The Girl Who Loved the Black Horse (8)

Back at the temple, I cooled my head and replayed the scene I'd just witnessed. The girl who'd come to watch the trial leading a massive black horse. After our encounter in the forest, she hadn't shown her face for days, so I'd figured she'd gone home. I never imagined she'd show up in Argos the moment she finished giving birth.

What do I do? I went and made a huge mess without even realizing it.

As the days went by, temple busywork piled up and kept me running. Even so, night walks with Atalante had become our routine. Flying under the open sky wiped out the day's fatigue, so we went out fairly often. I'd been trying to keep to my usual schedule—running experiments on the land I'd borrowed from the dryads—when I ran into Achilles.

I figured the descendants of heroes didn't have to be men, but still…

Later, listening to the nymphs, I learned they'd held a grudge because my experiments stank, and that was why they'd introduced me to Achilles. At the time I'd been flustered, and both of us had been seeing red over our injured little sisters and mothers, so…

…In the end, that's just an excuse. The fact that she came all the way here means she came looking for me, doesn't it?

Between Tetis's fury and everything else, I never got to hear the rest of the story. Why Achilles had come this far in the first place had seemed like an important piece of it, too.

"Hrmmm…"

I scratched my chin with a face full of worry. Atalante came trotting over, blonde hair bouncing. I'd been spacing out in the back garden because it was about time for a break, but my little sister still had energy to spare for her age. She kept studying my expression, then tilted her head.

"Did something happen with her? You didn't come back all night, and even after you did, you've been wearing that face the whole time."

"Something did, but it's not exactly a story I can tell you…"

Atalante must have spotted her near the plaza too, because she launched into a proud report about how huge the black horse had gotten. That black horse was my son, which made her his aunt—something I absolutely could not say out loud. I could only force my gaze elsewhere.

"I'm fine. From what I heard, I was partly at fault for shooting that arrow too. So if you're fretting over a fight, wouldn't it be better to just make up already?"

"Why are you such a good kid?"

"I'm not as good as you, big brother!"

"You rate me way too highly."

Sadly, your big brother has already graduated from one of the required courses for Greek heroes. Rape wasn't enough—judging by the circumstances, I was definitely the one who got her pregnant with that black horse. Honestly, I'd crossed the line and then some.

"I'm not fretting over a fight. There's no grudge left over from that."

"Really? Oh, right. Up until a little while ago, she was hanging around near here."

"…For real?"

"It was dark, so maybe that's why she didn't recognize me—she just walked right past. But she must remember you, because she was asking the attendants where you were."

"Oops…"

I stamped my foot at the bad news. Atalante finally seemed to give up on understanding my state of mind. Big brother's smarter than me, so he'll figure it out somehow, she decided, and trotted off into the temple. She was a sharp little sister, but right now I desperately wanted to tell her her prediction was wrong.

Ha. Damn it.

Should I just run away to the Underworld?

I was seriously entertaining that ridiculous idea when Danae came toward me, her full chest swaying, as if swapping places with Atalante. Of all the people I least wanted to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠see in this situation, she ranked near the top.

"Perseus, what's wrong? Does the wound still hurt?"

"No. It's… it's not that…"

I had no idea what to say.

Mentally she wasn't even my real mother, and we'd already been intimate, which made it worse.

"It's just… if I ever had a grandson… I was wondering if you'd… be happy about it…"

"Out of nowhere?"

I'd misspoken in a way that wasn't like me at all, but luckily Danae only looked puzzled. Come to think of it, I was in kid mode right now, not adult form, so of course she would.

"I can't show our relationship in public, so I could never carry your child."

"I know that… it's just a what-if…"

"Honestly. You're far too young to be talking about marriage. You're not even a girl, and look at you fretting over the strangest things."

In an age when girls got married off in their teens while men didn't start looking for wives until their thirties, Danae's words were perfectly reasonable. Why was she so rational about this when she turned into a beast the moment we had sex?

"I don't know why you're so worried, but… hmm. If you do marry, I'd prefer a demure girl. You know how much of a handful Atalante is. I always wanted a quiet daughter, so if the girl who married into the family were that type, I'd feel at ease."

