A Few Serious Announcements
I received feedback in the comments section pointing out that my encounter with Sahzan in the bath might have taken place in the world before the rewind. Therefore, I’ve made some minor changes to the previous chapter’s developments.
Also, on a separate note, I realized I completely forgot about a special ability I had set up for the Fire of Sh’s destruction of the Fragment of the Evil God, which stated “destroying its tentacles will damage weapons.” It was due to “Curse of Corrosion,” which was an unforgivable oversight for someone who uses foreshadowing. Since it would be too complicated to try and retcon it now, I’ve deleted the mention of “Curse of Corrosion” from Chapter 107.
I apologize.
130 characters
…Frankly, I’m a little out of my depth.
“Sob. I told you to stop, but Soma just forced me to… ‘I’ll teach you what a real man is’!”
“Yeah, yeah. You were scared, weren’t you? …Sooooma!”
Sahzan, who had recovered somewhat from her fetal position in the corner of the room, clung to Maki and wept. Maki glared at me with a furious expression.
“N-no, wait, at least hear my side of the story!”
It’s true that I gave Sahzan a… well, a very small, minuscule sex education lesson. But it was almost entirely out of goodwill, with hardly any malice.
If there was any, it was just a tiny bit, about the size of a scoop of bulldozer.
Otherwise, I was acting with the same pure goodwill as the Nekoneko character responsible for events.
However, I wasn’t given time to assert those points.
“Come to think of it, I sensed something was wrong and came over. As expected, I see.”
“… Soma.”
Perhaps they heard Maki’s commotion, or perhaps it was an intuition, but my companions, who had been investigating something, returned one after another.
And, of course, that’s when things got really difficult.
“…Perverted, lecherous man?”
Ringo, who seemed to grasp the general situation at a glance, attacked me mentally with a nostalgic phrase.
“This doesn’t appear to be a good situation, but perhaps there’s room for leniency. How about it? Shall we demonstrate it again, this time with me?”
Mitsuki, who usually acts as a moderating influence, said something strange while intently staring at my cat ears.
—Thump.
Kuma punched me in the stomach with his exceptionally soft hands and gave me a gallant smile, as if to say, “Consider it even.”
“Even if you didn’t notice, to engage in lewd acts right next to someone reading a book… I see, is this the magnanimity of a Hero? …Indeed, this is acceptable.”
Serie, who had apparently finished a book and revived, joined the condemnation with a smug demeanor.
“Wait! I, um… Oh, speaking of which, where’s Ena?”
“Ah, I saw her on the way here. She seemed to be diligently investigating something.”
Of course, Ena, who isn’t particularly good with her hearing or intuition, was left behind yet again, making the situation even worse.
Given the nature of the conversation, I couldn’t just speak without Sahzan’s permission. Under Sahzan’s supervision, as she finally recovered a bit, I began my defense. However, when the conversation reached the crucial parts about George, Snowpaon, and the bath, Sahzan screamed, “Umi mi ya!?” and lunged at me, interrupting my explanation. It took quite a long time.
I tried to avoid the private details, but for the sake of the future, I revealed that Sahzan was the priestess of the clan of sealers and was actually a girl. I honestly thought they would be surprised by this, but their reactions were less than I expected.
While they seemed somewhat surprised by the part about the clan of sealers, the members present were Mitsuki (expressionless), Ringo (expressionless), Serie (rather expressionless), and Maki (who already knew). There was hardly any reaction. As for Sahzan being a girl,
“I kind of figured. I definitively thought so when I saw the video record,” Maki casually stated.
“I had a hunch too. I pretended not to know because she seemed like she didn’t want to be touched,” Mitsuki confessed coolly.
“…Mm. I had a hunch, too,” Ringo followed suit with a cool-sounding phrase.
“Yes. Of course, of course. I, too, of course, saw through that much,” Serie declared eloquently, her glasses and voice trembling slightly.
