The 4th arc’s theme is undoubtedly allies.
I’ll be frank, in meta terms, the Hirano-Nishiyama couple are pretty much mob characters. They’re depicted as extras, background characters among the classmates. That being said, Momokawa could also count as one of the same type, but anyway, these two were a just pair of average, normal students.
And when you make these kinds of normal students your allies, your comrades in battle risking life and limb... We can end up with this sort of ending as well.
The main point is, those two weren’t especially evil. There was the fear they had from losing a friend to a boss monster, and when they unexpectedly encountered the Orthrus, you really can’t blame them for panicking. And so, they entered battle in a very substandard state...
In fact, it was a misjudgement by Kotarou himself, strictly speaking, his mistake was in the execution. Kotarou was himself very scared seeing a two headed Orthrus, but those two were even more terrified. There are set roles for the vanguard and rear support, but he should’ve considered their mental states, and taken action to let Nishiyama run first.
Their path of escape would have been blocked by fire all the same, but those two might have still had the sensibility to listen to Kotarou, and resolve to fight alongside him.
But that too is a “might have”, it was one possibility. The Orthrus, which was a monster much larger than the one they planned to fight, and was basically too much for them to handle.
Either way, Kotarou wasn’t a seasoned war general, nor did he have hidden talent in leadership. Suddenly expecting him to read into people’s emotions and dish out the best orders would be too tall a tale.
The main aspect of this arc would be: even if you become allies in good humour, the circumstances can easily break such a bond. It is this weakness, this fragility of mankind that I tried to depicted. The Hirano Nishiyama couple may be mob characters, but that’s exactly why they possess hearts and emotions like that of an average human being. So getting a stroke of guts at the last moment, or having the courage to fight back against fear, and other such things that important comrades in a story require are not to be expected from these normal people.
And as they don’t have a strong heart, they’re not particularly wicked either. But even without having pure evil in them, they call out to shoot Kotarou, and they actually end up shooting him too. That’s pretty scary I’d like to think. Getting so easily swayed by the ciscumstances is, I believe, also the human condition.
Also, I recently got my first review for this story. Thank you very much. Just that, the Kuro no Maou branding had a lot to contribute to it, so I hope to make this story good enough to stand on its own next time!
Well then, let’s head to the Q&A corner:
Q. If the Orthrus is eating away at Nishiyama’s guts, how come the axe goes through the Orthrus’ trunk and Nishiyama’s flank at the same time?
A. That’s right, if it was still biting in, that would be impossible. But in fact, the Orthrus was already mid-dodge by that point. But it couldn’t fully dodge, and ended up getting gutted.
The reason Nishiyama’s flank got hit was because the aim was to get the Orthrus’ head that happened to be near that region, right. It tried its best and tried to evade that, and got away with a wound to its trunk region... though well, the Orthrus had its whole body already riddled in wounds, so something like that was devastating.
Q. Hirano just kinda died as an aside it looked though?
A. When he shouted “Shoot your Blast, Momokawa and all!” he was already at his limit. After all, his neck was gouged and with that high a rate of blood loss, he went out of the game fast. Kotarou could’ve tried using his meds to heal him, but he never got the chance. Hirano never got any first aid at all, and so died in that state.
Q. Did they literally forget about Pain Return before shooting Momokawa?
A. They literally did.
And even if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t be much afraid of some curse they never experienced first hand.
Plus, Nishiyama had that recovery potion hidden away, so in the worst case, there was the logic that she’d manage something even if she was severely wounded.
Q. HiraNishi-san did the stuff couples do, but why’re they still on surnames?
A. They are bonded by the deed, but there’s stuff like, losing the timing to settle on changing their way of addressing each other, right?
Q. “Futaba-san, she’s gotten kinda thinner right?”, that true?
A. True as can be.
At the point they met the Hirano Nishiyama couple, Futaba-san had finally reached the same body form as that Super Pochaco I mentioned. Most people may think that that is still a bit fat, but for Kotarou, it was poison for his eyes. Tremendously sexalicious.
Eh? Your chest gets thinner when you diet? Dare you still say that when she has Blessed Body?
Q. The Hero’s romcom really got on my nerved you know?
A. Why is that? The Hero, class 2-7’s greatest and most handsome young man, our dear old Souma Yuuto-kun, has done not one bad thing. He has been giving it his all, trying to save his classmates who’ve been thrown into a dangerous dungeon! Just that, on rare occasions, and against his will mind you, he tends to fall into lewd situations...
Be at ease, I’m sure Kotarou-kun will have good things happen as well.
Q. You’re killing me with the Nero Lightning and Oracle Field yo!
A. They do have their respective meanings though. These names have some history, but that is completely coincidental to this story. So though it might pique your interest or it might not, I don’t mind.
Q. Nero: “Someone called?“
A. Nope.
That’ll be it for this time.
The next one, arc 5 will have a story very well described by its title. And in my personally opinion, it’d be the place where the story really gets going. Have fun!