I Became a Slave to a Mythical Shepherd

Episode 14. enlightenment

-··· Dalgrak. Dalgrak.

After returning late yesterday, I went straight to sleep.

And now was the first meal.

While eating porridge in silence, I glanced at my parents.

Even if Skleos suddenly appeared and hit his father in the back of the head with a hammer, there wouldn’t be a more tingly expression than that one.

Looking back, the food on the table for the two of them hadn’t decreased at all.

I was eating only.

The two of them didn’t say anything at the table, didn’t eat anything, and just watched me.

I think I’ll catch up.

“…is that for real?”

Unlike me, my parents must have been well aware that this is a world where myths coexist. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have lived my life so strictly observing the numerous taboos and rituals that I thought were superstitions.

However, the story that the son was offered to learn blacksmithing by the god of blacksmithing is roughly ‘Mom, Dad! I was offered the next Chief of Staff of the Blue House by the President!’ Wouldn’t it come with a certain amount of weight?

I can’t help but be shocked

I can’t help but be embarrassed

But seeing me nod, my parents had to realize that it was true.

“I-I’m against it.”

Eventually, my mother struggled to tell the story.

“A blacksmith? How hard is that?”

While talking, the mother blurted out her words, as if she was not confident. The god of Olympus directly selected the disciples. A slave couple has no right to add words to this.

“Honey, this is Hephaestus. It’s Hephaestus. The first time we talked, I thought it was some lowly aristocrat. I can’t move now.”

When the father pointed it out, the mother said with a still puzzled look on her face.

“But you know. We, we shouldn’t be like this. Suddenly, the son of a shepherd becomes a blacksmith.

“#@$$, can you come in? I think I will have a long talk with my mother.”

“Stay still. Aren’t you worried about $#$?”

“Honey, please calm down, please. I’m worried too, but…”

The conversation between the two is getting more serious than expected. While feeling the weight, I was feeling the weight of the words Mr. Skleos had said to some extent.

‘In retrospect, becoming a blacksmith is a rise in status, but I’m so worried about it.’

Normally, I would savvyly jump into this conversation and say something, but in the end I don’t know anything about the blacksmith’s status or grievances. Unable to understand the worries of the two people who must have lived in this world for decades, I have no choice but to remain silent and unable to open my mouth…

“Hello you two! Today you are too…”

Besides, in the midst of that, Theo hyung, who didn’t know anything, came into the house laughing. As soon as the sunken eyes of the three turned to him, Theo took a step back.

I thought that soon my parents would ask Theo to leave, or Theo would take notice of the atmosphere and leave.

“…Is this what I need?”

But it was neither. Still keeping a smile on my face, as Theo said, I looked at my mother, wondering why that smart person was like this today, or what kind of punishment she was going to punish.

Turning around, my mother quietly nodded.

“Son, leave for a while. I have something to talk about with the adults.”

That’s how Theo came into the house, and I had to go out after emptying the porridge bowl.

What the hell is going on.

Out of boredom, I led the sheep and wandered around for a while, wondering if there was anyone I could meet.

Maybe it’s morning, Mr. Phillipos, who has no children and is good with money, is probably spending time with the couple, and Mr. Yorgos, who was caught gambling last time, got scolded by his wife in front of all the kids and smiled as usual, making his wife’s It was sure to intensify his anger.

It’s the person I’m going to meet right now, so…

“@#$!!!! What are you doing there!!!”

“Ino?”

Ino is running fast from a distance.

that poor fellow Since I live alone, I have no place to play and no one to play with, so I always ask…

– “I have no family, no parents! I am a fairy!!”

for a moment. no way.

Memories pass by.

The words that Ino, who had no home or family, muttered, words I dismissed as daydreams.

– “We live well among ourselves! We help each other, and the older sisters help me a lot!”

– “Older sisters? How many?”

-“500 years old!”

I started running.

“@#@#$!!! at there! wait!! Why are you running away!!!”

“Oh, oh, don’t come!!”

A fairy, a fairy.

Ask the fairy who your parents are, ask if she is eating well, and tell her to go back home…

Why didn’t everyone tell me? If I had told you earlier, it wouldn’t have been so embarrassing.

-“It looks like you’ve been possessed by a fairy.”

– “Because I am a fairy!”

Everyone has been talking Also very kind.

I thought the way Ino and my parents looked at me was strange, but when I thought about it, it seemed like they were looking at a child who was a bit lacking.

-chin.

“Got it!”

“Whoaaagh!”

