CHAPTER 14

But the little snake bastard went quiet, watching my reaction.

Why did he suddenly lose all that confidence?

For a moment, I remembered a video I’d seen on YouTube in my previous life. A tiny puppy barking yip-yap in front of a tiger’s cage.

When I first saw it, I’d thought, Wow, so “a puppy fears no tiger” really is true.

But that wasn’t it at all.

The puppy was confident because its owner was standing right behind it.

Whether people or animals, if you’ve got solid backing, there’s nothing in the world to fear.

Maybe this guy’s acting like this because Hades isn’t around.

Anyway, not my problem.

“If you’re not going to talk, I’m leaving. Bye.”

“W-wait!”

“What now?!”

“P-please accept my apology.”

“…What?”

Ophion suddenly held out a perfectly ripe apple toward me. What is wrong with him?

“An apple? Why?”

“I was rude before, and… I’m really sorry!”

The snake dropped flat into a push-up position. He probably thought he was bowing deeply in his own way, but coming from a snake, it looked exactly like a military push-up stance. So he does know. Looks like Hades trained his subordinates properly.

I crossed my arms and stared at Ophion. Honestly, just moments ago, I’d been considering turning him into snake liquor if I ran into him again…

But if he’s reflected on it, that’s good enough.

Ophion was clearly a juvenile snake. Not a baby, but maybe a teenage stage—slightly bigger than our One, Two, and Three.

There’s a reason adolescence is called the age of storm and stress.

Kids can be rude. They can mess up. What matters is that they reflect and repent.

I was like that too.

Once upon a time, I hated myself for having a body different from everyone else’s, and my personality twisted along with it. Being sick was miserable enough, but growing slowly made me overly sensitive and prickly.

In short, I was a real brat.

Probably should’ve been sent to a behavior clinic.

Anyway, the only reason someone like me turned out this well was thanks to my older sisters. Especially Metis—without her, I probably wouldn’t even be functioning as a person now.

As I was reminiscing about Metis beating sense into me during my bratty phase, I heard a strange sound.

“Uh… ugh…”

“Hm?”

“Waaah!”

The teenage snake started crying.

“I was wrong! Please forgive meee…”

Well. A kid is still a kid. I let out a shallow sigh and pulled out a handkerchief.

“Seriously… hey.”

“Hwaaah!”

“Of course I forgive you.”

“W-what… really?”

Startled by my answer, Ophion abruptly stopped crying. I roughly wiped his tears with the handkerchief and said,

“Kids make mistakes. I forgave you ages ago.”

“Really…? Sniff.”

“So stop crying. Your face is ugly enough already.”

“My master says I’m cute though…”

“Sure, you’re cute.”

“You’re bolder than I thought.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

The shameless snake quickly stopped crying and even blew his nose.

“So you came all the way from the Underworld just to apologize to me?”

“Well, that’s part of it, but…”

I handed Ophion some cherries I’d brought for the baby snakes. He accepted them obediently and started munching away.

“So what else is it?”

After gulping down the cherries and neatly spitting out the pits, Ophion asked,

“Lady Leuke, do you want to become a virgin goddess?”

Why is everyone suddenly obsessed with calling me a virgin goddess these days? Is this another curse telling me to grow old and die alone?

“Are you insane?!”

The ghost of a lifelong single virgin who’d died without ever holding a man’s hand was furious.

“I don’t know where you heard that, but ignore it. It’s complete nonsense.”

“Thank goodness…”

“Then why were you curious?”

“!”

“Who told you to ask me that?”

—

Ophion broke out into a cold sweat.

Was he already found out? Was his mission going to fail like this? He quickly put on an innocent act.

“Oh, I just heard some rumors going around about you lately and got curious, that’s all.”

There was no way Ophion, who lived entirely underground, could know about surface rumors. But remembering Hypnos desperately acting his heart out to avoid getting scolded by Hades, Ophion gave the performance of his life.

“Oh, is that so?”

That was it.

Leuke merely lamented that these ridiculous rumors made it hard for her to show her face, without suspecting Ophion at all.

Inside, Ophion cheered.

I did it!

Proud of himself for flawlessly completing his first mission, Ophion puffed up internally.

“More importantly, you haven’t had lunch yet, right? If not, want to go eat together?”

“No, I should head back underground now. My master is waiting just for me.”

“Ah, right. Then be careful on your way, and let’s meet again.”

“Yes!”

Mission complete and belly full—time to go home and take a nice nap.

Ophion wagged his tail in farewell toward the receding Leuke, then slipped back into the sea.

Swimming smoothly downward like a water snake toward the Underworld’s entrance in the deep sea, Ophion thought about Leuke.

She seems like a really good person.

She forgave him right away, and she even gave him cherries.

Just like Hades said, she wasn’t merely kind and pure—she was also sharp and capable, which made her even more appealing.

Showing queenly qualities already… No wonder Master fell for her at first sight.

If they get married, she’ll have children too, right? Then I’ll stick right by their side and help take care of them.

A lovely princess and prince who look half like Hades and half like Leuke. Just imagining it put Ophion in a great mood, and he grinned slyly like a demon king’s minion.

Until salty seawater got into his mouth and made him choke.

—

At last, the long-awaited day.

Swoosh!

“Ah—so bright!”

I covered my eyes with both hands as sunlight poured in without warning.

Just one more minute… no, ten minutes…

“Wake uuuup!”

“Could you hurry up and get up already?!”

“Let’s just dunk her in the bath. That’ll wake her.”

“One, two—”

“Aaah!”

Splash! “Cough—! What is wrong with you people all of a sudden?!”

I shot my sisters a resentful glare one by one.

Doris, with her flowing blue-wave hair.

Eurynome, with sea-green eyes like our mother’s.

Electra, with amber eyes.

Perseis, with blue-green eyes.

And Pleione, with her soft brown hair.

Aside from a few sisters who couldn’t come due to their circumstances, most of the ones I was close to were here.

Seriously, aren’t you all busy? Why are you gathered like this…?

“What do you mean ‘what are we doing’? It’s the big date today. How can you still be sleeping?”

“The sun chariot hasn’t even—wait, no! Eos hasn’t even clocked out yet! Why did you wake me this early?”

“On days like this, you wake up at dawn to get ready. Close your eyes.”

“Why my eyes—ugh!”

Before I could properly protest, I shut my mouth.

The sisters washing—no, scrubbing—my body were fired up like they were sending someone off to war.

Ow, it’s hot. They looked ready to take someone down.

“My, have you not been eating properly? Why are your arms so thin?”

“That’s nothing. Look at her legs. They’re as thick as my arms.”

“At least her hair is nice. Snow-white and so soft.”

That’s my ear.

I let their nonstop chatter go in one ear and out the other.

“Shouldn’t we tape her mouth shut? Her face is a crownfish, but her mouth’s a blobfish.”

“There’s a reason her nickname is ‘Princess.’”

Here, “Princess” is short for ‘Princess of Terror Mouth.’ Doris gave it to me because I beat people senseless with words.

“I saw her talking and thought, ‘Well, marriage is out of the question.’ She definitely hooked him with her looks.”

“Right, our little poplar. You need to watch that mouth. You can’t just send men away crying, okay? If they cry, they should cry in bed.”

“Hey! Sisters, enough!”

There really is no exaggeration like this.