The Story of Pluto's Temple - (3)
In the end, we reached a reasonable compromise.
“The goddess beside you is Lady Lethe, who governs the River of Forgetfulness, and the one who rules the River Styx is…”
“So does that mean Lord Pluto married both of them?”
“The Goddess Styx we swear oaths by on the river…”
The statues of Goddess Lethe and Goddess Styx stood beside my own in the temple. The two goddesses gazed at them with open satisfaction.
“Mhm. This is exactly how it should be. We even have a child together—how could you possibly leave me out? From now on you must always include me as well…”
“Styx… what child? If we’re counting that way, the child between Hades and Hephaestus would be the Bident…”
“Tsk! Do not speak of the weapon that tormented Kynee!”
How on earth had it come to this? Was the culprit Lethe, who had bragged to everyone that her statue had been erected beside mine? Or was it Styx, who had pleaded with tearful eyes that she could not possibly be left out after hearing the news?
And Kynee is mine, thank you very much. Even that was not the end of it.
“This person is Lord Morpheus…?”
“Gasp! Why is there a statue of God Thanatos?”
“So you’re saying all these gods actually reside in the Underworld?”
Yes. Eventually the other gods demanded statues of their own. Thanatos had approached with suspicious little coughs, Hypnos had dropped hints that humans sometimes failed to recognize him, and so on.
“No, this is simply too many…”
“Th-that one must be the… the goddesses of v-vengeance…!”
Indeed, we had even made statues for the Erinyes. Their reactions were so intense that the humans seemed genuinely delighted. The mortals, whose eyes had been stolen by the countless divine images filling what was clearly my temple, finally regained their senses. One by one they knelt and began to pray.
“Uh… um… let’s offer our prayers for now.”
“If I pray to the Goddess of Forgetfulness, will my painful memories disappear?”
Still, I never expected so many believers to gather. I should have used this method sooner to extend my influence on the surface.
After a long, busy day of devotees coming and going at the temple from dawn until dusk…
O Lord Hades, there was no tale of the monster called Gigas today either.
Parona, the high priestess of my temple, finished her daily duties and offered her prayer. The dark circles under her eyes had grown noticeably heavier from the sharply increased workload. It was rather pitiful to see.
She had to examine candidates hoping to become priests of Pluto, direct the personnel sent by the royal family according to my oracle, handle sacrifices, and more. The tasks heaped upon her were truly numerous. Since my temple had originally possessed only a single priest, it was only natural that such a heavy burden would fall on her shoulders.
Parona finished her prayer and collapsed onto the bed as though her strings had been cut.
“Huu… Today was exhausting too…”
Still, a priest who offered direct faith to me could serve as a medium for my intervention in the mortal realm. I quietly sent power through the connection to ease her fatigue.
Through the invisible thread of faith linking Parona and myself, vitality flowed.
“Ah… the tiredness is fading… Thank you, Lord Hades.”
Work hard again tomorrow and bring me information regarding the Gigantes.
The following day, the God Hermes visited the Underworld.
“The messenger of all, Hermes, has arrived, Uncle!”
Had he come to report what measures Olympus was taking against the Gigantes?
With a bright, lively expression, he reached into his robes and produced a rolled parchment.
“Most of the Olympian gods gathered for a meeting. Father wore a grave face the entire time.”
The gods had been summoned upon learning that a Gigantes—something that could become a serious threat—had appeared. They discussed the possibility of another war and the idea of issuing an oracle commanding humans to locate the creature. Poseidon, ruler of the sea, ordered his subjects to scour every coastline and riverbank. Hundreds of eagles under Zeus’s command searched the world from above. The nature god Pan and many others combed the land, yet…
“Not a single trace of the monster called Gigantes was found. I ran until my sandals gave out…”
Wait—sandals could get tired? Hephaestus’s inventions truly defied understanding. I glanced at the winged sandals Hermes still wore on his feet.
According to him, the Goddess of Wisdom Athena’s analysis suggested the Gigantes slain by Cadmus had most likely acted alone. However, there was also the possibility that Gaia had sent it to test the gods’ state of alertness and their reactions.
“If Lord Poseidon and Lady Demeter overturn the earth itself, the creatures would surely emerge… but the lives of humans would…”
The reason we would be at a disadvantage in any battle against the Gigantes.
“That does seem to be the problem. We have things we must protect.”
“You are correct. The situation is entirely different from the Titanomachy that occurred before you were born.”
The war against the Titans had been a total war in which opposing divine factions simply clashed with all their strength. Now, however, we had living beings—humans—to protect.
One might argue that humans who died in the conflict could simply be remade, but the gods who had already grown attached to this world could no longer make such cold decisions so easily. Many of them, like Cadmus and Harmonia, loved humans. Zeus alone had fathered countless children with mortal women. Even setting that aside, it was difficult to ignore those who prayed to them and offered sincere faith every day.
