Chapter 10
All eyes turned toward Hades.
It was the first time anyone had ever seen the ruler of the underworld—always dignified and taciturn—so agitated that he shouted. A man who hadn’t even flinched when the Titans tore his limbs apart….
Bia stood there, flustered, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly, when Hades barked out in a loud voice,
“I’m asking whether she swore to become a virgin goddess or not, Bia!”
“Ah—y-yes. She might have sworn… or maybe she didn’t….”
“Stop confusing me and speak clearly.”
At the vague answer, Hades furrowed his brow. Bia scratched her chin and added,
“I’m sorry, but I only heard it secondhand from Nike, so I don’t know the details.”
“!”
Hades’s skin, already pale from never seeing sunlight, drained of what little color it had left.
“She might have sworn, or she might not have.”
He felt a terror pressing down on his entire body—fear he had never felt even when the Titans’ hands crushed him whole.
No. There’s no way she’d swear and still ask me on a date… Or maybe she swore and just forgot for a moment.
A shadow gradually crept over Hades’s face.
At some point, he completely forgot his promise to have tea with Nyx in Tartarus. It was only when Thanatos came looking for his absent lord that he finally left his spot.
Even as he descended into the abyss, Hades’s mind was filled entirely with Leuke.
Did she really swear to become a virgin goddess, or not? Was asking me on a date nothing more than a fleeting whim?
Consumed by crushing anxiety, he tapped the scabbard at his waist with his fingers.
“Is something the matter, Your Majesty?”
“It’s nothing.”
Thanatos shook his head. Nothing, my foot. His face is pale as a ghost and he’s sweating cold—there’s no way it’s nothing.
If he goes like this, he’ll become Hypnos’s favorite target again.
Thanatos, who knew his twin brother better than anyone, was absolutely right.
“Hahahahaha!”
Hypnos laughed so hard that spit flew from his mouth.
Well, it was funny. The king of the underworld, infamous for being colder and more emotionless than a doll, was fidgeting like that.
But if he kept being this clueless, he’d get scolded harshly again like last time.
Thinking his twin truly had no learning ability, Thanatos quietly slipped away.
“Pwahahaha! Your Majesty, your face looks exactly like Cerberus straining with constipation!”
Hades stared silently at his subordinate.
“Shall I go fetch a marvelous laxative from Hecate—Y-Your Majesty?”
“…….”
Cold. It felt like a dagger had flown straight into his chest.
Only then did Hypnos realize something was very wrong with his superior’s expression, and he began inching backward.
“N-now, you know I was joking, right? Who am I, after all? Hypnos, the loyal subordinate known as Your Majesty’s right-hand man—Aaaah!”
Crash! Bang! Hades graciously threw a chair at his faithful retainer.
When Hypnos opened his eyes again, he was holding Cerberus’s leash. He had been sentenced to become the three-headed dog’s toy—no, caretaker.
The god of sleep despaired at the price of his loose tongue.
Meanwhile, the ferryman of the underworld, convinced that a queen would soon arrive, was dancing with joy. On the creaking ferry, he tap-danced and even shook his hips.
“…….”
“How long do we have to watch that?”
“I don’t know. Just look away.”
“I definitely died and came to the underworld, so why do I want to die again?”
The suffering dead were beside themselves. This was torture.
No matter how they glared with rotten eyes, the ferryman paid them no heed.
He eventually even started singing, waking Styx from her deep slumber and earning himself a solid smack. Even after being hit, the ferryman just laughed heartily, leaving the dead aghast.
“I’ve never missed age-related hearing loss this much….”
“So that’s why they say even rolling in a dung heap is better in the world of the living, Grandpa.”
Thus, rumors spread throughout the underworld that the god of sleep had fallen into despair and the ferryman had gone mad.
Thanks to that, no rumors spread about the cold ruler of the underworld being struck down by lovesickness.
—
“Are you thinking of becoming a virgin goddess, Aunt?”
“Is that supposed to mean Zeus would stop cheating?”
Here, “Zeus stopping his affairs” meant something utterly impossible.
In short, complete nonsense.
