Aria
I was summoned to another world, chosen as a Hero, and in the end I slew the Demon King and saved the world. And then I died as well.
That makes twice, then.
Not so much as a hint of weightlessness. A flickering lantern-show of memory sliding past. And beyond it, a tide of calm rolling in. Death was not something I had grown used to. The reason my heart felt this easy anyway was simple enough: unlike the first time, I knew exactly what waited at the other end.
Like waking from a long sleep into the warmth of morning sun, I opened my eyes as naturally as breathing. A dreamlike softness seeped into my skin. The air was so endlessly pure it stung the tip of my nose. Yes — this was heaven. Had it been ten years since I was last here?
"You've come."
"..."
Before I knew it, a woman stood facing me, her body bare and white as snow. I was a Hero, but years of grinding as a mercenary had long since erased any memory of proper etiquette, so I simply nodded. Even so, the Goddess of Mercy merely smiled.
"Yes. Thank you."
"You were torn from your homeland against your will, cast upon a distant land that had nothing to do with you, and made to endure hardship and suffering you never would have faced in the life that was meant to be yours."
She was right. One day I had opened my eyes to find myself in heaven, and there I had been appointed the Hero who would save a world. The goddess had told me I possessed a stronger mana adaptability than anyone in the world I was to be sent to, and that this was why I had been chosen. That was all it was. No other gifts — just that vague, ill-defined talent called mana adaptability — and with it I had crossed battlefield after battlefield, treading the line between life and death.
For the first year I served as a common soldier. It wasn't until the third year that a mage I happened to meet taught me how to use magic at all. After grinding through every hardship, I finally received the official title of Hero from the kingdom in my fifth year — and with it, the right to hunt the Demon King. What followed was betrayal after betrayal, condemnation, and every kind of political knife in the dark.
And yet.
"And yet you never lost your pursuit of what was right. You took pity on countless lives, and in the end you sacrificed yourself for their sake. Moved by that spirit, I offer you — on behalf of the Heavenly Realm — our deepest gratitude."
I had saved the world, in the end. I had done it. The sensation of driving my blade through the Demon King's heart was still vivid.
"And so..."
And so.
"As we promised when we first met. I shall grant you a wish."
It was time I collected what I was owed and put a period at the end of my life as a Hero.
Feathers scattered on a rush of light, and a sheet of white papyrus appeared in the air, a quill pen beside it.
"Write your wish there."
A wish. I took the pen and put it down in a few short words.
What I desire most
The goddess, Aria, took the papyrus from me and smiled.
"Heh. How very like you, Doheon."
"Is that so."
"I have watched over you for a very long time."
"..."
"Surely a man like you would wish for world peace... or something of equal measure."
She went on to recite the countless good deeds I had performed while I was in that other world. I had founded an orphanage and raised the children into fine adults. I had put an end to wars between nations. And above all, I had purged the demon race and, in the end, destroyed the Demon King himself.
"..."
My wish. The thing I wanted most. The truth was, I didn't really know. If I longed for anything, it was only the homesickness of returning to my original world. I had never once pictured anything beyond that. Was it world peace, as the goddess said? It felt a little cheap — and yet it didn't seem like a particularly bad choice either.
"Then this is farewell."
"Is this the end?"
"Yes. When you close your eyes and open them again, you will be back in your original homeland."
"..."
The goddess laid her hand upon my head.
May you find peace. I bless the path that lies ahead of you.
With those words, light flared across my vision, and among a storm of scattering white feathers I lost consciousness.
I opened my eyes.
"...What?"
A quiet room. Evening, I thought. The lights were off, and moonlight spilled through the window, washing the walls in a soft sheen. The cerulean of it was strangely vivid. Then came the smell — a thick, musty reek of dust and mildew, nothing like the heaven I had just left.
"..."
I pinched my cheek. It hurt.
Ten years. I had thought about it for a long time. Even as I cut down countless enemies, even as I hurt myself trying to wake up, I had wondered whether that world was a lie — whether it was nothing more than a dream spun inside a coma. I had wondered.
But it had not been a dream. A tiny mirror standing in the corner of the room proved it. The face looking back was far too old — nothing like the high schooler I had been ten years ago. My complexion had gone darker, and scars lingered here and there.
"It wasn't a dream..."
