Episode 94
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 94
A week later, Elysia was resting her cheek on her desk, her haggard face gazing endlessly out the window.
Slowly, she sat up and rubbed her eyes, then forced her head to turn to the right, a direction she had been deliberately avoiding. Staring at the mountain of books piled high, she muttered.
“Do these things breed when I’m not looking…?”
It was strange. She was positive she was completing the daily quota Adrian gave her, so why wasn’t the scope of her studies shrinking? This had to be someone’s scheme. A conspiracy…
It was true she’d neglected her studies all semester, but this situation was definitely not her fault. Muttering to herself, Elysia flopped back onto the desk with a thud.
“I’m going to die if I keep living like this. I’m really going to die…”
For someone who spent her days roaming back alleys and beating up human garbage, it was impossible not to go crazy while sitting still at a desk. Maybe I should go run a few laps around the field. Just as Elysia shot up from her seat, a cheerful voice from behind made her freeze.
“Wow! You’ve already memorized all the advanced formulas! I gave you that assignment expecting it to take a week, but you finished it in just three days.”
“P-please, let me go home…”
“Hey, where are you going? Since you’re so far ahead, let’s just finish the rest quickly so you can get a good long rest. Come on, sit back down—”
“Agh! Aaargh! Let me out! I just want to run three laps around the field! I’m suffocating!”
As Elysia flailed her arms, Adrian held open a thick book for her to see, a wide grin on his face.
“Wow! Look at this, Elysia. It’s a reaction experiment, your favorite!”
“I never said I liked those.”
“Ah, you might not realize it yet, but deep down, you love this stuff.”
“Uwaaargh!”
Elysia Hemming, day three of studying to avoid a failing grade on her final exams.
“What a mad world! For the crime of being a student, I’m locked in the prison called school, wearing the inmate uniform called a school uniform! And now I’m being brainwashed! What did I do wrong?!”
She was slowly but surely losing her mind.
This phenomenon—a perfectly sane person losing their grip and regressing to a childlike state, thrashing their limbs while begging to be allowed to play—wasn’t just happening in the Prefect Office.
“Who’s the psycho who checked out Ancient Architectural Styles from the library and ate all the pages?”
“Wow, how selfish. Eating something that delicious all by yourself!”
“The fine arts majors are piling up canvases for a burning ceremony! Let’s go watch!”
The students of Minerva were all going mad with perfect equality.
Adrian handed a thick stack of paper to the soul-dead Elysia. When she saw the pages crammed with calculation problems, she boldly slammed her forehead down on the desk. If I hit my head with this much force, I should pass out, right? A chance to make use of my frail body has finally arrived…!
But the expected pain never came. Elysia peeked an eye open to find Evan cupping her forehead with his hand. Startled, she immediately straightened her posture.
Evan took in her less-than-sane state and asked with a displeased look.
“Adrian, what in the world have you been…?”
“Hey! Senior, you can’t go easy on her just because you’re a couple now! Are you just going to let her fail?”
Though Evan hadn’t said a word, Adrian had somehow divined the change in their relationship. The cat was out of the bag in an instant, and Adrian clicked his tongue as he watched them freeze in awkward surprise. Knew it…
Evan frowned and retorted.
“Failing? You’re worrying too much. It’s pretty hard to get a failing grade anyway.”
“That’s easy for you to say, Senior. Right now, Elysia is about to become that ‘pretty hard’ case.”
Evan faltered at the word “fail” but did his best to defend her.
“…I don’t think you need to push her this hard.”
“Senior, I don’t think you understand her progress… This is the material from the first four weeks after school started. She’s basically thrown away the entire semester. Why do you think there’s so much to do? Because she didn’t do it.”
Speechless, Evan looked down at her. His eyes seemed to ask, Is that true? Unable to meet his gaze, Elysia hung her head. Damn it. Yes, Senior. I think it is…
It was true that she had next to nothing in her head right now. With an embarrassed smile, he pulled up the chair next to Elysia and sat down.
“Hmm… is there anything I can do to help?”
“Just get me out of this hellhole and—”
“Haha, Elysia, you’re too much. Why say ‘hell’ with such conviction? I almost thought you were serious, you know?”
“I am serious.”
Evan separated the bickering pair and held out his hand. Elysia naturally placed her own on top of it, only realizing what she’d done a moment later as her eyes went wide.
Evan smiled at Adrian, who was staring at them with a “What am I seeing right now?” expression, then let go of Elysia’s hand and gestured toward the door with his eyes.
“Run.”
“Really?!”
“But you have to finish everything when you get back. Failing… would be a problem.”
The moment Evan finished speaking, Elysia tossed her pen aside like it was something filthy and bolted out the door with a clatter.
Just before ducking to pass through the low doorway, she looked back with a brilliant smile and waved.
“Be right back!!!”
