Chapter 155: Chiron Academy, The Beginning (2)
Poseidon settled in Thebes and spent a little over a year simply lounging around.
After all, both Poseidon himself and Chiron were immortal beings. Time held little meaning for either of them.
Above all, the Meleager he had come to evaluate was said to have only just entered adolescence.
He figured there was no harm in taking things slow.
“Right now, the festivals here in Thebes have all sorts of strange things. There’s even a festival for a sea god I didn’t know about.”
“Haha, even a mage like yourself wouldn’t know if you’re not from around here. The Festival of Poseidon is something only we in Thebes celebrate.”
The owner of the shop Poseidon had frequented for the past year greeted him warmly.
This free-spending mage was the customer who reliably kept his sales afloat. Even though the shopkeeper generally disliked eccentric mages, he treated this one with genuine friendliness.
“Hmm. I’ve been in Thebes for a whole year, but I only learned about this festival today.”
“Hahaha, that’s what most people who’ve just arrived or are visiting after a long time say. After all, it hasn’t been that long since Thebes developed deep ties with the beings of the sea.”
“Hm? Deep ties? That’s news to me.”
Poseidon was slightly surprised to hear that such exchanges had begun during the time he had been walking around as a human.
When he thought about which sea races could even feasibly interact with land-dwellers…
It seemed almost impossible.
When he reflected on his time in the ocean:
Most merfolk were busy waging wars and plundering within their own underwater kingdoms. They preferred raids and pillaging over the headache of trading and interacting with surface races.
You could tell just by looking at how most of the infamous pirates on land were merfolk.
And the mermaids? They were exactly what people imagined when they thought of haughty fantasy sirens.
They looked down on every race except themselves and the sea gods as inferior. In particular, they enjoyed toying with those called the strongest on land.
‘Even I have to admit they’re a nasty bunch. And if you throw the sea nymphs into the mix on top of that….’
Just thinking about them gave Poseidon a headache.
If he were truly human, they were the kind of races he would despise and want nothing to do with.
“But you’re saying ties were formed?”
The merchant almost nodded instinctively at the mage’s harsh assessment.
If he hadn’t been a professional merchant, he would have clapped in agreement at how spot-on the judgment was.
‘Truly, learned people are different. That was crystal-clear insight.’
But he was a pro among pros.
As long as he had some merfolk among his trading partners, he couldn’t openly agree with the mage’s opinion.
“Hah… Haha. Of course, there are those who hold that view, but not every being of the sea is like that.”
“Bullshit. If anything, you should flip it around. Among all the nasty ones, a small handful are somewhat tolerable.”
“…Um. Hah… Haha.”
The merchant forced a smile.
This mage might actually be a sage. Such clear, piercing insight.
And he had no confidence defending the sea races in front of this sage-like mage.
“Ahem. Anyway, let me continue the explanation. It’s because Semele—the daughter of our former king Cadmus—was summoned by Calypso, the sea nymph and chief attendant of Lord Poseidon.”
“Hm? Calypso’s? Wait… Semele… Semele… I’ve heard that name somewhere.”
“Um… You’ve probably heard it in connection with Lord Zeus.”
Having successfully changed the subject, the merchant watched the mage ponder and quietly added more.
It wasn’t exactly a pleasant story, but according to ancient tales from his great-great-great-grandfather’s time, Zeus saw Semele’s beauty, fell instantly in love, and raped her. Naturally, Hera noticed and, out of jealousy, tried to kill Semele. That rumor was quite well-known in the Boeotia region.
“Ah! So that’s the woman Hera was pleased about. I thought Zeus had killed her. How did she manage to show up again?”
“Yes?!”
The merchant was so startled by the mage suddenly clapping his hands and speaking that he blurted out in shock.
What the hell did that mean?!
“Ahh. I think I get the general picture now. Thanks. Here’s payment for the information.”
“Huh? No—wait, what was that just now….”
But before the merchant’s curiosity could be satisfied, Poseidon tossed him a single silver coin and walked out.
All that remained was the merchant, left with growing curiosity about a dangerous truth among the gods.
“Mage! You can’t just leave like that! This is exactly why mages are so damn eccentric!!”
***
Meanwhile, unlike the mage who had been idling away a full year enjoying leisure in Thebes,
The inside of Thebes was in an uproar.
The biggest reason was the words and actions of Niobe, the wife of the current king of Thebes, Amphion.
“If we are to worship Leto as a goddess and offer prayers, then why has no temple been built for me, Niobe! My husband Amphion is a son of Zeus, my father Tantalus is also a son of Zeus, and my mother Dione is the daughter of the Titan Atlas who holds up the heavens. Shouldn’t I, by right, hold greater authority than Leto?!”
Niobe took great pride in her lineage. That was why she held grand rituals and offerings for Zeus and his siblings.
Because of this, most Thebans offered sacrifices and prayers to one of Zeus’s brothers or sisters.
But a small number of Thebans worshiped the goddess Leto—and that alone had offended Niobe.
To her, Leto was merely a lowly-born goddess who had received Zeus’s favor.
Looking down on Leto so thoroughly, the mere existence of a few Leto worshipers was enough for Niobe to take immediate action.
Along with denouncing Leto, she began constructing a massive temple right next to Leto’s own.