What had become of my parents? My friends? The room was just as it had been ten years ago — surprisingly tidy, even after I had vanished. A little dust had settled, that was all. But that was as far as the nostalgia went. I had practical problems to face.
The calendar had changed too. The year was 2035. May. Exactly ten years had passed. I wondered how I was recorded in this world. Missing? Deceased? It didn't matter either way. I needed to get out of this room and find my parents. They must have been worried sick.
First, the room was too dark. There was moonlight, but I couldn't even see my own feet. I stretched out my hand, palm turned upward.
"Fire."
Ah. I had used magic without thinking. Lighting fires to see in dark caves had become so habitual that it came out on its own. That aside — so I could still use magic. Did Earth have mana too? If it didn't, there was no explaining how I could cast. If I played this right, I could even make a living as a magician. That had been my childhood dream. Talk about a calling.
Anyway. Time to go. I took a step.
And then — a soft, yielding squish.
"Nn... nngh..."
"Huh?"
Something soft had wrapped around my foot. I stepped down again.
"Hyaaah...!"
That was unmistakably a person's voice. And a familiar one, at that. It couldn't be. For a moment my wish flashed through my mind. This was not my wish. It had better not be. Who was it? I knew the owner of that voice. I was certain I did. And that was precisely why it couldn't be her. Cold sweat ran down my back.
I carefully lowered my gaze and turned the light toward the source of the sound. And there she was. The goddess, Aria, fast asleep, breathing softly — still wearing the same gossamer garments she'd had on in heaven.
"Nn... mm?"
"Goddess?"
She flinched. Her softly rounded body rippled faintly. Suppressing a surge of lust, I shook her. And then —
"Doheon...?"
She was awake.
"Goddess...?"
Aria's eyes fluttered open, still heavy with sleep, and she asked, bewildered,
"Doheon, why are you here...? Weren't you supposed to have gone back...?"
"I believe that's my line..."
"What? What do you mean, that's— cough, cough!"
"Are you all right?"
"I'm sorry. The air here is so poor..."
"..."
Well. Compared to the Heavenly Realm, Earth's air would of course be foul.
"But Goddess... why are you here?"
"Pardon?"
"I mean, why are you in my room — no. Why are you on Earth?"
A brief silence. Aria tilted her head, her gaze wandering this way and that. Then she seemed to realize that something was wrong.
"Where... is this?"
"My room."
"Why... am I... here..."
Her face went a little pale. Best to get her upright first and then talk.
"Why are you lying on the floor...? Come on, sit up."
I held out my hand.
"Ah... thank you. If you'll excuse me a moment..."
Aria offered an awkward smile and extended her arm toward me. But then —
"..."
"Goddess?"
"..."
"What's wrong?"
"..."
"Hello?"
"Um, Doheon... could you lift my clothes for me?"
"Sure."
I wasn't embarrassed. I had seen more than my share of women's bodies living in that other world. The problem, however, was not that.
"..."
This was...
"Doheon... what's going on?"
"..."
"There is something going on, isn't there? Right?"
"..."
"Say something alreadyyyyy!"
"Goddess..."
"Yes...?"
"Were you always... without arms and legs?"
"..."
Aria had no limbs. There were remnants, barely — but they didn't even reach where the joints should have been.
"The light, please..."
"Right."
I hurriedly found the switch on the wall and flipped it on. And then —
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Aria stared at her half-vanished arms and legs and screamed in horror.
"Wh-wh-wh-what...!"
She flailed, waving the empty air where her arms and legs should have been. I had never seen a goddess look like that, and I was just as thrown as she was.
"C-calm down...! Goddess...!"
"Ahhhh... ahhh... aaaaaaah!"
She flipped herself over. Then over again. She tore through the entire room.
"Calm— I said calm down...!"
The panic I could understand. The volume I could not. I had no choice. I cast a sleep spell on her.
⟨ Sleep ⟩
"Ahhhh...! Nnhhh..."
And just like that, the goddess was out.
"What the hell is this..."
Never mind that a mere human's magic had worked on a goddess. Why was Aria rolling around my room with her arms and legs gone? There was no way this was my wish. Please, let it not be my wish.
I lifted her light body and laid her on the bed. I did not feel any lust... probably.
It was the next morning when Aria woke.