Ch.299Side Story: The Path Forward

“Why are you suddenly kneeling? I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but you don’t need to. Please get up.”

When she unexpectedly tried to bow her head, I was flustered and tried to grab her arm to help her up. But Aria firmly rejected my touch and looked up at me while remaining on her knees. Her eyes revealed a desperate earnestness.

Even if I forcibly made her stand, I could tell I wouldn’t be able to change her mind, so I let go of her arm. Aria opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

“…I’ve been thinking about it. For the past two months, constantly. I even asked Miss Brunhild, though I have no right to.”

Miss Brunhild, huh. Despite saying she wanted to start over from the beginning, their relationship still seemed somewhat awkward even after two months.

It couldn’t be helped. Given what had happened, Leona wouldn’t approach her first, and Aria, considering the circumstances, couldn’t approach with her usual smile either.

“I’ve been thinking about what my feelings toward you really are, whether I should continue to harbor them if what I’m feeling is real, or if I should quietly suppress them alone so as not to burden you and those around you.”

“What did Leona say?”

“She said if I’ve been agonizing over it for two whole months, my heart has already decided, so continuing to worry is foolish. She told me to stop wasting time and instead think about how to tell you. She said whether you accept or not is entirely up to you…”

“…”

When I remained silent, her trembling voice gradually became tearful.

“I know it’s a difficult request. I won’t resent you if you refuse. How could I? I don’t even expect you to treat me the same as the others. Even if you use me for something else, I just want to remain by your side. So… so…”

Her voice trailed off as if her throat had closed up, then Aria raised her head again. Transparent droplets formed at the corners of her sea-blue eyes.

“May I be allowed to love you?”

Her desperate gaze looked up at me. All kinds of emotions swirled in those blue eyes.

I stood quietly. As the silence lengthened, the transparent liquid gathering at her eyes grew larger. Then with a soft plop, it turned into a teardrop and rolled down her cheek.

“Is that… not allowed?”

Instead of answering, I knelt on one knee to meet her eye level. I carefully unwound her clasped hands. Her finger joints were pale white from how tightly she had been gripping them.

“I’ve asked this question to others, and now I’ll ask you too.”

Her body gave a small jolt. I couldn’t tell if it was because she realized I was saying the same thing I had said to my girlfriends, or simply because the silence had been broken.

“Is your affection for me merely an extension of how you used to see me in the past, or do you truly like me now?”

Priscilla, Rosaria, Elysier, and Laura had all received this question once. I asked them to seriously consider whether they might be confusing gratitude for helping them escape the regression with romantic feelings.

Of course, all four firmly drew the line that gratitude and love were separate matters, and they still remained as my girlfriends. Now it was Aria’s turn.

“I heard from Leona. That most of your past feelings remain, and that you were confused because of it. Which is it for you? Are those past feelings still lingering, or will you draw a line between the past and present?”

“…I told you earlier, didn’t I? That I’ve been constantly thinking for two months about whether I’m allowed to love you.”

Aria slowly began to speak. There was hardly any hesitation.

“What you just mentioned is exactly what I’ve been contemplating alongside that thought. The exact nature of my feelings for you. Now I can be certain. It’s not merely an extension of feelings I had in the past. Perhaps my past self was like that. Perhaps I denied the entire world and considered only you to be real. But that’s not the case anymore. Now I…”

After saying that much in one breath, she momentarily chewed her lip as if overcome with emotion, then squeezed out her final words with a desperate voice.

“I just… like you. Isn’t that enough?”

“…”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure. How much deliberation had gone into Aria’s current state? Whether she might be mistaking her own feelings.

But that wasn’t what mattered now. What mattered was that the current Aria thought this way.

I took her hand and stood up together. Aria, who had been sniffling and swallowing her tears, looked at me with surprised eyes.

“Aria.”

“Yes… Mira.”

“As you probably already know, I have plenty of people I’m responsible for. And just because I heard those words doesn’t mean I’ll like you right away. Is that still okay with you?”

“It’s okay.”

Aria bit her lip tightly. She wiped away the tears that had been welling up. She seemed to have steeled her resolve.

“Then… hah, I don’t know if I’m the right person to say this. Anyway, from now on, shouldn’t we get to know each other step by step? Like Leona said. Let’s start over from the beginning. We can do that too. We have plenty of time and opportunities anyway.”

