Chapter 92: The System Filter and the Logic of Over-Immersion

A short moments after hearing our voices, the heavy wooden door slowly opened. The same disheveled, half-graying man looked up at us, wrapped in a dark navy robe. The deep hollows around his eyes and his tightly set lips made him look even older and more exhausted than when we first met.

“Please, come inside.”

Delwing led us over to the deep green sofa in front of the fireplace, just like last time. Even Sephiroth—who had spent our previous visit blocking Delwing’s senses and snooping through the house like he owned the place—sat down quietly on the couch this time. I took the spot closer to Delwing’s single-seater armchair, while Sephiroth sat a bit further away on the other side. The sofa table was still cluttered with various dirty papers and stained with old tea rings, looking completely unchanged.

“Would you care for some tea?”

“No, thank you.”

“……So, you have returned.”

After exchanging the exact same greetings as before, Delwing spoke heavily. His gray eyes stared intently at us. It was a persistent, piercing look, almost as if he were trying to unearth whatever hidden motives we were harboring. The atmosphere grew tense, thick with the silence of a man who had entirely too much to say.

But they say seeing is believing. I opened my inventory and pulled out Ignas’s Heart.

“Do you recognize this?”

“Ah……!”

Bingo.

The moment Delwing saw Ignas’s Heart, he began to tremble violently. He forced his shaking body up with great effort, leaning toward me as he asked in a barely audible, dying whisper, “May I…… may I touch it just once?”

“No. We don’t even know what this thing really is.”

“I know. How could I not know? This is…… isn’t this Lady Ignas?”

Wait, he actually knows her?

“How do you know about this?”

At my question, tears began to stream down Delwing’s face. His hand, which had been reaching out toward Ignas’s Heart, froze in mid-air before his entire body collapsed limply onto the floor. It seemed his legs had completely given out. Yet, making no effort to get back up, he simply stared at the heart and wept.

“I am…… a sinner.”

Finally, Delwing opened his mouth.

“When Lord Doltek captured Lady Ignas, I was his confidant, tasked with guarding and managing the captured merfolk. Back then, I merely thought of them as merfolk—just exotic creatures that I had been assigned to oversee.”

He served a literal slime as his master, yet he thought merfolk were just exotic creatures? I swear, I still can’t grasp how the racial hierarchy in Zelphia actually works.

“But the more I faced Lady Ignas and came to know her, the more my perspective changed. She was the most beautiful being I had ever witnessed among all living things, and the grand cause she carried was the most noble. It was only natural that I came to revere and worship her.”

As Delwing spoke, his expression grew deeply nostalgic, as if he were reminiscing about a beautiful, bygone time. He was staring into the dark, extinguished fireplace, yet his eyes looked as though they were reflecting a bright red flame dancing within the hearth.

“I helped Lady Ignas in secret. I couldn’t do much for her, but I provided her with a slightly more comfortable place to sleep, served her decent food, and…… under the pretext of private interrogations, I was able to grant her some moments of freedom.”

“Private interrogations?”

“Yes. Since I was in charge of managing the merfolk’s prison back then, prisoners who showed a poor attitude would be called in for a private audience with me. I used that to let Lady Ignas rest in my office. At first, she was incredibly wary of me, but over time, we built enough trust that she would actually wrap herself in the blanket I gave her and sleep.”

Judging by Ignas’s words before she vanished and Delwing’s story now, it seemed the two hadn’t had a bad relationship at all. Delwing clearly harbored feelings that went far beyond mere pity for Ignas. While Ignas might not have felt the same way, she must have at least viewed him as a single ray of light helping her through that living hell.

“But…… that was the end of it.”

Delwing bit his lower lip hard. His face darkened as he stared down at the floor. His voice shook terribly, catching and scraping in his throat.

“In his quest to find a way to use Lady Ignas’s treasure, Lord Doltek began to torment her using even more brutal and vicious methods. Lady Ignas was locked away in a separate solitary dungeon beneath Lord Doltek’s estate, enduring agonizing times. Even though I knew this, I didn’t dare stand up to Lord Doltek. Saving my own skin was far more important to me than my feelings for Lady Ignas.”

“……Well, that’s understandable.”

