Information That Can Shatter the Sky
Mount Othrys rose before my eyes.
I had been here once before, yet as I climbed the mountain path this time, everything felt different in more ways than one.
Back then I had come for what was essentially combat—a warning, yes, but combat all the same—and I had even brought an army with me, however makeshift. Now I was here solely for a weapons deal. The mountain itself was deserted compared to the last visit, when Titans and fairies had thronged every slope. I had come alone, without troops or companions of any kind.
As the war grew fiercer, demand for weapons—mere consumables—kept soaring. That was why I had ventured all the way into the Titans’ very heartland. Relations with them were already strained after I had punched Cronus in the face, among other things, but if I wanted to milk this wartime boom for all it was worth, a little risk was the price of admission.
Even so, I had briefly considered bringing Keres along…
Given her personality, the moment she set foot here she would have raised her scythe and charged in yelling, “Well, since we’re already here, I simply must hear how the strongest Titan screams!” So I had no choice but to leave her behind. Not that it mattered much; at my current level I could protect myself if anything went wrong.
“Late…”
I waited at the agreed spot by the entrance to Mount Othrys, cart parked beside me. A cool wind blew; leaves and grass danced in the air. Strip away the context and the scene could have been a leisurely stroll. The rest of the world was descending into chaos under the war’s shadow, yet here a pocket of peace still lingered.
I was savoring that delicate balance between vigilance and ease when a bright, lively voice suddenly rang out.
“Ah! A customer.”
“?”
I turned. A woman I had never seen before was sitting there—a Titan with silver hair and golden eyes. The instant I laid eyes on her, one thought rose unbidden.
…She’s pretty.
Objectively her beauty ranked clearly below Aphrodite’s. She fell a little short of Thetis as well, and in pure looks she was about even with Keres. Yet none of that changed the fact that, seated against the calm backdrop of nature, she radiated the very charm I personally found most appealing—the so-called “innocent” vibe.
A faint flutter stirred in my chest. Still, I kept my voice steady and asked,
“Are you the Titan here for the deal?”
“The deal… yes, that’s right.”
The question somehow conjured the image of someone popping up like a carrot. She smiled warmly, studying my face.
“My name is Leto. And you?”
“…Hephaestus.”
The familiar name rolled off her tongue. In Greek myth, Leto was quite well-known—Zeus’s mistress and mother of the famous Olympian twins Apollo and Artemis. Whether the woman in front of me was that Leto, however, I could not be sure. The Greek mythological world had a surprising number of namesakes among the famous, especially among women. My own sister Thetis and Oceanus’s wife Tethys—my maternal grandmother, more or less—originally shared the same name and were distinguished only by an extra letter. Among the Titans of this world, identical names were even more common. Leto was a fairly ordinary one; I had already met several. I could not simply equate this woman with “the” Leto on the strength of a name alone.
While I was thinking that—
“Hmm~ Hephaestus… Hephaestus, is it… So that’s how it is. No wonder you look so unusual…”
“…”
Depending on how you took it, the remark could have been rather insulting. Titans, though, had the manners of pigs. The fact that she had not called me ugly to my face and piled on a string of curses already put her in the upper ranks of divine courtesy.
“I’ve heard a great deal about you. The young hero who smashed Tartarus. You also gave our Lord Cronus a good thrashing, and recently you even humiliated Atlas, didn’t you?”
“…Yeah.”
“Hearing it all at once, it’s truly impressive. Things no one else could manage even once, and you just keep knocking them out one after another.”
“It’s nothing special.”
“Hmm~”
Leto spoke with genuine admiration. I answered briefly, a touch of wariness in my tone. After all, more than half of those feats had involved thrashing Titans.
Then she said,
“Well then… you’ve already given the rulers of the underworld and the surface a good smack each. Next up must be the sky, right?”
“...”
A rather loaded remark. I let out a small sigh and tossed back a suitable reply.
“Someday I plan to split Zeus’s skull open.”
Half joke, half truth. I did intend to teach that NTR-rapist bastard a lesson one day, so it was not entirely false—but for now I was mostly playing along with her provocative banter.
At that,
“Pfft! Hahahaha! What was that?”
Leto laughed as if she found it truly hilarious.
