Evan D. Sherden, Clenched Fist (5)

“Do you like sweets, Evan?”

Lady Redine D. Sherden, the first wife of the Marquis, asked Evan sweetly.

With her black hair and green eyes that seemed to be made of melted emeralds, she looked very beautiful.

For reference, while the other NPC’s at her age looked old in the game, the Marquis’ wife remained to look young. The most prevalent theory was that the graphic designer left, and the developers had no choice but to keep the young appearance because there was no design for an older looking Redine.

Evan thought otherwise and believed there was a secret reason for this.

“It’s delicious!” he remarked. He was spending time with his mother.

“Huh, thank goodness. Eat a lot! These cookies were imported from Madoka.”

In the past, Evan used to smother his mother every four days, asking for sweets. However, these days, something seemed to change with her child. He only visited her during tea time only once every ten days.

“Evan, what are you doing these days? You seem so busy. You don’t even have time to see your mother.”

“I’m sorry – hehe.”

Evan tried to evade the question with a cute laugh. He couldn’t say that he was trying to train and survive.

However, compared to the Marquis, Lady Redine was more immune to her son’s charm and narrowed her eyes and began to interrogate him further.

“I heard that you were staying alone in your room for quite some time.”

“Ugh… Artifact is in the room.”

He had an excuse prepared if his cute laugh didn’t work! Evan showed the Miraseul’s necklace around his neck.

Lady Redine immediately noticed that the green gem at the center of the necklace was faintly shining.

“Oh, my goodness… … Evan, you awakened the artifact! That’s an artifact that no one in our family could handle!”

She clapped her hand with amazement.

“It’s great you awakened it. Explore and observe as you’re doing now, you’ll master it little by little. Well…”

She knew that the Marquis had given Evan the necklace, but she didn’t expect that her child would awaken it.

It’s a pleasure to know that her child has a talent, but she couldn’t help getting worried for him.

I don’t know what artifact it is, can I leave it to Evan? What if it’s a dangerous artifact? If Evan gets hurt because of mishandling it…

She was in agony. However, the necklace still hung on her child’s neck, and Evan looked unbothered by it.

It seems that he is handling it well.

“Huh!”

Eventually, she decided that it would not be very good to take the artifact away from Evan.

In this way, the dangerous artifact that took Evan’s life at least once in the game stayed with him.

She focused on other news she heard. “But Evan, these days you are in the yard. What’s it like to be doing weird gymnastics?”

“Oh, that’s –“

Another difficult question to answer! Evan again smiled vaguely at the question of his wife. Strange gymnastics, of course, was modern weight training.

At first, he had no choice but to do muscle training without any help, and it was difficult. Now, he has gotten used to it.

Surprisingly, after several days of repetition, his body remembered the movements, and he was able to work more efficiently.

This convinced him that he was a warrior type.

His mother continued with her questions.

“In the past, didn’t you usually go around the mansion or go out in the city to see the shops? Of course, it’s a bad time to go out now with the dungeon backflow, but it will be normalized soon.”

“I am doing good gymnastics for my body. Gymnastics to be healthy!”

“That means you’re going to train yourself physically? But didn’t you say before that you will be a great wizard?”

Of course, at one point, Evan was focused on becoming a wizard. But once he realized his strengths, it’s so easy to make a decision.

Thinking about it, he can join the battle between the main character and King Yo-ma if he grows strong enough.

“Evan, Evan? Why are your eyes dead? Our cute son is so serious!”

“Mother, I think people have particular fields where they could excel at. If I try to force myself being a wizard, I feel uncomfortable…, I mean, by watching other mages…”

“My nine-year-old son suddenly spoke like an old man!”

Evan was embarrassed and quickly sipped at the cup of tea.

The Marquis’ wife was amazed that her son now liked the taste of black tea.

Evan is acting different, she thought.

Meanwhile, Evan was thinking of other things.

He was thinking about the dozen of endings where Evan was poisoned. There was an ending where he died while taking tea with his fiancée. He died on the spot, crying pitifully. It was really miserable.

Project Number Three should start soon, he decided. However, it would take him some time.

First of all, he must complete Project 1! Level up!

“Do whatever you want for now,” his mother told him. “You’ll have less time to play next year. You have to enjoy your freedom.”

“Ah?” Evan’s eyes widened at the words of his mother.

She continued. “Aristocratic classes.”

Yes, he thought and frowned at himself. How could he have forgotten about it?

When he reaches age 10, Evan, like his older brother Eric, will undergo a reasonable level of education suited for aristocrats. History, language, math, geography, and of course, swordsmanship and magic!

