King of Underworld

Chapter 59 - The Story of Perseus - (1)



Chapter 59 The Story of Perseus – (1)

These days, Mente has changed a lot.

While wandering around the Underworld, I often saw her mumbling with a dazed look in her eyes as she passed by…

“Ugh… I want to go back… No, but still…”

Sometimes, I even found her squatting down on the outskirts of the Underworld.

When I asked her why she was doing that…

“Lord Hades… I… I can’t live like this… Please! Even a reward! Just give me a reward!”

She would slightly lift her head, with tears welling up, and plead with me.

…The problem was that it didn’t just end with her pleading; suddenly, she would try to hug me.

After avoiding her a few times, there was one time when I felt weak and just accepted her, which led to this situation.

As Mente was crying in my arms, saying how hard things were…

“Mente? Did you check all the flame intensities of the Pyriphlegethon River that I assigned to you?!”

“A complaint about the mint scent came in from the boatman Charon… And here you are, trying to cozy up to Hades…”

“Eek?! I’m sorry!”

The goddesses Styx and Lethe suddenly appeared, radiating a terrifying divine aura, and took her away again.

Mente, who had the expression of a mortal arriving in the Underworld, stopped trying to hug me and flinched from that moment on.

Yeah, it was as if she had been educated or scolded…

When this kept happening, I called the god of sleep, Hypnos, and asked him.

“Are the goddesses bullying Mente? She seems to be living under a lot of stress…”

“…? From what I know, the goddess Styx is not even doing half of her usual work.”

Doubting if that was really true, I decided to secretly follow Mente one day.

Mente was working diligently from morning till evening, running around the Underworld…

‘Isn’t this workload actually quite lenient?’

Her tasks were significantly lighter compared to the average workload of other gods residing in the Underworld.

Other gods were even using their avatars to work several times busier than her, but she couldn’t create an avatar, so she was moving around with only her main body.

After that, I thought she would soon adapt to this level of work… and lost interest.

After all, even while I was tailing Mente, I was using my avatar to pass judgments.

Watching Mente gradually adapt to life in the Underworld day by day made me feel quite pleased…

* * *

One day, the goddess of wisdom, Athena, visited the Underworld.

“Greetings, Uncle. Cough. Cough.”

“…? Why are you coughing?”

We gods don’t get sick.

Except for hair loss, which falls within the domain of power that even the god of medicine, Apollo, cannot cure, most other diseases cannot invade the robust body of a god.

But the goddess of wisdom, one of the 12 Olympian gods, is coughing?

Athena responded with an awkward smile to my question.

“Ah… It’s just… Sniff! The strong mint scent from the entrance of the Underworld to the Acheron River…”

“Is it that severe?”

“…Even the boatman Charon was holding his nose as he operated the giant ferry… I mean, the steel ship.”

Mint, which is my symbol and used to neutralize the odor of the dead, was originally only used during funerals by the people of Thebes, where the temple of Hades is located, so it wasn’t overwhelming.

At first, even Thanatos, who harvests the souls of the dead, and Charon, who ferries the dead across the Acheron River, liked the fresh scent.

But if mint has spread to the extent that Mente has been enshrined as a goddess of mint in the mortal world…

How many of the dead now reek of mint every day?

“Oh… Mint has spread too much in the mortal world lately.”

“Yes, the scent of the souls is diluted in the Acheron River, but until then…”

“I’ll have to think of a way to reduce the spread of mint in the mortal world.”

It’s good that my symbol, mint, has spread widely, but with gods suffering from the strong scent…

I need to come up with another solution.

“Um… Uncle, the reason I came to the Underworld…”

“Athena, do you have any good ideas? A way to naturally reduce the amount of mint used in human funerals…”

“You don’t want to prohibit it through an oracle or something like that, but reduce it naturally?”

Of course.

It would be too intrusive to humans to have an oracle limiting the amount of mint used in funerals after giving them mint in the first place.

“In that case, how about spreading mint as a food ingredient? That way, humans wouldn’t waste much of the precious mint leaves in funerals…”

“…! That’s not a bad idea. Come to think of it…”

Right. I promised Mente last time that…

I would recognize her as the creator of mint and spread mint dishes around the world as a reward.

I had been so busy that I forgot about it, but I should have used that method sooner.

Because the mint scent is too strong, it won’t just be eliminated… Instead, if we encourage people to use mint in tea or food, the amount of mint used in funerals would naturally decrease, right?

