Broken Handle (2)
Broken Handle (2)
Crete is called an island, but it's large enough that you could establish a kingdom inside it.
So, do people live on Crete?
Many do.
A great many.
At least several thousand, enough that they've gathered into villages to avoid dangerous monsters.
A land untouched by the gods' care.
Most of the living beings here are human.
Unlike the gods who dwell in the heavens or the nymphs who live alongside nature, humans are a race welcomed by no one—except for their daring resemblance to the gods themselves.
They are greedy, quick to blame and betray each other, and so weak that without banding together they can't hunt a beast even as big as their own bodies.
So one thing remains a genuine mystery.
Why do humans resemble the gods?
Or do the gods resemble humans?
When the first god fashioned mankind, did he model them after his own form?
No one knows the truth.
Humans don't even know what the gods look like.
If a god appears in human shape, they think it's merely the god's consideration, so as not to make them tremble in terror.
In a world with one-eyed giants and fire-breathing dragons, calling a human who can blow away such monsters with a wave of a hand an ordinary god is impossible.
Gods are beings who display overwhelming power unlike ordinary humans.
Humans worship them, praise them, and extol their majesty.
But consider this.
Because there is no great difference between the forms of gods and humans, gods can impersonate humans.
- I am the god of thunder!
- Don't lie! If you're the god of thunder, I'm the god of procreation!
- Zeus Lamb Rat Thunder!
Humans, on the other hand, cannot impersonate gods.
No matter what treasures they possess, they cannot fake the fundamental power of the divine.
- I'm just a passing traveler. May I stay here for the night?
- Oh my, traveler... Not in the barn—come inside. I'm a widow, but you won't be uncomfortable sleeping here♥
- I am the chief god, and you are pregnant.
- What crazy nonsense—Aaagh!!
If a god's appearance isn't public knowledge, they can conceal their identity.
They can slip among humans, avoid their gaze, and wander freely.
Just like right now.
'How long has it been since I last saw people?'
Rumble, murmur.
The people gathered in the sizable village were all moving busily about.
It wasn't quite medieval Europe, but the village had its own order and was a typical quiet rural settlement.
Yet something disturbed that peace.
Me.
'Talk about drawing aggro.'
A strange young man suddenly appears in a village without guards?
There's no reason for him to be here without cause.
The fact that they didn't hurl stones right at me, didn't curse me to get lost, and only kept a bow pointed loosely in my direction was more than generous enough.
The village I went to yesterday tried to shoot me dead.
Step, step.
"What business brings you to our village?"
The person who seemed to be the village representative strode toward me.
A white-haired old man leaning on a single staff, yet his gaze was sharp enough to pierce right through me.
"Good day, elder."
I pushed back my robe and greeted him.
"I'm a traveler. I'm looking for someone."
"Someone?"
"Yes. Someone I must find."
"...A pitiable matter."
When you show courtesy, the other party can't treat you carelessly.
The old man was treating me with due respect.
Human to human.
"...But whoever you're looking for, we can't simply admit an outsider."
"I understand. But I heard she's here."
"Who?"
"I'm looking for the sea nymph."
"..."
The old man's expression went cold.
Before he could give the order to shoot, I hastily pulled an item from inside my robe.
"If she does reside here, the one who told me to find her said to show this token."
"Th-this is...?"
What I produced was a broken goat horn.
The curved, triangular shape fit perfectly in the grip of a hand.
"It was given to me personally. She told me to show this to the sea nymph."
"...Wait here."
The old man accepted the horn in both hands and went inside.
While he was gone, I decided to wait outside for some reaction from within.
'How long has it been since I had a proper conversation with a human?'
After my reincarnation.
I had finally grown enough to show myself in front of other people.
To be precise, I had grown enough to wander 'outside alone.'
The problem wasn't me; it was the world.
A lone man appearing in a remote place.
Every village on Crete I'd visited before had feared and shunned a man traveling alone.
The reason?
'Because of Cronus.'
Perhaps a disguised Cronus had come to ravish the humans.
Their fear was perfectly understandable, and I could fully accept it.
So I quietly endured.
If the sea nymph really is here, I can't afford to cause a pointless ruckus.
Metis.
According to what Amalthea told me when she handed over the horn, Metis supposedly possesses a secret method to save my mother Rhea and my siblings from Cronus.
And—
- Metis will know a way to reattach the horn.
...She might know how to mend Amalthea's horn that I broke.
* * *
One week earlier.
I broke Amalthea's horn.
While I was grabbing the handle during doggy style, the horn snapped right off.
Honestly, I was terribly sorry.
But at the same time, I learned something else.
A goat nymph doesn't die from losing a horn.
