The Fatal Trap of Thought Input

[Tier-Group 3 Rooftop Observation Deck]

The next day, it was morning when the Dungeon Master and Anne climbed up to the observation deck.

"Most likely, the wider the area in direct contact with the World Tree, the more stable the communication. That's the gist of it, isn't it."

The trouble is that the World Tree isn't all that large, so laying her out atop a branch and the like is out of the question.

"Marie-san, please wake up."

(I'm still sleepy.)

Anne supports her body while the Master gives her the foul liquid fertilizer to drink. An Asura can live on this, water, and sunlight alone. Because sunlight is required, even going full NEET doesn't easily tip them into a nocturnal, day-night-reversed lifestyle. A Preta, conversely, is basically nocturnal.

"Miss Maid, yesterday we set her back against the World Tree, but today let's try it the other way and have her hold the World Tree in her arms."

"Master, it's Anne. I do think it's about time you learned my name. There are only twenty-one Shiso (Asura, that is) in this whole dungeon. You needn't go so far as to memorize the species name, Lavandula angustifolia, of course."

So saying, Anne deftly stripped off Marie's clothing and arranged her so that she seemed to be embracing the trunk of the World Tree. Her legs were drawn up at the knee with their insides set against the trunk, her head turned somewhat to the side, and each point fixed so the posture wouldn't collapse; a cloth was draped over her from the neck down, and it was complete.

(An environmental activist, is it…)

"Marie-san, is the connection to the Core all right?"

Since the gaze-input device hasn't been set up, she cannot reply.

(Now then, today let me test whether it's possible to speak directly by way of the Core, without using this troublesome contraption.)

Marie focuses her consciousness on the Dungeon Core.

[Core Room]

The Core Room, with no one in it. Characters appear on the terminal screen.

"Let me see… displaying what I've thought, is that possible?"

"Display test."

"Did it work, I wonder."

[Tier-Group 3 Rooftop Observation Deck]

"Marie-san, a success."

The Dungeon Master shows Marie the terminal screen.

"Maid, no, Anne-san, it's a success. Go and wash Marie-san's clothes for her."

"It's displaying properly, isn't it. Now if only we could add a voice to it."

"That said, text-to-speech software has its limits too, so that'll be the next problem to… wait, ah, um, even things I didn't mean to display are turning into text. Ah, cut the connection. But, I can't, my body won't move."

Even her incoherent stream of thought is being turned into prose.

"Marie-san, calm down."

"This is hard to handle until one gets used to it, isn't it. Even I have all sorts of thoughts I could never possibly say aloud."

"Given my position, I have to play the magnanimous, rational, benevolent ruler, after all… Calm down, calm down, empty your mind."

"Master, is there nothing to be done? I feel as though I'm about to make some fatal slip of the tongue."

"I shall pretend I never heard it. The only ones besides myself and Marie-san who hold master authority are Mint-san and Kinran-san, so on that point we're safe."

"Kinran… the loosest-lipped and least trustworthy of the lot is mixed in there. Named monsters have free will, so I can't command them, and there's no such convenient thing as contract magic in this world."

"There, we've no choice but to grow accustomed to it slowly. Merely learning that thought input is possible is a result in itself."

"But it means I have to cling to the World Tree in a getup like this, doesn't it. Like some poorly made cicada or other."

"You won't suddenly start crying out 'Gheeen,' like a tsukutsukubōshi, will you. Then again, it's the male cicadas that sing, and I have no biological sex, so what becomes of that, I wonder."

Saitama's tsukutsukubōshi are of Chinese stock, and they do cry in that fashion.