“Haa… That was fun. Really…”
Her laughter carried a depth of anticipation far beyond a simple joke. She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, then slowly rose from her seat and stepped closer until she stood right beside me where I leaned against the cart. Quietly she rested her body against my shoulder and whispered,
“I’ve never met a man as entertaining as you, Hephaestus.”
“…”
A sweet voice brushed my ear, soft as the scent of flowers. I found myself looking at her face. A faint flush colored her cheeks; a smile curved her lips. The expression made me understand, for a moment, why men fall for women.
My heart gave a little thump, and one thought rose naturally: maybe this woman actually likes me.
But then—
Tsk…
I clicked my tongue inwardly and brushed the idle notion aside. In ordinary circumstances, perhaps. Right now, though, I was standing on the doorstep of a potential enemy stronghold. The odds that a woman casually hitting on me here had pure intentions? Higher odds that Keres would greet Cronus politely and simply walk away.
Whatever her real motive, I decided it was just another half-baked Titan scheme. As the party who had come to trade, I pushed “Leto” away and said in a quiet voice,
“Let’s leave the small talk there. Time to do business.”
“Right… the deal. We should.”
A hint of regret colored her words, yet the soft flush still lingered on her face. Whether she had not given up on the honey trap or—unlikely as it was—was genuinely smitten, I ignored the reaction and set down the load I had brought.
“The bronze swords and spears you ordered. As we discussed, if you want shields as well you’ll need to send more copper—”
In that instant Leto suddenly seized my wrist as I was moving the cargo.
“Ughk?”
I twisted my hand free at once, reversed the grip, and pinned both her arms. With her arms locked she looked up at me. I spoke in a voice laced with cold warning.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
First impressions aside, right then I was seriously considering snapping the wrist of this woman for her clumsy little trick.
Yet—
“Heh… heheheh. As expected… so cool… Truly the strongest man I’ve ever acknowledged.”
“…”
Leto spoke with an enraptured smile. Instead of trying to pull free, she pressed even closer. I tightened my grip on her wrists in a final warning—
Crunch!
—applying force just short of breaking bone. The laughter faded a little from her face.
Still she said, smile lingering but voice suddenly serious,
“Hephaestus… a moment ago you said you’d crack Zeus’s head open, didn’t you?”
“…”
A flicker of puzzlement crossed me. Into my ear she slipped a single secretive line.
“That Zeus has fallen.”
“…What?”
The words were so unexpected that my grip went slack.
Thud!
“!”
She slipped free of my hands as if it were the most natural thing in the world and stepped back. Then, bending slightly at the waist, she beamed at me once more.
“Well then—that concludes today’s transaction.”
“What are you talking about—”
“I just gave you information that could shatter the sky. Three full days ahead of everyone else. That’s my side of the deal.”
“!...”
A dozen thoughts crashed through my mind at once. I started to ask more, but Leto was faster.
“I’ll collect the payment later. And I’ll make it a very pleasant collection~♡”
With that she winked lightly and vanished somewhere. Watching her leave, still trailing coquetry to the very end, the tangled thoughts of a moment earlier were replaced by a single simple feeling.
…Cute.
Leto hurried deep into Mount Othrys. The moment she reached the palace she leaned against a pillar and buried her face in both hands.
Her half-provocative question—would he aim for Olympus next?—had been answered without the slightest hesitation: he would crack even Zeus’s skull. The words had been half in jest, yet to Leto, already wearing rose-colored glasses, they had sounded like the sincere declaration of an ambitious man. And the lingering ache in her wrists… the searing heat of the man who had subdued her in an instant still made her heart hammer wildly.
What do I do… he’s far too cool…
She had approached intending to seduce him, so why was her own chest racing like this? Struggling to suppress the frustrating yet pleasant sensation, she started toward the inner depths of the fortress. As agreed in the deal with that man, she would mention Zeus only after three days. Given the Titans’ intelligence network, that was the best she could manage. What he would do in the meantime she could not guess, but she expected him to show her something more than she had hoped for.
Just then—
“Welcome back, Leto.”
“…Prometheus.”
Prometheus was just leaving the fortress. Remembering something about a weapons deal, she returned a brief greeting and continued on without much thought.
Yet—
“…You have become invisible as well.”
“Hm?”
Leaving those cryptic words, Prometheus vanished. Leto tilted her head once, then paid it no further mind and walked on into the fortress.