Episode 161
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 161
“You crazy… bastard…”
A grip strong enough to crush bone clamped down on her hand. Elysia, pale as a sheet, slapped him across the cheek.
“Stop it, don’t! You’re just choosing a pointless death. Running away like a coward without taking any responsibility—”
“None of that matters. You’ll continue to remember me, the unsolved case no one else recalls. As the one and only person you could neither save nor punish…”
The man smiled faintly at Elysia, who couldn’t readily deny it, and asked in a soft voice,
“Isn’t that right? Detective.”
Before she could stop him, he tipped the permanent deletion key into his mouth and smiled, a bitter, metallic taste in the air.
His vision blurred from the continuous blood loss. But strangely, despite his aching body, his mind was thrilled, rejoicing in the sole fact that she was watching him.
As the permanent deletion key spread through his body like poison, a gut-wrenching pain seized him, as if it were eating him from the inside out.
Blood burst from between his lips. The metallic scent of it filled his every breath, and his mind grew increasingly hazy.
He found himself, absurdly, contemplating whether an ending where he and the woman before him smiled at each other could have ever been possible. If they could go back, could it have happened? Among the countless branching points, perhaps just one… But how far back would they have to go?
“From the beginning, again…”
But even going back to the very beginning would change nothing. Realizing this, he let out a faint laugh, his lips, slick with blood, parting.
“In the end, from start to finish, my…”
He reached out a hand, not knowing what he was even saying.
His blood-soaked hand, like a tongue wet with saliva, traced the lips of the horrified woman. He slowly drew his hand back, pressing it against his own lips, and the cool scent he had so desperately, achingly wanted to possess touched the tip of his tongue.
At that sweetness, that coolness, he smiled.
“Lock me away in your memory.”
That way, you’ll remember me forever.
His consciousness faded. Soon, his memories evaporated. The first love, the second regression, the third betrayal… The man realized his very existence was being erased.
He moved his lips, crusted with dried blood. He looked into the gray eyes that hated him so fiercely, yet still pitied him as a human being.
Should I curse her to never forget me? To carry me in her mind for all eternity? Or should I force the blame on her, insisting that she killed the one being who could have perfectly understood her…
But the moment he saw Elysia’s distorted expression, all that malice faded away. Ah, what’s the use? He decided to simply say what he had been dying to say all this time.
The man’s voice, raspy and metallic, whispered weakly.
“You’re… beautiful.”
The lights began to dim in the distance. Fighting to keep his eyes from closing, he stared obsessively at the woman’s face. A faint, giggling laugh escaped his lips along with a trickle of blood.
Am I glad that the last thing I see is you? What a thought. I’m dying like a complete fool. Still…
Cain stared blankly at the emotions swirling in her wide, shocked gray eyes.
Still, I’m glad that your final expression isn’t just one of contempt.
The first error in the game scattered into ash.
*
Elysia stared blankly as Cain’s body disintegrated into nothing beneath her hands. Her lips, deathly pale with shock, trembled. This is how it ends? He just… runs away like this…
She had lost him. In the end, she couldn’t catch him. Looking down at her own trembling hands, Elysia let out a hollow laugh.
“Cowardly bastard to the very end…”
In the space where two had stood, only she remained. Elysia, her body shaking as she clenched her fists, lifted her head. It was then that her wavering eyes regained their composure.
♥ SYSTEM: 00:05:58 remaining until Rollback.
Do you wish to cancel? Yes | No ♥
Gritting her teeth, she stood up. Clutching the arm where a bullet had grazed her, blood dripping to the floor, she walked forward. There was still work to be done.
As her trembling finger selected ‘Yes,’ another system window appeared before her. Elysia’s expression hardened as she read its contents.
♥ SYSTEM: Rollback has been canceled.
Restore the default settings below?
Narrative Maintenance System Intervention Level 10/10
Emotion Control System Intervention Level 10/10
Event Occurrence System Intervention Level 8/10
Character Freedom 4/10
If you wish to make changes, modify and press 'Confirm'. ♥
She stared blankly at the message, closing her eyes to endure her pounding heart. So this meant…
What she now held in her hands was the authority to control this world. The war that was being artificially prolonged, where no one could win; the emotions of the people, manipulated to be favorable to the player.
