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Chapter 682: Reaching for the "Answer"

The Scene is great; it somehow gives me the illusion that I'm incredibly knowledgeable about games. That said, even excluding people like Takeda-shi and Turnip Farmer-shi whose limiters regarding their hobbies have been completely obliterated, I'm still just a junior member who can't even hold a candle to the rest of the veterans...... Should I really be training my nose to sniff out trash games from the latest releases? More importantly, why was everyone talking like Ojou-samas?

"Yaaawn............ Ah, Rei-san."

"G-Good moor...... moorning........."

".........?"

Tilting my head in confusion at Rei-san, who was inexplicably pressing two juice cans against her cheeks with both hands, the topic that naturally came up as we walked was, of course, De-Belion.

"......So basically, that was a game structured like a PvP lasting several months, right?"

"So, that was it."

"That's how it was, yeah...... Umm, Rei-san, aren't you cold?"

"This is just right, so I am fine......"

"Could it be a cold?"

"No, it...... isn't a cold."

A brief silence followed.

"U-Umm, you see...... about, what happened...... yesterday."

"Ah, when you were acting super high-energy......"

"Hauh."

Smack, Rei-san slapped the juice cans against her cheeks again. Under this freezing sky, that's quite an innovative way to keep oneself awake......

"No, um, well, that, that was......"

"Nah, you don't have to say another word...... Everyone goes through a phase like that on their way to becoming an adult......"

Laughing it off as "I was young back then" is the very least the future can offer as a parting gift to the past, because the type of memories you can't laugh at are simply what we call "scars."

"No, um...... yes, well, if possible...... I would appreciate it if you forget about it."

"Hmm, I wonder about that...... It left quite the impact, after all."

"Eeeh!? R-Rakuro-kun! A-Are you making fun of me!?"

"NOOOOOFCOURSEEEENOT."

Someone else's youthful dark history is almost always pure entertainment, but no, of course not, hahaha...... Honestly, it was incredibly hilarious, yeah.

"Y-You're definitely making fun of me, aren't you!?"

"I mean, if you suddenly start talking like Kyogoku or someone like that, of course it's gonna be funny......"

"Guh...... uuu,"

Seeing Rei-san turning even redder than usual while cooling her cheeks with juice cans brought a rather heartwarming feeling to mind as a senior Dark History Holder myself, and before I knew it, we had gotten close enough to the school that the building came into view.

"Uuu...... I feel like my living ghost is going to fly right over to Rakuro-kun's bedside......"

"What's that, a Tale of Genji reference? Sounded something like 'Six-Tatami One-Room Snooze Haven'......"

"Y-You mean Lady Rokujo, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

We're covering that in classic literature right now, so it's a timely and highly intelligent reference......

"The fun part about reading works like that is seeing how things we treat as the occult nowadays were believed in as if they were completely normal back then."

Living ghost. The occult.

"Y-Yes, exactly. Lady Rokujo is...... well, a woman whose intense feelings caused her to become a living ghost, after all. Even I could turn into a living ghost with these massive feelings...... o-oh? W-With these...... massive, feelings......... Hoauah!!?"

Feelings.

Something just snagged the tip of my fingernail. And by some miracle, rather than slipping off, it dug itself firmly into "it." Now, all I have to do is reel it in.

"N-No, t-that's wrong. The massive feelings in this context are, um, well, no, it's not exactly wrong but it's wrong wrong wrong umm ahh well, um, yeah, you see."

"........."

Orchestra of the Reverberating Nether.

Its true body is a music player, a reproduction of the past and a reflection of the presentplayer. That thing is asking something, but what? No, wait, I just realized it. It's asking a question from the past to the present—doesn't that mean the past is questioning the future?

"T-The intense feelings in this case are more like indignation, or rather, it's not like I'm actually angry, it's strictly just banter for the flow of the conversation, you see."

Andrew's remarks.

That music player was Andrew's personal property, but strictly speaking, it was something he inherited. The person who gave it to Andrew was some unknown old man, so he probably has nothing to do with this. Even if he is involved, it's not the old man on a personal level...... No matter how you look at it, ShanFro is still a game. If he were a genuinely important individual, it wouldn't be strange for his name to be explicitly mentioned.

───That music player was created before the human species set sail into the sea of stars, and it was lost "before" the preservation process meant to prevent millennial-scale deterioration could be applied.

".........!!!"

My fingernail dug even deeper, and an electric current akin to a violent chill coursed through my entire body as my fingers finally hooked firmly onto "it."

A hypothesis, an assumption, a prediction. But with this logic, everything makes terrifyingly perfect sense. No, wait, are you kidding me, does it really fit together this flawlessly!? No, it's the only answer. In other words......

Elise Jitterdoll is a bluff.

At the very least, placing any importance on Elise when considering the true nature of Orchestra's existence will only drag you straight into a dead end. What a complete bullshit trap. I'll give it a perfect 100 out of 100.

"So, um, strictly speaking, because Rakuro-kun brought it up as a topic, there's an aspect where I just played along with it, you see......"

"Rei-san."

"Hyah-yes!"

I could physically feel the endorphins throwing a carnival inside my brain. Right at this very moment, for the entirety of that mystery I couldn't figure out...... I want to heavily praise my own rationality for not just sprinting backward all the way home while riding the high of uncovering thatthe answer the moment I grasped it with all my fingers and pulled it in.

That feeling of self-praise eventually morphed into pure gratitude toward Rei-san for providing the catalyst, and without thinking too deeply about it, I placed both my hands on her shoulders.

"Hyo...... h-ho......"

"Thank you. You are my God...... no, my Goddess."

"Myoh."

Oops, we're already at school. To me, someone who wants to log into ShanFro this exact second, this place looks like nothing more than the entrance to a prison where I'm about to be incarcerated for a thousand years, but having to go anyway is the hardest part of being a student.

"Well then, Rei-san, let's do our best at school today!"

" "

Just you wait, Orchestra. Once I get home, I'm going to unleash all the resentment I'm about to build up today from being completely unable to focus on my studies.