The Goddess of Mint, Mente (1)
The goddess who entered the audience chamber with her face flushed bright red, walking slowly as if embarrassed, was unmistakably Mente. She was clearly no longer a nymph but a full goddess now—the refreshing divine power radiating from her entire body made that obvious.
“Uncle, then I shall leave you to converse with the newly born goddess. This humble messenger will return to Olympus now. Haha!”
“Hah… Hermes. Yes, let’s meet again later.”
My nephew waved his hand while openly savoring the flustered expression on my face that I couldn’t hide at her unexpected appearance. He had definitely volunteered to escort her here himself, fully expecting this exact reaction from me.
Once Hermes left, I turned my gaze to Mente, who still couldn’t quite meet my eyes. There were so many things I needed to hear from her, but where should I even begin…
“So, Men—”
“Hya! Y-yes! Lord Hades… uhh…”
The moment I opened my mouth, Mente panicked and began stuttering. We’ve met before, and she even served as my priestess—why is she acting like this?
“Mente. Whatever has you so frozen, stop being so shy and slowly explain the circumstances.”
“…Hah. But…”
“…?”
Mente’s face grew even redder as she suddenly blurted out a torrent of words.
“To volunteer to come directly to the Underworld ruled by Lord Hades means I am prepared to accept it even if you take my body at any time…!”
“No…”
“The goddesses I saw last time are indeed the mistresses of the Underworld, right? Hah… but I’m perfectly fine being a concubine…!”
“Stop. Just stop right there…”
When the conversation kept veering off in a strange direction, I waved my hand moderately to cut her off. Mente, who had been speaking with oddly excited fervor, took a deep breath and calmed down.
She’s still so young… Tsk tsk. It seems she’s afflicted with a serious case of runaway delusion. I should have Apollo treat her sometime.
“So, how did a nymph like you become a goddess, and why did you come to the Underworld?”
“That is… it might take a while to explain…”
What Mente shyly told me in front of her was as follows.
First, mint gradually spread from Thebes and was exported throughout Greece… The status of mint, which was regarded as my symbol in the mortal world, had risen tremendously.
“Mmm. It is the grace of God Pluto. I do not believe in him, but it is something to be grateful for…”
“Even if it’s Hade… even though his other name is frightening, hasn’t he bestowed something for the sake of humans?”
“According to merchants from Thebes, Lord Pluto is a benevolent good god who shows mercy to the living.”
Naturally, my own status as the creator of mint that I had publicly declared, along with Mente’s, rose as well. Especially since she herself was not human but a nymph, and had even served as my priestess.
“They say there is a nymph in Pluto’s temple known as the creator of mint…”
“Could an ordinary nymph create something like that? She is probably a goddess who ascended to the mortal realm on Lord Pluto’s orders.”
“I don’t know. Anyway, I offered prayers to him as well.”
Gradually, humans began to worship her as the Goddess of Mint, and faith started to gather. In the end, the god Hermes descended before Mente while she was praying in the temple and took her to Olympus…
“Are you the nymph Mente who receives faith among humans? Upon seeing you, you are quite beauti—”
“Father, from what I have heard, this nymph is said to be favored by Uncle Hades.”
“Ahem! Well, you should have said that sooner… In any case, since she created the symbol of the Underworld, that should be sufficient to elevate her to goddesshood.”
Thus, Zeus, the King of the Gods, acknowledged her as a deity. Elevated to the Goddess of Mint, Mente expressed her desire to work in the Underworld.
“Lord Hermes, is there any way?”
“The Underworld? That place does suffer from a manpower… no, a divine power shortage, so…”
That was the story behind how the newly born Goddess of Mint came to the Underworld.
After finishing her explanation, Mente looked at me with sparkling eyes. She seemed to be expecting something quite eagerly.
“Lord Hades! So what should I do now?”
“…I don’t know if you came here knowing this, but the Underworld is quite busy, and there are times when we must take on tasks that exceed our authority.”
“Hmph! Even though I may look like this, I adapted well to the difficult temple work when I was a priestess!”
Mente placed her hands on her waist and thrust out her chest as if emphasizing it. But was working as a priestess in Thebes’ temple really that difficult? I wondered if she would be able to adapt well in the Underworld…
I felt I should give some advice to the brightly smiling Mente.
“Mente, why do you think we gods live for eternity and are strong?”
“Pardon?”
She made a puzzled face. As if trying to guess my intention, she tilted her head for a moment before giving the answer I expected.