Oh no.

An ahahahahaha!!! rang in my ears. Not Danae's laugh—the howl Achilles had let out while staring me down that day. I'd tried desperately to put a positive spin on it, but Achilles was not the kind of girl Danae wanted. She was the type to snap and burst out laughing mid-crisis, a warrior woman the word "battle maniac" fit perfectly.

"Ah, right. I don't know if Atalante mentioned it, but a guest was looking for you earlier. I've put her in a guest room, so go see her as soon as you're done resting."

"A guest…?"

"She said she was a hero's descendant, just like you. I couldn't very well treat her rudely, and she looked exhausted, so I told her to rest a bit."

At that, I slapped my forehead. So Achilles had driven the spike home after all. Not just hanging around—she'd outright claimed a room. She'd definitely come to have words with me. Danae left with that, and I ended up pacing the back garden until I steeled myself. If I couldn't run, I might as well face her head-on.

Strike while the iron's hot… time to go…

Before going in, I wiped the sweat from my brow and fixed my expression into the same calm I wore during trials. Then I heaved myself up—and heard a sound from the back garden that absolutely should not have been there.

Clop clop clop—?

Clop… clop…?

Why were there horse hooves here…?

"Oh! Found you!"

"———!"

A woman's voice from behind made my face crumple hard. Of course it did—Achilles, who was supposedly in a guest room, came charging at me with black hair streaming, racing around the Acropolis back garden with her son.

"Hup! So you're Perseus!"

"And you must be Achilles. I've heard plenty of rumors."

"Oh, really?"

Judging by her manner, she wasn't sure I was Epitropus yet, so she started with introductions. The black horse's eyes lit up the moment it saw me, which was ominous, but I forced myself to ignore it.

"I heard you claimed the name Achilles fair and square after dueling under your childhood name at Troy. And that since then you've been traveling the land, driving out foreign enemies."

"You know your stuff! I've heard about you too! At first I was half-skeptical—I even laughed at the people spreading the rumors—but they weren't wrong!"

I was curious what people said about me out there, but I didn't pounce on the topic. While she talked, the black horse shoved its head at me out of nowhere; I stroked it absently and laid out the rumors I'd gathered about her. Of course, I'd scrambled to collect them after violating her and rushing back to Argos, so some of it was wrong—and she corrected those parts herself.

"So what brings you here? As you can see, this is an ordinary temple, nothing to do with fighting. For someone who came just to check on my reputation, you've come rather deep into the grounds. I worry."

"Ah~! About that!"

Achilles pulled the gear she'd strapped to the black horse's back. A spear and shield, wrecked from our fight. She claimed she'd "broken them on the way here" and demanded Styx Water to coat a new spear and shield.

"Styx Water?"

"I know it's important and hard to give away, but I really need it."

Only then did I realize she hadn't come because she knew who I was—she'd come looking for me to repair her gear.

"I don't need much. Just this much would be plenty."

Weapons that had stabbed my Styx-Water-coated body multiple times without issue—I'd wondered if there was something special about them. Turns out the spear itself had been forged with Styx Water. I'd felt it when I kicked her at the end: ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her own hardness hadn't lagged behind mine, so she must have been dipped in the River Styx like the original Achilles. In that sense, Styx Water was something with a special connection to her.

"I have plenty, so giving you some is no problem. But where do you plan to have it reforged? A hero's spear is beyond what an ordinary smith can make…"

"Ah—? Aaaah, you don't know? Every hero's descendant should know this."

"Know what?"

"The weapons we use can't hold up if ordinary people make them. So we go to Mount Olympus and use what Hephaestus's descendants forge for us."

First I'd heard of it.

More than that—Hephaestus had descendants?

In the myths he'd tried to force himself on Athena, so…

"I'm still young, so no one really explained weapons to me. And I heard those two don't get along, so I assumed there were no children…"

"Yeah? The descendants of Hephaestus and Aphrodite settled at the foot of Mount Olympus a long time ago. I heard Aphrodite was living so much like a prostitute that they had kids as a formality—and the results are something else. Every man who inherited Hephaestus's blood thickly is ugly and got the blacksmith's talent, and every woman who inherited Aphrodite's blood is beautiful but so naturally lewd they can't even be let off the mountain."

