The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 51

Chapter 51 – Snap

While receiving healing magic in the bedroom, I was being lectured by Joanne, who was lifting the corners of her eyes in disapproval.

“Are you an idiot!? To go to Stella’s room alone, of all places――seriously, you’d be dead and it’d be over, you know!? Do you even understand what you’ve done!? Ahh!?”

It was a level of fury I had never seen before.

I was so intensely scolded, with such a threatening attitude, that I thought I might be killed by Joanne instead of Stella.

All I could do was look down and breathe faintly.

In this case, she was the one being rational, and I was the careless one.

I knew too little about the Northeast Branch―or rather, about Stella Belmont.

Her appetite for me, which takes precedence over all matters except for Guru Aaros… Her mental state is already beyond the analysis of any ordinary person.

“Anyway, it was a good thing I came quickly. If it weren’t for Alex’s report, you’d be dead…”

“Well, I couldn’t do anything on my own, so I had to rely on others~”

Right after barely escaping from the room, I was dragged back to the bedroom by Alex and Joanne.

I received treatment there, and my condition has stabilized up to this point.

It seems I lost a considerable amount of blood in those few seconds, and after the excitement wore off, an immense sense of exhaustion assaulted me.

Lying on the bed, my consciousness was hazy with the pain from the earlier wounds and the ache behind my eyes.

In the midst of this, as if to savor my survival, Joanne hugged my body with a deathly strong force.

As my spine made cracking sounds, Joanne, having taken a deep breath to calm her anger, released me.

“I’m… glad…”

For a while, it was a repetition of this.

Anger at me for my careless actions, which Whip instructed, and fury at Stella, who had attacked me in the first place. And then there were the alternating feelings of relief at the survival of her beloved.

Receiving all of her actions, I felt as if I was being alternately doused with cold water and boiling water.

Once the whole sequence was completely over, her eyes opened wide.

Her gaze was perfectly steady. I felt as if her eyes were asking me why I had done such a foolish thing.

She glared at me as if to bore a hole between my eyebrows, so under the pressure, I twisted out an excuse that sounded like a reason.

“…Joanne-sama, there is a reason for this.”

“Hmm. Do you have a good enough reason to convince me?”

If I say it’s the result of the training by Whip, that would be the end of it—but there’s no way she would be convinced.

The training method was just too difficult. Looking back now, I think diving into Stella’s room and surviving might have been an incredibly difficult feat.

Well, if I interpreted Whip’s intentions in a positive light, it could have been a test to see if I could adapt to unpredictable environments.

It’s a rather rude thing to say, but maybe she was using Stella’s nature and her interest in me to make me go through a desperate and intense experience.

Considering Whip’s behavior, it’s not an impossible deduction.

For better or worse, she seems to have a good understanding of Stella. It wouldn’t be surprising if she had noticed that Stella, having returned to the Northeast branch, was interested in me.

I was too scared to lie to Joanne now, so I honestly spilled the beans. That’s all I know.

Then, Joanne got even more furious. Of course, she would.

“Scaring my Oakley like this… Ahh… It’s so irritating. It’s just a matter of sooner or later, maybe I should seriously kill that woman.”

Her spiral eyes glowed with chaos and fury.

A blue vein popped on her forehead, and despite the half-smile, she was incredibly imposing.

She continued, maintaining her smile.

“But, it was good that you underwent training to improve your qualities with Whip. You want to make contact with Cress and stoke the flames for the recapture of Celestia, right? For that, whether it’s infiltration or combat, you’ll need to level up several notches. The skills you’ve acquired won’t go to waste even after you become an Executive.”

“I’m glad you understand――”

After hearing those words, I realized that Alex was in the room and felt the blood drain from my face.

I was asked about the recapture of Celestia.

Asked and now exposed.

This is bad. Now that it’s come to this, I have to kill him.

I grabbed a towel that was nearby and stretched it out with both hands like a whip.

With my vision unfocused, I aimed to strangle Alex.

However, just as I was about to lay hands on him, Joanne stopped me.

“Don’t worry. This guy is an ally.”

“Ally…?”

Astonished. Allies, as in a third force—Allies of the Oakley faction? How did she manage to win him over?

Looking at Alex with movements like a broken robot, the blond buzz-cut was grinning, baring his gums.

“Yo. I’m Joanne-sama servant.”

“Wh-what…”

“I’ll listen to anything Joanne-sama and Oakley-senpai say! Please take care of me from now on~”

Not knowing how to respond to Alex, who was oozing with suspiciousness, I fell silent.

Is it adoration for Joanne?

Or the actions of a madman with a desire for ruin?

Just like with Stella’s principles of action, I thought it was pointless to ponder about Alex, so I decided to stay silent and let this situation pass.

In any case, it’s certain that unfounded trust is not an option… Having that understanding is, without a doubt, correct.

When it was time for the morning assembly, it seemed that Alex and Joanne were heading towards the cafeteria area.

Joanne issued a ‘Stella No-Contact Order’ to me and said, ‘I’ll go kill her once’, before closing the door.

I had forgotten something so obvious, but come to think of it, Joanne has a strong possessiveness.

The moment she senses the shadow of another woman, she’ll erase that woman’s existence and then come to confirm, ‘So, who was that girl?’ She’s that kind of woman.

As long as her hostility is directed towards Stella, I can only let her fight as she pleases.

Several hours later, I woke up to a strange crawling noise in the room.

It wasn’t something caused by Joanne. It was as if an unknown insect was scurrying across the rock surface…

As I rubbed my eyes and sat up, there was the figure of Whip Fanitusk, using insects to unlock the room’s inner lock and attempting to infiltrate this room.

