Chapter 156: Chiron Academy, The Beginning (3)
Thebes was buzzing with the festival.
The temple that had been built at breakneck speed was completed just in time for the festival period.
Among the citizens of Thebes, those who knew the truth about the temple weren’t thrilled about the new construction, but everyone couldn’t help but gasp in admiration at its grandeur.
It boasted a mystical appearance unlike anything in Theban history.
―It’s weird that it’s built right next to Goddess Leto’s temple, but on second thought, maybe it doesn’t matter.
―Hey, watch your mouth. You don’t want to get punished by the gods.
―Yeah, but look at the majesty of this temple. It must belong to one of the sea queens. Maybe we’re finally picking a side for good.
―Whoa! So you’re saying this could be for Eurynome, Amphitrite, or even Gaia or Tiamat?!
―Listing them out like that sounds a bit off…
Of course, the Thebans—unaware that a certain mage had joined the construction purely for the gold—developed some minor misunderstandings about this absurd temple.
“It’s truly a magnificent temple. Give the mages who built it double the promised reward.”
“Yes, as you wish.”
“By the way, this should have diminished faith in Leto by now, right?”
“Yes, undoubtedly. After seeing this temple, no fool would bother visiting Leto’s. In that regard, what should we do with this temple going forward?”
“Hmm. This should be enough to cool interest in Leto. So why not use this opportunity to strengthen our kingdom’s ties with the sea gods? Let’s present it as a gift to them.”
“Ooooh. All of Thebes will bow to Your Majesty’s wisdom.”
“Hohoho, won’t they?”
Niobe was arrogant, but not stupid. She simply disliked the Thebans worshiping Leto, whom she saw as utterly unremarkable by her standards.
Thus, it wasn’t strange at all for the pleased Niobe to repackage the completed temple as a gift to the sea gods, aligning with what the Thebans already thought.
That is, if not for the news that would have made Niobe throw a fit.
―I hear they’re expanding Goddess Leto’s temple now?
―Yeah, they’re recruiting workers on-site. Apparently requested by the priests of Apollo and Artemis.
―Hmm… Will the palace approve it?
―Well… It’d be ridiculous not to. It might not compare to the sea queens, but leaving the temple of Leto—the mother of the gods they serve—overshadowed could be uncomfortable.
―Hah… Goddess Leto’s authority rises on its own thanks to her children. At least in Thebes.
***
“Hmm… This is going to cause another uproar. They barely managed to sort out the temple issue, and now this.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Ah, just talking to myself. Anyway, it seems like it’s time to leave this country. I was hoping to see those supposedly outstanding seven princes and seven princesses while I’m here.”
Poseidon could easily predict what would happen next.
It was obvious that Niobe—the woman he had seen in the Theban palace when he joined for the gold—would never tolerate this.
And sure enough, Niobe didn’t hold back.
Now, right next to Leto’s temple and altar, she brazenly erected statues of her seven sons and seven daughters.
“Wow. That’s impressive. I never would have imagined it. As Zeus’s descendant, she should know how much of an insult that is to the gods. Yet she does it anyway.”
Upon hearing the news, Poseidon clapped in admiration.
Even he wouldn’t do something like that, not even as a joke.
But Niobe had calmly committed the very act she had been obsessing over, forcing him to realize that in the face of human madness, he still had a long way to go.
While letting out such exclamations and watching Niobe, Poseidon spotted Artemis, who had been quietly assessing the situation in the area.
“It’s over.”
***
From the sky, golden arrows and silver arrows pierced Niobe’s seven sons.
The boys, who had simply been enjoying the festival, collapsed with arrows through their hearts, clueless as to why.
“Aaaargh!!! Ismenus, Sipylus, Damasichthon… My children!!!”
Niobe wailed upon witnessing the scene right before her eyes, and at the same time, the statues in Leto’s temple collapsed in the exact order her arrow-struck sons had died.
As if it were divine punishment for the arrogant human.
But if she were the type to bow her head over something like this, she wouldn’t be the mad Niobe that Poseidon had acknowledged.
“Damn you, Leto! You worthless woman who only entered Olympus because you caught Father Zeus’s eye—how dare you kill my sons!! I curse you! Even in Hades, I will curse you!!!”
