Reincarnated as a Cultist Mob - Chapter 6

 Full-Body Amputee or Banana—And an Engagement Ring

In the end, only three people survived on both sides combined: Celestia alone on the Orthodox side, and Yoanne and I on the Cultist side. The girl who had her head destroyed and every part of her body except her earlobe erased by magic was completely fine now. It made no sense whatsoever.

Casualties stood at 45 dead on the Orthodox side and 19 dead on the Cultist side. Here's a quick suggestion, Leader Arlos: why don't we just call off this religious war? You're literally the only one who wants to keep killing. Pretty sure the Orthodox side wants to stop too.

Well, as a little bit of savings... I looted unbroken crossbows, swords, and armor from the corpses and stuffed them into the carriage. Robbing the dead certainly calls my ethics into question, but I needed to make up for the negative Cult Leader Points incurred by our failed mission.

Seeing my devout behavior, white teeth peeked from the corners of Yoanne's mouth.

"You really don't miss a beat, do you?"

"Haha, not at all."

If I were really a guy who didn't miss a beat, I wouldn't have accidentally built up a crazy girl's affection to maximum without realizing it until it was too late.

Did I do something wrong?

After burying the bodies with Yoanne's help, I reflected on my past actions as we made our way back.

I hadn't done anything grand.

I bravely stepped into battle alongside an executive girl feared by ordinary followers, draped a robe over her when she was naked after combat to cover her body, stuffed a piece of her flesh into a pendant given out by the cult, told her that her outfit naturally suited her, draped her torn robe over her once again...

Is that a counting yakuman...?

I might actually be pretty good at setting off flags. It's almost a mystery why I wasn't popular in my past life.

(What do I do?)

So, as it turned out, I had apparently "conquered" the girl sitting quietly beside me—Yoanne. Even though my affection for her was as close to zero as possible, it felt like I was being forcibly held responsible for making her this way.

Well, I was handed an "engagement finger" instead of an engagement ring, after all. It's way too terrifying and heavy—I'm basically forced to think about it deeply whether I like it or not.

Ah~ this is bad. My brain wasn't working properly due to this unprecedentedly strange situation. At this rate, I was on a straight path toward Yoanne's method of expressing love: Confinement and Amputation. I had to prevent that at all costs.

I needed to slippery-dodge her crazy love continuously without crossing the line...

"...Lady Yoanne... why did you fall in love with me?"

"Why? Well, that's—hey, are you really making me state the reason? It's a bit embarrassing."

"My apologies. I was just curious."

Hey Ocree, what do you mean you were "just curious"?! That kind of suggestive line is the number one thing you should NEVER say to a lunatic! They're just going to interpret it conveniently in their own favor!

I slammed my head with my fist. This was undoubtedly the lingering influence of playing way too many galgames and eroges in my past life. Lines permitted only to handsome protagonists or popular heroines kept coming out smoothly.

"By the way, Lady Yoanne, was there a reason you had to use your left ring finger as the Marker?"

Rattling off words rapidly to cover up my previous slip-up, Yoanne's eyes opened wide. She then twisted her neck with a straight face, tilting her head in a non-human manner like an owl.

"Got a problem with it?"

An unquestionable pressure. I could only reply with a faint, "No."

Human fingers carry various meanings. Raising a thumb at someone means "Thumbs up!", while raising a middle finger leads to something terrible. Since she gave me her left ring finger as a commemorative gift for being "mutually in love," she probably wanted me to accept it as an engagement finger.

"What I wanted to ask was... why was it not an earlobe or another finger?"

"Ah, is that what you meant? Don't scare me like that."

Yoanne's "blank" expression instantly brightened, and she began talking with genuine joy.

"Arlos-sama said it before: 'A woman's left ring finger and her heart are connected by a single blood vessel.' It's a special finger, so I wanted you to hold onto it. Besides... whenever you wear a piece of me... I feel uncontrollably happy..."

O-Oh... the words sound cute on the surface... wait, are they even cute? Don't be fooled, self—you're getting severely poisoned by this environment. I managed to fake a smile with my twitching cheeks to make it look convincing. Yoanne smiled back timidly, looking embarrassed.

However, she was blatantly stealing glances at my limbs. The temperature in her eyes directed at me from point-blank range was freezing, and I could tell exactly what she wanted to do. In the not-so-distant future, I might become unable to live without her hands.

"Hey, Ocree... can I lean in a bit?"

"Yes."

