I Pounced on Hera as a Cuckoo
The cuckoo with its face buried in Hera's chest was me.
I was the one who had summoned the storm, and I was the one who had collapsed in her garden, trembling with soaked wings.
In my previous life, my name was Kang Woojin.
Thirty years old. Assistant manager in a publishing company's marketing team.
My job was dressing up other people's stories until they looked worth buying, and after work my hobby was digging through the original sources of Greek mythology.
Then one day I died, and when I opened my eyes again I was a newborn cradled in Rhea's arms.
My name was Zeus.
This was no possession, no hijacking of someone else's body.
The war against the Titans, dragging my father Cronus down from his throne, becoming the King of the Gods of Olympus—every one of those years was time I had lived myself.
Even so, the memories of the myths I had read in my past life remained.
On the page, transforming into a cuckoo and nestling into Hera's arms had seemed a rather romantic courtship tale. Living it, I was nothing more than a suspicious man who had shape-shifted into a bird and broken into someone else's home.
Three seconds after that realization hit me—
The transformation broke.
A flash.
The wet feathers vanished and my limbs stretched long. In place of a tiny bird, the naked King of the Gods burst into existence.
"……."
I froze, sprawled over Hera and pinning her to the ground.
One hand beside her shoulder.
The other near her waist.
Hera's palm rested on my bare chest.
Only the rain hammered the garden.
I have to run.
But running now would look even more suspicious.
And if I stay like this, I die.
None of the options had anything to do with divine dignity.
Hera's blue-gray eyes slowly raked over me.
Naked.
Soaked hair.
A woman laid out on the ground beneath him.
No interpretation in existence could render this innocent.
"Explain yourself."
Her voice was cold and lovely.
I smiled as calmly as I could manage.
"Could I put some clothes on first and then explain?"
The Queen's Scepter in Hera's hand slid up beneath my chin.
"Do you believe you have any trust left to fall further from?"
"Fair point."
The garden doors burst open.
"Lady Hera!"
Three handmaidens and a cluster of priests flooded in at once.
They looked at me and Hera.
Looked at me and Hera again.
And someone screamed.
"Kyaaaaaaah——!"
"The King of the Gods has assaulted Lady Hera!"
I'm finished.
I could not erase their memories with lightning.
That was the reasoning of a criminal, not a king of gods.
Hera snatched up a navy cloak that had fallen to the ground and flung it roughly over my face.
"Cover yourself."
"Cover what?"
The scepter cracked against my shin.
Thwack—!
"Everything."
"That hurts."
"I hit you so that it would."
I wrapped the cloak around myself and got to my feet.
The priests leveled their spears.
At their head stood Kalaon, High Priest of the Temple of Argos.
"Lower your spears."
The priests did not move.
Kalaon's grip tightened on his weapon.
"We have no reason to obey the command of a man who has dishonored Lady Hera!"
At those words, the laughter died in my throat.
"I'm the one who acted disgracefully."
I cinched the knot of the cloak and folded one finger down.
"I entered the garden without permission."
A second finger.
"I deceived her as a bird."
I folded the last one.
"And then the transformation broke and I knocked her down."
Laying it out loud, there was rather more guilt than I had expected.
"Continue."
Hera's cold voice stabbed me in the back.
"Right. It's all my fault."
I stepped aside.
Hera, who had been hidden behind me, stood fully exposed to the priests' stares.
"So why are you calling my crimes Hera's shame?"
Kalaon's mouth stopped.
"We are trying to protect Lady Hera's honor!"
"If you're protecting her honor, why are you turning my sins into her stain?"
I pushed the spearpoint aside with a finger.
"If you need someone to hold accountable, put me up there."
I glanced back at Hera.
"Don't pin the word 'disgrace' on her."
Only the rain was left in the garden.
Hera asked,
"And how exactly do you intend to take that responsibility?"
This was not a woman who would melt at one grand line about taking responsibility for a lifetime. I had to say what I would make public, what I would change, and whose the final choice would be.
"I won't hide anything."
I turned to Kalaon and the priests.
"I'll make it all public—that I entered without leave and that I made a mistake."
"And?"
"The person I apologize to, and the person who answers my proposal, is Hera."
I looked straight at Kalaon.
"It isn't yours to decide in her place."
Only then did Hera lower the tip of her scepter, just a fraction.
Kalaon stepped forward.
"Lady Hera is the pure Queen of Argos. She is not someone to become a marriage prospect on the King of the Gods' whim!"
"And who decides whether it's a whim or not?"
"I am the one who guards Lady Hera's honor."
"Then stop shutting her mouth first."
Kalaon's face went cold and hard.
"Lady Hera need not even answer."
"That's exactly it."
I turned to face Hera.
