When I Asked My Husband for a Divorce, He Said He’d Be Bringing Home a Young Woman, So I Left - 22
I remembered.
Being led by the hand into that space surrounded by gods, countless voices echoing around me.
I think I heard something outrageous, but the flood of voices left me too confused to comprehend much in the moment.
With all those words reverberating in my head almost simultaneously, expecting me to understand was impossible.
The first thing I felt was a chilling dread.
If what the gods said was true, then divine beings were something utterly terrifying from a human perspective.
We must never become involved with them or catch their attention.
Solemn yet tinged with amusement, they were absolute predators who tormented the weak.
Then on a whim, they might playfully extend a helping hand.
Beings you couldn’t touch without consequences.
Duel was connected to one such god. Tied to a deity who had extended salvation to humans fighting monsters.
The fact that Ixel had continued Duel for ten years suggested he must be an exceptionally capable vessel for a god.
Ixel had already caught the gods’ attention.
Since the “child” they mentioned was undoubtedly Charlotte, his meeting with her couldn’t have been coincidence.
They said Charlotte’s past life had been the cause behind the monsters’ creation.
What kind of sin could possibly warrant having one’s soul eternally scorched?
What selfish act could destroy an entire nation?
I couldn’t imagine it, nor was there any answer.
The only thing I knew for certain was that this didn’t directly concern me.
I’d been dragged into it.
Surely some god who’d taken interest in Ixel orchestrated his meeting with Charlotte, then took advantage of her obsession with him to drive Ixel to despair and destruction. If they wanted Charlotte to witness that…
In the gods’ script, I was probably meant to die in misfortune.
Hoping Charlotte would eventually realize it was all her own fault.
…What the hell.
This went beyond anger—how could I even describe this rage that made hatred feel lukewarm?
Was it the gods who separated me from Ixel?
Some gods had been laughing.
Others were toying with us.
A few offered warnings, but most seemed indifferent… no, many seemed to say “we’re bored now.”
If they truly possessed such power, couldn’t they have dealt with the monsters themselves?
This world was ruled by lazy gods who wouldn’t act, incompetent gods who couldn’t.
What did they take people for? Ixel? Me?
We weren’t lifeless pieces on some game board.
We were lives trying our damnedest to live.
Not pawns to make Charlotte realize her selfishness had irreversible consequences.
I refuse to believe I was born just for that.
“Char? What’s wrong? You’re frowning so deeply… Did you have a bad dream?”
My former sister… no, mother’s worried voice reached me.
She pulled my head to her left chest, rhythmically patting my bottom.
Her heartbeat reached my right ear and cheek.
Warmth and mother’s comforting scent.
As I listened to the steady thump-thump, the tension left my body.
No good.
Nothing good comes from catching a god’s attention.
That probably meant I shouldn’t even direct hatred their way. Any god who noticed would surely find it amusing and interfere.
In this world ruled by those gods, the best path was undoubtedly to live quietly without drawing their notice.
“Correct.”
At the voice that echoed in my head, my body jerked in spasms.