Chapter 84: Violet’s fear
Eren walked into his lecture hall, fully expecting to spot a certain dangerously volatile, purple-haired cutie tucked away in her usual corner. But as his gaze swept across the cascading rows of desks, the seat remained vacant.
’Maybe she’s just running late,’ he thought to himself, walking to the back row.
He sat in his seat, waiting, his depleted body immediately inviting a wave of relentless, heavy sleepiness. Shortly after, the room filled with chatter as students trickled in, followed by the lecturer who launched straight into an excruciatingly dry discourse on inter-territorial diplomacy. Eren valiantly attempted to maintain his consciousness while keeping an eye on the door for Violet.
It was an epic battle between immovable diplomatic theory and unstoppable sleep.
Sleep won.
Eren slumped onto the desk, surrendering to the bliss of unconsciousness without getting noticed by anyone.
What felt like a mere two seconds later, he felt a nudge at his shoulder. A soft yet annoyed voice began calling out to him, urging him to wake up immediately. Eren’s brain stubbornly rejected the command. He wouldn’t wake up right now even if Emma shouted.
SLAP!
A sharp, stingingly precise smack landed straight on the back of his neck.
"Gah—!" Eren jolted awake, wheezing as he slapped a hand over his neck, his eyes flashing with lethal intent as he prepared to verbally pulverize whoever had dared to assault him.
His rage instantly evaporated in shock.
The lecture hall was empty. Standing right beside his desk, staring down at him with a mix of severe annoyance and suppressed, panicked concern, was a breathtaking girl with radiant golden hair. The very protagonist he used to command with a controller in his past life.
"Finally!" Alice sighed dramatically, narrowing her eyes at him. "You actually woke up after five whole minutes of me shaking you, you idiot!"
Eren leaned back in his chair, rubbing his neck with a lazy expression. "You know... that is hardly the proper etiquette expected of a revered Saintess-in-training, Miss Alice."
"You weren’t moving at all! I thought you had literally passed out from a curse!"
Eren yawned, stretching his arms over his head. "Right, right. So why is the saintess gracing my humble back-row desk with her presence? Did you lose track of your innocent Prince Theo? Because I assure you, I don’t know where he is right now."
"I am not looking for Theo!" Alice snapped back, her cheeks flushing at his casual deflection. "That is not why I came all the way back here!"
Alice slumped down into the empty seat next to him; a dark, gloomy cloud seemed to settle over her golden features.
"Do you... know Violet?"
Eren raised a single eyebrow. "The purple-haired girl who sits in the back row? Sure. We’ve shared this exact corner for a couple of lectures."
"Do you know about her... condition? Her curse?"
Eren gave a slow, deliberate nod.
"Good. That makes this easier," Alice murmured, staring down at her own neatly folded hands. She took a deep breath, turning her shimmering golden eyes toward him with desperate vulnerability. "Eren... I need your help. I need you to help me bring her out of her room. She’s locked herself inside her dorm for two full days now... just crying her eyes out in the dark, refusing to see anyone."
Eren’s smirk faltered slightly, genuinely confused. "Why? What happened?"
Alice looked at him, her lips trembling with sorrow and guilt. "You might not realize it, but... when you stood beside her during class and remained completely unaffected, it gave her hope. She was so incredibly happy, Eren. And then, when Prince Theo also managed to withstand her curse without collapsing, she truly... she genuinely convinced herself that her curse was finally fading away. That she was finally normal again."
Eren’s eyes darkened slightly as the missing puzzle pieces instantly clicked into place. "And so she tried to interact with the other students?"
Alice nodded miserably. "A female student collapsed on the spot. Violet was so utterly terrified that she might hurt someone... she locked herself in the room."
"I won’t care about your past with me, Eren," Alice pleaded. "I know you used to be a massive, arrogant headache for me in the academy. But I don’t care about any of that anymore! I forget everything! I’m begging you... Please help me save Violet. I can’t just sit by and watch her crumble into pieces behind four walls!"
Eren leaned back, staring at the golden-haired heroine in quiet astonishment. "Why come to me, Miss Alice? You’re her best friend. You’re the Saintess of Light. If anyone can comfort her, it’s you."
"Because I know she needs you right now! I am her friend, yes, but even though she’s only sat beside you twice... you made her laugh. You made her feel like a normal girl instead of a walking plague. You gave her hope, Eren! Please... I’m begging you."
’Ah, damn it all,’ Eren sighed internally as he looked at the weeping protagonist.
Eren stood in the quiet hallway of the female dormitories, staring at the polished wooden door of Violet’s shared quarters.
Standing face-to-face with the heartbreaking reality of a girl trapped in the dark, devoured by the terror of her own existence, he didn’t see a video game flag anymore. He just saw a girl so utterly afraid of being alone that she had locked herself in the dark to protect the world from her own existence.
Eren raised his hand and gave the wooden door a light tap.
Silence for a long moment before a faint, horribly raspy voice replied, "W-Who is it...?"
It was unmistakably Violet, but her voice was weak, stripped of every ounce of the gentle brightness she usually had in class.
"It’s the infamous Eren Volsver, Miss Violet," Eren replied smoothly, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. "I came to check on my favorite back-row desk mate. You missed our diplomacy lecture today, and frankly, I’m deeply offended you left me to fight that boredom all by myself."
A loud gasp echoed from inside the room. "E-Eren...? Why are you here? Please... go away! You shouldn’t be here!"
"Why should I go away?" Eren asked calmly.
"Please, just go!" she sobbed, her voice breaking into whimpers. "Just leave me alone! Please!"
’Right. Asking nicely was never going to work on a girl currently drowning in self-loathing.’
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the key Alice had given him.
He slid the key into the lock, turned it with a quiet click, and pushed the door open.
The room inside was plunged in pitch-black darkness. Curtains were drawn tight over the windows, stopping out every sliver of afternoon sunlight.
Step by step, Eren crossed the entrance. "You know, for a girl who sits right under the bright classroom windows, you really commit to the whole tragic, dark-lord aesthetic in your spare time."
In the corner of the room, tucked tightly into the far side of the bed, she was curled up beneath a thick blanket, shaking . Her eyes swollen , peered out from the blankets, wide with absolute horror as she realized he was actually inside room.