Unbelievable Betrayal (7)
Unbelievable Betrayal (7)
Two goddesses shared a bloody reunion from the early morning breeze. Soon, they moved to a nearby tea house. Judging by the situation, the topic of their conversation did not seem light enough to be discussed on the street.
"S-surely, oh my god......!" As two noble goddesses suddenly visited, the shop owner trembled all over, unable to hide his surprise.
"I-I will serve you with utmost devotion!" The shop owner unhesitatingly offered the largest and best room to the goddesses who had graced his establishment.
Nemesis and Athena showed no particular reaction to such lavish treatment. They seated themselves at a table placed in the center of a room with a single small window. The two each ordered coffee and black tea, but since they ordered just to pay for the seats, neither of them touched it. They just sat facing each other, silently glaring at the other across the table.
"What's the matter?" Breaking the silence that seemed eternal, Nemesis was the first to speak.
Athena, not withdrawing her unkind gaze, slowly crossed her legs. "Why did you commit infidelity?" Athena, her eyes sharp, asked as if interrogating.
At her direct rebuke, Nemesis hesitated to answer for a moment, pondering without showing it. Although the interests were quite tangled to call it infidelity, Nemesis didn't particularly want to explain.
"Think whatever you want."
"Ha...." Frowning, Athena displayed deep disgust and a moment of distrust. But Nemesis, not minding Athena's reaction much, casually crossed her arms.
"That bald man was a low-quality drug criminal I had been secretly tracking. The drugs he was secretly distributing spread to the sea area I manage, so I couldn't just stand by."
The Goddess of War glared disapprovingly at the expressionless Goddess of Vengeance. Lightly brushing off that gaze, Nemesis reached for the coffee cup placed on the table.
"Just yesterday evening, I completed locating him and captured him without delay in one go. But after catching him, the bastard started babbling strange things? Claiming he was the Goddess of Vengeance's man or something."
Athena moved her lips softly, scattering undisguised contempt. "At first I thought it was just nonsense, but just in case, I called a mind-attribute mage and checked that bald man's memory."
"......."
"Then I saw a certain loose woman who gave her breast to another man and even personally served him."
Nemesis, who had been sipping coffee, roughly understood the whole story. "Your eye for choosing men to cheat with is quite the worst." Athena, looking down at Nemesis with her chin raised, openly mocked her.
Nemesis kept her mouth shut, but she already knew the bald man was doing dirty work. Because he was such a criminal of bad character, she had deliberately chosen him. She judged that if necessary, she could kill him to silence him.
"Was it you who killed the bald man?" Nemesis asked in an indifferent voice, setting down her coffee cup.
"The evidence was so clear that I gave an immediate summary judgment on the spot."
"......."
"Are you planning to take revenge?" Said provocatively, Athena brought her hand to her cutlass as if to show off.
But Nemesis only calmly looked at such Athena and showed no particular reaction. Seeing that, Athena soon took her hand off the sword handle as if bored.
"......Make sure Ion doesn't find out." Athena placed her slender, fair hand on the table and continued as if warning. "The reason I don't bother bringing this matter to the surface is not for you, but for Ion. If he learns of the betrayal you committed, Ion will surely...." For just a moment, Athena trailed off. "......Anyway, if you do such a thing again, I won't stand by."
Nemesis just silently listened to Athena's ultimatum without any argument. Apparently, Athena didn't know that Ion was currently staying in this Aronshied. Nemesis considered telling her the truth but decided not to inform her.
"What on earth was so good about that bald man that you threw away your dignity as a goddess like a worn-out shoe?" Athena asked with a face that seemed utterly unable to understand. It didn't sound like sarcasm; she seemed genuinely curious. After a brief deliberation, Nemesis gave an answer to such Athena. "You might find out soon too."
"What?" At Nemesis's incomprehensible answer, Athena's eyebrow twitched reflexively. "......What do you mean?"
"Think for yourself." Nemesis gave no further explanation and sipped her coffee again.
"......You've been like that since long ago, but every word and action of yours is irritating. Did Ion not pay attention to you, so you're sulking? Or did you think sleeping with another man would cure your frigidity?" The moment Athena sneered, a fine crack appeared on the coffee cup Nemesis was holding.
Nemesis fiercely glared at Athena, who had touched one of her few taboos. And in response to Nemesis's murderous intent, Athena countered with icy cold eyes. "Athena El Ortina Rayhard, watch your mouth."
"If you wish that, refrain from defiling the goddess's name any further. Act befitting the hero's wife...."
"Don't put on airs. In fact, you already know, don't you?"
