Episode 43
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 43
Chapter 4: Spring Event: ERROR_NULL
“Do you have any idea how surprised I was? I was wondering what in the world was going on with you two.”
It was true. He had reached out unconsciously, cupping her slender face, his heart sinking as he frantically checked her over.
The moment he saw Elysia wince and shut her eyes in pain, his hand had moved on its own. Flustered by his own strange reaction, he had fled, only to quickly rationalize the suspicion that arose in his mind.
Of course. It’s because I don’t like seeing El in pain.
He regained his composure. This was definitely not love. It was merely concern for someone he cared about… But hearing Adrian’s words now, even he, who thought he had his feelings sorted out, couldn't help but be flustered.
He quickly composed his crumbling expression and answered in a stiff tone.
“El is so careless that she gets hurt often, so I just checked on her out of habit. And I didn’t touch her lips, I was checking inside…”
Having said that much, he belatedly realized that tracing the soft flesh inside her mouth was far more intimate than simply touching her lips. Adrian, who had broken into a wide grin, stuck to his side like glue and spoke as if he were about to burst into tears.
“Whoa! What did you just call her? A nickname, right? It is, isn't it?”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting?”
“You used to dislike her, so when did you two get so…? They say still waters run deep! Wow, Senior!”
Remembering how he had needlessly put up his guard and acted prickly in the past made his face burn. He recalled the words he had spat out back then, then shook his head as if to escape the horrible memory and answered Adrian.
“I don't dislike her anymore. And… it's not like that.”
“…Are you serious?”
Adrian’s expression, which at first had assumed Evan was just being evasive, began to harden. Wait, are they really not in any kind of relationship? What are these two doing? He stammered, asking once more.
“…You’re really not in a relationship?”
“That’s right.”
“So something did happen, but it’s over?”
“Nothing happened.”
“But something happened, right?”
“I said nothing happened. We have a senior-junior relationship, just like you and me. Don’t misunderstand.”
At Evan’s words, Adrian’s face twisted into a bizarre expression.
I mean, Senior, I respect you a great deal, and I admire you so much that I chose my major to follow in your footsteps, but this is a little different, isn't it? We’re close. We’re really close… but not on the same level as you and her, right?
When have you ever looked at me with such intense, lingering eyes? Even for me, that would be a bit unpleasant.
Back when he was still clumsy with lab equipment, he had spilled toxic chemicals on his skin a few times and gone to Evan for help.
Each time, Evan had meticulously examined the affected area and given him the appropriate medicine, but he had never shown any sign of alarm. He’d simply had the calm, detached eyes of a doctor, thinking, ‘Ah, you were injured by this.’
It was only natural for him. He was a man who had treated numerous trauma patients on the battlefield. Of course he wouldn't be fazed by a minor injury.
But how had Evan reacted to Elysia’s insignificant wound? He had cupped her face with such urgency, his eyes filled with worry, acting as if it were his sole mission to care for her.
And, uncharacteristically, he had hastily soothed the inside of her mouth, asking about the extent of the injury in a gentle voice.
Seeing that, Adrian had thought:
‘If this isn't romance, what the hell is?!’
Many female students had suffered the fever of a first love for him, drawn to his signature gentle smile, only to be met with a firm line he drew that completely contradicted it. The fact that he had been cast out of his family, far from deterring them, only fanned the flames of their affection.
Adrian had lost count of the times he’d stumbled upon Evan in a secluded spot, saying, “I’m sorry, I can’t accept your feelings,” to a sniffling female student.
From innocent, delicate beauties who approached him cautiously to aggressive women who charged straight ahead, the list of women he had rejected was long and varied. Because Evan showed not a shred of interest and turned them down with a dispassionate attitude, Adrian had secretly worried.
Was the shock of being kicked out of his family that great?
Then, Elysia appeared.
And Evan, who had never once scowled, openly showed his displeasure and kept his distance from her. But then…
Adrian was dumbfounded as he recalled Evan’s actions—how he had hastily, almost desperately, pulled Elysia into an embrace, looking lost and even a little angry.
Wait, and he says they’re not in a relationship?
He remembered how Elysia, who was usually like a sensitive cat with all its fur on end, hissing at everyone, had calmly opened her mouth for him. As he recalled her utterly nonchalant expression, a stark contrast to Evan’s worried, fretting gaze, a new possibility dawned on him.
Don't tell me… it's a one-sided love?
The thought almost made him burst out laughing. What? A one-sided love!
You really never could tell with people. To think that the man who could offer a placid smile even to those who openly mocked him for being cast out of his family would fall head over heels for a woman he couldn't hide his disgust for from their very first meeting. Adrian clicked his tongue and thought.
This is why you should always watch what you say…
Ever since Elysia’s arrival, things had gotten quite interesting. A grin spreading across his face, Adrian asked Evan, who was frowning as if to say, ‘What on earth are you thinking?’