As if someone was chasing her, the woman who had burst out of the Prefect Office vanished in an instant. Evan glanced at Adrian’s resentful expression, gave a slight shrug, and said.
“Let her rest for a bit. She looked dead on her feet.”
“You’re showing some serious favoritism… If it were me, you’re the type who would have tied me to the desk chair and told me to finish.”
As if struck by a guilty conscience, Evan subtly avoided his junior’s gaze and turned his head away.
*
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt the sun on her skin. With a face that looked like she might burst into tears, Elysia gazed at the vibrant green leaves basking in the sunlight.
It was the third day since she had begun studying in earnest, with just over ten days left until the exams. Once this brief moment of freedom was over, she would probably be cooped up in that clubroom studying for the rest of the time.
It seemed she wasn’t the only one suffering from exam preparations; dark shadows were etched under the eyes of every student passing by.
Elysia stretched languidly, then flopped onto her back on a bench. Staring blankly at the sky, she recalled what Adrian had told her last night.
“Elysia, this stuff. It’s made of a substance that’s never been discovered. Which means we don’t know what it is.”
“What do you mean?”
“That a chemical analysis is impossible.”
She had told him to keep quiet about it for now. If it was a substance that couldn’t be explained by the laws of this world, could it have come from <Panic in the City>?
But if that were the case, it was a drug even she knew nothing about. A drug, a drug… Ah, speaking of which, there was one other unknown drug.
“Ah.”
As if remembering something, Elysia shot up and rummaged through her inventory. A glass bottle containing a blue pill appeared in her hand. Elysia narrowed her eyes and read the item’s description once more.
`new! `
`Item Description: TARGET_INITIALIZE_KEY`
It was a suspicious item she had forgotten about in the chaos. Elysia searched her memory. There was only one possibility for an unknown item to appear in her inventory: the game company had distributed currency. If so, the reason was probably…
`SYSTEM: By accepting the status of a Minerva student, you have accepted the ‘Developer's Quest.’ Your skills will be reactivated.`
The Developer’s Quest. It had to be related to this. The infinity symbol that had suddenly appeared in her currency window was likely to support that quest. She understood that much, but…
“What the hell is it?”
All she knew was that something called an “Error Check Program” automatically activated in certain situations to determine whether the item should be used.
Elysia wracked her brain. The first time she’d witnessed the program activate was when she was interrogating Rayner, who had committed a terrible act out of a craving for his lover’s affection, and again when she had a private meeting with Alma… Wait, now that she thought about it.
“…They’re both criminals, aren’t they?”
Was the system identifying the occurrence of a crime as an error? If so, why did it only recommend using the item in Alma’s case?
Elysia stared intently at the glass bottle. What was the crucial difference between the two? There were many personal differences, of course, but the Error Check Program had mentioned another clue.
Rayner’s motive was jealousy over his lover’s interests, while Alma’s was simply to satisfy her greed. A corner of Elysia’s mouth lifted as she cynically tossed out a theory.
“So, an erratic action not born from love is considered an error?”
After staring blankly into space for a moment, Elysia began randomly selecting various options in the <You’ll Fall in Love> menu. Since she wasn’t trying to use any functions, her clicks were haphazard.
`♥ ?error;community;null ♥`
`♥ ?error;replay;null ♥`
`♥ ?error;format;null ♥`
`♥ ?error;mainstory;null ♥`
`♥ ?error;deleteaccount;null ♥`
Her sharp eyes scanned the error windows popping up before her. Community, game replay and reset, main story, delete account… All things that had once existed but were now deleted.
Elysia glanced down at the vial in her hand. The transparent glass glittered, reflecting the sunlight.
Staring impassively between the glass bottle and the error windows, Elysia muttered.
“Then what is this…?”
Was the “Developer’s Quest” about using the initialization key they provided as an item to restore the deleted features and reset the characters exhibiting abnormal behavior?
After forming the hypothesis, Elysia shook her head slightly. I must be finally losing my mind. It was a ridiculous story. Restoration could be done with a few clicks and a few lines of code. There was no need to use such a complicated method.
She let out a deep sigh and mumbled.
“No way.”
“What isn’t?”
Startled by the voice that cut in so naturally, Elysia recoiled. She found a man standing before her with a grin and her expression immediately soured. Cain, who had been leaning over, straightened up, his eyes curved into a smile.
Elysia hastily shoved the vial into her jacket pocket and rose from the bench. The man, who had already taken a seat next to her, spoke with a worried look.
“I heard you were badly hurt. Lost a lot of blood, too…”
Cool fingers gripped her wrist, then naturally pushed something into her open palm. She squeezed her eyes shut at the cold touch of metal, and when she opened them, a round, silver case of ointment was resting in her hand.
She looked up at him with a bewildered expression, only to be met with an unreadable smile and…
“You should be careful.”
A single, ambiguous phrase that could be either a warning or encouragement.