Arcadia and Thespiai
While Dianes was busy running about in the sea of hardship, three heroes gathered in the Grand Office of the Arcadian Royal Palace.
"The agenda for today... this is the last item, brought by Iason."
The Queen’s adjutant, the Chancellor of Arcadia, and daughter of Aphrodite: Ereinea.
"Aside from a few skirmishes, it wasn't too difficult. Damn it, those Thespiai barbarians kept charging like madmen."
The captain of the Immortal Phesakaines and Prince of Iolcos: Siphosdemonias (Ξίφος Δαίμονας), the Ghost of the Sword. Iason.
"Both of you have worked hard. I was busy as well."
And, the master of this Arcadia.
A great warrior of aura who possessed strength on par with legendary heroes like Perseus and Bellerophon, and the only warrior capable of matching Heracles stride for stride.
Queen Atalanta.
Today was the day of the meeting regarding the Sparta region, the former territory of Thespiai that Arcadia had recently subjugated.
"Iason, Ereinea. How is the situation in the northern region?"
The land of former Thespiai, now completely annexed by Arcadia. The Sparta region, the sacred site of Ares where Perseus was born long ago, was currently Queen Atalanta’s greatest military achievement and a great land where countless heroes, once buried beneath the Golden Age, had shone.
It was also a new territory that had recently come under the command of the great hero Atalanta, who had inherited the prestige of Perseus.
"...Or so the sycophants say."
However, through the eyes of Iason, a practitioner rather than a warrior, the former Thespiai—now the Sparta region of Arcadia—was an absolute mess.
"Thespios was never qualified to rule a country in the first place. They weren't citizens; he was wringing them dry like slaves."
Thespiai of Thespios.
A warrior nation where only the strong thrived and possessed everything; when the shell was peeled back, there was no greater disaster.
It was a highly deformed structure where the commoners were exploited to the level of slaves, while a handful of warriors monopolized the nation's wealth and land. For construction or farming, they would mobilize the commoners and drive them to the brink of death. If someone died and a vacancy occurred, they would either buy slaves from abroad or wage war to capture prisoners to fill the gap.
"I’ve heard the reports. To borrow Dianes's words, it’s a 'veeeery' inefficient method."
Atalanta wrinkled her face in disgust and shook her head.
Rich nation, strong army.
Dianes’s statecraft lessons were so brutal that the old days of broken bones and training through affection seemed like a minor inconvenience. The four syllables she had heard until her ears were sore echoed in her mind like auditory hallucinations.
To enrich the nation and raise strong soldiers. To do that, the commoners beneath them had to be prosperous so the nation could pulse with vitality.
"Thespiai of Thespios is a country in name only. It was practically a giant gang of bandits."
"Whoa... Atalanta. How much have you learned from Dianes?"
"...You wouldn't understand if I told you."
Iason marveled at Atalanta, who had changed 180 degrees from her past self and now exuded the dignity of a leader, but Atalanta only frowned and shook her head. Dianes had practically force-fed her all sorts of complex and groundbreaking philosophies, theories, and histories—she wondered what kind of country the Hyperboreans lived in. For a moment, it felt as if she had been welcomed by Hades himself.
"Even the Lord of the Underworld looked at me with pity."
"Haha..."
"...Am I in danger too?"
Adjutant Ereinea smiled bitterly without a word, and Iason wiped away cold sweat at the sight of Atalanta dropping her head.
'...If I reclaim the throne and become king, will Dianes just let me go?'
The answer was obviously no.
Dianes was very generous if one was qualified to receive his teachings, but once you entered his tutelage, he pushed his disciples until they met his standards. Hadn't he pushed Atalanta, who had taken the spot of his lover with Hera's help, through training so harsh that even Ares would have clicked his tongue? Frankly, there was no need to look at Atalanta; Iason and the members of the Phesakaines had reached their current positions by jumping rope all the way to the border of the Hades Kingdom. Even if the setting had changed from a training ground to a royal office, it didn't seem like Dianes would change his attitude.
"Cackle...! Iason, your time is coming too..."
Atalanta, pointing at Iason with a sinister laugh, was as chilling as the Furies themselves. However, there was one thing Atalanta had overlooked.
"Hey, Your Majesty the Queen. Did you forget?"
"Forget what?"
"I was the top student in philosophy and politics at the Forest of Heroes."
Not only that. In the Forest of Heroes, Iason was the only one who could understand even half of what Dianes said when he went off on his head-in-the-clouds tangents. Would someone like that really be flustered by Dianes’s lessons like Atalanta?
"Dianes must have had a hard time, too. Taking a bear-girl and making her act not just like a person, but a king. Tsk tsk..."
"Did you forget, too?"
"...What?"
"Bears tear people apart."
-Whoosh!
A vicious smile bloomed like a flower on her beautiful face. And at the sight of the crimson flames rising from the hand that had been stamping the official seal, Iason’s expression turned to one of having eaten dung.
"You really are a wild beast. When you run out of words, you use force..."
"Hehehe. A hero speaks with force."
"A-alright, I get it, so put that vicious thing down! If the documents burn, are you going to rewrite them!?"
"...Sigh."
One was a hero queen praised for being the first since Perseus and Bellerophon to awaken her aura, driving out an unworthy king and bringing prosperity and strength. The other was a peerless swordsman who boasted the greatest intellect in history, currently the third-ranked power in Arcadia, who had single-handedly severed the twin wings of the Mercenary King and cut off his arms.