Niobe screamed while clutching her sons’ bodies.
Still looking down on and belittling Leto.
“Whoa. Zeus’s descendants are all extremes, one way or the other. How can someone like her come from the same bloodline as Perseus? I just don’t get it. I don’t get it at all.”
Poseidon shook his head.
He had checked if any of Niobe’s children might be candidates for the first hero at Chiron’s camp, given how quickly Apollo and Artemis had acted…
“They’re pretty underwhelming? For sons rumored to be so outstanding, they don’t look that impressive.”
The results were lackluster. In his view, a human destined to be a hero failing to block even a single arrow was subpar.
At this point, Poseidon couldn’t even understand why Niobe was so arrogantly proud of her children.
“If anything, Niobe herself looks better. Must be Zeus’s blood—her foundation seems solid. Unlike her sons, she even reacted to the arrows and glared back.”
Of course, her personality seemed hard to handle, and she was quite old. But compared to the gods, that was nothing.
Besides, couldn’t Chiron find a way to overcome things like personality or age?
Arrows were fired again.
This time, they flew toward Niobe’s seven daughters.
“It’s over. Time for me to leave.”
Though it was a shame, it wasn’t worth the hassle of getting involved. Just as Poseidon was about to walk away from the scene of Niobe receiving divine punishment—
Clang!
The sound of an arrow being deflected rang out.
“Hm?”
What Poseidon saw was a red-haired woman knocking away the arrows with her bare fists.
**”
After Niobe’s seven sons were struck down by arrows and killed,
Chloris—the eldest of her seven daughters—quickly gathered her younger sisters.
Having somewhat anticipated this outcome ever since her mother began acting so arrogantly, Chloris had always been prepared to rally her siblings at any moment.
Of course, her brothers had ignored her warnings, let their guard down, and all gone off to meet Hades. But they had inherited their mother’s extreme arrogance anyway.
That was probably why her relationship with them hadn’t been particularly good.
“Stay sharp, everyone. We’re facing an unprecedented crisis right now. It’s tragic that our brothers are gone, but we have to stay calm.”
Under Chloris’s command, her sisters quickly formed a defensive formation as soon as the incident began and managed to block the incoming arrows.
“Yes! That’s my daughters!! Hahaha, did you see that, Leto? If my daughters had caught Lord Zeus’s eye, there wouldn’t have been any place left for you!!”
‘She’s lost it.’
Chloris inwardly groaned at her mother, who now seemed completely insane.
In a situation where even groveling wouldn’t be enough, she was still spouting that nonsense.
Clang!
But Chloris had no energy left to stop her mother right now.
She was too busy desperately deflecting the arrows raining down.
Chloris could feel it—the arrows currently flying at them were toying with them.
‘Hunters playing with their prey. I can sense the intent that they could kill us anytime they want.’
Just as Chloris sensed the malice, Artemis and Apollo were currently perched above the clouds, looking down at her, evaluating, testing, and toying with her.
“Giving that arrogant Niobe a sliver of hope… then snatching it away. Perfect timing.”
“Still a shame, though. Judging by that talent, wasn’t this supposed to be the hero-training ground Father and Hera were thinking of? She seems like perfect material for the place they’re setting up to prepare against the Gigantes.”
“Tch! Artemis, since when did you get so soft? Back in the day, I would have been the one raging to kill her on the spot.”
“You think I’m you? Shut up, you who almost got your lower half chopped off. I’m only interested because big sister Athena is paying close attention to this plan too.”
But regardless of Artemis’s regretful evaluation, her arrows showed no mercy.
Clang!!
“Ugh!!”
“Sis, are you okay?!”
“What do we do?!”
“We have to support big sis as much as we can!”
The power behind the arrows she fired kept growing stronger.
As the force of the arrows intensified and their number increased, Chloris’s body began to tremble as if it could no longer endure; wounds started appearing one after another.
Even so, no one around her could do anything.
Those who had tried to help her had already been struck by arrows and met their end.
And Niobe, witnessing this entire horrific scene vividly right in front of her, had effectively gone mad.
No—perhaps she had already lost her mind the moment she lost her seven sons.
Because she had finally realized who the beings shooting arrows at her daughters and sons really were.
