Chapter 4- Don’t Worry Translation is a Free Service

The sudden shift in language was the last nail in the coffin for the class, after understanding the reality of their situation many had started to panic; some had turned nearly catatonic curling into fetal positions on the spot while others began to get aggressive and posture as if getting ready for a fight. The most unique response however belonged to Alex who kept shouting “Status!” over and over much to the confusion of those around him.

Before the situation could devolve any further Alice decided to question Aria on the newly noticed phenomenon.

『What’s going on? Why is it whenever I try to speak English this weird gibberish keeps coming out instead?』

『What that, the language is called Septish you’re welcome by the way.』

『Oh, I see this is part of the tinkering you mentioned, let me guess if they summoned us normally, we would be stuck on hard mode having to learn the language ourselves in that case thanks~ that sounds like it would have been a serious pain.』

『What did you say Cael? Are you saying she did this?!』

『Hmm ah~ yeah looks that way.』

While sporting a slightly too wide grin and puffing out her slightly too small chest Aria began to brag about her clever idea for quickly implanting the local language.

『Fufun~ basically while I can’t just zap it into your heads all willy nilly I can make use of the already existing neural connections you developed associating things to your most common language, English. As a result, I only have to alter one end of those connections to understand those words as the Septish counterpart instead, include some minor grammar rules and tadah~ you’re as fluent as the natives of Pleiades.』

At that explanation Cael was a bit mad finding out he can’t speak English anymore though equally impressed by the equivalent of non-invasive brain surgery via magic. He froze however upon realizing that she effectively overwrote their save files, as a result he started having traumatic flashbacks of his younger cousin messing with his old handheld console while he cried tears of blood over the loss of his lv 88 starter.

Without even realizing that she had just put her biggest supporter in the room into a fugue state she carried on with her Q&A session seemingly ignorant or uncaring of any and all animosity directed at her.

『So~ any other questions? Time is starting to get short I can’t maintain this space forever and it’s not every day a beautiful goddess like me goes out of her way to help plebians like you~』

At that sentence Cael snapped out of his funk upon realising he had not in fact asked the most important question.

『I have one more.』

『Oh~ it’s the clever idiot.』

Her eyes narrowed and her face at that moment carried an edge to it unlike what she had shown the whole time they had spoken. It was obvious she knew exactly what he was going to ask next, in fact he started to suspect she was waiting for it even.

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『Why are we here?』

『I told you though~ your class was summoned by some guy in the Severin Empire~』

Her tone was back to normal, but her eyes remained narrowed like even she herself was aware that her excuse wouldn’t work.

Dodging the question with a half-truth eh Cael noticed before pressing on.

『No, I know that already what I mean is why are we here right now in this room talking to you? Why did you even intercept that spell in the first place? From what I understand even things as powerful as demon lords or ancient magical empires are trivial to you. So, I’ll ask you once more, why are we here?』

There was a silence that engulfed the room at his words Aria did not immediately respond but after a while as if resigned she sighed and instead of speaking, she took a step towards him before he even registered her movement her face was even closer than when they first met. With her perfectly carved almost porcelain hand she slowly and gently held it against his cheek and whispered in a volume only he could hear.

『An answer for an answer』

She enunciated each word one by one as if afraid he wouldn’t understand her.

At this point almost nothing else around them even registered in his mind except for her almost too black eyes peering deeply into his own turquoise orbs. Though absentmindedly he noticed that no one else was reacting as if frozen but he disregarded it instead keeping his focus on Aria.

『What answer?』

She responded to his query with what Cael would describe as an almost fragile smile that would trigger the protective instinct of any man.

『An answer to the question I asked when we first met, did seeing me make your heart skip a beat? That’s all I want to know.』

Cael paused unsure what to make of her question that sounded almost like a love confession but he had never been asked anything so earnestly in his whole life and so he did something he rarely does, he stopped screwing around and seriously responded.

『It did』

And so, he was met in kind with two words whispered back accompanied by a smile that could light up the world.

『Thank you』

Cael was not ashamed to admit his brain shut down for a second however before his lovestruck self could reboot Aria decided to drop another bombshell on him.

『You answered my question, so I’ll answer yours I redirected the spell because I wanted to see you and for no other reason Caelus.』

Cael found himself genuinely confused which doesn’t happen often. There were two main points in particular that ate at him which he noted in his mental checklist:

1. He had never met this girl before in his life except for today so her wanting to see him is beyond strange.

2. The emphasis in which she spoke his ridiculous name which barely anyone knows struck him as intentional almost as if she was referencing something that he wasn’t privy to.

Before he could enquire further the entire area shook with a loud sound making him recall Aria’s previous mentions of the limited time they had. Feeling signs of the space around him beginning to dissipate Cael reassessed his situation all the while continuing to gaze into said girl's abyss-like eyes To think, I thought I was on easy mode so why is it then that I have all this foreshadowing to deal with I wonder.

At that moment Cael really couldn't help but silently curse his parents once more for their terrible naming sense that seemed to riddle his life with problems that someone named Joe would never have to worry about. While the loud shaking continued to escalate Cael saw Aria’s lips move forming words that while he couldn’t physically hear he certainly received before fixing themselves in a smirk, he found his own lips mirroring hers.

Following the pair's subtle exchange the entire room shook again even more intensely then ever before seemingly breaking the class from whatever hold Aria had on them. To others it might have seemed like the end of the world but in Cael’s mind it was more akin to the beginning.

But all things must come to a close and it appeared their meeting was at its conclusion as identical to the one that brought him here, a light flashed once more blinding him as well as the class and then, they were gone leaving only Aria staring fixatedly at the spot that Cael once occupied before she too vanished with the rest of the space crumbling in her wake.