The audience was abuzz with discussion.
In the game—
Faced with Mei's emotionally intelligent reply—
"Mm! That's enough!"
Elysia smiled.
That girl, so often thought to have "ulterior motives," all her actions and words in front of Mei—perhaps from the very beginning—were just for this one "answer."
In the distant past, when she wore a white dress and stepped into the final night adorned with the one and only makeup of her life...
Did she ever receive the "answer" she sought?
Even if... she had become a Herrscher...
At this point—
Players recalled their past suspicions toward Elysia, remembered the theories they'd crafted about her ending.
Their hearts began to sink again.
They couldn't quite explain why the story affected them this much emotionally.
Maybe... they just loved Elysia too much?
They loved this girl—resplendent as falling petals, pure and flawless.
[Feels like a tragedy's coming. No way, right? She's already dead—MiHoYo can't stab us again, right?]
[This part is making me really heavy... or maybe everything's felt strange since earlier.]
[Yeah, ever since earlier the plot feels like it's been stacking emotional armor. I'm so anxious.]
With that unease—
They kept watching.
And what followed seemed to ease their nerves—
As if to reassure them the Elysian Realm story was still "happy."
The earlier heaviness... had just been a feint.
"Even if you've become a Herrscher—"
Suddenly, a strange voice interrupted the game.
The previously soft and sorrowful BGM came to an abrupt halt.
The atmosphere shifted.
Players: ???
Mei: "...Hmm?"
A familiar voice snapped Mei back to reality.
And yanked every player's emotions back along with it.
Mei turned toward the voice.
In the sunset, Elysia's smile was pure and sweet. Light spilled down her cheeks, flowing over her pale skin...
Trailing along her soft body, something faintly peeked out behind her—it was...
A megaphone.
And it has recording function too~♪
"So what? I'm a Herrscher too, aren't I?"
Mei: "..."
Mei: "..."
It took a while—
Before she finally gritted her teeth yet again: "E·ly·si·a...!!"
[??? Did Elysia just record what Mei said earlier?]
["And it even has recording function~♪"]
[I almost cried and then this megaphone interrupted the spell.]
[Hahaha, feels like she bought the megaphone from Pardofelis with just three crystal flowers. Total loss for Pardofelis.]
"Megaphone recordings? That's... so very Elysia."
Eden, watching the scene, had a smile in her voice—she was clearly delighted.
"Hmm... hard to refute, honestly. If I had the chance, I probably would..."
Elysia thought it over carefully—she really had no argument.
Eden didn't intend to press her, so after that light jab, she quickly moved on.
"Speaking of which, for 'Otto'-san to understand Elysia's personality so well, and write a script that's so Elysia-like, that's pretty impressive."
"Mm... it's not just me though. 'Otto'-san really wrote everyone well too," Elysia replied seriously after some thought.
That's also why she always believed that the people in the story were just "too shy" rather than genuinely rejecting the Thirteen Flame-Chasers.
She trusted everyone in the Golden Courtyard, and so she believed in the Thirteen as well.
"...Mm."
"Alright, let's keep going."
...
The story continued.
"Okay okay, I won't tease you anymore."
"After all, now that Mei got her answer, she's about to leave—I just wanted to leave a little 'memory' of you."
Elysia hugged the megaphone tightly, smiling as she explained to Mei.
That single line of text—especially the word "tightly"—made players want to laugh and cry.
[Hugging the megaphone tightly TT]
[Because... the megaphone has Mei's voice.]
"But... something's strange."
Elysia's gaze drifted into the distance—her eyes landed on a mist-covered island on the sea's horizon.
"I should be ready already, so why is it still shrouded in fog?"
Mei followed her gaze. "That island... is that the 'end'?"
Elysia nodded. "Mm. Everything you want to know about that 'banquet' is stored there. I'm curious what really happened, too."
That surprised both Mei and the players.
"You don't know either?"
"Forget? I'm just a memory construct," Elysia replied casually. "I only know what I 'want to do'—not what actually happened."
"Hmm... I wonder how I did? What will everyone think of me?... Judging by their reactions, I guess it turned out well?"
"Otherwise, there wouldn't be an 'Elysia' in the Elysian Realm..."
No "Elysia" in the Elysian Realm?
That idea flashed across players' minds—and their hearts sank with a thud.
Maybe back when they first arrived in the Realm, before they really got to know Elysia, some players—those who weren't fans already—might not have cared much.
Some of them were still caught in the grief of "Himeko-sensei is really gone."
Elysia? Who's that? Don't know her!
But...
That was all hypothetical.
Now, Elysia had been with them for so long.
In-game—
Elysia led Mei toward the lively marketplace.
The two of them laughed and played together until the sun was nearly set.
Standing in a plaza, about to part ways—
Elysia asked Mei another question.
"Oh right, Mei. There's something I've always wanted to ask you."
At that moment, the camera zoomed in—switching to first-person view, making it feel as though Elysia was talking directly to the player.
"For us memory constructs... reproduced from pre-death data, so-called virtual beings—how do you see us?"
"See you?" Mei didn't quite understand the question.
Elysia continued: "Whether martyrs who died early or pioneers who lived on... ultimately, they're not truly 'us.' They're real beings. What's left here is just a fragment of the past—a shadow imprinted on time."
Players: ...
Scriptwriter really isn't human. They've never let us forget that most of the Realm is already gone.
"We can only stay here. We can't reach the reality where you live. We can't accompany you into the future."
"When you leave here and return to your normal, real life... you know very well, everything that happened here is just a story. A 'virtual' story."
"It won't take long before you forget these events, these words... forget that we ever existed."
"You'll meet someone better than me. Maybe you already have. In the end, you have your own life—your own tomorrow to embrace."
"In that case, our emotions, our thoughts, our will, our actions... do they really have any meaning?"
"To you, to anyone... what do 'we' really mean?"
"..."
Everything Elysia said—felt like it was directed at the players themselves.
Some fell into deep thought, suddenly remembering the story Mei once took from Elysia's hands—"Because of You."
That "you"—was it Elysia? The Flame-Chasers? Mei? Or... the players themselves?
This story existed because of them.
They were the ones who received its emotion and impact.
Maybe characters in a virtual world could never touch reality—but that emotion they brought? That was real.
And it wouldn't lose its meaning just because it would someday be forgotten.
Even if all of this will fade—
The fact that this moment was real—
That's probably enough.
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