Chapter 175
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 175
Chapter Title: Athena's Excitement
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"Then, you'll do as I say?"
"You make the promise too. If you tell me to bow my head to the bastard who smashed my flute, even by some slim chance, then I'll go all the way to the end."
"...Understood. I get it! Jeez!"
In Athena's fully restored personal realm, I sealed the beautiful oath with the goddess.
They say a man who's been beaten once takes it better.
Though I'd half lost by her judgment, it didn't spark the old rage that would've had me grinding down a mountain.
'I've grown a lot. Really grown.'
For one, the fact that my loss stemmed not from martial arts or skill lagging behind Athena's, but because I was 'still' only a demigod played a part.
Soon enough, I'd awaken my divine power too. A rematch then wouldn't leave me lacking.
Plus, my opponent was a master who wielded godlike power—rumored legends like the Eight True Immortals or the Fighting Buddha—through supreme arts.
Above all, tumbling around Greece since falling here had worn me down too.
'I've long since taken down the sign saying I'm the best under heaven...'
How many times had I been knocked flying by Poseidon's spear thrusts? How much blood had I shed from Amphitrite's blade?
Not anywhere else, but in the crushing depths where even breathing was hard—I'd overcome crises there multiple times climbing back up, so humility was inevitable.
Even my masters would've sobered up seeing a giant moray eel in those depths.
And Athena was a warrior so outstanding it felt unfair comparing her to fools like Apollo or Artemis. It even fondly recalled those days brawling with my twelve masters by the River Styx.
"Is there something that doesn't sit right with you?"
"Not at all. If anything, I'm at a loss with this merciful offer from such a beautiful goddess."
It wasn't empty flattery.
Even Zeus favoring her above all his other children made sense.
Just, her chest—that side drawing men's eyes with her voluptuous figure and stunning legs—was regrettably, oh so very small.
Yet even that modest chest seemed charming, making Athena a truly beautiful goddess.
Aphrodite aside, tales of her rivaling Hera in beauty rang true.
'No, rivaling Queen Hera with breasts like that(?)—isn't that even more impressive?'
My god.
Turning even her weakness into a strength.
The goddess of strategy indeed!
"...What are you thinking?"
Perhaps sensing the odd vibe, Athena wiped her expression clean and glared at me.
"Huh?"
I flashed a slippery grin at her ghostly—no, divine—intuition, but she only puckered her lips slightly, no further reaction.
Well, Athena, jaded by the Olympian gods' womanizing—going further than Artemis by vowing eternal maidenhood in the Styx—would naturally be sensitive to such things.
"Anyway, we'll proceed as agreed?"
"Yes, yes. I'm plenty satisfied with that~"
Honestly, even I saw her proposal as extremely generous to me.
Nominally punishment, but calling this a penalty would have Tartarus's divees clawing their way up in rage.
Having once led what was half a religious order, I well understood how an organization Olympus's size thirsted for authority and prestige.
Athena had conceded quite a bit, in fact.
"You may withdraw now. When you awaken your divine power, I'll summon you then."
With the agreement settled, Athena gestured, and a portal to the outside opened behind me.
"Then I'll eagerly await the day you call, senior."
"...I'll look forward to it as well."
I bowed politely with clasped hands, and Athena thumped her chest with her fist in salute.
This one, small-chested right to the end.
"...Hoo."
Dianes vanished outside, offering respect with that unfamiliar greeting.
Once the door fully closed, Athena finally flopped onto the table.
"How long has it been since I fought so... enjoyably?"
She'd achieved her original goal.
Athena's sole aim had been one thing.
Resolving this incident to exclude Olympus's losses as much as possible, turning it to their gain.
Initially wary that even Apollo's blunder might tarnish Olympus's honor at a demigod's hands.
But after their first clash, Athena realized.
This hero.
He had to be drawn into Olympus.
No, even if not, she must at least maintain ties with him.
Shed entered lightly at first.
But her evaluation soared higher with each exchange—Apollo forgotten, all thoughts turned to securing Dianes for Olympus somehow.
After the Messenian Hero War's fame, Athena had gathered intel on this hero Dianes every which way, yet his trail was oddly murky.