All of it had been born from the system’s control, and because of it, Cain Ror had been created.
What if I lower the level of control?
She set the system intervention levels to 0 and the character freedom to 10, then selected ‘Confirm.’ The moment she did, a red warning window popped up.
♥ warning: 'Character Freedom' includes deviant behavior, including criminal acts. Do you really wish to permit this value? Yes | No ♥
“Deviant behavior, including criminal acts…”
Raising freedom to its maximum meant that all sorts of variables that hadn't occurred under the previous system of control would now be possible. She froze, recalling her memories from <Panic in the City>.
Unlike Nightmare City, a hell designed to artificially generate incidents, the world of <You'll Fall in Love> was an artificial paradise. Biting her lip, she stared at the choice before her.
Live in an artificial paradise, or live in a free, real world.
The deliberation was short, but acting on it took time. Her hand hovered over the option, unable to press it, torn by conflict.
A happy and perfect fake world, versus an unstable real world where one could be happy, but also unhappy on any given day.
Which would she choose?
Her silver-gray eyes, which had never faltered in the face of any hardship, stared at the warning window. A bitter smile touched her lips as she murmured.
“The answer is already clear, so what am I hesitating for…?”
Her finger descended on her choice.
*
Groaning as he bandaged his shoulder, Evan shot to his feet at the sound of irregular footsteps coming from below.
When he forced his tattered, rag-like body up with sheer willpower, every muscle seemed to scream in protest. Despite the pain, Evan walked to the entrance of the basement and peered into the darkness below.
“…El?”
Her pale face, soaked in blood and tears and shrouded in darkness, shimmered as it caught the light filtering through the crack in the door. Evan took a step down the stairs and steadied the staggering Elysia.
He glanced around, puzzled to find her alone. Did she leave Cain downstairs? As if she knew what he was looking for, Elysia gave a bitter smile.
“What… happened?”
“How are things outside?”
“The sky has returned to normal. The minute hand on the clock is moving in the right direction again. But El, why are you alone…”
“Senior.”
Calling to him in a low voice, Elysia opened her clenched fist. The glass shards wrapped in a torn piece of her shirt rustled.
He blinked, realizing it was what remained of a vial that had once held a pill. As Evan stared at her, bewildered, Elysia reached out her arms.
“I’m having a bit of a… no, actually, a really hard time… Can you just hold me for a little while?”
“Come here.”
Elysia leaned against the man who readily offered his embrace and breathed slowly. A familiar, gentle hand stroked her back, patting it comfortingly. She lifted her forehead from his chest, and he whispered to her.
“I’ll listen. Tell me anything.”
“…I couldn’t catch him. He’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Yeah, as if he never existed in this world to begin with…”
Lifting her head to meet his eyes, Elysia murmured in a somber voice.
“Without leaving a body, erasing even the world's memory of him.”
“That means…”
Elysia looked up at him in silence for a moment.
She thought she finally understood. Why Evan had been able to move with her, why he hadn’t lost his memories of Cain. The only way to completely escape the shackles of the system was death.
Evan was someone who had died once and been revived. Once subordinate to the system, his single death had made him a being who floated outside its domain, just like Elysia.
And Cain had just completely escaped the system's domain… but in a way from which there was no return.
Elysia’s hand, gripping Evan’s, was trembling.
“You and I will be the only ones who remember.”
The two of them were now beings who existed within the world, but could not truly blend into it. That was why they could remember the data the system had erased.
Elysia recalled Cain’s voice, pleading with her with that ghastly expression.
“Lock me away in your memory.”
“Cain really did know me well.”
“…”
“I think I’ll remember him for a very, very long time. The one I could neither save nor punish…”
Her eyes, filled with a terrible sense of emptiness, seemed even grayer today. Evan stroked the ends of her hair, stiff with dried blood, and asked in a gentle voice.
“Did you do your best?”
“I did my best, my way. Erasing memories… that’s not a just method, so I didn’t want to use it. I threw the pill away, but then he suddenly—”
“Do you regret it? If you could turn back time, would you erase Cain’s memories?”