In her mind, this was probably a "sweet atmosphere"—a blushing Yoanne pressed her thigh against mine. Since I was whipping the horse's rear, I couldn't reject her either.

The way she closed the distance was absurd. Now that I think about it, this was an eroge originally.

As I steered the horse while thinking about this, her heated collarbone caught the edge of my vision. Come to think of it, since this girl regenerated from an earlobe, she was wearing nothing under that robe—a risky outfit you could call "naked robe." Looking at Yoanne, who was actually pretty as long as she wasn't doing anything crazy, I felt a slight flutter. Then, a sweet, feminine scent drifted over—or rather, a overwhelmingly thick stench of iron wafted into my nose, snapping me back to reality.

(Yeah, this is still brutal. If only I could enjoy this as entertainment on a screen...)

Thanks to the original game's godly character design, seeing her in person made her look like a 20% cuter girl. Although the mental issues and character settings carried massive negative penalties, visual-wise, she was good enough to be the main heroine in any game. I had to admit her signature green spiral eyes and split tongue were attractive—strictly based on looks, that is.

When I first saw her in person, my excitement honestly almost surged. She lived up to the reputation among original fans who praised her design—while conveniently avoiding mention of her personality.

...Well, you know how they say personality matters more than looks? Her individual route was packed with hellish fetishes, and even if our relationship progressed another step... yeah.

Yet, don't be surprised: her individual route was immensely popular among limb-loss fetishists and extreme masochists. Some fans even went mad enough to name her as their top favorite heroine. They could only say such lighthearted things because they had never actually met her in person.

"Inhale——— Exhale———..."

Sensing that Yoanne's breathing was taking on a dangerous heat, I pulled away from her.

"Lady Yoanne, now is not the time for this. We have failed our mission twice. We should think about how to report this to the Cult Leader..."

To be honest, that part was terrifying too. Being waist-deep in the "Full-Body Amputee or Banana" route meant there was no point worrying about the distant future, but realistically, this threat was the one coming up right away.

Calming down slightly upon hearing the Cult Leader's name, Yoanne looked up at the old castle appearing ahead.

"There was a spy who fed us fake information this time. Won't he let it slide?"

"...Would such a lenient judgment really be passed down?"

Of course not. Because Yoanne was an executive, she probably didn't understand the harsh reality faced by us mobs.

"If push comes to shove, I'll get chewed out alongside you."

What is this, a youth drama? But saying "I'll get chewed out alongside you"... meant she had zero concrete solutions.

Unable to hide my anxiety, I couldn't feel genuinely happy about returning to our base.

……

After finishing our report to the executive, I was tied to a chair by my hands and feet, locked inside an interrogation room.

(Something way worse than being thrown into a dungeon just happened...)

Here's how I ended up in the interrogation room: First, when we reported our mission failure to Arlos upon returning to base, he shook his head with great disappointment and left. Thinking I was abandoned, I panicked and tried to inform him about the spy, whereupon Arlos brought over the executive Juanquilo.

After that, I was shoved into the interrogation room to have a detailed "chat" with Juanquilo. If it were just a normal chat, we wouldn't need to go underground, right? They work their mobs way too hard.

While limply counting the stains on the ceiling, the door to the interrogation room opened.

"Ocree-kun, right? Sorry to keep you waiting."

Executive Rank 7: Juanquilo Legacy. A dark-skinned girl with a white bob haircut, wearing a tight skirt. In the original game, she had very little presence, rarely even getting a standing illustration outside of the Dark-Side route. She did have an individual route, though it was thinner in content compared to Yoanne's. But in terms of gameplay content, it was actually the most erotic.

Juanquilo usually handled the maintenance and management of the main base, spending most of her time as a non-combatant. Her main strength as an executive lay in her high interrogation capabilities, backed by her special power.

I swallowed hard and involuntarily straightened my back. This girl was considerably sharper than Yoanne. Furthermore, depending on how her ability triggered, death was unavoidable. Recalling the nature of her "chat," I began feeling the icy air of the interrogation room against my skin.

Carrying a filthy box, Juanquilo kicked the door shut with her foot. The box was packed with various torture tools, confirming my fears... a normal dialogue was out of the question. This was going to be an entirely one-sided interaction.

"This is our first time talking, I believe?"

Juanquilo's magic was somewhat unique. Instead of being suited for direct combat, fulfilling certain conditions allowed her to instantly kill the target at any chosen moment. If I remember correctly, the condition was—when she knew the target's "face, full name, and age," anyone within a two-meter radius who uttered a lie against her would be cursed to death. It was a capability that took effort to trigger, but the payoff of bypassing resurrection to inflict instant death was substantial.

