1 Misery even in the next life.

"Haaah..." Arydia let out a small sigh, leaning against a solid gold obelisk. Around the woman was an enormous library filled to the brim with books stretching for miles. Some bookcases towered hundreds of feet tall with thousands of souls flying around, organizing, and gathering books in order to stay on schedule. Glancing out of the corner of her eye Arydia watched Edor as he continued his work. The god studiously looking over his book before checking a few things and writing something down.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah..." this time, her sigh was louder and caused Edor to flinch before putting down his quill.

"Yes Arydia?" he asked, having resigned himself to finishing his work later. "What is it?"

The goddess walked over to his large ivory desk, sitting on a space devoid of papers and crossing her legs. "It's just, I was thinking...no one really likes me..."

"Come now, that isn't true." Edor said giving her an encouraging smile. "A decent amount of gods find your company quite enjoyable, myself inclu-"

"I'm talking about the humans!" the goddess interrupted. "Almost no one worships me! And those that do are usually the crazies!" she reached out, taking Edor's teacup off of the table and downing its contents in a single gulp. As she set the cup down, it mysteriously wobbled off the table, falling to the ground and shattering into pieces though, the goddess didn't seem to notice. Edor opened his mouth to complain, but quickly closed it. Arydia tended to bring this very same topic up without fail every couple or so millennia. And when she went on one of these rants it was usually best not to add any fuel to the fire. Swallowing back the bitterness over the loss of his priceless prismstone cup, he forced a smile.

"It's not YOU that they don't like it, we've been over this. They just don't like-"

"What I represent, yeah, I got it. Honestly, why couldn't I be the goddess of love, or war? Hell, I'd even settle for being a goddess of cabbages!"

"Cabbages?" the god asked, raising a brow.

"It'd still be better than the goddess of chaos and misfortune!" Arydia reached for the teacup again only to realize it wasn't there anymore. Clicking her tongue in irritation, she continued her rant. This continued for a few more hours much to Edor's displeasure, as new reports and paperwork pilled up in his absence of work until the goddess was satisfied. Though, if there was a silver lining to this, it was that he wouldn't have to deal with this topic for another couple millennia.

'Aiya. Maybe I can finally get back to my work...' Edor thought, returning to his book. "Now where was-ah that's right, the anomaly..." The god continued to mutter to himself, occasionally taking notes. Arydia hovered right behind him watching him work out of boredom.

"What is it? You lose someone?" she asked curiously.

"Hah!" Edor snorted. "I didn't LOSE anything. But this human brat has been giving me trouble for a few days now. And I'm almost of out of time to figure out what's going on."

Arydia leaned forward taking his book of life and staring at it. "Well what IS going on?"

"A-Arydia...I'd feel much more at ease if you didn't touch something as irreplaceable as that." Edor bolted out of his seat, the golden chair clattering to the ground as he attempted to take the book out of her hands, but the goddess pulled it out of reach.

"Why because something UNFORTUNATE might happen? And it'd be MY fault?"

"W-well..."

"Just tell me what's got you so troubled." she said handing the book back to him. Edor quickly took the book, looking it over and making sure that nothing was wrong with it before heaving sigh of relief.

"Look here..." he pointed to a name in the book "This is what's got me so troubled."

The goddess to squinted her eyes. "Marek...Antos? What's so special about him? Says he's going to die today."

"I know! The time of death is there but some unknown reason the CAUSE his of death isn't! I've puzzled over this for a few days now and still haven't a clue. It's driving me nuts."

"I mean...is it really that big a deal Edor?"

"Of course it is!" the man bellowed. His thundering voice shaking the library and causing the busy souls to stop in their tracks. The god turned around giving them a glare. Immediately the frightened souls went back to work. "I'm the god of life and death, it's my JOB to know!" Edor crumpled his notes and threw them to the side.

"Now now..." Arydia cooed, picking up the paper. She smoothed it over before setting it back on his desk. "You said he's going to die soon right? Why don't we just go see how he dies? Then you might get a clue as to what it was that was causing you so much grief."

"Hmm..." the man stroked white beard, mulling it over. "That's not a bad idea, but I'm concerned work will get backed up in my absence."

"Come on."

"H-hey!"

The woman tugged at his arm, undeterred. "How long has it been since you left this dusty old library, we need some fresh air."

"Well, I suppose I-wait, 'we'? Why are you coming?"

"Don't sweat the small stuff." Arydia waved her hand opening up a tear in space. "Now which dimension did you say this guy was in?"

*************************

Meanwhile, early in the morning, a male grunted, struggling with a large bag of trash. Steeling himself his carefully yanked on the black bag in a sweeping motion, using the momentum to just barely throw the bag in the trash compactor, heaving with effort. "God..." he huffed. "I hate opening..." Bending over backwards, Marek felt a few pops in his back. He closed the compactor, putting new trash bags in the bins before dragging them out to the buffet rooms. His schedule each morning was a busy one. There were four dining rooms he had to make sure were ready. He had to flip over a hundred chairs per room, restock the ice, clean the TVs, ready the busing stations, prepare the soda machine and check the bathrooms, all in half an hour.

