Hope You Can Let Down Your Guard

Chapter 15: Hope You Can Let Down Your Guard

At Chaldea, no one understood Luo Zhen better than Roman.

Not even Mashu knew that Luo Zhen had been secretly honing his magical skills all this time. Only Roman knew about it.

But...

"My own affairs are naturally clearer to me than anyone else. You don't need to remind me." Luo Zhen said rather unhappily, "I genuinely like playing games. I'm not merely treating them as a pastime to kill time."

That was the truth.

Although Luo Zhen trained in magecraft with considerable dedication, whenever he exhausted his magical energy and could no longer practice, playing games became his only means of relaxation.

Browsing the internet was one of the few forms of entertainment available at Chaldea.

Whenever he wasn't training in magecraft, Luo Zhen enjoyed browsing the internet and playing games. By now, he was already a fairly famous player in all kinds of online games.

To put it less kindly, Luo Zhen was a genuine gaming addict.

Whenever he had nothing else to do, Luo Zhen would definitely go online. It wasn't because he had nothing better to do, but because he genuinely enjoyed it.

After all...

"Isn't the world of games wonderful?"

Luo Zhen operated his character with a level of skill that would make even professional players sweat, slaughtering monsters without losing a single hit point. Staring at the screen, he poured out his thoughts.

"There's not so much deception, not so much concealment, not so much scheming, and not so much darkness. You form a party with people you like, and cut down the people you don't. Everything is managed by the system. Red-name players are punished, and weak characters won't be attacked as long as they stay in the city. Everyone only needs to think about having fun. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Those words left even Roman at a loss for words.

Just how disappointed in reality did someone have to be to say something like that?

Still, Roman could understand Luo Zhen's thoughts.

"Maguses, when you get right down to it, are a bunch of despicable people who seek the one and only 'end point' and 'truth'—the Root."

Luo Zhen spoke with a mocking tone.

"To achieve that goal, they can do anything, no matter how far it goes against common sense. That's what maguses are like."

And such a group of people had gathered in one place to protect human civilization and the world?

"Don't you think that's ridiculous, big brother?" Luo Zhen continued sarcastically. "That grand-sounding reason doesn't suit maguses at all. They don't care about the survival of humanity. They don't even care about their own survival. As long as they can reach the Root, that's enough. Even if they die, their only regret would be that they could no longer continue researching magecraft and accomplish that goal. Protecting the Human Order is just another fairly grand research subject."

"They're not trying to protect 'the human world,' but 'the world of magecraft,' right?"

"That's unbelievably hypocritical, big brother. Don't you think so?"

Each of Luo Zhen's sarcastic remarks told Roman exactly what his younger brother thought of Chaldea.

Yet Roman was unable to refute him.

Because this might simply be the truth.

Wasn't this also why Luo Zhen never took Chaldea's Simulated Battle seriously?

To Luo Zhen, Chaldea was merely an experimental facility where maguses researched the subject of "protecting the Human Order" and were willing to use any means necessary to do so.

Therefore, Luo Zhen had no desire to cooperate with any of it.

If Roman and Mashu—the two people closest and dearest to Luo Zhen—had not been at Chaldea, and if going too far would mean he could no longer remain there, perhaps Luo Zhen would not even have participated in the Simulated Battle.

At the end of the day, Luo Zhen utterly detested and looked down on so-called maguses.

And yet...

"If that's the case, why do you train in magecraft so diligently and strive to become a magus?"

Roman's question struck directly at the contradiction, leaving Luo Zhen speechless.

And that was indeed a contradiction.

"You disapprove of the way maguses exist, and you don't take Chaldea's purpose seriously. So why do you train in magecraft so diligently and strive to become a magus?"

The expression on Roman's face gradually changed from helplessness into a smile.

It was an extraordinarily tolerant and gentle smile.

Because Roman knew...

"You don't actually hate magecraft. In fact, you love magecraft itself, don't you?"

Roman spoke the truth hidden in Luo Zhen's heart.

That was the one thing Luo Zhen could not deny.

He did indeed love magecraft.

No.

More precisely, he loved "miracles."

"You've always felt that your continued existence here, your ability to live on properly, is all because of the 'miracles' that happened to you, right?" Roman said to Luo Zhen. "So you can hate anything you want, but you can never hate 'miracles' themselves."

That was precisely why Luo Zhen loved magecraft.

Because magecraft was humanity's technique for wielding miracles.

That was precisely why Luo Zhen loved games.

Because compared to cruel reality, the world of games was so pure that it was practically a miracle.

And Luo Zhen was not diligent by nature.

The people at Chaldea were right about that.

Basically, Luo Zhen was an extremely lazy person.

Even going for a walk was something he didn't want to do. He only wanted to hide in his room and play games.

In other words, Luo Zhen was too lazy to leave his room.

Yet someone as lazy as Luo Zhen could become diligent in only one matter.

That was when he faced a "miracle."

Thus, only when it came to magecraft and games did Luo Zhen always devote all his energy.

Because these were miracles that had not come easily.

"So you also cherish the life you managed to reclaim thanks to a miracle. Not only do you diligently train in magecraft, but to make up for your physical shortcomings, you've also been working hard to learn all kinds of knowledge. Whenever your magical energy runs out, you don't just play games—you keep teaching yourself by studying online."

Everything about Luo Zhen had been exposed by Roman just like that.

That was the truth.

Physically, Luo Zhen was both deficient and lazy.

But when it came to magecraft, Luo Zhen was undoubtedly superior to his peers. At the same time, he learned all kinds of knowledge in order to make the greatest possible use of its power.

The proof was that Luo Zhen could swiftly devise all kinds of tactics during Simulated Battles.

Incidentally, Luo Zhen was also fluent in eight languages. If it came to academic ability, he would have been fully qualified to earn a doctorate long ago.

"It's precisely because you cherish miracles so much that you hate the realists known as maguses, who are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of researching magecraft, isn't it?"

As he said this, Roman patted the silent Luo Zhen on the shoulder.

"I'm not going to ask you to change your mind about that. In fact, I think you're right."

"But the director isn't that kind of person, and Chaldea has long since stopped being the cruel facility you imagine it to be."

"At least here, I hope you can let down your guard."

"That's all I wanted to say."

With that, Roman suddenly smiled at Luo Zhen before quietly leaving the room.

Only Luo Zhen remained, sitting on the bed in silence.