Chapter 1: Prologue
Why—! Why on earth—!
Why is Hades here?!
I was sure I’d been told Hades wouldn’t attend today’s wedding.
“Leuke.”
A voice like the cold air of the underworld echoed beside my ear.
“Trying to run away again?”
“Well, that is…”
In the end, I turned around and met his gaze.
The first thing that caught my eye was his jet-black hair, cascading all the way down to his waist. Beneath it, a pair of deep navy eyes gleamed sharply.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find you?”
His low, velvety voice, tinged with lazy breath, flew toward me like a dagger and struck home.
Oh—what do I do? Should I say I already have a lover? No, wait. In this dumpster fire of a Greek myth world, having one or two lovers is practically nothing.
Ah. Right.
There was that option.
‘I’m still terminally ill.’
I’d been born frail, sickly from the start. Coughing up blood and collapsing had been routine—my life had been a ticking clock.
But that was all in the past now. I wasn’t terminally ill anymore.
So first, I just had to—
“I can see you scheming from here.”
“!”
“You’re terrible at hiding things. It’s all written on your face.”
He tilted his head slightly and smiled.
“You look like a rabbit desperately trying to hide its food.”
W-What? A rabbit?
“The way you were running just now… your back looked just like a fleeing rabbit.”
Listening to words that sounded like neither praise nor insult, I secretly edged backward.
“Those short legs scrambling so hard to escape—it made me want to catch you and eat you.”
“H-Huh.”
As expected of the king of the underworld—how could he say something so chilling so casually? Catch me… and eat me?
Running away really was the right answer. The moment I’d realized my partner that night was Hades, grabbing my clothes and bolting had been an excellent decision.
“Still, I’d like to put an end to this game of hide-and-seek.”
I took a bolder step back. Just a little more, and I’d reach the cliff. If I jumped into the sea while he was distracted, I could escape—
That was when it happened.
“Eek!”
Before I knew it, he was there. Long arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me in. In an instant, I was buried against his broad chest.
How is his chest bigger than mine? You could do laundry on this thing. No wonder it felt like it had handles—wait, wait. W-What am I thinking?!
My face burned bright red.
I’d never even dated a man before Hades, and now I was having filthy thoughts like this? I’d lost it. Completely lost it.
“You’re really cruel.”
He lowered his eyes sorrowfully as he spoke. I could physically feel my common sense packing its bags and leaving.
Cruel? What’s cruel is what you did to my body that night.
After that night, I’d been bedridden for an entire week. Meanwhile, this man looked not just fine, but positively radiant.
“What’s bothering you so much that you’re making that sulky rabbit face?”
A pair of eyes like the deepest abyss glinted darkly.
“It’s not like I’m the only one at fault.”
His tone sounded deeply aggrieved. If anyone had the right to be upset, it was me. Did he have no shame?
“Not the only one… at fault?”
He smiled beautifully, like sunlight shimmering on water, and dropped a bomb.
“How could you steal my first night and then heartlessly run away?”
“…Pardon?”
My mind snapped blank.
“It was something I’d saved, you know. My precious purity, kept for the wife I’d one day welcome.”
What?!
“Why do you keep making that shocked rabbit expression? You really didn’t know?”
I really didn’t. No, seriously—how does virginity even exist in a world this freewheeling?
“Ah. Did you misunderstand and think I was a man worn smooth by experience?”
“That’s not it, but…”
“I’m a little hurt. You were the one who seduced me and pushed me down first.”
“…!”
“You even said you’d take responsibility.”
It was only when I met his earnest gaze that I finally understood.
I’d caused an irreparable, catastrophic disaster.
What am I supposed to do now…?
“You lured me with sweet words, stripped me bare, and then left like you’d gotten all you wanted.”
Hades tilted his head at a perfect forty-five-degree angle, like a tragic heroine.
“Do you know how sad I was? Hmm? Don’t you think so?”
He asked with a bright, cheerful smile that looked nothing like sadness.
I wanted to just let out a squawk and faint. But my newly healthy body stubbornly refused to cooperate when I actually wanted to pass out.
There was nowhere to run. Truly—nowhere at all.
“You need to take responsibility for stealing my purity, Liri.”
Oh no.
“So, when should we have the wedding, darling?”
Since when had I become ‘darling’? I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even think to argue.
“You said it was love at first sight. You said my face was your type.”
That’s because I didn’t know you were Hades back then!
This is so unfair. This is fraud!
“Don’t leave me.”
With a strangely wistful smile in his eyes, he hugged me tighter.
He held me so tightly my cheek was squashed against his chest like a lump of dough. Gk—
How did things end up like this…?
Buried against his chest, I thought back to the day I realized I’d possessed this body.
The very day I realized I’d transmigrated into this insane Greek myth.
Chapter 1. Living as Terminally Ill—Again
That day had been an ordinary, warm, and leisurely afternoon.
I was sitting beneath a tree, waiting for my younger siblings along with Persephone, Athena, and Artemis.
That was when a single violet on the hillside caught my eye. Thinking of Athena, who loved violets so dearly, I carefully climbed up the slope.
Just a little more… got it!
All I had to do now was climb down carefully—but my foot slipped, and I tumbled down the hill.
“Aaaah!”
Luckily, Artemis and the nymphs, returning from a hunt, spotted me as I rolled, screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Isn’t that Leuke?”
“It is! Oh my goodness, Leuke!”
True to her reputation as a great hunter, the strong Artemis threw herself in front of me and brought me to a stop.
“Huff… huff…”
Clinging to Artemis’s arm like a lifeline, I stared at the vivid blue sea swaying before my eyes.
Safe! If Artemis hadn’t caught me, I would’ve fallen straight into the water.
Of course, since I was an Oceanid—born of the Titan sea god Oceanus and Tethys—falling into the sea wouldn’t have been a problem, but…
…Wait. Oceanid?
The unfamiliar word surfaced suddenly, filling me with a sense of unease. As Artemis helped me to my feet, she looked at me with concern.
“Are you alright, Leuke?”
Huh? My name isn’t Leuke—
Ugh!
The moment I became aware of it, forgotten memories came crashing down like waves. A splitting headache seized me.
“Cough, cough!”
“Aaaah!”
“Oh no—Leuke!”
I vomited blood spectacularly. When I looked down, my pure white chiton was stained with golden ichor—the blood of immortals.
My ears rang as if filled with water, and my vision darkened.
In that moment, I fully remembered my past life.
Endless medicines and machines. Breath that came in gasps after just a short walk. The steady mechanical beeping that had always stayed by my side seemed to echo vividly in my ears.
And Leuke.
She was a goddess born in the Golden Age, when the Titans ruled. Yet for some reason, she was not immortal, destined to die young and be transformed into a white poplar tree by Hades.
Of all bodies to possess—why this one?
Why possess someone terminally ill?!
I’d been terminally ill in my past life, and now again in this one too?!
