Episode 55
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 55
The path to the dorms was, of course, deserted. The Arts Festival would continue for three days. It was a legitimate opportunity to set aside one’s studies and slack off, and no one was foolish enough to pass up that chance.
But Elysia was certain Evan would be in his dorm. She knew all too well that he was the kind of person who would step back from the crowd with a warm smile.
She ran up the stairs. She was out of breath, but she didn't care. Seeing him right now was more important than her own exhaustion. Panting, Elysia knocked on Evan’s door.
“Hey, Senior.”
“…”
“I know you’re in there. Open up.”
With her sharp hearing, Elysia heard the faint creak of the floorboards inside the room. Ah, damn it, she cursed inwardly, then slammed her fist against his door and shouted.
“You know my temper, don't you? You think I’ll back down? If you don't open up, I'll break the door down. I'm serious.”
Still, no answer came. As Elysia raised her hand to knock again, she felt a lump form in her throat.
He was the one who had courageously faced the truth. The man who had shattered her frozen solitude. And now, the reason he was cowering in his room, terrified to come out, was all because of her.
He was just being considerate, because he was such a naturally kind person.
Clenching her teeth, she muttered to herself. No, if I have to be lonely, I want to be lonely together. Leaving me like this is just avoiding responsibility. You’re the one who brought back the hope I thought I’d thrown away. It’s okay even if you shatter it again.
Stay with me. Don’t leave me alone.
She took a step back and looked at Evan’s firmly locked door. She could break it down if she had to, but she didn’t want to drag him out by force.
Elysia quietly steadied her breath, then trudged over and opened the door to her own room. Crossing the messy floor littered with hastily scribbled documents, she opened the balcony window and breathed in the humid night air that signaled the coming of summer.
The gap to the next balcony was about two meters. Elysia narrowed her eyes and placed both hands on the railing.
♥ SYSTEM: This is an inaccessible area! (;°ロ°) ♥
“Shut up.”
♥ SYSTEM: Player, profanity is bad for your Favorability ㅠㅁㅠ ♥
“Go fuck yourself.”
She scoffed, casually ignoring the <You'll Fall in Love> system window. Taking a deep breath, Elysia leaped lightly onto the railing. Standing precariously, she shouted.
“I’m coming over!!!”
“What are you doing—”
A man’s horrified voice rang out. A frantic clatter came from inside the room as something was knocked over. Evan rushed out onto his balcony, his expression grim.
He could see Elysia’s body swaying with the wind on the narrow railing. Evan’s face turned deathly pale.
“Get down from there. Now.”
Elysia squinted, trying to get a clear look at Evan’s face. It bothered her that she hadn’t been able to check which route had been confirmed earlier.
Evan clenched his hands, his palms damp with tension as he watched Elysia’s blue uniform skirt flutter in the wind. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and began to plead.
“Get down, El. If you fall… Please, just get down. Before something terrible happens, quickly—”
“You won’t let anything terrible happen to me.”
His body went rigid at her single, confident statement. Spotting Elysia grabbing her fluttering skirt as if preparing to jump, Evan didn’t have a moment to think. He immediately stepped onto his own railing and leaped without hesitation.
He reached out toward her wide gray eyes, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and tumbled onto the balcony, pushing her inside with him as he fell.
“Ugh…”
His shoulder throbbed. In fact, his entire body ached from rolling across the hard stone floor. He groaned, then froze when he saw Elysia, still in his arms, staring blankly down at him. The pain vanished instantly.
He found himself staring dazedly at her sharp, tense face, which seemed to be waiting for something he couldn’t see.
♥ SYSTEM: Searching for a new route…… ♥
Meanwhile, Elysia was wondering why the loading window she had seen earlier was still up.
What’s taking so long? I thought it was already decided.
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t afraid. She never thought that a man—a creature designed to love the person who entered this world—could easily escape the system. Even if he tried, the system would ensnare him. Perhaps forever.
But she started to wonder why that even mattered. We strayed from the normal path a long time ago anyway.
She knew the variables she had introduced to this world, and to Evan. Now, she needed to understand the variables he had created long before he ever met her.
What on earth did you see on the battlefield that made you think something was wrong? I want to know.
