King Of Underworld [EN]: Chapter 49

The King of the Underworld is Tired 49

Oedipus Rex – (End)

A familiar sensation, a shifting view.

The black aura, the proof that I’ve possessed a human body, flows out in all directions.

“Huh…? Could it be…!”

“Lord Hades…?”

The priests around me hurriedly bow their heads.

Pushing through the crowd in the temple, I see the mad king of Thebes.

“Huuu…”

King Oedipus, clearly empowered by Gaia [the Greek goddess of the Earth].

He was once a hero praised for his wit and strategy in defeating the Sphinx [a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human or animal], and revered as a wise ruler.

Oedipus rushes at me, seemingly not recognizing me on the day I descended into this human body.

No, rather than not recognizing me… it feels like he’s surrendered his mind to madness.

“Haaa!”

Kwaaaang!

As he charges, I casually extend my hand and unleash divine power.

No matter how much of a hero-level powerhouse he has become among humans,

he is no match for a god possessing a human body.

Thud!

Oedipus, struck by the wave-like divine power, rolls across the ground before staggering to his feet.

It was a brief moment, but a fleeting look of confusion crosses his eyes.

It’s not the kind of curse that Dionysus [the Greek god of wine, fertility, theatre, and religious ecstasy], the god of madness, inflicts.

With repeated strong impacts, he might regain his senses.

Kwaaaang!!!

“Ugh!”

But to burn down the temple and massacre the people of Thebes? That was beyond the pale.

He must have been a severely unstable, crazy human to begin with.

Once again, King Oedipus staggers to his feet.

“Have you regained some sanity?”

“Huu… Hades… God…”

The madman stared straight at me.

“…You are grieving. I will hear your story.”

“Huu…”

The madness that Gaia bestowed was merely a small spark thrown onto an already piled-up stack of firewood.

Oedipus looked at me once more, and reason briefly flickered in his eyes.

Alternating his gaze between the surrounding black divine power and my pupils, the madman slowly brought his sword to his own arm.

Thwack.

“Kuaaaa!”

“King Oedipus… is cutting off his own arm…”

“No?!”

“What is happening…!”

Oedipus, kneeling on one knee, gritted his teeth.

Having freed himself somewhat from the influence of madness by cutting off his own arm, he looked straight at me.

The king of Thebes, his eyes finally clear, lowered his head.

“Pluto [another name for Hades, the god of the Underworld], god of mercy.”

But the emotions that accompanied his clarity were so diverse.

Sadness, anger, self-loathing, guilt, resentment, frustration…

A compendium of all negative emotions.

What on earth happened before he received Gaia’s curse?

But the sins he committed were enough to bring the living to the underworld for judgment.

Concentrating energy on the edge of my hand, I moved my possessed body and walked towards him as he knelt.

“It will be difficult to talk in your current state. Let’s talk again later.”

“I’m sorry… Mother.”

Clang.

Thud. Roll.

King Oedipus’s head, having given up everything and not even resisting, rolled across the floor.

The end of a sinner who burned down Dionysus’s temple and killed countless citizens in a fit of madness was too anticlimactic.

I stared at the head rolling on the floor for a moment before turning to look at the humans.

The citizens of Thebes, fearing divine punishment, couldn’t meet my eyes.

“Lord Pluto…”

“Mercy…”

The priests of the temple quietly closed their eyes and clasped their hands.

The newly appointed priest seemed to be moved to tears.

“…Not a single one of you has left the temple to flee. I will remember your faith.”

Leaving those last words, I immediately shifted my consciousness back to the underworld.

* * *

Returning my consciousness to the underworld,

I saw gods with stiff faces all around me.

They must have heard about the situation in Thebes and gathered.

“Thanatos [the Greek god of death], summon King Oedipus immediately. Also, bring Minos [one of the three judges of the dead in Greek mythology], the judge.”

“Hmm. Understood.”

“Shall I bring the waters of the River of Memory?”

“Goddess Mnemosyne [the Greek goddess of memory], I don’t think that will be necessary.”

Considering the look in Oedipus’s eyes that I saw in the mortal realm, his memories will likely remain even after crossing the River of Oblivion [Lethe, one of the rivers of the underworld whose waters caused forgetfulness].

