chapter_0201

He picked up Aria’s body, which was made of divinity and contained her soul, in a princess hug. Aria hung limply in his arms, her arms and legs dangling.

The body was made with only the bare minimum of functions, so she must have felt quite nauseous. Her head probably hurt like hell, too. It was a necessary choice because there wasn’t much time left, and the body only needed to last until her soul was transferred.

Even though Aria was hanging from him half-naked in a princess hug, the four possessed people couldn’t say anything. They couldn’t possibly say anything to someone who had chosen this path of her own volition.

“I’ll be back.”

“Be careful, Mira. You really have to be careful.”

“I will. If I don’t come back, you’ll die too, so I have to.”

“There’s more than one person here. If you don’t come back safely, there will be a lot of casualties, so you’d better come back in one piece.”

“Okay.”

He was encouraged, or rather threatened, and stood up. The others couldn’t follow him even if they wanted to. They had to guard the dimensional door that had been opened with the help of the two gods.

Although the two gods had shown some sloppy aspects until now, they were indeed gods. While he was wandering around, unable to find the coordinates to return to the original world, they had easily found and fixed the coordinates.

In the meantime, the dimensional door itself was created by him because they were a bit clumsy.

“You guys take care of this place, too. I need a place to come back to.”

“The door will be wide open whenever you return, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

There was a reason why he had to open the dimensional door in advance. Later, as the flow of time sped up, it would become impossible even for the gods to connect the coordinates themselves.

By then, the Goddess and Devil God would have absorbed themselves into time as well.

“If the farewells are done, let’s go.”

“We should go now.”

He looked into their eyes one last time and turned around. Anxious gazes stabbed him in the back.

The more he went to the center of time, the brighter the golden light became. By now, it was impossible to distinguish up from down. He could only guess that it was the ground because he was stepping on it.

“Mr. Mira……”

Aria, who had been hanging limply, opened her mouth with a strained voice. Her closed eyes opened, and her unfocused eyes looked up at him.

“I’m listening.”

“I want to apologize to you, too, Mr. Mira…… I’m sorry…… I really am……”

“You don’t have to. You already apologized to them, and Latina said you were truly remorseful, so that’s enough.”

“……Is that so?”

The conversation ended there. Aria closed her eyes again, her breathing ragged. But her lips kept moving, as if she wanted to say something.

“It’s strange when I think about it.”

He decided to continue the conversation for her, since she might not be able to come out once she went in, or even if she could, he didn’t know when.

Aria opened her eyes again, which had been closed.

“What do you mean?”

“I remember how persistent and relentless you were, but you changed after talking to Latina. I know it’s not easy for anyone to understand me because I was trapped in time, but it’s still strange.”

Aria, who had been looking up at him helplessly, answered with a bitter smile.

“……I thought there was no one in the world who could understand me, Mr. Mira. That’s why I wanted to be with you. I thought you were the only one who could stand by my side because you were the only one who was on the same level as me. I thought you were the only one who could truly understand me.”

It took her a long time to say this much. Aria breathed heavily for a while before continuing.

“But…… it was the first time for me. Latina said she would be with me even after I confessed my sins. Since our souls were together, I knew she wasn’t lying. When I faced Latina, who was speaking sincerely, I realized that what I really wanted was not something grand like changing the world or creating a new one……”

Aria coughed hard, her body trembling. Sweat beaded on her skin. He infused her with divinity to ease her symptoms.

“……I just wanted someone I could open up to.”

Someone she could open up to.

It would have been impossible for Leona, with whom she had a romantic relationship in the original work, to take on that role. After all, she knew too well how Aria had viewed this world while trapped in time.

“I understand your motives. I understand why you became so obsessed with fate and why you clung to it. I can understand all of it.”

Ever since he heard about her past, he had always felt that way. He understood why Aria had become so obsessed with him, why she had become so fixated on the word fate, and why she had become so twisted.

After all, she had spent over a thousand years alone, seeing, hearing, and feeling everything while everyone else was frozen in time. It was more than enough time to drive anyone crazy.

“I think your method was wrong, though.”

“Yes…… I’m really sorㅡ”

“But I can be sure of one thing.”

Aria looked at him with questioning eyes, wondering what that one thing was.

“You will be remembered as Aria April. Not as the Aria who was twisted by time, but as the Aria who was the heroine of this world. Didn’t you say that all you needed was one person you could open up to? Latina was the first, and I’ll be the second.”