Storing the black mass-like insects back into her mouth, Whip casually pulled out a chair and sat down beside me.

“…you’ll be killed by Joanne-sama if you enter without permission.”

“You too, it seems Stella-chan couldn’t eat you, huh? Congratulations on surviving!”

“You… you are a terrible person.”

I come to a realization.

Indeed, Whip had given a task that utilized Stella’s abnormality.

In this case, I should probably think it’s Whip who is strange for treating Stella so disrespectfully.

Straddling the back of the chair, Whip asks, ‘So, what are the results?’ while demanding Stella’s personal belongings.

I say, ‘It’s the remains of Stella-sama’s mother’, and pick up a white bone from my pocket,

Whip screams in horror and tumbles off the chair.

“Ah, it’s heavy! You should have brought a doll or something!”

“There was no specification and I didn’t have time to choose.”

“Eh… Can this really be called Stella-chan’s personal belonging?”

Whip observed the skeletal remains with her claws outstretched. It’s certainly debatable whether to classify it as a personal item.

However, since I was able to bring back the intended item from Stella’s room, Whip’s response was fairly positive.

“Well, whatever. Anyway, Oakley-chan, you’re quite amazing. Dramatic experiences are necessary to transform in a short period, you know? Let’s keep getting stronger at this pace!”

‘Ooh!’ Whip thrust her right hand up to the air.

I didn’t miss the moment when her inhuman, mushroom-like eyes narrowed for an instant.

Whip, with her joking demeanor, seemed to be half kind and half hostile.

I had a hunch since the time she stirred up Stella that Whip harbored a smoldering desire to finish me off.

If I were to die, there would be one less rival for the Executive position, and even if I survived, she could curry favor and contribute to strengthening the organization.

She might also think that someone who dies from a harsh trial isn’t worthy of being her rival.

“By the way, Whip, what kind of level have you set for the task?”

“Hm? I’ve set it to a level where you barely live or die? I think someone as capable as you should be fine~”

As expected. I can’t help but give a wry smile to Whip, who makes no attempt to hide her murderous intent towards me as I ask for the next lesson.

The following Northeast Branch’s training method was ‘Mushikui’ (Bug Eating).

“By the way, Oakley-chan, are you interested in bugs?”

With a mocking tone, Whip brought a bug the size of her little fingernail in front of me.

It looked like Milk-chan, whom I often see around Whip, but smaller.

The grotesque beetle, which looked like a centipede, or even a scorpion, stretched out its antennae towards my face as if recognizing me.

Whip then told me to take the bug inside my stomach.

“If you want to get super strong in a short period, this is the best recommendation! High risk, high return! Why not power up with the help of Milk-chan’s offspring?”

While keeping a certain distance from Whip’s bug, I guard my nostrils, ears, and even my mouth.

If my memory serves me right, such dangerous bugs are almost impossible to control unless one has the aptitude of a ‘Bug User.’

However, there are extremely rare cases of humans who manage to command these bugs.

These are limited to monstrous beings like an Executive or humans who, due to other factors, can neutralize the bugs’ attacks.

“What exactly does ‘powering up’ mean?”

“It means things like improved reflexes, increased muscle output, and so on. As a side effect, it might shorten your lifespan a bit, but you’re from a facility, right? Your lifespan is already shorter to begin with, so I don’t think it’s much of a disadvantage. Yeah, well, I won’t force you if you don’t like it.”

This bug enters through every orifice in the body and slowly eats away at the host from the inside over time.

It loves human internal organs, and within a month, the inside of the body will be hollowed out.

The moment someone like me swallows a Whip bug, I’d be facing death.

That’s why I initially refused to accept the bug, but there was a certain hopeful speculation within me.

(If it were my original body, I’d die without question… but now, my organs belong to Joanne. Even if the bug parasitizes and eats them, ‘her will’ can heal the damage to the organs. As long as the host doesn’t die, it shouldn’t be impossible to harness the power of the bug. In theory…)

I currently lack the skill to control the bug. I have absolutely zero aptitude as a bug user.

However, the organs that the bug inside me needs to eat belong to Joanne.

At this point, the internal organs of another person, which had been a hindrance to me, were producing an unexpected byproduct effect.

To stand against the Executive, an existence that surpasses humans, how can I not take a gamble like this?

Contrary to that feeling, my body is sounding the alarm, ‘If you push yourself any further, you’ll truly die.’

The moment I accepted Joanne’s organs, I exceeded my limits.

If I were to harbor a giant insect within me, I might never be able to stand up again.

Besides, just because Joanne’s part can recover indefinitely doesn’t mean it can perfectly heal the organs inside me.

(I don’t know how strong I can become, and it doesn’t seem like I should accept the insect right now.)

After a great deal of thought, I declined Whip’s invitation.

She didn’t seem particularly disappointed and appeared to respect my choice.

“Well, you’ve gotten used to life at the Northeast Branch, right? Morning and noon are for combat training, and at night we focus on infiltration training, so the expedition team will start living like that from today.”

“I see, understood.”

“…By the way, after the morning assembly, Joanne-chan was furiously arguing with Stella-chan… Did something happen?”

“It’s your fault.”

As I was chewing over Whip’s words, I noticed the hallway getting noisy. Leaning on Whip’s shoulder as we headed to the residential area, it seemed that Stella and Joanne’s argument was heating up, likely escalating into a full-blown confrontation.

“Stella-sama and Joanne-sama are going to battle? I’ll bet my dinner on Stella-sama’s victory.”

“I might bet on Joanne-sama. It’s contrarian, but…”

Currently, my organs are packed inside Joanne’s body…

In an effort to stop the battle between Stella and Joanne, I chased after the two of them.