CHAPTER 10: NEW COMMITMENTS

Throughout his 25 years, Hermes had lived a sheltered life. His parents were not very rich, but they weren't exactly poor either. They could afford vacations every summer, their home was the exact definition of a middle-class dwelling.

This lifestyle was almost threatened during the Financial Crisis of 2008. His father luckily had managed to save enough money to allow them some leeway.

Hermes at the time did feel the impact, somewhat. His parents would occasionally ration food and he could hear their arguments from his room all night.

After a while, things stabilized again. He had returned to living a perfectly normal life, going to school, making friends, skipping class from time to time. One thing he desired was to have a younger sibling, his parents never answered that wish for him, however.

He graduated high school with relatively above-average grades, he didn't receive a scholarship like some of his peers, but it never bothered him. Unlike most of his friends, he already had a dream of his own: Becoming an astronomer just like his father.

For as long as he could remember, his father would always be seen stargazing. Their backyard was equipped with both small and large telescopes and other equipment.

His father Jake Wilson would occasionally take his son on trips to the wilderness for camping and hunting, away from the city lights and exaggerated light pollution.

During every trip, the feeling of awe gazing into the sky and seeing the sea of stars left him yearning for more. He would continue to stare at the constellations above, and with his father's guidance, be able to tell apart the celestial bodies like isolating granules of sand on the beach.

These experiences made him fall in love with astronomy. To his dismay, not many of his peers shared his hobby, and even those who did find his topics interesting at first would also start to get annoyed or bored. These experiences hampered his social abilities in a way. This didn't mean that he had trouble talking to others, he just found it a drag to do so.

In his mind, what was the point? To him, talking to others besides the professors at college who shared his hobbies was useless. Although he had enjoyed other various forms of entertainment, he had never found them as interesting as the cosmos above his head.

All of that began to change after his second year. His father disappeared on one of his excursion trips and his body was never found. His mother began to work more to ease the financial burdens they had begun feeling.

Without giving them time to grieve, the economy at the time did not help either. Food prices continued to increase and eventually, COVID-19 hit. The lockdown that followed crippled them financially as his mother lost her job at a banking firm.

With no choices left, his mother decided to sell their family home and personal belongings and move to a smaller apartment. All of his father's hunting equipment, guns, and even the telescopes he had grown extremely fond of were no longer there anymore. Hermes who was nothing but a student at the time had to start working jobs on the side to ease his mother's pain.

This lifestyle change was not easy, to say the least. Paired with the grief of losing his father who he looked up to, his interest in astronomy began to dwindle. He continued his studies but the enthusiasm he had when he was younger was close to being extinguished with every week that passed.

Hermes was finally able to observe not the skies above, but the planet he had been living on this entire time. He was finally able to relate to some of those classmates who had disdained his conversations about the stars. After all, who cares about what's going on light years away when one can't even afford to eat a plentiful meal or pay rent?

All around him, the imperfections of society had begun to creep out of the corners of what he thought was a perfectly reasonable world. He who had never bothered with international events, world news, or politics began to educate himself about topics that he had thought of as insignificant when compared to the grandiose of the Universe.

Sitting in his wheelchair, he continued to stare at the child being beaten for stealing a mere slice of bread. No one bothered to stop the assailant, it was as if they all expected this outcome or had seen it millions of times.

Although he had finally reached and traversed the stars, achieving one of his lifelong dreams, none of it mattered. It was as if he had returned to his cashiering days. He had returned to that imperfect society he belonged to. Even after crossing the stars, humanity had kept its nature.

Anger began swelling in his body. He wanted to get up and punch the 'evil' man beating the child in front of him. But excluding the fact that he can't move his body, he also knew that it would not change anything.

The old man was also fighting for his own survival just like the child. Saving the kid will not end his hunger, he will just end up going back to steal food again. This was not an issue of evil vs. good but of man vs. nature. Even if Hermes stopped the situation from happening, others would prop up at any time.

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During his time on Earth, although he wasn't entirely a righteous person, his experiences of poverty made him want to become an activist, a person who could change the status quo and improve the lives of those suffering across the world. He realized that the world was dirty and a revolution was needed, one that didn't just replace one bad government with another that's even worse.

In his mind, no one should live the way he did, and he sympathized with those living in worse circumstances than he was in other parts of the globe.

