Yuto’s childhood.
When he thought of his childhood, there was one memory that always came to mind.
“There’s this one thing I remember most vividly—how my mother abused me.”
His mother, Ria, was a saintess, no better than a cult leader hypnotist, yet ironically, she ruled the Empire better than anyone.
She had never received a divine revelation, but acted more like a saintess than anyone else. Yet, she could never be a warm mother to her son.
She never received a revelation—no, she didn’t even believe in a god. That’s why she educated her son to the point of abuse, trying to make him a god.
A son born in secret.
And that son, Yuto, had no name at first.
“I was always called the God of Rain and Sunlight from the very beginning. No one called me Yuto. I didn’t even know who my father was.”
At some point, Ria started using honorifics with her son Yuto. It was as if she had hypnotized herself and truly began to believe Yuto was a god.
That was around the time Yuto turned seven.
“Even before I could walk, my mother taught me all sorts of things. I really was talented at manipulating mana, and by the time I was seven, I’d gained tremendous power.”
In the age Yuto lived in, the Empire’s saintess was practically an omnipotent being. On top of that, Ria was not only a saintess but also a war hero.
With her position, she could get her hands on all sorts of treasures belonging to the Empire—even its national treasures.
Among them were mana stones hidden in secret. Ria stole all of them and fed them to Yuto.
“It might sound arrogant, but I was really talented at magic. I even had some degree of divine power.”
A talented person, from a young age, acquiring all the famed items in the world and cultivating his mana. At seven, Yuto could already imitate a god.
“Around that time, my mother truly worshipped me as a god. The same mother who had abused me so harshly since birth—the one who gave birth to me—started treating me as a god, completely forgetting she was my mother.”
I still can’t forget that strange feeling. At such a young age, I was happy to think I had really become a god. My mother’s powerful hypnosis and brainwashing even worked on me. I really thought I was a god.
And I was happy, thinking I wouldn’t be beaten by my mother anymore.
“In a way, it was terrifying. Even though I’d been brainwashed and hypnotized into thinking I was a god, having my mother—who had beaten me until yesterday—now bow deeply and speak so politely to me… it was frightening.”
I hated my mother, but still thought of her as family. And yet, I lost her too.
“Looking back now, wasn’t I really just a kid? I mean, I was only seven. That’s not even elementary school age on Earth, but I never received a parent’s love—I had to act like a god. I really thought I was a god back then.”
(Anonymous 1): Hearing you say you ‘acted like a god,’ I guess the brainwashing and hypnosis must have broken at some point.
(Kim Jinwoo): Right, one minute you say you acted, then you say you really thought you were a god. Your story keeps changing.
“Anonymous is correct. At first, I really believed I was a god, but slowly, the hypnosis and brainwashing faded. It was only about a year. For that year, I appeared before people thinking I was a god and declared I’d given the saintess a divine revelation. A year after that, I realized it was all my mother’s hypnosis.”
I still remember.
Little Yuto stood before the people and repeated the words his mother had brainwashed into him over and over.
— I am your god.
He declared this, brought down a torrential rain, then instantly controlled the sunlight to stop the downpour. It was a power gained from all the treasures he had eaten and worn since he was a toddler. If you compare it to a magician, Yuto had the qualities of an archmage. A man with such talent, who swept up all the greatest items, could achieve such things.
It was only later that Yuto learned he was not Ria’s first child. She had given birth to many children by many men, hoping for one with the greatest talent.
Yuto learned, much later, that he was the only one who survived and grew up.
Anyway, getting back to the point.
“After declaring myself a god, I continued to deliver revelations.”
— I have come down to punish those who disturb the world. Saintess Ria will deliver my words on my behalf.
“People believed me, an ordinary child. They truly thought I was a god. After all, who wouldn’t believe the hero of the Empire, the saintess, vouching for me?”
And so, as the Empire’s god, he lived his whole life alone in a solitary room. It was during that time, as the brainwashing faded, that he began acting as a god, no longer believing he was one.
“As I grew bigger and kept training according to my mother’s—no, the saintess’s—instructions, I began to question my life.”
Even as I continued to act as a god out of habit, every time I sneaked out of my solitary room and watched the world, I wondered.
Why did kids my age get to play and laugh outside, but I couldn’t leave my room?
If I had to act like a god, I at least wanted to live a godlike life, but I was nothing more than a prisoner locked in a cell.
“When I became an adult, I vowed to become mentally independent.”
That’s right. I resolved to stop pretending to be a god. Saintess Ria tightened her grip on me more and more. She was no longer a saintess who wanted to change the world, but one who wanted to be worshipped.
The moment she started abusing her son, a person who once pursued righteousness became a hypocrite.