Her lack of screentime and achievements could only be blamed on bad match-ups against opponents. It made total sense why fans evaluated her as "a woman who only shines in interrogations."

"I am Juanquilo Legacy."

"...I am Ocree Mercury."

And so, my "chat" with Juanquilo began.

"I heard the story from Yoanne. You were attacked by Celestia twice in just a few days, was it? That must have been tough."

Juanquilo began pacing in circles around me.

Tap, tap. The crisp sound of high heels echoed through the room. A different kind of tension compared to Yoanne. I licked my lips.

Juanquilo's ability was top-tier lethal against a mob soldier like me. It was a complete dead end.

Lacking the courage to say anything, I hung my head in silence. Cold sweat trickled down the back of my neck, creating an uncomfortable sensation between my shirt and skin.

"First, I'd like to ask—"

Crap, here comes the question!

Stiffening my body, I prayed with all my heart that it wouldn't be a checkmate question.

"What did you do to Yoanne?"

"...Huh?"

A sudden curveball. Why mention Yoanne's name...?

"When I told her I was going to have a 'chat' with you, that girl suddenly went wild. You're just an unranked cultist getting interrogated... yet she clearly goes crazy whenever it involves you."

"…………"

"Besides, taking a closer look, Yoanne's ring finger was gone. When I asked her, she said she gave it to you as a 'Marker'... what on earth is going on?"

I had a terrible feeling about this.

"Yoanne was never that kind of girl. You changed her."

Standing behind my restrained chair, Juanquilo traced my spine with her finger. Goosebumps broke out across my body, and I twisted violently.

"Ugh...! W-What are you..."

"It's question time now. Answer honestly, or you die—keep that in mind."

The instant those words were spoken, I envisioned the Grim Reaper's scythe.

Cold air flowed down my neck, touching my throat.

"Starting with a jab. I've suspected this for a while—you aren't an enemy of our Arlos Temple Cult, are you?"

—A chain burst out from the darkness of the room, wrapping tightly around my neck. This chain was proof that her magic's conditions had been met. Juanquilo already knew my face, name, and age. Now, the moment this chain exposed a lie, it would harvest my life.

"Second question. That girl said you two were 'mutually in love'—are you two really in a mutual romantic relationship?"

Another chain shot out, binding my torso.

"Third. You can't actually use magic... right?"

A chain wrapped around my waist, completely immobilizing me. I couldn't escape without answering the questions.

"Guh... ah...!"

I thought frantically while being squeezed by the chains.

Judging by the three questions, Juanquilo suspected me of being an enemy spy from the Orthodox Church. Furthermore, she believed I used some kind of power to confuse Yoanne's mind. That was why she set up these safeguards before coming to kill me.

Assuming I were an enemy: if I cowered before her ability and confessed the truth, she could simply torture me to death with tools regardless of magic. If I resisted her ability and lied, she could instantly kill me at any moment. And if I were an ally, I could clear all suspicions... absolute perfection.

Though the second question felt mixed with personal curiosity, I had to admit the first and third questions were extremely rational.

The answers to the first and third questions were simple.

I was not an enemy of the Arlos Temple Cult, and I couldn't use magic.

However, how should I answer the second question...? I began searching for the perfect response.

Objectively speaking, Yoanne was just unrequitedly obsessed with me. But since I somewhat liked Yoanne as a character, in that sense, you could call it mutual...

No, none of that matters right now! We are NOT in a mutual relationship. I have to answer with my true feelings! I need to break free from these chains before I suffocate!

As I arched my chest searching for oxygen, I noticed the "Marker" inside my pendant vibrating violently.

(...Huh?)

I felt a gaze. Sticky, persistent, and observing—an eerie gaze. Reflexively, my eyes darted toward the iron bars on the door leading outside the room.

Through the gaps of the rusted iron bars, a pair of spiral eyes stared at me without blinking once.

"…………"

—It was Yoanne. Tracking her location via the "Marker," she had come to watch the "chat"...

I was struck by two distinct forms of despair.

My true feeling was: "We are not mutually in love."

However, if I answered "We are not mutually in love" right in front of Yoanne, she would slaughter me on the spot.

Conversely, if I lied and said "I am in love with her"—Juanquilo's magic would instantly kill me for lying.

What... what am I supposed to do?!

While everyone remained silent, time slowly ticked away.

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