Ariel’s story wasn’t much different from what I’d heard before.
However, of course, there were some differences compared to Seo-A’s account, who shared her perspective. While Seo-A described the events through her feelings, Ariel observed the incident from a third-party viewpoint.
“…….”
But for Erica, that alone must have been shocking. She had her head hung low, hiding her expression, but it was clear she wasn’t feeling anything good about this story.
Seo-A hesitantly raised her hand towards Erica, but then let it fall weakly. Even if it was a difficult story to share, she had kept it hidden until now. If there hadn’t been a chance to bring this up, this story might have remained buried forever.
…Some people might have thought it was better left that way.
“Was that demon who killed our parents… sincere at that time?”
After a long moment of keeping her head down, Erica asked. Her calm and quiet voice made it sound even more concerning.
“To some extent, yes, he was sincere.”
“……!”
Aurora, who had been keeping her head down since the beginning of the story, looked up in surprise. Ariel sorrowfully smiled at Aurora.
“He can’t say he never dreamed.”
“Dreamed?”
I asked, feeling anxious.
“No matter how much a being is born for war, if they live in constant danger and seek a life guaranteed to be safe, they will dream of wanting to continue that life. But simultaneously, over time, they can grow tired of living in hiding.”
Ariel paused for a moment. Then, slowly and carefully, she opened her mouth.
“……Loving their family was sincere. But at the same time, they couldn’t love, understand, or trust others.”
Ariel closed her eyes.
“They said to me once, they thought of running far away someday. To a place untouched by human or demon hands, where they could quietly live only with their family. That was their true desire.”
“But… what about my parents?”
“……”
After a brief moment of silence to collect her thoughts in response to Erica’s words, Ariel slowly opened her eyes.
“Yes, that’s right. They only thought of themselves, thus they had no qualms about harming others. They couldn’t trust anyone else. That’s how they could commit such sins.”
“…….”
For quite a while, no one could speak. Even Ariel maintained her silence. She looked as if she was truly sorry that she had to share such a story.
“…May I ask one more thing?”
The first to speak was Erica.
“Yes, you may ask as many questions as you wish.”
“Should I forgive that person?”
Erica raised her head. Her face looked confused. Even if she was extremely angry or sad, no one would dare say anything, yet she was grappling with the story she’d heard.
“Forgiveness…”
Ariel quietly murmured that word.
“When you’re at the Temple of Gods, you meet many people. Countless who confess their misdeeds and seek forgiveness. They instinctively see me as a ’goddess.’ In their eyes, a goddess is a higher being than humans, someone who governs the laws of the world. Hence, they think that if they receive forgiveness from me, everything will be over.”
Then she let out a small breath.
“I do grant their requests. I forgive those who ask for forgiveness.”
“……”
“But that doesn’t mean that the sins of those people are completely washed away. How could I arbitrarily decide the penalty for their crimes and judge them? We can only help them truly repent for their sins.”
Ariel quietly gazed into Erica’s eyes.
“To me, there’s no sin those people can impose. All the sins they committed were against others in this world, not myself. Even if they seek forgiveness from me, and I grant it, that doesn’t mean anything ends there. The relationship between me and the sinner only begins at the moment we meet, which is why I can easily forgive someone I’ve never been harmed by.”
The sin of offending the gods, the sin of believing in another religion, the sin of denying religion. Even those clauses, which were once defined as ‘sins’ by the church, can’t directly harm the distant gods.
Some may argue that reducing followers and ultimately weakening the gods’ power is a sin. But conversely, the gods’ power originally comes from those who believe in them. No one has the right to forcibly take that power. The gods simply use the power that was never originally theirs for those who believe in them.
“Only those affected by the crime can forgive it. You lost your family because of her. Thus, the right to decide whether to forgive that sin lies solely with you. I cannot arbitrarily decide if that right exists or not.”
“……”
Once again, silence enveloped the empty classroom.
“I’m sorry for giving you such an answer after saying you could ask as many questions as you want.”
Ariel bowed her head to Erica.
“Oh, no. I’m the one who’s sorry for trying to impose what I should reflect on…”
Erica finally seemed to snap back to reality and deeply bowed her waist like Ariel.
“Now that I’ve learned the truth, I can’t go back to how things were before. Perhaps I will suffer from that memory for a lifetime. I’m the one who’s truly sorry for not being able to do anything, knowing that fact.”
Ariel lifted her head.
“But one thing I, as a being known as a goddess, promise: In the distant future, you will surely be able to meet your family and smile again. I will work hard here to ensure that happens.”
