Edward clearly felt the heavy pressure resting on his shoulders.
It was completely different from the time he had spent with Elysia.
This was the pressure of being relied upon completely by someone else.
The world’s top genius, a beautiful girl who was deeply insecure.
She could change every thought at a single word from him.
It was as if he held a controller, and even her moods could be shaped by his choices.
If he said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing, the consequences would be irreversible.
===
[After Edward entered, he watched as Vill-V completed a series of high-tech scans.
She checked her ID card, fingerprint, and iris.
A corridor matching the building’s decor, equally rich in steampunk style, appeared before his eyes.]
[What he had seen so far was enough to shatter his entire worldview.]
[Everything from the past had shattered completely in this short time.
Art that had only existed in fantasy now appeared calmly in reality.]
[He had originally thought this was an ordinary twentieth century, and that such technologies belonged only in people’s visions of the future in science fiction novels.]
[He never expected that, in reality, the vast majority of those technologies had already been realized in this world.]
[He took the elevator, passing countless brightly lit studios scattered with hair, until he reached the end of the path.
A space far larger than the other offices appeared, one that felt as if it occupied half the building’s interior.]
[On the black walls were dark gold patterns, some even hollowed out.
Through them he could see the details of gears turning and hear the constant clack-clack sounds.]
[At the very end, the most extravagant and luxurious area bore an inscription.]
[Spiral Workshop.]
This was the residence the girl had prepared for Edward.
It had been built according to their shared hobbies, perfectly matching the young man’s wishes, his interests, and his preferences.
At the same time, it was proof that she was no longer as helpless as she had once been.
If she worked hard, she could still achieve things.
Small things.
Creating a perfect workshop in such a short time.
The main base was as luxurious as a skyscraper, a private world belonging only to the two of them.
Even though her social anxiety had kept her from placing it in the heart of the luxurious downtown area, the fact that she held absolute permanent property rights was an achievement most people could never dream of in a lifetime.
If she ever spoke those words aloud, she would surely be looked down upon.
Certainly.
Inevitably.
She would be accused of showing off or acting arrogant and fake.
Yet these were the thoughts buried deep within the girl’s heart, the ones she had always kept suppressed.
Perhaps no one in the world remembered the original reason anymore.
Even the girl herself could hardly trace the origin of it all within the fragments of her memory.
Carried in her heart like a constant shadow, an inferiority complex had followed her throughout her life.
It was impossible to erase.
It was incomprehensible.
Hard to understand.
No one could clearly explain where this self-loathing had come from, at which specific moment, or on which afternoon it had begun.
It was a level of inferiority no ordinary person could grasp.
It had almost reached severe depression, hovering constantly on the edge of self-harm and death.
The intense self-loathing had swallowed everything else.
Without her multiple personas to cope, she would undoubtedly have chosen death.
This feeling could not be erased by any experience or achievement.
Healing it over a lifetime would require a cherished companion by her side. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Even though the girl had traveled across half the world, and had even followed in Edward’s footsteps through the other half like a devoted shadow.
===
It was impossible to leave the young man now.
She had seen mountains that pierced the clouds, bottomless sea cliffs, polar regions frozen for thousands of years, and deserts unchanged through the ages.
She had walked through the most extravagant kingdoms and the most prosperous cities, and had even wandered the worst parts of Dusk Street.
The collection of sights, sounds, and feelings from those travels was far more than the result of some aimless wandering.
It could not even be mentioned in the same breath.
This long, wonderful, and extraordinary past had been a true world tour.
It was only a small part of her life.
Any single year of it was something an ordinary person could hardly reach or even imagine.
If Edward had never existed, then in just a few years the girl would have created new miracles.
She would have single-handedly confronted the world’s largest elite organization and escaped from the most vicious and cruel prison on her own strength.
Any year of her experiences could be taken out and written into a book titled The Year of a Genius.
It would surely become a worldwide bestseller.
The sense of reality within those pages would fascinate anyone, even those who did not fully understand it.
This was the kind of life no one would dare to invent.
Every word would be true.
What meaning did this seemingly colorful life hold?
Did this life, the kind normal people could only dream of, truly have any special meaning?
If the journey itself could not accumulate knowledge, broaden horizons, or even soothe the heart, then what meaning could any journey have?