The hand that had been wiping away tears froze. Judging by her incredulous expression, she hadn’t thought at all that I would accept her feelings. The teardrops at the corners of her eyes gradually grew larger.

“Thank… thank y… *sniff*…”

“No, you don’t need to thank me. Why would you do that? I’m just saying let’s get to know each other gradually. You don’t need to, really.”

I comforted Aria for quite some time, and she finally managed to stop crying after her eyes had turned bright red.

Even after the tears stopped, our firmly clasped hands showed no sign of letting go.

Time truly flew by quickly. Before I knew it, I was attending the graduation ceremony with Laura.

Laura no longer tried to hide anything, openly sticking close to me, and the students who saw us all had looks that said they knew it all along. There was less resistance than I had expected. Just less than expected.

“Congratulations, Mira Crate. I thought something seemed unusual about your relationship, but it wasn’t in the way I imagined.”

Surprisingly, even the Eihenhart Duchess came to the academy to congratulate us both. It was thanks to other academies holding their graduation ceremonies a week later. To avoid overlapping with Bellium Academy.

It wasn’t a recent change; it was quite an old tradition. According to Erestica, about 80 years old.

“You knew, didn’t you? That the Crown Prince was actually a woman.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Sigh. Really, I had no idea… to think I sought relationship advice from such a person…”

Eihenhart shook her head and left. For someone who claimed to be disappointed, she seemed to be living quite happily with the man by her side.

It was the same man Laura had mentioned—the one who had fallen in love with Eihenhart at first sight and worked hard to become her ideal man. It seemed he had succeeded in the end.

“Congratulations on your early graduation, Sir Mira! As expected of the supreme intellect!”

“How do you like our ultimate congratulatory magic that we created!”

“Hey…”

Even those damn people from the Mage Association came to congratulate me. The problem was that they set off fireworks spelling my name in the sky as their so-called congratulatory magic.

Thanks to them, the name “Mira Crate” written in red, orange, and yellow flames adorned the sky throughout the graduation ceremony. I suppose their last shred of conscience was that they made it silent.

“How long will that last?”

“About six hours. Actually, we wanted to set them off all day, but thinking you might find it burdensome, we tearfully—”

“I’m the one who should be tearful, you crazy people.”

In the end, the Tower Masters were thoroughly scolded by me and glumly agreed to end it after just 30 more minutes. I was being lenient because their intentions were good. Originally, I wanted to end it right away.

“You really succeeded. As expected of my sibling, you’re amazing.”

“Hey, my little sibling! Come here! I need to give you a big hug!”

After my parents congratulated me first and briefly stepped away, Diana and Trisha came to take their place.

Diana wore an expression of disbelief that I had actually managed to graduate early, while Trisha was beaming as if it were her own achievement and suddenly initiated a strength contest, saying she wanted to hug me.

After being subdued in three seconds, she was restrained by magic and dragged away by Diana, who grabbed her by the nape of her neck.

“Congratulations, employer!”

“Congratulations on graduating, Brother Mira.”

With those two having arrived, it was only natural that Io and Io’s sibling would come next.

She said she wanted to bring all her siblings since I was her benefactor, but thought it might get too crowded and noisy, so she brought just one representative. It was indeed that kid who works as Diana’s assistant.

“It’s been a really long time, hasn’t it? This kind of thing.”

“Yes, that’s right— ahem, what are you saying, employer? I dropped out before even graduating.”

Despite knowing that Diana and Trisha had already changed their appearances with artifact power, Io still pretended to be a teenager. Her sibling was watching this behavior with a subtle look.

“Geez, why are there so many people? Hey, congratulations on graduating.”

Kang Yuna was the most simple and concise. She just tossed me a single flower and that was it. After being harassed by so many people, this approach was actually more comfortable.

“Of course there are a lot of people. Think of all the attention focused here.”

The Crown Princess was present, Bellium Academy’s first early graduate was here, the Mage Association was participating, and great mages had flocked in droves. Naturally, attention was bound to be concentrated.

It was fortunate that the Emperor himself didn’t come; if Laura hadn’t stopped him, he would have shown up to congratulate me and caused a complete mess.

“Still, try not to look so exhausted. This is probably the last graduation ceremony of your life, right? It’s not like you’re going to attend university again on Earth.”

“The last one, you say?”

When I laughed lightly at that, Kang Yuna hesitated.

“W-what? Why are you laughing so ominously?”

“Who knows.”

She’s right. This will be the last graduation ceremony of my life.

At least officially.