Chapter 100 – The Fourth Woman
World of gods.
A place where humans cannot understand and do not seek their understanding.
Elia arrived in front of a huge palace located in the center of that world.
As if she knew in advance that she would come, the tightly closed entrance opened, and instead of walking through her air, Elia walked directly into her on her own two feet.
Because that is the law that the god of gods should have.
At last, there was a huge throne.
Hundreds of steps leading down to the floor below.
At the bottom of the stairs, which shows the gap between those who sit on the throne and those who seek the throne, Elia, holding her hands together politely, looked up at her summit.
“Meet my destiny.”
“…Elia.”
The throne was too far to be seen, but the gods did not dare to look at each other.
Elia’s head toward her throne was also part of her etiquette, and she was seeing her opponent clearly with her mind’s eye, not her eyes.
“What’s going on this time?”
As the owner of this space spoke, her voice echoed all around her.
She is the goddess of fate who reigns over everything in the world, including gods, but her tone is warm unlike her authority.
Elia, on the other hand, answered politely, bowing her head as she had heard.
“I’ve come to visit you to offer you the request I made earlier.”
“As expected.”
“When Mother of Destiny shared her power, I was overjoyed beyond words. I thought she acknowledged my sorrow whenever I saw the limitations of weak human beings.”
The goddess of fate was unmoved, as if listening to the music she knew.
She only wrinkled her brow a little in worry and concern.
“But lately, my strength is getting weaker. In my head, I know that my mother has a will, so I tried to wait, but my heart doesn’t.”
“…”
“Guilt is the source of power to save the wronged. Why did you give me this ordeal? Why do I have to pay the price when I only help the poor?”
Elia’s voice rose with emotion.
It was an act that should not be done in front of the throne, but the benevolent master did not blame it.
“My child. The reason I made you feel guilty every time you helped a human was to stop getting involved with them.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“Humans are just part of the world we have to rule, and it’s not good to empathize with them.”
“Still, isn’t it pitiful for people who die unjustly? To die an unwanted death due to the malice of others.”
“It should also be seen as the natural flow of the world. They are life, but they are also part of nature. You should not be sad when a grain of sand in the desert shatters.”
A friendly yet firm tone.
Even so, Elia’s thoughts did not change.
“But they think like us and don’t look like us. Aren’t they pitiful?”
“In my eyes, you are more pitiful. Seeing you immersed in a grain of sand and suffering.”
“If you think so, please listen to my request. The cost of authority is something other than guilt.”
“That’s not allowed.”
When the Goddess of Fate answered right away, Elia’s expression became darker than before.
“Why…”
“We are the ones in charge of the whole world, not just a part of it. So, we can’t treat any one being in particular. You know that. If you break the law, you have to step down from the position of goddess.”
“…”
“The guilt you feel every time you save a human is not the price of power. It is my wish that my child will no longer break the divine law.”
The title ‘I’ is only a sign of friendliness shown by the goddess of fate, and does not mean that they are a real mother-daughter relationship.
But when she looked at Elia, her face was full of worry, as if she were seeing a child she had given birth to herself.
“Among other goddesses, there are already many people who don’t like you. I’m still turning a blind eye to them, but if the eyes around me get worse, I can’t help but care about their opinions. Have you forgotten already? You’ve already been punished for your arbitrary behavior. Do you want to become a minor again?”
“…”
“I know that you have a heart so warm that even humans feel sorry for you. That’s why instead of punishing you, I’m giving you a chance to give up yourself. If you find it difficult to bear the guilt, stop helping humans.”
In the voice that says that, I can feel the desperation beyond worry.
However, that earnestness did not change Elia’s thoughts.
“Then you’re saying you can’t listen to my request.”
“Ellia…”
“With no hope, I feel rather at ease. Mother of Fate said that this guilt is not the price of power. But I will regard it as such. I will accept and endure this pain as it is the price of saving humans.”
“…I’m afraid that your innocent and kind heart will be hurt.”
“Don’t worry about the path you chose. Then I’ll leave.”
After bowing her head to say hello, Elia turns around and walks away.
A worried sigh escaped from the mouth of the goddess of fate who watched her.
—
A few days have passed since the day Jia and I became invisible once more at school.
I have three girlfriends, but unfortunately Jia and Ha-eun have assignments and Seon-yeong has a schedule, so I was alone in my room.
“Whoah! Shall we rest?”
In the middle of the night, while diligently accumulating a stockpile of novels, I lay down on the bed talking to myself.
… Should I contact you to see what you are doing?
Seonyeong said she would contact me when the schedule was over, so she should do it to Jia or Haeun.
… Jia is very focused even when she is doing assignments, so would it be 120009 for Haeun to do it first?