“No.”
The answer was sharp and swift. Elysia smiled. Call her a fool, she didn’t care. Mock her for abandoning the easy path for the hard one, she didn’t care. She would never resort to such methods.
As if he understood, he cupped the back of her head and drew her into a comforting embrace, patting her back.
“Then that’s all that matters. You did well. It’s okay to cry.”
She burst into tears with complete honesty. The man said nothing, quietly taking in the jumbled words she uttered and the sobs that wracked her body.
That night, as midnight approached, the Central Regular Army raided the estate of Duke Ror.
They arrested the Duke, charging him with amassing enormous wealth through the illegal business of manufacturing and distributing drugs in Alea, and with murdering those connected to it.
“What is the meaning of this! I have never, ever done such a thing—”
“We have evidence linking the Ror estate to the now-deceased Alma Heron, Duke.”
“It wasn’t, it wasn’t me! I—”
“The Duchess has already severed all ties with the family. If not you, then who else uses the name Ror?”
That would be my son…! The old man, about to say the words, froze in shock. A son? Did I have a son? Didn’t all my children die in the epidemic? Then why am I so naturally looking for a son?
“We’ll hear the details upon our arrival.”
The old man who had once commanded all of Alea was handcuffed and dragged by soldiers into a carriage.
In a pub not far from there, a woman with brown hair, her hat pulled down low, silently watched the carriage carrying the Duke clatter away into the distance. Bringing a bitter glass of liquor to her lips, Elysia murmured.
“So this is the ending.”
Criminals aren’t born without reason. That old man had his own sins, his own responsibilities.
Though it was a form of karmic retribution that arose from filling the void left by Cain Ror’s sudden evaporation, Elysia found it satisfying.
Leaving the empty glass behind, Elysia stood and placed a hand on the shoulder of the man who had been silently keeping watch beside her. Evan naturally took her hand, glanced at her, and matched his pace to hers as they left the pub.
*
The gravedigger stared intently at the strange pair, a man and a woman. Beneath the large hat, the woman’s gray eyes glinted from behind a black mesh veil. Her gaze was so intimidating that he found himself bowing his head.
“I’d like to buy an empty grave.”
“Ah, yes. That’s not difficult. Where is the coffin—”
“That won’t be necessary. We just need the plot.”
The tall man answered in the woman’s stead, gesturing with his eyes for the gravedigger to lead the way. No coffin, but they want a grave? Are they reserving a plot in advance?
The gravedigger, unable to hide his confusion, belatedly realized his rudeness and quickly turned to guide them to an empty plot.
It was a remote spot, far from the other graves. A mediocre place that wasn’t particularly sunny, but not entirely in shadow either. The gravedigger glanced at their expressions and said,
“If this spot isn’t to your liking, I can show you a better one—”
“No, this is perfect. I thought an ordinary spot would be best.”
After receiving payment from the woman, the gravedigger began to dig. He had no idea who these people were, but they had paid, so he had to do as they asked.
He had dug down to about knee-deep when, just as he was about to dig further, the woman raised her hand.
“That’s deep enough. You can go now.”
What are they planning to do? The gravedigger stared at the man and woman with curiosity, but then shrugged and left.
From her bag, Elysia took out the glass vial fragments wrapped in a handkerchief and looked down into the cold earth with a blank expression. Without a second thought, she tossed them into the hole and began to shovel dirt over them without a word.
After confirming the glass fragments were gone, buried beneath the black soil, Elysia turned her head and stared at the blank headstone.
A man who vanished without leaving a body, a name for a headstone, or even a memory.
Letting out a sigh, Elysia muttered.
“…Pathetic bastard.”
Her voice was one part contempt, one part pity. This was the last, dry kindness she would offer Cain.
Turning away without any lingering attachment, Elysia gazed at Evan, who was bathed in the winter morning sun. He walked slowly toward her and took her hand. Evan smiled.
“Shall we go now?”
He was holding her hand; there was no reason not to go. Smiling brightly back at him, Elysia took a step forward. As they walked, chatting softly, white snowflakes began to fall one by one over their heads.