It was finally clear.
All the neglect and disregard she had shown Edward over the years could no longer stay hidden in the shadows of her memory.
Everything came from her own indifference.
When had she stopped noticing even the smallest details about him?
When had his height slipped from her mind?
When had his birthday, an event she herself had organized, become a day when she spoke more to everyone else than to him?
When had their interactions grown so dull and distant?
It was as if she had built a cage around him in the name of freedom, slowly trapping a free spirit in loneliness until it withered away.
How could she have been so thoughtless… so utterly shameless?
[At Edward’s birthday banquet, you acted as if you were the true host and the center of attention.
Yet in the end, you fled the hall in complete disarray.] [You ran from the corridor.
You ran from Edward himself, unable to face him after the thin veil over your eyes had finally been torn away.] [The young woman who should have faced everything with grace was instead crushed by the simple truth.]
[Could there be anything more ridiculous?] [No.]
[Edward would never hurt you.
He would not even scold you for what you had done.] [The only person you could not face was yourself.]
[You were foolish.
Incompetent.
You ignored him while you were together, and when you finally had a chance to make things right, you chose to run away instead.]
[In that regard, you truly were too human.] [Weak like a human.
Evasive like a human.
Pathetic like a human.]
The beautiful skirt tore slightly at the first hurried step, the fabric letting out a sharp rip.
Yet Elysia only ran faster, as if she wanted to escape the entire world.
She had never pushed her body so hard before.
Her full thighs moved at high speed as she sprinted down the corridor, paying no attention to whether others might notice her unusual behavior.
The hallway twisted and turned.
She had no idea where she was going.
She simply ran.
People she passed looked at her with surprise, and many called out in concern.
Their words of comfort felt meaningless in that moment.
She did not know how long she ran.
Eventually her senses began to numb and the burning intensity of her emotions slowly subsided.
Elysia finally stopped.
Before her was a covered walkway that branched in two directions.
Signs on the walls clearly indicated the restrooms.
This garden was no ordinary place.
Even the restrooms were elegantly designed with advanced technology.
Without hesitation, she rushed into the women’s restroom and locked herself in a stall. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
Only when the door was closed did she finally feel she had found a private space.
The young woman sat down heavily, her hands falling limply to her sides as she stared up at the ceiling with empty eyes.
If this were somewhere else, perhaps a vast grassland or a sky-gazing tower, she might have seen an endless sky filled with beautiful clouds during the day or countless stars at night.
But this was a restroom.
Looking up, she saw only a ceiling made of some unknown material.
It felt small and oppressive.
It was nothing like the open sky.
It felt like a cage.
The pressure was not only physical.
Her heart felt tightly squeezed, filled with an indescribable discomfort.
The flawless young woman, whose every movement could captivate countless people, now sat slumped against the corner of the stall.
Her eyes were vacant as she stared at the dim light above.
“Drip… drip… drip…”
Water was overflowing from the sink.
Someone had left the faucet running.
Crystal-clear droplets slid down the edge and fell to the floor, forming a small puddle.
A few cool splashes lightly touched Elysia’s hand.
It was still meaningless.
The water continued to overflow, and the coolness did nothing to ease the turmoil in her heart.
Elysia’s vision began to blur.
Her thoughts turned chaotic.
She held her drooping head and looked at her own dejected reflection in the puddle on the floor.
She did not know how much time had passed.
She tugged at her exquisite long dress.
It had taken her a long time to alter it herself, because no ready-made outfit felt right.
She had wanted something that would perfectly complement Edward’s formal attire so she could stand beside him.
Now, that effort felt completely pointless.
She would rather waste time altering clothes than give a little more attention to the young man who had always been by her side.
The young woman was overwhelmed by violent emotions.
Her body went limp and her heart felt empty.
That pitiful expression on her face would have looked incredibly fragile to anyone else.
Why had things come to this?
Why did Edward leave her?
Why did she make the wrong choice at every turning point?
She simply did not want to accept them.
The current situation was entirely her own doing.
No matter what excuses she tried to make, the fact that she had ignored Edward was undeniable.
There was no point in thinking about it anymore.
Thinking could not fix what she had broken.
Because she had come to understand this, the young woman who always seemed so capable ultimately chose to run away.
After doing something like this, what right did she have to face Edward again?
She was nothing more than a coward who could not even bring herself to give him a simple blessing.
Just as her thoughts began to calm slightly, fragments of old memories surfaced in her mind like a revolving lantern.
She recalled a time long before their journey, back when they still lived in that small town, even before they had separate rooms.
Her name had come from a special collector’s edition book that Edward gave her as a birthday present.
Elysia — “ETERNAL PARADISE”
The book had two versions.
In one, the protagonists sought the Elysian Realm and unknowingly created it during their search.
The other was a much darker version.
In that darker story, they had unknowingly strayed from paradise.
In reality, paradise had been right beside them all along.
She had always hated tragic stories, especially this one.
If something beautiful was right beside you, how could you fail to notice it until you lost it?
How could anyone only realize what was important after it was gone?
How could anyone run away and hide in a corner to cry after facing difficulties?
…Ah.
So that was it.
She had always been the character from the darker version.
“This ending doesn’t seem so bad.”
Even though Edward did not receive her blessing when he successfully joined the Spiral Workshop and became its master, she still felt a trace of joy for him.
Perhaps even giving a blessing felt troublesome to her.
He had made a simple request, but she had casually thrown out an excuse and run away, unwilling to even say a few words of congratulations.
His status might not compare to Paimon’s strength… or even one-fifth of a wild boar’s.
But since she was unwilling, he would not force the issue.
If they could be ordinary friends, that was fine.
If not, becoming strangers was also acceptable.
After all, the original reason he had approached her was to change the world.
Vill-V could achieve the same thing, and perhaps even better.
She had not yet reached the peak of self-loathing at that time.
The notorious deceiver she would later become had not yet appeared.