Time didn't feel like time inside the myth.
Everything moved forward, but slowly — like Ren was wading through someone else's memory. From the moment he entered the life of Osu no Mikoto, also known as Yamato Takeru, he knew it would be difficult.
But not like this.
He stared at the emperor — a man who stood tall with pride, authority, and something far darker behind his eyes. A sickness. A cruelty dressed in silk robes.
Ren, trapped inside the infant body, could only watch. He couldn't speak. Couldn't move. He could only observe.
But his mind was still sharp. Still his.
"So… this is the emperor and my father too?"
He didn't need any prophecy or ancient scroll to know — this man is not a ruler. He is a tyrant.
Across the room, another child sat quietly — his elder brother, Or rather, the one history remembered before Ren appeared.
Ren smiled faintly within his new form.
A little sibling rivalry won't hurt…
But killing the emperor now? No. That would disrupt the myth's timeline.
He wanted to. Desperately. But does not know what could trigger this action.
So, he made a choice.
"I'll play along… for now."
while 6 month passed.
Ren's body slowly began to cooperate. His limbs moved. Fingers twitched. Head turned. He could now sit upright. And everyone noticed. Maids, servants, warriors, even priests — they all kept subtle eyes on him.
He noticed everything.
"They're watching me. Evaluating."
Fine. Let them.
He'd show them exactly what they feared.
Until one day, just as he felt a moment of progress—
He soiled himself.
"Dammit," he thought, internally grimacing. "This body's so damn weak."
His cheeks flushed — not with embarrassment, but with fury at his helplessness.
Then, from beyond the rice paper screen, he heard a soft giggle.
He turned.
His mother stood there, just watching from the doorway. Her eyes were warm.
For a second, something inside Ren relaxed.
That smile.
So soft. So pure.
But the warmth shattered.
A slap.
The emperor's hand struck her across the face.
Emperor looks at her and spoke. "You are just a lowly consort… so don't dare to order around me"
And she just nods.
Ren's baby body tensed. Tiny fists clenched.
"No… not in front of us."
She was dragged away by the guards, head low, her face bleeding.
Ren's eyes locked onto the emperor.
"I'll make you pay the price one day, old man. With these hands — even if they're baby fingers now."
That night, as he and his brother lay beneath silk covers, the door slid open.
A faint creak.
Ren opened his eyes.
Their mother slipped in. Barefoot. Quiet. Covered in bruises. Her hands trembled, but she knelt beside them.
She ran her fingers through their hair, careful not to wake the guards.
"My children…" she whispered.
"I love you. So, so much."
Her hand pressed gently to Ren's chest. Warm. Gentle. Shaking slightly.
"I didn't want to leave you. But your father… he won't let me stay."
Her voice cracked. A tear fell onto Ren's cheek.
He couldn't speak.
He wasn't her real son.
But still…
His heart ached.
She kiss on their foreheads. One by one.
Then vanished into the darkness.
Ren lay there, eyes open, silent.
"So, this… is motherly love?"
He exhaled.
"I didn't ask for this. It's not even real."
But it felt real.
Her tears. Her warmth. Her goodbye.
"Ōsu no Mikoto… you lucky bastard. You had this once."
In his mind, Ren saw a different memory —
A younger version of himself. Alone.
Every other child had a mom. A dad. A hand to hold.
He had no one.
He pressed his tiny hands against his eyes and took a deep breath.
As the next day she came on the chamber again, and she care his head and then his brother while smiling.
While ren can see the pain behind the smile that women are facing.
And he wondered and asked to himself. " Why… Just why she has to suffer for me for us?"
And while she telling the story of the brave God Susano.
Told them to be strong. Kind. Brave.
And as she starts coming at daily night and nightly, Ren listened to her stories she tells and he thinks every time… "so this is the mother love" and enjoy the story and even he smiles and giggles too
And as days turns into weeks and weeks turns into month.
Ren didn't want to grow attached.
But some part of him… did.
And then—
She stopped coming.
No creaking door that night.
As at the first ren think she might be busy or something, so he wait for her, eventually fall asleep.
Nor the next. Or the next.
Ren knew something was wrong.
A few days later, while playing on a silk rug, he overheard two maids whispering nearby.
"Did you hear?" one said, smirking.
"The emperor's consort died last night."
The other scoffed.
"Yeah. Weak thing. Oh well — he's got more. What's one less?"
Ren froze.
"Died?"
Everything inside him turned to ice.
That's why she hadn't come.
She'd been sick.
And now… she was gone.
His grip on the wooden toy weakened. His body trembled.
He'd wet himself without realizing.
One maid noticed.
"Ugh! He pissed himself again!" she snapped.
"That useless consort's brat is such a pain."
They grabbed him roughly and threw him down beside his brother.
Ren lay there, silent. His face red.
Not from shame — from pain.
He couldn't hear the maids anymore.
Only her voice in his memory.
Her soft touch. Her kiss.
Gone.
He clenched his fists. One tear fell.
But he didn't cry.
"I'll endure this," he told himself.
"I'll live. I'll become strong. Like she said."
He turned to the window where wind rustled the trees.
"Mother… if you had been mine in the real world… maybe I wouldn't be the monster I am today."
His voice was silent.
But in his heart, he whispered—
"Thank you… even if it was only in a myth… thank you for loving me."
"I love you, mother."
Ren's breath hitched. He clawed at his temples, digging for the myth's shape—divine swords, dragon slaying, glory—but the memories dissolved like ink in water. Only one image burned clear: a man kneeling on a storm-lashed cliff, a blade plunged into his own gut.
His hands shook. Not from cold. Not from fear.
Paper.
That's what they felt like—thin, brittle sheets rattling against his knees. The forbidden book's one more warning flashed behind his eyes, its red scrawl searing:
"People only recall the main part of the myth…
…its ending."
A suicide myth.
No… Ren's mind screamed, tiny fists twitching against silk covers. Why did I choose this? Am I an idiot? A myth that kills its hero… and I walked right into it? Dread and anger coiled in his chest, his small body trembling.
The room darkened, wind howling louder outside, as if the myth itself stirred, watching him.