“So you gathered us here for what, exactly?” I ask, looking at Zephyra, Delphina, and Tsukuyomi. Elena called everyone here, and I’m curious why.

“I gathered you here to announce that the academy Pandora commissioned will be ready in a week, and the trials among the demons have begun. I would like you all to allow your daughters to attend. This is Pandora’s wish, but I cannot force you to do anything,” Elena says as I stare at her.

“…Do whatever you want with Lycoris. Can I leave?” Zephyra practically discards her daughter, showing not a shred of interest in caring for her.

“Well, you can, and—”

“Can she live at the academy? Or does she have to keep coming back here? If she can live there, then leave her there,” Zephyra says with a cold look.

“…Of course…” As Elena confirms, Zephyra gets up and leaves. Tsukuyomi bites her lip, and Delphina ignores her.

“I also permit Azazel to go. She’ll have a great time humiliating the trash that ends up in that place,” I say with a huge grin, though I hate the fact that Azazel will be near Eclipsya.

“…I will allow Eclipsya to participate so she can learn more about the world and evolve,” Tsukuyomi permits, which annoys me a little more, so I decide to ignore it.

“…” We all look at Delphina.

“Why should I let Aqua participate in some academy for mortals? My daughter is not like the vermin who will study there. I would rather teach my daughter myself.”

“Pandora wants this. And Pandora also said that you are…very selective with your knowledge…” Elena says as Delphina tilts her head in confusion. I look at her, seeing an opportunity to mock her.

“She’s talking about sex, you idiot! You didn’t even know how babies were made before Pandora!! You didn’t even know there were two dicks to stick in girls!! What are you going to teach your daughter? How to isolate yourself in a room for billions of years? Hahahaha!” When I say this, she turns red, and I hear the metallic sound of her teeth grinding together in hatred.

“…”

“Besides, Delphina, let’s face it. Your magical knowledge might be high, but you’ve lived so long isolated in that palace that you know almost nothing about the modern world! Maybe you should also be thrown into a school to stop being so stupid?” When I insult her again, she stands up, slamming the table, which shatters into pieces.

“I will not stay here listening to insults from this stupid leech who tarnishes the image of the Primordial Goddess. I’m leaving,” she says as she starts to walk out.

“…Aqua may go to this so-called academy. But if I hear she had any problems, I will blow that academy to smithereens! And you can be sure, you leech, my daughter will rub your daughter’s face in the mud,” she declares with tyranny as she walks out the door, slamming it with such force that it, too, shatters.

“Well, well, well. It seems all of Pandora’s daughters will now be studying together,” I say with a smile. Tsukuyomi gets up and leaves as well, leaving only me and Elena.

“Grimm, you can go and—”

“You are an abomination,” I say, looking at Elena’s body. Seeing this disgusting thing exist—it’s even more repugnant than my own existence. Elena looks at me, confused and uncomfortable with my gaze.

“I’m sorry if I…look strange?”

“Strange? STRANGE? HAHAHAHAHAHA!” I burst into laughter at that. Strange? That word doesn’t even cover one percent of the reality I see when I look at this thing in front of me.

“Oh, Elena. I don’t think you’ve realized? Of course not. Mortals don’t know this, and Pandora, even though she’s a goddess, is too young to know this either…” I stare at Elena’s wings.

‘Yes, a true aberration… Pandora really knows how to wreak havoc without realizing it… I wonder… will she hate Pandora if I tell her the truth?’ I’m tempted by the idea.

“Do you want me to tell you why you’re an aberration?” My question seems to interest her, and she just nods.

“The reason is simple, Elena. Your current evolution… yes, your current appearance is what makes you a true aberration. Tell me, Elena, did you enjoy evolving?” I truly wonder what punishment Pandora received for creating such an aberration.

“Well… I did. I recovered what I had lost, and now I’ve become as strong as my mother, perhaps even stronger, which would have been impossible before…” she says with a small, grateful smile.

“…Hehehehehe,” I laugh at this fool. Evolving, for her, is the purest curse instead of a gift.

“Elena, you know only monsters can evolve, right? Do you know why?” I decide to explain and see if she’ll start to hate Pandora.

“No…”

“It’s simple, Elena. Only monsters can evolve because evolution is not an increase in power, as many believe.” Mortals think evolving, for a monster, is just becoming stronger, but that’s wrong.

