I am back – Chapter 2

“So, um… that wasn’t exactly what I intended to say. Right. A wish.”

The goddess shrugged her shoulders before speaking.

“I said that if you save the world, I would grant you a wish. That’s why I summoned you.”

“But I’ve already died, you know?”

“Wow, that’s a first for me. I guess I didn’t consider that when I called you, huh?”

“……”

The goddess, with her utterly mocking demeanor, might seem somewhat blasphemous to say, but she looked a bit like a punk, especially because of her hair color.

“Anyway, yeah. As you said, you did die again. So, this has caused a bit of a complication in the story. If the previous conditions were a bit lenient, now they’ve become quite strict.”

Having said that, the goddess let out a deep sigh as if the ground had crumbled beneath her.

“If you really need to push it…”

“Why, if I say it’s a stretch, are you just going to refuse to accept anything?”

As the goddess shot me a sideways glance, I shrugged my shoulders and replied.

“I was supposed to be dead anyway. By living this second life, I managed to do fulfilling things I couldn’t do in my previous life. That alone is a huge reward for me.”

“……”

The goddess stared at me for a while before letting out yet another sigh.

Then she pulled a chair out of thin air and plopped down onto it.

A round table appeared in front of the seated goddess, and another chair popped up across from her.

“Why don’t you sit for a moment?”

The goddess said.

Her tone was casual, like she was speaking to a friend she’d known for years, so even though it was blunt, it didn’t feel bad at all.

I sat down without saying much.

The goddess crossed her arms and legs, quietly gazing at me before opening her mouth.

“Did I mention that I was once a pope?”

“…Huh?”

I momentarily didn’t grasp the meaning and asked back, but she continued without pausing to explain.

“What do you think my salary was when I was pope?”

“Uh…”

I had no idea.

Since a pope is the highest position among religious figures, wouldn’t they naturally get paid more?

“I won’t mention a specific number, but it was definitely less than what you think.”

As the goddess said that, she picked up a transparent glass with a light brown liquid and ice in it. Is it iced tea?

…And I found one exactly like it in front of me, so I quietly decided to sip it.

It was a long-awaited taste of peach-flavored iced tea.

Has it been five years?

“What do you think the reason for that is?”

“Um… because the goddess was pure?”

“Close enough.”

The goddess snorted, then added, “When I was a pope, the goddess inhabiting Earth was absurdly poor.”

I guess “absurdly” means “really, very” in this context.

Before pointing out that both the goddess and pope were on Earth at the same time, if she was so pure and good, was there a need to use a term like “absurd”?

Even though I didn’t voice that question, the goddess naturally dismissed my thoughts with a bit of grumbling.

“So, because the goddess was too good, I ended up with less salary than the pope.”

“……”

“And after saving that salary for about fifty years, I just returned it to society because there was ‘really no use for it.’”

“……”

“Think about it. If a goddess does that, what will happen to the poor souls working beneath her? The goddess can starve and die and it wouldn’t matter to her, but popes, priests, monks, and nuns need to live off their small salaries. Even if they get fed three meals a day at the church, you can’t live off just bread.”

The goddess fell into thought for a moment, then added, “Well, technically, I wasn’t human back then either.”

She said that with a bitter smile.

“So, uh…”

“So, you might as well just accept what I’m giving you. There’s no need to thank me. Saying ‘thank you’ isn’t even something you should say. The one who should be grateful is me. You stepped up to save the world when I couldn’t.”

The goddess finally let her hand drop from the teacup.

“You’ll have enough to live without worrying about money for the rest of your life.”

“That’s quite a bit…”

“Not enough, though. I’m not making you the richest person in the world or anything like that. Money isn’t infinite. I think you can live off it for a lifetime and even pass it on to your grandchildren, but for having saved the world, it’s not a huge amount.”

“But living expenses for a lifetime isn’t exactly something you can just throw around.”

When I smiled and said this, the goddess let out a small sigh.

“How much do you think a life is worth?”

“Obviously, it can’t be quantified by value.”