The hem of his tunic fluttered loudly as he fell over with his neck grabbed. Having collapsed unsightly, I had no choice but to look up at Ino.

“…”

“Why are you suddenly avoiding me? what’s the matter! I was going to ask a nasty-looking earthworm to come and watch it with me!!”

“you···”

“Me, what?”

“Are you a fairy?”

Worst first word ever.

I couldn’t help but say that even though I knew the world would look stupid.

Because… previously invisible leaves were growing through Ino’s hair.

It wasn’t simply attached, but the vines were attached to the head and wrapped around it like a crown.

No, you may have seen it before. Maybe it was just leaves stuck to her hair.

Anyway, the reality is this.

“What do you mean by that? Why are you suddenly asking the obvious? Aren’t you human?”

yeah i’m dumb

But who knew how? What kind of modern person would believe that the world he fell into is a fantasy world, even though there is no visible evidence?

Tears cover my eyes when I think of the many dark history that I must have sprinkled during my seven years of living.

I remember scolding the parents for sending their sick child to the temple of Asclepius, asking why they depend on pseudoscience.

After that, he must have been fine with God’s blessing. In fact, it was no different from humans who say that their brains are controlled by Bill Gates when they get vaccinated.

Another thing, there were people who prayed to Pan, the god of shepherds, when there was no grass to feed the sheep due to drought.

At that time, I told them to feed the elderly and babies who were starving with the money, and then the goats nearby put them on their horns and kicked them in the chest with their hind feet. The scars from that time still remain.

Come to think of it, didn’t the pasture really regenerate after praying like that? Maybe the goats were controlled by Pan then? So the villagers looked at me as an idiot at that time…

Again, again, I made fun of someone who said that satyrs and fairies were scary in the forest…

“It’s soggy… it’s soggy…”

“Are you… crying?”

“Uh uh uh, cry…”

Because it’s too embarrassing.

There was no real crazy person like this, and there was no such thing as a nuisance.

Couldn’t it be that I unluckily stopped him from going to the temple and made him seriously ill?

If the god Pan got angry because I did something stupid, the whole village might have starved to death…

Looking back, there are so many spooky moments. How am I still alive?

In fact, wouldn’t the gods in Greek mythology have more human traits than I thought? Was the crime mitigated because it was a crime committed by ignorance?

Anyway, it is daily life in my hometown these days that makes me think about such insignificant thoughts.

There are so many people to avoid, and so many emerging dark histories.

…First of all, one of the dogs has already been encountered.

Looking at Ino, I couldn’t help but worry.

“…now what?”

“Did you throw away the sheep as you ran away from me?”

“Oh, what about that too?”

“don’t worry! I’m sure the older sisters are preventing them from running away!”

“If it’s the older sisters…”

If Ino, the ‘real fairy’, would call her older sister.

“Those older sisters who are over 500 years old?”

“huh! Thank you for helping me last time, thanks to you, I was able to buy a reasonable amount of time before the villagers came and talked well with the villagers to avoid cutting down trees!”

Still, the last time we met, I think he had a wary attitude towards me, but he seems to have a thorough style when it comes to grace.

Still, I let out a sigh of relief at the fact that there was a mythical being that I liked.

thank god.

For now, as Ino helped me, I got up and went to the place where my sheep were waiting.

Indeed, as Ino said, the sheep did not run away and remained calm.

Surrounded by hedges that were clearly invisible until just now.

“Sisters! @#$@ with me! Release me again!”

At those words, the shrubs that slowly form a hedge are sucked into the ground as if replaying the growth process in reverse.

I lost my words at the sight and blinked once, and the hedge disappeared without a trace.

“You can go back now! Is it time to water the sheep?”

“Uh, yes…”

“Then let’s go together!”

As if excited to be recognized as a fairy, Ino continued to run and laugh, and whenever she laughed like that, flowers and grass squirmed little by little under her feet.

Every time Ino turned his head, the wind blew in a direction and strength that would not cause discomfort to Ino’s face, and the ground that had to be washed away by the rain became slightly harder only where Ino was walking.

With Ino’s actions, the mountains, forests, bushes, and wind blended together as if they were alive.

…Maybe he’s really alive.

To Ino, to the villagers who had lived here until now, everything around them would have been alive.

Theo didn’t just break off a piece of bread and feed the pigeons while praying.

It was not in vain that the parents poured it out to the gods every time they opened the jar of oil.

The incantations they chanted did not disperse into empty space, but did descend with blessing and benevolence, drenching the pastures with light rain, and returning to the good fortune of each day.

