Of course, the condition was that she had to be within Frondier’s sight, but there was no need to mention that.
“Shoot, Frondier.”
However, Ellen said.
It wasn’t arrogance from believing she could dodge. Ellen intended to be hit.
“If you don’t shoot me now, the other kids will be in danger.”
“……Was your goal to tie me down from the beginning?”
“Well, something like that.”
As long as Frondier was here, he obviously couldn’t use the ‘fireworks’ that would simply wipe out the monsters.
“…….”
Ellen even relaxed her attack stance and stood still. It was an obvious provocation.
Frondier, still aiming at Ellen, opened his mouth.
“Senior, do you remember?”
“What?”
“The day we stopped Senior Edwin together, during the golem incident.”
“…….”
On the day Edwin was misled by Hephaestus and caused the incident, Ellen was the first to stop him before Frondier. To bring her friend, who had gone astray, back.
“I said back then, that Senior Edwin wouldn’t kill anyone.”
“……I don’t remember well.”
“It’s the same for you, Senior.”
“…….”
Ellen stared at Frondier silently, as if piercing through his thoughts.
But it was the same for Frondier.
“If I’m tied down? That’s not really important anymore. Constel has many outstanding students besides me, and they all trained during the break with the determination to die.”
Frondier knew Aster Evans.
When playing as the protagonist, the factor that made Aster the strongest was the appearance of another strong individual.
In the early stages, it was Robald, later countless enemies, Zodiac, and the mythical monsters dwelling far beyond.
Now, Aster had Frondier.
A man who would never stop here.
‘She can’t not know that.’
Ellen Evans was Aster’s older sister.
She would know Aster better than Frondier.
With the current Aster, and Elodie and the other students, there were no students who would be endangered by the dregs of the outside monsters, even with a slight Mana amplification.
They would quickly resolve it and move to help other students.
That’s why Ellen’s actions were even more peculiar to Frondier.
“Frondier, during that golem incident, I fought Edwin completely as an enemy. You seem to lack that. It’s good to learn how to doubt this time.”
Ellen’s words.
Frondier’s eyes rapidly turned cold. A memory he had momentarily forgotten slowly surfaced.
“……That kind of thing.”
His voice, slowly uttered, resonated gloomily.
“I’ve done it countless times already.”
“……What?”
The game Etius was a world where nothing was certain.
They didn’t know what lay beyond the human realm, what clearing the game meant, or what the characters’ individual thoughts were.
It was a natural process for players to become consumed by suspicion and paranoia due to repeated game overs.
Starting with the suspicion of ‘Isn’t this a game that can’t be cleared?’
And eventually reaching the suspicion of ‘Is the protagonist actually a hero?’
Frondier had naturally gone through that process, and most people quit the game during that phase.
Because they couldn’t trust the characters in the game they were playing, they couldn’t trust the content written in the books, and they ended up doubting every word and action of the characters.
And when you fall into the paranoia of not trusting people, it’s essentially a ‘game over’ even if the game doesn’t tell you.
‘If you can’t trust anything, you can’t move forward.’
Ultimately, to take even a single step forward in Etius, you had to believe in something.
There was nothing you could know for sure. Just like in reality, you simply piled up the things you believed to be right.
Doubt always operates on the foundation of belief.
What you choose to believe in doesn’t waver, no matter what.
Frondier, who had played Etius more than anyone else. For him, belief was the sole foundation and key to progressing through the game’s strategy.
And Ellen was included in that foundation.
“Of course, I don’t have unwavering faith in anything.”
Blind faith was like someone who believed rock-paper-scissors was a game of probability and always threw rock.
Even if Ellen had shown trust in previous playthroughs, it was the same.
Trust always presupposes reciprocity.
“You told me to shoot the arrow.”
Frondier’s chilling gaze pierced Ellen.
“Let me say the opposite.”
With strength in his bowstring, Frondier said.
“Try taking a single step from there.”
“……!”
Ellen’s appearance alone was enough to justify considering her corrupted.
The reason Frondier hadn’t turned her into an enemy yet was simply because she was ‘Ellen Evans’.
But if she crossed the line, Frondier wasn’t naive enough to overlook that.
“I’ve made enough concessions to you, Senior. You will too. Because my brother came to mind while facing you.”
Just as Frondier had no killing intent towards Ellen, Ellen felt the same.
Ellen herself justified it as ‘to keep you tied down’.
“Senior Ellen not moving from there is the last line I can concede to you.”
Ellen told Frondier to ‘shoot’. As if she knew he wouldn’t.
But if she was truly certain that Frondier wouldn’t shoot, she could simply move herself. If Frondier didn’t shoot, she would regain the upper hand.
In other words, Ellen also knew.
What it meant to break this stalemate.
“I don’t know what you went through, how you got the Mana injection, or why you’re facing me like this.”
He didn’t know anything, but.
That too.
“You also know nothing about me.”
As he spoke, Frondier gradually drew out the ‘killing intent’ that he had never shown even once while clashing swords with Ellen,
And informed her with a chilling intensity.
“I’ll say it again. Try moving. From then on, I’ll do as you wish, Senior Ellen.”
Frondier’s killing intent, now infused in his voice, his gaze, and even the slight tremor of the bowstring as he pulled it, filled the building and stabbed towards Ellen.
The Obsidian responded, undulating like waves and presenting sharp blades towards Ellen.
“As an enemy, I will kill you.”