Ch.178Aria – 4

“……?”

I turned my head with great effort toward the direction of the voice, but couldn’t see anything. Then, the same voice came again.

“There’s no need to look… I’m speaking through thought….”

It was a woman’s voice that somehow felt cold and blunt, slightly androgynous even. Following her advice, I kept my mouth shut and quietly caught my breath.

The voice paused briefly, as if collecting herself, before continuing.

“I have no intention of hiding my identity, so I’ll proceed quickly rather than standing on ceremony. I am a demon god.”

Overall, her voice was much clearer than before. The long pauses between sentences had disappeared.

“Though my physical body died, I was able to hide a fragment of my consciousness before completely perishing. Fortunately, it seems I wasn’t discovered.”

“A demon god… What’s the possibility that you’re just another lie planted by Aria?”

“You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to. I’ll just be talking to myself. My body was already destroyed by that woman. What more do I have to lose?”

I accepted this and moved on, being in a similar situation myself. At first, I wondered if this might be another trap set by Aria, but honestly, even if it was a trap, it wouldn’t make much difference.

What fate could be more horrific than becoming a living battery, having my power continuously drained for a thousand years?

“Alright. Keep talking.”

“We knew that time in this world repeats itself. Although we were beings created by your hands and had to remain frozen when the world stopped, we were still aware of the fact that time was repeating.”

“We?”

When I questioned this unexpected word, another familiar voice responded.

“I am here as well, human. All thanks to that woman who, after killing our physical bodies, didn’t even bother to pay attention to us.”

“Goddess? How?”

“Why do you believe my sister’s words but not mine? This is discrimination.”

The first slightly androgynous voice grumbled quietly.

“This is the difference in trust. You should have chosen light instead of darkness, sister. Have you already forgotten how you said you’d side with the shadows because darkness was cooler than light?”

“Be quiet. The human is listening, so stop with the unnecessary talk.”

“Yes, yes. I understand, sister.”

‘For beings with only consciousness remaining, they seem to be getting along extremely well.’

Just from their conversation, it was hard to believe they were entities whose bodies had been pierced through the chest by Aria’s monster, barely managing to leave behind a fragment of consciousness. Either that, or they had always been incredibly close.

“…Anyway, we’ve been little more than puppets since that woman obtained the world’s fragment. It was embarrassing to even be called gods. But just as that woman did, we also see hope in you. So I propose, human.”

The two separate voices resonated simultaneously.

“We will help you with your revenge, so help us with ours.”

“I will help you with your revenge, so please help us with ours.”

“Hnngh… Ah, just like Mr. Mira…”

As soon as Aria returned through the dimensional gate, she staggered and collapsed on the floor, clutching her shoulder. After groaning for a while, she crawled to the mirror and loosened her clothes.

The uniform symbolizing a student of Bellium Academy slid down, revealing snow-white skin like white jade and an elegant collarbone line without restraint. Along with her rather modest chest.

“It’s… fine, right?”

She felt the spot where the spear had pierced her. It was fine. There were no areas improperly healed or feeling strange. The healing magic had worked properly.

Yet the reason Aria couldn’t leave the mirror was simple. She could still feel the sensation of the spear piercing her shoulder.

She had gritted her teeth and pretended to be composed in front of Mr. Mira because she didn’t want to look pathetic, but otherwise, she would have been rolling on the floor clutching her shoulder.

Even as Aria April, a character in the novel, she had never taken such a painful attack. It wasn’t this bad even when she was attacked by the Demon King.

“I definitely… need to be wary of that.”

That spear must be what invoked divinity in a world where goddesses had disappeared. It probably operates independently of Mr. Mira’s power.

After poking her soft shoulder one last time, Aria fixed her clothes and threw herself onto the bed. She felt the soft mattress beneath her. She had never felt such a refreshing and satisfying feeling before.

‘What should I do now?’

She lay on the bed blankly, thinking about her next plan. Having gained the ability to do anything, she ironically found herself wondering what to do. She didn’t want to waste her current good mood on something trivial.

She could recreate the world right now and make it completely equal to the Creator’s world, but that seemed too boring. It felt too wasteful to end the world like this.

‘I want to deal with that woman personally…’

At the very least, she wanted to watch Laura struggle in despair and die slowly. It seemed like she had just met other transmigrators and was full of hope, leaning on Mr. Mira.

‘Maybe I should lie and say Mr. Mira is dead.’

First Laura would deny it, then become angry, and eventually her spirit would break. Taking the broken Laura and showing her the scene she had seen 1,463 times for the 1,464th time would be good entertainment.