“…….”
Erica’s shoulders trembled slightly. Although it was something she could never truly reach, Ariel gently brushed Erica’s shoulder with her hand.
Seo-A, watching this, slowly moved closer to Erica. With a slightly trembling hand, she placed it on Erica’s shoulder. Unlike Ariel’s hand, which couldn’t touch due to being a mirage, Seo-A’s hand was real and connected with Erica’s shoulder.
“Erica.”
Seo-A, who had been quiet, finally said Erica’s name.
“I’m sorry for not telling you until now.”
Her voice trembled a little as she spoke.
“…….”
Erica, merely trembling at the shoulders, said nothing. Actually, it might be more accurate to say she couldn’t say anything.
After slowly pulling her hand away from Erica’s shoulder, Ariel turned to look at me and Aurora.
She seemed to want to say something.
I reached out and took Aurora’s hand. Aurora’s hand was trembling slightly.
“I’m… I’m okay. I’ve heard this story before.”
There’s no way I was okay. This was about the reason her family died. No matter how many times I heard it, I could never adapt to it.
But I didn’t explicitly deny that.
All I could do then was be there for Aurora.
*
“……I’m sorry.”
Once the story was done and the kids calmed down a bit, I approached Ariel and said that. Ariel shook her head with a gentle smile on her face.
“No, rather, I think it’s wonderful that I could say it directly like this. Normally, that’d be impossible.”
Even if there were unfortunate stories and I wanted to help, all Ariel could do was await the day they might meet. She could only communicate with limited methods, so maybe this was a good opportunity for her.
Of course, I wasn’t implying all gods were like that.
“Heh, now I can finally see your face.”
The designated area was small, but perhaps due to holding the spell for so long, the light emanating from my face was gradually fading. In a moment, it would become hard to maintain this space.
“I could technically do this every day if needed…”
Honestly, it was a great method since it had good effects and allowed me to spend all my power. From my standpoint.
But with the strength to see the gods’ faces, I could help countless people immensely. To be blunt, it wasn’t cost-effective at all. Well, who knows how it would change if the believers increased in the future, but for now, my temporary discomfort paled in comparison to the other areas where this power could be more useful.
…If I want to use it properly, I might have to quit the academy.
“……”
While I was deep in such mixed thoughts, Ariel, who had been silently gazing at me with a smile, spoke again in her gentle voice.
“To believe in someone is a freedom. Especially, believing in the existence of a god without doubts or reservations is what gives us strength. Receiving this power doesn’t mean you owe it back to those who gave it to you. It’s not the power you asked for, after all.”
Seeing my eyes widen, Ariel playfully laughed.
“Even gods receive the power differently. If you feel it’s too heavy, then no one could blame you if you refuse.”
Hearing Ariel’s words, I snapped back to reality after zoning out with my mouth slightly agape.
“No, but I can’t just quit since it’s not wholly my power.”
I furrowed my brow slightly and declared,
“If I say I’m giving up, how many people would suffer heart attacks? Well, I could have avoided it if I could,”
But there was no sign of that happening at all. It seemed like there would be none in the foreseeable future.
“…Well, it can’t be helped. Since I’ve come this far, I have no choice but to see it through.”
“Hehe.”
After I said that, Ariel laughed as if she was genuinely happy.
“To be honest, I had a similar thought.”
“Then why say something like that?”
I asked, bewildered.
“It’s simply because I’m the one who put you in that position.”
Ariel replied with a slightly darkened expression. No, there was definitely a subtle smile on her face, but she also looked a bit sad, as if she had swallowed something bitter. It was a look I had never seen on Ariel before, leaving me quite flustered.
“As you said, initially, I held such thoughts. So I used my power to bring you into this world. To repay the belief given to me by others.”
There hadn’t been any saints or saintesses for the past 50 years. This was a setting I hadn’t written about separately. That meant there must have been some sort of issue in this world itself.
People might have felt disillusioned with the battlefield that had persisted for 500 years. Perhaps they were disappointed that the god up there was not the omnipotent singular god that once dominated the mainstream religion hundreds of years ago and believed that even a god couldn’t prevent destruction, thus giving up entirely.
“So, how did it go? Did it work out as intended?”
“Well, let’s see. I could say, ‘Not everything went according to plan.’ There were things we didn’t anticipate.”
“Does that mean things went too well?”
“That means,”
Ariel fixed her gaze on me.
“I handed you far too much burden than I originally thought.”
“…….”