“And you saved more lives than you could ever quantify.”

The goddess’s gaze met mine as emotions danced in her eyes—sadness, perhaps?

I smiled back at her.

“If a person’s life can’t be quantified by money, then the life I just acquired can’t really be valued either.”

The goddess shut her eyes tightly after my words. After a moment of reflection, she chuckled softly, “Those so-called heroes who saved the world always say that.”

With that said, she let out a long breath.

As the goddess sat for a while, organizing her thoughts, she opened her eyes.

“Alright, then. Let me get back to the main point and explain why things have gotten a bit complicated.”

“Sure.”

I straightened up and listened attentively.

“Once a person dies, receiving help from this world becomes severely limited. If you had survived properly, I could have sent my powers to a saintess to open a path to another world for you.”

“But since I died…”

“We need to ‘create’ your body again.”

The goddess said with a serious expression.

“And this body will inevitably be ‘somewhat’ different from yours. Even though I know what you look like, the body I create will naturally differ from the one you were born with. It might even look a little different from your original body.”

Creating a new body and breathing a complete soul into it amidst another dimension isn’t an easy task, they say. And since it has to be made far away, it’s impossible to create the same thing multiple times. It’s like holding a long chopstick and trying to bring a thin cloth barely visible before your eyes while using it to recreate a picture.

And if you try to recreate that picture once more, it’ll obviously end up further away from the ‘original.’

Of course, the being inside the body is me. The memories are mine, so I’ll exist as myself, but the people who see me might not feel the same.

“Still, I promise to make it as similar as possible…”

“No.”

I shook my head.

Yeah, this could actually work out better.

This was a question I had been pondering ever since I got here.

“Huh?”

“Make it a completely different appearance. So that no one from my original world can recognize me.”

“…Really different?”

“Yes.”

The goddess looked at me with slightly narrowed brows before inquiring.

“Why? It’s not like you have enemies from your previous life.”

“True.”

But… there were people I held dear.

There were people who cared about me, family who lived in love.

And to them, I had already passed away five years ago.

They probably handled the remains and held a funeral. Every year they might be honoring my memory now. Perhaps they even visited my columbarium or grave site on the anniversary of my death.

It surely must have been heartbreaking, but… it’s been five years now.

Even if the wounds aren’t fully healed, they might be healing. What reaction would they have when encountering ‘someone who looks just like their dead child’?

Of course, I am *me*. I possess all my memories, and if I were to meet my mom or sister again, I’d confidently greet them.

However, from their perspective, it would just be like someone who looks just like their son says hello.

…In a world without any supernatural powers, magic, fairies, or other beings, saying something like “I’m your son” would only sound like bullying and nothing more.

Yet, I wanted to be near my mom and sister. That’s why I wish to go back.

So, I selfishly wanted to become someone completely different and build relationships from the ground up.

“…Is that how it is…?”

The goddess squeezed out her words with difficulty.

“Yes, to the point where no one can recognize me.”

Would my mom be doing any better now?

…Did my sister graduate from university? Did she get a boyfriend?

“……”

The goddess closed her eyes and fell into thought before replying.

“If that’s what you want, I will grant it. However, this will truly be the last time. Once it’s decided, it cannot be changed. Are you sure you won’t regret it?”

“Yes, no matter what form it takes, as long as I can be with the people I love.”

“…I see.”

The goddess nodded.

We sat across from each other in silence until our teacups were emptied.

*

“My long-time friend once said that the best ending to any story is ‘And they all lived happily ever after.’”

“That’s a nice story.”

As I replied with a smile, the goddess nodded, placing her hands together in front of her chest.

“Yes. So, I will also pray as a goddess.”

As she took a small breath, a halo of mixed white and black light shimmered behind her. The radiance was so sacred that her earlier familiar demeanor felt like a lie.

“May your future be filled with hope and happiness. I hope that when you meet me again, you can smile and say you have no regrets.”

Soon the vision was enveloped in white light—

And when I regained my senses, I found myself in the middle of a busy street in Seoul.