Ch.198Sacrifice

I lifted the body that contained Aria’s soul, molded from divinity on the spot, in a princess carry. Aria remained docile in my arms, her limbs hanging limply.

Since this body was created with only the minimum functions, she must be feeling quite nauseous. Her head probably feels like it’s about to split open too. There wasn’t enough time to make a proper body, and it only needed to last until her soul could be transferred, so it was an unavoidable choice.

Despite Aria being half-naked and clinging to me in a princess carry, the four possessed individuals couldn’t say a word. They had no right to speak to someone who had chosen this path of her own will.

“I’ll be going now.”

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

“I will. Since you’ll die with me if I don’t come back, I absolutely have to.”

“And not just one person. If you don’t want to cause a string of funerals, you’d better come back in one piece.”

“Got it.”

I rose to my feet, encouraged by their half-threatening words of support. The others couldn’t follow even if they wanted to. They had to guard the dimensional gate that had been opened with the help of the two gods.

Despite showing all sorts of incompetent behavior until now, they were indeed gods. While I was wandering around unable to find the coordinates to return to my original world, they had located and fixed them quite simply.

Though they were still somewhat clumsy, so I was the one who actually created the dimensional gate.

“You all take good care of this place too. I need somewhere to come back to.”

“The gate will be wide open whenever you return, so worry about yourself first.”

There was a reason we had to open the dimensional gate in advance. Apparently, once the flow of time begins to accelerate, it becomes impossible to connect the coordinates themselves, even with divine power.

By then, both the goddess and the demon god would have absorbed themselves into time as well.

—If the farewells are over, let’s depart.

—It’s time to go now.

After making eye contact with each of them one last time, I turned around. Their anxious gazes pierced into my back.

The golden light grew brighter as we approached the center of time. It was now impossible to distinguish up from down. I could only guess that there was ground beneath me because I could still walk on it.

“Miss Mira…”

Aria, who had been hanging limply, opened her mouth with what seemed like a strained voice. Her closed eyes opened, and her unfocused pupils turned toward me.

“I’m listening.”

“I wanted to tell you too… that I’m sorry… I’m really sorry…”

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

“…Is that so.”

With those words, our conversation ended. Aria closed her eyes, breathing heavily. But her lips kept moving as if there was something more she wanted to say.

“Come to think of it, it’s fascinating.”

I decided to continue the conversation. Once we enter that place, I don’t know when—or even if—we’ll be able to come out. So I wanted to let her speak freely, at least for now.

Aria opened her eyes again.

“What… do you mean?”

“I remember how persistently and obsessively you came after me, but you’ve changed so much just from talking with Latina. She’s not called a saint for nothing, but still, it’s fascinating.”

Aria looked up at me weakly and answered with eyes full of regret. Slowly, very slowly.

“You know, Miss Mira, I thought there wasn’t a single person in the world who could understand me. That’s why I wanted to be with you. I thought if you weren’t around, there would be no one left who was my equal. I thought you were the only one who could stand by my side.”

It took her a long time just to say this much. Aria could only continue after panting heavily for quite a while.

“But… it was a first for me. Someone who just said they would stay by my side. Even when I confessed my sins, and afterward, Latina said she would stay with me as much as I wanted. Since our souls were together, I knew it wasn’t a lie, right? Only after facing Latina, who spoke to me sincerely, did I realize. What I really wanted wasn’t something grand like changing or creating worlds…”

After taking another long pause to finish her sentence, Aria coughed painfully. Beads of sweat formed on her skin. When I infused her with divine power, her symptoms subsided a bit.

“…Just someone I could open my heart to.”

Someone she could open her heart to.

Leona, who had developed into a romantic relationship in the original work, would have been unable to fulfill that role. After all, I knew very well how Aria, trapped in time, had viewed this world.

“Just one person I could truly open up to would have been enough… but I didn’t realize that and tried to change the world… and I tormented you… and was cruel to you… I’m sorry… I know you told me not to say it, but I’m still sorry…”

Aria couldn’t continue. Her expression contorted, and her body trembled weakly.

Since this was a body created with only minimal functions, her reaction was limited to this. If she had a normal body, she would undoubtedly have burst into tears.

“I understand your motives. Why you became like that, why you were so obsessed with the word ‘fate.’ I can understand it all.”

I’ve felt that way ever since I heard about what happened in the past. I could understand why Aria had been obsessed with me, why she had been fixated on the concept of fate, and why she had become so twisted.

After all, she had spent over a thousand years alone in frozen time, seeing, hearing, and feeling everything by herself. It was more than enough time to break a person—it was an overwhelming amount of time that could drive someone insane.

“Though I think your methods were wrong.”

“Yes… I’m really sor—”

“Well, there is one thing I can be certain of.”

Instead of answering, Aria looked up at me with eyes that asked, “What is it?”