"Bastards..." Marek let out a yawn, not yet fully awake. "If you're gonna make me do the work of multiple people, at least pay me that much too..." He disliked being called in to open the business, but he was partially to blame. Desperate to get a job, he had filed that he was 'open anytime' for work. As a result, he got the hours that no one wanted.

"Marek, you nearly finished with the rooms?" A female voice asked.

"Hmm? Ah..." he shook himself out of his thoughts. "Yeah, almost."

The girl nodded, giving him a smile. "Could you come sign this opening checklist?" Marek readily agreed, taking the paper from the counter.

"Uh, where's a-ah! Thank you." he said, taking a pen from the girl who had offered it to him and filling out the various checkboxes.

"Alright, thank you." Elise said looking over the paper. "Let's see...what time are you off today?"

This was it! A good time for a joke! "Why?" Marek asked, keeping his voice playful. "You wanna take me out for a hot date?"

Elise blinked in surprise for half a second before she began to giggle. Putting down her list, she lightly punched him on the shoulder. "No. I just need to match up your schedule so someone can quickly take your place when you have to go." she chuckled a bit more. "Silly."

'Silly!' Marek thought excitedly, scratching his head.

He wasn't sure whether Elise liked him or not. He had worked with her for about close to two years now, occasionally talking and joking. She usually laughed at his jokes, which was a good sign...right? Unfortunately, she ended up being promoted twice, and was now his manager. This caused him to subconsciously become afraid of trying to take the next step. Uncertain about actually seeing if this would go anywhere. He knew what he was doing, and hated himself for it but could never go beyond casual chat.

"W-well, I'm gonna go finish up." Marek said, giving a light cough.

"Alright Marek, good luck." Elise said waving.

****************************

"Haha, look at that poor child." Arydia shook her head with a smile as the two gods watched him go back to work. "He has it bad..."

"Has what bad?" Edor asked raising a brow.

"What, are you blind?" The goddess raised her hands, shaping her fingers into a heart. "Love..." She chuckled. "This is fun, I'm starting to see why Peryonis likes watching the mortal realms so much."

"Never mind that. Focus. This is a serious matter." he reminded her.

"Oh relax." Arydia flew just above Marek, watching him as he carried a ladder to one of the rooms, not seeming to notice her. "All we need to do is watch right?" She hovered close to him not taking her eyes off. "Then you can go home."

Marek set up the ladder, carefully checking to see if it was sturdy or not before taking a feather duster and climbing up. Steadying himself with one arm, he reached out and began cleaning the surface of the television.

*CRACK*

"Wha?" Marek looked up in shock as the mounted TV wobbled before detaching off of its thick screws and falling down at him. "Guh!" Letting go of the duster, he tried to push against the falling television with his hands, but without solid footing, he was immediately pushed off of the ladder and sent smashing into the ground with the TV falling on his head.

"Huh..." Arydia touched down to the ground walking over to the body. "So that's how he died...I mean, what are the chances of that? I guess he was pretty unlucky." Her eyes widened, her head turning towards Edor. "Y-you don't think...you don't think I might have caused this right?"

Edor didn't respond, his mouth agape in shock as he stared at the pool of blood seeping out from under the TV. "W-what have you done?!"

The goddess took a step back with a frightened face. "ME?!"

Edor quickly took out his book and flipped through it. "So this is why I couldn't see the cause of death! Because it was the work of a god! Gods aren't supposed to directly interfere with the mortal realms!"

"H-Hold on! That's not fair!" Arydia shrieked. "We only came here because that book was blank! That book made me kill him by accident!" She bolted forward, yanking it out of Edor's hands. "This stupid book! I'm going to be in trouble if any of the other gods find out!"

"Arydia please!" her friend shouted, holding his hands in a placating gesture. "Put. Down. The. Book."

"You have to help me! Can't you just bring him back or something?! You're the god of life and death right?"

Edor shook his head. "It's not that simple. Each life is precious, and the circle of life and death can't be interrupted without consequences. His soul will join the others in the afterlife, and be judged accordingly. Then his new reincarnation life will be based off of his actions in his old one after being wiped of it's memories and origin."

"Perfect! Reincarnation! Even the other gods won't be able to notice anything if his origin is wiped. How long does that take?"

"Well, it depends on how long they've lived. In this fellow's case since he died at a young age, removing his memories and origin should take around...two days."

"No no no no no no!" Arydia the goddess shook her head fervently, "That's too much time! Just...forget that, stick him in a random body." Her eyes lit up. "Yeah! Put him in like an ant or something! That way he'll die quickly and I won't be held accountable."

Edor looked at her strangely. "There is no way an ant could possibly hold an entire human soul..."

"Then put him in the smallest, least noticeable, most likely to be killed body you CAN put a human soul in."

"If I do, you will you give me my book back and promise never to touch it again?"

"DEAL!" The goddess immediately shoved the book back into his hands.

The god of life and death sighed. Waving his hand at the corpse, it and the TV disappearing as if nothing happened. "I'm sorry human." he said quietly. "It seems that fate truly wasn't on your side in this life. I wish you luck in your next one..."