Chapter 9
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: The Beginning of the Journey
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Perplexed Nesneria had no idea what possessed her to return to the sea.
Of course, it was only later that she learned Dianes, gripped by panic amid the new moon when the monsters' power waxed strongest, had chased after her as she plunged into the ocean and provided escort.
Coincidentally, just a few days after their first meeting came the day of Nesneria's coming-of-age ceremony.
Though she still looked young, nymphs matured at different paces, so her sisters simply celebrated their little sister's rite of passage with great fanfare.
Yet even amid her sisters' festivities, Nesneria remained dazed, lost in thoughts of the boy named Dianes she had met that day.
And on the day of her coming-of-age celebration, when Apollo's chariot raced across the sky for the first time, she arrived alone on the bright shores of Pasos Island.
"Oh? Back after just two days?"
Dianes, who had been swinging his sword on the pristine white beach, greeted her.
Under the blazing sun, his sweat-drenched face made Nesneria's heart sink once more with a thud.
"H-how are you here?"
"Huh? This has always been my training ground. The waves sound nice, and no one comes because of the monster rumors."
With that, Dianes picked up his sword again and began dancing precariously atop a boulder.
That day, Nesneria beheld the second most beautiful sight in the world.
His face, which had smiled so refreshingly at her, soon sharpened with utmost seriousness. The wooden sword extended naturally with his movements, dancing freely like waves riding the currents or wind racing down a mountainside.
And such days continued.
Every day at the same hour, Dianes would descend to the nymphs' beach to swing his sword, and Nesneria—no, the nymph called Neri by his permission—would simply watch.
Days of touring the town with him and learning all sorts of wondrous martial arts in the forest.
She thought those days would go on forever.
"Eek!"
"Neri!"
Neri raced to the nymphs' beach in a single bound and plunged straight into the sea.
Dianes hurried after her from behind to grab her, but she melted into the waves even faster.
Without so much as a backward glance, Neri surrendered to the waves and descended into the deep ocean.
"Sister!"
"Neri?!"
Arriving at Tethys Palace in an instant, Neri threw herself into her eldest sister's arms, who had been embroidering.
Her eldest sister, puzzled by the sudden clinginess of her youngest, listened to the full story and let out a deep sigh.
"Sigh... What do we do with our sad little maknae?"
"Waaah! Sisterrrr!!"
A nymph fallen in love with a human was destined to suffer heartache like this.
Nymphs, bound to one place and unable to leave.
Humans, burning through life passionately as if they could not be confined to a small world.
Their love always ended in pain for one side.
But.
"Neri, what's troubling you?"
"Huh?"
Being bound was a tale for other nymphs.
They were Nereid nymphs.
Spirits of the vast sea.
No matter how humans soared and flew, those who walked the lands of Greece could never escape the grasp of the sea.
No human could escape the hands of a Nereid nymph.
"Come on! This isn't the time for tears!"
"Eh?"
"Everyone, assemble!! Our little sister's going to catch her man!"
At the resounding call of the queen nymph, every nymph sister in the sea gathered in an instant.
Fishermen and travelers suffered from the sudden storm, but something far more important had arisen.
"What?!"
"Our maknae's tracking a man?!"
"Who is it? That black-haired boy after all?"
The sisters swarmed like lions of Nemea spotting prey, eyes gleaming ferociously.
Meanwhile, on Pasos amid the sea, a farewell ceremony was in full swing.
"Farewell, Dianes. May you become a hero whose name echoes across Greece."
The old high priest's hand stroked my young head in blessing, while behind him, the temple orphans gazed at me with eyes full of envy and jealousy.
Everyone seemed jealous that I was leaving this small island for the mainland—for the forest of Chiron, teacher of great heroes.
"I've thought this since the day you first arrived. Go now, become a great hero, and shake this Greece to its core!"
"May Hermes' blessing guide your journey!"
"May Lord Zeus bless you!"
"Yes! Take care, everyone!"
I waved back at their warm send-off and boarded the ship where Chiron overlooked from above.
Soon, amid the grand farewell, the ship set sail, and Pasos Island slowly receded into the distance.
"You look lost in thought."
"Well, yeah."
The centaur Chiron approached slowly with a clop of hooves and spoke kindly with a gentle smile.
"Is it that nymph girl weighing on your mind?"
"Sharp eyes, huh?"
How could I not worry?
After her coming-of-age, she'd followed me everywhere, and now I was leaving without a proper goodbye.
Even I felt unsettled.
"Well, she's a long-lived race. I'll see her again when I return."
"Ahem... Well, reunion doesn't seem to be the issue."
Chiron glanced suspiciously at the sea, smiled wryly, and knelt beside me.