Punishing a single village or one nation was one thing, but erasing the entire surface was another matter entirely.
“For now, orders have been given to the nymphs and lesser gods. They are to contact us the instant a Gigantes is discovered.”
Apollo had also delivered an oracle at the Delphi temple, warning humans of the dangerous monster’s existence. The other gods had taken whatever measures they could.
“Then I shall take my leave! I still need to stop by Lady Demeter’s domain!”
“Until next time.”
O God Hades, please bestow your grace upon the new priests.
As soon as Hermes departed, I heard Parona calling to me from the surface. Inside the temple, several people dressed in black robes knelt before her. It seemed the high priestess had selected new devotees to assist her.
When they all bowed their heads and clasped their hands together, I felt the pure, sincere faith flowing toward me. Good. They had been chosen well. Anyone merely pretending to pray or faking belief would have been obvious to me at once.
“Thank you…”
“Ohh… this is…!”
“Does this mean you acknowledge us as priests?”
Black divine power coiled around their bodies, sharing fragments of strength. It would lessen minor ailments and allow Parona or myself to know immediately should any priest perish. I had also granted them a portion of the blessing of wealth, so they would not fall too far behind the priests of other gods—especially the followers of Dionysus now spreading from Thebes.
Gathering believers in Thebes, where my nephew had already established his influence, felt strangely like intruding on a child’s playground.
Semele, daughter of Thebes’ great hero Cadmus and Harmonia, had given birth to the demigod Dionysus by Zeus. He eventually rose to become one of the Twelve Olympians. Although every throne among the twelve already had an owner at the time, Hestia—the greatest benevolent deity of Olympus—voluntarily yielded her golden seat to him.
The problem was that, during his ascension, Dionysus repaid even the slightest rudeness from humans several times over. Still, one could hardly demand gentleness from the God of Wine and Madness, so there was little to be done.
I still remembered the Theban king Pentheus, who had incurred my nephew’s displeasure and met his death. When he arrived in the Underworld…
“I am truly wronged, Lord Hades! I only did what was necessary for the citizens of Thebes against him…”
“….Yes. For now, drink a little more water from the River Lethe and then speak.”
“Uwaaaaah! Mother!! Lord Dionysus!!!”
Pentheus, slain by his own mother driven mad, carried such tremendous resentment that even after crossing the River Lethe he retained every memory. It was heartbreaking to watch him scream as though infected by Dionysus’s own madness. Even Thanatos, who had escorted him, wore a bitter expression.
“In moderation… do everything in moderation. Ordinary humans cannot endure your madness.”
“….Since Uncle Hades advises it, I shall be careful.”
Having spoken those words, he would probably restrain himself somewhat. Still, could the God of Madness truly suppress his own nature? Even as I warned him, I honestly doubted it.
“Hades…!”
“What is it?”
While I continued observing the surface, Goddess Lethe called out to me this time. Her lovely face showed clear embarrassment and worry.
“I bestowed blessings on the believers, but… I think I made a mistake…!”
Because my statue stood together with hers and Styx’s, many humans had begun to assume the three of us were married. As a result, when they prayed to me they also prayed to the goddesses’ statues beside mine…
“There were quite a few devotees asking me to erase painful memories, so I erased just a little for them…”
I briefly examined the mortal world.
“Who are you again?”
“Aigo! Father… you really don’t remember me? It’s me!”
“Get out of the way. Don’t grab strangers!”
“You said you were going to pray this morning, so why…”
A white-haired elder who looked as though he would soon receive a visit from Thanatos was arguing with a middle-aged man. They appeared to be father and son, yet the old man remembered nothing.
“They prayed for me to erase their bad memories… so I only erased a little…”
“Exactly how much of that old man’s memory did you erase?”
“I made a slight mistake… starting from his recent memories, roughly thirty years…”
Good heavens. My lady, how could you erase thirty whole years?
It seemed she had committed a rather serious error while granting power to the believers.
“We must ask Goddess Mnemosyne to restore his memories at once.”
“Uuu… He begged so desperately that I only touched them lightly…”
This was definitely what they called, in my previous life, forgetfulness. Or perhaps early dementia.
Feeling guilty for accidentally harming a mortal, Lethe’s face crumpled. I grabbed her soft cheeks and stretched them outward.
“Auuu! Wha ah you doooiing…?!”
“When bestowing blessings upon mortals, you must always pay careful attention. Humans live at most a hundred years, so you must be even more cautious. To us gods thirty years is nothing, but to humans thirty years of oblivion is a true catastrophe…”
Perhaps I had been spending too much time with Styx; the scolding flowed out before I could stop it.
“O-okayyy…”
I had not pinched her ears, yet they had turned bright red.