Ch.316316. The Girl Who Escaped Fate

Retry.

When I was 10 years old, this game was released and could fairly be described as absolute garbage.

Since it was the first game I had ever experienced, I enjoyed it.

And my mother liked seeing me playing like a normal child.

Regardless of public opinion, the game Retry was a gift from my father and my mother’s smile to me.

Of course, the content was utterly unpleasant.

At 10 years old, I had already witnessed numerous tragedies around me.

Far more vivid deaths surrounded me than the story of Aria Rius on the screen.

“……”

Aria’s expression darkened.

The truth she finally discovered was horrific, but I hoped she would see it from a slightly different perspective.

“It’s okay.”

“Well, let’s go.”

Her voice, tinged with moisture, revealed complex emotions. Being a good child, her sadness would be deeper than the shock.

“Now you’re free from all fate.”

Aria, who had been hiding her face with her hair, suddenly glared at me.

Her reddened eyes held bitter resentment.

“So what! Do you think that makes me happy? Do you think I’m rejoicing because I’ve escaped a cruel fate! What about you, Professor! What about you who took it on!”

“……”

“You should have told me earlier! If you had, I would never have handed it over to you! I wouldn’t have lived as just an ordinary Aria Rius!”

Everyone in the café was staring at us. Eventually, a server approached us cautiously.

I took Aria outside.

We needed a separate place to talk. But Aria couldn’t wait.

She grabbed my wrist and led me into an alley. I noticed Elenoa Luden Griffin following us but pretended not to see her.

Deep in the alley.

Since it was still daylight, the interior of the alley with no streetlights was clearly visible.

Greyford was such a clean city that even the alleys were impressively tidy.

“Let’s go back… to the gods.”

Had her thoughts organized during our brief walk? With tears streaming down her face, Aria confronted me.

“No.”

I answered firmly but gently.

“What do you mean no! It’s the fate I was supposed to bear! It’s what I should be doing!”

“Even they can’t act freely.”

They’re just beings dragged along by the halter of fate. It’s hardly worth giving them the title of gods or creators.

“There, there must be a way! There must be a way!”

“There isn’t. It’s already over.”

Time is running out now.

The fate originally planned for five years has been shortened because of me.

Many things have been distorted, and the future will change, but the overall framework probably won’t.

In the end, the world will present me with the same choices that Aria Rius faced.

“No……”

At my resolute tone, Aria finally broke down crying again.

She grabbed my clothes tightly, as if refusing to let go.

“No… I said no. Why does Professor have to face such an ending? Why?”

As always.

Aria had a somewhat fragile side emotionally. That was because the girl Aria valued others so deeply.

“Don’t go. Professor, you can’t go.”

“……”

“Please. Okay? Please.”

Burying her face in my chest, Aria trembled with fear.

I wondered what decision the first-cycle me had made to cause this girl to become so attached to him.

Even though I didn’t want to know.

Since it was still me, I could guess all too easily.

‘Because I love you, I would have asked her to die.’

I hated myself for smilingly asking her to die for the sake of my love.

I despised myself for using love to push her toward death, knowing that I too would die if the Griffin Kingdom fell.

“Aria.”

I called her carefully.

My voice carried a faint trace of laughter.

“I want to be happy.”

I carefully embraced her as she looked up at me. I knew that the warmth of this girl was what I had longed for.

“Do you know?”

More than what you’re shouting at me now.

“How desperately I wanted to save you.”

How frantically a 10-year-old boy clutched his game console, trying to save a mere girl inside a game.

Since there was no internet.

I had no access to game walkthroughs or reviews.

The continent was a world to me, a place of complete mystery.

“I tried again and again. Even seeing the cruel ending, I never gave up and watched your story.”

Surely there must be another way.

Surely there must be a best ending prepared for Aria through a different route.

Surely there must be an ending where this infinitely innocent and kind girl could smile.

But I couldn’t find it.

Years later, when I searched the internet, I learned that the ending I had seen was the only one in Retry.

I felt somewhat dejected.

In the end, I couldn’t save her, but by then I had matured enough that it didn’t affect me much.

However.

“Finally.”

I embrace her carefully but firmly.

To save this young girl in my arms.

How many years had it taken?

“Truly finally.”

A small girl.

Who showed me a new world.

Who brought peace to my home, if only briefly.

“I’ve saved you.”

Aria Rius.

Once the hero of this world, now an ordinary girl.

If the first-cycle me sacrificed you to survive.

The second-cycle me sacrifices myself to save you.

“Aria.”

My voice trembled slightly as I called her name. Emotions were welling up.

Somehow I had returned to being.

The emotionally full.

Unwounded.

10-year-old Shinwoo Kim.

“This is my happiness.”

“Pro-Professor……”

“Thank you so much.”

For a long time.

I didn’t let go of this small girl. I savored her warmth and trembling while holding her until the end.

Because I was so proud of myself for saving her.

How much time passed?

Only after my heightened emotions gradually subsided did I carefully release her.

“Ah.”

Aria’s hot breath carried regret, but we couldn’t stay like this forever.

Looking at her face, a mess from crying, I placed my hand gently on her head.

“It’s okay. Everything will be fine. I have no intention of dying, nor do I plan to surrender to fate.”

I refuse to acknowledge this world as a game.

Therefore, I will definitely twist the main story.

“You don’t need to worry.”

As I stroked her head, Aria closed her eyes and moved her head side to side following my touch.

Forcibly suppressing her surging emotions, she finally nodded slightly.

“I’ll believe you.”

