about anything else.

Whether the future plan succeeds or fails, being able to postpone being eaten is important.

Hearing my determination, which has always shown a disgust for cannibalism, Stella loosens the restraints on my arms.

A satisfied atmosphere was floating around her sullen face.

Or perhaps, it should be said that she had regained a certain level of calmness…

“…Yeah, that’s right… Stella has the dream for Aaros-sama… The schedule for the harvest must not be changed… Aaros-sama… Aaros-sama… Phew, deep breaths….”

With a nod, she wiped the tears that had gathered on her long eyelashes.

Then Stella gracefully lifted her slender legs and moved off of me.

As the weight on my hips was lifted, I felt relieved, yet I found myself understanding Stella even less.

Her obsession with human flesh is abnormal. It’s several levels beyond what I had imagined.

I don’t know where the landmines are buried, and communication is futile.

Barely mentioning Aaros’s name gets her to stop… Personally, she might be a type of madwoman I find more difficult to deal with than Joanne.

When we were in Metashim, I thought she was an Executive who listened well, but perhaps that was just a facade made possible because Aaros was in control…

Ignoring Stella, who had calmed down as if her earlier tears were a lie, I rubbed the bruise on my wrist and stood up.

“Stella-sama, may I ask you something… Would it be alright if I took one of your personal belongings?”

“…Personal belongings?…Why?”

“Well, let’s just say it’s a token of friendship.”

Stella surveys the dimly lit room, a mix of exposed rock and wooden structures.

Apart from a gothic bed, there are only a blood-stained desk and some pale trinkets scattered around.

“…Then, I’ll give you a replica of Stella.”

“That’s heavy.”

“…The material is on the lighter side.”

“That’s not what I meant――”

Stella rummaged through the chest of drawers and handed me something resembling a white cylinder.

“…This is my mother’s bone.”

That’s heavy…

“Thank you.”

With this, the mission imposed on me by Whip is complete.

I tried to leave the room quickly, but Stella called out to stop me.

As I turned around, her nails slashed through the right side of my neck.

Without a chance to cry out, hot liquid poured from my throat, and I collapsed to my knees, murmuring unintelligibly.

“What the…”

“…I forgot, can I have a little taste?”

Blood spurts out vigorously.

Stella, who plunged her face into the wound on my neck, gulped down the fresh blood, making small swallowing noises with her throat.

“…mmn, this is what Oakley tastes like…”

Her sky-blue eyes grew thirsty.

The hand that was about to cast healing magic stopped, and she grabbed my shoulder tightly.

My body was pulled in, and like a vampire, she drained my bodily fluids.

This damn woman, I told her meals were on hold――

“…Ah, I can’t hold back anymore――”

“!”

Hearing those words, I kicked Stella with all my might and bolted out of the room as fast as I could.

“Kyaa!! Oakley-senpai is covered in blood!!”

Luckily, Alex and Joanne happened to pass by and rescued me.

I managed to cling to life, somehow…