Chapter 3. Day 23 — Tutorial
[Name: Sisyphus
Race: Human
Strength: 4 (+2)
Stamina: 3
Magic Power: 0
Mana: 0
Objective: Place the boulder at the summit of the mountain]
“Hoo, hoo, huff.”
While pushing the boulder upward, I finally reached my limit and stopped halfway up the mountain.
I pressed the boulder against the railing and braced myself against it with my back so it wouldn’t fall.
Had five hours passed? Ten?
My arms were numb, and I couldn’t feel my fingertips.
After spending so long hunched over and pushing, my lower back and neck hurt as if they were about to snap.
“Damn it.”
After ten hours, I finally looked down and couldn’t help but curse.
I’d called this place the middle of the mountain because I’d climbed quite a ways, but I’d actually moved only about twenty meters from the starting point of the slope.
“So this is why they call it a prison of time?”
I’d experienced time moving this slowly before.
It was during a forced march in the military.
Ah.
That was in my previous life.
I got confused for a moment.
In my territory, I had trained a few guards, but nowhere near enough to call it an army.
Whenever trouble arose, I usually had to commission a guild.
I glanced over the boulder at the goal I had to reach.
There was a clearly marked section ahead, almost like a finish line, as though this were the end of the first floor.
There were even stakes that looked like they had been placed there so I could temporarily set the boulder down and rest.
The first floor I’d been climbing was probably a tutorial, a practice area.
There were almost no obstacles, and the ground was made of dirt, so it wasn’t particularly slippery.
“Does that mean I can’t let go until I get there?”
It would be a little easier if I at least had a status window.
[Tutorial in progress.]
[Floor 1 Progress: 36% / 100%]
“Let’s go a little farther.”
I’d gotten some rest, and my lower back was starting to ache again from supporting the boulder.
I turned around and began putting strength into my arms once more.
[Strength has increased by 1.]
The important thing was to keep at it.
‘Don’t work too hard, Sisyphus.’
‘You only need to do what you have to do today.’
I learned that habit from my mother.
My father was Aeolus Hippotes.
Hippotes was the name of my paternal grandfather.
This was an era before surnames or family names were commonly used.
When introducing themselves, people either said whose son or daughter they were, or attached their father’s name after their own name like a surname.
I had six other siblings.
Seven children in total.
That might sound like a lot, but this was an era when population itself meant labor and power.
Seven children was fairly ordinary.
My family wasn’t some great dynasty or prestigious household, but we were nobles.
Minor nobles, to be precise.
There were three types of noble families in this era.
First were families of intellectuals.
Second were families of heroes who were demigods.
Third were the lordly families who ruled cities.
We belonged to the third category.
That was thanks to the lodging business my grandfather had started, which allowed us to develop the territory of Corinth.
And the name of the woman who was the mistress of our household—my mother—was Enarete.
She was a wise woman.
“Mom, studying is too hard.”
When I was young, I mainly worked as a shepherd.
Cattle were needed to plow the fields, and milk was an important source of nutrition.
We had hundreds of cows to look after.
When tending cattle, you had to count them, know how to distribute their feed, and learn how to allocate tasks according to the season and date.
So I needed to know mathematics.
I thought mathematics was a subject only great intellectuals like Pythagoras studied, so I absolutely hated reading the numbers written on parchment every day.
“You idiot, Sisyphus! You said you lost a cow! You can’t even add simple numbers?”
My eldest brother, Salmoneus, had always been quick with calculations.
Whenever I made even the slightest mistake, he would berate me.
I hated losing to my brother, but at the same time, I didn’t want to study…
That unproductive daily routine continued over and over.
“It’s all right. Don’t work too hard, Sisyphus.”
Whenever that happened, my mother would tell me that.
“You don’t have to work too hard. People only become exhausted when they push themselves too hard. It’s enough if you read only as far as you’re supposed to today.”
Even if I went slowly and took my time, I only needed to do as much as I could.
Now that I think about it, I understand.
Nine out of ten people in the world put off even the things they should do today until tomorrow.
The fact that I finished what I could do today was already enough to make me a good person.
Besides, there was no way I could beat a brother who had been born into the world two years before me.
“You’ve learned numbers all the way up to ten thousand. Mother is so proud of you, Sisyphus.”
And my mother praised me without holding back.
Thanks to her, I learned to enjoy acquiring knowledge.
By the time I was fifteen, I had already become known throughout the territory as its greatest intellectual and most eloquent speaker.
That was probably why my father chose me instead of my older brother as his successor as lord.
My mother was kind, beautiful, and cared about our family more than anyone.
And then she died.
At the hands of the gods.
“A monster has appeared!”
“It’s a Bicorn! It’s striking the city with lightning! The entire city is on fire!”
“Lord Aeolus, you must offer tribute to Lord Zeus immediately!”
Gods were fickle.
No.
They were simply a bunch of temperamental psychopaths.
