Ch.193Last? – 6

“…What?”

Aria asked in a dumbfounded voice. The anger and indignation she had been expressing just moments ago had completely vanished.

There was only one thing that statement about her also being a protagonist could mean.

“The first… novel…?”

“Yes. I was once a protagonist in another world. However, despite holding such an important position, I accomplished nothing, and ultimately met an unexpected death, leaving indelible wounds on those around me. Especially to someone you know all too well.”

There was nothing like this in the fragments of the broken world. No, there couldn’t have been. It would have been a secret that Latina kept to herself forever.

“Sin flows in my bloodline, Aria. The sin of hiding truth in shadows, scattering it beyond time, and shifting everything onto one person. That’s why I understand all too well what it’s like to feel compelled to be special. I’ve also thought countless times that I must protect others, that there’s no one else who can do it if not me.”

Perhaps something she hadn’t even confided to Mira.

“Do you still think I cannot understand your heart?”

“…”

Aria couldn’t bring herself to answer. She was not only shocked by this unexpected confession but also couldn’t understand why Latina would suddenly reveal such a huge secret.

To persuade her? Would she really share her biggest secret just for that reason? To a loser like her who had already exposed everything and had nothing left?

“But then one day, Ka… Mira appeared before me. Though he was merely an extra character, I realized immediately upon seeing him that all my efforts had not only been meaningless but also misguided. This is why I call Mira my savior. I call him that because he gave me salvation in a different sense than other humans.”

Latina awkwardly touched her neck. There was a time when, due to stress, she had hallucinated that an unbreakable noose was wrapped around it, one she could neither cut nor remove.

That noose disappeared without a trace after Latina met her savior.

“How do you think I received that truth? Do you think I was angry and raged at the person who rendered all my past time and effort meaningless? No. Aria, while you spent your time feeling nothing, I spent mine feeling every pain. That’s why I said I understand your obsession with being special. Because I was once such a being myself.”

“You are…”

The words “why do you blame yourself for that” caught in her throat and wouldn’t come out. It seemed pointless to hear the answer.

It was clear that the answer would be something that Aria April—petty, frustrating, narrow-minded, and small-hearted as she was—couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“But I can say one thing clearly. You were not wrong, Aria.”

“…What?”

Aria’s thoughts momentarily froze at these unexpected words. Not wrong? Who? Me?

Why?

“Why… is that?”

“Because anger and hatred are perfectly natural human emotions. Whether right or wrong, being angry at an absurd situation, venting frustration, and blaming something cannot in itself be a sin. If I had been in your position, I too would certainly have felt resentment, and this is an unwavering truth.”

—However, this does not mean you are without sin. While human emotions themselves cannot be sins, the actions resulting from those emotions clearly fall within the realm of sin.

Latina’s softly murmured addition resonated in Aria’s ears. But the words that followed didn’t just resonate—they pierced deep into her heart.

“I can see a thousand years of time weighing down on you. Time is eating away at you, but I can also see that time is your support. It’s time to let go now. Not to deny your sins, but to face them, to accept that the path you’ve walked until now was wrong, and to embrace head-on the mistakes you’ve turned away from.”

A tear rolled down Aria’s face as she had been silently listening. It was a tear with a different meaning than before.

Because it contained emotions other than indignation and anger.

“I felt the same when I first learned about Mira. I wondered if all my efforts were being denied. I pondered why I couldn’t do what he could. Although perhaps not as much as you, I too had spent considerable time and effort—how could I not feel that way?”

Aria vaguely wondered what “considerable time” meant. Had this nun also been trapped in a time loop, or did it mean something else? It was impossible to know at present.

“I won’t tell you to accept it blindly as I did. Each person has their own life and thoughts. Therefore, I cannot dismiss the time you’ve spent suffering and resenting as meaningless. However, attaching too much significance to it is also wrong. Just because you’re special, just because you’re a protagonist, doesn’t mean you have to be different from others.”

“…Then, what am I?”

After silently shedding tears for a while, Aria finally managed to speak.

“If you dismiss all the time I’ve been through like that… what am I? Why did only I have to go through this? Why is this happening only to me! What am I supposed to be?!”

“You have always been you, Aria April.”

“…What did you say?”

“Before experiencing those things, after experiencing them, and at this very moment, even without being special, you have always been Aria. Just as I have always been Latina. And you will continue to be Aria in the future. As long as you don’t lose yourself, buried in time and consumed by sin.”

“Lose myself?”

Her tear-stained eyes grew fierce. Latina calmly met that gaze.

“What am I? What does it mean to be like Aria April? What does it mean for me to lose myself?! What do you know about me to say such things so arbitrarily…!”