Instead, when the horn broke, she felt no massive pain.
Maybe because we were in the middle of sex, she didn't feel any pain at all. Rather, she came so hard she passed out from the overwhelming pleasure.
It was practically side-effect free—if I'd broken the other horn, she might've simply come so hard she never came back.
- The handling... was nice...
Amalthea didn't blame me.
Instead, holding the horn on her head with both hands, she was deeply disappointed that she could no longer stuff my cock into her mouth pussy.
So I set out to find Metis.
The wisdom nymph.
Daughter of the sea goddess, Tethys.
'If she's a nymph, how can she be the daughter of a goddess?'
I had that question.
If she really is a nymph who is Tethys's daughter, that would make her a Titan, a goddess—so what's the deal?
So I asked Amalthea.
And she gave me a stunning answer about Metis.
- Tethys, who could be called her mother, bore her in the form of a nymph.
A Titan goddess who loved the nymph form and conceived her as a nymph—so she was born both Titan goddess and nymph.
'Tethys, that's a woman with taste.'
Objectively, I find the slightly peculiar forms of nymphs more of a turn-on than plain human forms.
If she has distinctive features like Amalthea's goat horns, you can base a truly delightful session of sex on those features!
'I heard she's beautiful too.'
Amalthea had given me her horn as a token and proof of identity, and she looked genuinely worried.
She was anxious that I might fall for Metis's beauty.
Unlike herself, a pure nymph, Metis is a goddess.
'Whatever's good is good.'
I hadn't seen Metis in person yet, but considering her rumored wisdom and beauty, she's bound to be an intellectual beauty.
'Now that I think about it, wasn't Athena the goddess of wisdom?'
Athena.
My future daughter.
I still can't forget the scene from a cartoon I watched as a kid—Hephaestus splitting Zeus's skull and Athena being born from inside like a bubble.
Athena is precisely the goddess of wisdom.
Gods' domains rarely overlap, so this is quite unexpected.
One possibility is that once the Twelve Olympians are established, Zeus arranges for Athena to claim the wisdom goddess position from Metis?
'Who knows.'
It's not like I carry a Greek wiki in my head; I just recall bits of memory as situations arise.
Hell, even among the Twelve Olympians, I sometimes get confused whether one or two of them actually count among the twelve.
"...I don't know."
I'm Zeus now.
So Olympus is mine to run as I please.
'I'll weed out the male gods.'
I'll let Poseidon and Hades be, since they're my siblings, but I'll fill the rest of the Twelve Olympians with my wives, goddesses I've had relations with, and their daughters.
Sons?
We'll see.
The moment any of them dares to go after a woman I've marked or tries to lock horns with me, I'll throw them straight into Tartarus.
The original source material?
Who gives a damn.
I am Zeus.
"Greece, my way."
My deeds will become the Greek mythology penned by some future Thomas Bulfinch. Bulfinch? Whatever.
The adult Zeus.
My first step is about to begin here, in a quiet village on Crete.
And—
In the distance, the old man approached again.
He looked me up and down with deeply sunken eyes.
"...The sea nymph has refused the meeting."
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. Meeting with you is—"
"And who is it that's speaking now?"
The old man slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them, he pointed to the side of the road.
"...You catch on fast."
The voice that spilled from the old man's mouth was that of a young woman.
"Follow me. It won't look good to the villagers."
She indicated somewhere with her staff.
I followed her(?) deep into the forest.
In the middle of the woods stood a house that looked like a hut.
It also resembled a wooden shrine, a mansion a bit too large for a single person.
Rustle.
The old man stamped the ground with his staff, and the moisture around him swallowed him whole.
Whoosh.
In an instant, the old man transformed into a woman.
With hair as blue as the sea and the pointed ears characteristic of nymphs, she greeted me.
"I received the letter. You're that..."
"Yes. I go by Jupiter."
"Jupiter. It doesn't feel like an alias... it sounds like a real name."
She could think that.
After all, Jupiter is another name that calls upon Zeus.
Just as Aphrodite is called Venus, I have a Roman name of my own.
I was using it as an alias.
Because if I went around publicly revealing the name Zeus, I'd be fucked.
"Normally I don't deal with people who give false names... but since you brought this, I'll accept it. Nice to meet you. I'm Metis, the sea nymph."
Metis.
Unlike Amalthea, she was a slender beauty.
With a fantastically fertile pelvis and a body ideally suited for pregnancy.
"If you stare so openly, I can see exactly what you're thinking."
Metis stretched out her hand toward me.
"What kind of wisdom do you need that made you seek me out?"
"Uh... um..."
For a moment, words failed me.
I almost said, 'The wisdom to bed you.'