Chapter 115: Perseus (7)
The guards had been keeping an eye on Perseus from the moment he began hesitating.
How could they not notice a powerhouse of his caliber watching them and muttering to himself?
Thus, in a state of mutual misunderstanding, the guards and Perseus faced each other.
“How may we help you? I’m sorry, but we’re not open for business yet.”
“Uh… well… I was introduced here by someone.”
Even at Perseus’s innocent expression and words, the guards remained on full alert, pausing a moment before replying.
“Apologies, but could you tell us the circumstances of your introduction? Our establishment primarily serves guests in the evenings.”
As he spoke, the guard gave a subtle glance.
Perseus, wondering “What does that mean?” followed the guard’s gaze. There, he saw the emblem of Aphrodite’s priestesses engraved on the wall.
Realizing what it implied, Perseus flushed bright red and stammered.
“N-No, that’s not what I meant at all!!!”
The guards nodded as if they had expected such a pure reaction.
Whoever had sent him here during the day clearly didn’t mean it in that way.
“Yes, that’s why we’re asking. We mainly operate at night, catering mostly to priestesses of Lady Aphrodite or other ladies.”
His face turning as red as a beet against his golden hair, Perseus hurriedly explained why he had come—including the introduction from Dictys, priest of Poseidon.
“It’s not that priests of Poseidon aren’t allowed in places like this… but as a priest, it’s a bit…”
Despite Perseus’s flustered rambling, the elite guards quickly picked out the key points.
The important part was that a priest of Poseidon had told his candidate to come here.
“Understood. If you show us the token given by that priest, we’ll contact the higher-ups immediately.”
The guards took the token, placed it into something resembling a crystal orb, communicated through an artifact in their ears, and nodded.
They then promptly let Perseus inside.
[Welcome to Mermaid’s Tear]
***
Inside Mermaid’s Tear, following the entrance hall, there were far too many stimulating sights for Perseus, who had only just come of age.
Even though the establishment wasn’t yet open, women dressed in deeply plunging gowns or nightwear-like attire waved at him from all around as if welcoming him.
At the sight, Perseus panicked, not knowing where to look.
Having trained solely as a priest of Poseidon until now, his immunity to women was practically zero.
He had lived with his mother Danaë—who was beautiful enough that even Zeus couldn’t restrain himself—which naturally raised his standards, and the women of his home island had never approached him easily, so he had never wavered.
But here in Athens’s Mermaid’s Tear, beauties who could at least match Danaë’s chin were smiling at him while barely clothed.
Inevitably, Perseus grew flustered and stammered without realizing it.
“U-Um… I came because Priest Dictys said to seek help here if I needed it.”
“Fufu, relax, Priest. Are we going to eat you or something?”
Amid the women trying to hold back their laughter at his reaction, the most mature-looking beauty approached Perseus.
“We are all attendants of Lord Poseidon, so please don’t be nervous.”
“What?!”
Perseus was so shocked by her words that his awkwardness and embarrassment momentarily vanished.
Poseidon was famously known for having almost no priests or priestesses—yet there were this many in Athens?!
‘Has Priest Dictys been misleading me all this time?!’
As if reading Perseus’s thoughts and misunderstanding, the purple-haired beauty shook her head.
With an expression that said she was used to this kind of confusion, she explained.
“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not like that. As I said earlier, we are merely attendants.”
Perseus tilted his head at her words.
Isn’t that the same thing?
Seeing his reaction, the purple-haired woman calmly clarified.
It was true that Poseidon had never had a single official priestess until now, and only an extremely small number of priests.
However, all priests and priestesses who served other sea gods were also considered attendants of Poseidon.
“Uh… so all priests and priestesses of every sea god are attendants of Lord Poseidon?”
“Exactly. Just as I am a priestess serving Lady Cybele, goddess of beacons and hope, yet also an attendant of Lord Poseidon. Allow me to formally introduce myself—I am Euryte, High Priestess of Lady Cybele.”
Perseus, startled by Euryte’s status, hurriedly bowed in return.
Gasp! To think she was the High Priestess of Cybele herself.
The high priest of a god was usually someone who could communicate directly with that deity.
Naturally, the more one communed with a god, the greater their power and authority became.
Especially since Cybele was Poseidon’s adopted daughter and also the goddess of pioneers of the sea and navigators.
In a way, Perseus had learned from Dictys that she was a deity more important than any other to those who sailed.
“I-I didn’t realize you were such an exalted personage. I’m still only a priest candidate…”
As Perseus tried to bow even deeper in surprise,
Euryte gently supported his head with her hand, stopping him from lowering it further.
This young priest still seemed unaware of just how high his own position truly was.
“Please don’t bow your head, Lord Perseus. You are none other than the priest candidate of Lord Poseidon himself. The priests of Lord Poseidon stand above the priests of any other god. When you bow, it is the same as Lord Poseidon bowing.”
At Euryte’s gentle yet firm words, Perseus wore a dazed expression.
On the island, it hadn’t been like that at all…
‘Priest Dictys just lived as a simple fisherman, after all.’
Euryte noticed what Perseus was thinking but said nothing more about it.
Now it was right for him to travel the world himself and come to understand his own position and duty.
‘Still, I hope this young priest lives a long life… The reason there are so few priests of Poseidon is largely due to the influence of the sea goddesses.’
***
Euryte of ‘Mermaid’s Tear’ gave Perseus—who had come bearing Dictys’s token—a general overview of Athens, a map showing the fastest route to the Temple of Delphi, and a considerable sum of money.
