The timeline is somewhere between chapter 112 and approximately chapter 140.
The perspective is that of Akashi from the drama club.
The drama club will fight.
“I love you. I’ll love you even if I die.”
As if responding to those straight eyes, I too look straight ahead.
Smiling as softly and beautifully as possible.
“Great Chikuwa Deity.”
And then, a massive explosion!
“‘Collapse’ can happen with just those two lines, huh. I’ll make a note of that. Is there anything better?”
“I don’t think there’s anything that can ‘collapse’ more than that, right?”
Yay, I’m Chihiro Akashi! I’m 163 cm tall, and my weight is a secret!
My hobby is theater! My specialty is theater! My favorite food is bacon made by Maito, and I don’t particularly dislike any food!
What are we doing?
Well, we’re training our skills!
What we were just doing is called “Collapse”!
It’s a technique where, by suddenly breaking the theater play, it causes a huge explosion!
The good thing about this is, as you saw earlier, it can be done with just two lines, and the firepower it brings!
If we do it longer and heighten the atmosphere, we can achieve an even more powerful explosion!
The downside is that the play ends with that.
If the acting was continuing properly, it’s often better to just keep going as is, so this is a technique for “when there’s no other choice”!
…Or, for enemies who can be defeated just with “I love you” and “Great Chikuwa Deity” like we saw earlier.
We, the drama club, fight by acting.
Becoming the character is our special skill!
If I “become” the strongest swordsman, then I can become not only the strongest swordsman but also a magician.
From the most beautiful woman to the evil demon lord, our range of acting is limitless!
In the world of fantasy, the world of acting, humans are completely free! You can become anything you want and do anything you want!
…That’s the ability we’ve come to possess in this world.
“I want to try a new script for the next battle.”
Thinking up strategies and directing us is our vice-president and playwright, Shidou!
Our fight is theater.
Therefore, we need a theater script that matches the battle.
Sure, improvising is fun, but having a character’s personality and past well-defined makes it easier to “become” them, and it results in a higher quality performance.
That’s why we need a script.
Acting out a predetermined script against an unpredictable enemy. Even with some improvisation, that doesn’t change.
Creating a script that doesn’t fall apart even then is tough, I think.
But Shidou can do it… “Love is the greatest teacher,” really is true!
And so, scripts were distributed to all the members!
…Hmm, hmm.
Interesting, this.
Treating the enemy monster as a “lover who was turned into a monster by a curse.”
Defeating it to break the curse at the same time means losing your beloved lover, a tragic love story.
This sounds like something we can really get into!
…Oh.
I see, so even if the protagonist is almost defeated by the “lover,” the story can progress with the help of a friend’s call.
The follow-up is perfect, with this script, the more we struggle, the stronger we can become, so this is what we’ll use when we meet a really strong opponent.
It’s a strange feeling, not wanting to do it yet wanting to try it right away.
I don’t really like fighting that much.
But seeing my acting take shape is interesting, so in that sense, I might actually like fighting.
While eating lunch, everyone gathered for a script reading.
“Stop! Munch munch, wake up!”
“No use, he can’t hear anymore! Munch munch”
“Damn, was I too late… Munch munch!”
…Doing this while eating lunch kind of lacks tension.
Ever since coming to this world and ending up with the job title of “actress,” I’ve gotten really fast at reading and memorizing scripts.
It seems everyone’s the same in that regard.
So, after one reading session, we’re almost ready to act it out!
It’s so fun, so fun!
It’s too enjoyable to be able to do it so smoothly!
After running through it once, it turned out pretty well.
Everyone has gotten really good at acting. Seeing it take shape so quickly is incredibly effective.
Shidou made some more adjustments to the script, and with that, it’s basically complete!
All that’s left is to “perform” it when a ridiculously strong monster shows up.
…Ugh, I’m both looking forward to it and hoping it doesn’t come…
And just when you think that, that’s exactly when they show up!
“What’s that, an eryngii?”
“It does look like an eryngii.”
Something is coming towards us from the distance, trudging along.
Upon closer inspection, it’s a huge mushroom… looks like an eryngii!
“It’s huge.”
“How many eryngiis would that be?”
“Stop gawking and get ready! It’s time to ‘perform’!”
