The clamor of the banquet showed no signs of fading.
Laughter, the clatter of silverware, and occasional cheers echoed through the air. The relief of the students who had survived the conquest of the Primal Labyrinth filled the Grand Cafeteria to the brim.
Surveying the buffet-style venue, I saw small circles forming everywhere. Students were clapping each other on the back, sharing laughs while stuffing their faces with food, and some were even raising their cups in a toast despite being covered in bandages.
In the center of this sea of people, I spotted an exceptionally striking flash of lapis—Elysia.
Though her academy uniform was perfectly pressed, traces of the battle still lingered on her cuffs, and white bandages were wrapped around her slender fingertips. Despite that, her posture remained ramrod straight, and her deep purple eyes stared forward with unwavering resolve.
Surrounded by a crowd of students, she carried herself with a calm, composed demeanor as she spoke with them.
"President! Thank you so much for everything!"
"Your command during this expedition was incredible!"
Elysia shook her head slightly at the wave of gratitude directed her way.
"It’s too early for thanks," she said, her quiet voice carrying clearly through the din. "The Primal Labyrinth isn't finished yet. Our true battle begins now."
Having said that, a sudden, gentle smile touched her lips.
"—However, you should rest for tonight. This is a day to be proud of the fact that you survived."
At her words, the students' expressions brightened even further. They stood there, momentarily captivated by her dignified presence, rendered speechless. Someone muttered a soft, "As expected of the President," and many others nodded in fervent agreement.
Truly, she was the ideal Student Council President. There was no doubt she was worthy of the title. However...
"..."
It happened the moment the crowd thinned.
The smile vanished from Elysia's face.
It was only for a split second—a subtle shift so fleeting that no one else would have noticed. It was an expression of suppressed pain, a twisting of her features as if she were strangling some emotion deep in her heart. It was a look I had seen before during our time together as fiancé and fiancée, and one I had glimpsed through a screen in my previous life.
Elysia let out a shallow breath and began to walk away as if nothing had happened. She slipped through the gaps in the crowd and headed toward the exit of the cafeteria. As she departed, those deep purple eyes grazed mine for a fleeting moment.
In that gaze, I saw a cocktail of clinging expectation and unshakeable anxiety. I set my plate down on the table.
"Rai? What’s wrong?" Ciel asked. She was currently occupied with stuffing her face with fruit tarts, which she seemed to have taken a particular liking to.
"I’m going to go get some fresh air," I replied.
As I moved toward the exit where Elysia had disappeared, my eyes met Lene’s in the corner of my vision. Her eyes, the same bright brown as her hair, were fixed on me. Her gaze shifted for a fraction of a second toward the exit—toward the direction where that lapis-haired figure had vanished.
Then, Lene adjusted her grip on her plate and quietly stepped half a pace to the side.
"..."
She didn't say a word. She simply maintained her usual gentle smile, but her eyes wavered ever so slightly, betraying the anxiety and a touch of loneliness hidden beneath the surface.
For a moment, a pang of guilt snagged in my chest. However, knowing I had to prioritize Elysia right now, I looked away and continued toward the exit.
I pushed open the heavy doors and stepped outside, where the cold night wind brushed against my cheeks. As the doors closed behind me, the noise of the banquet receded into the distance, and the silence of the night took hold.
"...I thought you might come."
Elysia was leaning lightly against the railing of the stone terrace, which was bathed in silver moonlight. She murmured the words while looking up at the night sky, her voice tinged with a small sense of relief.
I walked up slowly and took my place beside her. Below us, the Academy Gardens were faintly illuminated by the moon. The distant, muffled sounds of the celebration felt like they belonged to a different world entirely.
"Finished with your duties as President for the night?" I asked casually.
Elysia gave a small shrug. "Who knows? Those kinds of things don't really have a clean ending." She let out a soft sigh. "But... I just felt like finding somewhere quiet for a moment."
Her gaze remained fixed on the stars. Her lapis hair swayed in the breeze, reflecting the moonlight with a soft glow. Her profile was a sharp contrast to the dignified President I had seen moments ago; here, she looked weary.
"...I can't show a weak side in front of the others," she whispered.