In this era, food ingredients are precious, so the amount of mint leaves wasted with corpses will decrease, and no longer will the souls emit a pungent mint scent.

“…Uncle?”

Honestly, I’m fine with it, but since Charon of the Acheron River is struggling, as the king of the Underworld, I can’t just ignore it.

So, the reason I’m turning mint into food is all thanks to Charon… no, because of him.

I was about to call Mente and assign her this task when Athena called out to me.

“The reason I came here is that I would like to borrow your Kynee, Uncle.”

* * *

She wanted to borrow my Kynee, which was crafted by Arges, one of the three Cyclopes?

That was like borrowing Zeus’s thunderbolt or Poseidon’s trident.

I straightened my posture and looked into Athena’s eyes.

“The goddess of wisdom must have a reason for asking me this. Explain.”

“Yes. It’s to lend it to a human named Perseus, who is destined to become a hero.”

“…I’ve heard of him. You’re talking about that unfortunate human destined to kill his own grandfather.”

King Acrisius of Argos, a kingdom in the mortal world, had no sons, only a daughter.

So, he went to the Oracle at Delphi to inquire about having children, but…

“You will not only never have a son, but you will also be killed by the child born to your daughter.”

“Wha… What did you say?!”

Upon hearing this terrifying prophecy, King Acrisius imprisoned his daughter, Danaë, in a large tower, but Zeus transformed himself into a golden shower and entered the tower to be with her.

Thus, Danaë and the child she bore with Zeus, Perseus, were cast into the sea by King Acrisius.

To be precise, they were placed together in a wooden chest and left to drift on the sea,

but they were rescued by a kind-hearted fisherman and lived on the island of Seriphos.

However…

“Perseus, by order of His Majesty, you are to bring back the head of Medusa.”

“You… You want me to bring back Medusa’s head?”

“If you refuse, you will be executed for defying the king’s command. What will you do?”

“Damn it… Fine, I’ll do it.”

King Polydectes of Seriphos was captivated by Danaë’s beauty, and he sought to kill her son, Perseus, who stood in his way.

So, he sent Perseus to Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters, a monster with the power to turn anyone who looked at her snake-covered head into stone!

“You knew about that human, Uncle.”

“Even though I reside in the Underworld, it’s impossible for me not to know about a human destined to become a hero.”

With the threat of the Gigantes still looming,

I had been keeping track of humans fated to become heroes.

Especially one like Perseus, the son of Zeus.

A predetermined fate.

An absolute law that even the immortal gods dared not alter.

It’s impossible, even for Zeus, the king of the gods, to change a fate known through prophecy.

Thus, while I was aware that Perseus was destined to kill his grandfather,

I didn’t dare to attempt altering that fate.

“If he is the son of Zeus, then he is my nephew, so I can’t just let him die.”

“Then, will you lend me the Kynee?”

“Well…”

However, Perseus is indeed a human destined to become a hero,

and he might even play a significant role in the war against the Gigantes.

So, I could consider lending the Kynee as an investment for the future.

If that is his fate. But…

“It’s true that Perseus is the one destined to slay Medusa and become a hero. But…”

There was one reason I wasn’t immediately accepting Athena’s request.

“Was it not you who turned Medusa, a victim of Poseidon’s assault, into a monster? And wasn’t she originally a priestess devoted to you?”

Medusa was a priestess in a temple dedicated to you, Athena,

but she was raped in that temple by Poseidon, who lusted after her beauty.

And like Artemis, you are a virgin goddess.

To have any form of relations within your temple was a grave sacrilege,

and since you couldn’t directly confront the powerful Poseidon, you instead turned Medusa into a monster.

“Your temperament is no less severe than Artemis’s. I understand it might have been difficult to confront Poseidon… but taking it out on a human victim, just because she’s your priestess?”

“Uncle, that’s not what I—”

“You didn’t say a word to Poseidon, who raped Medusa, yet you come to borrow my Kynee to give to a human hero destined to kill her?”

It’s true that Perseus is fated to kill Medusa and his own grandfather.

But it was Athena who turned Medusa, originally a victim of rape, into a monster.

While I don’t intend to let Perseus face death and plan to lend the Kynee,

Athena will need to persuade me a bit more.

“Use that famous wisdom you’re known for in Olympus to come up with an excuse.”

 


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