“Hehe, now that’s a disqualification for a goddess.”
Ariel mumbled.
I stared at her, and glanced around. Off a bit from us, Seo-A and Erica were quietly talking. Were they sharing the stories they hadn’t had the chance to discuss before? Somehow, it seemed the two had called Aurora over too. While they didn’t sit right next to each other, perhaps feeling a bit uncomfortable, the three were awkwardly engaging in conversation, which was enough to reassure me.
Confident that the three weren’t looking our way, I leaned slightly toward Ariel and whispered with my palm covering my mouth.
“Well, you know, there are even more ridiculous thoughts from someone else. Someone saying they aren’t a god or something.”
“…….”
At my words, Ariel momentarily wore a rare blank expression.
“…Seriously.”
A sigh was held back as Ariel said that. It made me smile.
Seeing my expression, perhaps feeling a bit more relaxed, Ariel offered a softer smile.
“Most of the big stuff is nearly over now. Of course, you’ve done well enough, or rather, beyond what’s expected so far…”
However, Ariel couldn’t bring herself to finish that thought.
“You don’t need to ask. I can’t merely give up now that I’ve come this far. You asked me directly back then. What if it’s too hard to just leave it empty in the back? To that, I answered that I couldn’t do that. And I feel the same even now.”
I let out a deep sigh.
“There’s nothing as unsettling as stopping halfway through what I’m doing.”
I exaggeratedly slumped my shoulders.
“…If you ever need help, just let me know.”
“Alright. Once everything is over, get ready for some major work.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Ariel beamed at me.
As if on cue, it seemed my power had nearly run out by then. The mirage filling the classroom began to fade, making it seem as if a pond was floating in mid-air, with the Temple of Gods’ form reflected in it.
“Ah.”
Those in the classroom hurriedly got up from their seats, but by then, the mirage had nearly vanished, and Ariel’s figure was only barely visible.
“Well then, everyone, I look forward to our next meeting someday. I hope you all achieve whatever you wish for in a life filled with blessings.”
With that, as Ariel slightly bowed her head, her form slowly faded and completely vanished.
“…….”
For a moment, silence filled the classroom.
“So… should we say she has ‘left’?”
“Uh… doesn’t that sound a bit odd?”
It sounds like something meant for the deceased. Although, the place Ariel went to was indeed where souls that had passed on wandered.
“On close inspection, she technically never came here either. It’d be more accurate to say we’ve lost contact.”
“I see…….”
Seo-A paused to think for a moment, then bowed her head towards me.
“Thank you. I feel much lighter now.”
“……Me too.”
Erica said that, but she probably hadn’t completely accepted it yet. It would be better for her to take her time to come to terms with it, even though hearing it from the goddess herself was much better than hearing it from someone else.
I turned to look at Aurora. Aurora smiled softly at me.
It seemed she had somehow received a positive influence. I sighed in relief inwardly.
“Well then, shall we head back? The other members must be waiting.”
*
“Welcome back.”
Before Ariel could say anything, Baal spoke first.
“……Where were you while I was revealing myself?”
Ariel asked softly, but Baal’s hidden emotions were easily readable in that question. It hadn’t been long since she learned to hide her feelings and act. The expressions beyond Baal’s gaze were clear to see.
Of course, Baal didn’t intend to engage in any face-off with Ariel by hiding something from her.
“I was here the entire time. I was just in a place not easily seen by others.”
“…….”
Ariel narrowed her eyes slightly and glared at Baal, a look that oddly resembled Clara. If Clara created this world, then Ariel must have taken after Clara, or conversely, if Clara was using a body made by Ariel, then she would look similar to Ariel.
Baal thought that trying to distinguish that was meaningless.
“……Honestly, I was reluctant to take action.”
Baal casually remarked.
“I am ultimately the one who created such an era, making those tragedies occur.”
It was too clear of a sin for him to dump on Clara for only having ‘written in a notebook to create the world.’ He believed if he were to say that to another god, he would be met with scoffing laughter.
“…….”
Ariel had no response.
“Yes, rather than ‘reluctant,’ it should be ‘embarrassed.’ Last time, I faced them without proper preparation, but I really don’t want to act as if I’m something grand when I appear before such characters.”
“Is that so.”
“One day, someone will come to hold me accountable for my sins.”
“…….”
Ariel merely gazed quietly at Baal.
“Thank you for doing my work. If I consider it a debt, I’ll gradually pay it off in the future.”
“……Yes, please do that someday.”
After hesitating for a moment to respond, Ariel simply accepted his words.
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