10 – Trial of Wisdom

Evan couldn’t speak for a while. ‘It must have been hard…’

It was obvious.

Of course, it would have been hard. Why was he stating the obvious?

To say he didn’t know would be rude, considering all the sacrifices Aria had made so far.

Born with congenital visual and auditory impairments, deprived of things everyone should enjoy, she was chosen as the Saintess and burdened with the duty of subjugating the Demon King, a being of terror to all living things.

The power she gained with that duty was salvation for humanity, but nothing short of sacrifice for her… a half-baked ability with an absurd price: she had to bear as much pain as she healed.

If she were an ordinary person, she would have wondered why such an ability was bestowed upon her, and would have been too afraid of the pain she received every time she healed someone to use the ability properly.

All the previous Saintesses were said to have been like that.

They suffered just from healing, and wanted to throw everything away and not bear the duty any longer.

The end of the Saintess was mostly not good. He had heard it from the Pope.

Most of them went mad, or even if they didn’t, they suffered from trauma for the rest of their lives, unable to lead a proper life and dying weak.

Whether they properly sealed the Demon King, failed to seal him, subjugated him, or failed to subjugate him…

That was all irrelevant.

Simply bearing all the pain of someone just by healing them was impossible for someone with an ordinary vessel.

No matter how much of a Saintess she was chosen by the Goddess, there was no way that was possible.

It had only been half a year, but he could be sure. She was trying to bear all that pain.

With that half-baked ability, she was trying to save countless people.

She had been working so hard, bearing the pain of countless people he couldn’t even fathom, all in that small body.

He could only say she was amazing. That’s right.

Aria was not a machine to subjugate the Demon King. Aria was also a person.

‘What on earth was I thinking…’

Evan began to feel disgusted with himself.

He didn’t show it outwardly to Aria, but he thought that Aria wouldn’t spare her body if it was to subjugate the Demon King or save people.

And that was actually true.

All along, Aria had not spared her body to save people.

However, Evan was disgusted that he had never considered how Aria might be feeling about it.

‘I say I like her as a woman… that I respect her, but I didn’t even think about what she was feeling while bearing that duty…!’

He hadn’t thought about anything.

Or perhaps he had been avoiding thinking about it.

He was arbitrarily applying his own standards to Aria, thinking that the Saintess must be like this.

No, it wasn’t that he thought the Saintess must be like this.

He had only been looking at Aria’s outward appearance and thought, ‘Aria must be thinking like this~’ and just assumed it.

He hadn’t thought about Aria’s inner thoughts at all.

Yet, he was disillusioned with the Goddess for giving such an absurd ability to such a young girl, which was ridiculous.

In the end, they were essentially the same. Who was despising whom?

It was pathetic.

Evan lowered his head in a subdued mood. Silence continued for a while.

He didn’t know what to say.

This short time, where the Ferris wheel would only make one revolution in the air in just 10 minutes, felt so long to him for some reason.

After a long time of silence, Aria suddenly opened her mouth. “… I’m sorry.”

With a sudden apology.

Evan flinched at Aria’s apology. What was there to apologize for?

She had done nothing wrong, yet she was talking as if she had really done something wrong, and he was overwhelmed with emotion.

He wanted to shout at her not to apologize right away. But he couldn’t.

Yes, he couldn’t.

‘Even if that shout came out because I felt so pathetic…’

To the listener, it would only sound like blaming, and Evan didn’t want Aria to misunderstand it that way.

“…”

Evan looked down at Aria without a word.

Aria couldn’t let go of her regretful feelings and was looking outside with a longing gaze.

He didn’t know what to say.

He wanted to comfort her, but when he tried to speak, he didn’t know what to say as comfort.

She looked like glass, as if she would break at any moment if he said something wrong.

So Evan just reached out into the air and stood still, unable to comfort her properly.

For a long time.

…

…

He didn’t want to just pass by without doing anything. Evan gritted his teeth.

He thought he wanted to comfort her and be her strength, but what was he doing here not doing anything?

‘… I don’t want this.’ Evan took a breath. What he could do here,

No, it was ambiguous to say he could do it, but anyway, he wanted to comfort Aria.

He wanted to share the burden with the foolish person who was trying to bear everything alone.

Swoosh. “… Ah.”

Naturally, Evan moved closer to Aria and stuck to her side. He didn’t hug her tightly.

Nor did he lean his body against Aria’s back. He just got a little closer than usual.

Evan didn’t say anything.

He didn’t know what to say to comfort Aria in this situation. But did words really need to be necessary?

Evan didn’t understand even a little about the emotions that Aria had been holding back.

No, even if he could understand it, who in this world would believe it unless they were in the position of being born with congenital disabilities, being chosen as the Saintess, bearing a heavy burden, and having to subjugate the Demon King…?

Although Evan, too, had come to have the duty to subjugate the Demon King by drawing the Holy Sword, it was not comparable to Aria.

It was a small comfort that he could give because he, too, had the same duty to subjugate the Demon King.

“I… will definitely subjugate the Demon King.” “Evan…”

Aria widened her eyes as she looked at Evan’s determination to definitely subjugate the Demon King.

“And…”

Evan raised his hand and gently touched Aria’s eyes. He didn’t have any special goals.

He had only been living with a sense of duty to subjugate the Demon King because he had simply drawn the Holy Sword.

He had taken the Trial, but that was only because Aria said it would be good for her, and he had never done anything to become stronger in order to definitely subjugate the Demon King.

But now, maybe… it had changed a little. He had a new goal, a new dream.

“I want to show you the light someday.” For this lovely girl in front of him,

He would give everything.

Evan once again sincerely vowed.

A strong will to subjugate the Demon King. “…”

Aria took Evan’s hand, which was touching her eyes, with both hands.

Feeling the warmth that was too warm to be a hallucination, she quietly closed her eyes.

Now the false world was over. “… This is…?”

Looking around at the gradually distorted surroundings, Evan looked around in surprise.

The different but completely identical world, the world in the Trial, was completely collapsing.

In that situation, Aria, who had already closed her eyes, still smiled and said softly to Evan, who was looking around in confusion.

“Thank you, Evan.”

Anyway, all of this would be treated like a dream. “I like you.”

Wouldn’t it be okay to say just one word, ‘I like you’?

Whether that feeling was really the meaning of ‘I like you’, or whether it was the meaning of saying it to a favorite character, no one could know.

“… Ah.”

Evan, who heard that very small but definitely audible word, had a blank expression.

And then,

The world completely collapsed