Chapter 19

Golden Daughter (2)

Lortel is a girl who understands human greed better than anyone else.

It is only from the second act, after Yenica exits, that he begins to perform properly, but his face is reflected from the first act before that.

However, there is a clear difference between the roles before and after the first act, and Lortel’s notoriety, which is encountered in the first act, was quite famous.

‘Bad ending maker’, ‘newbie crusher’, ‘developer’s malice’... Besides that, all the people who got burned by Lortel, whom we meet in the first act, all spewed out such angry words.

Now, my newbie days are a distant past that I can’t even remember, but even thinking about how much I was burned by Lortel in Act 1 still makes me shiver.

If you get involved with this bastard in the first act, it will definitely be a bad ending.

During Taily’s placement test event, you can save Lortel from being ambushed by kobolds, and in the process, you witness Lortel’s ‘secret’. Then Lortel sends someone to kidnap Taily out of school and she disappears. Bad ending number 2.

There is a chance to be in the same group as Lortel in the monster tribe subjugation training episode, but if you skip your childhood friend Ayla and end up in the same group as Lortel, Ayla will fall off a cliff and die.

because? This is because there will be an event in which fellow member Taily quickly snatches Ayla when she falls off a cliff. That cannot happen if she is in the same group as Lortel, so Ayla falls to her death. Bad ending number 7.

In the joint combat practice event, there is an option to protect yourself from Tarkan, the high-ranking spirit of fire summoned by Yenika, by flying your body, but if you do that, you will be burned and seriously injured. Bad ending number 13.

During the operation to recapture the student center during the Glaskan subjugation war, you can break into Nail Hall using the entrance road suggested by Lortel, but you are attacked by all kinds of spirit beasts waiting and lose your life. Bad ending number 22.

At first, you might wonder why there are all these characters, but eventually, if you play ‘Sylvania’s Failed Swordsman’ to the end, you will understand the developer’s intention and be impressed. The intention is not that complicated, though.

In ‘Sylvania’s Failed Sword Saint’, the position given to Lortel Kecheln is ‘Hidden Heroine’.

A person who stands as the antithesis of the just and benevolent Princess Fenia. Lortel, who is treated only as an object of subjugation, is a character whose true colors are revealed as the scenario progresses to the latter half.

The twist in the evaluation and the unexpected gap make players feel a strong attraction to the character. By always discussing understanding and calculation, we gradually convince Lortel, who has no choice but to look at the world in a calculated manner.

A life of picking up and eating other people’s discarded bread in the slums, a belief established amidst fraud and deception, a ray of loneliness that engulfs a corner of one’s heart and never goes away, no matter how much money one acquires.

In this way, Lortel’s evaluation, which has sunk to the bottom, is raised little by little, and then the question is asked at the very critical moment when the player understands the loneliness engraved in Lortel’s life.

Will you be on the side of the ‘Student Council’ led by Fenia, the Princess of Charity, or will you be on the side of the ‘Upper Party’ led by Lortel, the Golden Daughter?

Will they support the upright beliefs and idealism shown by the noble Princess Fenia, or will they support the realism of Lortel, who fought against loneliness in a wild reality?

Players who are trying ‘Sylvania’s Failed Swordsman’ for the first time will fall into deep trouble at this point. In extreme cases, you may not be able to breathe for up to 20 minutes with the options in front of you.

“Senior over there? Senior Ed?”

In short, the system that constantly forces the player into a bad ending in the first act was quite intentional.

If you experience repeated bad endings, you will consciously avoid approaching Lortel, which will create a psychological gap. The larger the gap, the more dramatic the reversal of evaluation that will occur later. True harmony. This is probably what I’m talking about.

Wow, this is really a god game. It’s a god game.

“Senior. Senior. Can’t you hear me?”

Even looking back on it, it’s still great.

As I trudged down the street, I nodded with a satisfied face.

...But that’s it.

“... How long will you follow me?”

“I didn’t know you would grit your teeth and ignore me like this.”

No, then you have to grit your teeth and ignore it.

Isn’t it obvious?

“Well, I won’t be pretentious.”

Lortel took out three gold coins from Otsum and stuffed them into my pocket.

“For now, keep it. I know it well. For me, the more the better.”

Lortel seemed to already understand intuitively. It must have been a life of paying attention and walking a tightrope all my life.

There will be a political fight within the academy with Princess Fenia, and from now on, you need to make as many allies as possible. The gap between Princess Fenia and Lortel cannot be narrowed through concessions or consideration.

As I stared at him, Lortel smiled brightly and slyly again.

“You’re looking at me like you’re looking at a very pathetic person. Most of the time, you’re busy hiding the expression on your face that says, ‘What the heck is this?’”

I smiled and spoke.

“Okay, let’s shake hands.”

*

No one knows the nature of greed better than Lortel. At least Lortel himself thought so.

Mad greed is like a disease that has entered an incubation period. When the situation is relaxed, it is easy to control it, but when you are cornered and every penny becomes urgent, it tries to prey on the human heart as if the time has come.

The more people who have nothing to eat tomorrow and nowhere to sleep today, the more their eyes become bloodshot at the sight of a penny. Lortel, who was from the slums, knew that feeling well enough.

Moreover, the greater the gap, the more uncontrollable the power of greed that eats away at human hearts.

Those who have lived their entire lives in a wealthy environment have their hearts broken by even a single moment of poverty. I have seen too many debtors commit suicide because they could not accept the temperature difference.

What will bring down those in such a predicament is not a large amount of gold coins, enough to bury a mansion. It’s only a small amount of money.

The amount of money is not important. Even if you always offer the same amount, the other party sells more items.

They sell their pride for a gold coin,

they sell their family for a gold coin, and

they even sell themselves for a gold coin.

The market price of one gold coin is fixed and does not change, but those who are in a difficult situation and cannot afford it always bring in more and offer more.

Because there is no other way.

Because that’s the only way out right now.

So what really matters is ‘the first time’.

Thinking that it wouldn’t really matter the first time, that one gold coin that you hold in your hand becomes the beginning of a disaster that will drive the person in trouble to the brink. It becomes the starting point and theme for all the plans and tricks that will follow.

It is so easy and simple to prey on the desperate. sadly.

“....”

When I came to, Ed Rosstaylor, who I had shaken hands with, had already left. Is it because I was momentarily embarrassed?

“...It’s fun.”

Lortel smiled as he watched the back of Ed Rothtaylor leaving.

In the small hand that shook his hand, the three gold coins that he had stuffed in his pocket were still there.

An attitude of not giving up even the slightest contact.

It was as if he understood Lortel’s intentions from the beginning.