Again? Already?
I left Hermes' temple.
The reason I'd accepted the quest was simple enough. It ran along the same line as what I already intended to do. If it hadn't, there would have been no reason to take it.
Come to think of it, even the quests that get handed to me are always exactly the things I need most in that moment.
I clicked my tongue.
Right before stepping out, I'd asked Hermes to pass along my regards to Aphrodite. He'd nodded that he understood and vanished on the spot.
The high priest? I hadn't even checked whether the man was still there. My focus had been far too valuable to waste on that.
So I just wander around slowly and wait, then?
Hands clasped behind my back, I set out into the streets. Odysseia's marketplace was still packed. People laughed and chattered everywhere. I watched them while window-shopping this and that.
Athens used to feel like this too, didn't it?
Odysseia, ruled by Poseidon. It was oddly amusing that the city of the Father of Monsters could brim with this much life.
Humans who stand hostile to monsters, yet revere Poseidon this deeply.
Was it because he was the god of the seacoast, rich in shipping lanes and food? Thinking of it that way, Poseidon was a true master of gaslighting—threatening people with monsters while making them utterly dependent on him at the same time.
No. The monsters of myth themselves were probably just humanity's fear of natural disasters given form.
Seen in that light, the reason heroes became objects of worship was ultimately the same. The gods put forward heroes who could be deified right before human eyes, all so those humans would keep worshipping them.
Even if the Status Window and that bastard Zeus had tangled me up with all sorts of gods and let me fuck goddesses… for ordinary humans this was a world where you might go your whole life without ever seeing a god's face once. To them, heroes looked even greater than the distant gods they were supposed to revere.
Overturning the structure of a world like this…
I stopped dead in the middle of the street and looked up at the sky. Even now Zeus would be watching me. Inside Odysseia he might not see clearly, but he would keep his eyes on me somehow. I never knew when or how he might strike. I could never afford to drop my guard.
"Well then."
I checked the time. The digital clock floating on the Status Window made it easy.
"Still got a little while. Shall I head over?"
My lingering steps turned toward the cabin. I opened the door and stepped inside, but no one was there. Hecate hadn't come home yet. Probably still busy with the favor I'd asked of her. Really, our teacher. She was far too kind.
"Wh-what is it!"
Right on cue, Hecate came staggering in from behind, arms full of every kind of object. Boxes were stacked higher than my head; she wobbled under the load. I hurriedly grabbed several and set them on the table.
Thud!
"Phew!"
Hecate began peeling open the packaging one by one, then looked up at me.
"I heard you took down the Minotaur, Homeron! You've been running all over the place—how do you feel?"
I smirked.
"Artemis was looking for me."
Hecate froze mid-motion, still holding up some bizarre horn and a clump of dried seaweed.
"Wh-what?"
She looked especially rattled.
"A-Artemis? Why in the world would that woman call for you?"
I shrugged.
"How should I know?"
Saying outright that the crazy psycho lesbian wanted to kill me on the spot wasn't exactly easy. So I deliberately danced around it.
"Maybe she just wants to give me a reward or something?"
Hecate's eyes sharpened into a glare.
"Don't even joke about that!"
She clenched both small fists and shouted at me.
"You have no idea how sharp that woman is! You don't know what she might do to you—what kind of treatment you might receive!"
Bang!
She slammed her palm on the table and jabbed a finger at me.
"Even I don't know!"
Wait.
What did she just say?
"What I might go through… what kind of treatment I might get…"
I took a step forward with each word. Hecate retreated the same distance.
"You're saying you don't even know what kind of person she is?"
"Th-that's right!"
She answered while trembling.
"Even I don't know, so how could you possibly know!"
I seized her wrist and kneaded it slowly. At the lewd motion her expression clouded just a little.
"And what about you, then?"
I closed the remaining distance. Hecate was now fully in position to be pulled into my arms.
"A goddess who got fucked by a human, yet you still run your mouth so freely?"
