It was less a question than an attempt to find some answers from her.
"Has anything like this happened in any of the futures you know?"
"No. This is a future I've never experienced. Every day now brings a rare sense of novelty for me... You probably wouldn't understand what it feels like to finally make a breakthrough after reliving the same stretch of time countless times."
To Aldebaran, this future was unknown too.
"If I jumped back in time now, could we get a better ending than this?"
Aldebaran always said that, if all else failed, she still had one chance left to take back a move.
But when I actually asked her, she pointed at me and said:
"Don't ask me. From now on, you're the one who has to make the decisions."
"I don't know whether things are good or bad right now either..."
"Then let me ask you something else. Are you satisfied with this future?"
The world as it stood was full of unknowns. It was hard to call myself satisfied.
"There are things I'm unhappy about, but I'm not disappointed yet. Even though this world is doomed, there haven't been any major casualties, and the Earth Crystal's proposal really can ensure that life survives..."
Aldebaran merely retorted, "We're losing twenty percent of the population, you know. That doesn't count as major casualties? Spending some time with our dear goddess has made your values pretty ruthless, huh?"
"...It's still better than everyone being wiped out, isn't it?"
Nobody knew what the New World would be like, so I couldn't answer Aldebaran's question.
She hooked an arm around my neck, then used the fingers of both hands to poke the corners of my mouth upward, as if that would make me smile.
"Still, once you actually