“Now then… tell me, Miyamoto?”
Cornelia’s smile bloomed — beautiful to the point of gruesomeness, and utterly terrifying.
“Thou art prepared, I trust… to burn in the flames of purgatory?”
And at that moment — Atomu-kun dropped into a full dogeza where he stood.
“I— I— I— I’M SO SORRYYYYYY!”
The sheer volume snapped every head toward him.
“My dead dad… told me one thing — NEVER waste food! I’M SORRY!”
At which Ouroboros observed, expression arctic:
“—There is nothing quite so unsightly as a villain begging for his life, you see.”
“Hold, Ouroboros.”
”…Lady Cornelia?”
“Atomu, or whatever thy name is… raise thy face.”
Atomu-kun — forehead ground into the dirt — raised his head.
And — Atomu-kun was crying.
Genuinely, wretchedly, apologetically crying.
“I… I… I did farmers WRONG… I ruined everyone’s FOOD… I’m so, SO SORRYYYY!”
Wait. Huh?
Is this… actual remorse?
“I’ll eat it! And obviously I’ll pay for the curry I ruined too!”
And Atomu-kun began scooping the spilled curry off the ground and eating it.
Tears streaming — the full posture of a man who believes he has committed a mortal sin.
”…By the way — this curry… there’s coffee in it, isn’t there.”
“Ho. Thou knowest how curry is MADE… dost thou?”
“We were a single-mother household… cooking curry for my little sisters was my job, and… they loved it, so I honestly loved making it. My family’s also team put-coffee-in-the-curry. Oh — and in our house we’d add chili pepper on top of that.”
“Ho… chili pepper, thou sayest? Might I… sample this? Once?”
“Ah! Of course! I ruined this batch, so I’ll remake it— no, PLEASE let me remake it!”
“But — extreme spice suits not my palate, I warn thee?”
“Yogurt mellows it right out!”
“Yogurt… thou sayest? Ho… thou soundest like the genuine article.”
The conversation is drifting somewhere deeply strange…
And Cornelia’s cheeks are visibly softening, too.
At which point Miyamoto, half in tears, screamed:
“SENPAI! You’re sucking up to the Demon Lord to save your own skin, aren’t you?! Fabricating some single-mom devoted-big-brother sob story?!”
And there, Mayu cut in:
“Atomu-senpai making curry is TRUE, though. He lived next door to my apartment… he’d bring over curry to share all the time, wearing this pink apron…”
An impact-grade revelation from an unexpected witness.
Also — Atomu-kun, built like a fortress… cooks in a pink apron.
“WHA—?! Senpai, you’re actually the DIRTIEST player alive!”
“What now, Miyamoto?”
“The Dark Miscarriage Fist! All those women you made cry! Now that it’s life-or-death you’re suddenly playing the wholesome homemaker?!”
”…That was always just a rumor you idiots spread on your own? Also, I’m a virgin. My face is scary, so people assumed things, and guys like YOU kept gathering around me… my actual hobby is dating sims.”
“WHA—?! SERIOUSLY?!”
“Seriously.”
“But — juvie! You were IN juvie—”
“A burglar broke into our place. He nearly put a kitchen knife in my little sister, and I snapped… and, well, look at my build. ‘Excessive self-defense,’ they ruled it…”
Oi oi. This story has fully left the rails.
“But Senpai — in THIS world you joined the criminal guild—”
“We’re deserter heroes; no legitimate shop will hire us. But I’ve kept clear of actual criminal work, you know? Escort jobs, bodyguard work — that side of the ledger.”
“But you’re still a deserter scumbag like—”
“They yanked us into this world for THEIR convenience and ordered us to fight and die on command… you don’t find that outrageous? Running from that doesn’t make anyone scum. Not in my book.”
“But — you and your ‘Yes Lolita No Touch’—”
“Because little girls are to be ADORED, obviously. You never actually touch. What is confusing about this?”
Hmm.
The verdict is in: Atomu-kun appears to be innocent. Of everything.
…And Maria — who was gleefully beating him to paste ten minutes ago — is now studying her own eyelashes, deeply awkward.
Cornelia extended her right hand to Atomu-kun.
“It seems we harbored misunderstandings on both sides. A handshake, then — to reconciliation.”
But Atomu-kun would not take Cornelia’s hand.
“What ails thee?”
“Yes Lolita… No Touch.”
At that, Cornelia laughed softly.
“Rest easy. I am — a loli-BABA.”
Atomu-kun’s eyebrows rose — and then, both smiling, the two shared a firm, heartfelt handshake.
“Atomu. Thy curry… I anticipate it greatly.”
And then Cornelia’s gaze snapped back onto Miyamoto.
“Which brings us back to THEE, Miyamoto… prepared to burn in purgatory’s flames, I trust?”
And Miyamoto produced his loudest scream of the entire day:
“TH-TH-THE PUNISHMENT — IT’S JUST ME?! ME ALOOOONE?!”