One day, when I was fifteen, I learned that fact firsthand.
They would grant humans prosperity, only to release monsters and take it all away in an instant while enjoying the spectacle.
“This is ridiculous! It’s the middle of winter. Where are we supposed to find enough grain to offer…?”
“Why now of all times?!”
I watched helplessly as monsters attacked our territory, burning our fields, destroying buildings, and trampling people to death.
And flying through the sky, laughing mockingly at us, was a handsome young man wearing winged sandals.
Hermes, messenger of Olympus and god of thieves, was watching us and enjoying the spectacle.
“Ah, this is hilarious. Just look at them running around in panic. We don’t even need to hire an acting troupe for this… Hmm?”
Hermes flew straight toward me in an instant.
He flashed a bizarre grin before speaking.
“So you’re the brat who humiliated my son Autolycus.”
Autolycus was a middle-aged man who ruled a neighboring city.
He didn’t get along with my father and was constantly starting disputes with us.
He would occasionally sneak into our territory and steal things.
I’d noticed this and predicted what he would steal, then engraved numbers and my signature on the items beforehand.
This time, it was cattle.
I’d hidden my signature on the cows’ hooves.
After being caught red-handed by me, Autolycus had been forced to compensate us for the twenty cows he’d stolen at double their value.
He’d even had to kneel before my father and me and apologize.
I hadn’t known that Hermes was his father.
So his skill at stealing came from the god of thieves, Hermes, too.
Was that to say that Autolycus, despite possessing the talent to become a hero, had wasted it on stealing?
It was also extremely strange that this handsome young man was the father of that greedy old man.
That was when I realized that gods merely looked like humans.
They didn’t age, and they were bizarre beings who enjoyed killing people.
“I won’t kill you, Sisyphus. That way, my son’s fun won’t disappear, will it?”
Hermes sent one of Zeus’s monsters toward our home, then disappeared high into the sky while laughing loudly.
I ran home frantically.
But the tragedy had already happened.
My father had been gored by the monster’s horns and had become an invalid, losing the use of both legs.
And my mother would never open her eyes again.
My siblings, who hadn’t been home at the time, escaped the disaster.
But that only made the grief even greater.
It took several more days before heroes were dispatched to subdue the monster.
I took over the role of head of the household and lord of the territory in place of my father, who could no longer move.
Fifteen was young even by the standards of this era.
That was why I lived even more desperately.
Day after day, I devoted myself to the present, just as my mother had taught me.
Fortunately, Corinth managed to recover and flourish once again.
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Strength has increased by 1.]
Push.
Rest.
Push again.
The sun rose, set, and rose again.
Another day had passed.
Little by little, I pushed the boulder higher.
Since I couldn’t focus on anything else while doing this monotonous labor, all sorts of thoughts came to mind.
“My mother used to say that, too.”
I found myself thinking about the past.
“Make good friends wherever you are.”
I hadn’t been able to keep that promise.
I had been too busy with my duties as lord.
There had been one friend…
But after the monster attack, it had become difficult to treat him the way I used to.
Hermes.
Just thinking about that bastard’s face still made my blood boil.
But what could I do?
Even heroes couldn’t lay a hand on him.
There was nothing an ordinary human could do just because they hated an omnipotent god.
When I encountered that bastard again in the Palace of Olympus, my vision had literally turned red with rage.
But I’d already been tortured so badly that I didn’t even have the strength to get angry.
“Ah.”
Perhaps I’d become distracted by my thoughts for a moment.
The boulder caught on a protruding rock.
I lost my balance while supporting it with both hands.
“Whoa! No!”
The disaster happened in an instant.
—RUMBLE!
The boulder ignored my desperate efforts and immediately rolled all the way back to the starting point.
“…Hah.”
I stared blankly at the sight.
How did I feel right now?
Utterly miserable.
I had been so close to getting past the first floor.
I trudged all the way back down to the starting point.
The boulder was waiting for me, smoothly reflecting the sunlight.
“Argh!”
BANG!
Unable to contain my anger, I slammed my forehead against it.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Again.
And again.
And again.
Maybe it was because the shadow reflected on the boulder reminded me of Hermes’s face.
By the time the blood loss had left me feeling dazed, I collapsed to the ground.
For a long while, I stared into the boulder’s eyes.
“…Heh.”
The smear of my blood looked almost like a human face.
I stood up and quickly drew a face on it before the blood dried.
🙂
“You need a friend wherever you are.”
My mother had been right.
“You’re Wilson from now on.”
🙂
Wilson seemed to be in a good mood, too.
“Let’s go together again, Wilson.”
I pushed with both arms.
Grrrrrk.
Wilson rolled across the ground as if answering me.
“Looks like I’m getting better at this. It’s easier to push than it was at first. Or are you helping me, Wilson?”
🙂
What a good fellow.
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Name: Sisyphus
Strength: 10 (+5)
Stamina: 5 (+2)]
