A Bet with the Demigod
“So you’re the shopkeeper.” Amber eyes like a beast’s pupils fixed on me. The man had short, curly brown hair and deep amber eyes. His bare, sun-bronzed muscles were striking. “I’m certain I entered Molorchus’s house, yet this place unfolded before me.”
Despite Banesha’s wary gaze, the man’s demeanor remained relaxed. “I was simply looking around at things I’d never seen before.” He casually picked up a pair of goggles from the shelf and examined them with curiosity. “Doesn’t seem like Hephaestus’s work……”
The man turned to me. “What sort of place is this?”
“……”
From his words, I deduced his identity. —I’m certain I entered Molorchus’s house, yet this place unfolded before me. Molorchus was the poor farmer whose child had been devoured by the Nemean Lion. And this man claimed he had entered Molorchus’s house only to arrive at Seojun’s General Store instead. That explained why he remained unfazed by Banesha’s threat. He was an opponent she could not handle.
If my guess was correct, not even any being I knew could threaten this man. He was a demigod. A child of Zeus, King of the Gods, and the great hero of the divine age, born to prevent the Gigantomachy, the great war of Olympus.
—You have encountered Heracles of the failed worldline.
Heracles
📍 Objective: Help Heracles complete the 12 Labors.
🎁 Reward: Nemean Lion’s Hide
The man was none other than Heracles, the demigod of Greek mythology. In other words, the place I had arrived in was the divine age, when the gods still held influence over the mortal world—an era where myth still breathed.
*
According to myth, Heracles slaughtered his entire family after Hera drove him mad. The “12 Labors” were the twelve trials he had to overcome to atone for that sin. Only after completing them would he wash away his guilt, become immortal, and be accepted into Olympus after death.
Yet Heracles had not even finished the first labor. Slaying the Nemean Lion was his very first trial. If he had already defeated it, he would have no reason to stay at Molorchus’s house, nor would he be wandering about bare-chested.
‘The Nemean Lion’s hide is Heracles’s symbol.’ Even after ascending to godhood on Olympus, he had always worn that hide. Yet the status window was offering it to me as a reward. Probably a portion of it. The Nemean Lion was said to be a monstrous beast of enormous size, after all. Even a fragment would be an extraordinary reward. Its hide could not be pierced by any spear or sword. And if it was a relic imbued with a demigod’s authority, it would be far more than merely tough.
Of course, obtaining it meant helping Heracles with his 12 Labors first…… But there was one crucial point I could not overlook. This was a “failed worldline.”
“I can slay the Nemean Lion on my own.” Heracles rejected my help without a second thought. “The task Hera has given me must be completed by me alone.”
He had no intention of accepting anyone’s assistance. “Seojun, he doesn’t seem willing to listen.”
“Master, just abandon it. Failing one quest won’t be the end of the world, will it?”
“……”
Heracles’s stubbornness was so great that even Banesha suggested giving up. He refused to listen to even the simplest advice. In the worst light, it was arrogance; in the best, overwhelming pride. I had even considered Banesha’s suggestion for a moment. After all, we had been wasting time for three whole days.
However—
“We’re not abandoning it. I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to return to the real world otherwise.”
The problem was that we had no way of knowing whether return was possible. Banesha and Jeanne’s cases had involved history being rewritten after successful quests. Strictly speaking, those weren’t failures. So giving up wasn’t an option.
The real issue was Heracles’s excessive pride. ‘Is this why it’s a failed worldline?’ In the proper history, Heracles had been proud, but not inflexible. He had accepted help from his nephew and half-brother Iolaus during his second labor.
‘Perhaps he still hasn’t escaped the curse of madness.’ Heracles had killed his family under Hera’s jealous curse of insanity. Even now, traces of that unrefined madness flickered within him. That madness, intertwined with his towering pride, held him back. When pride turned into arrogance, flexibility of thought vanished.
Pride, huh……
“Hmm.” An idea came to me.
*
That afternoon, when Heracles visited Seojun’s General Store, I spoke to him as he browsed the relics. “You won’t be able to catch the Nemean Lion.”
“Ho? You’re saying I won’t be able to catch it?” A fierce light ignited in his amber beast-like eyes. The demigod’s ferocious aura made my hair stand on end and sent shivers across my skin, yet—
“That’s right.” I didn’t change my answer. “I will catch the Nemean Lion.”
“You won’t. In your current state, you won’t succeed even if you die and come back.”
I deliberately provoked his pride. “Shall we make a bet?”
“…A bet?” Confusion flickered in his amber eyes.
“Yes, a bet. If you catch the Nemean Lion your way, I’ll admit I was wrong and apologize.” I continued, facing Heracles who was now listening. “If you fail, you must admit you were wrong.”
It was a provocation in words alone. But I knew Heracles would accept. He was a great hero whose competitive spirit surpassed anyone’s.
And then—
“Very well. If I fail, I’ll admit I was wrong. But if I succeed, you will be the one apologizing to me.”
“Understood.”
Heracles raised his club. “Thirty days. I’ll bring back the Nemean Lion within that time.”
Thus began the thirty-day bet between Heracles and me.
*
A demigod. He was a transcendent being whose power far exceeded my imagination.
BOOOOOOM—!
The world shook as if cracking apart, and the landscape collapsed. BOOM! BOOM! Valleys, mountains, plains. Terrain was destroyed and reshaped. Every swing of Heracles’s club made Mount Tretos scream.
GRRRRRRR────!
Whenever the Nemean Lion’s paw clashed with Heracles’s club, space itself trembled. The aftershock alone rewrote the scenery. A scene of unimaginable destruction. Heracles was a monster so immense that even an S-rank Awakener could not approach him. Truly worthy of being called the great hero of the gods.
Yet—
“He won’t catch it.”
“No, he won’t.”
I agreed with Banesha. We sat on the mountainside, watching Heracles’s battle unfold in the valley below. Every time his crude club swung, the Nemean Lion was knocked back or sent flying. It crashed into the mountainside, hid in caves, and fled from Heracles. Heracles relentlessly drove the beast forward.
But the Nemean Lion only retreated. It took no damage whatsoever. The Nemean Lion was a magical beast that could never be caught that way.
One day, two days. Three days, four days…… Time continued to flow. Ten days passed, then twenty, and still Heracles could not overcome the trial. He kept swinging his club, and the Nemean Lion kept roaring.
Thus, on the final day of the thirty days Heracles had promised to catch the Nemean Lion—
Heracles climbed out of the valley and up onto the mountainside. His expression was harder than ever before.
“Tell me. What should I do?”
“……”
Heracles was asking me for a method. Only at the end of the bet had this proud hero finally set aside his pride.
“Do you admit you were wrong?”
“…I do. This method won’t work.”
In that instant, a shadow fell behind Heracles.
—GRRRRRRRRRR!
The massive lion appeared, roaring with fury. Its roar froze my body. Its front paw was raised, ready to strike Heracles down at any moment. Amid that tension, Heracles’s amber eyes, cast in shadow, stared only at me.
I spoke to him. “Throw away your club, Heracles.”
Meeting his gaze. “You’re better off without a weapon.”