Safety

"Are you God?"

The lady in front of him wasn't amused by the slightest when she heard him ask this question. It was only natural that Lucas would ask her such a thing.

Why was this the case? Obviously because she was the one who made Lucas watch his life once again from the day he was born till the day he died.

She was expecting such a response from him and after getting it, she replied in the same gentle tone as before, "yes, I am."

Lucas got even more serious than before when he heard this.

"Are you the one who controls fate?"

She smiled and explained calmly, "Yes and no. Everything happens on its own and I don't take much part in it. I just do some changes if I want or a lot of changes if I want. Nothing is fixed."

Her words confused Lucas. He rubbed his forehead and then said, "so you have something to do with fate. Tell me this then, why–"

"To protect you, Lucas." The Goddess answered without waiting for him to complete his sentence.

"Huh? What?" Lucas asked, a bit confused.

He wanted to ask why his fate was like this but got his answer even before he was able to ask her.

To clear his confusion, she said in a gentle tone, "that's right. For your safety, you had to lead such a life."

Hearing this again, Lucas was dumbfounded. He had a lot of questions pop up in his mind and wanted to bombard the Goddess with them but in the last second, he stopped himself from doing so as he felt it wasn't right.

The Goddess noticed it and smiled.

Lucas took a few minutes to process whatever had just happened and also to get a rough idea of the situation. After he was done sorting out his thoughts, he looked at the Goddess and asked,

"Why was I being protected? And by whom? If I remember correctly, I have never caused harm to anyone nor have I committed any sins. All my life, I was just trying to survive and hold onto my last breath. Why would I ever need protection from anyone?"

The Goddess felt slightly amused as she heard his questions. The response he had this time was different and that caused her to be a bit impressed. She, keeping the tone gentle like before, answered:

"You were being too unruly and becoming crazier as days passed. If things continued like that, you would've destroyed everything, including yourself."

Lucas narrowed his eyes and looked at her in suspicion. Since when did he have time to be unruly? He barely ever got time to even go to the toilet or to sleep, let alone do something crazy. He was also very malnourished in his life, how was he going to destroy anything with that strength?

"And as for who was protecting you…"

The Goddess took a pause after she said this. Lucas's attention was brought back to reality due to it and he looked at her.

The Goddess got up from her chair and walked towards Lucas.

She hugged him from behind and softly said in her gentle tone,

"It was me… Your mother."

"Huh!?" Lucas turned his head to look at her as he heard this. He was shocked out of his wits and got a great surprise he had never gotten before.

However, to his dismay, before he could ask her anything, due to her face being so close to him, Lucas accidentally kissed her cheek.

The Goddess smiled looking at Lucas and said,

"Ara ara, I got kissed by my baby after so long. Didn't know it would be like this. Fufufu… I am very happy."

"You! Lady what nonsense are you spouting!" Lucas got up from his chair and said in an angry tone. How dare she call herself his mother? They did not even look the same.

"Eh? My baby, you're not able to identify me, your own mother?" The Goddess pointed at herself and asked Lucas in a confused tone.

"Stop! Stop calling yourself my mother and also stop calling me a baby, 'your baby' especially. It's cringe." Lucas said angrily.

"What? A mama can't even call her own baby a baby? How rude of you. You've hurt me." The lady said sniffing and wiped her fake tears from her eyes with a napkin she brought out of nowhere.

Of course, she wasn't hurt emotionally or physically. She was joking about that part and she also didn't mind Lucas calling it cringe as these weren't his true thoughts.

The truth was, Lucas only said this because he won't allow anyone except his mother to address him like that. The Goddess knew his train of thoughts.

Lucas couldn't believe how dramatic this Goddess in front of him was. Why was she doing this? He couldn't understand. As for her saying he had hurt her, Lucas didn't care one bit about it.

"Stop with your nonsense and elaborate more on the things you said before. What do you mean by destroy? What safety? And don't you dare call yourself my mother, you definitely are not." Lucas repeated his question.

The Goddess didn't mind him questioning her like that and saying those rude things. She had heard much worse from him before.

The Goddess got back to her seat and sat down. She also asked Lucas to be seated. After settling down, she said:

"Lucas, my dear, take a deep breath and calm down. Mama will explain everything to you, once again." The Goddess, or as she called herself, Lucas's mother, said calmly with a smile on her face.

