Chapter 221: The Goddess Standing At The Plaza (1)

Although she was talking about sacrificing herself for the sake of the kingdom, Viscountess Amethyst had a bright smile on her face, one that brought back all the memories I had of this trauma.

Yes.

I was Kim Gong-Ja, the Young Heaven of the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Moon of Ivansia, and I remembered the moments I had witnessed in this world of trauma.

I’ve watched almost all of the Tower master’s life.

I was there when Amethyst became a baroness, when she pushed the capital into a whirlwind of political war, and when she married her relative of the same sex. But I was also there when Amethyst was smiling happily, even though my ability was to see her trauma.

That’s not all.

I even knew that Amethyst was eventually going to receive the dukedom and what would happen afterward. I had already seen that.

Why?

Why had I seen Amethyst’s happy memories too? Why did I know what would happen afterward?

Wait a minute...

I now knew Amethyst’s power, so a certain possibility crossed my mind. But there was no way I was right. An ordinary person would have difficulty even thinking of something like this. However, since I had regressed over four thousand days, I was able to easily reach this conclusion.

The Tower master’s entire life is a trauma.

It didn’t matter how wide her smile was.

There hasn't been a single moment of her life that isn’t traumatic.

The moment I realized this, I asked, “How long? How long do you plan to execute this Golden Rule?”

Amethyst looked back at me with a smile. “Forever.”

“Until there are no more wronged people in this land?”

She leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Yes. Well, not just people. I told you, Advisor—um, Mr. Gong-Ja. I won’t stop at this kingdom. I’ll embrace the entire universe.”

No way.

“I’m sorry, but I took a peek at your memories, Mr. Gong-Ja. You’re also looking at my memories, so it seems like a fair deal to me.”

I had seen that coming. Amethyst had the power to watch others’ pasts, but an irregular like me had appeared out of thin air. There was no way she wouldn’t peer into my memories.

Amethyst looked at me as if I was her favorite subordinate. “Young Heaven of the Heavenly Demon Cult... You’re leading quite an interesting group, Mr. Gong-Ja. Well, you would need that kind of bond to become this beautiful. I know you want to stop me. There is no way someone like you can watch someone else’s pain and not do anything about it. But, Mr. Gong-Ja, please remain faithful to who you are.

“You take the side of powerless people more than anyone else. When it comes to executing the Golden Rule, you should take the lead. Isn’t representing the screams of the weak your mission?”

“I...”

Amethyst caressed my earlobe. “Don’t try to stop me. I’m warning you. I have a habit of inadvertently destroying adorable children when I see them. You don’t think you’re the first person to try to stop me, would you? Do you know how many tears Her Majesty, the woman on that throne, has shed for me? If I collected my lover’s tears, we won’t have to worry about any droughts next year.”

She wasn’t lying. Her warning earlier was not a bluff either. A god always warned humans at least once before destroying them. The Tower master had already warned me to stop me from watching the trauma.

Just like before, I took the warning into consideration before asking, “Are you... happy doing this?”

She gently scratched at my earlobe. “Yes. Can’t you tell? I’m happy. I own my lovers’ happiness and misfortune. All it takes to make them happy is a smile from me, and a furrowed brow to make them sad. How can this not be fun?”

“Even if you have to be tortured forever?”

“Even if I have to be tortured forever.”

“Why do you accept pain as happiness?”

Amethyst smiled. “Pain still hurts, but a sweeter reward is waiting right in front of me.”

“What would that be?”

“The tears that my lovers will shed. As they watch me suffer, their hearts will break, and their faces will twist in pain. It will be a sight so sweet that I will want to keep watching it.”

“You love your lovers. To make the people you love suffer...”

“It’s wrong, but all my lovers have killed or ruined others. Isn’t it fair for them to suffer?”

I couldn’t say anything.

“I told you, Mr. Gong-Ja. You aren’t the first person to try to persuade me, and you won’t be the last. I’ve made myself this way for this moment.”

“You’ve made yourself?”

“Yes. My hobby of indulging in misfortune. Finding beauty in the broken. The appearance and eloquence that can conquer the broken. The achievements and skills that no one can deny. All of these things make me who I am. Would you like me to prove it to you?”

The surface of the Amniotic Fluid stirred.

“The time for chaos is over!” a very large noble with a horn on her head shouted. “The rebellions have been suppressed! All the big conflicts have ended! All we have to do now is clean up afterward, so why would we need to enact such an extreme law?”

I used River Eternal’s information spell to see details about the noble.

Mountain-Shattering Cow

Social Status: Margrave.

Connection: Viscountess Amethyst’s political enemy.

Danger Level: White.

Note: She leads the County of Cow.

She was deeply involved in the case of the kidnapped daughters of noble families by abetting the kidnapping. As a result, a village was completely destroyed.

To the northeast of the county, there’s the County of Bear, famous for its mining industry. The countess arrested all the miner slaves running away from the County of Bear and handed them over to the neighboring territory.

