Small Village Tridente Chapter 28

Man, Complaining about things is such a pain in the a.s.s. I just wanted to post chapters and be done with it, but then people would tell me “You're being strange” “You're a different person on the site” “It's too fake” So now I'm being real. I know no1 reads this stuff, but they should If I took the time to go out of my way to write it then why are they not reading it? You should be reading it. You should be grateful people stepped up to help us edit. You should comment more about wanting more. 3 chapters a week is a lot! Be thankful!

Tridente chapter 28

Small Village Tridente

Tridente 0028

Will

rawr:

I logged in to NW, and contacted Eve-san once again. We confirmed Tennouji Hibiki's death in the real world.

『…This is somewhat troublesome.』

Unlike the last time we spoke to Eve-san, she had a meek expression.

『I will probably need to investigate the NW Company internally.』

An internal investigation? Does this mean that someone from the NW Company did something?

「Um, just what is happening-…」

I asked Eve-san for more details, and her response was possibly the worst I could imagine.

『They have stolen memories from the dead, perhaps.』

「Such…」

That's impossible! …Is what I wanted to say, but in actuality the NW Company had embezzled our memories. If they had done so with a human, then it isn't impossible for it to also be done to the dead.

I got a bit scared. Of course, the fact that they can do whatever they want with one's memory is one thing, but even more than that, the NW Company is continuing their activities, as if nothing happened. Normally, after the Lost Memories incident, their activities should have ceased.

Being able to do whatever they want to such an extent, maybe the country… or the whole world has something to do with this project…? To even have access to a dead person's memories, this is just something normal citizens like us must not tread on… I feel as if our conversation is in such an area.

「But, how did they extract a dead person's memory? Shouldn't the brain have stopped already…」

This time it was Saya who brought up a question. So since we, the living, have cerebral functions, they could use electrical signals to steal our memories, but is it possible to extract memories from a dead person? Or maybe just before they die?

『Fundamentally, if a person's heart stops, then their brain should also stop. However there is an exception.』

In a certain country's medical facility, several patients that were beyond the point of a.s.sistance had their life-support system removed, causing most of their mental functions to halt. However, one patient had the ability to continue functioning for a short while being observed, but in the end that patient also died. If they had used that small time lag to transfer their memory to NW then…

The probable reason why Hibiki the siren cannot retain all of the memories of the human Hibiki, might be because of an error during the transfer, or a person at NW might have only processed a portion of her memory. Eve-san said that she also doesn't know.

『What do you three want to do?』

「What we want to do…」

I wonder what I want to do. At least, after knowing of the circ.u.mstances, I don't want to choose the option to kill Hibiki and have her erased from NW.

「I want to save…her」

『From who?』

「…From the NW Company.」

Having said that, I stared at Eve-san. It might be taken as a provocation towards Eve-san who is a.s.sociated with the NW Company, so the president hurriedly followed up.

「E-Eve-san was not aware of this matter…」

「It's fine, Rin-chan. You're right… It's a fact that I am at the point where I can't just leave it alone. So I will cooperate with you in releasing Hibiki.」

The first thing to do is to cancel the routine that was inserted into Hibiki. Next is to recover the remaining parts of the memory that wasn't transferred to Hibiki. If the memory was not transferred due to a defect, and if a part of that memory was extracted intentionally in reality, then it may actually be stored somewhere in NW.

『Leave the routine cancellation to me.』

「Is it possible?」

『It is possible, I have authorized access.』

“Can you trust me?” She turned her gaze towards me.

I wonder why Eve-san is cooperating? If the NW Company was experimenting on putting a dead person's memory in a monster, then wouldn't Eve-san also be in support of the plan?

「Please help us. I am sorry for the rude things I said earlier.」

Even if I think about it, it can't be helped. I can't do something about the matter of the monster's setting, only the administrative side can do it, so I have no choice. I have no choice but to trust in Eve-san who decided to cooperate with us.