Now it’s time to hear his story.

Shortly after, Thanatos roughly dragged Oedipus’s soul in.

His eyes no longer held madness, but a storm of complex emotions.

“I will listen to your story thoroughly and, together with Minos, the judge of the underworld, I will deliver a verdict.”

“…”

“Speak without reservation, tell me everything. Even if you curse Zeus [the king of the gods in Greek mythology], it doesn’t matter to me.”

At those words, Oedipus slowly opened his mouth.

“I killed my father and had relations with my mother, and even had children.”

His voice was hoarse as he haltingly recounted his actions.

The story of being raised as a prince of Corinth, the murder of his father in a chariot.

The Sphinx and Thebes, Iocaste, his mother and wife.

And… the truth spoken by the prophet Tiresias [a blind prophet of Thebes].

Even the power granted by the one who called herself Gaia.

Having said all this, Oedipus closed his mouth again.

If he hadn’t burned down the temple and killed people under Gaia’s influence, his sins would have been considerably lessened.

“Gaia instilled wrong thoughts in you.”

“At first, resentment towards the gods filled my mind, but at some point, my own will joined in.”

Oedipus also surrendered to madness?

Why? Of course, resisting madness is not easy, but…

“…Were you resentful of Apollo [the Greek god of music, arts, knowledge, healing, plague, prophecy, poetry, manly beauty, and archery] for making the prophecy?”

“He merely told me the future that was already determined.”

“Then was it anger towards Ares [the Greek god of war], who cursed the Theban royal family for generations?”

“If someone killed my child, I might have cast such a curse as well.”

“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.

In fact, when he fell into madness, hatred for Olympus [the home of the Greek gods] was unleashed, such as destroying temples.

However… his other desire is so great that he doesn’t even have time to resent the gods.

The time has come to confirm if my thoughts are correct.

“Then what is it that you desire?”

“I am a heinous villain who killed his father and had relations with his mother, and I destroyed temples and massacred the citizens of Thebes. I beg you to punish me.”

Perhaps he wanted to receive divine punishment.

Despite the terrible crime of having relations with his mother and killing his father, the Furies [goddesses of vengeance] did not torment him.

Perhaps the reason was that there was no intentionality, but did that make Oedipus even more miserable?

“You don’t say that you killed people because of the curse Gaia placed on you.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Only by receiving the terrible and desperate divine punishment inflicted on those who have committed all kinds of heinous crimes…

Was that the only way he thought he could atone?

The human mind is more fragile and unstable than the gods.

A human being driven to the extreme eventually chooses to destroy himself.

Sometimes those who overcome it are called heroes among heroes, but…

Unfortunately, Oedipus just couldn’t do it.

Human emotions are complex, and sometimes they don’t even know what they want.

Not to mention a human whose mind is broken and who has been given Gaia’s madness…

“…Please punish me.”

* * *

“It is difficult to decide on your punishment right away. I will postpone it for a while.”

Was it not that madness made him lose his mind,

but that he surrendered to madness and protested to the gods, asking them to inflict divine punishment on him?

Oedipus left under the strict guard of the 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 was enough to get advice.

“Minos, do you have any opinions?”

“The severity of the crime will depend on how much Gaia’s curse affected that human’s mind.”

“And?”

“Besides that, blasphemy, the prophecy of tragedy, his contribution to Thebes, and the wrong of killing humans should be considered…”

Minos is right.

The issue is the balance between Oedipus’s own intentions and the madness of the curse at the time he massacred humans and burned down the temple.

We must make a judgment as fairly as possible.

“Gaia must have tempted him by saying that everything was because of us gods.”

“However, according to Oedipus’s words in the underworld, he himself joined in the madness and became more rampant from the middle…”

“It’s not Dionysus’s whisper, but a line of will must have remained even in the madness.”

“That’s why he used the expression that his own will was also involved.”

“If it wasn’t for Gaia’s curse, wouldn’t it have ended with him gouging out his own eyes? He swore that he would gouge out his eyes if he found the parricide himself.”

“Gaia’s curse pushed Oedipus, who was already mentally broken, to make the wrong decision…”

After that, I consulted with Minos for a long time.

