Chap 19 : I Was Betrayed Before the Battle Even Began
Economics.
I had been a celestial being for longer than human civilization had existed. I had witnessed the birth of stars and the collapse of empires. I had advised kings and toppled tyrants. I had commanded forces that could level mountains and raised barriers that could hold back the tides of chaos itself.
But nothing—nothing—had prepared me for supply and demand curves.
Jiyoung and Haejin had abandoned me at the entrance of the tiered knowledge arena.
They had not simply left.
They had abandoned me.
Their faces had been apologetic, their voices soft and reassuring as they made promises they had no intention of keeping.
“We’ll be back soon,” Jiyoung had said.
“Just go in first,” Haejin had added.
“You’ll be fine.”
These were lies.
Carefully constructed, gently delivered lies.
They had spoken them while retreating backward, step by step, like individuals who were fully aware they were committing an act of betrayal but hoped that politeness would lessen the consequences.
It did not.
Then they disappeared.
Swallowed whole by the current of students moving through the corridor, gone without hesitation, without resistance, and—most offensively—without even a final look back.
I stood there alone. At the doorway.
Unaccompanied. Unprotected.
Betrayed!!!
I had trusted them.
This, I realized, had been my first mistake.
Trust was a weakness. A lapse in judgment. A strategic error I had not made in centuries.
And yet, here I was.
Left to face an unknown chamber of forced intellectual suffering without allies, without guidance, and without even the courtesy of someone pretending to stay.
I watched the direction they had vanished for a long moment, committing the betrayal to memory.
Not for immediate retaliation.
But for future consideration.
Consequences, I decided, would be explored at a later time.
Then, with the resignation of someone walking willingly toward an uncertain fate, I turned.
And faced the entrance.
I shall not fear. I shall face whatever abyss creature that is beyond this door. I breathed and then opened the door.
To my surprise, the tiered knowledge arena was blindingly bright, as though illumination alone could force wisdom into existence.
Rows of humans were arranged in ascending levels, seated in careful formation as if preparing to be judged—though for what, I could not yet determine. They sat with the same vacant expressions I had seen in long-standing penitents: resigned, compliant, and deeply familiar with whatever ritual this was.
It appeared they had been doing this for years.
Possibly against their will.
The seats curved gently upward in a calculated design that ensured everyone faced the front, leaving no room for escape, distraction, or dissent. A strategic layout.
Suspicious.
At the front of the chamber stood a massive black surface—dark, silent, and imposing, like a dormant portal or a device awaiting activation. Beneath it was a narrow-elevated stand, clearly positioned for a single individual to rise and address the masses.
I studied it carefully.
This, I concluded, was where the designated knowledge distributor would ascend from the high skies to deliver information in uninterrupted intervals, while the rest endured it in silence.
A highly efficient system.
Deeply unsettling.
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