The Dreams Of A Goddess - Chapter 0.1

Born from a taboo, Yume, the goddess of dreams, became the pity of many. Her mother, the goddess of wishes, had selfishly consummated with the Jade Emperor who oversaw the Gods realm by granting his wish of what it feels like falling in love. They had a long-term relationship until one of the servants had seen the eloping of the two and the public immediately opposed the relationship.

The goddess of wishes was to be executed to keep the royal line pure of only the Jade Emperor who ruled over God’s Realm. However, unlike those who surrendered, her mother stood unyieldingly and requested five years time for her to accept her charge in the Cold Palace. The Cold Palace was not literally a cold place but if an edict is passed by the Jade Emperor, the people sent to the Cold Palace experience torture of the cold by themselves and not affecting third parties. Even though the Jade Emperor blamed himself of wishing something that allowed execution of such thoughts, Yume’s mother was to blame. Her own skills had allowed advantage over their ruler and the public was very concerned about the balance in the realm.

And so, Yume’s mother was granted five years of reflection in the Cold Palace before the execution was to be held for her last moment in life. During this time, Yume’s mother was already pregnant and she never spoke any word of it while she stayed at the Cold Palace. She had accepted that she was going to die along with her personal maid accompanying her in her plain life there.

Within the first year, Yume was just barely born due to the torture that her mother was going through as she was recorded by the edict to reflect and be punished. Her mother did not mind the baby after she gave birth. Yume’s mother just named her and left her to her personal maid that fed her and accompanied her whenever Yume was not visiting her mother. So, Yume grew up neglected and did not feel what love was. Yume could only imagine after seeing her mother’s distant eyes whenever Yume brought up what her father looked like. Yume would always get shut down by her mother after saying the only line she would say about her father: “A man with good qualities.”

Yume could only dream as she was the goddess of dreams. She thought of all the things that could describe her father but would come up short. Nothing could be salvaged with her mother’s tight mouth and on her mother’s fourth year in the Cold Palace, she became an unperishable corpse under her own wish and Yume was alone in the Cold Palace. There were, in fact, some inhabitants but Yume never bothered them because she knew they were going under the same punishment her mother went through.

With that one year left, Yume tortured herself in the garden under harsh conditions of the four seasons and ate once a day. Yume was still accompanied by her mother’s personal maid but she knew that her mother’s maid would force her to stay alive even if Yume became stupid. And so, Yume tried to starve herself to death without the personal maid knowing because Yume could tell that the personal maid thought Yume was mourning for her own mother which was also her master. Yume was holding herself on a string of life until one day, the felt the climate lighten during the second summer after her mother’s death. She had a clue that someone of high status had entered and it may be the Jade Emperor.

Yume didn’t care for the world she lived in so she stayed in the garden of the Cold Palace, ignoring the existence of the intruder and the fact that her mother’s personal maid had disappeared the moment that movement was foretold. Yume feigned ignorance for the sake of dreaming of death haunting her.

She wanted to disappear but after a few hours, someone had appeared in the garden and the stare of that figure could be felt behind her. Yume knew she looked sickly but in the end, she wanted to end her life. Sadly, her mother cursed her to continue to live in her stead using a wish.

All for just one person in her world. A world that only revolves around two people. Her mother and her mysterious father. Nothing was left for Yume. No sincere wishes. No true care. No praises. No doting. Everything that made a normal family, Yume did not experience.

And that figure behind her in the garden, she could tell the man had felt a connection with her.

“Yume…” she heard him utter in nostalgia and knew that memory he was recalling was not related to her.

Yume did not respond nor did she move. She did not want to be involved in fake love. She did not want to be a replacement of her mother to shower love on her when it’s actually for her mother. She did not want to be the third party. She just wanted to be left to her own devices.

At such a young age, Yume realized her existence and did not want to follow through with life that was granted only to show proof of love that could not sustain for long. So Yume could only be the dream that connected the wish that the Jade Emperor could last longer with her mother.

Yume was tangled in her mother’s delusions of pure love and what love was actually is. Yume could not argue now that her mother was already sent into the air and only the vessel was left.

“Please answer, Yume,” Yume was pulled out of her ignorance and she looked at the man behind her.

Those eyes that yearned for something while trying to get acknowledgment, Yume could only reply, “Un.”

“Say something longer,” she saw him plead with his eyes while her eyes that look questioningly become blank.

Yume stared at him long before muttering, “You must be stupid.”

She did not want to repeat nor did she not care if the man had heard her. Yume was blind to loving someone because her mother had ruined it all for her. In conclusion, Yume was a lost cause. For now.

The man had inched closer without Yume knowing and he surprised her by carrying her into the Cold Palace and towards the entrance. Yume was not in the mood to care about struggling. Struggling was for the people who feared and she, at this point, did not fear death. If death was her end, Yume would accept. She would not have to represent something that her mother wanted her to. Yet, the wish of her mother’s was to stop Yume from committing suicide.

Yume was done with her life and for the man to have a sliver of possibility that could end her life, she would go for it. And she would embrace it.