Chapter 121
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: Realm of the Strong
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Her parents, who had long witnessed Prometheus's tragedy, revealed the prophecy surrounding her when she came of age.
Before the secret oracle could return as an even greater tragedy and engulf her, they wanted her to judge and decide for herself.
The greatest gift her parents gave her for her coming-of-age ceremony was the freedom to choose even such a prophecy for herself.
However, because of that freedom, she had to forfeit one other freedom.
Meeting a loved one, nurturing romance together, sharing love, marrying, and having children.
The happy fantasy that anyone who longed for Aphrodite's divine duties would imagine at least once.
But Nesneria, the goddess of the sea, had to abandon such wishes early on.
The child she would bear, the child she would hold.
Yet destined to surpass her lover—a usurper.
A fate even the loftiest heroes or mighty gods would dread.
If he knew, no matter how much she loved him or how much he loved her, could he overcome it?
Before she could find the answer through experience, the Fates plunged her into hell.
Beneath a black night sky without even a moon.
She had fallen helplessly into eyes blacker than that sky.
Jet-black sunken eyes.
At their core lurked a monster howling as if it could devour the entire world and still hunger for more.
Even when haggling over bread in the market, cleaning with the orphanage kids.
Even when cleaving waves with a sword so beautiful it would astonish even Nesneria, who knew nothing of martial arts, that monster would growl.
Her heart surged with black ecstasy at the sight of it lowering its head quietly and falling asleep when it saw her.
The smile of a black flower blooming only for her, the splendid martial prowess swung for her sake—it captivated her eyes.
And the love that accepted everything, even the horrific carnage she unwittingly caused and the ugly true face she revealed, with just a bitter smile—it bound her heart.
But precisely because of that, she was even more afraid.
Prometheus's prophecies were more accurate than any oracle, practically set futures.
Wasn't even Zeus tormenting him atop a mountain peak instead of chaining him in Tartarus, all to uncover his final prophecy?
If she thought rationally, following Apollo's teachings, she should step back herself.
What man could easily accept a fate where his child surpasses him? What man could readily embrace the woman who would bring that fate?
And if the seed she bore out of her greed led him to ruin, what tragedy could be greater for her?
So just as he wore a mask, she too donned one.
Like the nickname her lover always called her—a fairy.
Unchanged from the day they first met, she slipped innocently into his arms like a young, fragile girl, pulled his hand, and monopolized his gaze.
He would affectionately nag and grumble about the hassle, yet hold her close and soothe her. When she fled into the waves, he would pant as he chased after and caught her.
And when he said with his own mouth that they should live as a fisherman or hunter in Pasos.
Does he know how happy that made her?
Whether he became Ares's hunter or Poseidon's fisherman, as long as it was with her, he would gladly live happily.
And if he passed the mantle to a child who surpassed him as a hunter or fisherman, and that child too grew old and crossed the banks of the Styx.
No oracle or prophecy could ever steal him from her arms again.
They would have lived happily ever after.
Until Olympus crumbled.
Until all the seas dried up.
Deep in the ocean, for a long, long time.
But the cruel world would not leave her happiness untouched.
"Uh...."
Her final act of resistance—hiding in the sea—but the old horse inevitably turned her fisherman into a hero.
A chaotic forest teeming with every color.
Among them, crimson clinging to her jet black, veiling her eyes.
And even impurities she couldn't see sticking everywhere.
Her anxiety grew daily amid those garish colors intruding between the pristine deep sea and darkness.
Just hide it until the end.
If she revealed it only after being loved and loving more than enough, quietly glossing over it.
He was rough and crude on the outside but thoughtful—he might accept it.
The poisonous whispers that always monopolized his nights.
Even sharing his bed every night, those whispers never faded from her ears.
She had delayed this day, day by day, succumbing to the sweet temptation murmuring of ruin.
But just as those black eyes had begun her affliction, they now ended it.
Now he no longer needed a mask, and she could no longer wear one.
The play ended in an instant.
The little Neri, my one and only lover, the happy couple on a small island, the dreamlike tale of living happily ever after—all gone.
Now it was time for the child to wake from the dream.
* * *
"Hehe, surprised?"
Neri smiled wistfully, as if my reaction was only natural, and bowed her head.
Of course I was surprised.
What should I say? After dashing headlong to my girlfriend's family home yelling "I messed up, honey!" like some drama scene.
And suddenly grandiose Latin BGM kicks in with an angel blowing a trumpet announcing the apocalypse concert schedule.
Even with my surface-level knowledge of Greek myths, this was an unmissable mega-event: the Trojan War.
And the spark? Prometheus's prophecy that his child would surpass him.
'But Neri's the subject of that prophecy?'
Let me rub my forehead and recall: there was a separate nymph tied to that prophecy, her name was...
"But it didn't matter to me? My sisters always embraced me, and Amphitrite or Thetis too..."
"Right! Thetis!"
"H-Huh?!"
Thetis.
That was the name.
The child born to the sea nymph Thetis would surpass his father.
That's why Zeus forced her to marry some king, leading to Eris the thunderbolt troll stirring a beauty contest among three goddesses...
And that kicked off the Trojan War.
'But it's Neri instead of Thetis?'
Something, somehow, the myth I remembered had flipped while I wasn't looking.
And Neri becoming the prophecy's protagonist happened long before I fell into this world.
'Something feels off...'
Was Neri, like Thetis, an unrecorded protagonist in the myths?
Or did some factor I missed change the prophecy's subject?
If it changed, why? For what reason?
One thing was sure: in this era, prophecies and oracles were massive flags you couldn't take lightly. Doubts and worries chained endlessly.
"Whoa... this is a headache."
"Huh..?"
Not just any event, but the Greek all-star showdown's origin twisted from the start.
Chronologically, it's next generation, but with extreme longevity pushing over a hundred years.
Hard not to think of a war tangling gods and heroes into chaos.
I figured I knew the rough flow, and it was far off, so deal with it later.
But getting backstabbed from an unexpected angle...
"Hey, Dia?"
No immediate worry, but if this myth flip isn't the only one, who knows what else changed or how far the ripples spread.
"Dianes~?"
Artemis stuff? She won't blab from her own mouth, so minimal impact.
Heracles? Already endgame boss; a bit stronger changes zilch.
Atalanta? Pretty but no major myth ripples, fine.
But Neri tangled in the prophecy that sparks the Trojan War?
'...Just raze Troy the second I leave?'
Nah, forget it.
It was Trojan backdrop, but ultimately hero cleanup.
Fated event—even Eris's rampage didn't draw Zeus's ire.
Wiping Troy from history just changes the stage.
"Um, Dianes? Are you listening? I'm confessing with a super heavy heart here..."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, listening. But why the formal speech?"
"What? You're not even surprised?"
"Nah, pretty shocked."
World finale event rushing in outta nowhere.
Even I'd go "Oh my gosh."
"...."
"What’s with that face?"
What to say.
Neri gazed up at me with an expression hard to put into words.
"Did you hear properly? If we marry..."
"Marry?"
"A-A-A-A..."
"Huh?"
I got the gist.
But cutting in first kills the fun, and this blushing Neri beat the gloomy one from before.
"Have a... b-baby..."
"That kid'll surpass me, right?"
"...Yeah."
"That's why you've been hemming and hawing all this time? Too hard to say?"
"What?"
My words turned Neri's face into that of a cat beholding the cosmos.
But to me, it was a fear that didn't click.
"Someone stronger than me rising above by stepping on me—that's the natural order."
That was the realm of the strong.
The unwritten rule of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, the creed I'd lived by across three lifetimes. My life itself.