Monstrous Gifts (before battle)
Your clothes are all weird-looking... I guess you're not from the village...?
The child was dressed in torn and faded clothing. From the way she looked at us, I could tell that she found us rather fascinating. She soon woke up from her momentary shock.
A-anyways, thank you for saving me…
My name's Crayon. And… huhh?!
C-Clockwork Teeth?!
The kid pointed at me and backed away in terror.
The hell are you talking about? That's Clockhead.
<My name's Dante...>
Clock…head? But I-I heard that the Clockwork Teeth look like… Clocks…
I guess I also heard that they don't show up this high…
I've never seen a monster like that before, though…
Aha! But they are not a monster! This is none other than our very own Manager Esquire!
<Thanks for the intro, I guess...>
But I can't hear anything but the tick-tocking of the clock…
Well, Manager Esquire has their reasons. … Art thou unharmed?
Yeah...
Looks like the other people who were dragged here with me weren't so lucky, though...
The child looks at the mutilated corpses with a despondent look on her face. Don Quixote casts a sympathetic gaze.
So they were all… neighbors from thy village.
Yeah… B-but! Our village will soon send the Hunters to save us!
As long as they can get here, they can…
<Hunters?>
I wasn't sure what exactly she was talking about, so I was about to ask her what she meant…
Tssssssssss!
… but this reception hall - storage room - suddenly began to fill with gas of unknown origin.
What's this now?!
Hup… Quick, hold thy breathing!
An odd plume of gas, its hue red and green… begins to fill the room.
T-this gas… it's the same gas from when… I was… kidna…
The three of them, including Crayon, passed out and slumped to the floor.
Yeah, something like this has happened before. When we walked right into a room full of toxic gas… which killed everyone…
Mmmh… mm…
Looks like this gas only knocked them out, though. That's a relief, at least.
Guess I should consider myself lucky… that my clock head isn't affected by these things.
Crreeeak…
<I-I gotta hide.>
As soon as I hid myself in a corner, a crowd of gnomes rushed through the same door Dodoru came in from.
<Gas masks… So they used sleeping gas on us.>
Ome!!! Is that all that's left of manager Dodoru-ome?
Ome!! All that talk of snaggin' three top-notch raw materials… and now look at him-ome! A pile of meat-ome!
Omme!! One-ome, two-ome, three-ome... All accounted for, I suppose-ome!
They're all fast asleep with the sleepy powder, so don't you all worry yourselves about harming the good-omes.
Well, well! Let's move the good-omes!
They picked up Don Quixote, Heathcliff, and Crayon one by one and loaded them onto the sleigh.
With that, they left... closing the door behind them.
And through it all... I couldn't do anything but watch.
<Right... Looks like this is my time to shine. I'll rescue the three of them.>
... No way. I should've listened when Ishmael offered to teach me self-defense...
<Haah... What do I do?>
This harsh truth dawns on me every time we face total annihilation. The truth that, on my own, I am completely useless.
If they were with us, I could at least bring them back... But none of the Sinners are here with me. What good am I without them?
<... It's a miracle that I managed to survive this far...>
Miracle? What miracle? Come on, get a hold of yourself.
<Great. Now I'm hearing things...>
You're not hearing things, Manager! We're really here!
Do you even know what a mess it was up there when we realized that the three of you just vanished into thin air?!
I bolted up and looked toward the voice. There, I saw another door...
... and from it, the rest of the Sinners appeared one by one.
<Guys...>
Oh boy, looks like I forgot about that slightly spoiled ingredi...ent...ome...?
I will inquire about this incident later, Dante.
For now, command us in this battle.