“It took me a long time to admit my mother was a hypocrite. At some point, I stopped calling her mother and started calling her Ria. She no longer thought of me as her son, but… you know, children can’t help but look at their parents with longing.”
Even while locked up and forced to act as a god, I kept hoping my mother had some purpose—that someday she’d recognize me, that we could someday be like an ordinary mother and son.
“But when I became an adult, I had no choice but to accept she was a hypocrite. And I decided to live my own life. Ironically, the mother who created me to shatter the walls of power ended up using me to cement her own authority. She killed a few powerful people as a show for worship, and did dirty things behind the scenes.”
(Anonymous 1): …You’ve had a turbulent life.
(Father of Crops): Someone who tried to destroy evil became a hypocrite. That’s a bit tragic.
(Endless Wait): God of Rain and Sunlight, your life was harder than I thought.
(Liberated Swordsman): ….
(Last Blacksmith): Whew…
(Water God of Cheongha): What a miserable life.
Jinwoo donated 100 coins in silence.
Kang Minseok, the Returnee from the Demon Realm, also donated 200 coins and sent his condolences.
Yuto lay back under the parasol.
He nodded slightly, expressing his gratitude to the viewers for their support.
“I spent twenty years on this island with nothing but the sea, a parasol, and a small shack of a solitary room. And finally, I didn’t just sneak out—I ran away for good.”
He headed to foreign lands, far from the Empire. Though he’d played the role of a god, Yuto had the power to rival an archmage, so walking all day was no challenge.
“I remember walking for two whole months. There are some memories that stand out from that time.”
Yuto, escaping from the Empire, enjoyed his journey much like Jinwoo. Along the way, he brought rain to drought-stricken villages and stopped the rain in villages plagued by floods.
“The world I learned about in books or from my mother was very different from the real one. That’s when I realized how much my mother had used me.”
God, they said, existed for all people.
God was there to stop the tyranny of the powerful.
But why did people starve to death because their crops failed in drought-stricken villages?
Why did children have to mix mud with stagnant water just to make cookies to eat?
With just a wave of his hand, Yuto could solve a drought.
“Why did my mother ignore something so simple? That’s what I wondered.”
The same was true for floods.
Villages became seas, people were swept away, crops were destroyed, and many starved or drowned.
This too, Yuto could change in an instant—so why did his mother, who claimed to want everyone’s happiness, ignore these things?
“That was when I truly decided to become a god. Not for my mother’s hypocrisy, but to genuinely help people. Even if I was a god made by someone else, I thought I might as well try it for once.”
From then on, Yuto traveled from village to village.
“In the hot summer, I called down the rain and let the children play in the water.”
Yuto gave a wry smile. Remembering those days made him smile unconsciously. It had been centuries, but he still remembered the children’s smiles vividly.
A child who had been suffering from heatstroke laughed brightly as he played in the sudden shower.
A child who swung his sword, washing himself with the water Yuto had given him on a scorching summer day.
The proud look of the parents watching their child.
The time he saved a child who almost drowned, and received fruit from the family in gratitude.
Those were the happiest moments of Yuto’s life—the moment a manufactured god became a true god.
“That’s when I got the name Yuto. Traveling from village to village, some treated me as a god, others as a close friend—just the way I wanted.”
He behaved formally when it was called for, and spoke casually when he could. Since Yuto never told the villagers he was the God of Rain and Sunlight, they simply called him ‘Lord Yuto.’
“As time passed, rumors reached me that a plague was spreading through the Empire.”
Far from the Empire, in the villages where he had become a god, Yuto heard stories about the capital.
A plague was spreading, the saintess had died, and the infected were turning into monsters and killing each other. Some called it a curse of the gods, others a curse of demons.
“You know how there are a lot of zombie movies on Earth? Just think of a zombie virus spreading through my homeland.”
Yuto rushed to save the Empire, traveling with the villagers. He fought against the monsters and protected the uninfected citizens.
And at the end—
“I killed my mother. She’d become a monster.”
He still couldn’t forget.
Just before Ria collapsed, a strange light flashed in her eyes.
He could clearly see the shape of her mouth saying, ‘I’m sorry.’
“She had a look on her face, as if she had come to her senses for a moment. ‘I’m sorry. I love you.’ With that exact mouth shape, she closed her eyes.”
(Kim Jinwoo): …Thank you for sharing.
If only she had said those words a little earlier, if only she hadn’t become a hypocrite intoxicated by power and praise…
Maybe, just maybe, the story of mother and son could have ended happily.
Jinwoo left a comment as he thought this. He’d always joked around with Anonymous 1, never expecting such a past lay behind the constellation.
That made it all the more interesting, and gave him much to think about.