Ah, I Fell Down the Stairs!
Poseidon, the god of the sea.
His arrival here was purely coincidental.
He had felt a strange divine power while passing nearby.
Driven by a fleeting, whimsical curiosity, he had made his way to Cyprus Island.
And there, he discovered an unexpected prize.
A woman more beautiful than any he had ever laid eyes upon.
Driven by a sudden surge of lust, Poseidon had reached out to claim the girl.
Normally, he would take any beauty who caught his eye without a second thought, and he had wanted to do the same this time.
But because her beauty was so peerless, he decided to show her a rare measure of generosity.
However,
The result was a flat rejection.
A mere nameless goddess,
Had dared to reject the proposal of the god of the sea himself.
Seething with rage,
Poseidon immediately began to rain down divine judgment upon the arrogant, foolish girl and the hideous creature egging her on.
He vowed that tonight, he would put a leash on that girl and train her thoroughly to be his dog.
But.
Just when he thought he had triumphantly cornered his opponents and forced their surrender,
Poseidon was seized by an unexpected chaos.
"Gwahhh!"
The enemy, whom he thought had surrendered, had launched a sudden counterattack.
Taking the blow directly to his face, Poseidon felt a sensation he had never experienced in his life.
A searing pain, unlike anything he had ever felt since birth, began to pierce his flesh.
'What... What is this...? How can he possess such strength?'
The impact shattered his nose and cracked his teeth.
On top of that, the intense heat radiating from the boy's fist scorched his skin, adding to the agony.
Though Poseidon staggered heavily from the blow that far exceeded his expectations,
The brat's assault was far from over.
—Thwack!
"Aaargh!"
The boy's knee slammed directly into his abdomen.
As Poseidon doubled over, the boy's fist came crashing down on the back of his head.
"Guh! Ack!"
It was too fast to even process.
Fluidly.
And with relentless, crushing force, the combo continued.
The physical strength behind the punches was formidable enough, but the terrifyingly intense heat of the flames infused in every single strike dealt a blow that even the lord of the sea could not ignore.
This was impossible.
A mere minor god,
A hideous, nameless freak, was doing this to him...
Beating him, the son of Cronus and the ruler of the seas, with bare fists.
As absolute fury boiled within him,
Poseidon's eyes locked onto the boy's leg sweeping toward his head.
And then.
"Tch!"
"A lowly freak like you! How dare you!!!"
He caught the boy's leg in a vice grip.
The ultra-high-temperature flames radiating from it melted his skin in real-time, but ignoring the pain, Poseidon slammed the leg down onto the ground.
—Boom!
"Tch."
Despite the massive impact, the boy bounced off the ground a few times, quickly sprang back to his feet, and reassumed his stance.
Throwing him onto the land instead of the sea could be considered a minor mistake,
But to Poseidon, such a detail wasn't even worth worrying about.
"I will make you feel it to your very bones! The price of a mere insect daring to defy me, the King of the Seas!!!"
The sea churned even more violently.
Immediately after, what began to manifest before them...
Was no ordinary wave.
My fists and feet repeatedly struck Poseidon's body.
In a situation where seawater was literally pouring down just moments ago, ordinary flames—not volcanic magma—would have been useless.
However, directly hammering him with fists wrapped in ultra-high-temperature flames was effective, even if the opponent was the god of the sea.
I unleashed my fists and legs with all the physical strength and divine authority over volcanoes I could muster.
I knew it.
I had dramatically seized the momentum.
And I was pouring on the attacks in this window.
But if I couldn't finish him off right here, I would be the one who ended up dead.
—Grab!
"!"
However,
As if proving that his position as one of the Big Three gods wasn't just for show,
Poseidon caught my leg in an instant and threw me,
Instantly breaking my momentum.
To make matters worse,
"Hephaestus!"
Aphrodite, ignoring my orders, turned back from her escape and was running desperately toward me.
Whether in the original myths or now, this girl never listens to a word Hephaestus says, I thought.
I bit my lip.
What followed immediately...
Was Poseidon's counterattack, grander and more colossal than I had anticipated.
"Damn it..."
"Ah... Ah..."
A tsunami.
A massive wall of water that looked capable of swallowing Cyprus Island whole.
Driven half-mad by sheer rage, Poseidon's divine authority opened a massive maw to swallow everything in sight.
'Is this... the end?'
A colossal disaster was rushing toward us.
No matter how strong I was, there was no way to block this.
