The never-ending meaningless story

[T/N: 2 x Chapter]

At dusk.

Jason abruptly stopped playing the sea blue harp.

Because an old woman with white hair has suddenly appeared in the middle of this ancient forest and even Golden-Horned Deer has stopped in front of her.

'...It has really been a while since I have seen this overused script.'

'And, now that I think about it... interestingly enough, these gods really do have a strange fondness for appearing as an old human in the most unlikely place.'

While thinking like this, Jason got off Golden Horned Deer.

But just when Jason was thinking about whether he should follow the script of this Goddess or he should directly point out that he has recognized her to be a Goddess, the old woman took the lead and said to Jason: "Child, have you heard that story?"

"A story about an eternal repetition of a meaningless action."

Facing the question of the old woman, who is smiling while observing him, Jason thought for a moment and decided to follow the script of this Goddess, for the time being, then he shook his head at her.

After all, Jason doesn't think that even after he claims that he had recognized her as a Goddess, she will actually stop or let him go.

"Alright, then come with me."

After saying this, the old woman turned around and began walking forward, so seeing this, Jason followed her with Golden Horned Deer.

However, soon, Jason discovered that although the pace of this old woman may seem to be rather slow, her walking speed is actually not slow at all, and, as a matter of fact, even Jason had to spend some effort in chasing after her.

Due to this, Jason couldn't help but complain in his heart: 'Since you are walking like this, why are you still pretending to be an old woman?'

'Also, which Goddess are you?'

But Jason doesn't know that at the same time the Goddess pretending to be an old woman is also complaining in her heart because in her originally planned script, she had estimated that by this time, at sunset, she would have met Jason much further ahead on the road.

However, this Goddess had never expected that Golden Horned Deer would actually slow down her pace to walk carefully and not disturb Jason from playing the harp.

Just when both were complaining about their own problems, the Goddess pretending to be an old woman finally brought Jason to the foot of a steep mountain.

And almost as soon as Jason arrived here, he immediately felt slight tremors in the ground as well as the rumbling sound of stones clanking against each other coming from above.

So, Jason subconsciously looked up and saw that from a very high place on the mountain, a round boulder is speedily rolling down.

Seeing this and after looking at the Goddess still pretending to be an old woman, Jason concluded that she is expecting him to do something about this.

Therefore, Jason immediately stepped forward and was prepared to stop the stone that is rolling down the mountain, but to his surprise, the round boulder abruptly stopped on its own after speedily rolling down to the foot of the mountain.

Immediately then, Jason also noticed a man in ragged clothes walking down the steep mountain by following the path that the round boulder has rolled down on.

Just when Jason was looking at this scene in puzzlement.

"His name is Sisyphus."

Without showing any changes in her expression, the old woman said to Jason in a calm tone: "He is the founder of the nearby kingdom, Kingdom of Corinth, and he is also a former king of that Kingdom."

"He is a direct descendant of God of Foresight Prometheus, the God that had the boldness deceiving and stealing from God-King Zeus, and is paying a high price for it."

"And much like his ancestor, he is considered to be the smartest man of his time, but only the smartest, not the wisest, because he had also decided to interfere in the matter of Gods."

"Upon seeing a giant eagle carrying beautiful Aegina through the sky, he had decided to report it to Aegina's father God of River Asopus as Zeus abducting his daughter in return for a reward from God Asopus."

"When God-King Zeus learned of this, he ordered God of Death Thanatos to punish Sisyphus by taking him to Underworld, but Sisyphus cunningly imprisoned Thanatos along with the divine rule of Death and managed to cheat death."

"However, due to this hubristic act of his, people stopped dying, so God of War Ares, who was enraged due to war losing its meaning because of the absence of death, freed God of Death Thanatos and handed over Sisyphus to God Thanatos, who then finally took him to Underworld."

"However, even before God of Death Thanatos was freed, Sisyphus had instructed his wife to not bury his body and throw his nak*d body in the middle of the public square."

"So, upon reaching the underworld, he pleaded to Gods of Underworld for getting a chance to for completing his funeral rites because he claimed that his obnoxious wife is not doing it."

"Therefore, upon truly finding his body thrown in the middle of the public square, the kind King of Underworld allowed him to return to the world of living for completing his funeral rite and was told to return before the sunset."

"However, in return, Sisyphus decided to run away and cheated death again, but once more, only for a short while, as he was soon found by the Gods of Olympus and Gods of Underworld."

"So, as a punishment, the gods punished Sisyphus by giving him immortality and tasking him to start pushing the round boulder up the mountain every day at sunrise, but if he is unable to push the boulder to the top of the mountain by the sunset, the boulder will naturally roll sown, only for him to start the process all over again the next morning."

"But at the same time, the Gods have told him that if the boulder can be pushed to the top of the mountain by sunset, he will be forgiven from this punishment."

After listening to the words of the old woman, then looking at the boulder that has rolled down to the foot of the mountain as and the man in rags walking down the steep mountain, after pondering for a moment, Jason thoughtfully asked the old woman: "...Is this why you have said, a story that forever repeats but is meaningless."