At least the current Aria deserved that much.

“……”

As if she hadn’t expected him to say that, Aria looked at him blankly for a while, then smiled bitterly.

“It seems like you and that nun are truly meant to be.”

“Latina and I? Why do you say that all of a sudden?”

“That nun said something similar to me. She said that I will always be Aria.”

“……Really?”

I had just said what I thought, and Latina had said the same thing.

“I guess that’s what real fate is……”

Aria closed her eyes and let her body hang limply. She didn’t seem to hear me when I said that I still didn’t believe in fate.

As I awkwardly took a step, voices came from both sides.

“This is the place.”

“This is it.”

He looked around. On the opposite side of where he was standing, the golden light was surging like golden waves. The sight of the aurora filling the sky was breathtaking.

The problem was that all the golden light that looked like an aurora could easily tear apart a human being.

“Is this how time usually flows?”

“Not at all. The fact that it has clumped together to the point where humans can see it means that it is extremely distorted.”

“Time should be invisible to the human eye, shouldn’t it? The very act of seeing time with human eyes is wrong.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

While he was standing there holding Aria, the Goddess and Devil God were having a conversation. Soon, the two goddesses appeared, just as he had seen them in the heavenly realm and the realm of the Devil God.

“Why are you suddenly in that form?”

“Didn’t I tell you? We will resurrect when we gather enough divinity, but we may not be able to regain our current personalities and memories.”

“We can’t end what may be our last meeting with just voices, especially not with you, our savior.”

The Goddess stood in front of him with a smile, and the Devil God stood next to her with a blank face that looked exactly like her voice. It was the first time he had seen the Goddess smile so brightly.

She gracefully lifted her skirt and crossed her legs, one in front of the other, as she bowed her head. Her hair fell slightly as she lowered her head.

“Thank you for saving our world.”

“Thank you for saving our world.”

Soon, the two gods’ bodies were engulfed by time and disappeared. As their divinity was absorbed, the flow of time became noticeably faster. Their skirts and hair began to flutter slightly.

“……I guess it’s my turn now.”

Aria looked blankly at the golden aurora. She murmured that it was pretty.

“Mr. Mira.”

“Yes.”

“I know it’s shameless of me to ask, but can I ask you for one last favor?”

“What is it?”

Aria, who had been hanging limply, slowly stood on her own two feet. She clasped her hands together in front of her chest. Her blue eyes, filled with longing, looked up at him.

“Just once, or even for a brief moment, could you kiss me?”

“A kiss?”

“Yes……”

Aria nodded weakly.

“You said earlier that to you, I will always be Aria April, the heroine of this world. Just as every story has an ending, my story will end here. So…… just like in the original work, I want to end the story with the protagonist’s kiss.”

“……”

He looked down at Aria, who was trembling with anxiety. As he remained silent, the anxiety in her jewel-like eyes began to grow.

“Ah……”

Then, as he placed his hand on her shoulder, all the anxiety disappeared along with a faint moan. Her eyes closed. Aria stood on tiptoe, and he bent down to meet her lips.

He felt the soft touch of her lips.

A few seconds passed, which felt both ridiculously short and like an eternity. He slowly parted his lips. Aria, shyly touching her lips, looked up at him.

“……This is what a kiss feels like. It’s been so long that I can’t even remember the last time I kissed someone.”

The “long time” she was referring to was probably the ending of the original work. There were kissing scenes in the novel, but to the Aria at that time, they would have felt like playing with dolls.

“It felt so good…… so, so good.”

Aria, with a happy face, touched her lips and looked up at him. Her smile was bittersweet.

“It’s time for you to go now.”

“Yeah.”

The wind was blowing harder, and his hair was fluttering more and more violently. There wasn’t much time left.

Aria pushed his chest lightly.

“Go now. Hurry. You don’t need to have any regrets. This is my decision. Just…… remember me like this. Remember that Aria April’s story ended happily. Remember that I atoned for all my sins, repented, and sacrificed myself to save the world.”

Thump, thump. The force with which she pushed his chest grew stronger. With a face that looked like she was about to cry, Aria pushed him away and gave him a final smile.

“Goodbye, Mr. Mira……”

As she spoke, Aria’s body slowly melted into the aurora. From the spot where Aria had been standing, golden colors burst forth. The sky shone brilliantly.

It no longer felt beautiful.