Chapter 49
A familiar sensation, changing vision.
Black energy flows out in all directions, evidence that I've possessed a human body.
"Huh...? Could it be...!"
"Lord Hades...?"
The surrounding priests hurriedly bow their heads towards me.
Pushing through the people crowding the temple, I see the mad king of Thebes.
"Huff..."
King Oedipus, clearly empowered by Gaia.
He was once a hero praised as a wise ruler who defeated the Sphinx with his wit and strategy.
Oedipus charges at me, seemingly not recognizing my manifestation in a human body.
Or rather, it's more like... his mind is consumed by madness.
"Uaah!"
Boom!
I casually extend my hand towards the charging Oedipus, releasing divine power.
No matter how much of an unrivaled hero he's become among humans,
He's not strong enough to defeat a god possessing a human body.
Crash!
After being hit by the wave-like divine power and rolling on the ground, Oedipus staggers to his feet.
Though brief, a flicker of confusion passes through his eyes.
It's not as severe as a curse from Dionysus, the god of madness.
A madness that could be shaken off after receiving several strong shocks.
Boom!!!
"Gah!"
Yet he burns temples and massacres the people of Thebes?
This is only possible for a human who was already severely mentally unstable.
Once again, King Oedipus staggers to his feet.
"Have you come to your senses a bit?"
"Ugh... Lord Hades..."
The madman looks straight at me.
"...You are in sorrow. I will listen to your circumstances."
"Ugh..."
Gaia's madness merely threw a small spark onto an already existing pile of kindling.
Reason briefly flashes in Oedipus's eyes as he looks at me again.
The madman alternately examines the surrounding black divine power and my pupils, slowly bringing his sword to his own arm.
Slash.
"Argh!"
"King Oedipus... cut his own arm..."
"What?!"
"What's going on...!"
Oedipus kneels on one knee, gritting his teeth.
Having cut his own arm to partially escape the influence of madness, he looks straight at me.
Finally, with clear intelligence in his eyes, the king of Thebes bows his head.
"Pluto, god of mercy."
But along with the intelligence, a myriad of emotions settled in.
Sadness, anger, self-loathing, guilt, resentment, frustration...
"Please do not show me mercy.. I am a sinner... ugh.. ugh..."
A compendium of all negative emotions.
What on earth happened before he received Gaia's curse?
However, the wrongs he committed were enough to bring a living person to the underworld for judgment.
Concentrating energy in my hand, I walk towards the kneeling man in my possessed body.
"It's difficult to talk in your current state. We'll speak again shortly."
"I'm sorry... mother."
Thud.
Plop. Roll.
The head of King Oedipus, who didn't even resist as if he had given up everything, rolled on the floor.
It was too anticlimactic an end for a criminal who had burned Dionysus's temple and killed numerous citizens in madness.
After briefly looking at the rolling head, I turned to observe the humans.
The citizens of Thebes, afraid of divine punishment, couldn't meet my eyes.
"Lord Pluto..."
"Mercy..."
The temple priests quietly closed their eyes and clasped their hands.
I can see a newly appointed priest crying with emotion.
"...Not a single person fled the temple. I will remember your faith."
Leaving only one last word, I immediately shifted my consciousness to the underworld.
***
As I shifted my consciousness back to the underworld,
I saw gods with tense expressions all around.
It seems they all gathered after hearing about the situation in Thebes.
"Thanatos, please summon King Oedipus immediately. Bring Minos, the judge, as well."
"Hmm. Understood."
"Shall I bring the waters of memory?"
"Goddess Mnemosyne, that won't be necessary."
Considering Oedipus's eyes as I saw them in the mortal world, his memories would likely remain even after crossing the River of Forgetfulness.
Now it's time to hear his circumstances.
Shortly after, Thanatos roughly dragged in Oedipus's soul.
Though madness was no longer visible in his eyes, a whirlwind of complex emotions swirled within them.
"I will listen to your story thoroughly, and after consulting with Minos, the underworld judge, I will pass judgment."