“Don’t look like that, Evan. After all, you’re the second son. You won’t have to do as much as your older brother, but it doesn’t mean you don’t need to help him. You have to learn in order to perform our family’s duty.”

The family’s duty she was referring to was about the dungeon.

Anyone born in the Sheridan family must enter the dungeon periodically to inspect and explore as well as achieve certain goals.

It is based on the spirit of Noblesse Oblige, which states that nobles must understand the dungeons better than anyone else because dungeons are under their management.

I know it very well, he thought.

Evan enters the dungeon at 18 years old and failed miserably. After two years, the main character entered their city, and the story began in earnest… at that point, Evan was only capable of reaching the fourth floor! The second son of the Marquis! What a shame.

In the rest of the story, the main character will need Evan’s help for a quest and builds a friendship with him. Soon, Evan dies!

“I know, mother. I will study hard next year.”

“Okay. So right now, you have to play so much so you won’t have any regrets next year. It is important for a child to play.”

“Yeah!”

Evan responded cheerfully to his mother, but his thoughts were far away.

He was planning ahead.

For the remainder of the year, he must master slime training to a level where it would be unnoticed by anyone. He should be able to continue slime training while in class.

After tea time, Evan returned to his room and resumed slime training with his left hand while he held the manual with his right hand.

It contained the overall story of the Yo-Ma Great War 3, the historical events, important artifacts, etc.…

He made it with such detail that its quality is valuable enough to be sold.

Reading through the pages he wrote on, Evan realized that this was the sum of the years he devoted to playing the Yo-Ma Great War 3.

He felt a little sad about it, but it’s not that important now.

As he read through, he thought about starting Project Number 2.

It was inevitably parallel with Project Number 1, as Project 1 was a lifelong exercise to level up.

Let’s see, checking in the character category…

As he skimmed through the pages that took ten days to fill out, his left hand steadily crushed slimes at his current rate of 7 seconds.

Evan’s handwriting was too ugly. Fortunately, no one gets to see this manual except him.

“Okay, this is it. The list of the scariest characters.”

Evan stopped at a page titled “Most Important”.

“There should be an appearance of one of the main characters around this time… Venom Spear? No… Blood Witch? She’s very pretty and very strong, but I wouldn’t want to know what she’s doing now, and she’s scary in the first place… don’t want to meet her… Yes! I found it!”

In Yo-Ma Great War 3, there were a few strong characters that were almost invincible with regard to power. Evan, a maniac when it comes to the game, remembers this information clearly. No one else could have done it.

“[Silent K/Night… Although he is the same age as Evan, he is among the strongest of the strong and is about a million times more powerful than Evan. His assassination ability was to wield black daggers as he melts in the dark, tearing off monsters’ necks in a flash… the strongest skill of all… !”]

Evan knew it was childish, but he still fluttered as he read the description.

Awesome! So cool! In particular, ‘K/Night’ instead of just saying Knight or Night is so cool!

There is something in him that stimulates the sensibility of adolescents sleeping in the hearts of all men… He is the coolest character!

“If I had been born as Silent K/Night, not Evan, I wouldn’t have been killing slimes like this right now…”

However, Evan quickly reflected on his words. As a player of the Yo-ma Great War, he knew very well that being strong does not mean having a blessed life. Silent K/Night, in particular…

“But this time, it will be different, Silent K/Night. As Evan’s fate has changed, so will yours!”

He thought about Silent K/Night’s history.

Dark skin and black hair. He rarely appeared in the entire series, and he had an unfortunate past, adding to his depressive aesthetic. He is also a character with an overwhelming female base in the series’ fandom.

He was born in the dungeon city of Sheridan. Once spring, while he was 11 years of age, he lost his parents during the massive dungeon reflux. The orphan was sold in a slave market. Foreign mercenaries bought him for a very low price, and thus started his unfortunate childhood of trouble and getting inside dungeons.

Massive dungeon reflux. It was… right now! 

The Silent K/Night, the strongest assassin, ranking within the Top 5 of the strongest characters in the Yo-Ma Great War, the coolest character is now in the city’s slave market!

“I already received my birthday gift… … This amount can buy anything I want.”

Evan D. Sherden, an extra in Yo-Ma Great War, has a higher probability of death than any other character.

However, he is also the second son of the Marquis of a Dungeon City.

That means he had a lot of money! That was the only advantage he had over Silent K/Night!

“Just wait for a little. I’m coming.”

After getting the information he wanted, he covered his manual and took his wallet from the safe.

Then, he yelled out.

“Maybell, let’s go shopping!”

After ten days of training and writing, Evan is now convinced that he is strong enough to survive shopping.

It was the moment Project Number 2 began.

He called the project… “Bodyguard.”