She’s a neutral that can be killed.

It wasn’t just Countess Mountain-Shattering Cow who revolted. A noble who appeared to be around the same age as Amethyst blankly muttered, “This doesn’t make sense. No...”

The noble flipped through the pages of the bill one by one, then two, three, and then four at once. Finally, she grabbed the entire document.

“What do the members of your faction think about this?”

Those seated behind Amethyst remained silent.

The noble gritted her teeth. “This girl isn’t much older than me. Even if there is a good reason for her to do this—no, that doesn’t matter. I don’t care what logic you bring me. I hate this bill. I just hate it!”

Tidefresh Crab

Social Status: Marchioness from near the capital.

Connection: None.

Danger Level: White.

Note: She’s leading the Marquisate of Crab. When she was young, she had a strong sense of adventure and wandered the sea. Then, she was cursed by a navalmine dragon, losing her memories and sense of self.

Due to her immature choices, the marquisate declined. After a while, a dragon kingdom spread their influence in the marquisate and their territory.

Contrary to her appearance, her mental age is below that of a thirteen-year-old’s.

Even though rebel forces had gathered in her territory, she failed to notice and unknowingly contributed to the outbreak of a major rebellion in the eastern sea.

She is a neutral that can be killed.

Many other nobles spoke out afterward. Each time I analyzed their information, I was able to spot their common denominator.

None of them are free of sin.

That was the conclusion I was able to draw according to what River Eternal, the person I was possessing, had written down.

No one in this broad assembly chamber is free of sin.

Marchioness Snowhite Rabbit had killed a child. Viscountess Pure Sacrednoir had consumed human flesh. Viscountess Great Prawn Pearl had massacred civilians. Countess Mountain-Shattering Cow had ruined a village. Marchioness Tidefresh Crab had failed to stop a rebellion. Baroness Sunwave Island, the Unconditioned Duchess, the Sun Queen...

Some were ignorant, others were simply incompetent. Some just didn’t care. Every single noble had a story of their own. For every story, they could spend countless hours excusing themselves.

However, they evidently had one thing in common. Among them, there wasn’t a single person who had not committed a sin. That was why Amethyst was relaxed.

“All of you have been

so

lazy over the past thousand years, especially over the past six hundred years, and even more so over the past sixty years.”

None of these people had saved more people than Amethyst.

“What did you do when tens of thousands of demi-human slaves were dying mining ore in the County of Bear? Were you not aware of it? Were you too powerless to intervene? Were you unprepared? Perhaps. But hundreds of years is too long of a time period for that excuse to work.”

No one was more capable than her.

“The time of chaos is over, you say? All the rebellions have been suppressed? Were they? Has the time of chaos truly passed since we took down the enemies we could find? Do you think they just disappeared? No, they didn’t. They’re just waiting for their time to strike again. Those who were whipped never forget the pain.”

She was right.

“Someone whose family has died never forgets how cold the grave’s soil is.”

Therefore, in another world, someone had bowed and said, “Lady Heavenly Demon.”

“A person who had to flee to the side of the road to avoid a carriage never forgets that humiliation. A mother whose son was conscripted and would never return from war never forgets watching her son sleep soundly in his bed. When there is nothing to eat, people scrape off tree bark, but the bark scratches the inside of their mouths as they chew it. People never forget that pain.”

Many, many people had bowed and said, “Lady Heavenly Demon.”

“Have they truly disappeared? Is this all in the past? Are their grudges so old that there is no need to resolve them, and are their resentments so boring that they aren’t even worth listening to?”

There was no way that was true.

“There is no way that is true.”

That was why they had bowed.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

This world was no different. No world was different. Even at this moment, someone, somewhere, was bowing.

In the street of Divine Moonstone Barony, stones that no one had touched rolled down by themselves. The people murmured, saying it was an ominous omen for a stone to be wandering at will in the land of moonstones.

Marchioness Snowhite Rabbit whipped a commoner child to death.

Rivers boiled every night for no reason. Frogs jumped out from every waterway, shoved their heads into the ground and died. Lightning struck the capital twenty-six times in just one day. A fortune teller at the north gate said “This is a bad omen because twenty-six is thirteen multiplied by two.”

And then Viscountess Great Prawn Pearl massacred civilians.

Rashly predicting the fortune of the country was considered a grave offense. The royal guards dragged the fortune teller out and executed him. The rainy season had not yet arrived, but on that day, the river overflowed and flooded all the roads leading to the capital.

However, the Sun Queen did not come out of the palace.

“You, those in power, have to take responsibility for the past.”

Years of poor harvests and plagues followed. Time rotted the spine of the kingdom, leaving pus in each of its ridges. Corpses flowed across the overflowing rivers.

“Some of you planned all of this, others simply turned a blind eye to everything. All of you will have to choose who gets to be the scapegoat.”

In the month of December, a pillar shaped like a young woman was trying to keep the world from collapsing.