Ereinea sighed quietly at the farce between the two, who were revered by all as the ones who would hold the future of Greece in their hands.
"Queen Bear and the Swordsman. Stop it and focus. Unless you want to see me return to the Forest of Heroes for good."
At those words, Atalanta and Iason sat down quietly and peered at their documents as if nothing had happened.
"Ahem, Commander Iason. Where were we?"
"I was reporting on the current state of the Sparta region investigated by the Phesakaines. Oh Queen!"
"...Sigh."
Although she hadn't built up a name as blood-soaked as Iason, nor had she broadcast her beauty and martial prowess to the world like Atalanta, Ereinea—now more famous as the Chancellor of Arcadia than as a daughter of Aphrodite or a mage—was becoming an indispensable presence in Atalanta’s court, alongside Peleus.
The heroes, who were either obsessed with fighting or their own specialties, were mostly ignorant of state affairs or administrative work. In such a situation, Ereinea, who had inherited everything from the Chancellor who had returned with his unique intellect and understanding, was an essential talent in the current Arcadia, where all power was concentrated in martial might.
'Last time Ereinea ran away on strike, neither I nor Iason could sleep for three days...'
'I’m already so busy I don't even have time to go see Lady Thetis...!'
'It’s obvious what you’re thinking. Aphrodite help me.'
She was a daughter of Aphrodite who was learning how to handle two heroes, much like training wild beasts.
"Anyway, back to the story, Iason. What did you see in Sparta Polis that made you add an appendix to the report?"
"....Because it was something worth noting."
It was when Iason and the Phesakaines had broken through the valley and finally stood before the Thespiai Polis, the city of Sparta. As they had always done, they had leaped up the sheer cliffs as if they were flat ground to observe the enemy lines from the highest mountain.
"After interrogating the merchants and prisoners passing through the area, I learned that it’s a place Thespiai calls the Mountain of Destiny."
The Mountain of Destiny.
It was a high peak overlooking the Thespiai Polis, Sparta. Because of its geographic advantage of being able to see Sparta at a glance, it was the first place the Phesakaines had targeted and infiltrated for reconnaissance. But what Iason discovered on that mountain, where one would expect to find a fortress or a base, surpassed everyone’s imagination.
"A magnificent altar built on the highest cliff, and the bones of young children piled up at the bottom of the precipice where the altar stood."
"...What?"
"It’s certain. Judging by the size of the skulls and the length of the leg bones, they were bones of infants who hadn't even been weaned yet. And every single one of them had their heads crushed and their waists shattered. And their whole bodies were tied up tight, too."
"That means...!"
Falling to their deaths.
Had they been throwing infants who had just been weaned off the cliffs to their deaths in Thespiai?
"I heard that whether they were boys or girls, they would tie them up on the cliff, and if they started crying, they would cut the ropes. If they were disabled or weak, they were thrown off the cliff without exception."
And the boys who survived were all thrown into the army to be raised as soldiers. The girls were raised solely as broodmares to bear those children.
"...Tsk."
Honestly, one couldn't say there was no life or death more tragic than that in Greece. The heroes traveling between Arcadia and Messenia were mostly people who had been abandoned and mistreated from birth. However, there was no precedent in history for a human nation, led by humans, to commit such cruel and heartless acts.
"H-how could they do such a thing...?"
Countless children who must have been forcibly torn from their mothers' arms and died in agony at the bottom of the cliff. Perhaps it was because those abandoned, resentment-filled souls didn't feel like strangers. Both Iason and Ereinea gritted their teeth, shuddering at the atrocity.
"It’s just like the Gu that Dianes spoke of."
However, Atalanta, the only one who hadn't lost her reason, recalled the monster from the ancient stories Dianes had told her. Hyperborea, Dianes’s homeland, where all sorts of magic, sorcery, martial arts, and internal arts were mixed. It was a cursed poison from the stories she would beg him to tell her as a lullaby when they shared a bed.
They say that if you mix all sorts of poisonous creatures in a jar and open it after nine days, the single one that has devoured the others will possess immense, extreme poison; this is called Gu, and it is used to curse or assassinate someone. And the infant culling seen in Thespiai was similar to that.
"It was probably to select strong soldiers."
Then everything made sense. The strong mercenaries who had faithfully followed the king’s orders even while facing the clans of heroes who possessed divine blood, and who had driven out Arcadia and established a nation in Sparta in a mere five years. It was perfectly understandable if only the strong survived from birth and were raised as soldiers who obeyed the king’s orders, excluding all humanity.
But even so.
Atalanta could never understand or overlook that atrocity.
-Crunch!
Because she, too, had been a dying child abandoned by her father’s hand long ago. A child who should have been protected but was not. A child who would have withered away as beast food if not for the goddess's mercy.
"Is King Thespios still alive?"
"I captured him and locked him up. He is arrogant beyond measure."
"I’m going."
"....."
Ereinea tried to stop her, saying there was still much work to do and it wasn't the time, but Iason quietly raised a hand to stop her.
'Not now.'
Atalanta quietly turned and walked out of the office. Her face was more distorted with rage than when she had faced the former King of Iolcos, the father who had abandoned her.