His logical reasoning skills however told him it was pointless. What could a poor student achieve by just protesting? Those at the top that controlled society did not care what happened to those beneath their standing.

And even the poor themselves fought against each other, not caring about anything but their own families. Hermes knew he was no different than them. Instead of wasting time pointlessly complaining to the government, he would rather spend the time making more money to ease his mother's pain.

Society was far larger than a single individual's pleas. It did not distinguish between those in the same class. Hermes' efforts would have simply been ignored, he was powerless when it came to influencing anything. And so, he continued his path as nothing but a cog in a large machine.

Eventually, his efforts paid off and he graduated. He was still riddled with a small amount of student debt, but he had managed to secure a job as a researcher using the contacts he had established during his time in college. He was fortunate enough to receive many recommendations from professors and others in the field.

During his last year, he was able to meet Ariana who managed to keep him from losing himself. She would always listen to his conversations without interrupting him. Always cheerful and optimistic. His anxiety, anger, and fears would disappear whenever he was around her.

From time to time, she would encourage him to continue down the path he had chosen and not to give up on his dreams, even when there could be other majors or paths to take in college that are more lucrative than the one he decided on. The almost extinguished flame of passion in Astronomy had begun to rekindle the longer he shared his interests with her.

Hermes by then had already forgotten the plights of those around him. His focus was driven solely to improving his own circumstances and allowing his mother to rest. He also wanted to build a wonderful future with Ariana who he had proposed to months before his graduation. The desire for change was suppressed deep within him as he continued his life as a corporate slave. Ariana herself was a year away from completing her four-year degree in chemistry as well, so Hermes' desire to do well in his career and help establish a good financial situation for both of them was boosted highly.

As much as he wanted to help others, he knew it was impossible, so he focused all his attention on helping those he truly cared about at the very least.

After all, the twinkling stars continued to shine even when he was in the darkest time of his life, so why would society be any different? His desire for widespread change would not go far, just like a rippling sound wave in the vacuum of space would immediately fizzle out.

After losing everything and traversing the stars, he was always thinking about what his future life goals should be. His family is completely gone. His future wife who fueled his ambition to achieve more for himself was gone. All his understanding of astronomy was collapsing.

Everything he had worked so hard to achieve had been reset to zero. The foundations he had built up had changed fundamentally. He now has to worry about not only his standing in society but his physical strength if he wants to survive.

However, an epiphany had finally hit him. By abandoning the achievements he had as a cog in some unknown machine, he had achieved the freedom to revisit his long-suppressed desires.

Although society still governed the actions of those living in it, it was no longer the end all be all. Money cannot hold a candle to actual power. If he could become a powerful Celestial, changing society was not something unachievable anymore. In fact, he knew he was definitely more special than the usual Celestial.

He had Elgacia, an unknown artifact unlike any other, an artifact that can traverse space itself.

By losing everything he had, he was finally able to let go of his previous commitments. Even if his family's descendants existed somewhere in the vast Universe, his actions would bear no harm toward them; he had nothing to link himself to them anymore.

He who had suppressed his previous desire to correct this world which was beautiful on the outside but dirty on the inside finally had a chance to see through with it. He had no idea whether this idea was simply a coping mechanism his mind came up with in order for him not to turn insane, or simply his own desires expressing themselves after all his shackles were lifted. However, he did not dislike the excitement it gave him.

'If Ariana was here, she would be pulling on my left ear and scolding me for being too arrogant. Even my previous self from a few days ago would probably slap the current me in anger. There is definitely something wrong with me here...'

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, his previously grimacing face slightly moved into a self-deprecating smile. He knew for a fact that what he was planning was close to impossible to achieve, but he had to try anyway.

All his dreams in life had already been achieved except for this one. It's been 18,464 years; there is nothing left to tie him down. His failure would only spell his own death, and even that did not matter to him. After losing everything, he had already contemplated killing himself numerous times in order to meet up with his family once more. He, however, decided against it since his curiosity about why he transmigrated into the future outweighed his desire to die; he simply wanted to delay it until the answers he wanted were found. But now, he had found another reason to live. After all, If a person could have the power to change the world, would they not try?

Angelica was staring down at the crippled patient as her face turned into puzzlement. She asked in a soothing voice:

"Hermes, what are you thinking about?"

He looked up at her with determination burning in his eyes. His face was stern, giving off the feeling of someone ready to set off towards an unknown destination.

"My new commitments."

END OF CHAPTER