That was enough.

A sufficiently satisfying answer.

“Thank you.”

I had planned to go have a meal separately with Aria, but that seemed difficult in her current state.

“There’s a bathhouse nearby. Go there and relax while washing up.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

She’s calmed down, but it would be awkward if I stayed. I left Aria and walked out of the alley.

I could have gone straight back, but I headed to the newspaper stand across the street.

I greeted the girl awkwardly hiding her face behind a newspaper.

“Elenoa.”

“Eeeek! I-I’m caught!”

I caught Elenoa’s shoulder as she startled and tried to flee. Her white beret almost fell off, so I caught it with my other hand.

“Th-that! I wasn’t following you. I was just curious what you two were doing! Just curious!”

“Okay, just calm down.”

Elenoa, who had been flailing and shouting, gradually calmed down at my composed reaction.

Finally, taking a deep breath, Elenoa stared at me. Her face turned bright red.

“Oh, I-I can’t look.”

Then she turned her head away abruptly.

Her reaction was somewhat different from when she was with Deus Verdi, which confused me a bit, but I had something to ask her.

“Aria is in a difficult state right now.”

“……”

“Go and just be there for her as a friend. Please.”

“Tch!”

Elenoa clicked her tongue in obvious annoyance that I was concerned about Aria rather than her, but.

“I-I’m only doing this because Shinwoo Kim asked!”

Nevertheless, Elenoa accepted my request.

“But in return, you have to meet with me separately later! In, in that form!”

“…I’ll try.”

My prosthetic body felt like it could fall apart at any moment, but if Elenoa wanted it, I should oblige.

“Hmph! I’m going to give her a hard time.”

Elenoa headed toward the alley I had come from, shoulders bouncing. Watching her retreating figure, I considered briefly before adding one honest comment.

“Thank you sincerely for missing me.”

“…!”

Elenoa’s white face turned crimson as she spun around. She moved her hands around, not knowing how to react, but when I waved at her, she darted into the alley out of embarrassment.

“Whew.”

I pretended to be fine, but my prosthetic body was reaching its limit.

It was time to return to Deus Verdi.

* * *

Drip.

Drip.

Looking up at the water droplets falling from the ceiling, Aria was lost in thought.

The hot water warming her body adequately gave her a pleasant feeling of relief from fatigue.

She was thinking of going to the sauna a little later.

“Ow! Wh-what?! Why is it so hot?”

Elenoa’s voice didn’t give her time to organize her thoughts. Startled by the hot water, Elenoa wanted to turn on the cold water immediately, but.

“Don’t. This isn’t your private bath. You shouldn’t change the set temperature.”

“…Really?”

Elenoa made an expression of extreme annoyance.

“Even though it’s just for us right now? After paying so much money?”

Elenoa had rented the entire bathhouse for about an hour because a princess’s naked body couldn’t be shown to others.

It was possible because it was a time when no one was around.

“Just endure it.”

“Ugh.”

Elenoa plunged her body into the water with a splash.

“Aaaack!”

A strange scream echoed.

Elenoa tried to endure forcibly but couldn’t last even a few minutes before jumping up.

“I’m going to the cold bath!”

“Get out quickly.”

Why did she have to follow me here.

A smile escaped as Aria watched Elenoa slip and fall while running to the cold bath.

Elenoa grumbled, checking if she was hurt, and let out another scream as she entered the cold bath, but.

She seemed able to endure the cold bath as she didn’t come out, giving Aria time to organize her thoughts.

Aria was lost in various thoughts. The man who had taken on fate in her place to save her.

She had told him she would trust and leave it to him, but.

‘The reason I haven’t moved until now is because I was the hero.’

She had deliberately entrusted everything to Deus Verdi and lived like an ordinary student to escape her predetermined fate.

But now it was different.

“I can move.”

Her clenched fist.

Apology and despair had long since disappeared. A passionate sense of mission was burning in Aria Rius’s body.

Because she was no longer the hero.

Because she had completely escaped from fate.

She could move freely again.

She no longer needed to passively observe the situation as before; she could wield her sword on the front lines.

“For his sake.”

The first-cycle Deus Verdi had already disappeared from within her. In her heart, which had long since said goodbye, a different yet similar man had already taken his place.

‘Professor.’

No, that’s what she called Deus Verdi.

Closing her eyes calmly, Aria preciously called out the name.

“Shinwoo Kim.”

Drip!

A water droplet condensed on the ceiling fell into the bath.

Though she tried to maintain composure, Aria felt her body growing hot. Her lower body throbbed, making it impossible to keep her hands still.

“Hm, mmh.”

Carefully and secretly.

Moving her fingers, Aria whispered.

“Shin, woo Kim……”

A faint moan escaped. An uncontrollable desire violently dominated her entire body.

Similar to but different from the first-cycle Deus Verdi.

“Shinwoo Kim, ah, hmm. Shin……”

“Hey! Let’s go to the sauna!”

Startled by the sudden voice, Aria raised her hands.

Elenoa, who had come out of the cold bath, was smiling brightly and pointing toward the sauna.

“We didn’t have anything like that in the royal palace.”

“……”

It was just getting good.

It felt like cold water had been poured over her.

“Scared?”

Elenoa snorted, crossing her arms.

When they first entered the bathhouse, she had made a fuss about being naked together, but now she was completely uninhibited.

Aria wanted to tell her to get lost, but.

If she stayed alone any longer, she might do something that violated bathhouse etiquette.

“Just wait, you brat.”

Aria followed Elenoa toward the sauna.