“Want some help?”
“What? With what.”
“Getting together with her. Should I lock the two of you in a room together? Hehe.”
…He had no way of knowing that the system had already done that once.
Evan stared at Adrian’s face, who looked as excited as a dog about to go for a walk, and let out a disbelieving chuckle. Then he answered firmly.
“It’s not like that. What are you even thinking?”
“You like her, don’t you, Senior?”
Hearing Adrian’s matter-of-fact reply, Evan’s expression hardened noticeably. His lips, which had parted to form a sentence, froze as if they were taxidermied. With great effort, he relaxed his stiff neck and answered.
“No. Absolutely not.”
He knew the exact moment those ever-unwavering, steadfast silver-gray eyes had trembled for the first time. Her figure turning back to look at him under the pitch-black night sky, her brown hair tousled by the wind, and the words that fell from her crimson lips.
“I trust you that much, Senior. Keep your promise.”
She had told him not to love her.
She said that because he was a creation, he was made to love the beings who entered this world. That even the things that had left him with such deep scars were all for the sake of that love.
That’s what her gray eyes, burning with fierce anger, had told him. So, she had said, he should rebel. Resist by never, ever loving her.
How could I ever break that promise? You’re too precious to be loved so simply.
Biting his lip hard, he muttered.
“This is…”
He had to define this feeling somehow. He cleanly erased the heat that had flared in his chest the moment he’d touched Elysia’s lips and rewound his memory.
His heart sank whenever he saw Elysia in pain. Even though he had seen far worse injuries, even though he knew exactly how to treat the wounds she sustained, a frantic worry surged within him.
He felt anxious if she wasn't right in front of him. He was afraid she would get into a fight and get hurt. And that her frail body would collapse.
So this was, just…
“Friendship. Just friendship.”
Evan was being completely serious, but he couldn't stop Adrian’s expression from twisting in disbelief. Adrian tore at his red hair and thought to himself.
Aaargh! It's a Friendship-spouter, a Friendship-spouter! To think the senior I admire so much has fallen into the pathetic 'we're just friends~' phase! How can something so ridiculous happen!
*
“Miss Hemming, I find it difficult to grasp whether you're brilliant or not.”
Professor Atkins, who had reviewed the two pages Elysia submitted about ten times, frowned and took off his glasses. Elysia, who had been watching his expression with a nervous heart, asked cautiously.
“Will you grant permission for the experiment?”
“You’re not even asking if the hypothesis is persuasive. You seem confident.”
The professor smiled faintly and set the papers down on his desk with a thud. Elysia looked at the pages, filled with the formulas she had dredged up from her memory the night before.
After flipping through a few books with a troubled look and scribbling some calculations with a pen, the professor asked with interest.
“The fact that Phoebe extract, which is used in medicine, reacts sensitively to the toxicity of the silk tree is such a trivial piece of knowledge that even I had forgotten it. It’s surprising enough that you know that, but you intend to use that property to identify users of Crea, an extract of the silk tree? Where on earth did you get such an idea?”
“I just, you know, stumbled upon it.”
It wasn’t a lie. It was just that the place of enlightenment wasn’t this world, but the game <Panic in the City>.
“Ah, so it was all a coincidence?”
The professor raised an eyebrow and once again picked up the paper scrawled with Elysia’s handwriting. Elysia recalled the day she had first discovered the raw materials for the experiment written on that paper.
*
While she was poring over a basic chemistry textbook, something strange had caught her eye.
‘Ekrem's root, Aertz's Bone Powder… What are these doing here?’
In <Panic in the City>, to obtain items for an investigation, one had to gather materials and perform alchemy in a space called the ‘Detective's gloomy lab.’
After combining the collected materials according to a formula and tossing them into a bubbling cauldron, various items would pop out. The items ranged from reagents that could detect erased bloodstains to antidotes.
Having gone from being a veteran player to a completely stagnant one, she had all the alchemy formulas for frequently used items memorized.
Of course she did. She was a walking manual for <Panic in the City>, a veteran player of the highest order. And now, out of nowhere, those ingredients had appeared in a chemistry textbook from <You'll Fall in Love>.
‘This is a pain. The potion bottles and drugs were already driving me crazy, and now this?’
She was annoyed by the series of events that seemed to be testing her, but a good thing was a good thing. In the last case involving the damaged artwork, the thing that had constantly held her back was the ‘lack of physical evidence.’
She had miraculously obtained three pieces of physical evidence at the last minute and succeeded in catching the culprit, but honestly, that was just luck. Would that kind of luck continue to follow her?
Probably not.
Thus, she decided to try creating something that would help her produce physical evidence. To reiterate, she was a player of <Panic in the City> so experienced she was practically fossilized, and she remembered the exact types and amounts of ingredients needed to create a reagent that could detect Crea.