Her deep purple eyes slowly turned toward me.
"...Rai."
She stopped, her lips hovering as if she were swallowing her next words. Her eyes wavered, and her perfect composure fractured. It wasn't anger or sadness that flickered across her face, but rather a bitter sort of self-exasperation.
"I’ll admit it now—I truly believed I was standing beside you. I thought that as your fiancée, I was your equal..."
I kept my eyes on her as she spoke. She gave a self-mocking laugh.
"To be honest, when I saw you pull that reckless stunt as a decoy... I was furious." Her fingertips tapped rhythmically against the stone railing. "I wondered what you were thinking. Throwing your life away without a single word of consultation—" She shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I thought you were being arrogant."
The night wind whistled between us. She lowered her gaze.
"...But I was wrong," she said quietly. "The arrogant one wasn't you. It was me."
Her eyes shimmered under the moon.
"I believed I was strong enough." She exhaled slowly. "Strong enough to bring you back safely..."
A long silence followed as she searched for the right words. Finally, she continued with a wry, self-deprecating smile.
"Just between us... after I brought you back, I was actually considering confining you to my room for a while. Just to ensure you could never do something so dangerous again..."
I raised an eyebrow at her casual admission of something so extreme. "You were going to imprison me?"
"Heh, yes. That was the plan..."
She answered without a moment's hesitation. She was smiling, but her eyes were dead serious.
Suddenly, my knowledge of the original game flashed through my mind. I remembered a similar development in the source material. In the Elicia Route, as Yuu—the protagonist—gained more fame through the labyrinth, more girls naturally gravitated toward him.
Understandably, Elysia hadn't been pleased.
Driven by jealousy, anxiety, and a deep-seated fear that he would eventually leave her for a world she couldn't reach, she had reached a breaking point. One day, Yuu was locked inside Elysia's room. She kept him there so he couldn't leave, couldn't see anyone else—and couldn't escape her side.
(...If it’s Elysia, she really might actually go through with it.)
I gave a small shrug as the memory surfaced. As for what happened after that in the game... well, one thing was certain: for three days and nights, sweet, suggestive cries had never ceased echoing from her room.
The night wind blew between us once more. After another long silence, Elysia spoke again.
"...But what was the reality? Far from saving you... I could do nothing but stand there, frozen."
She cast her eyes down.
"You remember what it looked like when you reached the top of those stairs, don't you?"
She was referring to the moment I had been holding back the monsters alone—the battlefield swarming with Black Iron Giants and aberrations.
"I’ll be honest. The moment I saw those monsters, I realized something..." Her grip on the railing tightened. "—I realized I couldn't win."
She gave a bitter laugh. "Pathetic, isn't it?"
I shook my head. "I don't think so."
"You're as... kind as ever," she said, shrugging as she looked back up at the sky. "Even though I called you arrogant, the truth is—"
She cut herself off. Her eyes closed as she looked down again.
"It was I... who overestimated my own strength."
Her voice was the only sound in the quiet night.
"As the Student Council President, as the leader of the students, I always believed I would choose the best path and ensure everyone returned alive. I believed I was a woman worthy of standing at your side..."
Her slender fingers squeezed the stone until her knuckles turned white.
"But look at the reality." She let out a shaky breath. "If you hadn't put your life on the line to buy us time, we would have been annihilated right there."
The wind gusted, tossing her lapis hair.
"...I am weak."
The words fell softly, swallowed by the silence of the night.
I watched her profile in silence. Under the moonlight, her purple eyes were trembling.
If the people who knew her daily saw her like this, they wouldn't believe their eyes. The President, who was more dignified and resolute than anyone else, was now hunched over with her voice cracking and her face contorted in pain.
—But I knew this side of her.
I had seen this profile many times before. After she had spent herself standing at the front for everyone else. After she had pushed herself to the brink trying to carry every responsibility alone. This was Elysia’s weakness—the cracks that only appeared when she reached her absolute limit after pretending everything was fine.
It was a face she never showed the public. It was the true face she only revealed to me, her fiancé.
In this moment, she wasn't the Student Council President. She was just Elysia—hurting, full of regret, and yet still struggling to keep herself from falling apart completely.