"You're the one deciding even whether she gets to answer."
Hera said nothing.
She also did nothing to stop me.
I went down on one knee.
Originally I had meant to offer her flowers. White lilies I had forced myself to pick in the middle of the storm. But when the transformation broke, they had all ended up smashed into the mud.
All that remained was a single wet cuckoo feather stuck to my shoulder.
I pulled it free and laid it on my open palm.
Hera's gaze dropped.
"Are you proposing right now?"
"The plan was a little more impressive."
"The plan where you snuck into my arms as a cuckoo?"
"Once I actually ran it, I found a lot that needed revising."
One of the handmaidens kept her head down, her shoulders shaking. She was very clearly fighting not to laugh.
Hera regarded me through narrowed eyes.
I dropped the jokes.
"I didn't come because Olympus needs a queen."
"Is that so."
"And it isn't because I need Argos's support."
"Then why?"
"Because I need your answer."
The wind quieted.
Even the storm I had made seemed to be reading the room.
"Why me, of all people?"
Because you're beautiful. Or because you're strong. Familiar compliments like those would only obscure what I meant. So I did not say them.
"You never pretend to be weak in front of me."
Hera's brow shifted, just barely.
"Even when you're afraid, you don't back down. Even in front of the King of the Gods, if you hate something, you say you hate it."
I lifted the feather on my palm a little higher.
"Because even after I became king, you're someone who can still call me Zeus."
The last part was not as hard as I had expected.
"And because I like you."
The moment the words left my mouth, my palm grew sweatier than it ever had throwing lightning.
I had not trembled like this even before Cronus, King of the Titans. Back then, all I had to do was stand and fight.
Now, no matter how overwhelming a power I wielded, I could not force Hera's heart into my hands.
Hera did not answer for a long time.
Kalaon started to open his mouth, but she raised a hand and stopped him.
"Lord Zeus."
For the first time, my name came from her lips.
"During the war you contracted with Metis, and you shared royal authority with Themis as well."
"That's right."
"How am I supposed to tell whether a man like you loves me—or simply wants my power?"
For a moment I had nothing to say.
I could have slipped out of this crisis with some smooth sophistry. But if I ran away that cowardly, I did not think I would ever be able to lift my head cleanly in front of Hera again.
"I can't prove it right this second."
The corner of Kalaon's mouth curled up.
I kept going anyway.
"So could you watch me for a while?"
"Watch what?"
"Whether what I want is your heart—or the queen's seat and your power."
Still on one knee, I looked up at her.
"Whether, even with the crown off, I would choose you just the same."
Hera's fingers slowly traced the Queen's Scepter.
"One month."
"That's short."
"Do you object?"
"No. It's enough."
Hera calmly laid out her conditions.
"Do not create private scandals with other women."
A chill ran down my spine.
Io.
Europa.
Danae.
Leto.
Semele.
Alcmene.
Names I had heard in my past life flickered past one after another.
Still. It's only a month.
I took down the Titans. How hard can it be to avoid one woman problem?
"Second."
Hera's voice continued.
"Do not conceal dangers connected to me on your own."
"Understood."
"Third."
She picked the feather up from my palm.
"Do not make my choices for me under the pretext of protecting me."
This time I did not smile.
"I promise."
Hera tied the cuckoo feather to the tip of her scepter.
A single wet feather hung, shabby, among the gold ornaments. And yet, strangely, it caught the eye more than a crown.
Kalaon stepped forward in alarm.
"Lady Hera."
"This is my choice."
At that single line, he stopped.
Hera did not take her eyes off me.
"If in one month you can give the same answer, ask me again."
"Next time I'll bring flowers too."
"Flowers will not change the answer."
"You'll still take them, though."
The tip of the scepter cracked against my shin again.
Thwack——!!
"Ow…. You hit the same spot again."
Hera left the garden without a shred of lingering attachment. She did, however, take the cuckoo feather with her.
I limped on the struck leg toward the opposite door.
One month.
All I had to do was avoid scandals with women.
It really was an easy condition.
Until I found the bloodstained footprints under the bushes.
The undergrowth shook violently.
A woman burst out of it, her priestess robes torn to shreds.
Io, a priestess of Hera's temple.
Beneath her collarbone, black letters writhed like worms.
"My King…!"
Io confirmed my face and threw herself straight into my arms. Her two arms locked around my neck as if to choke me.
Hera, who happened to be leaving the garden at that exact moment, saw it.
Our eyes met.
I opened my mouth, perfectly calm.
"This isn't a scandal yet, right?"
Hera's blue-gray eyes sank to a chilly stillness.
Io clutched my neck even tighter.
And, loud enough for Hera to hear, she cried out,
"My King, take me as yours this very instant!"
Ah, damn it.