"So what do we do now?" asked Aris, brushing off her hands, relieved that the situation seemed to be settling down, wondering about the next steps.
"We should look for clues or individuals that could be key to this case. Someone connected to your husband's past would be ideal," mused Lusia, responding to Aris's query while naturally shifting her gaze...
"And we have such a person right here, aside from me," she continued, turning her attention to Elina.
Elina, seemingly aware of Lusia's intentions, stood silently with a complex expression, mixed with confusion and a hint of resignation.
"Elina... I remember that night. In the dark hours before dawn, I saw how you were prepared to face even death to protect your husband," Lusia recalled, her words stirring a sense of bewilderment and guilt in me. It was surprising that Elina, seemingly a stranger in my memory, shared such a deep bond with me.
"Do you know something?" Lusia asked her sharply, her eyes piercing like a detective making a keen inquiry.
Elina maintained silence for a moment, then, with a distant look in her eyes, she finally began to speak.
"The truth is... Harold has lost his mem—"
Zap! Suddenly, an unknown current, like nothing I'd ever felt before, shot through me.
"Ah! What is this pain?!" I screamed, feeling an overwhelming agony as if sparks were exploding inside me.
"Harold?!" Elina stopped speaking abruptly, alarmed by my reaction.
"Aaaah!" My scream, filled with endless pain, worried everyone around me.
"Harold, are you okay?!!"
"What just happened...?" They rushed to my aid, trying various spells to ease my pain, but the torment persisted.
Finally, the intense headache slowly subsided, leaving me with cold sweat on my forehead and gasping for breath as if I had just undergone a strenuous physical activity. "Husband! What just happened?!" Lusia, along with the others, asked me with concern, but I felt frustrated not knowing why I was experiencing such pain.
"I don't know... Sometimes my head just throbs painfully like this, but I don't know why," I replied, feeling helpless.
"Just lend me your head for a moment," Lusia said, placing her hand on my forehead again and chanting a spell. Her expression darkened as if sensing something serious.
"The criminal behind this is more meticulous than I thought... An annoyingly intricate spell is etched in you to prevent exposure of their secrets," she said, looking into my mind, her lips tightening in concern.
"Why are you only saying this now? You should have checked properly earlier!" Aris scolded Lusia, upset that her oversight had caused me harm.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault... I didn't mean to cause you pain, husband," Lusia apologized, seeming genuinely remorseful. I comforted her, not wanting any more discord.
"It's okay, at least we know now, right?" I said, forgiving her. She looked at me with grateful, affectionate eyes and suddenly hugged me in front of everyone, expressing her joy.
"Of course... I'm so happy Harold is my partner... How can someone be so kind?" she exclaimed.
"Get off him!" the others quickly intervened, embarrassed by the display.
Sighing, Lusia reluctantly let go and said, "Back to the main topic, the spell engraved on my husband... When he tries to recall anything from the past or mentions certain trigger words, the spell activates."
"A spell that forcibly rips fragments of memory to prevent even the slightest chance of recollection, causing pain... This means directly obtaining information from me to solve this will be nearly impossible," I realized.
"Then maybe—"
Zap! Suddenly, another surge of pain shot through me, halting my words. "Ugh?!" As Erina muttered something again, I felt a jolting pain, like being electrocuted.
"Ah...!!" Quickly, I clamped my mouth shut, not wanting to worsen the situation, while voices of discontent erupted around me.
"Didn't I just say to be careful with your words?" Lusia's sharp remark left Erina speechless, and she could only nod in agreement.
"This means we have to find a solution ourselves..." Aris thoughtfully suggested a feasible approach, focusing everyone's attention.
"Harold shouldn't hear this, but the spell on him doesn't affect us, right? We can solve Harold's problem," she said, echoing my own thoughts.
"Is that really okay?" I was grateful for their help, but I couldn't help feeling guilty about others solving my problems.
"Yes, I owe Harold for his help, so now it's my turn to give back," Aris said confidently, clenching her fist.
