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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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Ed tilted his head in confusion.
He had just called her name, but she reacted with agitation, saying, “I didn’t do anything!?”
Ed couldn’t help but be bewildered.
“Ah! Sorry, I was just talking in my sleep! Haha, I fall asleep pretty quickly!”
Enya hurriedly tried to cover up her outburst.
She said she was talking in her sleep.
‘Idiot! Who falls asleep 30 seconds after lying down?!’
But Enya, belatedly realizing her flimsy excuse, made a tearful face and chanted ‘Die! Die!’ inwardly, biting her index finger.
Now it was certain that Ed would think she was a weirdo.
“Ah…is that so? You must have been tired. Maybe because you sweated a lot.”
Fortunately, Ed didn’t seem to think much of it.
He simply assumed she was tired and had fallen asleep quickly.
Enya breathed a sigh of relief and resolved not to make any more mistakes.
As she was making this resolution, Ed continued,
“By the way, is something bothering you? You looked pretty serious earlier.”
…The expression she had made earlier.
Enya knew what he meant.
The gloomy expression she had worn when she felt a growing distance between herself and Ed, as if she was being left behind.
Ed was asking about that expression.
“No~ Don’t worry about it. I guess I was just tired.”
However, Enya didn’t want him to see her pathetic side.
To think that she, known as a genius swordsman, harbored such feelings of inferiority.
She wanted to show only her cool and sophisticated side to the person she liked.
‘…Should I just be honest?’
But on the other hand, she also wanted to confide in him.
Ed was a reliable person who showed exceptional abilities in many areas.
She wanted to tell him her worries and find a way out of this frustrating situation.
Enya needed a mentor to listen to her concerns.
“Um…Ed. Are you asleep?”
“…No.”
So, 20 minutes later, Enya called Ed again.
And she honestly confessed her feelings.
Ed replied,
“Hmm. You think very highly of me. Actually, I’m no different from others.”
“……?”
But Ed’s answer was unexpected.
He was no different from others?
If he, who had a well-rounded hexagonal stat sheet, was no different from others, then no one in this world could be considered special.
“Hehe,You look like you don’t believe me.”
But as if he had read her mind, Ed chuckled and pointed out her thoughts.
And he continued,
“Actually, I’ve failed countless times. More than I can count.”
Ed, who had faced nothing but failures while playing ‘El Pandor Runterra,’ was where he was now because he never stopped challenging himself despite those setbacks.
It was the accumulation of those challenges that allowed him to reach rank 1, and based on that, he had obtained the unbelievably overpowered items, ‘Mechanical Blueprint’ and ‘Creator’s Hammer.’
“You can’t see it, but I’ve failed miserably. I’ve been frustrated and despaired.”
“…I’m surprised you’re capable of that.”
But Enya couldn’t even imagine it.
Ed being frustrated and despairing.
Ed chuckled and replied,
“When you think about it, what I do is a series of failures. Research and experiments inevitably involve failure.”
“Ah…even what you do…”
“Yeah. Remember entropy, which I mentioned before?”
Entropy.
How could she not remember?
Enya hadn’t forgotten that conversation in Ed’s lab for even a moment.
“Yeah. I remember.”
“Then do you remember this too? That this universe is designed so that entropy always increases.”
“Of course I remember.”
“Right. Then it’ll be easy to understand. So, the fact that this universe is designed so that entropy constantly increases means that we’re thrown into an environment where we’re bound to fail. Because the degree of disorder will keep increasing.”
“……”
…But perhaps because it was a concept she hadn’t heard in a while.
Honestly, Enya didn’t understand.
Because the universe’s entropy keeps increasing, we’re thrown into an environment where we’re bound to fail?
What did that even mean?
“Haha, is it a bit difficult?”
But Ed, who noticed this, decided to ask.
Enya scratched her cheek and replied,
“Yeah. I…don’t quite understand yet.”
“Hmm…then let me give you a simple example. What do you consider the standard for a beautiful face?”
…A beautiful face?
It was an easy question.
Enya listed the criteria for a beautiful face that she had in mind.
After listening to all of Enya’s conditions, Ed replied,
“Right. There are so many conditions, aren’t there? That’s why beautiful faces tend to have similarities. The faces we perceive as beautiful have quite demanding conditions, so people who meet all those conditions are bound to have some similarities. On the other hand, there are various reasons why unattractive faces are unattractive. Eyes, nose, mouth, face size, proportions, skin condition, hair volume, and so on. If even one condition isn’t met, we perceive it as unattractive.”
