Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

From then on, it would just be an endless spiral of self-guilt and depression. Her whole would collapse in front of her eyes, guilt would pile on pushing her to the brink of edge until she would ultimately…

Simon felt a pain assault his head, things and scene that he didn't want to see and things took him a long time to forget, started playing in his vision once again.

"Dammit" subconsciously, his feet lead him towards his office, the place he was most familiar with.

Even though such a huge incident happened not too long ago, the department he worked under functioned just like usual.

"She is not here..." Of course, she wouldn't, she had already given her resignation on the very same day the incident occurred.

What was he thinking walking over here? Nothing changed from the past, the event occurred just as it was supposed to. What good did having the information do him? He was unable to change anything.

"Oh if it isn't Mister Assistant? I thought you would be taking a leave?"

While Simon was lost in his thoughts, a voice spoke to him. The person who called out to him was one of the seniors of his and also one of the guys that he hated the most.

The reason for that was none other than their behaviour, their malicious conduct and their pedantic and inflexible way of thinking. He had lost count of how many times these people went out of their way to make things difficult for him.

They always tried to keep any newbies in check and steal their achievements. They suppressed those that did not follow their ideologies and pulled them down in whatever way possible.

If it was just that, Simon wouldn't have been that angry until his blood boiled over. He knew how much she had to suffer because of them that he was unable to tolerate their sight.

These people were the main culprits behind that incident that killed ten professional players. They were the ones who tempered with the game and made it so that all the blame fell on her. They were the ones who reaped the benefit from her disaster.

It was not only that guy, but all of the people here. They all shirked away from their responsibilities and left it all for her to bear.

"It's good that you are here, I'm reassigning you to a new project. As you can see, I'm the new department head, work hard for me ok, just like the way you did for her"

The man said with a dark smile as he patted his shoulders. If it was the previous Simon, he would have simply nodded his head and buckled under the pressure. However this Simon was different, his mind and heart was baptised by the other world and was much more resilient and tougher than before.

Without thinking of what the consequence would be, Simon clenched his hand and punched that ugly mug hard.

"Bwagh…" the man made some silly noise and fell on the ground, his face shocked by the event.

"Gugh… Bwagh… S-Stop!!" the punch was just the beginning, more and more rained down on the man changing his entire facial contour.

"Bastard!!" Simon spat angrily and left the man alone after the latter lost consciousness and stormed out of the office leaving the shocked bystanders behind.

The environment inside the company had become too stifling for him to breathe, it was a miracle that he was able to work here for six more years.

While feeling frustrated, Simon got inside the hyperloop and headed straight for her house.

In the past, he took a long time to gather his courage and visit her; but by then it was already too late.

"I should be able to make it, I can still change the course of events" even if he couldn't stop the disaster from occurring, he could at least stop her death.

While feeling a sense of urgency, Simon arrived in front of the building that she stayed in. Because of the incident involving ten professional players' death, there was a large mob of people in front and police guarding the enclosure.

Simon was somehow able to use the crowd and sneak past the security and enter the building using the code she had once told her.

156th floor, as soon as he arrived on the floor, Simon felt a familiar sense of energy pervading this place and a feeling of incongruity assaulted him.

Something was different about this floor, Simon couldn't exactly put his hands on it, but he just knew it. His instincts were telling him to be careful.

Relying on his memories, he made his way to her place and rang her intercom. Nevertheless, even after a while, nobody answered the door. The place was eerily silent as if nobody lived here.

Feeling a sense of dread, Simon tried to pry open the door only to find that it was not locked. He hurriedly barged in only to find a familiar scene play in front of his eyes.

"This cannot be, I even arrived early".

In front of him, lying on the table with her head down, was the motionless Emilia. The entire room was dark and emitted a gloomy aura just like what it was in his memories.

Simon gulped, the feeling of incongruity suddenly became stronger as he slowly made his way towards her.

"Emilia" he shook her body but there was no response.

BADUMP… BADUMP… His heart started pounding intensely; he called out to her once again.

"Un… S-Simon" Suddenly the woman opened her eyes and looked at him in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes.

It appeared that she had fallen asleep on her table. A feeling of relief washed over Simon as he released a deep breath of sigh. The ominous feeling eating away at him from within disappeared and he suddenly felt the weight weighing down on his heart, become lighter.

'I made it in time' Simon rejoiced internally. However, when he looked at the face of the woman in front of him, he couldn't help but clench his hands.

A pang of guilt assaulted his heart as he saw her condition. There were bags under her eyes telling that she didn't get even an ounce of sleep in a while, she looked weary and her aura was very feeble.

The beautiful senior of his who always emitted a tranquil aura and whose smile gave him strength, was at this moment looked very haggard and tired. It was obvious that she was tormented by the guilt, blame and the responsibility she felt from that incident.

Even though it was not her fault, she was the one suffering the most.

Simon wanted to comfort her just like she used to comfort him when he suffered a setback in the company due to those people. He wanted to tell her that it was not her fault, he wanted to reveal the evil scheme of those people, he wanted her to stop blaming herself, and he wanted to tell her how he felt.

There were so many things, so many emotions, so many regrets within his heart that were never expressed.

"So you were released out of the hospital, are you alright now?"

Even though she hurting internally and going through such a tough time, she still had the mind to worry about others. Seriously, she didn't deserve to be punished like that.

If only he had stood up at that time, if only he had approached her sooner after watching the news, if only he had talked to her at that time. Then probably she would still be alive.

BADUMP… Simon felt a pain in his heart and the feeling of incongruity deepened.

"Ah, look at me, where are my manners? Even though I have a guest, I did not serve you tea or anything" Flashing a smile so as to not worry him, she got up to leave when Simon stopped her.

"That's alright, I am in no mood to have tea," he said prompting her to sit back again.

"Ah then… what are you here for? Did you watch… the news?" her eyes evaded his, her shoulders trembled and her nails dug onto her palms. It was obvious that she was afraid, afraid that even Simon would blame her. She was scared that even he would look at her like the rest of the world.

Observing that side of her, Simon closed his eyes and opened them once again. This time, there was a gleam of resolution in his eyes.

"Yeah, perhaps in some corner of my heart, I did blame you. Maybe that is why I took so long to visit you in the past. I regret it still now, if only I had gathered up my courage and visited you sooner then perhaps you would have still been alive".

"Perhaps we could have had a conversation just like now. But by the time I realised everything, it was already too late by then. Haha, seriously how hopeless can I be? Instead of believing the person who has always supported and trusted me, I chose to believe the news. I guess my ending was well deserved, cut off by his friends and families, a lonely ending is what I should get".

Simon kept on speaking, he expressed every sentiment, every feeling, every emotion that he still carried in his heart even until now.

"What are you saying?"

Emilia made an expression that said she didn't understand what he was saying. But that was alright, Simon continued to speak his heart.