Episode 126
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 126
“Senior.”
Evan’s nerves were on edge. Elysia still hadn’t returned. He was irritably setting his wine glass down on the table when he turned at the sound of a timid voice calling his name.
A male student with a small build stood there, unable to meet his eyes. Evan stared at him for a long moment before finally recalling the student’s name.
Edgar Harvey. He’d heard the name once before. He knew of the Harvey barony, but he knew next to nothing about Edgar himself.
It was only natural that he, who kept a cool distance from all the students at Minerva, had never exchanged a single word with the timid Edgar.
But why me, of all people? Just as the thought crossed his mind and he prepared to step back, Evan’s head shot up, and he stared blankly at the student.
“Miss Hemming asked me to come get you.”
His heart sank. The fact that she’d sent someone to fetch him instead of coming herself meant she might be hurt. Evan strode hastily toward the student and spoke in a stiff voice.
“I’ll go right now. Is she hurt?”
“...Yes. She was bleeding a little. I think.”
Evan, failing to notice the malice simmering in the student's eyes, followed him out of the banquet hall.
He was in no state to weigh what was right or wrong. Just how badly was she hurt that she couldn’t even come here herself? With a look of desperation, the man rushed out.
The minute hand pointed to the 6. 1:30 AM.
*
Evan hurried after Edgar. Perhaps because they had just left the brightly lit banquet hall, the school seemed darker than usual.
After walking down the corridor in silence, Edgar came to a sudden stop. Evan, his face pale, asked.
“Is this the place?”
“Please, go inside.”
The light reflecting off the various plaques and trophies lining the hallway flickered across Edgar's face. Perhaps because of it, paradoxically, the light obscured his expression.
Evan felt a sense of unease. But he had no time for suspicion. Elysia was hurt. So badly she couldn’t even move… That was his only thought.
Just as he was about to rush toward the library, Edgar’s gloomy voice stopped him in his tracks.
“By the way, Senior, why did you run from the battlefield?”
He froze. Agitated, he sensed Edgar approaching from behind. Just as he was about to react, the topic, one that shattered his composure, made him freeze once more.
“Everyone had such high hopes for you.”
“...”
“Did you feel at ease, running away? Betraying your country, abandoning everyone who relied on you, you rat-like…!”
In that moment, as he stood frozen with guilt, a sharp, blunt object struck the back of his head. His vision went black. Clutching his head as blood gushed out, Evan braced himself against the floor with one arm.
His vision cleared, then went dark again, over and over. Damn it. He groaned, struggling to regain his sight.
But his consciousness was fading fast. No, I have to get to you. The drops of blood that had been pattering onto the floor, thump, thump, now flowed in a torrent.
Lying face down, Evan smiled bitterly. His legs, his body, his arms… everything he needed to move toward Elysia felt impossibly heavy. A vicious regret, a sense of duty, an almost destructive obsession—his mind painted the image of a woman.
The way her sharp, gray eyes, ever watchful, would soften helplessly the moment they found him. Her short hair, fluttering gently in the wind. The soft cry from her throat when they kissed. Every part of her that he craved.
After his sight, his hearing began to go. He could feel his senses shutting down one by one. Evan stared obsessively at the images of Elysia that filled his mind.
So this is how I die, thinking of you.
One by one, the images of the woman faded. The last thing to go was the sight of her gray eyes, gazing at him steadily.
The moment even those eyes, flickering like static, vanished, leaving him abandoned in perfect darkness, Evan understood he was dead.
*
“Hah, ugh… ah…!”
His hands trembling, Edgar dropped the trophy he was holding and collapsed as he saw the spreading pool of blood.
The price of his impulse was steep. He stared at the man's body, which was still twitching on the floor, trying to get up despite the blow to his head, and bit his nails. It wasn't too late. If he could get him to a doctor quickly…
“Is anyone there—”
Just as he opened his mouth to call for help, a grip strong enough to shatter all his teeth clamped over it.
Standing under the faint moonlight, a platinum-blonde man was panting, his eyes filled with ecstasy as he smiled.
“What are you doing? He’s not dead yet.”
“Ghk, ugh…!”
“He’s just unconscious, not fucking dead. Where do you think you’re going?”