I just didn’t know until now.

As we reached the stream, the sheep each plunged their heads into the water and licked their tongues. It looked as if a gray cloud had covered the river.

When Ino sees this, she tries to plunge her head into the river.

“No, Gigi. Let’s go up there.”

“support···?”

“It means that the sheep are drinking water over there, and it won’t be dirty.”

“Not dirty! My sister here will help!”

“If this is your sister…”

[drink.]

···I knew it.

When I looked back after Ino, there seemed to be nothing for a while. Soon, a shape as if something refracted light in the water, a body like a glass statue submerged in water is revealed.

[You can drink it.]

“Look!”

Saying so, Ino happily said while I scooped up water with both hands.

When I looked at the flow of the stream, I saw that the dust and grime from the sheep’s bodies flowed only to the opposite side where we were standing, and only clean water flowed in our side. As if two rivers were separated.

When Ino waved his hand, the tree branch slowly swayed down and brought the fruit. It was orange.

I was lost in thought as I blankly chewed the orange Ino was cutting in half.

Maybe… a world completely different from what I knew.

The world I knew and imagined was cold and quiet.

Minerals and oil are buried in the ground, and they are only extracted and used.

The sky is empty space, and when the charge builds up between the particles in the clouds, it is ejected as lightning.

However, for the people here, there is a palace where Hades resides underground and a space where there is an afterlife where the dead live.

From above, Zeus and the gods of Olympus watch over men, and Zeus does not hesitate to rain down his lightning at evil.

Gods in the sky, fairies in the mountains and rivers.

“… Ino.”

“why? What else? Are you going to ask if I am a fairy again?”

“No, not that.”

I was still dazed.

“Why haven’t you used these abilities in front of me?”

“Ability? It’s natural for a fairy… I use it when I want to use it, and I don’t use it when I don’t want to use it! You don’t pee in front of me either!”

“No, that’s right…”

how?

How have I not seen all of this? How could you not know all these facts?

Haven’t you lived here for 7 years?

Wasn’t I conscious even as a baby, right after I was born? Even though my memory is hazy right after I was born, I remember it clearly from the first time I met my current parents.

How could I not notice that this place is a mythical world during the seven years I remember so thoroughly?

Come to think of it, even my name…

[Your name is not important.]

My name doesn’t matter, anyway.

. . Come to think of it, I guess I didn’t notice.

I’ve been thinking about things that aren’t important for too long.

Slowly it was getting late.

“You can go back now. Don’t avoid me again.”

Ino said that and even waved her hand, but I wonder if there’s anything special, next time I come, I’ll have to bring a snack for her, and she waved her hand.

Putting aside embarrassing things…

It’s time to go back home

As the sun went down, I walked hesitantly to the front of the house, and found Theo walking nearby.

“···brother?”

“Would you like to talk to me, $#$?”

“No, I…”

“let’s talk.”

There was something magical about Theo’s voice, who spoke with a more serious expression than usual. making people obliged to follow.

“Were you waiting for me?”

“okay. I’m done talking with your parents. I ate the whole afternoon because of you. Uncle Yorgos was trying to get a bite out of the goat skin, but… Oh, you’re a troublemaker too.”

“Why are you talking to my parents?”

“Yeah.”

Theo looked at the sunset silently as if he was about to say something… It seemed that he was thinking of a plausible answer on the spot.

An answer that probably doesn’t come any closer to the truth.

The older brother replied with a cheerful smile.

“I decided to take you to the smithy instead of your parents. Your parents are busy.”

“But isn’t your brother’s house going to work too? Don’t you have to work too?”

“Why am I going to your parents’ house? Whenever something like this happens, it’s my job to run small errands and get things done.

…Anyway, please take good care of me in the future.”

I looked up at Theo for a moment.

“brother.”

“huh? why?”

“Thank you for saving me in front of the cave then.”

“Why are you saying thanks now for something so long ago! It feels like lying down and receiving me.”

The back of Theo as he smiles and takes out another injured pigeon…

It looked different than usual.

-“Ino, I heard you told Theo about my location? good job.”

– “… Theo? Who is that?”

I remember Ino’s answer back then.

-“A girl told me where you went.”

I also remember the lie that Theo told me back then.

…Something is strange.

How could I not have noticed all this?

Have I ever been to Theo’s house?

Did Theo have a family, a house?

The dove sent by brother Theo flaps its wings far away.

somewhere i don’t know