…Come to think of it, that was true.
There were many reasons why unattractive people were unattractive.
And beautiful people were beautiful for similar reasons.
“Families are the same. Happy families are happy for similar reasons, but unhappy families are unhappy for their own reasons.”
“…That’s true.”
“Making my suit is the same. If I miss even one screw, or if I make even a small mistake in the spell calculations, the suit won’t function properly. It becomes a fully functioning suit only when hundreds of screws and joints work together without a single problem.”
Ed paused to catch his breath.
It seemed like Enya was following his explanation, so it was time to conclude.
“So, what I’m saying is, there are countless ways to fail. Because this world is moving towards disorder. Success is ultimately the process of finding order.”
“The process of finding order…”
“Right. But the process of finding order isn’t easy. Even if you manage to find order, eventually, as time passes, entropy increases, and it becomes disordered. For example, that’s why there are so many couples who, even though they reach the order of marriage, end up breaking up soon after. As time passes, the disorder between them increases, and they lose the form of marriage. Eventually, even my suit will wear out and corrode over time, and it won’t function properly. No matter how great an invention, it will eventually move towards losing its order.”
Enya suddenly felt a deep sense of dread.
It was as if the universe harbored deep malice towards humans.
To think that any legacy built by humans, any brilliant civilization, was ultimately destined to lose its form, scatter into disorder, and disappear.
Such nihilistic thoughts made her feel as though her motivation and will were crumbling.
“But there’s one thing that goes against the universe’s tendency towards disorder.”
But at that moment, Ed uttered something intriguing.
Something that went against the universe’s tendency towards disorder.
Enya asked what it was.
Ed replied,
“Human will. The human will to seek order.”
“……”
“The couple who lost the form of marriage, which I mentioned earlier. Will they just end like that? No, they will never end like that. Humans are creatures who can’t stand disorder. They will clash, break, and despair, but eventually, they will seek order. Maybe they’ll reunite and form an even stronger bond.”
Enya’s eyes slowly widened.
She felt like she was beginning to understand why Ed was such an exceptional person.
He was telling her the importance of unwavering will.
The very spirit of a quickdraw, unyielding to any trials!
“So, if you don’t give up, you’ll find a way. Even if you fail tens, hundreds, thousands of times, you only need to succeed once.”
Enya clenched her fists.
She reflected on how she had been intimidated by comparing herself to others.
In the end, as Ed said, all she had to do was steadfastly walk her own path.
No matter how far ahead others were, no matter if she couldn’t keep up with Ed’s achievements, in the end, if she found her own order, all problems would be solved.
There was no need to waver.
“Thank you. I feel like my head is clear now.”
“Ahem. I’m glad it helped. Actually, I was embarrassed because I felt like I was showing off too much.”
Enya smiled faintly.
The more she got to know him, the more she liked Ed, and now, after hearing his thoughts, she even began to feel respect for him.
Although they used different weapons and swordsmanship styles, Enya could feel that she and Ed were ultimately heading in the same direction.
“Huh. It’s past 1 AM already. Shall we sleep?”
“Okay.”
As they talked, it was well past 1 AM.
About 20 minutes later, Ed fell fast asleep.
But Enya’s heart was still pounding, and she couldn’t sleep.
The conversation they had made her feelings for Ed grow uncontrollably, and the fire in her heart couldn’t be calmed.
“Ed…”
Enya grabbed the other pillow on the bed and hugged it tightly.
She pressed this pillow, which Ed might have used, this pillow that might still have his scent, against her body to soothe her burning heart.
However, she was curled up like a fetus sleeping in its mother’s womb, and Enya felt as if she was being reborn.
‘I like you…’
For the first time, she had a man she liked.
A man she wanted to emulate, a man she wanted to be with, a man she wanted to respect and follow.
“Ha…ha…”
Enya hugged the pillow even tighter.
In his bed, covered with his blanket and hugging his pillow tightly.
In this space filled with his presence, hugging his pillow tightly…she felt a sense of ecstasy, as if she was being reborn and conceived anew with his values.
“Our entropy…”
And Enya thought.
She wanted to bind the unpredictable entropy of herself and Ed in the form of ‘love.’
And she wanted to do everything in her power to prevent it from crumbling, for a very, very long time.
With those thoughts, she hugged the pillow even more tightly.
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