Chapter 160: The Calydonian Boar Hunt (2)
Exactly one year ago.
When Poseidon had just begun settling down in Calydon.
Artemis and Apollo were swallowing their rage.
More accurately, it would be correct to say Apollo was losing his mind in fury.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Apollo, if you’re still that angry, why don’t you just go back and fight him again? The older it gets, the more it feels like I’m raising a little brother instead of having an older one.”
“Argh! Artemis, this isn’t the time for that kind of talk! Aren’t you angry too?! That mage didn’t just disrespect you and me—he insulted Mother and Father as well!”
“Hmm. I don’t particularly feel that way. And even if I did, it doesn’t look like there’s anything you can actually do about it.”
At Artemis’s sharp words, Apollo—only growing more furious—indiscriminately fired arrows across his own hunting grounds.
Naturally, Artemis frowned at the sight, but she didn’t step in to stop him.
He’d tire himself out eventually and go chase after women anyway.
After several days of venting his rage in the hunting grounds, just as Artemis predicted, Apollo soon descended to the surface.
“Sigh… Little sister. This brother of yours still can’t forget the humiliation. I need to vent some more.”
“Yeah, sure. Do whatever you want.”
“Heh heh heh. Just wait, mage. First, I’ll show you me embracing a woman you could never even dream of touching.”
With those words, Apollo shot away like an arrow.
Artemis let out a deep sigh as she watched him vanish.
To think she shared blood with a god like that.
Perhaps because he was born later due to Hera’s wrath, something in his head had gone wrong.
“Whatever. That coward wouldn’t dare touch anyone connected to Lord Poseidon anyway. The one time he did, he beat him senseless.”
Artemis quickly lost interest in her increasingly foolish blood relative and began cleaning up the ruined hunting grounds.
If she left this place in such a state, the ones who would suffer most would be her own attendants.
“Honestly, it’s always been me doing all the work since ancient times. I should just cut ties already.”
With a single gesture from Artemis, the hunting grounds—which would have taken her attendants an entire day to restore—were instantly returned to perfect condition.
The hunting ground keepers, who had just arrived carrying various tools after hearing Apollo had left, were startled to see the spotless grounds and Artemis herself, and hurriedly ran over.
“Haaah! Lady Artemis. We could have handled this!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I can’t make you all suffer because of that idiot’s mess.”
““Thank you!!””
Artemis didn’t scold the late arrivals. She might be strict and prickly, but she wasn’t unreasonable.
“So… there’s a hunting festival in Calydon soon, right?”
Leaving the keepers behind and stepping out of the hunting grounds, Artemis asked her chief attendant Callisto—who had come to meet her—about the schedule.
Normally, Artemis spent her time hunting with the nymphs and elves who followed her, or practicing archery and similar activities.
But on very rare occasions, she had to show herself to humans.
“Yes. They’re holding a grand hunting competition in Calydon dedicated to you, Lady Artemis. The priests have requested that you personally select the winner.”
“Sigh… Fine. If it’s Calydon, I suppose I have to go. The founder there was my hunting ground keeper Calydon, wasn’t he? Something like that?”
“Yes. That’s exactly why both you and Lord Apollo personally blessed that place.”
“Right. Then I guess I have no choice but to go, even if it’s a hassle.”
And so, at the festival in Calydon, she met her fated counterpart…
“You! Why the hell am I here?!!”
“Ah… this is screwed.”
***
“Damn it… I really shouldn’t have participated in that tournament back then.”
Poseidon handed some of the plums he had bought to a nearby attendant and pressed his forehead while watching his nephew—who was doing nothing but eating.
That one casual decision to “just find a place to stay for now” had turned into…
“Hoho, why are you acting so gloomy as a man? Anyway, thanks to my help you got this nice house. If it weren’t for me back then, you wouldn’t even have a house—you’d just have a pile of gold coins.”
“…….”
Well… that part was true.
At the time, Poseidon hadn’t known, but Calydon was a city that prohibited non-citizens from owning property.
Of course, as the tournament winner, the prize money he received in lieu of a house had been quite substantial.
The problem was that Poseidon—forced to live here for several years—had planned to buy a house. That revelation had hit him like a bolt from the blue.
Normally, mages preferred houses that included their own personal workshops, making renting difficult.
Moreover, landlords were wary of mages.
Eccentric mages were notorious for secretly remodeling the interior of rented houses on a whim, setting traps, or simply fleeing when they got bored or offended—leaving the owners with ruined properties.
‘Ugh… because of those damn mages, I ended up like this.’
“…That’s why I’m letting you stay in this house. Without me, you’d get nothing.”
“Pfft~ What am I supposed to do about it? A man should repay kindness.”
“…You little—!”
“Pfft. Look at you shaking your fist. Born a man and can’t even throw a punch? Then why not just hit what’s hanging below instead?”
“You’re dead. Come here!!”
“Kehehehe! Try and catch me, you fool!”
Bang!
Sharp arrows suddenly materialized behind Poseidon and shot toward Artemis.
But Artemis wasn’t one to sit still either.
In an instant, she nocked an arrow to her bow and accurately intercepted every single one.
Then Poseidon’s staff clashed against Artemis’s dagger.
“How’s that? I had this new dagger specially made. Since you keep breaking all those with the weird staffs of yours, I had Hephaestus forge this one after you raided Apollo’s warehouse.”
“Hmph. Doesn’t matter. It’s nothing in front of my staff.”
Wooooong!
The weapons each of them held began resonating, and the sheer force of their clash started shattering nearby objects.
Callisto, watching the entire scene unfold, simply shook her head and quietly left the mansion.
She already knew the place would collapse again soon—she needed to speak with the builders in advance.