"What?" Athena's eyes narrowed coldly.
"What Ion truly desires."
"Shut your mouth!" As the murderous intent emanating from the Sword Maiden spread throughout the room, the Vengeance Maiden responded with equal murderous intent without being intimidated. The cold atmosphere flowing between the two goddesses became indescribably thick, and at the moment their weapons slowly began to leave their sheaths.
"G-Goddesses...!!" An unexpected figure burst into that calm before the storm. "Something terrible has happened!!" The shop owner, who had opened the door without knocking, patted his chest as he hurriedly caught his breath.
At the unexpected reappearance of this person, Nemesis and Athena withdrew the murderous intent they had been scattering and focused their gazes on the shop owner.
"Y-you must flee immediately!"
"What's the matter?"
"The bandits have appeared outside!"
"Bandits?" As Nemesis and Athena tilted their heads, the shop owner fidgeted restlessly and stomped his feet.
"They are vicious bastards who kill women and children without hesitation! It seems they don't know the yeoshin-nim are here yet, so quickly escape through the back door...!"
"No need." Cutting sharply through the shop owner's clearly urgent words, Athena stood up from her seat. At the same time, Nemesis, who had been sitting opposite, also rose from her chair.
"I was just in need of something to relieve stress. This is perfect." The two goddesses walked confidently toward the front door where screams were echoing. Then the flustered shop owner hurriedly tried to stop them.
"Oh, yeoshin-nim, didn't I tell you? Bandits have appeared outside! Why would you go to such a dangerous place...!"
"Do not worry."
"You don't need to mind us. Just hide here like a dead mouse." As the goddesses spoke with an indescribable aura of pressure, the shop owner could not utter a word.
"I alone am enough. Don't think about interfering and just quietly finish your coffee here."
"This is my Aronshied that I manage. Don't treat me as an uninvited guest, uninvited guest." Nemesis, holding a sword in each hand, said clearly. But Athena, who had drawn her cutlass, blatantly ignored her with a snort.
Walking side by side, the two goddesses soon left the shop in combat readiness without a hint of hesitation.
"Uwaaaaah!!"
And from that time on that day, news of the notorious bandit gang that had been pillaging was completely wiped out, making headlines all over Aronshied.
*
"Nemesis, where have you been?" Ion, who had been pacing around the room, welcomed Nemesis back to their lodging in his socks. It seemed Ion had been waiting desperately for her, who had disappeared without a word after spending the night.
"I just went for a walk and did a little overtime work." Nemesis sat at the entrance, taking off her shoes, and briefly condensed the many events of the short time. "What's that?" Standing up after taking off her shoes, Nemesis pointed to the table near the kitchen.
On the table, which had been completely empty when she left earlier, a simple breakfast was set up, seemingly prepared at some point. "Ion, did you prepare this?"
"Yeah...." Ion, looking down with embarrassment, awkwardly nodded. "I wanted to do something for you, but this was all I could think of...." As Ion muttered apologetically, Nemesis shook her head and replied that this was enough.
"Thank you." After briefly expressing gratitude for her husband's effort, she immediately went to the table and picked up her spoon along with Ion.
Nemesis usually skipped breakfast, but today she slowly savored the taste and enjoyed a not-bad meal. And when the side dishes had decreased somewhat, Nemesis brought up something she had been debating whether to say.
"That bald man died." Nemesis, who was pouring water into a cup, announced the death of the man she had served last night in a flat tone. Hearing this shocking information suddenly, Ion choked and coughed for a moment.
"D-died? How...?"
"I don't know the details either. From the circumstances, it seems he got on someone's bad side and died a dog's death on the street." Nemesis moistened her throat with lukewarm water, keeping silent about the truth.
To talk about the truth of the bald man's death, she would inevitably have to reveal that she had met Athena earlier. But Nemesis judged that there was no particular need to do so. After all, Athena had already left Aronshied, and above all, when alone with Ion, she didn't want to bring up the story of another wife.
"Anyway, it turned out that way, so I think I'll have to find a new man." As Nemesis put down her spoon and said that, Ion suddenly became taciturn and fell silent. Nemesis stared at such Ion and tilted her head slightly.
"Do you have someone in mind?" As she subtly probed his mind, sensing something, Ion's shoulders suddenly twitched. It seemed she had hit the nail on the head. "If you have a man in mind, just say it." Nemesis said she would not refuse any partner Ion wanted.
Then Ion, who had been hesitating for a while, hesitantly revealed the person he had in mind. And knowing who the next target man was, Nemesis, very rarely, frowned on the spot.
"Truly the worst...."