“What happened…?”
I took Aria to a secluded place. It seemed that she also wanted to have a conversation, as she didn’t reject my touch.
As soon as we arrived, I asked Aria, and she looked up at me intently.
“… Just to be sure, I should mention that this trial isn’t wrong. We’re definitely undergoing a trial right now.”
“A trial… you mean we’re undergoing a trial?”
“Yes. This kind of trial is something I didn’t expect either, but… anyway, we’re still inside the dungeon. Perhaps… we might be unconscious.”
Is this what a trial is?
What kind of ancient technology could cause this…
“It’s a completely new world…”
Bringing us to a place like this, as well as making us act naturally, wasn’t a common occurrence.
I wasn’t even sure if magic could allow for something like this.
Perhaps only a great magician of illusion could manage it.
“So what am I supposed to do here now?”
“… Well…”
“Well?”
“…”
Aria was silent for a while.
Could there be some issue, or was there a reason she couldn’t tell me what I should do here?
“I… don’t know either.”
“… Huh?”
Her response left me momentarily speechless.
It was an answer I had never expected.
Up until now, Aria had always seemed to be the saint who knew everything.
But…
‘Aria is… human too…’
The way she had acted until now had been so inhuman, performing feats impossible for ordinary people, and demonstrating the opposite of that by locating a dungeon that no one else knew, following a divine oracle.
It wasn’t that I intended to say her current demeanor was strange.
She was human, so it was natural for this to happen.
It was simply surprising that the one who brought up the story of this wisdom trial was Aria herself, and that she didn’t know such a trial awaited us.
Since she had said she learned about this place from the forbidden library, all the information must have been within that ancient book. Considering how Aria reads, it’s highly likely that there was no mental note about the trial in the ancient text.
Aria couldn’t possibly miss something like that.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect this…”
“Uh-huh, it’s okay. More importantly, what happened to those two?”
“… I’m not sure, but unlike me, the saint, and you, the hero, it seems that Stella and Uriel haven’t been recognized for the trial.”
Aria said this while looking at the two.
She added that they would probably feel like they were dreaming right now.
“Something… feels odd.”
“Yeah?”
“Seeing you speak directly like this… until now, we’ve only communicated through mental notes.”
“… That’s true.”
Aria muttered with a somewhat sad smile.
…
Suddenly, I thought about something.
If I returned to reality, Aria’s eyes and ears would surely return to normal.
I had heard that the disability was congenital.
If that’s the case for Aria… although this isn’t the world she originally lived in, she was in a situation where she could see with her own eyes and hear with her own ears.
‘Then maybe just for now…’
For this brief moment of undergoing the trial, even if it isn’t the world we originally lived in, I wanted to show her various places and let her have different experiences.
Even if this is a dream world, when I return, if I don’t lose my memory, I could eventually turn this into a memory.
“Aria.”
“Yes?”
“… No, let’s just go to school first.”
They must be waiting for us.
For now, it would be best to go back, find a way to solve the trial, and lead a normal daily life.
Until this moment, Aria had been living such a tough life.
Isn’t it okay to have a little fun?
If a world can’t even permit such a brief respite… if it’s a world that would perish over this.
Then perhaps that world should perish.
‘No, even so, that’s not right.’
I don’t know how much time differs between this world and the original one.
Perhaps time flows similarly in both places, but I should be able to return before the second semester starts.
“Then let’s set the date for before the academy starts the second semester…”
At my words, Aria nodded.
That means we have about 30 days left.
Within that time, I need to find out what the trial is testing us on and solve it.
“It’s going to be challenging…”
So, this is the wisdom trial.
I pondered deeply about what the dungeon could be demanding, but nothing came to mind.
It was only natural.
How could I know what was being asked when I had no information at all about the trial?
‘Should I enter and think it over some more?’
Since Aria didn’t seem to know much either, and according to my recollected memories, it seemed I needed to get into the school soon, I decided to pause my thoughts for the moment.
I needed to put out the urgent fire first.
*
“School… it’s similar to an academy.”
The classes were extremely ordinary.
No, if we think about it from our standards, it wouldn’t just be ordinary; it would be rather special.
We learned things that weren’t taught at the academy.
Not just the academy.
Questions arose about whether the knowledge being taught here was truly the knowledge of the original world.
The things taught in this school… were definitely things that could only be learned by someone of noble status.
Moreover, they were also teaching advanced information that presumably could only be learned by a noble.
To put it bluntly, I didn’t understand any of the things being taught.
Although I’m not good at studying, so I’m not well-acquainted with this stuff, at least I could tell that what was being taught was not ordinary knowledge.
More shocking was that Stella and Uriel, who I had taken classes with at the academy and trained in swordsmanship and magic, seemed to be comfortably attending the class.
“What is this world…?”
It felt like the trial was showing us an illusion, but it seemed more like a completely new world or another world.
“Huh…”
Muttering out of disbelief, I noticed Aria beside me flinch.
“Aria?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
“Really?”
Why is she reacting like that?
For a moment I wondered, but soon I thought it didn’t matter.
Well, Aria…
She usually knew a lot of information I didn’t, so maybe she had something she couldn’t say.
I didn’t know what that could be, but it was best not to ask.
“For now… I think it would be good to look around.”
After all, just earlier, I had been chatting with Aria, and despite being my girlfriend, it did feel like we were too clingy. Stella had expressed her dissatisfaction by saying so.
Then she left with Uriel, saying she was envious because we had a romantic relationship and that they would step back.
“Haha… a romantic relationship… that’s a little strange…”
It seemed that the people here had already recognized us as a couple, so whenever we walked together, there were always compliments about how we looked hot together.
When I was with the guys, they often asked how far we had gone with Aria, or how it felt to be alone with her.
Even once, they asked me if we had ever done that…
‘That’s a question you shouldn’t ask…’
When they asked about whether we had been intimate, it was enough to make my head hurt.
Why on earth would they ask such things…
“Evan?”
“Oh, sorry… I’ve just been thinking about a lot of things…”
As I sighed while recalling what happened earlier, Aria called me with a questioning voice.
She still didn’t seem to be adjusting well, but…
‘Well, it’s fine.’
As long as she’s cute.
“To reiterate what I said earlier, I thought it would be good to wander around a bit. How about walking together through the town? Inside?”
“Ah…”
… I didn’t have completely selfless motives.
After all, she was a girl I liked…
But I also felt that if I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be able to find any clues.
At the same time, I wanted to show her as much as possible.
Even though I didn’t know where we were.
“… I think that would be a good idea.”
When Aria responded sincerely, I felt happy about being able to walk around together, and at the same time, I thought, this is just like Aria.
Hmm… I still have a long way to go.