"Huh… is that so…"

I'd assumed this era was nothing but heroes' descendants lined up end to end, but I'd learned something unexpected. Changes beyond the stories I knew—it was starting to feel properly fantastical.

"Hrmmm~? Heh-heh…"

While I was turning over this new information, Achilles's sly face pushed right up to my nose. She snickered like a mischievous kid, slung an arm around my shoulders, and whispered something that felt exactly like a big sister making a wicked proposal to her little brother.

"You're at the age where you're interested in weapons, right? If you give me just a little Styx Water, I can guide you there. The road's rough enough that a first-timer would get lost, but with me you'd get in easy."

"I don't think I'm old enough to take up a weapon yet."

"Really?"

"As you can see, I'm still young… Mother would worry…"

"Heh—? That's weird."

"…………"

The atmosphere flipped. Achilles's eyes went sharp, and my body hardened to match without thinking. We eyed each other, wondering what had just happened, until the words that finally came out were more than enough to send a chill down my spine.

"For a little kid, you sure knew how to violate a screaming woman. Are you really a child? Doesn't that sound funny even to you?"

"………ssssss."

I couldn't place where she'd stepped on my tail, but Achilles's laugh wouldn't leave my ears. I'd been careful to keep the child's form the whole time, as far as I remembered.

"When did you figure it out?"

"The second I put my arm around your shoulders."

"The arm around my shoulders?"

"You know, right? People who've been dipped in Styx Water have ridiculously hard skin. So there's a lot you don't notice. Like your shoulder right now."

I looked closely at where Achilles was gripping my shoulder. Her nails were digging in hard, stabbing my skin—and not a single mark. I hadn't even noticed I was under attack. That must have been her proof.

She's been living with the water far longer than I have, so the gap showed there…

The fact that I even had Styx Water was practically a giveaway to her, so it wasn't strange. Repairing the gear had been secondary; figuring out my identity had come first. Getting played was my own fault. This huge black horse had been shoving its head at me from the start, as if it already knew who I was—for Achilles, that must have been the biggest piece of evidence of all.

"Shall we introduce ourselves again? My beloved?"

"……Beloved?"

"You're my first love."

"Hahh…"

Watching me sigh, Achilles must have decided she'd finally landed a hit, because her face went smugly, irritatingly sly. Still, the fact remained that I'd hurt this woman, and the fault was overwhelmingly mine, so I quietly nodded.

"I'm Achilles. The woman who went into the forest and locked eyes with you. I travel with Mother Tetis, serving her. I took on the heroic name the way you said earlier—I dueled a lot of heroes at Troy, won, and claimed it fair and square."

"I'm Perseus the Second. My father received the name of Perses, and my mother received the name of Danae. Our house has preserved the bloodline of the original Perseus, and among us I alone was permitted to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠claim the ancestor's name, so I'm called Perseus the Second."

"Yeah, I know that much. More importantly—how old are you actually? You're not some old man, are you?"

"Surprisingly, I'm exactly what you see right now. Young, right?"

"………Wait! Wait wait wait!!! Don't tell me—I got raped by a kid?! For real?!"

"Pretty much."

Achilles broke out in a cold sweat at that. Figuring no one was watching, I expanded my body and became an adult on the spot. She must have seen me take flight in this form, because she started making a huge fuss—"This is what I saw!"

"What do I do… I didn't think you were that young… D-d-don't tell me I've become a worse woman than the greats in the myths…?!"

"That's my line. Who would've thought I'd end up with a kid at this age?"

Same as me, Achilles realized she'd ended up with a shattered family like the heroes of myth and spiraled into panic. Whether it knew or not, my still-nameless child shoved its head at us and blew a snorting breath through its nostrils. I understood it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was happy to see its father, but in the current situation the gesture only piled more unspeakable agony onto us.

"Hey… isn't it a good thing if the other person is young…?"

"“…………”"

And right then, Tetis popped out of nowhere with that terrifying line.

Was it because she was a figure out of myth?

The generational gap between her and Achilles hit with a weight that was hard to ignore.