『Please don't worry. It is true that I am the one who planned the idea of manipulating memories and brought chaos to the whole of j.a.pan. To ask you to believe in me is unreasonable.』

「U-um, Eve-san, why are you cooperating? If this is a crime committed by the NW Company, then there's a possibility that you will also make an enemy out of the NW Company.」

「I wonder why? When I look at the three of you, it feels like I'm seeing my own children.」

I wonder if she left a child behind in RL? Eve-san was looking at us with a kind face. It's like a mother looking at her own child…

「You're still 20 years old and single, what in the world are you talking about?」

After a moment of silence, Saya muttered surprised.

「Eh? 20 years old!?」

Inquiring, it appears that Eve-san is the NW Company President's daughter, and since a young age, she has been given various knowledge as a test subject. The know-how knowledge concerning game development, the languages of each nation, and scholars' knowledge were all given to her by her father. That amount was too large, I don't understand what knowledge Eve-san acquired herself or what knowledge was taken from elsewhere. Being a bit adult-ish. Is it because of the various information bestowed to her?

「I thought you were around 40 years old.」

『…Mari-chan, that's worse than what you said before so please stop it.』

「I-I'm sorry.」

Feeling a tremendous killing intent, I immediately apologized.

From now on, let's stop provoking Eve-san… it feels like she might erase my account with her administrative rights.

『Now then, let's get started. Mari-chan, get in touch with Hibiki.』

「Is it something that can be done quickly?」

『If no one becomes a hindrance then it can be done within an hour.』

Eve-san came upon a subordinate in the real world that she can place her trust in, and then had her movement hidden while accessing the data regarding the siren and Tennouji Hibiki. hen she removed the routine and searched for the storage place for the memory.

We completed our preparations, boarded the ship, and advanced down the same route we followed last time. This time, Cyber fish wasn't with us, it was only us from Tridente.

「This time, I'm going to catch that Tuna!」

「President, so you still haven't given up on it… that Tuna.」

The routine cancellation progressed favorably. While we were on our way sailing, we got a notice from Eve-san about it being a success. Furthermore, Eve-san put protection on Hibiki's data, and placed countermeasure for re-changing the routine, it seems.

「We're almost there.」

If Hibiki kept attacking ships after that, then we should be meeting her around here.

I can hear a song.

It's not a song that will lure the player to sleep, but a song that is purely comfortable.

So this is Hibiki's true singing voice…

『What are you here for?』

Slowly descending from the skies, Hibiki's expression was a bit dark.

「Hibiki… so you were released.」

The fact that Hibiki didn't attack us is proof that her routine was removed. If she still continues to attack ships even after removing it, then that's Hibiki's own will, but Hibiki herself didn't do it.

『Hey, after this, what should I do?』

「Eh?」

The reason for Hibiki's dark expression after being released from the routine, was that she didn't know what to do with herself from now on. For 2 months, she had been bound by the routine that decided her actions. So suddenly being told that she's free might have caused her to become confused.

「I… what was I doing before I came here?」

What had happened to Hibiki… Should I say it?

I hesitated for a moment but a message from Eve-san arrived.

She was probably observing the conversation log. Only 2 words were written  『Tell her.』.

Will she keep living as the Siren or will she live as Tennouji Hibiki, that is what Hibiki needs to decide on her own.

「Um, you see, Hibiki, the truth is—」

I told her about her being Tennouji Hibiki, that in the real world Tennouji Hibiki is already gone, that her memories were transferred into NW, and that she was made to act as the Siren. Hearing that, Hibiki had a face of disbelief as she stared at me.

『Then, what? Far from not wanting to die, I'm already dead…?』

The fear that Hibiki has towards death was probably due to her first experience with it. So her fear appeared because of that trauma. If she was a normal monster, then she shouldn't have been so conscious of death.

『What you people are saying is, too crazy. I'm a bit confused but… I'm going to stop sinking ships… I don't want to be a puppet anymore.』

Having said that, she had decided to live by her own will.

Chapter 28 END

Trash to Trash