“Damn you, Leto! You don’t have the power yourself, so you’re using your children!!”
***
Poseidon quietly observed Chloris and the six princesses before reaching a conclusion.
“If I just take those kids, Chiron’s request will be a complete success. No matter how you look at it, all seven of them have talent.”
And among them, Chloris stood out the most.
“Alright then, let’s see… I need more detailed information. Hmm. He told me not to contact him so sternly, but there’s no helping it in a situation like this, right? This is exactly when you need Hecate.”
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
“Pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up.”
Under Poseidon’s persistent calls…
—Arghhh! Poseidon, stop pressing already!! I’m in the middle of something important!!
“Hey there, Hecate. How’ve you been?”
Hecate had no choice but to answer while grinding her teeth.
—One day I’m going to fry you in hellfire! You!!
“Haha, that sounds fun too. We can compare whose is stronger—my authority or Nyx’s hellfire.”
Just… look at how he talks.
If only she could block him, she would have done it a hundred times over. The only regret in her divine life was that she simply couldn’t do that to him.
—…Haaah. So what is it this time? I told you I was busy because of the witches’ assembly.
“Don’t lie. You’re not even a witch—what are you going there for? Or are you just going because you want to be treated as the origin of magic?”
—…Forget it. I don’t even want to explain anymore. Just get to the point. Talking to you gives me a headache.
“Oh? Shall we do that?”
Poseidon had only one purpose.
He wanted to know the extent of that girl named Chloris’s talent for magic.
In his eyes, her talent for martial combat was clear. But magic? That was a little lacking.
Her martial prowess was obvious from the lean yet exceptionally high-quality muscles and bones hidden beneath, and from the dynamic visual acuity that could track Apollo and Artemis’s arrows alone.
With Chiron’s training on top of that, he was curious just how far that body could go.
“But that kid… somehow she’s using magic with a body like that. I’m wondering if there’s a problem. It’s not normal for someone with a physique like hers to focus solely on magic, right? Or maybe her magical talent is overwhelmingly superior. Either way, take a look for me. I want to be sure before I take her.”
Hecate quickly grasped the current situation through Poseidon’s shared vision.
And she realized once again that Poseidon was about to jump into yet another bizarre mess.
Just the fact that Artemis and Apollo were visible up there was proof enough.
—Haa… You’ve already decided to take her no matter what, haven’t you? Fine, checking is simple. But if you jump into this mess, even with the human body you’re maintaining right now, things could spiral out of your control. You keep brushing it off, but those kids aren’t weak gods at all, you know.
“Yeah, I know. That’s exactly why I called you—to help handle the aftermath. Why else would I call? It’s just about her magical talent. Chiron can take care of the rest.”
—…….
Hecate was rendered speechless by Poseidon’s shamelessness.
She had expected it, but hearing it every time still left her at a loss for words.
If she hadn’t owed him favors and karma from the Titanomachy days…
—Haa… Fine. Finishing this quickly will be better for my mental health anyway.
With that, she turned her gaze to Chloris, who was currently struggling to deflect each arrow one by one.
Her conclusion came quickly.
—Her magical talent is terrible.
Chloris’s talent for magic was abysmal. Then how in the world was she using magic to block her siblings’ arrows?
—Simple. It’s similar to your case, Poseidon. Overwhelming instinct can sometimes manifest magic in the form of authority. In short… a little Poseidon? No, since she’s human—maybe a little Njord?
Poseidon didn’t even wait to hear the rest. He moved immediately.
That was enough information. More than anything, the reason he had called Hecate was so she could help clean up the mess afterward.
“So that’s how it is. Then… is she going to be even greater than the protagonist of that prophecy? I can’t really get a feel for it since she hasn’t been born yet, though.”
With those words, Poseidon shot away like an arrow.
Hecate, as if she had already anticipated it, muttered while delving even deeper into Chloris’s potential.
—Haa… I knew it would turn out like this. That’s exactly why I didn’t mention her talent in advance. Go ahead and get a taste of it yourself, Poseidon. You’re probably planning to immediately teach her [Hē Sidērā Cheir tou Basileōs (Ἡ Σιδηρᾶ Χεὶρ τοῦ Βασιλέως) — The Iron Hand of the King], but it’s not going to cast the way you expect.
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