As for the other three, whatever happens to them doesn’t matter. They were humans brought in merely as parts to keep this world turning. Now that they were no longer needed, they could just be discarded if they broke down.

With these thoughts, Aria left the room and after taking a few steps, she encountered someone unexpected.

“…Aria? Didn’t you go back to the village?”

“That’s my line. Leona, how are you here? Weren’t you at the front lines?”

Leona smiled awkwardly.

“I was until just now. But the monsters suddenly became quiet, and the Red Tower Lord said if not now, when would I ever rest? So I came back early. But I have to go right back if something happens.”

‘Ah. That’s right.’

The reason the monsters had disregarded their lives and gone berserk was because Aria had whispered that she would bestow a demon sword to those who proved themselves by killing humans. But now that the voice had disappeared, their sanity had returned.

The damage to the monster side was just as great as the damage to the human side.

Of course, it didn’t matter now. She had achieved her goal of bringing in Mr. Mira. Whether the remaining monsters were confused or not was none of Aria’s concern.

‘The holy sword… is still the same.’

The holy sword at Leona’s waist was still emitting a soft golden light. How would Leona react if she knew that the divinity didn’t come from the goddess but from Mr. Mira’s spear?

She would surely show a very interesting reaction.

“I see. You’ve worked hard. Get some rest. You never know what might happen next.”

Aria hid her true thoughts and waved with a smile.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Leona smiled back and went inside, unhesitatingly loosening her clothes stained with monster blood, as if it was too bothersome to take them off. She seemed to have no reservations in front of her childhood friend.

Between her dirty shirt, a glimpse of underwear that seemed designed for anything but combat was briefly visible.

“…”

She had fought alongside Mr. Mira before, maybe that was why. Even though there would be no one to show it to.

Aria naturally didn’t care. After all, she was a woman who had only gone as far as kissing, and not even with tongues intertwining, just a light touch of the lips. She couldn’t possibly be self-conscious.

Above all, the other was merely a character in a novel who would freeze without readers to observe her. She was too inferior to sit at the same table as the current Aria.

Both Leona and Aria had changed too much from the novel anyway.

“Ah. And, um…”

Leona, holding her blood-stained outer garment in one hand and half-unbuttoned shirt, paused before entering the room.

“If you happen to run into Mira and he asks where I am… tell him I’m fine and he doesn’t need to come looking for me. Please.”

‘What useless things you say.’

Aria inwardly sneered. She really was inferior.

“Don’t worry. Of course I’ll do that.”

But regardless of her inner thoughts, she didn’t forget to smile and wave. She was too superior now to let her mood be ruined by something so trivial. Leona thanked her and closed the door.

Left alone, Aria continued walking down the corridor, lost in thought.

‘Those four probably haven’t returned yet.’

Weren’t they at the battlefield under the pretext of escorting the saint? When battles enter a lull like now is when the saint’s role is most needed, so they probably won’t be back for a while.

In fact, even if they did return, they would go to the imperial palace, not Bellium Academy. With both the crown prince and the saint there, the chances of them returning to the academy without Mr. Mira were practically zero.

Aria, who had been considering whispering to the monsters again, shook her head. It was too childish for her current self, and it wouldn’t be very entertaining anyway.

‘But it would be difficult to go to the imperial palace…’

Unlike Aria April in the novel, who had influence equal to or greater than the hero Leona, the current Aria was just an ordinary academy student and the hero’s childhood friend.

She couldn’t freely enter places like the front lines or the imperial palace.

She could manipulate people’s minds as she had done before, but for the sake of future entertainment, she wanted to reveal her identity to those four as late as possible. To do that, she needed to avoid raising suspicion.

‘I guess that’s what I’ll have to do.’

Just as Aria realized there was nothing else to alleviate her boredom until her next plan and was about to whisper to the monsters again—

“Ugh?!”

A sudden wave of nausea hit her. Reflexively covering her mouth, Aria staggered and leaned against the wall.

—CRACK!

The spot she touched crumbled entirely. Aria stared at it in bewilderment. She hadn’t struck it forcefully, just tried to support herself. Why?

“Uuugh!”

—CRASH!

She stumbled backward as another wave of nausea hit her. Just from taking a step, the corridor—which could withstand even direct hits from high-level magic—cracked and split.

‘This, this is…’

Aria was horrified as she realized the cause. Much more power was flowing into her than she had anticipated. It was the same symptom as when she first tried to absorb power.

The seal was trying to break.