“You can start finding out from now on.”

“…What are you saying—”

“What kind of person do you want to become, Aria? Do you want to be kind and gentle like the you in the novel? Then be that. Or do you want to be a passionate person who expresses emotions unreservedly like you are now? You can be that too. As long as you don’t turn away from your past sins and justify the path you’ve walked so far, the path you take will become who Aria is.”

Aria’s eyes returned to normal. The tears that had seemed to stop began to flow again.

“And now, you are no longer alone.”

“…What?”

Latina reached out her hand toward Aria.

“I can see the loneliness filling your heart. I can see the solitude that has hardened over a thousand years. You were lonely, Aria. Your obsession with fate, your desperate attempts to enter the world, your pursuit of specialness—at their core, all these actions stemmed from loneliness.”

“I, I… I…”

“I will stay by your side. Forgiveness is not my role to give, so that’s impossible, but if you face your sins head-on and move forward, I will be there beside you. So don’t stay in the darkness anymore. In darkness, you cannot see your own shadow, so now is the time to come out into the sun and cast a shadow.”

The outstretched hand was grasped. Aria, fumbling to hold that hand, squeezed her fingers tightly.

“You no longer need to be special, Aria April.”

Latina opened her eyes. Her irises were still gray. I breathed an inward sigh of relief. She had said she would handle it, and it seemed she had somehow succeeded.

“Did it go well?”

“Of course.”

Latina seemed about to rise immediately, but when she realized I was supporting her back with one hand while holding her other hand, she lay back down.

I felt a heavy weight on the hand supporting her back.

“What happened to Aria? Did you kill her?”

“No. I did not kill her.”

“You didn’t kill her? Why?”

I thought she wanted to handle it herself to finish things properly, especially since she had been used as a shield when we fought, with our souls switching places, and she had fought me in this form.

“Judging her sins is not my role. In this world, I am merely an outsider, so it is right to let those who were wronged deliver justice.”

That was true. Until now, I had tried to kill her because I would have been killed or captured if I didn’t act first, but if there was no danger, it was right to give the opportunity to others.

To the four people who could be considered Aria’s real victims, and to the one who lost her best friend.

“By the way…”

Latina looked around. Her eyes turned to the area behind me, where the divine spear was.

“Is it okay for us to be this relaxed?”

“It should be fine for now, but I’m not sure about later. Even Aria’s knowledge didn’t include any solutions for a situation like this.”

The divine spear was still holding back the increasingly severe distortion. Branches of light extended out, gripping and fixing the time axis that was trying to twist, absorbing the world that was turning golden.

Though it was unclear how much longer it could last.

“And attempts to fix it have failed.”

“Right. I tried what we did before, but it didn’t work.”

I had naturally tried to make time flow or reverse it. But nothing worked.

I figured we’d need to go back and meet the goddess and demon lord. Despite their childish bickering, they were still deities. They might come up with a solution.

After pondering for a while, poking her puffed cheeks, Latina spoke.

“…Perhaps the world itself has reached its limit.”

“The world itself has reached its limit?”

“Yes. This world has already repeated the same time thousands of times. Not only that, but time was forcibly stopped once, and just now it received a major shock. It wouldn’t be strange at all if the world itself has reached its limit.”

“Then what should we do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Huh?”

Her nonchalant admission of ignorance made me reflexively question her. Latina answered with an unabashed face.

“How would I know how to fix a broken world? And if I did know, I would have told you long ago. Having survived and being able to see your face again, only to die so meaninglessly—that’s absurd.”

“That’s true.”

Latina rose with an “oof.” I stood up too. When our eyes met, awkwardness washed over me. Latina’s face was normal, so the awkwardness was probably just on my side.

“What are you doing? With that strange expression.”

“…It’s nothing.”

I gripped the divine spear. If we could just solve this properly, we would have plenty of time ahead. So there was no need to hastily spill out everything I wanted to say right now.

“Latina, you go back first. When you return, the goddess and demon lord will know our task is done and come here. I need to ask them for a solution.”

“Understood. Have you thought of a way to send me back first?”

Silently, I drew a magic circle with my left hand. A blue line appeared beside Latina and transformed into a circle. It was a dimensional gate leading to the club room. If nothing had happened, everyone should still be there.

But before we could go, another visitor appeared.

“Mira! Are you okay— EEEEK?!”

Leona, who had rushed in holding a holy sword, let out a shrill scream upon seeing the blood-covered Latina.

‘Right. I forgot to clean her clothes.’

Considering she must have seen worse sights while fighting monsters, her screaming like that showed just how unexpected this situation was for her.