Chapter 99

<098. It was summer>

The light on the signboard that Eve made went out with a click.

The magic field turned on, signaling that morning had arrived.

‘......’

The curse fell completely silent.

It wasn’t dead; it would return when night fell and it absorbed the darkness, regaining its strength.

For now, I wrapped it up with a blessing and threw it in the warehouse.

I’ll take it out and play with it when I’m bored later.

Anyway.

“It’s over safely.”

Thus, Act 2 came to an end.

I had to put in much more effort than expected to clear it,

but I can confidently say it was successful because I was able to take a different path from the original story.

“This world is indeed reality.”

When I went on an expedition with Eve, it was honestly quite ambiguous.

I ordered Partas to attack, and Eve’s Holy Light Blade was embedded, but the boss escaping was not correct.

So, I was unsure whether the patterns in the game were inviolable.

However, I was able to defeat a boss that I could only take hits from, and as a result, I successfully saw a pattern that I had never seen in 20,000 hours of play.

My body trembled.

I want to use even more tricks and play around with everything!

My stats are still weak, and I can die in one hit, but... originally, Lee Youngjin and Wolfram, who were supposed to die from being hit by a delivery truck and stabbed, respectively, can now live more freely, can’t they?

“I’ll sleep for now.”

I was a bit tired from staying up all night hitting the curse.

I was so exhausted that I even thought about making a Handy Worker to automatically exchange fortune cookies and keep hitting it while I slept.

“Partas. I’ll take over the regular shifts from now on. Don’t accept any customers who come at the same time, except for regulars.”

“Hmm. I’ll do that.”

With that, I closed my eyes.

***

When I came to, it was already afternoon, and someone unexpected was sitting in the store.

“Eve?”

“Yes. Is it the policy of this store to sleep even when customers come? And you didn’t even run the regular shifts, so I had to walk here.”

“There are days like this. So, what’s up?”

“Fortunately, there are no other customers. Let’s have a serious talk.”

“Go ahead.”

“Where did you get the information about the curse?”

Caught off guard by her question, I stared at Eve.

It wasn’t a question but a statement.

In other words, the curse came to Eve last night.

And Eve probably had to deal with it alone.

...Honestly speaking, if the fortune cookies hadn’t worked properly, Eve would be on a downward spiral from now on.

“The curse came to you last night, too, didn’t it?”

“Yes, it did. It came in the form of you dying.”

“How did you handle it?”

“I gave it about five Holy Light Blades to the head, and it quieted down.”

Eve smiled brightly as she said this.

In the original story, nothing could be done without the blessing of the Light Hero Kelthers, but it seems the fortune cookies successfully replaced Kelthers.

In the original, I tried such a play. Short sword, bare-handed, no stat or skill points, and finishing at level 1.

Of course, there were countless attempts, failures, and challenges. Because of that, I saw Emily’s ending many times.

In the midst of all that, the way to overcome the curse in Act 2 was to wear a blessing item.

So, strictly speaking, my conclusion is that “even if Kelthers plays no role in battle, D/Z SAGA can be cleared if you have the right items and stats.”

If you have the right items and stats, there’s nothing you can’t do.

“So, did you handle it well?”

“Yes. I have one question: did the curse come to you, too?”

“Yes, it did. And I dealt with it. I made this talisman, after all.”

“Oh, right. ...Here, I’ll return this. It seems the talisman worked.”

“No, keep it.”

“Are you going to use it again in the future?”

“Hmm. Yes.”

“Hmmm...”

I nodded, and Eve let out a deep sigh in response.

“Why?”

“There’s a force targeting us in this Jefrin.”

“...What?”

Eve looked at me seriously and continued.