"Exactly, you have guessed right." The old woman turned her head to look at Jason and showed a slight smile on her face, then said: "This is the story of the eternal repetition of a meaningless action, and this is exactly the punishment that Olympus and Underworld had given to this man."

"Because he is just incapable of ever pushing this boulder to the top of the mountain before sunset and everything he is doing will always be meaningless."

Hearing this, Jason looked at the boulder that has unnaturally stopped at foot of the steep mountain and nodded in understanding while thinking in his heart: 'Obviously, Gods must have specifically used divine power on this man to make him push up the boulder every morning.'

'And at the same time, while giving him immortality, he has been informed that he will be pushing this boulder for eternity unless he can push the boulder to the top of the mountain before sunset.'

'...In a way, this is truly a horrifying punishment...'

'But...what does this have to do with me?'

'Because, being a Goddess herself, there is no way she is going to actually ask me to help the man really hated by the Gods; moreover, by doing this, I will obviously offend both the Gods of Underworld and Gods of Olympus.'

Just when Jason was thinking like this while looking at the old woman in puzzlement.

"Believer of Hecate, Goddess of Paths, because you want to pay tribute to a god of Olympus, God of Light Apollo, this time, you have arrived here to get the oracle from Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, right?"

While noting that this Goddess has especially put stress on him being a believer of Hecate, Jason nodded.

So, the old woman looked at Jason with a pondering smile, then pointed at the boulder and the person dressed in rags while continuing: "Then...if I ask you to help him, what would you choose to do?"

"Help him?" Jason is obviously stunned due to being told to do what he had just thought is impossible and will offend most of the Gods.

Then, subconsciously, Jason raised his head to look at the man in rags, who has just reached the foot of the mountain.

And it was this time, Jason noticed that although Sisyphus has glanced at him and the Goddesses standing beside him in the form of an old woman, there were no changes in Sisyphus's eyes or expression, as if their presence doesn't matter much to him.

Then, looking at Sisyphus, who had taken back the gaze of his dead-looking eyes after just a single glace and had sat down near the boulder to take a rest and quietly wait for continuing this meaningless process tomorrow morning, Jason couldn't help but think: 'Looks like, the punishment given by gods had been very effective.'

'... But it is indeed natural for this to happen, after all, there are not many who would be able to bear the endless repetition of meaningless work.'

"Yes." The old woman continued with a pondering smile: "Help him... If I ask you to do so, what will you choose to do?"

Hearing these words while looking at the old woman, knowing that this old woman is a Goddess, Jason understood that rather than asking, which she is saying, she is ordering him, so he fell silent while thinking of the solutions.

'How can I help him?...'

'By breaking this boulder? ...Well, a very simple and crude solution of ending his punishment, but only for as long as I am not afraid of being given the same punishment by the Gods.'

'By pushing the boulder to the top of the mountain? ...This is also not much different from the first method...'

'After all, this is exactly the punishment that gods have given him so that he will keep repeating this process over and over again, even after knowing that it is going to be meaningless.'

'Also, with the added immortality, he will be carrying out this futile labor for eternity, and due to knowing the same, even hope has died in his eyes...'

Just when Jason was thinking about a suitable solution to the task given by the Goddess pretending to be an old woman, looking at Jason falling silent due to getting lost in thought, the Goddess also felt satisfied with the task she had chosen for Jason.

Because, this Goddess pretending to be an old woman is, in fact, the previous Queen of Gods, Titan Goddess Rhea.

The same Rhea who had tried to find Jason for a whole week, before she finally caught Amphitrite and learned about Jason's whereabouts from her, due to which Amphitrite had directed Jason to arrive here.

Actually, Rhea's original test wasn't this hard and tricky, but while searching for Jason she also found this location where Sisyphus is receiving punishment and decided to use this as a test for Jason.

And obviously, the main reason behind Rhea asking Jason to help Sisyphus isn't because of something along the line of her feeling that such a punishment is a bit too heavy.

Rather, the main reason is that, even if she is interested in Jason, Rhea is still slightly unhappy with Jason refusing her daughter, Hera's belief twice, and her fruitlessly trying to find Jason for nearly a whole week only increased her dissatisfaction with Jason.

Therefore, remembering that Demeter, Hestia, Athena, Artemis, Hermes, and even Themis are paying attention to Jason, as well as most of them telling her that Jason often surprises them, Rhea naturally came up with the idea of giving such a difficult and tricky test to Jason.

Because Rhea is naturally aware of the fact that Sisyphus's punishment was decided and approved by many Gods of Olympus and Underworld, who obviously won't like to see Sisyphus getting freed from the punishment they have given him.

So, Rhea personally wants to see if Jason will pass her test and if he will surprise her too.

At the same time, on the other side, although Jason still doesn't know about the identity of the Goddess pretending to be an old woman and also doesn't why she is asking him to do something that will possibly void all of his efforts till now, he still understood that he won't able to easily avoid a task given by Goddess without any consequences and he needs to be very careful while dealing with this task.

So, while looking at the spherical boulder and Sisyphus dressed in rags, Jason began to seriously think about the solution.