Chapter 118
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: My Own Myth
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Alcohol stirs up stale memories.
Intoxication boils over emotions long settled.
And deep darkness drags memories and emotions to the surface.
I drowned my inner energy and divine power alike, drinking from midday until the sun dipped below the horizon. Even the stories I used as drinking companions were tied to tales that cut me as deeply as my reverse scale, starring the very emotions that owned me.
As I sank into the lightless abyss of the deep sea, what floated before my eyes was a foolhardy, pathetic wretch—a pitiful idiot lost in his own delusions, wandering the world alone.
I knew it all too well.
She and I had been nothing more than users and the used.
She craved my power and my status as the rightful heir to the Twelve Divine Demons.
I sought her wisdom and cunning that surpassed even Oryong and Bongchu.
We complemented each other's lacks perfectly, maintaining strict boundaries as we cooperated solely toward our individual goals.
A once-in-a-generation genius wasting away because no one in the world could understand him.
A wanderer who had barely clawed his way up from nothing in an entirely different world.
Two freaks misunderstood by this one.
One driven by vengeance, the other by a heavy-burdened wish—they rode the same boat, distrustful and suspicious of each other, yet together they overcame the trial of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
And before I knew it, I was strolling hand-in-hand with her through the grand estate, and she was resting her head on my shoulder, quietly falling asleep.
Sometimes over drinks, sometimes over tea.
Once, we walked the vast snowy plains of the Hundred Thousand Peaks together; other times, we toured the eternally verdant secret realm.
In those days, I think I finally understood what love was, for the first time.
'But her eyes never held me.'
Yet her gaze never truly fell on me.
Even on the night I held a woman in my arms for the first time across two lifetimes, even as we shared the bed, she never sought me out, not even in her sleep.
The previous cult leader who slaughtered her friends and toppled her family, along with the five great leaders of the righteous sects.
Even when I subdued that former leader and handed him over to her, she only burst into mad laughter, toying with her enemy.
Still, back then, I couldn't let go of hope.
It was a ridiculous, absurd notion, truly.
I had so much time on my hands, and I believed that once the hatred in her heart eased, her eyes would finally see me.
But it had all been a foolish delusion.
I only realized it after fulfilling every duty and wish I carried.
Far, far too late.
"I won't pull that stupid shit anymore."
The master of greed and desire.
The agent of pleasure and affliction.
Parading a grandiose name while clueless about what he truly craved.
The idiot who staked his life on others' wishes and flashy honors—that fool is done.
Let anyone pick up the useless scraps.
But the jewels clutched in my hand? They'll never slip free.
"Hoo... Nerii, Nerii, you wild thing."
Sure, the situation looked suspicious enough to misunderstand, but flipping someone's clothes around like this?
A courtship rite?
If she thought I'd just sit still for this, then this spoiled princess doesn't know me at all.
Even if it wasn't her idea, I planned to break her habit of ignoring people, jumping to conclusions, and hiding in the sea.
"Tch, drank too much, huh? Hallucinating during a simple post-meal stroll."
"Anyway, who knew? Mermaids bleed red too."
"Uwaaaah... Wh-what are you going to do with them! These are Poseidon Palace guards!"
The deep-sea palace I'd admired from above.
The grand staircase, moments ago swarming with merfolk soldiers rushing down, now held only me.
"M-mon... monster..."
"Hilarious."
Mythic age or human era, land or surface—people always branded anything beyond their ken a monster. I couldn't help but scoff.
"Ugh! What am I supposed to tell Lord Poseidon..."
"That pirate captain would probably cheer you for beating them soundly. Might even rage that his soldiers are such weaklings."
The palace entrance spanned an area like a small athletic field just in stairs alone.
Scattered across those steps were the palace guards who had rushed in at the emergency call.
Moderately buzzed, itching to vent old memories and Nerii's antics.
I'd geared up to give them a piece of my mind the moment we met. Then Delphias guided me to the entrance, I stated my identity, and...
"This isn't a place a landlubber can step into? Get lost?"
Even after Delphias announced me as Poseidon's guest, they dared call a lowly land-dweller a name-faker and shoved spears in my face.
So I flipped the place.
"It's not my fault. Blame that ridiculously tasty beer—no, mead—His Majesty Poseidon gifted me."
"C-can't... brea..."
The sentry who'd clumsily thrust a spear and spewed curses at me—his joints shattered for it—clung loyally to my ankle until the end.
-Kwachak!
"Kwaaak!"
His last wrist joint finally snapped.
But they're all still breathing, so that's something.
"...Hm."
"F-for now, sir. Please withdraw and bide your time. Lady Amphitrite must have sensed that aura you unleashed earlier!"
"Ah... that queen who supposedly stabbed Brother Poseidon in the gut?"
"Yes! No matter how mighty a hero you are with your supreme martial arts and strength, Lady Amphitrite rules the storms and tempests! She's beyond you!"
"Hmm..."
Honestly, I wasn't at full strength right now.
I'd reached the pinnacle with Heracles' help, but right after, I'd gone wild with Artemis.
And that brute Poseidon had punched me square in the gut, so it still throbbed...
