The crimson sunset bled onto the horizon, a cruel mockery of their situation.
Cecil clutched Edmund closer, his normally pale skin was in an especially unhealthy shade of gray under the weakening
moonlight, which made the peacefully sleeping Edmund look more like a corpse than Cecil ever wanted. The residual sunlight burned at Cecil's enhanced senses, a constant reminder of his mistake. Elisha's words echoed in his mind, a venomous snake constantly hissing the chilling truth- He had almost killed Edmund.
Speaking of the cute devil, Edmund stirred, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"Cecil... where are we?"
His voice was weak, barely a whisper.
Despite his weak outside appearance, the conversation in his mind was more than lively.
'System, is the bitch dead? Is everything resolved?'
[Quite the opposite, you are not going to like it.]
'What happened?' He now noticed that they were out in the open, which gave him a bad foreboding.
[Your husband-child takes you home now, you are leaving the academy.]
Xiao Xun couldn't grasp what was happening.
He used to make risky plans and gambles like this all the time, and until now he had never been wrong.
what went wrong? Didn't Cecil get revenge for him?
What a coward!
"My... Is the woman... How is she?"
He put his most pitiful expression on his face, trying to get Cecil to change his mind.
"You won't see her again, Edmund, don't worry." His speech did not affect his running pace, "we are coming home."
"No!"
Xiao Xun went through all the reasons Edmund would want to stay at the academy in his mind, nothing quite fit the situation.
"What about Iris?"
Cecil increased his speed, though Edmund remained eerily steady in his arms. "Can you stop asking me about other women? I don't like it."
"We haven't finished the school year yet! There is so much to do in the capital!"
Cecil's heart ached, he had missed Edmund so much these past few days that he felt like he was going crazy. However, the second Edmund came to his senses all he wanted to talk about was things to do without him and this cursed earth.
"As your family, Edmund, I do not ask; We're coming home."
[You have to stop this, spring break is coming and I am afraid to tell you how many errors have occurred since you became hypnotized. This mission is already declared a failure. If you don't solve this quickly, you will stand trial.]
Shit! He has never, in all the years of his life and death, been cornered like this.
Xiao Xun swore to himself, that he would never get into a situation where he couldn't react again.
Xiao Xun didn't notice that his personality fluctuated ever since he regained control over Edmund's body, becoming much more aggressive and reckless than before.
He pushed himself deeper into Cecil's embrace, even in the darkness of the night he could see the blush rush to his cheeks.
"Please Ceci," he felt sick just from saying that horrible nickname. "I really want to check on Iris, can we come back?"
It was the only thing he could say that wouldn't be out of character, Edmund cared about his friends.
The well-being of the students at the school was in itself reason enough to want to return.
He didn't want to grow with this trait at the start, just because Cecil threatened to kill himself after killing an innocent man when they were kids he had to develop a 'worried' character if he wanted to be around him.
Otherwise, any sane child would have already run away screaming and crying from the big, scary monster.
"Iris also left the academy, there's no point in going back." Although Cecil was greatly flattered by Edmund's sudden approach, he did not budge.
'System, is it true?' He now understood what the system meant by errors, it was terrible for the storyline.
But everything was okay, all they need is to stop at the baron's house and convince Iris to return...
[Iris is dead.]
The mission has failed, no doubt.
'Is there any reason to continue when the MC is out of the game? There is even a possibility for me not to fail?'
[You can, technically, bring her back to life. It is not unheard of here.]
'Until spring break? Pass.'
He didn't know why, but since he came back from his hypnotized state he started to feel a little sick of this world.
He knew every world would be hard, with a deadline and with unexpected things he hates, he was just tired of dealing with these people.
He always treated Elisha with a laugh, as another snake among the dozens of bad people he encountered.
Despite all that... this woman dominated him.
He hated that dirty sense of ownership more than he thought.
He hated being controlled, entrusting his body and life to others.
It is impossible to understand until they experience it.
Even though he remembered nothing, somehow he felt everything.
