The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Even though this is in an Eroge world, no erotic events have occurred (tears).

With even the slightest movement, the chains that bind me clank with a dull metallic sound. Feeling a burning heat in the cold air, beads of sweat drip down from my chin.

(Think! The second question is whether ‘we are truly in a mutual romantic relationship’ or not. I have to answer before it gets restricted to just ‘yes’ or ‘no’…!)

“Oh. I don’t want to be deceived by an ambiguous answer, so let’s set a restriction.”

“Ah…”

“You must answer the previous question with either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

A faint shock. The color of the chains darkens, and the restraint tightens.

I’m done for. The escape route for the second question has been completely sealed off.

It’s likely that Juanquiro wanted to clarify the first question, whether I am an enemy of the Aaros Temple Order or not. She probably wanted to crush an ambiguous answer or one that suggests I am neither an enemy nor an ally.

Also, the third question was phrased in a sleazy way. ‘You can’t actually use magic… can you?’ was the question. If it had been ‘Can you use magic?’ the meaning would have been significantly different.

For example, the magic of Juanquiro ‘cannot be used’ without overcoming strict conditions.

Even if one possesses magical abilities, if the conditions are not met, they ‘cannot use magic’, so it’s possible to answer no and pass the latter question.

However, by phrasing the question in the former way, it becomes possible to expose those who are conditional magic users.

Juanquiro’s magic could be said to have the ability to change its form greatly with just a single word.

“I will answer the first and third questions. The answer to both is no… I am an ally of the Aaros Temple Order, and I possess no magical abilities whatsoever.”

Wrinkles form between Juanquiro’s brows. The chains do not detect a lie and do not carry out the execution.

Watching the two chains burst apart, she scratches her head in surprise as if her own guess had been wrong, and she looks embarrassed.

However, my fate will be decided by the second question.

I ponder. Mutual love is the state where two people have romantic feelings for each other. I know that I do not harbor such feelings for Joanne, so the answer is ‘no’.

However, if I honestly answer ‘no’, I cannot escape death by her mad love. If I fit into the role of the original protagonist, the moment she takes a liking to me, the ending is predetermined: either dismemberment or my p*nis peeled off like a banana.

Death by a false answer or death by Joanne’s mad love… It’s merely a difference between an early or a late death.

If one can choose the way to die, it’s human nature to choose the easier death. Between being mutilated or dying instantly from a curse, the latter is decidedly better. No, that’s not actually better… but it’s the only option.

As a mob character, I am prepared. I shall die according to the judgment of the chains!

Staring into those bulging jade eyes, I answered the second question.

“Regarding the second question… We are in mutual love. I love her.”

“Hmm…”

Juanquiro raised one eyebrow.

The last chain was swallowed by a different dimension, and I was freed from all the chains.

(What…? The chains disappeared… wait what? Why isn’t the instant death effect activating? Why am I not dying?)

I had closed my eyes, held my breath, clenched my back teeth, and prepared for the end of my life.

Yet, that moment never comes, no matter how much time passes.

Intense agitation. Why isn’t the death for the false answer being delivered? Juanquiro’s magic should have met the activation conditions. I can’t imagine there being any flaws in the conditions.

My field of vision narrows. Amidst the rising panic and confusion, as if sweat is bubbling in my hands, the iron door creaks and bends.

In an instant, the iron door is destroyed, crumpled up into a ball, and transformed into a lump of iron. On the other side of that devastation, Joanne stood dumbfounded.

“Ah… Ahh…! I love you too, Oakley!”

Joanne, embracing her own body, staggers closer with unsteady steps. Exposed to such trembling happiness, her emotions amplify. Her cheeks flush rapidly, yet conversely, the temperature in her eyes drops.

I’m overwhelmed by a sense of discomfort… I should be overjoyed to have survived… but something feels off. A bad premonition creeps in.

Before I can confirm this hunch, Joanne appears before me, still bound.

Then our eyes meet—hers in a state of ecstasy. Her gaze is unwavering, direct. A single, intense emotion flows from her heart, beginning to envelop my body.

According to the original story, this girl grew up without knowing love. Therefore, her love is twisted.

The affection she expresses is heavy like lead, dull, and possesses an inescapable distortion.

“Hey-hey, don’t start this here, okay?”

Ignoring the restraint of Juanquiro, Joanne snatches the torture tool—a pair of hedge shears intended for pruning branches—brought by Juanquiro behind her back.

(Whoa, hey, you’ve got to be kidding. She’s getting too excited, this woman—)

Those scissors were the very tool that sliced through the protagonist’s possession in the original work like a chrysanthemum flower.

It could be said to be a famous supporting actor that also made an appearance during the dismemberment of limbs.

I hallucinated myself crouching in a pool of blood.