(Come to think of it, Layla also had a strange reaction when I mentioned Sahzan and I went into the bath together…)
I couldn’t confirm it with her now, as she was staying behind at the mansion, but given her almost primal intuition regarding such matters, it might be natural to assume that, judging by everyone’s reactions, she had noticed Sahzan was a girl.
This meant that, currently, everyone except Serie, who I haven’t known for long, and Ena, who wasn’t here, had already figured it out. This actually surprised me more.
In fact, the theory that Sahzan might be female had long been prevalent in Nekoneko’s game. However, in events, she was basically treated as male, she didn’t wear the female-exclusive equipment when given, and, primarily due to the emotional issue of “there’s no way someone like this is a girl,” I was against it. Still, I knew some people were loudly asserting it.
Naturally, for Nekoneko players who love to experiment, many tests were conducted to either deny or affirm the theory of Sahzan being female. However, due to her mask and cloak, which she absolutely refused to remove, no definitive proof was found. Combined with the fact that such a unique character had no marriage event discovered, it sparked a huge debate that became known as the “Hundred Year Debate.”
(Well, though, the marriage event was probably unimplemented.)
Sahzan’s hometown, the Southern Isolated Island, where events would surely be included, was not implemented in the game. And if one deeply involved themselves with Sahzan, avoiding a confrontation with the second Fragment of the Evil God or the Evil God itself would be impossible, but even those were not implemented. In this state, it seemed unlikely that they would have prepared events sufficient for marriage with Sahzan.
However, in the pre-release promotional material, a silhouette resembling the Evil God was shown with the tagline, “The ultimate enemy!? The figure of the final boss in development revealed in secret!” and Sahzan herself was a character that received considerable attention. It’s entirely possible that events related to Sahzan and the Evil God were planned for implementation during the development phase.
Furthermore, there’s a persistent rumor that Nekoneko’s developers were already halfway certain of developing a sequel at the time of its creation. Well, it seems that plan was scrapped due to its overall failure, but perhaps it was different during development. They might have intended to bring Sahzan and the Evil God back in a sequel, or, although I hate to think it’s possible, they might have planned to release a “complete” version with bug fixes and minor new features at full price, a so-called “complete edition” scam…
“Geez, Soma, what are you spacing out about!”
Maki snapped me back to attention by slamming the table. I almost got lost in the darkness of the game industry.
Besides, there’s no evidence that they were trying to sell something like Nekoneko Plus, Golden, F, G, International, Director’s Cut, Returns, Recharge, Dark Whatever, etc.
Also, there are cases where remakes genuinely lead to better works.
I almost blurted out accusations but decided to wait and see. I didn’t want to confuse everyone with just my premonitions.
“Soma! Just continue the story!”
And so, while frequently derailing like that, I somehow managed to finish my explanation.
“…And that’s why, I had no choice but to show him that book.”
The misunderstanding should have been cleared up, but…
“There was no room for leniency whatsoever.”
“…I said I wanted to become a normal human.”
—Thump, thump.
“Speaking from my position as a librarian, to make someone read that book out of the blue is an unbelievable act of barbarism! First, you pique their interest with something mild, then gradually shift to more extreme content, indoctrinating them little by little…”
“Ah, you’re all gathered here! I came up empty… Huh?”
For some reason, everyone’s attitude hadn’t changed much, and I received quite a lecture.
After the long sermon finally concluded,
“Ena, listen! Sahzan was actually a girl!”
“Eh, Eehh!”
“More than that, she’s the priestess of a clan that has sealed Evil Gods for generations!”
“Eh, eeehhhhh!”
“And the final Fragment of the Evil God was sealed in Sahzan’s right hand!”
“Eh, eeeeeeeehhhhhh!!!”
I thoroughly enjoyed Ena’s innocent and pure reactions, which felt as cleansing as water, and continued my investigation with renewed vigor. However, it yielded no results.