Lucas had many questions to ask and many things to say but he refrained himself from saying anything and patiently waited for her to explain things to him. He knew that sometimes listening quietly was better than speaking stupidly and interrupting.

The Goddess was happy with Lucas's behaviour. She slightly waved her hand and two teacups with tea in them appeared in front of the two.

"Have it, it's your favourite. I'll start explaining things to you now."

Lucas didn't respond and simply took a sip of the tea that had a clear blue color to it.

The tea felt slightly sweet as it spread throughout his taste buds on his tongue and as it entered his throat, he felt a slightly spicy kick of some herbs. When it reached down in his stomach, he felt a cool sensation spread from there to all over his body, and in a few seconds, both his mind and body felt relaxed and he became as calm as a still lake.

The Goddess then began her explanation. She said:

"So where do I begin? Hmm… It's a very long story so I'll just cut it short and explain to you briefly and then have you see a few things. You'll understand everything much better that way.

So first things first, I am your mama, Leya Astaroth, and this fact won't ever change. Next thing, you have an older twin sister, Lucy Astaroth. She's currently busy with a few things and is not here for that reason.

Don't worry, she loves you a lot, just as much as I do, but those things were a bit important, and uhh… I forgot to tell her that you were going to die today and meet us. This also isn't your first time dying by the way.

You've died thirty-three times already in the past. This was a mortal life cycle you were stuck in. You were becoming too crazy and your sister and I feared that you might end up destroying everything around you. It's okay to destroy things, that's what makes you you.

But, you would've also ended up killing your own self in the process and mama and your big sis couldn't bear to watch that.

So for that reason, I sent you to live a mortal life and…"

Lucas's mother, Leya, kept explaining things to Lucas and he in return just paid attention without interrupting her. He listened intently to whatever she was saying and in a calm manner. He may not realize it but the tea had made him much calmer than before.

So Leya explained to Lucas how she sent him to live a mortal life. Having a short lifespan would make Lucas understand the value of things in a much better way.

Experiencing the emotions of the mortals would make him understand the value of much more and he wouldn't just treat the life of anyone as if it was trash.

Lucas was made to experience all sorts of emotions, happiness, despair, tragedy, etc. In each life that he lived, he would be given one particular emotion as a theme throughout his life. For example:

The time when the theme was happiness, Lucas had everything with him in that mortal life. He had money, fame, power, everything. But his life ended when things went just slightly wrong with him. He ended up due to a drug overdose.

Another instance was when the theme was tragedy, Lucas couldn't handle watching his loved ones be killed in that one life and so he killed himself as well.

These themes, as Lucas reincarnated into his new life, they started getting clubbed. Lucas could feel happiness and despair in one life itself and this proved to make him much more stable. Things were starting to get better but weren't fully better yet. He still killed himself for some or the other reasons in all those lives.

However, the most surprising thing was that Lucas was successfully out of this reincarnation cycle when things all started turning for the better. Lucas became much more thoughtful, much more calm, and much more serious with everything with each reincarnation.

In his 34th life, which was now where he got hit by a truck and died, the theme was tragedy, despair, sadness, and loneliness. Almost all mortals would end their lives if they were to experience such emotions every living moment but surprisingly, Lucas kept his calm and he lived.

He did cry many times and cursed fate for how unfair it was to him, but in the end, he kept hanging on to his life and lived. He may be very poor in this life and had lost everything, yet he still chose to not give up on his own life and lived.

Lucas's tendency to destroy things and himself was gone and he eventually broke the reincarnation cycle by being a better version of himself.

Since the theme was tragedy of that life anyway, the Goddess couldn't bear to watch him suffer too much and using accident as an excuse, she called him back to the place he rightfully belonged.

Lucas was told everything but he was getting more and more confused. He asked his mother why did he even tried to kill himself? If he had everything, shouldn't he be happier and more calm and rational?

The Goddess, Lucas's mother, smiled and answered him that it was his nature. It was his nature to be hot-blooded, act on impulse, and destroy things. He was very different from everyone, including herself and his older twin sister.

When Lucas asked who and why that was the case, the Goddess answered with the same smile on her face that:

He was a being whose very existence defied order; someone who could never be told to drop his pride, someone who could never be disciplined and also someone who was lawless.

He was like that for one simple reason. His birth and his creation.

He was the descendant of the creator.

He was the law, a being above all.

He was the purest form of disorder, the pinnacle of pride, and the harbinger of calamity.

He was…

Chaos.