chapter_0178

As soon as Aria mentioned the word “Possessors” my body reacted before my mind.

I pinned her down, pressing down on her with my body, sealing her arms and legs with magic, grabbing her shoulder with my left hand, and holding Eternity at her neck with my right hand, reversed. The blade pressed against her throat, emitting an eerie blue light.

“Ouch. Mr. Mira. You could be a little gentler, you know.”

But Aria remained unfazed. Even with the sensation of Eternity against her neck, she showed no sign of surprise or tension, smiling gently as always.

“……Who are you? And how did you find out about that?”

“Oh, is that something to be surprised about? Did you really think that only the people involved knew about it, Mr. Mira? Priscilla, Rosalia, Laura, and Elysier are all Possessors, and someone other than the involved parties knows about it?”

The honorifics for Priscilla and Rosalia, Laura, and Ciel as Elysier disappeared from her speech, indicating that it wasn’t a coincidence or a mistake.

She had intentionally and deliberately done it.

“So, you think it’s unlikely?”

I pressed Eternity against Aria’s neck with my reversed grip. The blade pushed against her throat.

“You seem a little too surprised. Why don’t you calm down a bit? You might choke me to death, Mr. Mira.”

“Answer my question. Don’t beat around the bush.”

“Like this?”

“Your lips can still move. Don’t play games.”

A soft sigh escaped my lips.

“Hmm…… I guess I have no choice. I would have preferred a more comfortable atmosphere, but fine. I’ll understand. So, what do you want me to explain first? Everything I know?”

“Everything.”

“Oh, that’s a bit difficult.”

Aria made a troubled face. I couldn’t tell if it was an act or if she genuinely felt that way. Her expression seemed to indicate that she was genuinely troubled.

“If I were to tell you everything I know, we’d have to stay here for over a hundred years, Mr. Mira. I’d be fine with that, but you need to get back as soon as possible, don’t you? For the sake of the people you left behind. But if you’re okay with that, I’ll tell you everything I know, as you requested. Is that alright with you?”

“……”

I took a deep breath. Even though I was the one holding a weapon, Aria seemed to have a firm grasp on the dynamics of the conversation. She knew I wouldn’t kill her.

Or perhaps she had some other assurance.

“It’s hard to choose what to start with…… Oh, wait. I just thought of something. Would it even be meaningful for me to tell you about my identity?”

“What kind of nonsensㅡ”

“Well, you already know who I am. Aria April, the protagonist of Laura’s yuri romance novel. Do you need any more explanation?”

At that moment, the strength drained from my limbs.

The protagonist of Laura’s yuri romance novel. It was a term that should never have been uttered by a character in the novel. It felt like my already bursting head had been struck by a hammer.

Aria took the opportunity to wriggle free while I was stunned. I don’t know when she had released the magic binding her wrists and ankles. I just stared blankly as she got up.

Aria dusted off her skirt and stuck out her tongue slightly as she added, “Or should I say Lee Seo-ah? I was still a Possessor when she wrote the novel, so maybe that’s the name you should use.”

The name Lee Seo-ah made the strength that had left my limbs return. I steadied myself with Eternity and stood up.

“You…… What do you know?”

“It’s a bit of a misnomer to ask what I know. After all, I’m the one who brought those people here. It would be faster to ask what I don’t know.”

“What?”

“Hey. Don’t act so surprised. You heard it all, didn’t you? I brought Lee Seo-ah, Ha Yoon, Kang Ye-na, and Yoo Chae-won here. Oh, and you, Mr. Mira. I almost forgot the most important person.”

There was no longer any room for doubt. It was a name we had never called out loud, even among ourselves, as we were saving it for when we returned to the original world. The fact that Aria knew it was too obvious in its meaning.

“……So, you also know that the others were on the verge of a mental breakdown from repeatedly regressing?”

“Yes. I know. Because I brought them here.”

“Did you…… kill the Goddess too……?”

“Yes, it was me. I sealed their divine powers so they couldn’t use them without my permission, and I implanted a parasite in their hearts so they would die a horrible death if they did anything wrong. I didn’t expect the parasite to grow like this, though, since I created it with the sole purpose of killing them.”

“You……”

“Please don’t be angry. I had my reasons for everything I did.”

“……Reasons? You call this a reason? You brought us here, let the other four repeat the same actions until they were on the verge of a mental breakdown, and you killed the Goddess and the Demon God, and you call this a reason?”

“Of course. Why do you think I’m doing all this? I’m trying to answer your questions, Mr. Mira. I’m trying to persuade you. I need you, Mr. Mira. And when you hear my explanation, you’ll understand why I had to do what I did.”