Surely a demigod rising as this incident's protagonist would have no ordinary divine parent.
His origins? Suddenly appearing one day at Zeus's temple in Pasos, nothing more.
What he'd done before, how he'd mastered such myriad skills—impossible to trace.
Hearsay: bosom buddies with Ares, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon; martial and scholarly prowess even astounding father Zeus?
Shed dismissed it as gods hyping a new demigod whirlwind.
Yet in that very encounter, Athena felt a battle thrill unseen in millennia.
"Indeed, Pallas. You were right."
Pallas, the giant god of war.
The origin of her epithet Palladia—the giant shed defeated, inheriting war's divine power from him—was stronger and swifter than any warrior shed faced.
His twin axes whirling like storms, that massive eye unerringly tracking her.
The fury still vivid, Athena quietly recalled that fight.
For over a month they'd clashed without respite, sharing no small talk meantime.
Athena had thought Titans savage man-eaters, but Pallas—contrary to his brutish looks—was a courteous warrior, well knowing how precious a rival his equal was.
'Young goddess, splendid warrior. How tragic that you and I are foes—how tragic!'
So alike, so similar, destined enemies.
Pinned on her spear at the end, he'd smiled radiantly, as if even defeat delighted him, dissolving to ash.
Thousands of years since Athena vanquished Pallas and inherited war's divinity.
No true war in that endless span—Athena mired in boredom.
But today.
Her long-dormant battle lust erupted fiercely.
The warrior's spirit shed nearly forgotten.
Pouring all strength into swings, blocking desperately, razor-edge moments repeating.
Who could've imagined?
Not just any Athena, but Palladia Athena, fully manifesting her war herald.
Exposing all for victory—winning not by skill, power, or authority, but solely because her foe bore mortal flesh?
Not even total victory.
Dianes wielded a bizarre weapon Athena had never seen; intel said his mains were spear, sword, bare hands.
With spear, he'd matched Chiron, drawing out the Mad Demon Spear.
Bare hands, he'd bested Heracles; somehow taught Artemis's daughter Atalanta, guiding her to awaken Aura this time.
If he'd stuck to spear, sword, or even those startling fists instead of that clumsy giant weapon?
His prowess was so profound even Athena couldn't predict the winner.
Athena wondered.
What art was that? How had a demigod grown strong enough to rival gods? What talent enabled it?
As goddess of war, her body burned to know—she threw everything at Dianes.
To her, a goddess, only time remained.
Bound by oath, even if Dianes gained divinity, their deal was ironclad. She could leisurely dissect this black demigod.
"Heh heh heh..."
In her splendid, empty divine realm.
Athena vented her heart freely.
"I'm curious! So curious! What's lurking inside him!?"
Her overcharged battle lust—ever seething—finally vented refreshingly, replaced by her chronic affliction: manic thirst for knowledge.
Eustrophia Athena.
Athena of talents and skills.
This goddess with Olympus's most divine powers had seized them all herself—unlike Apollo or Artemis.
The drive? Endless knowledge lust.
Inherited wisdom and intellect from mother Wisdom blazed as curiosity for all creation; millennia of inquiry elevated her insight to prophecy.
Two bouts, two losses—her knowledge lust, ignited, burned for this rare enigma as fiercely as her battle spirit.
"Hoo... hoo... Calm down. Must calm down. Nearly disgraced myself just now."
Hadn't she just said time was all she had?
After eons, this enigma—she'd savor it very, very slowly.
"I'm a goddess, you know. Patience like that is nothing. Nothing at all. Heh heh heh..."
The chronic plague of all Olympians.
Free at last from soul-crushing ennui, Athena felt utterly refreshed.
A promising rival worth clashing millennia for the warrior; an enigma worth millennia savoring for the wisdom goddess.
Heart pounding like a child before a candy box.
"First things first... Apollo—that fool comes first."
No letting the ignorant sun melt her rare delight.
Even if the sun raged, it couldn't touch the black shadow—but losing one enigma to that clash? Unacceptable.
"...Should I see Father."
Drawing her final card, but worth it. Nodding firmly, Athena strode brightly toward Olympus.