She furrowed her brow, trying to reclaim some scrap of teacherly dignity. To me she only looked adorable.
Whoosh!
"Hyaah!"
I grabbed both cheeks of her ass and yanked her into my chest. Her face went scarlet.
"Wh-what are you doing, Homeron!"
She thrashed in my arms.
"Let go this instant! How dare you treat your teacher so rudely…!"
"You're cute, Teacher."
"Wh-what!"
Her face flushed even deeper. She buried it hard against my abdomen, unable to lift her head. Moments like this were when she was cutest of all. I grinned.
"Chuuup."
"Nngh!"
One deep, lingering kiss and her struggling visibly weakened. Her fingertips twitched, yet she surrendered her weight to me completely. Smiling inwardly, I kept raining kisses on her while I held her.
Chuuup… chuk-chuk… chuuuup…
Under the continuous assault her body grew languid; she slowly leaned her full weight into me. I guided her straight to the bed. Hecate trembled as if she already half-expected what was coming. Every little reaction was so sensitive it was almost painfully cute. My cock was starting to ache.
Thud!
I laid her down and climbed over her slender frame. The size difference made me feel like a heavy, bear-like bulk pinning her. It wasn't quite that extreme, but the gap between us was close enough.
"Nngh! Hnnngh! Ahnnngh!"
Even while her legs flailed beneath me she clung desperately, grabbing hold and pushing her lips against mine with stubborn hunger.
"Puhaaap!"
Hazy eyes locked on me. She smiled foolishly even as she tried to sound stern.
"H-how dare you… treat your teacher so carelessly…"
Squelch♥
"You're this wet and still talking?"
"Hiiit!"
I slid a hand down her thigh. The moment my fingers brushed her entrance she shuddered and threw her head back, body arching as if climax were already cresting. She pressed herself tightly against me. I smiled and lowered my hand further, then crushed my heavy cock against the soft mound of her pussy and rubbed hard.
"Haaang! Aaang! Haat! Hat! Ahaaat!"
Hecate slapped at my shoulders with both hands, face lost and panting, but I didn't budge an inch. I kept her pinned.
"Nngh! Uhhnnngh! Hnnnngh!"
Her struggling gradually turned into fine tremors; she came a little, right there.
I eased back and looked down at her. Pupils unfocused, she smiled up at me with a dazed, silly expression.
"You come this easily and still lecture me about what I can't do?"
I groped her breasts while I asked.
"Try saying it again, Teacher."
"Haat! Haaaat♥ Ahnnngh!"
"Hm? Hmm?"
And right at that moment—
Aphrodite summons you.
An oracle descends from Aphrodite's Temple.
Ah…
Why did these things always show up with zero sense of timing the second I was with Hecate? Sure, I'd been waiting for the call, but this was still ridiculously tone-deaf.
"Ho… Homeron?"
Hecate called my name softly. I clicked my tongue and carefully pulled away.
"Sorry, Teacher."
"Wh-why?"
"Aphrodite is calling…"
Her face crumpled. I gently wiped the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes with a fingertip.
"It's all right. I'll come back."
"My mood just got ruined."
Hecate sulked, shoulders drooping, lips pushed out in a pout.
"Why is it always only me who gets treated like this…"
My mouth tasted bitter. I hadn't meant for it to keep happening this way either; it hurt.
"When I get back, let's go on a date. Just the two of us."
Only then did her expression brighten.
"Really?"
I nodded.
"Other times Mother or the other goddesses always got mixed in, right? This time it's only us."
"Y-you promise?"
She held out her pinky. I hooked mine around it and sealed the vow.
"I'll be back soon."
I left the cabin. The farther I walked, the fouler my mood became. Once again it felt like I was carelessly abandoning Hecate to go meet another woman—like I'd become Zeus, leaving a lonely wife alone while I wandered off. That only made me more irritated.
"Oh my, darling?"
"Because of you my goddess cried. Take responsibility."
"…?"
That was why I opened by snapping at the completely innocent Aphrodite the moment I arrived.