This was the sea.
The place where Poseidon was at his absolute strongest.
I had tried to avoid a fight knowing it would come to this, but the milk was already spilled. The battle was hurtling toward its conclusion.
With my defeat.
As a god, I wouldn't die,
But there was no way that bastard Poseidon would let me off easy.
And what was even worse,
Was that I could no longer prevent Aphrodite's abduction.
"Hephaestus!"
Aphrodite clung to me, her face pale with terror.
When we first met, I had felt only discomfort and aversion toward her...
But at this moment, looking at this woman—no, this child—the only emotion I felt was regret.
Regret for failing to keep my promise.
As an alpha male,
As an adult,
The guilt of failing to protect a child.
To shield her even a little from the impending impact,
I reached out and pulled her into my embrace.
Offering a final apology.
"I'm sorry..."
—Whoosh!
"...Huh?"
"W-What?"
At that moment.
Like a lie, the massive tsunami instantly dissolved into harmless sea spray and vanished.
The churning sea grew calm, as if it had never been disturbed.
Deep bewilderment washed over Poseidon's face, replacing the wrathful smirk that had been playing on his lips just moments ago.
And then.
"Hephaestus!"
"Sorry, little brother. Are we late?"
"Ah!"
A wonderfully welcome voice echoed in my ears.
As Aphrodite and I turned our heads,
The very people I had been waiting for in the back of my mind were standing there.
The ones who had neutralized his strike in an instant.
Watching the two figures approach,
Poseidon's expression stiffened.
"You... You are... Nereus's children?"
Nerites.
And Thetis.
Though they were a tier below Poseidon in terms of raw power,
The sudden appearance of the sibling deities, who were undeniably sea gods themselves, caused Poseidon's face to harden completely.
"Poseidon, surely you haven't forgotten that Cyprus is my domain? Even if you are the lord of the Mediterranean, it's bad manners to throw a tantrum in someone else's living room."
"Please leave quietly. If you cause any more trouble, we will have no choice but to formally report this to Father. Brother-in-law Poseidon."
"Tch..."
Although the sea was his home turf, the same applied to the siblings.
In the waters around Cyprus specifically, Nerites's authority as the local ruler held greater sway.
On top of that, he had just personally witnessed that the ugly brat's strength was far from ordinary.
If they fought to the bitter end, he wouldn't lose, but he would undoubtedly sustain significant damage.
Above all, causing a direct rift with Nereus, the elder of the sea and his own father-in-law, was highly troublesome.
Especially now, when the political climate was so unstable.
Hot-headed and reckless as Poseidon was,
He was no fool incapable of calculating such losses.
"Tch... Just you wait!"
Suppressing his rage, Poseidon turned his chariot and departed.
Gritting his teeth at the humiliation of being thwarted by mere youngsters,
He deeply engraved the image of the ugly brat who had ruined his plans into his mind.
"How are your injuries? Oof... you took a real beating."
"I'm fine."
"Fine? How is this fine! Look at all these bruises..."
Nerites and Thetis examined Hephaestus's wounds.
He had taken a direct hit from the strongest sea god with his bare body.
And after forcing himself into a brutal brawl right after, his body was covered in fractures, cuts, lacerations, and bruises.
Fortunately, as an immortal god, the wounds that would have easily killed a mortal were already beginning to heal. Still, seeing their little brother's battered body pained their hearts.
"Just wait. I'm definitely telling Father about this. Poseidon... how dare he do this to my brother of all people? I will make him pay for this...!"
"No, you mustn't. Keep quiet about this for now."
"Huh? Wh-Why?"
"Hmm... Hephaestus is right. Under normal circumstances, maybe, but if this blows up right now, it could cause a lot of annoying political trouble."
The relationship between the Olympian gods and the Titans had been growing increasingly hostile lately.
The tension between the two mighty factions was a powder keg waiting to explode, and rumors of an impending war were rampant.
At a time like this, what would happen if a rift formed between Nereus, who controlled a major faction of the sea, and Poseidon, the ruler of the oceans?
Nereus had only recently secured peace with Olympus by marrying his daughter Amphitrite to Poseidon after careful political calculations. If this incident escalated...
It risked ballooning from a minor scuffle into a major political crisis.
That was also why Poseidon had backed down so easily upon seeing the siblings.
"Sigh... Fine. But I'll make sure to settle this score later."
"Sure, sure. In the very, very distant future."
"Good decision."
