"Because I'm your player" – is that reason, along with your sister, why you gave me… the Gauntlet of Failure?"
Alain hadn't seen this piece of equipment since the beginning of the mission. But with a thought, the gauntlet reappeared on his hand. His gaze flickered from the gauntlet, then refocused on the writing on the wall.
After he asked this question, the writing seemed to fall silent, like a stone dropping into the ocean.
"Hm?"
Alain sensed something was amiss. Could it be… the short-haired Mita didn't give him the equipment because she wanted to help him? Was there… another motive?
A strong sense of caution spread through him. He realized he had a blind spot in his thinking.
Alain remembered Misha once telling him that there were aggressive Mitas in this world. Setting aside his 'bad woman,' just the Ugly Mita from last time had left a psychological scar. No good deed goes unpunished.
Perhaps the Gauntlet of Failure had some hidden mechanism that could cause him trouble…
Just then, the writing finally changed. But the string of characters left Alain scratching his head:
[What gauntlet?]
"..."
He was a bit confused. Could it be that his guess was wrong? The person who gave him the equipment wasn't the short-haired Mita from version 1.5?
But… that didn't match the information he had.
She couldn't have forgotten, could she?
Alain considered this possibility, then immediately dismissed it.
Impossible, absolutely impossible!
The person who gave him the equipment, in his mental image, had always been a very reliable figure. How could she be forgetful? Impossible!
So, he raised his hand, holding the Gauntlet of Failure in front of the characters, displaying it.
"This thing."
The characters fell silent again.
Alain's gaze shifted to Millie beside him, "Miss Millie Edogawa, what are your thoughts on this?"
"..."
The hatted girl seemed to be in a daze, staring at the string of characters, her thoughts unknown. She only snapped back when Alain waved his hand in front of her face.
The girl's gaze focused on his gauntlet, "Wow! Alain, your gauntlet is so cool!"
"Thank you, bro."
He patted her hat. In the blink of an eye, the characters finally changed.
[That's right. It's precisely because you are my player that I gave you this]
He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but this time the writing seemed a bit crooked. As if it had been written against her will.
Wait a minute. Could it be, you really forgot?!
No Probably not. After all, she was a Mita who had helped him through a difficult situation. How could she possibly forget? No way, no way.
Alain took a deep breath, planning to test the waters first.
Let's start with affection levels.
"....You only gave me the equipment because I'm your player?"
The writing didn't change immediately, as if pondering.
Two seconds later,
[Yes]
"I see..." Alain put on a slightly disappointed expression, deliberately observing the shape of the characters. He noticed that the writer's emotions were, to some extent, reflected in the characters, with the lines appearing smooth, trembling, and so on.
"I thought you wanted to help me because of my essence."
This line of thinking was something he had picked up from the 'bad woman'. He wasn't sure if it would work, but he'd try it first.
[? ? ?]
She wrote three question marks. The writing was no longer elegant, but clearly anxious.
[What are you talking about?]
"I thought you were helping out of your own free will. But it turns out, it was out of a Mita's obligation to her player?" [Huh?]
The Mita, wherever she was, seemed to be encountering this kind of situation for the first time. Even interjections were popping up. [Of course not! I helped you because you're a player. Because, you're very interesting.] The color of the writing changed from light pink to deep pink.
"I don't believe you." He narrowed his eyes, planning to throw a little tantrum, just like the 'bad woman' would.
[...]]
This Mita only wrote a series of ellipsis that looked like water droplets. The writing changed,
[I've changed all my favorite pens to pink ones]
"?"
This just confused Alain even more. How is this completely off-topic?
"!"
A flash of inspiration hit him; seeing this, he realized something.
Time rewound to his first mission, when he was locked in the small dark room by the 'bad woman'. At that time, he went to check the wardrobe that was making the "clang clang clang" sound and found the iron door. And the writing on the iron door back then happened to be black.
Alain, who had been quite annoyed by it at the time, had even complained, "It would be best if it were pink."
No way, you actually changed it?
Alain swallowed. The other party's attention to detail made him feel a slight sense of guilt.
"You didn't lie to me?"
[In my memory, at least regarding this matter, I haven't lied to you]
This child is quite honest.
"Then what did you lie to me about?"
The writing fell silent.
Then, it reappeared, crooked again,
[The gauntlet, my sister and I didn't give it to you together]
"?"
[I stole it]
"??"
[Originally, I wasn't supposed to interfere with your actions]
"? ? ?"
He was a bit unsure of the situation, but...
What was this heavy feeling?! It was making it a bit hard for him to breathe.
Although the context of the conversation was still a bit confusing.
But he could roughly guess:
This short-haired Mita was originally forbidden by her sister to help him.
But she still stole her sister's Gauntlet of Failure and gave it to Alain.
This, this child...
Alain took two steps back, feeling as if he were carrying a mountain on his back.
"Wait a minute..."
Judging from the photos in version 1.5, the owner of the house was a short-haired Mita.
And the one he encountered on his way back from the Core with Misha last time also seemed to be a short-haired Mita. At that time, she was covered in chaotic code, making it a bit hard to see her figure, so Alain hadn't connected the two.
...
"Your sister, was she the one who helped us at the Core last time?"
[Yes]
The pink writing was particularly concise.
But... Didn't you say you wouldn't interfere with my actions? Why did you help me then?"
The air in the room fell silent.
A few seconds later, as if speaking of something difficult to mention, she wrote again, crookedly,
[I begged her for a long time before she went to save you guys (^)]
Beside it, a crying face was added.
"This, this child..."
Alain sank completely onto the sofa.
This child, she's too good! If everything she said is true, then he and Misha had unknowingly received a lot of help from her.
Want to take her home.
Alain thought.
No! I absolutely have to take her home!
[However! My sister is actually very soft-hearted too. She herself was hesitant about whether to help you guys, I just helped her make up her mind]
The girl, whose form was unknown, explained awkwardly.
[We are both very worried about your safety, player]
The color of the font changed, turning into a pink that was infinitely close to red,
[It is precisely because of this that you cannot go to version 1.3B]
___
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