"....."
"Speak freely, tell me everything. Even if you curse Zeus, it doesn't matter to me."
At those words, Oedipus's mouth slowly opened.
"I killed my father, and had a relationship with my mother, even bearing children."
In a hoarse voice, he stumbles through his actions.
The story of being raised as the prince of Corinth, Oedipus killing his father in the chariot.
The Sphinx and Thebes, Jocasta who was both his mother and wife.
And... the truth spoken by the prophet Tiresias.
Even the power bestowed by the one who called herself Gaia.
Having said this much, Oedipus closed his mouth again.
If he hadn't burned temples and killed people under Gaia's influence, his sins would have been considerably reduced.
"Gaia instilled wrong thoughts in you."
"At first, resentment towards the gods filled my mind, but at some point, my own will joined in."
So Oedipus also gave himself over to madness?
Why? Of course, it wouldn't be easy to resist madness and come to one's senses, but...
"...Were you resentful of Apollo who made the prophecy?"
"He merely revealed a future that was already set."
"Then was it anger towards Ares who cursed the Theban royal family for generations?"
"If someone had killed my child, I might have laid such a curse myself."
"Then do you think Gaia, who corrupted you, is to blame?"
"She merely changed the direction of the burning flame."
He says this, but it's not that he has no resentment towards the gods at all.
In fact, when he was in madness, his hatred for Olympus erupted in actions like destroying temples.
However... another desire he holds is so great that he doesn't even have time to resent the gods.
It's time to confirm if my thoughts are correct.
"Then what is it that you wish for?"
"I want you to punish me, who am a great sinner who killed my father and had relations with my mother, destroyed temples, and massacred the citizens of Thebes."
Perhaps he wanted to receive divine punishment.
Despite the terrible sin of having relations with his mother and killing his father, the three goddesses of vengeance did not torment him.
Perhaps this was because there was no intentionality, but did that make Oedipus even more miserable?
"You don't say you killed people because of Gaia's curse."
"...I'm sorry."
Is receiving terrible and miserable divine punishment given to those who commit all sorts of grave sins...
The only way he thinks he can atone?
The human mind is more fragile and unstable than that of gods.
Humans driven to extreme mental states ultimately choose to destroy themselves.
Sometimes those who overcome this are called heroes among heroes...
Unfortunately, Oedipus simply couldn't do that.
Human emotions are complex; sometimes even they don't know what they want.
Let alone a human whose mind was broken and then received Gaia's madness...
"...Please punish me."
***
"It's difficult to decide your punishment right away. I'll postpone it for now."
Was it not madness that made his mind snap,
But rather him giving himself over to madness to protest to the gods for divine punishment?
Oedipus left under the strict surveillance of soul guards.
I dismissed all the gods for a moment and called Minos, the fair judge of the underworld.
His two brothers were too busy judging other souls to come, but Minos alone is enough for advice.
"Minos, do you have an opinion?"
"The severity of the crime seems to depend on how much Gaia's curse affected that human's mind."
"And?"
"Other than that, if we consider the sacrilege, the tragic prophecy, his contributions to Thebes, and the wrong of killing humans..."
Minos is right.
When he massacred humans and burned temples,
The question is what balance there was between Oedipus's own intentions and the madness of the curse.
We must pass judgment as fairly as possible.
"Gaia surely tempted him by saying everything was because of us gods."
"But according to Oedipus's words in the underworld, from the middle, he also willingly cooperated with the madness and rampaged more..."
"It wasn't Dionysus's whisper, so even in madness, a strand of will must have remained."
"That's why he used the expression that his own will was involved."
"If it weren't for Gaia's curse, wouldn't it have ended with him gouging out his own eyes? He swore he would gouge out his eyes if he found the sinner."
"Gaia's curse pushed the already mentally broken Oedipus to make wrong judgments..."
After that, I consulted with Minos for a long time.
If we consider the dead humans, his reputation in the mortal world, the influence of the curse, and his attitude...
"Bring Oedipus back."