That generosity was an enormous help to Perseus, who currently had nothing.
‘What a truly kind person.’
Thinking this, Perseus hurried on his way.
There was no time limit on bringing back the heads of the Gorgon sisters, but if he took too long, Polydectes might try to take his mother by force.
Of course, Priest Dictys was there to protect her, but…
“There are plenty of ways to deal with that somehow.”
Perseus set off quickly.
Along the road, he encountered and experienced many people.
A husband whose wife had been forcibly taken by an Athenian noble.
A child being beaten by thieves simply for being ugly.
Parents who had borrowed money from a noble to protect their disabled child and could no longer repay it.
The farming couple who had nearly lost an entire year’s harvest because of physical ailment.
A merchant who had fallen into the schemes of moneylenders and was on the verge of having his shop seized.
Facing situations he could never have experienced on the island, Perseus learned and grew.
—Thank you! Thank you! I didn’t know what to do when that noble stole my wife.
—Even if I’m ugly and less than others, I can still become like you, right, Priest?
—How can I ever repay you for healing my child’s disability! sob
—Oh my, thanks to you, Priest, we won’t have to worry about this year’s harvest anymore.
—Thank you, thank you, Priest. I was seriously thinking of leaving the city because of those bastards…
These experiences were a powerful shock to Perseus. The mainland was utterly different from his homeland, where the weak fulfilled the duties of the weak and the strong fulfilled the duties of the strong.
Seeing and feeling the lives of ordinary people, Perseus gained one important realization—about why Dictys chose to live as a fisherman.
“Perhaps my home island of Seriphos is the way it is because of Priest Dictys.”
A priest who should stand at the very highest chose to work at the very lowest as a fisherman—so of course everyone would have to watch their behavior.
“And now I understand why Priest Dictys told me to keep as quiet as possible when outside the island. Those were probably assassins sent by that noble, weren’t they?”
At Perseus’s words, black shadows that had been lying in wait along the road to the Temple of Delphi began to reveal themselves one by one.
“We bear no personal grudge against you, Priest, but we’re just doing a job for pay.”
“Yeah, why’d you have to go and mess with the great Athenian noble Diogenes?”
Perseus sensed that beyond the ones who had revealed themselves, more were still hidden.
The ones who had shown themselves were probably bait, sent knowing he had detected them.
“Well, I just followed what my heart told me to do. If I had been powerless back in my homeland, I wouldn’t have even had a chance.”
“That’s unfortunate. We usually don’t take jobs against priests.”
“Don’t hate us too much—at least we’ll put a coin in your mouth for the ferryman Charon.”
“Attack!!!”
***
The Moirai sisters, the Goddesses of Fate, watched Perseus clash with the assassins at the foot of the mountain leading to the Temple of Delphi.
Though his fate had shifted slightly due to his connection with Poseidon, the immense destiny he carried remained unchanged.
“He is still the first hero of this world, the one who will sprout the seeds of justice.”
“Heehee. Because of him, Dike will become the goddess of justice and the regulator of humans and other races.”
“Until now, Zeus has ruled the world well, but there has been no fairness or justice in it.”
This was why Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos—the Goddesses of Fate—had come to Mount Delphi.
It was for the birth of a hero who would become the catalyst for justice, benevolence, compassion, and the establishment of civilizations, philosophies, and laws unique to humans and other races.
“Of course, it’s also partly because our youngest kept nagging that we don’t know what influence Poseidon might have.”
“Ah! Sister!!”
***
Olympus, already thrown into confusion by the sudden movements of the Moirai sisters, also took notice of Perseus.
And they realized he bore a special destiny.
“That child…”
“Ugh. He’s hogging all the ‘good guy’ act for himself.”
“Tsk tsk tsk. At your level, Ares, that’s probably all you can see.”
“What! You idiot Hephaestus—”
“A new era is approaching.”
Amid the gods voicing their individual impressions, Zeus could not tear his eyes away from Perseus.
It was the first time he had seen the boy, but he could clearly sense whose child he was.
“Danaë is alive…”
Watching Zeus sink into sentimentality, Hera shook her head in exasperation.
That rutting dog, no better than a mongrel, had clearly sired another bastard somewhere.
“Tsk. So he’s become Poseidon’s priest. That makes it awkward to touch him.”
“Yes. And anyway, he’s just a human child, isn’t he?”
Iris, quickly picking up on Hera’s discomfort, spoke to soothe her mood.
Besides, the boy didn’t seem like one who would ascend to godhood like Dionysus.
‘Yes. Becoming a hero might actually be better for him. Dionysus…’
***
“Huff huff huff!”
Having dealt with dozens of assassins, Perseus caught his breath and looked at the bodies strewn around him.
For someone who had only just come of age, dozens of assassins had been formidable foes. Fortunately, whenever he grew exhausted or felt like giving up, a refreshing energy surged from somewhere deep within his body, allowing him to overcome the crises.
“Phew… I don’t know how it works, but I’m glad. If that energy hadn’t blocked the poison too, I might have died without a fight.”
Perseus pulled out several poisoned needles embedded in his body and hurriedly healed himself.
Argh! Damn it, it hurts too much!!
He then searched the assassins’ pockets and, according to their means, placed a gold or silver coin in each of their mouths.
“They swung their blades for that pig of a noble, but I can’t let them miss Charon’s ferry either.”
Having finished everything, Perseus took what he needed from them last and resumed his journey toward the Temple of Delphi.
“I’d love to march straight to that pig noble and deliver punishment right now, but there’s something more urgent…”
I’ll deal with you on the way back.
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