Chapter 1276 Meaning of the Unknown Turns Into Meaning of the Unsolved Part 1

「Haah…… Haah…… Safe…… Barely safe……」

While going at full speed dash all the way from my home to school, I just barely managed to run inside of a classroom shortly before the homeroom was about to start. Needless to say, such a mad dash first thing in the morning managed to leave me severely out of breath…… “Surely you are not going to go to school without having breakfast first, right?” I was pressured by my mom like that, and I had no way of actually trying to refuse her. That is why the toast that I ate in a hurry was giving my side a real hell of a nasty time right about now. It was almost like some sort of Damage Over Time effect.

Now, I never would have thought in my entire life that I would almost get late to school because of a stupid piece of bread like that…… Now, if it wasn’t for a certain shortcut that I happened to discover in my neighborhood when I was still in Elementary School ,I would have taken two minutes longer to get here and I would have been late for sure. Who was it that said that changing the flowcharts on the go while doing real life RTA is a bad thing…… I couldn’t shorten it by two minutes if I didn’t remember the loophole I had discovered when I was in elementary school. Who said the real thrill of RTA was to change the chart … But man, why is it so hot in here? Maybe I should open a window? Ahh, better to double check with someone who is sitting right next to me, just to be on the safe side.

「…… Hey, I want to open the window. You don’t mind, do you?」

「…… Maybe you should ask that question again after seeing that complete protection set against the cold, huh? If you are so hot, then how about putting some dry ice on your back, huh? I heard that should do the trick.」

「Right. Understandable, have a nice day.」

I really need to change that fucking seat as soon as possible……

If I try to force the idea here, I might actually end up regretting it, so I guess that I’ll just have to give up the idea of cooling my body with the cold outside air. Somehow, it seems that certain people have a predestination as to wheatear or not they get hot or cold easily, huh? Could it be the surname’s fault……? This guy’s name’s Atsugi, and he has a very good physique and is the member of the in the judo club, but he seems to be getting warm easily. Could it be that this was this protection against the cold that he was talking about?

「Fuuuh……」

Well, as long as I managed to get into the classroom in time, then it’s fine, I guess.

Then the homeroom started, but somewhere halfway through it I basically stopped listening and slowly drowned in the ocean of my own thoughts. It’s Shangri-La Frontier that decorates the whole of my mind right now. Honestly, I’m also worried about the message that: “A new bug has occurred in the update patch” that was apparently displayed in Bakumatsu Online. There was also something more written there, but I honestly paid that no mind…… Maybe it was something about incorporating new forms of Divine Punishment? I really need to check this out sometimes soon.

* * *

Oh well, but before anything else, let’s just check up on Sigma and see what was the deal with that whole “Emotional” update of hers. But now that this thing was out of the way, we could finally proceed to ask about Orchestra and proceed to finally capture it for good. Or so I hope.

So I finally asked the question that’s been bugging me all this time to no visible end in sight: about the Orchestra’s Diva who was singing arias. About the woman who was apparently leading the Orchestra. …… About Elise Jitter Doll, who has the same surname as Andrew Jitter Doll!

But the response that I have got was a little different from what I initially expected to hear.

……………

………

…

「Elise…… Where did you even heard that name?」

「Ah, you know…… Just hear and there.」

I’m also worried about Sigma who all of a sudden decided to borrow Emul for some reason to verify her emotions or whatever, but now this is my utmost priority. Doctor Andrew squints his eyes a little at the words that pop out of my mouth, as expected.

「Hmmph…… Oh well, fine. Let’s just leave it at that. Neither the Answer Code Talker nor Andrew Jitter Doll should be keeping this a secret.」

Mmm, that’s actually surprising. It’s a word related to the core of the Unique Scenario EX, so I thought that he would be more on his guard to not spill anything by accident.

「You see, Elise Jitter Doll…… She was my aunt.」

「…… Oh wow. That is actually a whole lot closer blood relation than I would have expected.」

「But she passed away shortly before I managed to reach ten years old…… And the cause of her death was really ordinary: acute alcohol poisoning.」

「Ouch, that’s…… That’s rough.」

It’s a word that shouldn’t appear in a game that sells fantasy setting! Like, at all!!

「I cannot even begin to fathom why those words in particular would escape from your mouths…… but I said I will answer you, and I’m going to be true to my word. She was my aunt and her greatest dream was to be able to hold even a small concert for a limited public during her lifetime.」

「You know a whole lot about her even though she died when you were still young.」

「I was that kind of a child who would always question every single little thing that was in front of me. And she was always the one who would answer those questions, no matter what. Truth to be told, she is someone who is responsible for about five percent of who I am today.」

「And would you be willing to elaborate on that in some greater detail?」

「She was singing songs to me. Songs that would ultimately inspire me to go out there and get to know about Sternbloom in greater detail.」

According to Doctor’s words, Sternbloom is a godly creation even if it is expressed conservatively, so it seems that there were quite a few people who covered their songs even when they became a thing from the distant past. Elise Jitter Doll was one of those people, and there was a Sternbloom song in her repertoire that was sung in an entertainment facility like a bar at the end of the venue.