ShangriLa Frontier ~ Shitty Games Hunter Challenges Godly Game ~

In the first place, it would seem that it was a great misunderstanding on my part.

I honestly thought that this music player had something to do with Andrew Jitter Doll himself, and that Elise Jitter Doll was the key to unlocking its mysteries. But Andrew, who is almost equivalent to the entirety of Behemoth itself, denied that theory of mine, which allowed me to ditch that theory and change the direction of my thinking to something else.

For Andrew Jitter Doll, that music player is nothing more but a tool that is attached to him to a certain “degree”, a tool that he wants to leave for posterity’s sake…… Nothing more and nothing less. Just that.

So, if that’s the case here, then what exactly is Orchestra? Well, to put this matter simply and to make a long story short…… Orchestra is just what it seems to be: just an ordinary music player.

「Is it really possible to continue using electronic devices for hundreds of years? No, it’s impossible. And everyone in this day and age knows that.」

And it is also impossible for a single person to survive for hundreds of years and continue to own a music player, that is also something that can be attributed to a simple common sense. In other words, that music player is……

─── It is a crystal of inheritance and baton pass that has been “repaired” many times over and over again until it finally managed to reach Andrew from the hands of many previous owners.

It is the kind of a Theseus’s Ship, in a sense. Or maybe in case of that music player what is required is the way of thinking quite opposite to that exact principle. In other words, it should be said that “A music player that has been repaired to the extent that no parts are left from the time when it was originally produced, but it still continues to exist as a “music player”…… It’s a mystery that doesn’t make sense the more you keep on thinking about it. But the moment you get the Orchestra involved in the equation, the whole story begins to change.

The last part of the Orchesta’s canonical battle: the “Final Movement”.

What are those “line of sight” and “sign” that I felt instead of the usual feeling when the Orchestra started to disappear?

What is the difference between the Gods from the Era of the Gods and modern humans, a knowledge that we have obtained on board of the Leviathan?

What is the definition of the “Occult” based on the fundamental principles of this world, so different from the real world?

The true identity of the “Orchestra of the Gloomy Melody” that caused me so much strife, that caused me to lose concentration on my precious school studies for today. And the answer to that question is……

「The will of the Gods who have been involved with this thing since the very moment it was first produced…… No, you can even call that the inherited will. That is the “Orchestra” that was developed with Elise as a “Diva” in mind. It’s the true identity of the “Theater Orchestra” that existed even before first descending onto this planet…… But that’s just a theory. I need to prove it first to be absolutely sure.」

「Well I must say, that’s a rather impressive and wonderful theory to consider, so I guess we’ll have to go and verify it immediately!」

「When it comes to organizing all of the content regarding the Orchestra, it is Mirei-san who is in charge of that. Hmm, I wonder if she is going to be logged in already at this hour? Or maybe I should just send her an email in real life? I wonder how fast is she going to respond? Assuming that she is going to respond in the first place?」

As one might have expected, the “Library’s Consideration Kitchen” is an entity that is terrifying quick to spring into all sorts of action.

When I arrived at the “Library’s” camp, Bansai-san and the Professor were right in the middle of the strategy meeting regarding capturing the ninth layer of Behemoth. Then, I talked to them about all of my hypotheses and thoughts that I have sacrificed my whole school day on formulating. Now, those guys are way smarter than I am, so surely they will be able to think of something here, am I right? And it’s not a shame to go to people smarter than you for help when you are in a bind. And as you might have expected, upon hearing my theory, the whole “Library” personnel on sight started to make necessary preparations and brainstorming my theory, adding their own thoughts and claims where need be. All without asking me first for permission, of course.

「Hmm, I see, I understand. So, the fundamental principle of this world comes from living thoughts, isn’t it? But if so, then what about those who already passed away……? No, in this particular case, is it more appropriate to say the “Ones from the Past” rather than simply “The Dead”? It would be an unmistakable case of the occult that would carry out the will of existence before it was supposed to be alive or dead.」

「But if that is indeed so, Professor, that raises the question of the difference between what can be considered canon and what is merely a pseudonym, or filler, in this particular case. And how can we possibly separate those two into their distinctive categories? And that would mean that the ones from the past are cast aside and considered obsolete in the grand scheme of things!」

「In this particular case, that line of reasoning would make the Orchestra an amalgamation of miraculously mixed together wills from the past. But that would also mean that when we are discussing Orchestra, we need to accordingly adjust the meanings of both “cannon” and “filler”, as the Orchestra clearly forces new definitions of those terms onto us all.」

「But no matter how hard we are discussing things at this stage, arriving at the definite and final conclusion seem to be impossible still. And because of that, we would like to start capturing the Orchestra right away…… At least that’s what we would like to say. Because apparently Sanraku here said that he still has something to do here, right?」

Hey, don’t just point a huge figurative arrow like that toward me while I am still thinking of my own business! That’s really scary! Not to mention uncomfortable!

「Eh? Ahh, umm, y-yeah, that’s right. There seems to still be one huge hole in my hypothesis, so I would like to see if I can confirm my suspicions about it or not while still being in here. But after doing that I am all ready to go.」

「The Era of the Gods…… No, if we were to define the period of time all the way until the previous civilization got destroyed and turned to ashes as the Era of the Gods, then what about the rest of the time period? What about before the Era of the Gods? Should we simply call that time period “Before Human Beings”? I do believe that this is the purpose of your research and that huge “hole” you just mentioned?」

「Yup, precisely.」