Chapter 1289 Reaching for the ‘’Solution” At Hand Part 2

「Uuuhhh…… I seriously hope that some evil spirit or two are going to haunt your bedside tonight, Rakuro-kun!!! Serves you right!!!」

「Oho, what’s this? Some trope from a book or a story from the past? Could it perhaps be from Genji Monogatari? Am I going to be haunted by a vengeful spirit such as Rokutatami Ichima Yasushiya or what’s her name……?」

「Umm…… don’t you actually mean Rokujou Miyasudokuro? I am pretty sure that such a trait was attributed to her character in the story for sure.」

「Oh, yeah. Yeah! That one, that one!」

Since we are talking about one of the greatest piece of classical Japanese literature of all times, it would be good to mention that this is a fairly complex and intelligent story, something that requires great intellectual capacity and focus in order to be able to fully grasp the meaning behind the story and all of its themes……

「It’s really amusing to read such old stories for their cultural value, but it is even more amusing to see that nowadays because of certain themes in the story people are ready to brand it as Occult. Don’t you find that funny?」

Because of, you know…… curses, vengeful spirits, other occult things…… stuff like that……

「Yes, that’s right. Rokujo Miyasudokuro is a woman who is portrayed in the story as having strong feelings towards the main character, and it because of those feelings that she later turns into a vengeful spirit. And even as a vengeful spirit, the strength of her emotions causes her curses and malice to be so powerful and difficult to dispel…… Hmm? Strong emotions? Strong…… emotions…… HUOOOAAAHHH!?」

Emotions…… Yes, why didn’t I think of this before!?

I get a feeling that right about now the tips of my fingernails were finally able to catch onto something. And once I have managed to do just that, the only thing left now is to start digging deeper and deeper in that exact place! I will grasp a hold of that “something” now! I won’t let it slip away! Not this time around! You can be god damn sure of that!!!

「N-No, it’s wrong. It’s not like that. Well, it’s not TECHNICALLY wrong, but when we are talking about strong emotions here, then we usually mean them in the context of, umm, this is, uuuhhh, uum, the thing is……」

「……………」

Orchestra of the Gloomy Melody.

The main body of that particular Unique Monster is that of a music player. Its power is to reproduce the past experiences of the player facing it and reflecting it in a physical form of the enemies that this particular player managed to defeat. So it’s like forming a relationship, but what is the nature of that relationship, exactly? No, I have only managed to notice it now. It is a relationship of present and the past. So in a sense, you could even say that it is a relationship of the past trying to project itself onto your future, right?

「So, in this case what would the “strong emotions” entail? That would obviously be the feeling of resentment. But is resentment really synonymous to anger? I don’t think so. At the very least, I did not get any such feeling from the general flow of the conversation.」

Andrew’s mentioned that himself.

That particular music player is Andrew’s personal property, but strictly speaking, it was not his from the very start. It was inherited by him. Apparently some old dude gave it to Andrew without even knowing the true nature or true value of his gift, but we can safely assume that this is without much importance to the story right about now. And even if it’s related somehow, it’s not an individual old man, or someone deserving to be a named character…… No matter how much realistic ShanFro tries to be, it’s just a game, and if it was to be an important individual, he would have been a named character, even if it was to be his first name only.

─── The music player itself was made way before the human race first decided to set sail into the sea of stars, and was lost “before” it was able to be preserved to prevent it from aging for thousands of years and ultimately withering away.

「………!!!!!!!!!」

The tip of my fingernails start to dig deeper and deeper at that exact moment. And there is a chill-like electric current that finally catches my fingers once I finally manage to scratch it! And then that chill runs across my entire body!

Hypothesis, guesses, anticipation. All of those elements are running wild inside of my mind right about now. However, this reasoning starts to make a terrible sense to me…… No, wait, it can’t be right? No, but that would mean, that it is……

Elise Jitter Doll is just a bluff.

At least when you try to consider the nature of the existence that is Orchestra, all this time I was basically obsessed with the idea of Elise Jitter Doll. What a fucking trap, I’ll give you a perfect score of one hundred points out of one hundred! Way to send someone on a wild goose hunt!

「That’s why I also tried to go on one of the message boards, to be able to do some research that you might actually find useful, Rakuro-kun……」

「Rei-san.」

「Y-Yeash!?」

At the current moment the endorphins inside of my brain are making a real carnival there. At this moment, I couldn’t understand the whole picture yet, but I was surely getting closer to grasping the truth…… I want to praise my sense of duty and reason that stopped me here from running backwards to my house with the excitement that I got to “the truth”, which I can understand only because I grabbed it with all my fingers and pulled it out from the murky ground in which it was hidden.

The feeling of praise turned into gratitude towards Rei-san for giving me this rare opportunity, and I put my hands on Rei-san’s shoulders without thinking too much.

「Huo…… Hoo, hoo……」

「Thank you so much, Rei-san……! You are truly my one and only god…… No, a Goddess!!」

「Wha……!?」

Oops! I really want to go back to the world of ShanFro right now! At the current moment, the entrance to school never before looked more like a gateway to a prison! And I get a feeling that I am going to be imprisoned there for thousands of years without end! But still, it’s my responsibility as a student to go to school, and so that is exactly what I need to do!

「Alright then, Rei-san! Let’s give it our very best at school today!」

「………… Huh?」

Just you wait, Orchestra! When I get home, I will hit you with all the power of the grudge of not being able to concentrate on my studies throughout the whole day!

* * *

On that particular day, Saiga Rei has come down with a record breaking fever for her name, with the maximum temperature of her body going into the realm of thirty eight point four degrees Celsius and refusing to go down anytime soon. Because of that, she was even forced to call it a day prematurely and return home early from school.