Chapter 3 - Gaining Trust
“Already dying, eh?”
The booming voice of that woman rang in my dreams again.
That white expanse stretched out in front of me. I looked down at myself and saw that I wasn't a toddler anymore, but I had my adult body from the past world.
“I don't understand this world. Why is it that I didn't die from that fall?”
“You did. Were you hoping that you would?”
“Then why aren't I still dead?”
“Oh, I can't have you backing out on our contract yet. You have been enjoying yourself as a child again, haven't you?”
“Well, yes... but, about that...”
“Your contract with me is more binding than any you might have imagined in your previous life! Don't go trying to back out now!"
“No! Not that! I-I meant being a child!”
“Well, what did you expect when I said you would live the life of another? There's no doing it halfway when it comes to living life – you have to do the whole thing!”
“So... when my mission is complete and if I decide to go back...”
“I'll strike your current body dead on the spot and place you back at the old time and place you came from as if you never really left.”
Absorbing the words which seemed to disregard life callously took a bit more time than most other words. I decided to discuss a different topic than my life, death and resurrection that meshed alarmingly well with a popular game series that dealt with quests and dragons.
“So, when the people of this world pray to the goddess...”
“Oh yeah, that's me.”
“Then why don't I know of you in my old world?”
“Oh, I hate being worshipped by people in your world. After all, they would rather just please themselves and play games on their stupid phones. The ones that actually end up worshipping me are those uninvolved in society. I can't stop them, but they don't go outside often enough to make it into any kind of viable religion.”
“Well, since you came to me in my dream again... um, is there some information I need to know?”
“Oh, Riiight. Its rather busy work being a goddess. I'm rather swamped with raising dead heroes and all. So what was it...? Oh right! You are tasked with helping your brother to win the heart of a princess!”
“...uh”
“Wait... no... what was it? I'll just have to get back to you... you... you...”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'She seemed to have everything together when she last talked to me' I thought to myself when I awoke.
I had been placed in my little bed while I slept and the sun had gone down. Since I wasn't tired, I climbed out of the bed. Looking down the hall I saw a sliver of light from my parents' room. A shadow was rhythmically dancing back and forth through the crack. 'Perhaps I'll have another sibling soon' I thought to myself. I wasn't planning on peeking my head in there since this child's body didn't react in various ways, but I had business with Azel instead.
Azel was sleeping on his belly for obvious reasons, I probably didn't need to fear anything from him while his butt was crippled from his earlier beating.
“Hey, Azel” I whispered, while shaking him awake.
He whimpered as his eyes opened. He was truly in a pathetic state – not that he didn't deserve it.
Azel's tears welled up when he saw me and he suddenly got a look of fear in his eyes as he looked to see that father wasn't there to spank him again.
“Why did you kill me?” I asked him.
“I-I-I-I...[gulp] I wanted m-mommy and d-daddy back...”
His voice was shaking so bad. I didn't want revenge – Azel was just a child after all. I wanted to know if there was some other cosmic force like the goddess that caused him to push me out the window. It didn't seem like it with his reply. He was just jealous that his kid brother was getting half the attention he used to get when he was an only child. Half feels like so much less than half when you once had it all. It probably didn't help that I was an excellent child. I had to explain to him that I was not his enemy, and if the scatterbrained goddess was actually right in her first declaration of my mission, I had to have him trust me.
“Azel, I don't want to steal mom and dad away from you. I want to grow up with brother and mom and dad and then go do amazing stuff with you.”
“hic... r-r-really? E-even t-though I k-k-killed you?”
“Even though I'm alive now, I still think killing is bad. If you want to make it up to me, stop being a selfish brother.”
“O-okay.”
As I headed back to my room, Azel started wailing in tearful remorse. I should have expected it. I just made a naïve little five year-old feel like the worst kind of garbage - although he deserved it. The shadow down the hall had stopped dancing while I was in Azel's room and now it was father's turn to go console Azel for an unrelated reason (his bruised ass).