Even so, with his adult build and horse body, his eye level was still far above mine.
"So, how does it feel?"
"The feeling? It's been a while since my heart's raced like this."
The Greek myths everyone remembered and longed for in my first life.
Heading to Chiron's forest, teeming with heroes at its center.
It had been ages since I'd felt this anticipation, like when I first entered the Ten Thousand Great Mountains after reincarnating into the Central Plains martial world.
"Let me see... You said you grew up your whole life on Pasos Island?"
"Yes, when I was young, Epharos the priest rescued me from slumber in Pasos Island's forest."
"I heard from Epharos. You were asleep alone by a stream late at night. Any other memories?"
Memories...
My past life and life before that were clear: as the Heavenly Demon Lord who shook the Central Plains martial world, and as the Earthling hustling through part-time jobs.
But oddly, I remembered nothing of my death or what came after.
Yet when I delved into meditation, fragments surfaced.
Endless pitch-black darkness.
Beneath it, massive eyes slithering, staring at me.
And after that...
I don't know.
Consciousness cut off, and when I came to, old man Epharos was watching me worriedly by the bedside.
"I don't remember well."
"I see."
"Actually, I want to ask you. Who forged this body of mine?"
"How would I know?"
Sigh... This old man's playing dumb when he knows everything?
I glared with axe-like eyes, but the brown-eyed centaur just smiled kindly.
"Three days before you arrived, the temple was in chaos. For some reason, the strong priests moved the VIP room bed to storage, and we scoured the village for sun-dried straw from the midday sea."
"Oh, thanks to that, I slept comfortably last night."
"Is that all?"
Even during cleaning, that mysterious scented wine hidden deep in the high priest's storage.
Turned out to be wine personally brewed by the god of wine, Dionysus, which old Epharos had prepared in advance.
He'd even slaughtered several fat pigs for a feast.
And during the sowing festival, he turned away all guests and banned entry.
"At minimum, Chiron, you were notified of your coming, or info reached about a centaur visiting our temple... But you saw me and said 'let's go' right away?"
"Ho ho... Is that so?"
"Despite old Epharos, the other priests, and even the kids begging you to take them too?"
In conclusion, the centaur had obtained info about me somehow and targeted me to come all the way to remote Pasos.
And the source was likely the gods.
"Well? Anything wrong with what I said?"
Then he must know how I ended up in this world, and who birthed this body.
The old half-man half-horse, listening with keen interest up to that point, suddenly clapped in admiration and laughed.
"Hahaha! What a wise child. I'm deeply impressed."
"Yes, that's right. I came to fetch you on the oracle of the great gods of Olympus."
Chiron slowly explained how he received the oracle.
"Let me see, yes. It was right after a war lesson with my disciples."
"I lay under a tree's shade, weary, and succumbed briefly to Hypnos's whispers."
Hypnos, god of sleep—his song's whisper meant he dozed off.
"Then in a dream, Hypnos whispered: A seed sprouts awake on Pasos. Place it in the hero's field."
Thus Chiron came to Pasos, and before meeting his old friend Epharos, entered the island's forest to prepare a gift—only to witness me confronting Artemis.
"And here we are."
"...Is that forest patch cursed or something?"
Come to think of it, when I first tried setting up a training ground there, I dealt with bandits and monster-like bears.
Thanks to that, I refined my martial arts somewhat.
Anyway, to sum up: the twelve gods of Olympus had their eyes on me, so now I was heading to Chiron's forest.
'Do the Olympus folks know the truth of this body's origins too?'
I sought the start of this body because from the moment I awoke, this strange energy flowed through me.
Similar to the divine qi I felt clashing with Daoist hermits, yet akin to demonic qi—infinitely deep, dark, yet utterly pure.
This energy coursing through my body's meridians aided my cultivation of the Ghostless Divine Art and budding demonic arts, yielding dozens of times the effects of my previous life.
If I could fully absorb it and make it mine...
'I might surpass the Heavenly Demon Canon, truly attaining the Divine Demon Canon.'
That's why I wanted to trace its source and origin.
It probably wouldn't take long.
"However, I know nothing of your origins either."
"I see..."
Maybe I need to reach god-level for info.
But Greek myth gods are disaster-level personalities...
"However, one thing is certain: you are a child of a god."
"A god?"
"Yes, a most exalted one at that. Always revere the gods and mind your conduct."
Exalted god?
Who?
Judging by the divine qi's dark nature, likely a darkness-related god. Who?
Pluto Hades? God of death Thanatos?
Yet the energy felt more like pure darkness, pure demonic qi, than death.
"Who...?"
"Ahem, more importantly, let me tell you about the forest of heroes we're heading to."
Chiron cleared his throat and changed the subject.