"I also owe Harold a debt..." Aris and Erina agreed, though Erina carefully chose her words, perhaps fearing my pain might worsen.
"What were my relations with her in the past...?" I wondered, pondering my past connection with Erina.
"As Harold's partner, it's natural for me to step in," Lusia added, eager to help, though her overt declarations of our partnership often garnered disapproving glances.
"Thanks, everyone. I feel sorry that this is all because of me..." I tried to lighten the mood, and everyone responded with comforting smiles.
"Think of it as returning the kindness you've shared," Aris reassured me.
"Without you, I would have been kidnapped that night, and none of this would have happened," another added.
"I too, in the past... never mind, it'll become clear once we get back," Erina hesitated, hinting at a deeper connection.
"I'm simply following my destiny, so this might very well be my own matter too," Lusia concluded, offering her support with confidence. In my crumbling, once-comfortable temple, I am engulfed in loneliness and torment, barely able to muster the strength to speak. The prospect of a deity's demise looms ever closer.
"Ugh...!" Overwhelmed by sorrow and fear, I long to cry out like a child, but I am utterly alone, with no one to extend a helping hand.
"This will free everyone's destiny. There won't be anyone left to accept death unwillingly," I think, my mind clouded by the chaotic world the gods have wrought. They, who believed in their misguided justice, will manipulate the truth as victors. With my defeat, the world will come to realize that my death was meant to be a greater good, ignorant of my actual righteousness.
"Fate's goddess, Morione, you are now a heretic, shunned like the ancient gods," I hear in my mind. "In time, people will scorn your pride." It's all nonsensical—the destruction of the world is their doing, not mine.
"Cough! Cough..!!" Lacking the energy even to defend myself, I can only rue my cruel fate as my life withers away pathetically.
"Just go, Morione. Soon, you'll only have the mockery of mortals left at the pinnacle of the world." Their taunts echo in my mind, but I am powerless to counter them.
"Save me..." My plea is a whisper, a last desperate wish for someone, anyone, to vindicate me, to clear the false accusations.
"Who knows when the Rapture will come... But when it does, we'll be at the center of it." These thoughts offer no comfort, only a bleak reminder of the fate that awaits the innocent who must live on after me. But my wishes could never come true. Abandoned by my followers, I was left alone in this hellish realm. Isolated in my destroyed paradise, all hope was lost.
"No... it can't be..." The memories still haunt me.
"Who am I?! What is this?!!" "Aaah!!!"
"Ha ha ha ha! The world is in misery, but I am happy!!!"
As chaos reigned over the world...
The darkness gradually engulfed my vision. "Ah...ah..."
In the end, I was erased from this world... The Ruin of Fate
I don't know where such evil rumors started, but I never restricted or bound everyone's fate; I was merely guarding it. Yet, who would believe the defense of a condemned sinner?
"You disappear, and those doomed to unhappiness will no longer exist!" All the fates and possibilities I saw were horrifying.
In some fates, I became aware of my future self observing and desperately acted from the past to prevent it. Regardless, death was inevitable...
"Today's observed fate... no change..." I jot down in a journal-like book, recording today's observations.
Fate is a peculiar concept – what I see isn't always everything. Depending on the time and situation, things that didn't exist before can suddenly appear.
"Is there really no way?" But the outcome, my death leading to the world's end, never changes, no matter when I look.
So, I live in fear every day, praying desperately for a glimmer of hope before my impending doom. This has become my daily life. Yet, every day brings the same ending and accompanying despair.
"Will today be different?" Then, one day...
"Probably the same..." I thought, resigned and broken-hearted.
"O+...?!" But then, I discover the hope I had longed for.
"I won't abandon you, for I am a child of the goddess." A man with a warm smile like sunshine appears before me.
"Who is he?" A new connection, never seen before, changes everything.
"I will stop it! Morione is innocent!"
"As insignificant as I am, you must defeat me..."
A rare sight in my region, a man with black hair and black eyes.
"May I become your child?"
A brave and kind man, fearless for my sake.
"My name is Harold Wicker."
With his discovery, everything changes.