Chapter 1277 Meaning of the Unknown Turns Into Meaning of the Unsolved Part 2

「That particular song is one of the hundreds of songs that Sternbloom has released across their career. And that one in particular is the one that I would always especially recommend to anyone who was willing to listen. …… At the time of its release I was genuinely impressed with the message it was carrying.」

So, does that mean that once she heard a song that a family member recommended to her, her whole life managed to make one great one hundred eighty degrees turn? Is that it? Ahh, oh yeah, I think that I’m starting to slowly understand what this thing is all about in here.

「…… Is that all? There is nothing else?」

「Yes, that’s about it, I’m afraid. Very rarely, but we had those times when we were missing the good old days of our childhood, and so in order to get back to those times we would listen to that song over and over again. but that’s about all there is to it. I don’t know what you could have possibly expected to hear here, but that is all that Elise Jitter Doll is to me. Nothing more, but at the same time nothing less.」

「Is that…… Is that it? That is all? Really?」

「…… It’s just… you know. She was as far from Sternbloom as you could possibly imagine, but as long as she had just a few fans she was able to convince herself that things would just sort of work out. She was that kind of a person.」

…… No way, are you shitting me right now? Are you really going to tell me that I have come all this way for nothing? That it was all just a huge miss on my part? Because as far as I am able to tell, this whole Elise Jitter Doll was just nothing more but an overly serious mob character, someone similar to an Adventurer who would overly prepare for their very first adventure and would alter celebrate their first monster kill as something so great and magnificent that you wouldn’t even believe it. Or at the very least, that was my genuine impression here.

So, in other words, does that mean that Elise Jitter Doll is just a fake? A possible decoy or a distraction that was implemented there simply to serve as bait to lure you out from trying to fight the Unique Monster Orchestra? A sort of a wild goose hunt? And from the looks of it, it seems that I have been had completely here…… No, no! Not yet! I refuse for this thing to end like this!

「Okay, alright, fine. Let’s leave it at that. Then, onto the next question: does this thing jog your memory? Do you remember what this thing even is supposed to be?」

「Well now, this thing is……」

「Yes, that’s right. It’s a music player. A plain and ordinary one, presumably created sometimes during the Era of the Gods. Once again: do you remember this thing? Do you know what it is supposed to be?」

Alright then, how about this thing, huh? Oh, and this better give me some much needed results! Because if it turns out that this this is also actually irrelevant to the question at hand, then this would mean that I will be blocked from every possible direction, with nothing else to work with or to go on. And I would seriously like to avoid a scenario like that.

If there is only one thing that I regret not doing here, it would be taking a screenshot of the apparition of Elise Jitter Doll and her “knight” in the battle’s final stage. However, the music box is a whole different story. I mean, it is there before the battle even starts, so taking a screenshot of it is no problem. In fact, you can screenshot it as much as you want, and there will be no one there to stop you.

And just as I suspected, seeing the screenshot of the music box in question certainly got a reaction out of Doctor Andrew here! His eyes wide open, he looked as though there were many thoughts racing through his head at this very moment. Yes, that’s it! Just tell me what I want to know here, so that we can get this farce over with! Now then…… Here it comes!

「Well, well, well, that certainly is one hell of a surprise, if I do say so myself. This is my old and precious music player, of all things.」

「Ooh? You don’t say? So, you DO recognize this thing.」

「Well, it’s just that…… Yes, that’s right. It was only after the funeral procession for Elise Jitter Doll was finally over that it came to light that she just so happened to receive a whole vintage music player like that from someone who claimed to be her greatest fan. Can you imagine? To be perfectly honest, I thought that she had simply lost the damned thing and couldn’t remember what happened to it…… But now, wait a moment. The more important question to ask here should be: why does this thing still continue to exist in the first place?」

「The Conquest Dolls are supposed to collect all matter of things in order to keep them for preservation purposes. However, this thing is slightly different. This matter is actually something that deviates from the original purposes of their “Collection” plan.」

To be more specific here, it would have been something that would actually pose a threat to erode the world itself if you would let it do as it please.

「No…… Actually, it’s not something like that. Not even close. But that doesn’t even matter here at this point. That’s not what this is all about. Everything that is to be collected as part of the “Collection” plan, everything that the Conquest Dolls manage to get their hands on, is to be brought into storage, catalogued and preserved for the sake of posterity…… That is only because every single target for the collection was originally designed in that way to begin with.」

「…… Umm, okay? But, no…… I don’t really get it. What does that have to with the subject at hand?」

「That particular music player is actually a curious and interesting little thing. For you see, it was made way before the human race first decided to venture beyond the sea of stars to see what’s there to find…… But here is where this is getting even more interesting. For you see, this music player was actually “lost” before it was possible to add it into a program that would protect it from the destructive processes of aging for thousands of years of waiting that were bound to come. Now then, here’s a question just for you: why would someone actually want to preserve a prototype like that in its natural, untouched state, hmm?」

…

………

……………

「Yes, I know, I know…… You don’t really need to remind me, or anything like that……」

The only reason for why I originally came in here in the first place, was because this place held answers to some of the questions that I had going on in my head. And it can be said that my excursion into the Behemoth managed to answer all of those questions and then even some more. So in the end, it was a pretty worth it journey. But this gives birth to yet another question here: Just what the hell am I supposed to do from now on? How do I proceed forward from here?