“And you will choose me.”

The Amniotic Fluid was serene.

After a very long time, Tidefresh Crab said with a quivering voice, “I don’t like this.”

“I can see why,” Amethyst said with a nod. “What ending did you think was waiting for you?”

***

The person I was possessing seemed to have searched desperately for something specific.

Even just one person would have been fine.

River Eternal loved Amethyst. I didn’t know why, but I was able to feel the weight of her love from the words she had left behind.

One innocent person among this damned kingdom’s people in power would have been enough.

So River Eternal had begun to write down some records. Using her magic, she had investigated each noble and wrote down her findings. Since I now had access to these records, I looked at the nobles attending the assembly and read their information one by one.

However, the information River Eternal had left behind was similar to one another.

Killer. Mass-killer. Rebellion instigator. Rebellion subjugator. Slave owner. Slave merchant. Someone whose ignorance caused a disaster. Someone whose incompetence caused a catastrophic misjudgment.

The information that River Eternal had written down was an exposure of sins. Among the hundreds of people who had their feet in the Amniotic Fluid, not a single one was innocent. Thus, River Eternal had given up, unable to stop her master.

Maybe that’s why I regained control of myself...

I walked in front of Amethyst, who tilted her head in confusion. I could see my eyes reflected in her purple irises.

“

Huh

? Didn’t I warn you, Mr. Gong-Ja? I—”

“Trauma,” I said.

Amethyst tilted her head even more. “What?”

“Viscountess, I’ve seen your trauma.”

“I know. You’re still here, aren’t you?”

I grabbed Amethyst by the wrist. “I’m not talking about this moment in particular. When you were given the title of baroness, when you married your wife... I’ve watched almost your entire life. If you were really happy, I wouldn’t have been able to see those moments. ”

Amethyst tilted her head left and right. “Well, maybe I’ve started to become a little happier only recently. It may not look like it, but my life is a display of all kinds of hardships. Today is the beginning of true happiness.”

“No,” I countered with a shake of my head.

Even today, her smile was no different.

“I even saw that you eventually received your dukedom.”

Her smile was the same even after that.

“Every passing day will continue to be part of your trauma.”

“That’s a strange thing to say, Death King,” Amethyst said, calling me by my title, something I had never told her; she wasn’t bluffing when she said she had looked into my past. “Are you saying that I’m actually unhappy and am just pretending to be the opposite? I’m a little offended. If I lied like that, there is no way my lovers wouldn’t find out, don’t you think? I—”

I stepped a little closer to her. “You say you’re a goddess who never regresses for anyone. The reason your entire life is made up of only suffering is simple. Of course, being able to watch anyone’s life whenever you want is painful. You saw the past of Marchioness Snowhite Rabbit and Viscountess Great Prawn Pearl. Without my knowledge, you even saw mine, too. There’s never a single moment where you don’t watch someone die.”

Amethyst looked at me, speechless.

“There’s no way it wouldn’t be painful,” I added, getting even closer to her. “That’s why billions of traumas marred your life. But something is off. You acquired the

Gold Dragon’s Gaze

and

Icewater Dragon’s Breath

. You have been able to freely peek into other people’s lives, and yet, you’ve been suffering throughout your whole life.”

I had also witnessed the days when Amethyst didn’t have her dragons. Even back then, she suffered as she saw other people’s pasts. How? Amethyst didn’t have the dragons’ power back then, so how did she feel the pain of others like she did now?

There was only one answer.

“You being a goddess who never returns for anyone is an absurd lie. You’re a goddess who keeps returning for everyone. You went back in time with the dragon’s power so you could see the trauma of others, from your childhood all the way up to now.”

When she encountered the Unconditioned Duchess, Amethyst had instantly seen through the duchess’ life, as if she had always known the woman. When she had that audience with the Sun Queen, Amethyst already knew everything about the queen’s life as if she had been watching the queen for a long time.

“You are constantly repeating your life,” I said with certainty. “You regress over and over, living the same life. Each time you go back, you know what you need to say and do. You repeat this life forever, eternally watching the suffering of others. So your whole life has been a trauma. How many times have you repeated your life, Tower master? Did you keep count at least?”

She wasn’t laughing anymore, just looking at me expressionlessly.

As I glanced around, I realized time around us had frozen. Frustrated, Marchioness Tidefresh Crab had been crying with her head down. The Sun Queen had just been sitting on her throne without saying a word. Everyone else was also motionless as time stood still around them.

With time broken all around us, Amethyst asked, “Mr. Gong-Ja, have you ever counted the number of sand particles in a river?”

I didn’t reply.

“I have already made up my mind.”

Amethyst was still expressionless, as if she had been born that way. Her purple eyes indifferently reflected the world, and her lips no longer curled into a sneer. Blessings didn’t come out of her mouth either.

“And I will never change my ways.”

The world resembled a kaleidoscope as it cracked around us.