episode_0039

“Here…?”

Aion’s plans were disrupted by an unexpected variable, and he woke up in a different place than where he originally was.

Originally, according to his plan, he was to accept the trial of the Goddess of Joy and gain power, but since someone else had already accepted, he ended up accepting the trial of a different goddess at random.

He was confused by the development that was different from the original story.

“Has history changed..?”

He has changed countless times in history since the moment he met them.

So, as a side effect, the content of the novel was going in a different direction from the content of the novel he originally knew.

He was embarrassed by this, but he judged it coolly.

The Goddess of Joy has already accepted the ordeal of someone else. So the only goddesses left are the Goddess of Wrath and the Goddess of Sorrow.

If someone had taken on this ordeal first, it would have meant that there was only one more ordeal left, and while his mind was starting to become complicated with such thoughts, he soon pulled himself together.

‘I came here to pass the Goddess’s Trial.. I have to focus on this first.’

Even if his ominous thoughts were correct, he calmed himself down and soon an illusion appeared before him as he calmed his mind.

It was a statue in the form of the goddess of sorrow.

He intuitively realized that the trial he was currently undergoing was the trial of the Goddess of Sorrow.

“What kind of trials do I have to go through?”

So, Aion came to his senses and assessed the situation calmly.

In the case of the trial given by the Goddess of Wrath, it was to defeat the person she hated the most, so he judged that the trial would be given based on the memories of the person who accepted the trial, and when he turned his head to accept the trial, he was able to face the trial given by the Goddess of Sorrow.

“Mom..”

What appeared before him as he took on the ordeal was the image of his parents leaving the house before the accident happened.

Aion, who had not seen his parents in a long time, ran to his mother without any hesitation.

Seeing his parents for the first time in a long time, Aion ran to his mother, forgetting that he was undergoing a trial.

“………”

His hand passed through the bodies of his parents before his eyes, for the sight of his mother was merely an illusion created by the goddess.

When he stretched out his arm to his mother, his arm pierced through her.

Only after seeing his mother like that, Aion was able to understand the nature of the ordeal the Goddess of Sorrow had imposed.

The ordeal that was given to him was none other than to watch everything that would happen from now on without missing a single thing.

Aion noticed this and clenched his fist.

In the case of the protagonist, he was able to kill all the monsters he hated because killing the most enraged enemy was a test, but in the case of Aion, he could only watch without being able to do anything.

Aion, who realized this, unconsciously closed his eyes.

A little later. Aion knew best what was going to happen, so he closed his eyes, not wanting to see his parents’ miserable appearance.

[Don’t close your eyes.]

Someone spoke into his head.

The mysterious being with a woman’s voice told Aion, who had his eyes closed, to open them.

Hearing that woman’s voice, Aion finally opened his closed eyes.

“Then I’ll be back, son~”

Eventually, Aion opened his closed eyes.

He just stared blankly at his parents as they got into the car without doing anything.

He wanted to run to his parents who were getting into the car right away and hold their hands, but this was only an illusion created by the goddess, so his earnest hands could not reach them.

Eventually, his parents got in their car and went for a drive.

“It seems like it’s been a while since we’ve gone for a drive just the two of us, right?”

“That’s right. I used to enjoy driving with Jaeyoung… but these days, Jaeyoung seems to have a lot on his mind, and we don’t talk much.”

“All kids at Jaeyoung’s age are like that. When I was Jaeyoung’s age, I was like that every day.”

“Haha! So Jaeyoung looks like you?”

The parents in front of me were happily enjoying the drive, chatting with each other about everyday life.

Since my parents have always been good at abstaining from alcohol, I have often seen this kind of behavior from them.

A moment later, my mother spoke with a slightly worried voice.

“Still.. I keep worrying when I see Jaeyoung these days. I’m worried that he’ll get hurt because he’s just like you and I, so he might not be so cruel.”

“That’s true..”

At his mother’s words, his father, who was holding the steering wheel, nodded with a slightly heavy face.

My son’s face looks listless lately.

The father thought a lot while looking at his son’s face.

I was worried that my son might be living with some unspeakable worry.

My precious son Jae-young, whom I would not mind putting in my eyes. Recently, as puberty began, the daily expressions of affection he gave me have decreased and he has been spending more time alone in his room.

Of course, it’s not that he doesn’t understand his son, since he had also behaved similarly to him when he was young.

On the one hand, the parents were worried.

My son, who has always been bright and cheerful since childhood. Because I have a son like that, my life is as clear as a clear sky.

Just seeing my son’s smile made all the fatigue from work melt away. If only I had the will to give up work and everything else and just play with my son every day.

He was such a fool to his son.

That’s why he understood his changed son, but at the same time, he was worried.

He was also a first-time father, so he worried every day whether he was behaving wrongly, and his son had recently stopped expressing his affection.

“Then, on the way home, should I buy Jaeyoung’s favorite hamburger and take it with me?”

Since he knew his son’s delicate feelings well, he decided to wait for him.

“………”

Aion was speechless when he saw his father like that.

He didn’t know that his father thought of him this much, so he couldn’t say anything about his father’s love.

At the same time, scenes that would happen later were pictured in his head and he wanted to give up the ordeal even now.

Having seen his parents like this, he didn’t have the confidence to look any further, but he desperately suppressed his emotions.

A moment later, he could see a car approaching his parents’ vehicle.

The car was approaching my parents at high speed, shaking back and forth as if it had broken down at first glance.

The car did not stop or slow down even though the light was red, but instead began to speed down the road at an increasingly faster rate.

“Honey, is there something wrong with that car over there?”

His mother, who saw the car speeding dangerously, pointed at it and taught it.

The father spoke in a panicked voice as he saw the car speeding down the road at a dangerous speed.

“Hey..what’s wrong with that car!”

His father, who was driving, shouted urgently as he saw the car approaching them.

[bang—!!!]

His parents, who were unable to avoid the speeding car, ended up colliding with the car without even being able to scream and died in such a gruesome manner that it was difficult to even identify their bodies.

“……..”

Aion said nothing as he looked at the corpses of his parents. He knew that these were fakes created by the goddess.

I knew very well that my dead parents in front of me were not my real parents who gave birth to me and raised me, but rather illusions created by the power of a goddess.

But Aion couldn’t hold back the tears flowing from his eyes.

I knew better than anyone that these people in front of me were not my real parents.

That’s why he wanted to pretend not to see it, but in the end, he couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.

He sobbed as he looked at the car that had been smashed to pieces and the body that was so mangled that it was unrecognizable.

It was Aion who made me wish she had given up the power of the goddess.

If that had been the case, at least I wouldn’t have seen my parents’ cruel behavior.

But… from the moment his ordeal began, he knew that he could not turn back the choice he had made.

Once you’ve taken on the Goddess’s Trial, you can’t go out until the trial is over.

After completing his ordeal, he simply cried silently as he looked at the corpses of his parents, whose forms were not even visible.

Aion, who was sobbing while looking at his parents’ corpses that were so mangled that they were unrecognizable, opened his eyes after a long time at the place where the statues of the goddesses were.

On his right index finger was a holy relic, a sign from the goddess that was given only to those who passed the ordeal.

Aion had passed the ordeal given by the Goddess of Sorrow, for he had a ring in his hand, a sacred relic of the Goddess.

He looked at the relic in his fingers for a long time, lost in thought, unable to say anything.