“You’ll be remembered as Aria April. Not as the Aria who was broken in time, but as the protagonist of this world. You just said that one person you could open your heart to would be enough, right? You said Latina was the first, so I’ll be the second.”

At least the current Aria was more than worthy of that.

“…”

As if she hadn’t expected me to say such a thing, Aria stared at me blankly for a while before smiling bitterly.

“You and that nun really are a match made in heaven, aren’t you?”

“Latina and me? Why suddenly?”

“Because that nun said something similar to me. That I would always continue to be Aria.”

“…Really?”

I had just expressed my own thoughts, but to think Latina had said the same thing.

“I suppose that’s what real fate is…”

Aria closed her eyes again and went limp. I tried telling her that I still didn’t believe in things like fate, but she didn’t seem to hear me at all.

As I awkwardly continued walking, voices came from both sides.

—This is the place.

—It’s here.

I looked around. The area opposite to where I was standing was rippling like a literal golden wave. I couldn’t help but gasp at the sight, which looked like an aurora filling the entire sky.

The problem was that all this golden light, which resembled an aurora, was actually the raging current of time that could easily tear a person apart.

“Is this how time normally flows?”

—Not at all. The fact that it has condensed enough to be visible to human eyes means it’s been severely distorted.

—Time should naturally be invisible. The very act of it being visible to human eyes is wrong.

“I suppose that’s true.”

While I stood still holding Aria and waiting for a signal, the goddess and demon god exchanged words with each other. Soon, the forms of the two goddesses I had seen in the celestial realm and the demon god’s domain appeared.

“Why suddenly take that form…?”

“Didn’t we tell you? We will be revived when divine power gathers again, but we might not regain our current personalities and memories.”

“We couldn’t end what might be our final meeting with just voices, could we? Especially not with the benefactor who saved our world.”

The goddess stood before me with a smiling face, and the demon god, with an expressionless face that matched her voice, followed beside her. It was the first time I had seen the goddess smile so brightly.

Her delicate hand gently lifted the hem of her skirt, her left thigh crossed behind her right, and her ankles crossed. As she bowed her head toward me, her hair fell slightly forward.

“Thank you for protecting this world.”

“Thank you for protecting this world.”

Then the bodies of the two gods dissolved into time. As the golden light containing their divinity was absorbed, the flow of time visibly accelerated. It was enough to make clothes and hair flutter slightly.

“…It’s my turn now.”

Aria gazed blankly at the golden aurora. A murmur escaped her lips: “How beautiful.”

“Miss Mira.”

“Yes?”

“I know this might sound shameless… but could I ask for one last favor?”

“What favor?”

Aria carefully stood on her own two feet and folded her hands. Her folded hands came together in front of her chest. Blue pupils filled with desperation looked up at me.

“Even if it’s just once, even if it’s just for a moment. Could you… kiss me?”

“Kiss you?”

“Yes…”

Aria nodded with difficulty.

“You said it earlier on our way here. To you, I will always be remembered as Aria April, the protagonist of this world. Just as all stories have an ending, my story will end here. So… just like in the original work, I want to end it with a kiss from the protagonist.”

“…”

I stared down at Aria, who was trembling with anxiety even as she spoke. As I remained silent, the anxiety etched in her sapphire-like eyes began to grow.

“Ah…”

Then, as I placed my hand on her shoulder, all that anxiety disappeared with a soft gasp. Her eyes closed. She rose slightly on her tiptoes, and I bent down, bringing my face closer.

A soft sensation touched my lips.

A few seconds passed that felt both incredibly brief and eternal. I slowly pulled my lips away. Aria was looking up at me, shyly touching her lips.

“…So this is what it feels like. A kiss. It was so long ago that I couldn’t even remember anymore.”

The “long ago” she mentioned probably referred to the ending of the original work. Though there were kiss scenes throughout the novel, to the Aria of that time, it must have been like playing with dolls.

“It was nice… really, really nice.”

Aria, who had been happily touching her lips, looked up at me. Her smile toward me was tinged with bitterness.

“It’s time for you to go now.”

“I guess so.”

Her hair, which had only been swaying slightly, began to flutter more violently. We didn’t have much time left.

Aria gently pushed against my chest.

“Go. Quickly. You don’t need to have any regrets. This was my decision. Just… remember me like this. That Aria April’s story ended with a happy ending. One where she atoned for all her sins, repented, and sacrificed herself to save the world—that kind of happy ending.”

Tap, tap. The force pushing against my chest grew stronger. With a face that looked like she might cry at any moment, Aria pushed me away, then offered a final greeting with hands that had lost all strength, and gave me one last smile.

“Goodbye, Miss Mira…”

As she said those words, Aria’s body slowly dissolved into the aurora. From the spot where Aria had just been, golden colors burst forth. The sky flashed brilliantly.

It no longer felt beautiful.