“Um… isn’t it because we inherited the great bloodline and power of the primordial god, Lord Chaos?”
“…Wrong.”
To mortals, gods must appear great, strong, and sometimes perfect. Our ability to foresee the future or change the terrain became the reasonable basis for mortals to worship us. However…
“It is because we must maintain the world that we were given overflowing power and a mind that does not weather with the passage of time.”
“Ah…”
“Just look at yourself. You were an ordinary nymph and then became a god. What this means is…”
It means becoming a slave who makes the world run smoothly… Saying it that way might be a bit harsh? From what I’ve felt while working in the Underworld, it seems correct, but…
“…Just think of it as being tasked with maintaining the world’s balance.”
“As expected! The great gods are strong because they must carry out such noble duties!”
You are now one of those great gods as well. And the noble duty is… well. I suppose that’s somewhat accurate.
“Maintaining the world’s balance… That’s exactly the responsibility and mission of divinity that I had in mind!”
“There is also a saying that we are not strong so we can rule the world, but that we must rule the world, therefore we are strong…”
“Aha! So great power comes with great responsibility!”
It is true that immortal gods’ stamina comes with countless tasks… Mente nodded as if she had understood something, then twisted her body again and spoke.
“To think you worry about me this much… I will fulfill my responsibilities befitting the goddess who created mint, the symbol of Lord Hades!”
“…? Uh… Yes. Do that.”
Somehow the conversation seemed to connect yet also felt off. Still, since she was so confident, I should assign her to a suitable position for now.
I flipped through the parchment, pondering which spot would be appropriate, when a messenger came running. A young male soul soldier wearing a toga—his face was familiar.
“Lord Hades! Once again at the judgment hall…”
“It must be something the three Minos brothers find difficult to judge alone. Was there a prophecy or victim involving the gods?”
“Huk! How did you know? This time it’s even…”
It was common for Apokrytes, the swift-footed messenger stationed near the judgment hall, to come running. It was obviously another case involving divine harm. Was it something complicated by multiple Olympian gods?
I trusted the judgment of the three Minos brothers, of course, but the higher-ranking deities sometimes looked unfavorably upon Minos for giving lenient sentences to those they had punished. The Minos brothers, who were merely dead humans… seemed to be defying the judgment of a god. Naturally, they couldn’t voice such complaints in front of me, so the rumors had come through Hermes, the messenger of all and Olympus’s source of information.
Therefore, to ease the burden on the Minos brothers and render even fairer judgments, I often stepped in for cases involving humans punished by gods or humans who died caught between various divine powers. Of course, I was also involved in judging serious criminals whose cases were too difficult for them alone…
“Has another mortal caught up in the love scandals of the Twelve Olympians appeared? It’s probably another victim of rape or adultery. Tell Minos I’m on my way.”
“Yes, understood! Then I shall take my leave…”
After the messenger left again, I looked at Mente.
“If you go to Goddess Lethe, she will help you with the work you are to take on. I have an urgent matter to attend to, so…”
“Ah… Yes!”
“Thank… Thank you, O King of the Underworld…”
“Yes. In life, your outstanding beauty led to you suffering an unsavory act at the hands of a god, but such things will not happen anymore.”
“Ugh… Sob…”
The beautiful female soul before me wept bitterly. This soul had rejected the courtship of a lesser god during her lifetime but was ultimately raped by him. The problem was that she had been a follower of the virgin goddess Artemis; the moment she lost her chastity, she received the goddess’s curse and committed suicide…
That meek Artemis is always so strict with her own followers. Even though it wasn’t by her own will that she lost her purity, shouldn’t she have shown a little leniency?
“Who is the next soul, Minos?”
“Yes. This time it is a woman named Arachne… a human female.”
“Arachne? Let her in. Which god is involved?”
“…The document states that the Goddess of Wisdom, Lady Athena, personally punished her.”
This time it was the Goddess of Wisdom? Since Athena had sworn her chastity on the River Styx, it probably wasn’t one of the gods’ love scandals. A female soul radiating resentment slowly entered.
Looking at the documents on the desk… A soul who retained her memories even after drinking from the River of Forgetfulness and harbored a vengeful heart. She must surely resent Athena, who had killed her.
The soldier who brought her made Arachne prostrate herself. The female soul threw herself onto the floor and bowed her head toward me.
“Your name is Arachne? Tell me without falsehood what happened before you died.”