“Elena, a monster’s evolution is actually the boundary between the abnormal existence of a monster and a connection to the divine.” When I say this, confusion is plastered on her face.

“…Elena, think of it this way. Everything that exists is connected to the Primordial Goddess, and we need to be. When a being dies, its soul is ‘filtered’ by the Primordial Goddess.”

“She chooses what happens to the soul of the being that died… but Elena… what about monsters? Monsters don’t have souls, generally. What happens when a monster dies if it doesn’t have a soul?” This is basic knowledge.

Almost no monster has a soul within them. Of course, this is different from the monsters in the Abyss, as most monsters there have already obtained their souls.

“They disappear?”

“Exactly, Elena. They just vanish. Their consciousness fades away into absolute nothingness. No heaven, no hell, no second chances. It’s the end… but that doesn’t happen with monsters who have evolved.”

“Have you ever wondered why monsters who evolve gain a humanoid form? It’s simple. Because the boundary to the divine that I mentioned is beyond death. A being can only reach it with a soul.” When I say this, she understands.

“So… monsters that have evolved are actually gaining a soul!?”

“Yes. Monsters that have evolved gain a soul of their own. Their bodies don’t become humanoid because they got stronger, but because they molded themselves around the soul. And souls are, in summary, identical to the bodies of the goddesses—all made based on the initial design of the Primordial Goddess.”

“…” I point at her.

“So tell me, Elena. You who already had a soul—what did you gain by evolving?” When I ask this, I see fear in her eyes. Anyone who understands magic knows you shouldn’t add something on top of something that already exists, or it might collapse.

“I-I… don’t know,” she states the obvious. Of course she doesn’t know.

“That’s why, Elena, I say you are an abomination. You shouldn’t exist. Pandora made a grave mistake making you evolve… so foolish.” Pandora isn’t the only one who has tried.

In fact, almost all goddesses have tried to evolve something and succeeded, only to be punished immediately afterward by the system. Only monsters should evolve, and no one else.

Mortals already have souls. They have no reason to evolve, and that’s why they don’t. It’s the natural order of existence.

“But then, what’s wrong with me?” she asks in doubt.

“Who knows? Many things. It will all depend on the future, on your future. But know that both in life and on the day of your death, you will have problems because of Pandora, who performed an experiment on a mortal that should not have been done.”

“Perhaps on the day of your death, your disgusting soul will be destroyed for being an anomaly. Or perhaps you’ll fall into limbo and be trapped there for eternity, conscious of everything but unable to escape.”

“Perhaps you’ll fall into a different dimensional plane. The possibilities of what can happen the day you die are endless.”

“And of course, before your death in the present, what can happen also holds many possibilities. Your body could deform at any moment. Your soul could fragment into pieces.”

“You could die. You could feel immense pain… There’s no way to know exactly. You just need to know you are condemned. Both in life and in death, Pandora has destroyed your future.” I look into her eyes, searching for anger.

But there is none. She doesn’t seem to blame Pandora for destroying her future like this. Of course, Pandora probably doesn’t even know the mess she made with this girl.

“You don’t care about that, Elena?”

“No… I understand that perhaps I’ll die sooner, or in death I’ll go through something horrible. But I am Pandora’s servant. If this helped her in any way, I am happy,” she says with a foolish smile that irritates me.

‘Helped? Hihihihihih. Helped? What a joke. You can’t get anything useful from it.’ All that happens is that if you evolve a being that isn’t a monster, the system punishes you and tells you not to do it again. You can’t gain anything from such an act.

“You love Pandora…” I murmur as she blushes.

“…Yes… but Pandora doesn’t love me… She marked me as her possession, not as a partner… So she will never love me… But it doesn’t matter. My life is hers, and if I was useful, that is enough,” she speaks with admirable loyalty.

“Hmmm… How tedious.” Most would be terrified to learn that after their death, they could be trapped in limbo for eternity, still conscious of everything but unable to do anything.

“I’m leaving. You can be sure my Azazel will be the best student at that academy,” I declare, utterly confident in my daughter, who is the eldest sister of all the others.

“Also… I would like my daughter’s accommodations to have extra security. Eclipsya is suspiciously suspect, and I have no doubt she will try something against my innocent little girl,” I say, already irritated at the thought of that pest trying to get to my daughter.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep