The Incongruous Boy God
Another peaceful day on Lemnos Island. The pirates had already pocketed the day's take.
"Woohoo! Feast your eyes on the gold I hauled in!!"
"With this much, we can drink and whore till we drop, yeah?!"
It was a tax levied, in the sacred name of the pirate code, upon smugglers who had not even bothered to offer sacrifice to Lord Oceanus, god of the sea. Business conducted upon the water owed one share in ten to Oceanus. Everything else belonged to the pirates.
"Books are closed, so let's go have some fu—"
They could have sworn it by Lord Oceanus himself. Another day of good and sacred labor—piracy—was finished, the accounts were settled, and they were just about to drift back to their own corners when it happened.
"...The hell is that noise...?"
"The sky! The sky!!"
"That thing..."
Something was falling out of the heavens. Look closer, and it was a boy wrapped in flame.
"W-waaaaah!!"
"Run!!"
—KRA-KOOM!!
A man, dropped from the sky. No—could anyone who plunged out of the heavens wreathed in fire still be called a man? A god, surely. Or someone bound up with the gods. The pirates of Lemnos shook where they stood.
What lay in the vast crater was a boy still wrapped in flame. He rose without hurry and addressed the pirates staring down at him with perfect ease.
"......."
"And if it isn't too much trouble, mind sparing me something to eat?!"
Faced with a declaration that brazen, the pirates had no choice but to meekly offer up whatever food they had on them.
"So... you're Lord Hephaestus? And you used to live in some other world...?"
"Yeah."
He answered as if it were nothing, working through a piece of pashimadi—a hard, dry barley rusk—and a bowl of fish soup. Just as he had told them, he had come to his senses already falling out of the sky. Strip away the memories of his previous life, and all he knew was a name, Hephaestus, and the fact that he was a god who held authority over fire, volcanoes, and creation.
"Th-then, seeing as you fell from the sky... you were on Olympus, weren't you?"
"Probably? It depends on the version of the Greek myths, but Hephaestus gets thrown out of Olympus and crashes to the earth."
"Version... sir?"
"It's myth, isn't it? The story changes a little depending on who's writing it. In one version, Zeus and Hera are arguing and Zeus shoves him off."
The usual telling has Hera unable to stand the ugliness of a son she bore alone, and casting him away. The pirates who heard the explanation looked at him the way one looks at someone truly pitiful.
"...Our condolences."
"Hm? Nah, forget it. I don't really think of those two as my parents anyway. I told you. No dad, no mom. And maybe it's because I woke up to a past life, but I don't have any hard feelings toward Hera in particular."
"Even so... you were thrown away the moment you were born."
"Is your goal to return to Olympus?"
"No. I'm not especially attached to Olympus. More importantly, the food was good."
"Ah. Yes, sir."
"A god freeloading doesn't sit right, and that's gold, isn't it?"
"Sir? Y-yes."
"Hand it over. Oh, and bring me a hammer and a chisel while you're at it."
"Yes, sir."
The pirates returned with scraps of gold, a hammer, and a chisel. Days of falling had given him a rough sense of how to use the authority and power he possessed. Put that to work, and he could raise the value of this lump of gold considerably.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Each time his authority over fire and creation took hold, the metal grew into a more precise sculpture.
"Ooooh...!!"
"Incredible. No, how did you even— but what in the world is this?"
"An eagle. Symbol of victory and of the strong."
"Then why is the eagle holding a bat..."
"Because it's the symbol of victory and of the strong. A work that grants inner peace merely by being owned. It'll sell for a fortune."
He had made them the mascot of the team he used to cheer for in his past life. A truly mighty team, one that shook down anyone foolish enough to challenge it. A team so great it turned even its own fans into saints. Recalling them, he raised a golden monument here.
"Mind if I keep the leftover scraps?"
"Oh, heavens. Of course. By all means."
He gathered the gold filings left over from the golden eagle and melted them down, and a single ingot took shape. He held it out to the pirates.
"Then take this and buy me some minerals, will you? Iron ore, and whatever else you can find."
"Understood. Ah. And, um. Lord Hephaestus."
"Hm?"
"This golden eagle... would it be all right to offer it to another god?"
"Go ahead."
Ownership had already changed hands. Whether they offered the thing to some other god or sold it off was none of his business.
"Good heavens..."
"To be so merciful...!!"
"O god!! May we become worshippers of Lord Hephaestus?"
"Huh? Out of nowhere?"
"Yes. Well. How should I put this... honestly, a god like you, Lord Hephaestus, is a first for us as well."
The man who seemed to be the pirate captain, a fellow buried in beard, bowed and scraped.
"You took our gold and made it worth even more, didn't you?"
And when they had asked whether they might offer it to another god, the cool nod he had given them seemed to have shaken something loose in their hearts.
"It's nothing to make a fuss over."
"The other gods are never like this. The Titan gods, especially..."
"Ah."
Well, fair enough. This was the world of Greek myth, where the old romance was still breathing. Set him beside gods whose humanity had completely blown out, and he really was a generous one. He could have simply taken the gold, and they would not have been able to say a word. Do even this much, and he would be filed under benevolent deity.
"I'm not exactly a god with a fearsome name, though. I was barely just born. You sure about this?"
"Yes. Of course we are."
"If that's how it is. Still, you're my worshippers in name, at least, so let's not do anything where your humanity's completely shot."
"Where our humanity's... shot?"
"You know. Don't go grabbing pregnant women, slicing their bellies open, and offering the babies inside as sacrifices, that sort of thing..."
"......."
The pirates stared at him, looking faintly ill. Oh. Not that far, then?
After the pirates had gone, he turned it over. Truth be told, he did not know Greek myth very well. The extent of his knowledge was secondhand fanworks in which Zeus showed up as some pint-sized little-girl character.
"Hmm..."
Whether this was a reincarnation or a slide into some parallel world, he could not say for certain. What he could not deny was that this was a reality built on the backdrop of Greek myth.
"Then I suppose I have to live."
To survive in this romantic world of myth, he needed to make a domain of his own. Instinct was telling him so. Make your domain. And there unfold your authority.
"I hear an interesting god has descended. Would that be you?"
He had been watching the night sky and letting the thought run on when a beautiful voice reached him. He rose slowly and found a beauty walking up from the shore.
"A god?"
"Yes. I am called Eurynome. Daughter of Oceanus, god of the sea, and Tethys, goddess of the sea."
The beauty was smiling as if the whole world delighted her, and everything on her body looked expensive at a glance.
"Oh my. Young god. You look as though you've fallen headlong into my charms."
Heh heh heh. To the woman smiling with such elegant, languid grace, he answered without a shred of shame.
"If it isn't rude of me, would you please build me a single forge?"
"...H-huh?"
The flustered goddess's face went stiff.
"Young god. Will this do?"
Lady Eurynome—no, the goddess—who had introduced herself as the daughter of Oceanus, god of the sea, and of Tethys, was every bit as rich as expected. Her influence on Lemnos Island was nothing to sneeze at either. Thanks to that, a forge came together easily.
Of course, he could not be satisfied with it. A modern sensibility was already screaming, This is supposed to be a forge...? Even so, he did possess a modern person's manners and common sense. He could hardly look the woman who had just arranged it for him in the eye and ask, Is this really your best? Truly?
"Yes. Thank you. You've helped me, so I ought to repay you."
"Mmm. I only did it for a young god who has come to live nearby..."
"Does your lower back hurt when you sit these days?"
"Wh-what?"
"Your legs seem a little numb, too. You live in the sea, don't you? Gets a chill sometimes, doesn't it?"
"That..."
Eurynome hesitated, then nodded. Good. Then he would make it. He called on a smith-god's authority at once and took up the hammer. He smelted ore into a frame, then mixed his authority with the materials and packed them in. And... imitating a god's authority any further would be dangerous, so any more detailed explanation will be omitted.
"Ta-da. Finished."
"What... is this?"
"A chair."
"A chair?"
The reason Eurynome had set foot on Lemnos Island at all was a story she had heard from pirates met upon the sea. One of them had offered a sacred gift to the waters: a golden eagle, wrought of gold. So fine and so beautiful that even wealthy Eurynome could not often have seen its like, precious beyond easy looking. The pirates had said the one who made the image seemed to be a god exiled from Olympus. A young god who had declared, of his own mouth, that he had neither father nor mother. Pitying that, she had come to see him herself, and found a peculiar child.
A boy god who held fire, the volcano, and some authority she could not name. The sheer nerve of demanding a forge at first meeting was, to her, immensely pleasing in a god.
"Ah. Um. Are you giving this to me?"
What he had shown her was a talent every bit as remarkable as his slick tongue and his brazenness. An authority so mighty, and so alien, that it startled even a goddess.
This is... the authority of Creation. But is something like this really a proper gift for a goddess?
As a rule, the offerings laid before a goddess were beautiful ornaments, fine garments, things of that sort. What he held out was a chair. No jewel for decoration, only a crude thing of a strange shape.
"It's built on an ergonomic design, so your back should be comfortable."
"Let me just..."
Eurynome eased her ample hips down onto the chair. It was, without question...
Comfortable. And... warm.
"It's got the eung-tteu option built in. A seat warmer. Oh, and when it's hot you can switch on the eung-cha option too, the seat cooler, so don't worry."
Eung-tteu? Eung-cha? He was saying things that were difficult to follow. But it was certainly warm. She had sat in chairs for a very long time, as a goddess, and never once felt a comfort like this.
"Mmm..."
Languor spread through her, and ease settled over her whole body. Eurynome looked at the boy god, who was smiling with perfect confidence. To think he would make her a chair this fine. Building the forge had been worth it. More than that...
That child. He seems to be taking pleasure in the making itself.
Then perhaps she ought to bring him more materials. If she did, might he forget the sorrow of having been cast off by his parents? Thinking so, Eurynome surrendered herself to the comfort coming over her and closed her eyes.
And when she opened them—
"Oh. Oh my."
"Did you sleep well? You must have been very tired. You were even snoring a little."
"Nngh... y-you mustn't say such things to a lady...."
Eurynome looked around, flustered.
"Ah, um. This is that forge from before, isn't it?"
"Yes. Though a full day has passed, so 'before' is stretching it."
"It didn't look like this."
"I remodeled it a bit."
Around the boy god, who said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, the place looked a considerable distance from the forge she had seen before she fell asleep.
"What... did you make?"
"I tried remodeling it into the shape of the laboratory from my past life. It isn't perfect. I was short on materials."
Every bit as uncanny as that mysterious authority, the boy god was strange past anything Eurynome could understand.