“I’m going to meet a rabbit-like husband and give birth to wolf-like children.”
“…Isn’t it usually the other way around?”
“The world’s a dangerous place. You have to raise them like wolves.”
In a world overrun with monsters, even living like a wolf wasn’t enough.
“And your husband?”
“I’ll protect him.”
“You will, Aunt?”
“Why? Is that not allowed?”
“…….”
“What is it? Answer faster.”
Nike, who had been hesitating and glancing at me, finally spoke in the weakest voice imaginable.
“…All right. I hope that dream comes true. You can do it.”
“Hey, of course I’m cheering for you.”
When I glared at her, pressing for the truth, Nike grinned shamelessly and spread her wings.
“Then that rumor is false, right? I should hurry and go correct it!”
And with that, she whooshed off, disappearing into the distance on the spring breeze. Watching my niece vanish, I tilted my head.
“What rumor?”
A minor goddess without even a temple wouldn’t have rumors about her. All I did was cough up blood and faint.
I should’ve asked what rumor it was before Nike left. What a waste.
“Leuke!”
At that moment, soft wheat-colored hair fluttered in the spring breeze as someone ran toward me. It was Persephone.
“It’s been a while, Kore.”
Finally freed from her confinement on Sicily, Persephone leapt straight into my arms.
“I heard you were hurt!”
“I just collapsed for a bit. You know me—I faint all the time.”
“It wasn’t just fainting! I heard you collapsed after being grazed by Artemis’s poisoned arrow!”
That’s right. Ten days had already passed since then.
After parting with Adis, I managed to return safely to my body.
I hadn’t realized it while I was a soul, but once I returned to my body, nothing didn’t hurt. In the end, under Athena’s and Artemis’s care, I spent ten full days confined to a bed.
“Artemis should’ve been more careful—why did she do that?!”
“Don’t be too hard on Lady Artemis.”
Athena had already scolded her to death. If you do it too, she’ll cry.
“How can I not be upset? Leuke could’ve been seriously hurt!”
“I already forgave her.”
“Huh?”
It wasn’t intentional, after all.
Both she and I were simply swept up in a prank of fate.
Later, my younger siblings told me that Artemis had carried me on her back and sprinted all the way to the Temple of Delphi. Apparently, she was so desperate that she even grabbed her twin brother by the collar and dragged him along like a sack.
The moment I woke up, she threw away all dignity befitting one of the Twelve Olympians and apologized over and over. I accepted her apology gladly.
“You’re really kind, Leuke. How can your heart be as vast as the sea?”
What nonsense.
No way. My heart is the size of a soy sauce dish.
I’ve reformed now, but as a child, I was truly rude and petty.
You could excuse it by saying I was sickly, but my personality was genuinely nasty. And I held grudges forever.
“If it were me, I’d hang Artemis upside down from a tree right away and only let her down four days later. And if I still wasn’t satisfied, I’d demand a hefty compensation.”
“Isn’t that… a bit too much?”
“When Ares was rude to Athena unni, it was even worse.”
Persephone continued,
“They hung him upside down in front of the cliff at the entrance of Olympus for a whole month before letting him go.”
Wow. I was impressed by Olympus’s punishment methods.
“So that’s why Leuke is amazing. How can you forgive her just with an apology?”
Persephone looked at me as if I were a saint. Her spring-green eyes, like summer foliage, shone brightly.
“I want to be like you, Leuke.”
Persephone beamed.
A pretty girl smiling only made her prettier. She smiled like a single spring flower, showing teeth as neat as kernels of corn, and—ah.
Too beautiful.
I could understand why Hades fell in love at first sight. Who wouldn’t, with someone this beautiful?
At that moment, the thought of Hades made a forgotten question flicker through my mind.
<i>Come to think of it, what was the relationship between the original Hades and me?</i>
Strangely, I couldn’t remember clearly.
Leuke was fated to die, and Hades turned her into a silver-white poplar tree. That was the story as I knew it.
…Was that really all?
It felt suspicious, as if someone had forcibly erased just that part, leaving behind an unsettling sense of déjà vu.