Ha-eun is also surprisingly focused, so what if she gets in the way.
I thought of her when I turned on the message app, but I heard that there is a chat room created separately by the three girlfriends minus me.
What the hell are those three talking about there?
Please share your impressions of your experiences with me… ?
It’s a complicated feeling that you want to know but don’t want to know.
It was a time when I was thinking such useless thoughts.
The surrounding background was sucked into a point and turned into a completely pure white space.
In front of her eyes, as usual, the goddess floated in the air.
It was the same as usual, wearing a pure white cloth that looked like it would appear in a fantasy game and covering both eyes with the cloth.
“Hello, Dohyun.”
“Hello. Am I alone today?”
“…Yes.”
What? My voice is particularly heavy today.
“What are you doing?”
“…Not too long ago, I visited the Goddess of Fate.”
“Really?”
When I asked again, the goddess nodded slowly and answered.
“Yes. I begged you to change the price of power to something other than guilt.”
Has the goddess of fate finally granted her favor?
The expectation was shattered by the words that followed.
“But I came to hear the answer no. Because he wants me, as a goddess, not to help humans.”
“Then what will happen next?”
“I want to continue to save people who are unfair. So I’m sorry, but I think I’ll have to keep asking for help from the four people I’ve met so far…”
“Ah…”
To be honest, it’s not that I can’t do anything to fulfill the goddess’s request.
There are times when he makes absurd and unreasonable demands, but he has never directly harmed me or my girlfriends.
However, this did not mean that there were no problems or concerns.
“Then do you think you might have to do it with another woman besides Jia, Haeun, and Seonyoung? If that happens, I think it’ll be really difficult now…”
“…”
Unlike before, when she answered without hesitation, she fell into trouble with the goddess keeping her mouth shut.
The longer the silence, the greater my anxiety, which became reality when her lips finally opened again.
“Actually… The power asked for a new woman.”
“Yes? Now?”
I didn’t know that it would come right in front of her so suddenly.
I hoped that the goddess’ request would be fulfilled before the situation happened, but in many ways it was the worst situation.
“How can there be no way? Doing it with someone other than the three is a bit…”
Of course, you can close your eyes with the thought of saving the poor person.
Still, she didn’t want to do anything that would make her lovers feel guilty.
The goddess said with a serious face that she understood my feelings.
“So I thought of a way.”
“Really? How?”
“That…”
What was the best way to linger while blurting out the end of her words?
It was the time when I was about to ask one more time out of frustration.
“Instead of the other woman, I’m paying for the power.”
“I beg your pardon?”
She belatedly understood the goddess’ words and asked again.
“So you mean the goddess is with me?”
“That’s right.”
“Uh… Well…”
Seeing me unable to find words to say because it was so unexpected, the other person continued talking.
“Because I’m not human, I won’t have anything to do with Dohyeon-nim in my daily life. It’ll be less troublesome than bringing another woman.”
“It seems so, but…”
“Also, for a person in the seat of a goddess to mix with a human being is a sin that will never be forgiven in the divine world. My guilt will be that great, so the power will no longer ask for a new woman.”
Certainly, from my point of view, it is far 120009 for a goddess to be her last match than to keep hooking up with a new woman.
It’s 120009, but…
“Is the goddess all right? She said it was an unforgivable sin.”
“Mother of Fate wants me to stop doing this, but she’s benevolent and doesn’t watch over me.”
“Still secretly…”
“To commit a crime hidden in kindness would also make me feel guilty. However, I want to help even one more innocent human being to the extent of enduring it, to the extent of being prepared for the punishment I will receive someday.”
Is it harder to just watch people die unjustly than to tremble in fear of being punished?
I don’t know how benevolent the goddess of fate is, but the goddess in front of me felt much more benevolent and sacred.
“Since I will pay the price for my sins, there will be no damage to Dohyun or the people around me. So…”
Floating in her air, she came down to her floor and stood on her feet.
Then she bowed her back more politely than when we first met.
“Dohyun-nim, please. Until I am punished, please help me.”
It’s hard to refuse with such an earnest attitude.
Of course, there was no reason for me to refuse, and it was not a situation where I could refuse, so I didn’t have to worry for a long time in answering.
“Okay. I’ll help you.”
“Thank you.”
Raising her upper body again, she slowly approached me.
Her eyes are still covered by the white cloth, but the tension in her quivering mouth is palpable.
“Bah, let’s start right away…”
I closed my eyes tightly.
Because intense light emanated from the body of the goddess.
After a while, when the light faded, the one standing in front was a woman with silver hair shining like snow.
Even though the goddess’ clothes covering her body and eyes were gone and she was naked, she was a beautiful person enough to feel the holy aura.
