"So, that was the reason..." Abby reflexively commented as she placed one of her hands on her chin. "Were those situations just simulations to provoke us? Why did they have the appearances of Minos' wives?"
Upon hearing this, the golden statue smiled and looked at Minos. "I manipulated their appearances to pressure your little boyfriend, Abby." Then, she looked at her chosen one. "The worst thing a man can do is allow himself to be destroyed by a woman."
"When they do that, not only do they go bad, but all those who are with them suffer the consequences."
Minos listened to this in silence, just watching that statue that seemed to have the soul fragment of the Goddess of Life.
Soul fragments could last longer if they inhabited receptacles, so it was not strange for them to come across that statue and recognize it.
"So, it was a test for Minos..." Abby looked at him, understanding that.
The statue then continued. "Anyway, apart from those appearances you saw, everything else happened in my time."
"What?" Abby and Minos exclaimed in surprise.
The Goddess of Life explained further. "It did not happen as you saw it since you made the best possible choices for such situations, in my judgment. But each case occurred in my homeland and had great consequences for everyone involved at the time."
"What happened?" Minos asked as his eyes narrowed.
Abby was also curious and heard from the Goddess. "Well, let's start with the first choice you made."
"Do you remember the old woman on a crutch who tried to get the midwife to save the mother?" She asked and saw the two of them nod their heads. "Well, she was right. She was a very capable seer, but the people in that village did not know it and mistook her for a madwoman."
"She saw that if the child were born, that woman's betrayed husband would kill the entire village upon discovering his wife's accomplishment. But he could not kill the bastard."
"Not only that, that little bastard eventually grew up to become... Do you know who?" She looked at them solemnly.
"Don't tell me that..." Minos muttered as he thought of that woman's great enemy.
"Exactly. The little bastard was the one who would become the God of Death, my mortal enemy." She said with certain resentment in her voice.
"That..." Abby opened her mouth, not expecting that to be the outcome.
"Sigh..."
"It's just like you think. The God of Death and I are from the same area, the only difference being that I was a few decades older than him. Anyway, because he was born in that area, the sect closest to there, the organization I belonged to, naturally rescued him."
"Eventually, things happened, as you have heard from my subordinates."
"Wow!"
"So, the midwife saved him, his mother died, and many tragedies happened because of a single birth..." Abby muttered, finding it unique how one decision could tremendously change the fate of countless souls.
The Goddess nodded in agreement. "If he had not been saved, everything he did in his life would not have happened. Not only that, the betrayed man would have forgiven his wife, who would still be alive, and the village would have been saved."
"Only he, a monster, would have died."
Minos looked at her and asked. "How do you know all this?"
She looked at him. "I talked to that old seer during my investigations regarding the person who destroyed my family."
"When she learned that the bastard had been saved, she fled that place and survived. But she couldn't see how terrible he would become..."
"I see..." Minos looked down thoughtfully.
She continued. "In the second choice, on the other hand, that situation happened about 30 years before the birth of the God of Death, when I was still living in that village."
"At that time, I was just a girl, younger than you, Abby." She looked at the blue-haired young woman. "But even so, I remember very well when one of the strongest workers in the village became famous for being a cuckold."
"He not only found out what his wife had done, but he also forgave her and let her lover get away." She looked at Minos. "That poor decision ended his life and half a dozen people close to his family."
"What happened?" Abby asked.
The Goddess explained. "At first, nothing. They lived together for about six months as if her cheating on him when he left for work was a necessary thing in their relationship."
"But after that period, she had fallen in love with her lover and stopped having feelings for her husband."
"When her husband touched her, she felt like she was cheating on her lover..." She laughed, remembering the things she saw and heard, being the neighbor of that family.
"The day came when the lover no longer wanted to be just a lover, but the spouse. So tell me, what did they do?" She asked the two.
"Did they run away together?" Abby naively asked.
"That could have been done. But neither the woman nor her lover had any money or anywhere to go. They were two good-for-nothing people who depended on their families."
"What happened? Simple, she knew that her husband had assets, many crystals with him, the necessary for them to live together. With that information and her wishes, it wasn't long before the two lovers plotted the death of the poor husband's entire family."
Gulp!
"How awful!" Abby exclaimed as she hugged Minos.
"Yes, it was a horror. Even his and the adulteress' son was killed by her lover..."
"Sigh!"
"That woman was lost."
"Anyway, eventually, the lovers got married, had children, and all died because of that betrayed husband by the mother of the God of Death."
"Fuck." Minos said in surprise, not expecting such a connection.
But he frowned his eyebrows and asked. "They kept living in the same village after they killed an entire family? Isn't that strange? Didn't anyone do anything about it?"
She smiled as she realized how clever Minos was. "Well, that should be the case. But apart from a half dozen people, myself included, no one else knew about it."
"I don't know exactly why that was. I was just a little girl at the time. But that was a secret that didn't get out." She commented as she looked at the horizon as if seeing back those scenes from her remote past.
She put aside her nostalgia and finished talking about that test. "As for the third choice you made, Abby, I heard that story from the mouth of the woman who sold her husband for a chance to move ahead."
"She didn't make your choice. Instead, she coldly killed her husband that day, having swallowed her feelings for him dry and done what her reason said was best for her."
"She loved him, but she always loved herself more. Because of that, she had the strength to do that, to kill her husband and follow through with the organization that had set that up."
"She kept him in her heart and felt terrible for about four months. But then she met the master of the man who had partnered with her and eventually gave herself body and soul to him and later became that person's wife."
"At first, she had only sold herself to such a person for the opportunities she would have. But she eventually learned to like him and even fell in love." She sighed. "This woman was the greatest ally of the God of Death in my time. She told me this story before I killed her."
She looked at Abby and Minos. "You can imagine how much damage she must have done for allying with that bastard, right? She was one of the few people who made the path of that curse possible."
Minos and Abby nodded, understanding that although their choices had been cruel, they would undoubtedly bring less negative results than what happened.
"Anyway, don't forget those stories, make the hard choices when necessary, and don't forgive anyone."
"People will always do what they want, so never believe someone will change for you. It never happens."
"So, let's finalize this inheritance..."
