Episode 56
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 56
Chapter 5: Y:/DECPCORP - Game/Destined/Character/Evan Silvester/Side story/! ERROR !
On a vast continent bordered by a great mountain range to the north and a sprawling sea to the south, humanity gathered in the fertile lands of its center.
Naturally, a ruler emerged and established a nation. The empire thus born, named Lyne, completely dominated and ruled the continent for a hundred years.
But with the passage of time, even the most sturdily built house begins to creak. Gradually, the central government began to lose its grip on the provinces.
Merchants, once scorned as mere peddlers, were the first to break away from Lyne. This marked the rise of Alea, a trading nation that had amassed its wealth through maritime trade, completely seizing control of the southern seas.
A few years later, the cold, barren lands of the north naturally seceded from Lyne. The harsh climate and environment had led its people to pursue only strength and martial might, and they were frequently looked down upon by the people of Lyne, who praised delicate beauty.
The emotional rift between them deepened, and at some point, all exchange between the two regions ceased. The northern officials began to handle matters on their own, without waiting for orders from the capital.
And they came to realize a simple fact: the north ran perfectly well without the central government's control.
A natural question then arose.
‘Then what reason is there to obey the imperial family?’
And so, a new nation built on military power, Löwe, emerged.
What was once a single nation had fractured into three. Lyne, of course, became desperate to return to the days when it was the sole, unrivaled power on the continent, while Alea and Löwe fought tooth and nail to secure their positions as independent nations.
Wars of invasion, trade wars, diplomatic wars… anything that could be called a war, happened. Lyne, having suffered immense losses by letting go of what it once had, launched frenzied attacks to reclaim what was once its own. In response, Löwe and Alea tried to turn Lyne’s aggression toward each other.
But contrary to Lyne’s ambition of quickly reabsorbing Löwe and Alea, the fighting only dragged on in a protracted stalemate.
Whenever Lyne tried to win over the lords with its legitimacy and long-researched technology, Alea would thwart it by throwing money around, and Löwe would apply pressure with its military might. It was a perfect deadlock.
Then, one day, news spread across the three nations.
“A mine with a massive deposit of magnetite has been discovered.”
“Where?”
“…In the northwestern border region of the continent.”
The Emperor of Lyne, who had been leisurely sipping his wine, dropped his golden goblet with a loud clang.
Magnetite. A type of iron ore with strong magnetic properties, and the key material for Lyne’s technology, which boasted incredibly fast transportation and communication networks.
The reason Lyne had managed to hold its own against the bombardments of Alea’s wealth and Löwe’s military might was not so much its technology itself, but its monopoly on that very mineral.
Magnetite was primarily found in the east-central part of the continent, where Lyne was situated. Because of this, Alea and Löwe were forced to pay exorbitant sums to Lyne for a meager supply.
The newly discovered mine was located in a border region easily accessible to all three nations. It was therefore inevitable that all three would dispatch their armies the moment they heard the news.
Löwe grew anxious at the prospect of armed conflict. There was no field in which Löwe was more confident than a war fought with soldiers. Moreover, they had recently concluded that they could no longer sustain the nation’s finances by simply lending out mercenaries.
With no significant trade routes and little agricultural development, this war was of critical importance to them.
“Naturally, the order to deploy was given to House Sylvester. The command was to go to war as Commander-in-Chief. In a way, it was expected. In all of Löwe, there was no family with as long a history, or as much experience in battle and victory, as ours.”
“Because you’re a military family?”
He let out a faint laugh and shook his head.
“There are many military families in Löwe. But the Sylvesters… if a child starts to draw, they’re made to memorize military formations. The moment they learn to read, they’re taught tactics.”
“Why go to such lengths…?”
“As the family that leads the allied lords, we have to bear that much responsibility.”
It was that serious? So, House Sylvester was the family that moved the entire nation, even if it was an alliance. To be honest, she hadn’t realized the scale of the family was that immense. As if reading her surprise, Evan gave a slight smile.
“That’s the kind of place I grew up in.”
Having explained that much, Evan ran a hand through his bangs, his face troubled. Elysia stared intently at the man, finding it hard to believe he came from such a family.
So, this man went to battle, beheaded people, and rallied the morale of his soldiers?
What is that? It doesn’t suit him at all. She blurted out her thoughts.
“I can’t imagine you like that, Senior.”
“You’re probably the only one who sees me that way.”
He chuckled, then continued his explanation.
“True to the nature of Löwe, House Sylvester considered deployment an honor. Naturally, we obeyed the command and went to war.”
“When?”
“The conflict between the three nations is an old one, but this war has a particularly long history, El. My great-grandfather served as the first Commander-in-Chief.”
The fact that it started with his great-grandfather meant the war had been going on for well over a hundred years. Elysia frowned in disgust before asking again.
“Did you go as Commander-in-Chief, too?”
“No, my brother was the Commander-in-Chief. I first set foot on a battlefield when I was twenty-one. As the Vice-Commander, assisting my brother.”
She recalled the young man in the portrait she had seen in his room. The Evan in it looked to be in his late teens, while the young man next to him appeared to be in his mid-twenties. The age gap must have been at least seven or eight years. Elysia let out a deep sigh and asked.
“You were both so young.”
“You think so too, right? But I didn’t think so at the time.”
The man, who had been gazing up at the pitch-black night sky, laughed self-deprecatingly.
“I actually thought I was late. My brother went to battle as soon as he turned nineteen, but I didn't go until after I’d turned twenty.”
Dumbfounded, Elysia swore without thinking.
“What the hell kind of cra—”
“I was crazy back then. I wanted to prove myself in the way of my family. I believed I could do it.”
Instead of getting angry, Evan simply nodded and smiled. His tone suggested that, looking back now, he realized he hadn't been in his right mind. Elysia grew curious as to what could have possibly happened to make a man who had so faithfully followed his family’s teachings stray so far onto a different path.
She grabbed Evan’s shoulders as he hesitated, unable to continue, and made him face her.
“You saw something on the battlefield, didn’t you?”
“…”
“For a conviction that strong to be shaken, it must have been a huge shock. What was it? You told me back then. That you had seen something even before you met me, that it was all so strange.”
Evan remained silent, his lips sealed. A thought occurred to Elysia, and she pressed him.
“What was it?”
Evan, who had been nervously fiddling with his lips, finally spoke with a bitter smile.
“Back then, I had hoped. That this damn, drawn-out war would finally end. My brother was the most brilliant soldier House Sylvester had ever produced, and I… well, great things were expected of me, too. I thought it was entirely possible.”
A cheerful sound, completely out of place in the current atmosphere, rang out, and a series of status windows began to pop up before her eyes.
♥ SYSTEM: Checking the conditions to open ‘Evan Sylvester’s side story! (ง˙∇˙)ว ♥
♥ Current Favorability LV.MAX | Current Route;error;undefined; | You have reached the level required to open the side story! ♥
♥ Side Story: Open the story of ‘His Past’? Yes | No ♥
She chose ‘Yes’ without a moment’s delay. Of course, she did it because she wanted to hear his story, but to be honest, there was another reason. She was certain of what the system would spit out next.
♥ SYSTEM: error;logicerror ♥
Just as I thought.
The same error, again. She narrowed her eyes.
This world’s system had lost control. And it hadn’t happened simply because she had told the truth.
Even before Elysia arrived in this world, Evan had been slowly breaking away from the system. This man wasn't so dense that he would fail to notice a world running according to a script.
The Main Story no longer existed, the Community and Login/Logout functions had vanished. And now, a character had gone off-script.
The deeper she dug, the clearer it became that the system of <You'll Fall in Love>, which had seemed to be running smoothly, was on the verge of collapse.
The system, whatever it might have been in the past, was certainly not omnipotent now. Even these noisy system windows might just be glitches, displaying incorrectly due to an error.
Now, she truly couldn't trust anything. But why? In that moment, she felt not fear, but a thrill.
♥ SYSTEM: file;undefined;open !Ente?r%ing? ♥
♥ ! warning ! ♥
Elysia closed the window, which was glowing red like a warning siren, and curled her lips into a smirk, as if mocking the system itself.
Then, looking Evan straight in the face, she bit off each word, enunciating clearly.
“I want to know.”
She was curious about the “crazy things” he did that everyone else seemed to know about, and she was curious about the process of discovering the system, which she suspected had triggered those actions. She had always been curious, but the feeling grew stronger with each passing day.
As if defeated by her persistent gaze, Evan slowly opened his mouth, his lips barely parting.
“…It was in a battle on the one-year anniversary of my deployment.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to pull the memory from the past.