Having barely managed to soothe Thetis's anger, the three of them concluded that it was best to sweep the matter under the rug for now.
"But seriously, you're amazing, little brother. It got a bit dangerous at the end, but to beat Poseidon to a pulp in the middle of the ocean, of all places?"
"I saw it too! He was bleeding from his nose. Hehe, it's almost a shame we have to keep this from Father."
"It was nothing."
With the tension dissipated, the three of them began to chat in a much lighter mood.
Meanwhile,
Watching the three of them gathered together,
The goddess sitting on a nearby rock, having just draped clothes over her body for the first time since her birth,
Aphrodite was experiencing an emotion she couldn't quite put into words.
At this moment, the two beautiful and handsome deities, Nerites and Thetis, did not register in her eyes at all.
The only person she could see was one man.
The man who had looked so incredibly hideous from the moment she first saw him,
And whom she still considered ugly even now.
Hephaestus.
The power Poseidon had displayed earlier was truly terrifying.
It was a looming terror, closing in on her like an inescapable wall.
Yet, even in the midst of that...
Hephaestus had.
Protected her until the very end.
Although Thetis and Nerites had finished the job,
If Hephaestus hadn't held onto her until the last moment, she would have been dragged away by that beastly man, Poseidon, and met a horrific fate.
Was that why?
At this moment, a certain emotion was blooming in Aphrodite's heart toward the man.
A sensation like something warm stirring deep within her chest.
'Is this... what they call gratitude?'
It was her first time experiencing it, but it felt strangely pleasant.
Just as she was thinking this,
Aphrodite suddenly flinched and turned her head away as Hephaestus's gaze met hers.
Gratitude...
Seemed to make her heart flutter to a somewhat uncomfortable degree.
"So, what happened to your face?"
"I told you, I fell down the stairs!"
"Is that so?"
"Yes, really! Stop asking!"
"Haha. I had no idea the stairs were so powerful."
"To do that to the great Poseidon's face... If we install stairs all over Olympus, we might easily fend off the Titans."
"Grrr..."
Poseidon gritted his teeth at his siblings' mockery.
But no matter how furious and annoyed he was, he couldn't bring himself to tell the truth.
How could he?
Admit that he, the ruler of the seas, had been beaten up by some ugly, nameless minor god?
Moreover, bringing up Nereus's children could cause actual political trouble, so Poseidon had no choice but to shrug off his siblings' teasing and questioning with vague excuses.
Fortunately, their conversation soon shifted toward actual war preparations, but his mood remained thoroughly ruined.
'Damn it, I should have skipped today's meeting even if it meant taking some flak...'
In the midst of his belated regret, his gaze suddenly drifted.
His eyes landed on his youngest sister sitting right next to him.
Hera.
Hera, who had shut herself away for a long time due to the shock of losing her firstborn child.
Fortunately, her condition had improved slightly about six months ago, allowing her to attend meetings and engage in minor outdoor activities, but she still didn't seem fully recovered.
"Since that is the case, we should first request reinforcements from the Underworld..."
"We should also ask the earth nymphs to join the war..."
"...Sigh..."
Even now, she was merely occupying her seat, showing absolutely no interest in the meeting.
'Still, it's a relief. If she sat out with a war looming, it would have been a massive headache.'
It was not that he lacked familial affection, but there were limits.
With war right around the corner, he had to consider his sister as a key military asset.
'She might look like this now, but she's actually pretty strong. Back in the day, she beat three or four Titans to a pulp all by herself when they tried to pick a fight...'
Poseidon recalled his sister's past exploits from before her marriage, back when she wasn't pretending to be a demure queen.
Then, another thought suddenly crossed his mind.
The hideous freak whose first encounter with him had been the absolute worst, and whose very memory made him grind his teeth.
Just thinking of that ugly face made his own face throb with pain,
But conversely, it meant the brat possessed a remarkable amount of power.
Of course, given Poseidon's somewhat lacking intellect, he didn't come up with any brilliant scheme to exploit this.
It was just a passing thought to kill time during the boring meeting.
Nothing more.
"Still... that ugly minor god... was surprisingly strong."
Poseidon muttered to himself, completely unaware.
At that moment.
"...Huh? What is it?"
"...What... did you just say? An ugly... god?"
Hera suddenly grabbed his wrist.
The lifeless look in her eyes instantly vanished, replaced by a burning intensity that made Poseidon flinch in surprise.
Poseidon felt a sudden wave of bewilderment.