Shidou scolded us while we were all looking.
I know that!
What’s wrong with marveling at a giant eryngii for a bit?!
…Hey, if we defeat it, let’s grill it and eat it!
Ehehe, bacon-wrapped eryngii…
“‘We will now perform ‘Frozen Rain: Part Three’. A sad tale of love.'”
When Nakaki, the “sound technician,” announces this, Mori-chan, the “lighting technician,” drops the “imaginary” lights.
Just like that, everything goes dark.
Theater turns the “imaginary” into reality through our skills.
…The play begins.
“‘Now, weigh your options! Your lover or the lives of us all!’”
“‘No, I can’t choose! I can’t make that choice!’”
“‘As we speak! Look! The people of the town are dying!’”
The direction Kaneko points to reveals a half-destroyed town and its fleeing people.
…Yes, it was always there. From the beginning.
It’s just now visible to us.
And there, a huge king oyster mushroom got stuck and stopped.
Every time the king oyster mushroom rampaged, the town was destroyed.
And with it, presumably, people’s lives as well.
“If you’re going to keep talking nonsense forever, then forget it. We’ll take care of that thing ourselves!”
Leaving behind those words and me, everyone ran towards the town.
“I…”
I become the protagonist. Becoming the protagonist, I struggle.
The protagonist despairs, his lover turned into a monster by a curse.
“I truly love you, I really do. You’re the most important thing in the world to me. A world without you is not worth living in.”
The person he loves is no longer the person he loves, and then he must kill them.
But the answer is already there. That’s part of being the protagonist.
“But you would say, ‘Do it like this,’ right?”
The sword in hand is a masterful blade that decapitates the monster with a single stroke.
A legendary sword given by the gods.
“It might be selfish, but I can’t be saved unless I do this! I have to end it with my own hands! At least!”
He runs towards the lover turned monster.
The townscape flies behind me.
And then, a leap.
Confronting head-on.
The lover turned monster by a curse.
…
“But it’s a king oyster mushroom, you know!”
“Hey.”
…In that moment, a huge explosion.
“King… king oyster mushroom…!”
“Stop… I was enduring… I was enduring…!”
It seems “Collapse” was activated.
“Hey Akashi! Youuuu!”
…Yeah! We’ve marked the highest power of “Collapse” yet!
“No, but come on, it’s a king oyster mushroom? Impossible, impossible, at least make it a dragon or, even better, a zombie or something… But a lover as a king oyster mushroom…”
“Impossible.”
“Yeah, impossible. I think Akashi couldn’t help it. It turned out delicious in the end, so isn’t it fine?”
That’s right! The blast from that “Collapse” turned the giant king oyster mushroom completely black.
But, when we scraped off a bit of the surface, inside was a perfectly roasted king oyster mushroom!
We all tried it with a bit of soy sauce drizzled on it!
It’s surprisingly delicious!
“In the end, we never found out the power of the new script, did we!”
“Ouch!”
I was hit by Shidou.
Yeah, I’m sorry.
“Really… But, no, king oyster mushrooms are… just no.”
“No way! If that were my lover, I’d cry for a completely different reason! I would!”
“Right?”
“Give it up, Shidou. It’s fine now. Come on, eat up.”
The king oyster mushroom was huge! There’s plenty!
“…Was this alright?”
“Don’t say it. You’ll make me want to kill you too.”
***
“I” glared at my companion.
As he runs away, I face the gravestone once again.
It’s an empty grave.
There’s nothing buried beneath here.
They were turned into the power source for a golem and died dismembered along with the golem.
So, their body isn’t left behind.
And I was the one who did it.
I killed them.
I don’t regret it. It was the only thing I could do.
“Hey, would you accept this?”
I place a ring on top of the grave.
It was supposed to be given to them.
“…Let’s get married.”
On the grave, a fruitful mulberry tree sways in the wind.
“With this, ‘Frozen Rain: Part Three’ comes to a close.”
In the end, the script was used again the next day against a giant stone golem that appeared, achieving great success.
Yeah, it has to be this way!
…Definitely not king oyster mushrooms!
I wonder if it’ll turn into something like this giant’s corpse (?)
I’ve been thinking it’s about time we got some new props!
