hotmtlnovel Chapter 289
Chapter 289
“Wait, just a second...! Stop...! Plone is going too...! Please let me go with you!”
The voice of the little girl, Plone Dolos, who had suddenly appeared from somewhere, echoed loudly toward the hunting squad that was about to depart.
Her desperate expression as she pleaded was enough to evoke sympathy, but perhaps the feeling shared by all the members of the hunting squad was more confusion than compassion.
The participants for the hunting squad had already been decided in advance, so it was quite bewildering to suddenly request to be included on the day of departure.
And among the squad members, the muttering of someone who was probably the most flustered at that moment began to resonate.
“...Plone, what on earth made you think to suddenly join the hunting squad?”
The owner of that muttering was Diakonos, Plone’s father.
Seeing his daughter causing trouble right in front of him seemed to give him a headache, as he frowned.
Regardless, what came from Diakonos’s mouth was a stern voice that clearly implied he was about to scold his daughter for causing a problem.
However, whether Plone didn’t realize this or was simply pretending not to, she waved her hands at Diakonos and shouted.
“Ah, Dad...! Take me with you! I want to go too...!”
“...I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s not possible. Don’t be unreasonable.”
“Why not! I said to take me with you!”
“...Huff, everyone. I’m sorry for the delay in departure. Could you please take Plone back home? I’m asking you, please.”
Despite Diakonos’s firm refusal, Plone steadfastly insisted on wanting to come along.
Diakonos sighed at that scene and apologized to the nearby members of the hunting squad, asking the people of the Dolos House who seemed to be escorting them to take Plone back.
Two sturdy men approached to grab each of Plone’s arms and tried to pull her away, but
“Ugh... Miss, please...!”
“Ugh...! This isn’t right...!”
Even though the two men struggled with all their might, Plone stood there like a stubborn post and wouldn’t budge.
It might look somewhat comical for two strong men to be helpless against a small girl, but it was normal that they couldn’t handle her by sheer strength.
Despite her frail appearance, Plone was a girl with tremendous power, as she inherited the blood of the Dolos most strongly.
Eventually, it seemed Diakonos realized he couldn’t forcefully send Plone back, as he opened his mouth again.
“...Plone, what’s not allowed is not allowed.”
“Why do you keep saying Plone can’t go...! Why didn’t you pick her for the hunting squad...!”
Plone demanded an explanation for his firm rejection.
Diakonos answered plainly as if stating the obvious.
“...Where we’re going now is the witch’s stronghold. It’s a dangerous place where anything could happen. I can’t take you, who is still a child, to such a place.”
Diakonos could only say that to Plone for that reason.
No matter how much Plone wanted to join the hunting squad, the danger associated with going to a perilous location meant that young students had not even been considered when selecting the team.
But as if questioning how that could be a reason, Plone shouted.
“But Scarlet and Sylvia are going! They’re the same age as me...!”
“They, those two...”
She felt happy looking at herself dressed beautifully, and she wanted others to be happy too, which led her to start a clothing and cosmetics business.
But now, she couldn’t tell if those were truly her own pure thoughts or if they had been influenced by the Witch of Lust.
Because the Witch of Lust also loved beautiful things.
The Witch of Lust desired to make humans who conformed to her standards of beauty into her dolls.
So, following her will, Plone would approach people who fit that standard, saying they should be friends and become close with them.
That was a kind of selection.
A selection to choose the humans who would be favored by her when mankind inevitably fell into the hands of the Witch of Lust.
This abominable act, Plone had claimed to enjoy all along.
Thus, Plone had become unable to trust her own values.
She could no longer discern whether her love for pretty things was a pure thought of her own or if it was influenced by the values of the Witch of Lust.
As such, Plone could no longer love herself as she once did.
“Plone is the worst person...”
Plone referred to herself not as ‘I,’ but rather as ‘Plone.’
This was an unconscious manifestation to separate her consciousness, which had been occupied and controlled by the Witch of Lust, from herself.
However, for Plone, who had frequently operated as ‘I’ since her birth due to being in sync with the Witch of Lust, ‘I’ was essentially the same as ‘Plone.’
Even after being possessed and controlled, what ‘I’ did was tantamount to what Plone did. Thus, Plone could not help but be tormented by the distance created from ‘I.’
When her body was controlled, she wished her consciousness and memories would disappear entirely.
The memories of pushing her precious friends into peril, putting them at risk, selecting them, and offering them to the witch were still far too vivid in her mind.
Plone could not forgive herself.
Yet at the same time, Plone wanted to forgive herself.
And when she thought of a way to do so, the only lifeline appeared right before her eyes.
“Still, I want to be a good kid... so please let me go with you. I beg you...”
“...Plone.”
That was her intention to eradicate ‘I.’
To erase ‘I’ from this world and reclaim the pure ‘Plone.’
Of course, she hadn’t verbalized that, so no one would understand her intentions.
Even so, perhaps her desperate feelings were conveyed, as her father Diakonos softened and could not reject her as firmly as before.
However, Diakonos, who valued rules and order, could not easily grant her wish to join the hunting squad, despite his daughter’s pleas.
“Hey...!”
If someone else hadn’t voiced that request first.
“Could you take Plone with you to the hunting squad...?”
“Please. If possible, we would also like to be included.”
With blond and blue-haired members, two troublemakers had joined the fray.