It's time to pass judgment.
***
I looked at Oedipus, who was dragged back before me.
I slowly opened my mouth to the king of Thebes, who maintained silence.
"Your charges are violating your mother, killing your father, falling into madness and burning Thebes' temple of Dionysus, and killing innocent citizens."
Perhaps Oedipus is the most tragic figure in Thebes' history?
"Considering only the crimes committed, it would be right to send you to Tartarus for endless labor, but..."
Most of the crimes he committed were not his fault.
Even killing the citizens of Thebes and burning the temple were unfortunate acts committed when he had lost his mind.
"I will consider the fact that you fell into Gaia's madness, the prophecy of a tragic fate, and that you were revered as a wise ruler of Thebes until you realized the truth."
He was manipulated by the gods from beginning to end.
Due to Ares' curse, the curse of misfortune befell the Theban royal family...
He was abandoned by his birth father because of the tragic prophecy, and violated his birth mother.
After realizing the truth, he was used by Gaia and fell even further.
"I sentence you to 200 years of stacking stones on the outskirts of the underworld, in a state where you have no memories of the mortal world after receiving the blessing of forgetfulness."
This is a light punishment for a human who massacred dozens of people, burned temples, and even killed a divine beast.
But I judged this to be appropriate.
"You cannot be reincarnated, and after your labor sentence ends, you will work as a guard of the fortress forever."
"Is the blessing of forgetfulness... mercy you're granting me?"
"Consider it a small compensation given to one who suffered at the hands of the gods from the moment of birth until the end."
I turned my gaze from Oedipus, who couldn't continue speaking, to look at the goddess Lethe.
"Lady Lethe, if you please."
The judgment has ended.
***
After Oedipus received the blessing of forgetfulness and was dragged to the labor camp,
I was lost in thought for a while.
"Hades, Dionysus from Olympus has requested that Oedipus be severely punished."
"...."
"Hades...?"
As I slowly raised my head, I saw the silver-haired goddess with a sad expression.
"I'm not sure if the judgment I passed was correct."
"Hades, you did your best. You gave appropriate punishment and mercy to a human swayed by fate..."
"Well... I'm not sure."
Did I judge Oedipus correctly?
Were the punishment and compensation appropriate, or were there unfair aspects?
"We gods... are not omnipotent as humans hope and believe."
"Yes, that's right."
"Even Zeus doesn't know everything, and even the Big Three are ultimately swayed by emotions."
"Yes, of course."
"Athena is not always wise, and even Hephaestus sometimes swings his hammer wrongly."
Gods are not omnipotent.
Even Athena sometimes forgets her wisdom when overwhelmed by momentary emotions,
And even Hephaestus occasionally creates failures.
"However, as the god of the underworld, I must not have such occurrences."
When humans die, they come to the underworld.
Perpetrators and victims meet in the underworld.
Murderers and innocent victims also come to the underworld.
Those who committed crimes after being used by others, those killed by gods also come to the underworld.
Those who committed sacrilege, those who made mistakes after being deceived by them, those who resent the gods after being unjustly sacrificed also come to the underworld.
The underworld is the final destination for all mortals and the place where the karma of their lives is evaluated.
That's why I must make judgments as fair and impartial as possible.
That is the duty given to the powerful god of the underworld.
"Why can't you? You're not Chaos, the primordial god, so isn't it natural?"
"But..."
"I sometimes make mistakes with the blessing of forgetfulness I give to humans, so what's wrong with a small error?"
"The task assigned to me is to judge mortals..."
"You're already doing well enough. Even Minos was satisfied with the judgment and left."
Minos, renowned for his fairness, is not one to be intimidated by my authority and fail to speak the truth.
I am well aware of this fact too.
"But still... I should have made a more correct judgment..."
Hug.
"Stop... stop talking. Just forget everything for a moment and be at peace."
The goddess Lethe, who suddenly embraced me, manifests her power of forgetfulness.
The goddess's warm heart transmitted through her entire body.
I didn't resist.