He wanted to leave, no matter what the consequences would be.
The more time passed, the less he could hold the feeling of nausea that arose in him.
He was fine before, why is it like this now?
'System, let's leave!'
[The trial...]
'Leave, I said! You listen to me! Fuck!'
As if possessed by madness, he just wanted to disappear.
Just disappear.
God, He hated this body, the body that others controlled.
At that time, he did not have the leisure to think about the one who carried this body with devotion.
"Edmund? What happened?" Cecil overcame his shyness at the nickname and looked down as he noticed the obvious trembling of the youth in his arms.
To his dismay, the shaking and all other movements stopped.
"Edmund?"
"Edmund, I'm sorry. do you want to come back?"
"I will get you back, just answer."
"Edmund..."
★
Iris, or by her real name Michelle, left the virtual world.
Looking around her, everything felt surreal.
She was sitting on her old bed, in front of her the untouched study table, even before she entered, dolls from a younger era standing upright like soldiers on the shelf.
She never plucked up the courage to wear the virtual reality glasses again. She told herself she only needed a few hours to recover and then she would come in to check on Edmund, make sure he was still alive. But after days, weeks, months she had to admit that she was too scared.
The game was a huge hit after it was released to the general public, everyone at her school was talking about it. Almost everyone she knew asked her if she had played it, even though she originally bought the game early to show off she always shook her head no.
Every time someone mentioned Edmond, she would smile, remembering the teen.
Somehow, the shared feeling of both of them being controlled by the same creature sparked a sense of attachment within her. In her mind, Edmund was a Siamese twin who had been separated from her too soon.
Sometimes she wondered if she had dreamed it all; This seems the most likely option. Even so, she didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to think that she was so in need of partial affection from a hypnotized figure.
Moreover, she wanted the characters with this sense of existence to be real.
Michelle's life felt like a deflated balloon. The vibrancy of the virtual world, and the thrill of adventure with Edmund, all contrasted starkly with the beige monotony of her reality. School was a tedious chore, her classmates one-dimensional compared to the depth she felt with Edmund. Even the once-comforting familiarity of her room felt stifling.
She tried to fill the void. She dusted off her old hobbies – drawing, playing the piano – but they held no spark anymore. The vibrant colors on her canvas seemed muted, the melodies on the piano fell flat. Her parents, oblivious to the virtual world that had consumed and then abandoned her, encouraged her newfound interest in her old pursuits. Their praise felt hollow.
She didn't know how she left the game, she just knew she wasn't there anymore.
Days bled into weeks, weeks into months. Michelle continued the charade of normalcy. She smiled politely at her classmates, completed her schoolwork with robotic efficiency, and even managed a forced laugh at her parents' jokes. But inside, a hollow ache remained.
The only solace she found was in the quiet rebellion of holding onto Edmund. In the dead of night, she'd slip on the dusty VR headset, the familiar weight a strange comfort. But she never dared log back in. The fear of the unknown, the fear of disappointment, was too strong. The headset remained a monument to what could have been, a silent reminder of the life she craved but could never grasp.
Years passed. Michelle graduated, got a stable job, met a kind but unremarkable man. She married, had children, built a life most would consider ordinary. Yet, the hollowness never truly left. On quiet evenings, with the hum of the dishwasher the only background noise, her mind would drift back to the virtual world. She'd wonder what become of Edmund if he missed her too if he survived. The question, unanswered, remained a constant ache in her heart. As years passed and passed, she sometimes forgot why her life seemed empty to her.
Then, she remembered that fantastic world.
One day, surrounded by her family, Michelle passed away peacefully in her sleep. The world outside continued to spin, oblivious to the life unlived, the yearning for a world just beyond reach. Michelle's story, a whisper in the grand scheme of things, served as a faint reminder of the potential that lies dormant within us all, the potential ignited by a spark of imagination, forever lost in the vast emptiness of what-ifs.
Until the day she died, she refused to re-enter the virtual world.