In other words, if traveling could not loosen the shackles around her heart, the final path would only lead to self-destruction.
She feared that by then the girl named Vill-V would completely disappear, replaced only by the roles she played, nothing more than a fake actor.
All those tragedies, all that inner turmoil, all that inevitable self-dissolution.
Until that beam of light appeared.
A single beam of light in the dim abyss.
All disasters came to an abrupt end.
The girl did not believe she possessed extraordinary literary talent, nor did she have any lyrical thoughts.
Yet whenever she recalled that street where cherry blossoms danced in the wind, she could not help but fill her mind with countless words.
In painstaking detail she would describe that beautiful scene: the young man standing on the downhill slope, picking up his hat and revealing his deep, clear eyes.
The young man who now stood right in front of her, so close that she could smell his clean scent.
Cherry blossoms truly were beautiful flowers.
In many games, anime, and novels they were regarded as symbols of romance and beauty.
They filled the sky and gave the illusion of stepping into a dream.
Petals scattered like colorful rain, landing gently on shoulders, their fragrance slipping straight into the heart.
Once seen, they could never be forgotten.
Vill-V looked at the young man she would never have imagined meeting a few years earlier.
He stood so close that she could smell his clear scent, and it felt as if her shoulders were once again covered in petals from that chance encounter on the street.
Ah…
It was impossible to break away now.
It seemed destined from that very moment.
How could someone who had not even possessed the courage to live normally in this world possibly escape such a dreamlike, storybook scene?
Now…
It no longer mattered.
Her silver-gray eyes lit up.
The corners of her mouth could not help but curve upward.
No matter how hard she tried to hold it back, she could not suppress the elation rising within her.
The bowstring was still taut.
So what?
The young man had already agreed to her request.
The girl turned around and opened the door to the Spiral Workshop.
The gears suddenly spun rapidly, and the creaking sounds almost formed a symphony.
The door, which could have opened instantly, had been designed to be highly ceremonial.
Perhaps it was because the only way this door would ever open was with the young man present, before the workshop’s one true owner.
Convenience and speed had naturally become meaningless details to be discarded.
During the slightly long wait, Vill-V studied Edward’s jawline, the corners of his eyes, and the eyes that flickered like the night sky.
She simply kept looking.
Always.
No matter how long it took, she would never grow tired of it.
It felt dreamlike and illusory, as sweet as honey, as if she could drown in the feeling.
Even her breath carried a sweetness that seemed to fill her lungs.
She was no longer a lonely shadow drifting across the sea.
She had boarded a warm ship and had finally experienced what it meant to have a home that sheltered her from wind and rain.
The girl could still hardly believe her life had already been changed by her own hands.
Even though she stood right in front of him.
Even though she could touch the young man simply by reaching out.
Even though she could smell his scent with a single careful breath.
She remained incredulous.
A trace of fear lingered in her silver-gray eyes, the fear that all of this might be false.
Even the time they had already spent together could not completely erase it.
It was not that she refused to believe it.
It was not indifference toward the young man’s feelings.
It was simply that all this beauty and sweetness felt too unbelievable.
In less than a few years, a life that had once been in endless freefall, without a shred of hope, where she might only have grasped at a few straws to slow her descent, had suddenly been pulled up and saved.
Everything had progressed so rapidly and smoothly that it was almost unimaginable.
She could not help but suspect that something terrible waited at the end of this happiness, waiting for her while she remained blissfully unaware.
At the happiest and most wonderful moment, something dreadful and unspeakable would suddenly appear and shatter every dream.
Vill-V’s life had always been tormented by one terrible thing after another.
A moment of happiness only made her feel that something even worse lay ahead.
It shouldn’t be that bad… right?
If this was a dream.
Please let this dream last a little longer.
The girl indulged in such wild thoughts.
Even at her most hardworking and most interested in other matters, her mind had never been this active.
Born with top-tier talent and genius, she had almost never truly used it, nor had she pushed civilization forward like other geniuses.
Only now, on this seemingly insignificant matter beneath the grand narrative, had the girl finally brought most of her talents together for the first time.
For something others might find ridiculous.
For something that could be set aside for greater purposes.
Even when facing tragedy, the girl who had never fully displayed her abilities finally cast all caution aside.
200 Stones
And so on