“Understand? You? Me?”

“I’m confident. It’s a complicated and intriguing story, you see. Since you’re curious about my identity, I’ll start with that. It’s not very pleasant to explain it in this gloomy place, so let’s change the setting.”

Aria’s feet moved lightly. The blackened sky turned blue in an instant, and flowers bloomed on the ground, covering every inch of space. Aria sat down with her knees tucked under her, plucked a black tulip from under her feet, and brought it to her nose. A radiant smile, completely out of place in the current situation, bloomed on her face.

“Mr. Mira.”

Aria, who had been savoring the scent of the tulip with her eyes closed, opened her eyes. The eyelids lifted to reveal the pupils within. The blue eyes, like a reflection of the ocean, fixed on me.

“Mr. Mira, how much do you know about this world? The writer was right next to you, wasn’t she? Her identity was revealed quite a while ago, wasn’t it? What did Laura…… or rather, Crown Prince Laura, say about this world?”

“……It was a novel that started as a hobby, but it ended abruptly because the interest faded. That’s about it.”

I wouldn’t believe her claim that she was trying to persuade me. But her so-called “explanation” was worth hearing. Just in case, that is.

Of course, I didn’t lower my guard. I was still prepared to summon the Holy Lance at any moment.

“At least you’re not lying. You could have mixed in some lies that benefited you.”

Aria slowly rose to her feet. Her fingers spread out, and the tulip she had been holding was buried among the blooming flowers. Aria stepped on the tulip on the ground, crushing it.

I felt like I heard a crunch, though I knew it was my imagination.

“……Mr. Mira, I woke up in a world where everything but me had stopped.”

With a face cold enough to freeze the air, she began to speak.

“It was a world where the sun didn’t shine, the wind didn’t blow, and I couldn’t do anything. In hindsight, it would have been better if I hadn’t woken up. It would have been better if the novel had ended as a fairy tale, with me and Leona happily ever after, even if it was a girl-girl relationship.”

“How did you wake up?”

“I don’t know. But one thing was certain. In a world where everything else had come to an end, only I had not ended but begun. Only my time was flowing, and for a mere fictional character like me, it was a curse.”

Her expression became wistful, as if she were both smiling and crying.

“I wandered for a very long time in a world where time had become meaningless. I don’t know how long it was. I stopped counting after a thousand years. Don’t you have anyone in mind? Not a fictional character like me, but a ‘real person’?”

Aria emphasized the words “real person” and curled up the corners of her lips. The corners of her lips soon fell again.

“The status of Saint, the knowledge I had acquired, magic…… none of it was of any use in a world where time had stopped. Honestly, I really wanted to die back then. So I tried all sorts of methods to kill myself, but I couldn’t even get hurt, let alone die.”

“……”

“One day, a miracle happened. Mr. Mira, what do you think that miracle was?”

“……I don’t know.”

“A fragment of another world.”

Aria’s gaze shifted slightly downward, fixed on my left hand.

“A fragment of another world flowed into this world. A world where not a single life remained, a world that had shattered into pieces because it could no longer maintain its spacetime. Don’t you have something that comes to mind? Something other than this?”

I knew. I knew what it was, but I couldn’t answer.

“When I absorbed the fragment of the broken world, a completely different knowledge seeped into my mind. It was the knowledge of the world created by the writer of this novel. I was so shocked when I found out that I must have been frozen for about a hundred years.”

“……”

“Anyway, I was consumed by a desire for revenge against the writer of this novel, who was like a creator to me. I couldn’t kill her because I lacked the power, but I wanted to take revenge at the very least. So I brought her here and embedded her into Crown Prince Laura’s body…… and another miracle happened. The stopped time began to flow again. It rewound and started from the beginning.”

The coldness on Aria’s face melted away, replaced by a radiant smile.

“This is the first reason I called it fate. If it weren’t for you, Mr. Mira, I would still be trapped in a world where time had stopped, going insane all alone. My entire life is because of you, Mr. Mira.”

“So, was it fate that brought the fragment of the world here too?”

“Hmm? Of course not. It was inevitable. A world that can no longer maintain its spacetime is inevitably drawn to the closest world. They naturally merge. It had to come here.”

“Inevitable?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?”

Aria widened her eyes. Her round eyes gradually narrowed, transforming into a seductive gaze.

“You really didn’t know. That woman didn’t tell you, did she? She really was just telling lies and keeping the truth to herself. She left out the most important part.”

The seductive gaze turned into a radiant smile.

“Her previous work was the dark fantasy world where you were a possessor for the first time, Mr. Mira. I’m glad you know now.”