The diary of a person named Neathia, which Serie had mentioned before, also turned out to be about a different person unrelated to the Evil God. In the end, there were no further significant developments that day, and we returned to the mansion, having spent our time in vain.
“…Haa.”
Lying on the bed, I idly gazed at the ceiling.
Today, by seeing Sahzan’s memories, I learned the location of the final Fragment of the Evil God, which was what I wanted to know most, but I still felt the information was insufficient. Sahzan’s bracelet, imbued with memories, contained no recollection of the Evil God’s memories as seen by the first Sahzan, Nameless, only a warning: “You must not fight the Evil God.”
It’s possible to engrave memories onto the bracelet later. The fact that crucial details like fighting the Evil God were not included likely means that Nameless deliberately omitted them for some reason.
I asked Maki, who should know about Nameless’s concealment of the final chapter of the Evil God War, for its content again, but she replied in a stern voice,
“I think it’s better if you confirm it yourself, Soma.”
and wouldn’t answer.
Additionally, I tried to ask Sahzan for more details, thinking she might have knowledge of the Evil God that wasn’t in the bracelet’s memory…
“Fuuuuhhh!!”
Whenever I approached her, she merely growled like a wounded cat through her mask and behind her back, making conversation impossible. At least for now, it seems difficult to get information from those two.
(Nekoneko, the ultimate enemy, huh.)
I vaguely recalled a pre-release advertisement article for Nekoneko. As a Gamer, I naturally have a vague longing for the word “ultimate.” Beneath the lofty justifications of wanting to defeat the Evil God and bring peace to the world, or prevent the tragedy of the world before the rewind, I cannot deny a childish desire to defeat the ultimate being and become the strongest myself.
(But…)
The silhouette in that article, while similar to the Fragment of the Evil God, was not the Fragment of the Evil God itself. Rather, it resembled the original Evil God that the Hero Alex and Nameless fought in the Evil God War Video Record.
If that’s the case, then not only the Fragments of the Evil God, but also the Evil God itself, was a monster created by Nekoneko’s development team… or at the very least, conceived by them. I can’t even imagine how terrifying the complete form of the Evil God would be, when even the Fragments were so monstrously difficult. I can’t imagine it, but perhaps the actual Evil God possesses something that could even unnerve the overbearing Maki.
Could my decision to fight the Evil God have truly been the wrong one? I wondered, rolling over on the bed, gazing at the ceiling. Facing the window, the scene reflected there made me realize an unbelievable mistake I had made.
(Why didn’t I remember…?)
I had both the time to recall and the time to achieve my goal. Distracted by Sahzan’s gender, the forbidden book, and Ena’s positive reactions, I had completely lost sight of my objective.
That’s right, meaning…
“I forgot to buy the thing to slide the curtains with!”
As I lamented my own mistake, lamenting that I’d have to live with half-open curtains for a while longer, a gentle knock came at the door. I tilted my head.
“Hm? Who is it?”
It was late at night. The most likely visitors at this hour would be Maki or Layla, but Maki’s knock is more energetic, and Layla’s is more… persistent.
As I opened the door, still tilting my head, I saw an unexpected person.
“Huh? Sahzan? What…?”
But I couldn’t even finish asking the question. Swept up in Sahzan’s sudden charge, I stumbled.
“What’s wrong?”
Ever since that incident, Sahzan had been keeping her distance from me. In fact, until dinner, she had been actively avoiding me with clear signs of wariness. So why now?
“Anyway, gather everyone…”
This was undeniably an abnormal situation. As I tried to go call my companions, she grabbed my chest, clinging to me as if in desperate need.
“Sa-Sahzan?”
Her face was hidden by her mask. But the hand gripping me trembled subtly.
“…that.”
“Huh?”
Forcing her way into my bewildered chest, she whispered… and then, it finally clicked.
“—I saw it. Everything.”
She murmured in a hoarse voice. On her left wrist was the scarred “Soul Ring Bracelet,” a relic from the world before the rewind.
Part 2!
Tomorrow!