♥ SYSTEM: Searching for a new route…… ♥
She had faced him with such resolve, only for the result to still be pending. It was anticlimactic. Just then, the text on the screen shattered, and the system window collapsed.
With a strange noise, multiple system windows popped up frantically, spitting out the words “Searching for a route” as if in a final struggle, only to collapse again and again.
♥ sys?e!: S%ear*ch=(ing f0r a new#…… ♥
She waited patiently. Beyond the system window, Evan’s green eyes blinked. Elysia found her gaze drawn to them and froze, discovering an emotion so deep and vast she couldn’t begin to fathom it.
The multiple loading windows were supposed to be blocking her view, so why could she see his face beneath them so clearly?
The status window, which she had once considered important enough to control her, no longer even registered. All that entered her vision was the emotion contained within those sparkling green eyes.
It was adoration and, at the same time, pity. It was love, but also friendship. A mixture of worry and trust, altruism and selfishness, desire and consideration—that thick, deep emotion was…
♥ error;cannot be defined; ♥
It felt as if time itself had stopped. She dazedly listened to the sound of her own pounding, pulsating heart.
In that moment, she felt the strong arms that had been holding her, as if she were his entire world, slowly loosen.
Startled by a sudden touch near her eye, Elysia flinched. He patted her back as if to soothe her. The man held her face with his right hand, his thumb gently stroking the corner of her eye.
“Sorry, I’m sorry. El… Don’t cry, okay?”
Only then did she realize she had been crying. And at the same time, her lips were stretched into a wide smile, which must have made for a ridiculous expression.
♥ error;cannot be defined; ♥
Right, how could anyone define that? The feelings we have for each other are too vast and deep to be defined by a single word. There was nothing to be afraid of from the start.
She used her finger to wipe away the tear that had fallen on his cheek. She felt the man’s body beneath her stiffen at the simple touch.
Flustered, he hesitated for a moment before slowly wrapping his arms around her back again, patting her gently as he whispered.
“I won’t look. Cry as much as you want.”
“Senior.”
Startled when Elysia suddenly turned her head to face him, Evan blinked. They were close. Far too close. He stared blankly at the tears glistening above her cat-like eyes, then made a dumbfounded face at her complaint.
“Don’t let your Favorability go up just because you see me crying.”
“When did I—”
“You just did.”
“…El, I’m pretty sure I asked you not to point out every little thing.”
Giggling, the woman pushed herself up. She sat with her back against the terrace wall and patted the spot next to her.
“Come here.”
“It’s late. You should go back to your room—”
“Tell me a story from your past.”
Huh? Seeing him raise an eyebrow as if to ask what she meant, Elysia smiled again. She let out a long sigh and leaned her head wearily against the wall, murmuring.
“I… I don’t know anything about you, Senior.”
“…”
“I’m the only one who doesn’t know about the past that makes people whisper behind your back and fear you. It hurts my pride. Shouldn’t I be the one who knows things that others don’t?”
The emotion was like a vast, deep sea; she wasn’t sure if love was even in it. In truth, she was closer to being completely at a loss.
She had obsessively thought that the feeling of love, and only love, must not be involved. Her loving him was a deception; him loving her was a betrayal. Fortunately or unfortunately, his feelings were too vast for the system to define.
The problem was, she was the same. Even Elysia couldn’t figure out her own heart. It was too tenacious to be dismissed as simple kinship, yet too selfish to be called love.
She was prepared to believe anything this man said. At the same time, if she were to be dragged through the mud, she had no intention of pushing him away—she’d reach for his hand instead. Because she couldn’t bear to be apart from him.
It’s a little strange to call such a selfish heart ‘love,’ isn’t it?
Amid the confusion, only one thing was clear.
“I want to know about you, Senior.”
I want to know about you. I have to know everything.
They sat on the floor, looking at each other. The man’s tightly closed lips curved into a faint smile.
He slowly got up and plopped down in the spot Elysia had indicated. A troubled look flashed across his face. He fell silent for a moment, preparing to confess a past he had never once explained.
The sound of frogs croaking from the lakeside not far from the dorms drifted in. Evan looked at Elysia, who was staring up at him, and asked a simple question.
“Do you know the history of Alea, Lyne, and Löwe?”
“…I don’t know shit about it.”
He chuckled as if he’d expected as much.
“Alright,” he said. “I’ll start by explaining that.”