"Still, gotta see Nerii's face first."
"Urgh... I heard Lady Nerii found a lover on land, but I never imagined he'd be such a brute..."
"Brute? Nah. I just think deeply about what's important to me and act accordingly."
"Oh...? You mean...?"
Delphias, clutching his head at my words, suddenly looked up with sparkling eyes.
"Lady Nesneria always said her lover cherishes her but treats her like a child, and she grumbled about it. Unexpectedly, you're quite serious about her, aren't you?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Plenty of stairs left anyway. Seems it'll take Her Majesty a bit to arrive—want to chat on the way?"
"Perfect! This Delphias can't resist a good love story."
Is this dolphin gutsy or just scatterbrained?
Screaming at the guards getting wrecked moments ago, now his eyes shine at romance.
But drunk on booze or lost memories, I was feeling chatty, and he was a fine audience.
"Wise Delphini. Let me ask you one thing. When do you think a person feels most wretched?"
"Hmm... Hard to say. When starving, maybe? That cruel Tantalus's punishment was eternal hunger, after all."
Ho, interesting.
A non-human, non-divine take on myths.
"Fascinating perspective."
"What do you think, hero?"
"Me? I think..."
My previous life lacked nothing materially or physically.
Yet even with martial arts touching the heavens or mountains of gold and jewels, one thing couldn't be bought.
That made me utterly wretched and, in the end, killed me.
"Eyes that won't look at me."
"...Pardon?"
"That's what killed me. That's what drives me to this foolish nonsense now."
The Guixian Scholar, who'd lived for revenge her whole life, and Nerii, pampered princess from childhood.
Honestly, they were polar opposites.
The woman I loved—terribly wise, who'd never truly seen me until the end, and in petty spite over eyes that ignored her, turned her dagger on me too.
She who left me only her alias, Guixian Scholar, never her true name.
How many times had I been captivated by her calm smile as she quietly wielded her brush?
Looking back, I suspect even that was calculated, used against me by that vengeful ghost.
Yet men are sad creatures, unable to forget their first love. Despite her vanishing through my long life, she lingered deep in my memories.
One day, I awoke in yet another unfamiliar land with no ties, living mechanically without a confidant or solace.
New body, new name, head swirling with wisdom and knowledge—yet I was a fool just breathing, unable to forget those eyes that finally saw me only after burning with a woman's grudge and revenge.
Myth or Greece—who cares? Alive means living.
Lost in self-mockery and apathy, that's when I met her.
"Who...?"
"My own myth."
I remember it vividly.
A pitch-black night, ditching idiot priests, hungry, scrounging the woods for meat to grill.
Then, a pure white shadow flickered from the forest depths.
"At first, I thought it was a ghost. But the aura it gave off was just so..."
"So...?"
"...beautiful."
It made my worn-out heart race again—an unknown wonder.
Past memories and regrets be damned; like a fox-led fool, I cautiously followed that white presence.
When I finally caught it, I stood frozen in awe, speechless.
A fairy-white figure gleaming even in the dark night.
Her every breath, every glance rippled with vitality and innocent blue eyes—like a miracle to me then.
Unlike me, a living dead man, or the sage who'd given his life to vengeance and cursed even the man who loved her at the end.
A soul from primordial times, so pure and clear.
I'd seen countless eccentrics and martial legends, but the first time I truly felt myth's touch was that day.
"And now my myth's about to fall into some punk's hands. Think I can walk away meekly?"
Whatever Nerii did to me, I could take it.
Tantrums, hysterics, even a knife from dark emotions.
But trying to slip from my grasp on her own? Her scheme or someone else's trap—either way, I'd make an example this time.
"Eh? Then why treat her like a kid? Boom! Just marry her already!
Put a couple cute babies in Nesneria's arms, and she'd never pull this again..."
"You mad bastard!"
-Thwack!
"Kyaa?!"
My lightning flick nailed the dolphin's forehead.
"She's barely middle-school age looking—no, not even had her coming-of-age yet. What the hell am I supposed to do with a kid like that?"
"B-but Lady Nerii's older than you..."
"Age the issue?"
Her looks aside, her behavior's pure child—expect me to do something serious with that?
"Y-you're stubborn in weird places?"
"You think I'm the weird one? Seriously?"
Gods help me. From gods to beasts, everyone's insane here.
Confucius fuck, seriously.
I mean, Greece or not, to a girl who looks fresh out of middle school...
"Haa..."
As I sighed, invoking Gongmeng's name,
-Kugugung...!
I shook my head and glanced up the stairs. About fifty steps left, and the palace doors were slowly creaking open.
"Nerii?"
"G-gasp..."
Through the gap stepped Nerii and beside her, a fierce-looking goddess with striking brown skin.
Blue eyes just like Nerii's, crossed by a long scar—had to be Queen Amphitrite.
As she emerged sword drawn, I readied for attack—
"Pfft! Puhehehe! Krhahaha!"
"Sis!"
—but the queen bit her lip, stifled giggles, then burst out laughing at the sight of me.
Nerii, flushed red as a ripe apple beside her, was a bonus.