Episode 21
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 21
The man took the glass she offered and downed it in one gulp. After draining a volume of hard liquor equivalent to half a bottle, Evan looked up at her with a dizzying gaze and answered.
“Yeah, I can’t listen to this sober.”
“Right? A story like this needs a little alcohol.”
The option she had chosen was C, the third choice.
C: Keep a secret? What’s that? I’ll spill everything.
Besides, it wasn’t like she’d signed a secrecy oath. Was there any reason not to talk?
Nothing loosens up a person’s mind like alcohol. Since she was about to say something utterly insane, she needed to make his way of thinking as flexible as possible.
In times like these, you need a drink.
The eyes of the man who had drunk the strong liquor she’d handed him as if it were water were wavering. Elysia, perched on the edge of his desk, fiddled with her fingernails and murmured.
“How should I explain this… This world is a game, created for the amusement of people who exist in an external dimension.”
“A game? You mean… like chess?”
Snap. Elysing flicked her fingers and wiggled her index finger as if to say, Good job.
“That’s a good analogy! Yes, this world is a chessboard, and you, Senior, are one of the pieces on it. I’d be the poor soul who entered as a player but got trapped and became a chess piece myself.”
“But it’s peaceful here. There are no battlefields in Minerva.”
It was almost endearing how he was trying so hard to follow this absurd premise, despite his confusion. Elysia carefully dredged up her meager knowledge of the ‘dating simulation’ genre and replied.
“Ah, well, there are games that feature combat, but this place is a little different. Here… um, it’s a bit ridiculous, but the objective is to win the love of the people here.”
“Love?”
Evan’s face scrunched up as if the idea was laughable.
“Why would they want the love of the beings they created?”
“…I’m not sure about that, either. I don’t really play these kinds of games. Maybe… for the fun of romance?”
“What are you talking about? You’re here right now.”
She had no idea how to begin explaining that she’d been abruptly thrown from a crime-action game—where she’d been rolling around investigating crimes and fighting villains—into a dating simulation.
Elysia thought for a moment before asking him.
“Do you know the card game Old Maid?”
“I do.”
“What about Blackjack?”
“…I don’t know how much of an idiot you take me for. I know it.”
Would he get it if she explained it this way? With a doubtful expression, she laid it out plainly.
“I was trapped in a game of Old Maid for three years, and then I was suddenly moved to a game of Blackjack.”
“Why?”
Elysia crossed her legs lightly and let out an irritated sigh, ruffling her hair.
“I don’t know. It seems they gave me some kind of mission, but I have no clue what it is.”
Those sons of bitches! If they were going to stick a potion bottle in her inventory, they could have at least included a manual! A sudden surge of anger toward the developers made her blood pressure spike.
He stared blankly at Elysia, who was grumbling and scratching the back of her head. Then he took the bottle from her hand, filled his glass to the brim again, and drank.
She was about to warn him, You could die from that, but she held her tongue. It was out of a sense of pity, a feeling that he must really not want to be in his right mind. In a much slower tone than before, Evan asked.
“Did you… commit a sin?”
“A sin?”
“That’s usually how it goes in holy wars or myths. Those who sin against a god and are cast out… they fall, and once they complete their given mission, they return to their original world.”
“Uh… what? Huh? No.”
I’ve never thought of it that way. That’s a new perspective.
Elysia let out a small laugh and took the bottle back from his hand. The bottle, which had been full at the start, was now nearly empty.
Without bothering with a glass, Elysia put the bottle to her lips and drank. The last few drops of the bitter, sour liquid flowed down her throat, leaving a burning trail.
Damn, this stuff is strong.
“There was no sin. I was just unlucky. I entered the game for a test run before it was even properly finished, and the system malfunctioned, trapping me.”
She hadn’t gotten a single piece of information about what was happening in the real world since she’d been trapped, but she could make some educated guesses based on a few things she’d overheard in development meetings.
“Since I’ve been trapped for this long, there’s a high probability my original body is no longer functional… Realistically, I have nowhere to go back to.”
I might even be dead.
She had always considered the possibility that she was nothing more than a scrap of data, imprinted with the behavioral patterns and common thoughts of the once-living Elysia Hemming who had played the game. Like a ghost that mimics a real person’s thoughts and playstyle.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t exist.
Hadn’t someone once said, ‘I think, therefore I am’? It was the same for her. She had a sense of self, and she had the emotion of anger at her own predicament.
In that case, I exist, don’t I?
She blinked once and steered the conversation to another topic.
“Anyway, I didn’t come straight into this game from the real world. I came through another game, and I think that’s causing some strange things to happen here. You wouldn’t understand, Senior, but there’s this thing called a Passive Skill—”
“Are you okay?”
His sudden question made Elysia almost burst into tears.
She had accepted her terrible situation long ago and thought she was fine, but this was the first time she had ever opened up and been comforted by someone. Her emotions churned. She pressed the back of her hand against her welling eyes and answered.
“If I’m not okay, does anything change?”
“…”
“I’m not okay. Of course I’m not okay… but I have to keep moving forward. I have to struggle to make the best choices. If I just stand still, my very existence might be erased.”