***

Eve von Loen格林的直觉非常敏锐。

首先，她会带着先入为主的观念，明确地做出判断，

然后在她掌握的信息范围内，组合出某种结论，这种能力确实非常出色。

“虽然我不知道你到底还隐瞒了多少，但仅凭目前的信息，我的推论是这样的。”

Eve和Wolfram都遭遇了诅咒。

而且，你让我们一直带着护身符。

由此得出的结论是……

“也就是说，有敌人潜伏在Jefrin，针对我们Loen格林家族的血统。对吧？”

“……”

“这还没完。”

从Wolfram迄今为止的行动来看，更加明显。

Wolfram已经知道诅咒会来。

那么，他从哪里得到的信息呢？

由此得出的结论是……

“这种动向从你上任时就开始了。对吧？”

“……”

“这还没完。”

你上任几个月后，诅咒就开始行动。

而Wolfram von Loen格林一直在暗中阻止这一切。

由此得出的结论是……

“你至今仍在独自战斗，孤独地对抗着想要吞噬Loen格林血统的黑暗。对吧？”

“……”

“这还没完。接下来的推论可能只是假设，但……”

Wolfram上任时发生了什么，我不知道。

但Wolfram不能说，周围有他必须隐藏的‘情况’。

当然，作为学院统治者的Eve von Loen格林必须让他坦白这一点。

“你独自一人在战斗。在黑暗中，对抗着想要吞噬Loen格林血统的黑暗。”

“……”

然而，Wolfram那疲惫的眼神，似乎有话要说却欲言又止的嘴。

挥动后又紧紧握拳的手。

这完全是在说谎，或者完全正确但不能说出真相时的表现。

然而，Eve von Loen格林的推理没有漏洞，这让我意识到Wolfram虽然正确但不能说出真相，其中包含了更大的负担。

也就是说，Wolfram von Loen格林傲慢地保护着魔力22的我。

更令人恼火的是，他确实保护了我。

如果不是Wolfram，Eve可能已经被诅咒吞噬了，这个事实让她感到沉重。

也就是说，她得到了帮助。魔力22的我被保护了。

虽然感到屈辱和羞愧，但她并没有否认现实。

如果Wolfram想与我为敌或成为学生会长，他可以利用这次诅咒。但他没有这样做。

也就是说，他不是眼前的敌人。

反而，他带着学生会长都不知道的巨大秘密，更加深入黑暗。

Eve无法猜测那是什么黑暗，但有一点是明确的。

“你不可能只是为了保护我。你保护的是Loen格林这个名字本身。”

“……”

如果被诅咒吞噬，会做出什么样的暴行，这足以严重损害皇室的权威。

“你和我有相同的血统。而且，你对这种血统感到自豪。是的，一开始我试图将你绑起来，让你吐露一切。”

Eve深吸了一口气。

她不知道这个男人背负的黑暗是什么，他可能也不会告诉她。

虽然非常不想承认，但这个男人确实相信自己的正义，正在走自己的路。

现在，他用右手捂住嘴，左手握拳又松开，这要么是因为被戳中了痛处，要么是因为痛苦而试图抑制尖叫，但Eve von Loen格林的推理没有漏洞，所以肯定是前者。

“好吧。从今以后，我会稍微放任你的自由行动。”

“……”

“从现在开始，我会给你Jefrin的禁地通行证。这是极大的特权，你知道的。”

“……”

“威胁皇室血统的Jefrin的黑暗，我会部分交给你处理。”

“……”

“我会成为光明的学生会长。”

“……”

“那么，就这样吧。”

Eve von Loen格林。

在她掌握的信息范围内，分析和推理无人能及。

她打破固定思维的那一刻，高飞的时刻也就不远了。

如果完全无法打破，或者只打破了一部分，她也会创造自己的黑历史，这是明确的缺点。

***

Eve离开了。

我差点以为自己要死了。没有祝福直接对抗诅咒，对精神的伤害可能更小。

更令人恼火的是，我无法反驳Eve的推理。

对方已经自行接受了，事实上，这个世界是游戏的原版，我知道的攻略，我不能说“你辛苦了”。

总之，Eve的认真模样……其实原作中也有。

如果Kelthers在