Edgar, already pale with fright at the man's monstrous smile, began to tremble violently at what he did next. Cain casually took a decorative sword from the wall and stared down at the fallen Evan.
With a clang of metal hitting the floor, he dropped the scabbard and raised his arm high. The man smiled, his eyes curving.
“You should have coveted what was within your reach, Evan Sylvester.”
And then, he plunged the sword down into his heart as if planting a flag. Blood splattered, staining the air red. A mad laugh echoed through the hallway.
He gripped the embedded sword once more. Unlike his lips, which trembled as he smiled, his cold, dead eyes pictured the face of a woman who wasn't there.
Elysia, why don't you understand? Why can't you see that everyone but you and I are just puppets, fakes? Why do you look at anyone else but me?
He took a deep breath and exhaled, then shook his head with a helpless smile.
Ah, but I… I alone can understand you. You've been alone for so, so long. I, too, was once foolish enough to hang my life on a love that wasn't even real, so I know you can be like that too.
So I will save you, now that you've lost your way.
Shunk. He drove the blade in again. Crimson blood spread across the white marble. Why can't you see that it's as deep as my love? I so want you to see this. This is my proposal, my serenade. I will kill what deludes you and make you open your eyes to the truth.
The corners of the man's mouth, blinded by fanatical belief, twitched and trembled.
I'll save you…
The twitching body finally went still. Standing under a moon stained red like an ill omen, the man glanced impassively at his wrist.
1:50 AM.
*
She was still in the nightmare.
Elysia gasped for breath. She was covered in blood. The enemies surrounding her had all fled or been killed. Her legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground. With the sound of fireworks, a status window popped up, congratulating her on resolving the incident.
Her surroundings were now quiet. As if trying to bind her again, the world began to blur and writhe, preparing to create another nightmare. But Elysia remained motionless, lost in thought.
“You and I are the same.”
To be brutally honest, I think a part of my former self wanted to be like you. I wanted to unleash my aimless rage and call it revenge.
“Why can't you see we're no different?”
Yes, there was a time I thought like you.
I didn't want to think; I didn't have the mental space for it. In a place that wasn't real, I became reckless. I acted selfishly, like someone with no capacity for empathy, and ran wild with violence.
But neither of us has a place to go back to. We have to plant our feet in this world and live this virtual existence as our reality.
And to do that, I cannot become you.
On the contrary, precisely because I know this place isn't real, I must think constantly. I must strive not to cross the line. I have to set firm standards and maintain my balance.
I must allow myself to fall into romantic, terribly human emotions like love. So that I can exist as myself, not just as a rogue error running rampant.
The feeling of her consciousness being pulled to the surface. The ticking of a second hand grew louder and louder.
1:54 AM.
Elysia's eyes opened once more.
“Cough…!”
Awakened from the nightmare, her eyes were wet. Wiping them with the back of her hand, Elysia shot to her feet.
I understand there was a context to your crimes. But it's a grave miscalculation to think everyone would make the same choice as you.
I was tempted to waver like you, but I pulled through. And there is a man who lived righteously despite being in the same situation as you. In the end, everything you said is nothing but a twisted justification.
We made different choices, and you made the wrong one.
Clutching the hem of her skirt, she began to run. She ran between bookshelves packed with data, escaped the basement, and burst out of the library.
The thought of sharing what she'd learned with Evan was daunting, yet her heart was half-full with anticipation. Now that she knew the whole story, they could figure out a direction—
Just then, splash. A liquid splattered onto her ankle as if she'd stepped in a puddle.
“...What is... this...”
Elysia, about to take another step without thinking much of it, froze as she registered a familiar smell. As if controlled by someone else, her stiff neck lowered, her gaze falling to the floor.
Someone lying in the center of a pool of blood that covered half the hallway. A sword piercing his body. The sickening smell.
She wanted to scream, but her throat, as if frozen solid, wouldn't obey. Collapsing to her knees, she reached out a trembling hand to the man's neck, waiting for a pulse.
A cold body, with no vibration, no tremor, met her fingertips. Elysia shook her head frantically.
No, it can't be. It's just slow. If I wait, surely, there'll be a faint pulse.
But in the end, the death sentence was passed.
`SYSTEM: Congratulations! You have arrived at a <Murder> scene!`
1:55 AM.