The problem was that, right in the middle of busy preparations for the Beltane festival—which involved sea beings—this new temple was being built…
It was only natural that Niobe’s actions sparked gossip and caused an uproar.
To the Thebans themselves, hurriedly constructing a temple for the sea goddesses out of jealousy toward Leto seemed anything but normal.
The real issue was that her husband Amphion didn’t stop her—in fact, he actively supported her, which only made the problem worse.
“Sigh… They’re offering gold and a mage’s workshop as payment for the construction, so I’m doing it. But if Apollo—that mama’s boy—finds out about this, he’s going to lose his mind.”
Poseidon evaluated the massive temple being erected right beside Leto’s as he watched.
And the various other mages who had taken the same commission and were standing around him unconsciously nodded in agreement.
‘He’s not wrong!’
***
Thanks to Poseidon’s involvement, Niobe’s temple was being built at an overwhelming speed.
Moreover, because it subtly incorporated a trace of Poseidon’s divine power, it inevitably stood out far more prominently than Leto’s temple.
Naturally, this news reached the ears of Leto’s children.
“What?! The humans of Thebes dare to build a grander temple than our mother’s?!”
“Yes. It is being constructed right beside Lady Leto’s temple.”
Apollo trembled with rage upon hearing his aide’s report; he clenched his fists and bit his lip hard.
In his fury, he wanted nothing more than to immediately collapse that temple and curse every Theban so they could neither live nor die…
But he was no fool. On the contrary, he prided himself as the only one on Olympus whose intellect could rival Athena’s.
“With the Beltane festival about to be held in Thebes soon, anything drastic would be difficult right now…”
“Yes. Many sea races will likely come ashore to enjoy the festival.”
“Ugh… Then whose temple among the sea gods is the one currently under construction? It can’t possibly be Lord Poseidon’s, right?”
Just from hearing about this outrageously blasphemous temple, Apollo instantly reached the same conclusion as the Thebans:
This temple was an offering to the sea gods, intended to insult his mother.
Moreover, the fact that it was being built in conjunction with the current festival strongly suggested it belonged to one of the higher-ranking, more prestigious sea deities.
If he were to destroy the temple in anger and curse the Thebans over it, all the backlash would inevitably splash onto his mother.
And Thebes was already a place where the influence of the sea gods overwhelmingly surpassed that of Olympus.
Of course, by divine custom, building a larger temple right beside an already existing one was an enormous discourtesy—but only when the parties were of comparable status.
“Ugh… Is it Calypso’s? Or Psamathe? Semele served under quite a few gods, so it’s hard to judge.”
Apollo pressed his temples, agonizing. Even the ones that immediately came to mind were absolutely not inferior to his mother.
He hated to admit it, but the sea gods usually valued ability and power over bloodline. In that sense, his mother’s strength fell short compared to theirs—there wasn’t even room for debate.
In a situation like this, would those mighty sea gods politely back down just because someone invoked Leto’s name?
Not a chance! They’d probably scoff. Except for the goddesses close to his mother, those barbaric sea goddesses would likely see this as an opportunity to encroach even on Leto’s own temple.
For the first time in a while, Apollo was hit with a genuine headache. He groaned in frustration.
BOOM!
At that moment—
The wall of Apollo’s palace collapsed, and a woman clad in light armor and carrying a bow strode in.
“Hey, brother! You heard, right? About what the humans in Thebes are doing this time!!”
The woman casually tossed her bow—nearly as tall as she was—and arrows as thick as her forearms into her quiver, paid no attention to the wreckage she had just caused in Apollo’s room, and plopped down heavily in his favorite chair.
“Artemis, my sister. Did you just come back from hunting with Athena again? Please, behave with a little more feminine grace.”
Apollo sighed as he looked at Artemis, who sat there brazenly even after smashing through his palace wall.
He already had a headache from the temple under construction, and now his little sister was acting like this.
“Hmph… Feminine grace? I heard some rumor that a certain someone raped yet another woman recently.”
“What?! Who said that?! She and I loved each other mutually—that’s all!”
“Funny, because I heard that woman already had a husband.”
“Ugh! That’s because her husband left her and wandered off. How could he abandon such a lovely woman?”
“Tsk tsk tsk, save the excuses. Just know that big sister Aphrodite and Dike are both raging mad and threatening to rip off your lower half.”
“……”
Of course, Artemis paid no attention and kept needling Apollo anyway.
***
Apart from Apollo’s panic, Artemis had her own reasons for coming to see him.
Though her bloodline didn’t seem to know it yet, as the goddess of the hunt, Artemis had a separate network that gathered and pieced together various pieces of information.
One piece of that information was the rumor that the temple being built beside their mother Leto’s was not actually for any sea goddess—it belonged to Niobe.
“Tch. I came to check if that rumor was true, but this idiot clearly doesn’t know anything. Looks like I’ll have to go see for myself.”
Artemis shook her head, stood up, and left the panicking Apollo—who had been blindsided by the sudden information—behind.
She had no hobby of dragging useless people around.
“For now, I’ll handle it myself. Sappho, sorry, but when that fool comes to his senses, tell him to come find me on his own.”
“Yes, Lady Artemis.”
“Good. Then let’s go verify the truth… hunter style.”
With that, Artemis quietly set off toward Thebes—to confirm the truth behind the rumors.
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