“How is it that not a single day passes without this happening? Sigh… maybe this time I really should commission Lord Hephaestus. How many houses have they destroyed already?”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Callisto let out another sigh as explosions echoed from behind her.
***
While Artemis and Poseidon—in his other identity as Njord—were “enjoying” (?) their time together,
Nearly five years passed. During that time, the Meleager whom Poseidon had only heard rumors about had grown splendidly.
As the legitimate son of King Oeneus, the boy had been educated by inviting many renowned figures from across the continent.
He absorbed and digested everything like a sponge. Above all, at just nineteen years old, he mastered the secret arts left behind by his ancestor Calydon—stunning the Calydon royal family, the nobility, and even Artemis’s own priests.
Having been promised honorable glory and blessings by the Fates themselves, Meleager had grown into a proper young hero and the rightful seed of a great king.
“So… do we really need to drag a kid like that to Chiron’s camp? I don’t really see the point.”
“…I’m not insisting on dragging him there. I just accepted the commission. I have no intention of forcing anything.”
***
Somewhere amid the rubble of the collapsed mansion, the sound of hot steam, the smell of rotten eggs, and the splash of water echoed.
The surrounding area looked as though a massive magical beast had rampaged through—ground collapsed, claw-like gashes torn into the earth, the entire place reduced to ruins.
Yet the two of them sat facing each other as if nothing were wrong, calmly enjoying an open-air hot spring bath.
Their conversation remained as sharp and hostile as ever.
“Tsk… If I hadn’t been caught back then, I could’ve enjoyed this alone.”
“You’re a grown man and yet you act so petty. And bathing in a hot spring with a woman of my caliber is practically a reward, you know.”
“Hmph! So the one who turns people into deer and kills them just for seeing her naked is saying that?”
“Ugh—that was because that damn bastard tried to assault me!”
“Hmm. I heard the rumor was that he just stood there stunned because you were too beautiful.”
“…You want another arrow up your backside, don’t you?”
“Ahaha, then does the goddess want to strip naked in front of everyone here?”
As the spark between Njord and Artemis threatened to ignite once again in the hot spring, Callisto—who had just arrived with the builders—let out a deep sigh.
One was a goddess, the other a mage who had reached the pinnacle of the art. What in the world were they doing?
“Sigh… Why don’t the two of you just enjoy the hot spring? Are you really going to fight again?”
“Callisto! It’s not like that. This swindler of a mage insulted me!”
“L-L-Lady Callisto, I’m the victim here! That hysteric old maid is the one tormenting me!”
Callisto simply shook her head at their familiar excuses and ignored them. Getting involved in this only ever gave her a headache.
“More importantly, since the builders have arrived, I recommend moving your bathing spot.”
“Huh? Oh, right. Hey, mage—move it. Now.”
“Sigh… This ancient virgin goddess is something else. I’m only doing this because Callisto asked.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“…….”
Njord’s fist trembled at the sight of his annoying nephew’s smug expression, but he held back.
He couldn’t reveal himself over something this petty.
‘I’ll get you later!’
Even as he seethed at that infuriating face, Njord’s power remained undiminished.
With a casual gesture, the hot spring water that had welled up from underground surged upward like a dragon ascending, carrying Artemis and Njord away to a cave deep in the forest.
“Mmm… This place really is the best. Soaking in a hot spring while breathing in the scent of the forest…”
Artemis, now in her private cave within the Calydon woods, looked utterly content—her expression as relaxed and pleased as a cat baking bread.
But Njord wasn’t fooled by that face for a second.
She was perfectly capable of launching a sudden attack at any moment—that was just how Artemis was.
“So… why the sudden interest in Meleager? You never showed any before. Did you fall for his face or something?”
“Crazy bastard. You think I’d fall for some brat like that? My ideal type is someone younger than me—and strong enough to match me blow for blow.”
“Tsk tsk. You’re going to die an old maid.”
“…Haaah. Fine. You’ve always been rude—I’m used to it. But getting to the point: the reason I asked is that I’m thinking of training that boy myself.”
Njord’s eyes widened at Artemis’s words.
Artemis teaching someone? That was about as likely as Hera turning a blind eye to Zeus’s affairs.
“Why on earth would you… Are you planning to kill someone again?”
“Shut up. Don’t talk—just listen. In all my life, I’ve never seen anyone with talent like his. That boy has every quality a hunter should possess.”
Njord tilted his head, turning Artemis’s words over in his mind.
Meleager was that good? But wasn’t he the one who ended up killed by his own mother?
Unaware of Njord’s thoughts, Artemis continued her lavish praise without pause.
“He has excellent eyesight, strength, elastic muscles, and flexibility. And his mind is sharp too—he never forgets anything he’s seen even once. Observation and memory like that are perfect for a hunter. On top of that, he instinctively learned how to conceal his presence without anyone teaching him. I was stunned when I saw him playing hide-and-seek.”
“…….”
Njord felt something off about Artemis’s compliments and cocked his head.
But… aside from mages, weren’t those exactly the kinds of talents most useful for anyone who fights with their body? Did it have to be an archer?
The question tickled the back of his throat, but he didn’t voice it.
Artemis already seemed completely convinced.
‘Well… whatever. Atropos only asked me to keep an eye on him. It doesn’t matter who he ends up under. But… my memory’s fuzzy, but wasn’t there already a hero under Artemis who became just as famous as Meleager? I think something happens here in Calydon that makes them famous…?’
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[1] The Regressor Who Turns Trash Martial Arts into Divine Techniques
[2] I Descended as the Iron-Blooded All-Master
[3] The Female Employees I Couldn't Eat
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