What do you consider beautiful?
Is it money, which can bring you countless benefits? Is it power, which can place you above others? Or is it a face beautiful enough to captivate everyone who sees it?
Everyone carries their own ideal of beauty within their heart. Heroes long for glory, scholars seek truth, merchants pursue wealth, and students dream of holidays.
Even when it comes to physical appearance, people can divide their preferences endlessly. Some prefer younger people, some prefer older ones, some prefer people around their own age, while others are drawn to tattoos or other markings.
Personality can be divided into countless preferences as well. Everyone sees beauty differently, and the most beautiful thing in the world can take countless forms depending on who is looking.
After all, to some intelligent beings, the most beautiful thing imaginable might be a machine assembled from countless components. To others, it might be an animal of another species, or even a corpse.
So if something were to be called Beauty itself, the most beautiful existence of all, then it would seemingly need to encompass everything. But what could possibly contain every form of beauty in existence without appearing grotesque or absurd?
The answer currently placed before Aglaea was a mirror. Within it, she saw the most beautiful thing she could imagine, an extraordinarily magnificent dress that surpassed anything she had ever envisioned.
And yet Aglaea did not lose herself in the beauty of that exquisite garment. Instead, she frowned, her expression filled with concern.
"If this were the old me, the girl who only wanted to become a fashion designer, I would have been completely captivated by a dress this beautiful and would have immediately tried to recreate it in reality. But I'm no longer just a tailor."
Aglaea spoke quietly.
She was now the ruler of Amphoreus and the leader of the Flame-Chase Journey. She was no longer the ordinary young woman who could devote herself entirely to becoming a fashion designer.
The people had chosen her and placed her in this position. To preserve the peaceful life that now seemed so precious, and to ensure that the era created by the legendary Caesar did not come to an end under her rule, she had to become a capable monarch and a worthy leader. She had to protect this age.
"Perhaps when everything is over, I'll step down and become an ordinary tailor again."
Aglaea gave a soft laugh, then pushed the mirror aside and continued forward.
Not long afterward, another mirror appeared before her. This time, however, it no longer reflected that dress. Instead, it showed an extraordinarily warm and peaceful scene. Aglaea's parents were still alive, and she had become the greatest fashion designer in the world, creating one beautiful outfit after another. Amphoreus had never fallen into the apocalypse brought by the Black Tide. Everything was peaceful and wonderful.
Are you satisfied with this beauty?
It was as though a voice were asking her.
"It is beautiful. No disaster ever happened, I don't have to bear the responsibilities I carry now, I can live the life I always wanted, and the family I lost is back beside me. But this is only beauty reflected in a mirror. It can never become reality. No matter how cruel reality is, I still have to keep moving forward, because there are still people whose expectations I must answer."
But to you, that position was never a throne of power envied by others. It was a symbol of unbearably heavy responsibility.
For the sake of that responsibility, it had already been a very long time since Aglaea had picked up a needle and thread to make a piece of clothing. It had been just as long since she had followed changing fashion trends or admired the aesthetic inspiration of other designers.
You are moving farther and farther away from the person you once were. Is this really what you want? You are gradually leaving behind the dream that once seemed more beautiful than anything else.
"Because I'm no longer the person I used to be."
The Aglaea of the past could live without worry and devote herself entirely to her dream because she did not carry so many responsibilities.
The Aglaea of the present could not.
She carried the expectations of the people and the trust of those who followed her.
"I'm not a perfect leader. I can't unite everyone as flawlessly as Caesar did or inspire the kind of devotion people once gave her. Sometimes I hesitate too much. Other times I may act too extremely. It's usually only afterward, when I look back on what happened, that I realize there were things I could have handled better.
"I always want to handle every problem perfectly, but because I care so much about perfection, I rarely manage to achieve it. I can never account for everything, and something always slips through the cracks.
"It's precisely because I pursue perfection that I refuse to give up everything we already have. Amphoreus is on the verge of being torn apart by the Black Tide, like a piece of beautiful fabric that has been stained and ripped apart by contamination.
"But I still have to use this one piece of fabric to sew together something I can accept. The finished garment may not be especially beautiful. It may even remain damaged in places. But there still has to be a finished result."
Aglaea spoke as though answering the existence questioning her, and perhaps also as though she were convincing herself. Once again, she pushed the mirror aside and continued forward.
She walked for an unknown length of time before another mirror finally appeared before her.
Inside it was an Amphoreus that had already survived the apocalypse of the Black Tide. Everything was beginning again.
The fear and anxiety of the apocalypse had vanished from people's faces, replaced by the joy and tranquility of returning to peaceful lives.
Crops had been planted once more across abandoned fields. Collapsed and damaged buildings were being rebuilt. Warriors had laid down their weapons and returned to the lives they had once known.
Aglaea looked at the beautiful scene inside the mirror, at those ordinary days that people in the past would once have considered completely unremarkable.
People only truly learned to treasure something after losing it.
When you grow tired and frustrated with the monotony of ordinary daily life, there are people living through war and unrest who would gladly give everything for the very routine you find so dull.
"This is the beauty that matters most to me. The beauty I desire more than anything."
After saying that, Aglaea stepped directly into the mirror.
Aglaea rubbed her brow as she lifted her head from her desk. She had been awake for one hundred and four consecutive hours, dealing with documents and problems from every direction. Apparently, exhaustion had finally caught up with her. She had fallen asleep at her desk without realizing it and had even experienced a strange dream.
But after fully waking, Aglaea suddenly realized that her body was nowhere near as exhausted as she had expected, nor did her mind feel sluggish.
Then golden threads began extending outward around her.
At that moment, Aglaea understood everything. Somehow, while dreaming, she had undergone the trial of the Titan of Romance, obtained the Coreflame of Romance, and become a demigod.
Was the trial really that simple? All she had to do was find the beauty she desired most deeply within her heart?
Aglaea looked mildly confused, but she did not spend long thinking about it.
There was still a mountain of work waiting on her desk.
Now that she had become a demigod, her thoughts were clearer, her mind worked faster, and her body was considerably stronger.
Which meant she could keep working through the night.
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)