After a moment of silence, he asked.
“Why are you telling me all this so easily?”
The sound of birds chirping came from outside the window. In contrast to the vibrant green leaves fluttering against the bright blue sky, Evan’s face wore a bitter smile.
Elysia slowly pushed herself up from where she’d been leaning against the desk.
“Just because.”
“Just because?”
“To be honest, the people in this world… they feel too real. You, Adrian, everyone. I guess I was happy to see that. You’re all so genuinely human that I suppose I wanted to confide in one of you.”
She thought about leaving, but the oversized pants kept slipping down, making it hard to walk. Evan noticed her awkwardly clutching at her waistband.
“Stay until the clothes I sent to be laundered come back.”
“Hmm, I feel like I’m imposing too much.”
“And lie down for a bit, will you? Even if you’re all healed, as a medical professional, it makes me anxious to see a patient who was injured so recently out of bed.”
I’m perfectly fine, but if he insists. With a reluctant look, she lay back down on the bed. Evan, who had been quietly looking down at her, suddenly asked.
“There’s just one more thing… I want to ask.”
She looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. His lips hesitated as if the words wouldn’t come out, but he finally managed to begin.
“You have… transcendent abilities. Like healing instantly after treatment, or being incredibly strong.”
“I can also see Favorability scores.”
“Huh?”
“That’s how I knew. You really hated me at first, Senior. My Favorability with you was dropping by 50 points right from our first meeting. There was no way I wouldn’t notice.”
It was a fact he had clearly never considered. Evan froze in shock and asked.
“How exactly does it look?”
“It appears as text, like ‘Evan Sylvester’s Favorability -100, +100.’ I think it’s meant to help me seduce you, but I’m not interested, so don’t worry. Anyway, what was it you wanted to ask?”
Elysia’s incredibly casual tone made his expression soften. With eyes that drooped like a gentle puppy’s, he looked down only at her and asked.
“Could you… bring a dead person back to life?”
A dead person? She tilted her head and mentally reviewed the items in her inventory. She did have a resurrection potion that could revive a companion NPC if used within ten minutes of their death, but why was this man asking about that?
Seeing Elysia’s puzzled expression, Evan opened his mouth to say something, then immediately swallowed his words. But she understood at once why he had asked.
“On the battlefield…”
「He lost many people on the battlefield, so he has a blunt and cold personality.」
Recalling the system’s description of him, Elysia blurted out thoughtlessly.
“Ah, that’s a default setting. I don’t think you can change it.”
“What?”
As Evan stared at her, his face a mask of shock, Elysia was hit with a wave of regret.
Oh, this damn mouth of mine. I must have lost all my social skills after being alone for so long.
The man gripped her shoulders tightly, his voice a desperate plea through gritted teeth.
“What in the world does that mean?”
“No, no… I misspoke.”
“What a ‘default setting’ is, please, explain it to me. Elysia, please…”
His green eyes, searching for the truth, held a hint of madness she found impossible to refuse. With a troubled expression, she confessed.
“I read the system’s description of you a while ago. It was so different from the Senior I know that I just read it and moved on, but I guess the part about losing your comrades on the battlefield was true.”
“What on earth—”
“…That was a designed element from the moment you were created. I don’t think… it can be changed.”
The man stiffened and slowly released his hands from her. Unable to even blink, he stared into space and muttered.
“…So that’s why.”
“Senior?”
“That’s why… back then, so… unbelievably…”
The man’s stammering face was contorted in pain, as if he were being forced to drink the poison of memory. Elysia quickly grabbed his arm and called out to him.
“Get a grip!”
“But why?”
Muttering this, the man looked at Elysia, who was holding onto him, with empty eyes. Evan stared into the silver eyes of the woman who had so casually delivered the truth. He held onto a tiny sliver of hope that this might be a lie.
“Why… why was something like that happening to me so essential that it had to be designed in advance?”
“…”
“You know.”
He didn’t want to hear it, but he had to. Evan stared at the woman who had just negated the existence of his entire world in an instant. Her short brown hair, draped over her shoulders, fluttered in the breeze from the window. Her wide eyes, twisted with pity, were fixed on him.
He felt the need to explain himself first in order to receive an explanation.
“You must be wondering why I can believe your utterly bizarre story so readily. I saw how those people died with my own eyes. Their deaths were neither normal nor logical, so until now, I just thought I was going crazy. Until your words perfectly explained what I saw… So tell me.”
“Ignorance might be bliss, you know.”
“I don’t want to be an ostrich that buries its head in the sand because it’s afraid of the sky.”
Hearing his words, Elysia’s face twisted as if she were about to be sick. Evan couldn’t understand why she was reacting that way.
After a long silence, she finally spoke, unable to meet his eyes.
“…I told you the victory condition of this game is decided by winning the other person’s love, right?”
“What does that have to do with—”
“Because wounded beings who long for comfort are vulnerable to love.”
What? His head rang as if he’d been struck, and Elysia’s voice echoed around him. To the man who had gone deathly pale, Elysia finally spat out the words she never wanted to say.
“They made you that way so you would crave the player’s love.”
“…”
“There’s no grand reason.”