“No. It shouldn’t have been.”

Two lines of tears spilled from Delwing’s eyes once more. Without even catching his breath through his ragged sobs, he glared fiercely into the empty air—as if Doltek were standing right there, or perhaps his own past self.

“That day, Lord Doltek’s inner circle, including myself, received orders to bring out the merfolk. Leading them out from the prison wasn’t difficult. ……I should never have done it.”

“Did you…… kill the merfolk?”

“Right in front of Lady Ignas’s eyes……”

Delwing couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence, his fists clenching tightly. Hearing such a horrific tale, my own expression soured. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Ignas must have felt, watching her entire clan get slaughtered.

“……That day, Lady Ignas…… left this world in utter despair.”

“……”

“I couldn’t muster the courage. Even though I knew Lady Ignas was watching, I couldn’t utter a single word. The ones who killed Lady Ignas were Lord Doltek…… and me.”

“……”

“After that, I announced my retirement. Lord Doltek, who coveted my abilities, tried to dissuade me, but I used the excuse that I needed to focus on my research. I told him I would return to work once my research was complete. Until then, I claimed I didn’t want to see anyone. I was running away.”

So that’s why he’s been living all alone.

“When you two brought that letter of recommendation, I figured you had come to talk about the pearl. Lord Doltek told me he would allow anything else, but he explicitly warned me to cooperate if it had anything to do with finding the pearl.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Since I was the closest to Lady Ignas, he suspected that I would know the most. Of course, I had no intention of telling him. I couldn’t betray Lady Ignas a second time.”

Delwing’s voice trembled violently as he reached the end of his explanation.

“But to think you two would actually bring back Lady Ignas’s Heart……”

“Did you know about this heart from the very beginning? How did you know?”

“Lady Ignas told me many legends. One of them was that a mermaid princess’s heart would turn into a crimson gem, just like the one you are holding. She said a pearl blessed by the heart’s power would become the key to the Grand Temple, and that she was looking forward to the day she would head there alongside the heroes.”

“……”

“But in the end, only the heart remains.”

“……”

“I can’t help but think that the reason she told me so many things was because she might have foreseen all of this happening. She prepared for everything.”

With that, Delwing fell silent. I processed his story in my mind once more. It was a profoundly depressing tale. With a heavy face, I looked back and forth between the floor and Delwing. Because of Doltek’s sheer greed, Ignas had suffered extreme agony, ultimately being driven so far into a corner that she aligned with an evil god in her final moments.

“What a bitter story.”

I turned to look at Sephiroth. It was hard to read his face behind the iron armor, but I assumed he would share a similar sentiment. If the two of us go confront Doltek like this, is he going to lose his temper at him?

“Why are you looking at me with a face like that?”

Contrary to my expectations, his response was completely blunt.

Sephiroth gave my shoulder a light nudge. As his hand brushed away, his fingers lightly grazed the nape of my neck.

“Ah, what the—stop it.”

“Get a grip. Don’t over-immerse yourself in the game.”

“Huh?”

“Do you know what your face looks like right now? You look like you’re carrying all the sorrows of the world on your shoulders. Why are you getting so worked up over this?”

“But it’s a tragic story.”

At my protest, I heard him let out a sharp, exasperated click of his tongue.

“It’s just a storyline, a storyline. It’s only like this because you don’t have the story filter turned on. If you did, it would have played out as a much cuter, softer plot. It probably would have just told you: ‘Ignas was bullied by Doltek, and because it was too hard, she joined hands with an evil god.’ That’s it.”

“……Really?”

That was the first time I had ever heard about a story filter. As I blinked blankly, Sephiroth’s fingers brushed against the back of my neck again, teasing me.

“It’s exactly like a melodramatic movie. Because you’re taking it so seriously, the game adapts and makes the story drag you down even deeper. Seriously, the Zelphia story team must be getting paid to do absolutely nothing. Who brings such a predictable, cliché plot just to ruin a player’s mood? This is exactly why I always say Zelphia’s lore is garbage.”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Reborn as the Villain’s Loyal Dog, Trapped in a Never-Ending Shura Field

Book TransmigrationModernsystem

Read Now →
Not interested