Considering the dead humans, the reputation in the mortal realm, the influence of the curse, and his attitude…

“Bring Oedipus back.”

The time has come to deliver the verdict.

* * *

I looked at Oedipus, who had been dragged back before me.

I slowly opened my mouth to the king of Thebes, who remained silent.

“Your charges are that you violated your mother and killed your father, and that you burned down the Dionysus temple in Thebes and killed innocent citizens in a fit of madness.”

Perhaps Oedipus is the most tragic person in the history of Thebes?

“If we only consider the charges, it would be right to send you to Tartarus [the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked] to do endless labor, but…”

Most of the crimes he committed were not entirely his fault.

Even the act of killing the citizens of Thebes and burning down the temple was a regrettable act committed in a state of madness.

“I will consider the fact that you fell into Gaia’s madness, the prophecy that you would face a tragic fate, and the fact that you were revered as a wise ruler of Thebes until you realized the truth.”

He was swayed by the gods from beginning to end.

Due to Ares’s curse, a curse of misfortune came to the Theban royal family…

He was abandoned by his own father because of the tragic prophecy, and he violated his own mother.

After realizing the truth, he was used by Gaia and fell further into despair.

“I sentence you to 200 years of building stones in the outskirts of the underworld with the blessing of oblivion, without the memories of the mortal realm.”

A light punishment for a human who massacred dozens of humans, burned down a temple, and even killed a divine beast.

But I judged that this was appropriate.

“You will not be able to reincarnate, and after your labor is over, you will work as a guard of the fortress forever.”

“Is the blessing of oblivion… the mercy you bestow upon me?”

“Think of it as a small compensation for someone who has been tormented by the gods from the moment of birth to the moment of death.”

I turned my head away from Oedipus, who was unable to speak, and looked at the goddess Lethe [goddess of oblivion].

“Lady Lethe, I ask for your help.”

The verdict is over.

* * *

After Oedipus received the blessing of oblivion and was dragged to the labor camp,

I was lost in thought for a moment.

“Hades, the Olympian god Dionysus has requested that Oedipus be severely punished.”

“…”

“Hades…?”

When I slowly raised my head, I saw a silver-haired goddess with a sad expression.

“I don’t know if the judgment I made is correct.”

“Hades did his best. Appropriate punishment and mercy for a human swayed by fate…”

“Well… I don’t know.”

Did I judge Oedipus correctly?

Were the punishment and reward appropriate, or were there unfair parts?

“We gods… are not omniscient and omnipotent as humans hope and believe.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Even Zeus doesn’t know everything, and even the three main gods are swayed by emotions.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Athena [the Greek goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare] is not always wise, and Hephaestus [the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes] sometimes swings his hammer wrong.”

The gods are not omniscient and omnipotent.

Even Athena is sometimes swept away by momentary emotions and forgets her wisdom,

and even Hephaestus sometimes makes failures.

“However, I, the god of the underworld, must not have such things happen.”

When humans die, they come to the underworld.

The perpetrators and victims meet in the underworld.

The mass murderers and innocent victims also come to the underworld.

Those who committed crimes by being used by others, and those who died by the gods also come to the underworld.

Those who have committed the sin of blasphemy, those who have been deceived by him and committed wrongdoings, and those who have been unfairly sacrificed and resent the gods also come to the underworld.

The final destination of all mortals and the place where the karma of life is evaluated is the underworld.

That is why I must make the fairest and most dispassionate judgment possible.

That is the duty given to the god of the underworld with powerful power.

“Why not? Hades isn’t the primordial god, Chaos, and isn’t it natural?”

“But…”

“I sometimes make mistakes in the blessing of oblivion I give to humans, so what if something goes wrong?”

“The task assigned to me is to judge mortals…”

“You’re doing a good job right now. Minos was convinced by the verdict and went back.”

Minos, who is famous for his fairness, is not one to be unable to speak his mind due to being pressured by my authority.

I know that fact well.

“But still… I should have made a more correct judgment…”

Hug.

“Stop… stop talking. Just forget everything for a moment and be at peace.”

Goddess Lethe, who suddenly hugged me, manifests the power of oblivion.

The goddess’s warm heart is conveyed throughout my body.

I didn’t resist.