“Oakley… you… just how much… do you… really love… me…?!”

Joanne, seemingly overwhelmed by emotion, raised the hedge shears and slammed them down between my legs.

With a dry thud, the shears stood erect between my legs. The blade that grazed the tip of my nose demonstrated the sharpness of that strike.

Shivering uncontrollably from the sheer terror, I disgracefully wet myself while sitting on the chair. My knees shook amusingly.

Unable to compose my facial expression, I became teary-eyed from hyperventilating.

Why is it that I find this situation laughable now?

“Ah, that face… you’re so cute, Oakley…”

With her small mouth slightly open, Joanne licked up my neck with her split tongue as if tracing it while I was in a state of semi-madness.

Her innocent smile and spiral-shaped pupils closed in, and she licked my neck repeatedly.

I couldn’t even raise my voice. Even though a supposedly beautiful girl was crawling her tongue over my skin, I continued to twist my upper body, trying to escape from her. I wasn’t even excited.

She was broken. She was trying to dismember my limbs, as she pleased, as she felt.

Perhaps it was better to think of her as a beast.

“…This restraint. Is it just right?”

Joanne pulled out the hedge shears standing between her legs.

As if to demonstrate their meshing and sharpness, the shears made a loud snapping sound, cutting through the air two or three times.

“Wait――!?”

I shook the chair violently, trying to escape from Joanne, but with both hands and feet tied, there was no way I could get away.

It was at such times that I remembered the pendant with her ring finger inserted into it.

Even if I was lucky enough to escape from this room, as long as the ‘marker’ was there, I wouldn’t be able to get away―

I sought help with my eyes to Juanquiro, but it didn’t seem like she would make it in time.

“It might hurt a bit, but bear with it, okay?”

The opened pruning shears were pressed against my shoulder. And in the moment she attempted to close the handles—A countermove surfaced in my mind.

A brilliant idea that could turn everything upside down. There was no time to hesitate, so I set out to put that idea into action.

“Joanne-samaa!”

“Hm?”

I kicked off the ground with the tips of my toes, closing the distance toward Joanne.

As she let out a bewildered voice—

“Mmmph—!?”

I sealed Joanne’s lips with mine.

I couldn’t tell what a kiss tasted like or anything like that. I was just lost in the moment.

Then after a few seconds of contact, the distance between Joanne and me grew.

“Ah…uh, eh? W-what did you just do…?”

It seemed Joanne hadn’t expected to be kissed as she dropped her scissor in a fluster.

With her ears turning bright red, she touched her lips with her finger as if to savor the aftertaste of the moment.

“No way, did we just… ki-ki-kiss…?”

Then Joanne fled from the interrogation room as fast as she could with teary eyes.

(Phew… I’m saved… Thank you, my first kiss…)

At that time, I was reminded of the individual route in the original work.

I didn’t know what kind of values Joanne held, but while she didn’t hesitate to commit acts of cruelty, she was embarrassingly modest about kissing and s*xual activities. I thought maybe a sudden kiss would throw her off balance… and it seems the effect was indeed effective.

“Hehe… huhu… hahaha! Oakley Mercury! You’re quite amusing!”

In the corner of my vision, I see Juanquiro laughing.

Say whatever you want, there’s nothing more important than saving my own life.

“Even though it’s not really mutual love… to kiss that girl…”

(…what?)

What did I just hear…?

For a few seconds, I truly didn’t understand what Juanquiro was saying, and I slowly cocked my head.

“… you lied on the second question, right? You were able to kiss a woman you didn’t even like… You’re quite the actor, aren’t you?”

…Huh?

I didn’t expect this woman to be leading me on.

“…Why didn’t you kill me…?”

I asked with a trembling voice. Then Juanquiro declared as if it were the most natural thing.

“You can’t use magic and you’re an ally of our order. Isn’t that reason enough not to kill you? Besides, killing a usable subordinate is something only the incompetent would do. The decisions of life and death were sufficiently made with just the first and third questions.”

Juanquiro had seen through my lie and chose not to activate any instant death effects.

I was completely at her mercy, being played like a fiddle.

“Even so, you… to repel Joanne without borrowing my hand is quite something…  You have the makings of a candidate for the next Executive.”

After releasing the restraints on my chair, Juanquiro picked up a box filled with torture devices and left the scene while leaving behind these words——

“I’ll keep quiet about this to Joanne. But in return, you’ll listen to my request. If you don’t, well… I might just tell Joanne a little lie… just kidding.”

……

A few days later, I heard a rumor from another mob Believer that ‘an Executive had taken care of a spy.’

However, I still couldn’t escape the responsibility of having failed my mission twice.

Remembering that the original work’s timeline had not yet begun, I sighed at the prospect of my hopeless future.