For My Siblings (1)
For My Siblings (1)
"Here. The emetic is complete."
Metis handed me a ceramic vessel filled with a sticky, viscous liquid.
The vessel was nearly the size of a two-liter water pitcher, packed to the brim and sealed tight with a lid and cover.
"You made this much?"
"Well. To think all of that was inside my stomach. Goodness."
"...It sounds a bit cruel when you put it that way. Still—the cauldron was enormous, yet only this much came out? You didn't hold a little back, did you?"
"Of course not. Do I look like that kind of nymph to you?"
"...I suppose not."
Saving Rhea and my own life were at stake. She wouldn't dare pull something that risky.
"Sorry. I was just joking."
"...Some joke."
Still, when I stroked Metis's head, she stayed still.
Metis pointed inside the vessel, her face sulky.
"I compressed what was in the cauldron as much as possible. When Cronus swallows the contents, the compression will release in his stomach and everything inside will expand. Then your family inside Cronus's belly will come out."
"Right..."
My family—known to me only by name, strangers in the flesh.
Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, Hestia.
Whatever else I might not know, these five were indispensable for establishing a system under Zeus on Olympus.
The Twelve Olympians.
I recalled that two among them were certainly children born of Hera.
'Did Hestia count among the Twelve Olympians? Was Hades included?'
I couldn't remember the details—it seemed like yes, then it seemed like no.
But what did it matter?
The kimchi blood flowing through me was teaching me the fundamentals—valid in the human world, valid in Greece, and valid even among the Titan race.
'Blood ties are supreme.'
Nothing outweighs the bond of blood.
If I planted half my own siblings among the Twelve who would rule Olympus right from the start, those who joined later would never dare dream of rebellion—they would respect and revere them.
And.
The Wisdom Nymph.
The Goddess of...Wisdom.
'She made the potion to save them, so it should be fine to keep her by my side.'
I hadn't met Hera yet.
So if a woman had already formed a bond with me before Hera, wouldn't Hera just look the other way?
And if Hera turned out, in my eyes, to be utterly rotten, couldn't Metis simply take Hera's place?
'Original myth, my ass.'
Olympus would be reorganized however the hell I wanted.
For that, it was now time to head to where Cronus was.
"Metis. Let's make a promise."
I set the vessel down and took both of Metis's hands firmly.
"I will definitely return alive."
"...Anyone listening would think we're lovers who pledged ourselves to each other. I merely offered my help, that is all."
"On the name of Zeus."
"!!"
Metis flinched in shock.
We were beneath the sky, and Cronus had the potential to overhear our conversation at any time, anywhere.
Yet the fact that I swore on my divine name—'Zeus'—rather than the alias Jupiter carried the same weight as swearing an Oath on the River Styx.
I didn't know if the River Styx currently existed or not.
"Y-you...!"
"One day, when I seize the divine throne, I will create twelve seats. One of those seats will be yours."
"...I am nothing but a sea nymph."
"A nymph and a Titan. You will be of great help in bringing that bastard down, and is it not only right that the woman who saved my family should receive authority as a goddess?"
I whispered into Metis's ear.
"In the new world I will build, you shall be the Goddess of Wisdom."
"...Truly, you speak such absurd things I don't know what to do with myself."
"So, do you dislike it?"
"...I'll be waiting."
Peck.
Metis kissed me on the lips.
No one could know whether this would become a death-kiss flag—the kind that appears often in war films—or a lovers' cliché straight out of a romance.
Everything simply rested on me now.
"Go quickly, you."
"...Metis."
"What is it?"
"Let's fuck. Your kiss got me hard."
"..."
Metis looked dumbfounded and put some distance between us.
At her kiss, my Zeus had raised its head before I knew it, and I was too embarrassed to face her.
"...The potion is already made."
"Wouldn't we need emergency rations?"
"Ah...pfft. ...Emergency rations. Heh-heh."
Metis shielded the vessel with a bubble of water, then opened the front door and went inside.
"If you need it, come back in—kyaahk!!"
I ravished Metis right there in the entrance.
There was no one who dared oppose Cronus.
All the Titans had no choice but to follow him.
After Cronus defeated Uranus, the mightiest of all, Uranus's blood had seeped into the scythe he wielded, granting it tremendous power.
The Titans feared Cronus's might, yet still harbored discontent and grievances against his tyranny.
Objectively viewed, Cronus was a ruler of formidable strength.
Against external foes, he showed the face of an absolute sovereign who safeguarded all of Greece with his mighty power.
His rule over Greece was not terribly bad.
However, after he witnessed all six of Rhea's children and swallowed them, and then began raping other women in Rhea's place, discontent with Cronus's reign churned beneath the surface.
Wahahaha!!
But Cronus was always surrounded by wine, food, and laughter.
Like-minded souls inevitably gather, and only Titans who enjoyed rape and slaughter came to surround Cronus.
Cronus also found those who spoke bluntly to be an eyesore and had them demoted, and in doing so, he demoted the one who would become the greatest threat to Cronus himself.
Prometheus.
The young man was a prophet, possessing the power to see the future as accurately as Gaia, the Mother of Life.
Knowing the future was akin to possessing the decisive means to bring victory in war.
Because he knew exactly when and where to swing the scythe before an external enemy would invade, Prometheus recorded his prophecies in writing and submitted reports every day.
But lately, he could not see clearly when it came to matters concerning Cronus.
He felt self-reproach and skepticism about his prophetic ability, but above all, he was incensed that Cronus now treated him like a used, worthless rag.
Although he possessed a special power, he lacked the physical strength to fight back and win.
In the end, Prometheus merely yearned and waited for that day to come.
One day.
That day would come.
Until a being appeared like a bolt of lightning, fully revealing its presence, he simply had to erase his own presence and endure.
Even if he suffered the humiliation of being assigned to manage a kitchen and oversee the food stores.
"Haa."
Prometheus let out a deep sigh as he peeled fruit.
The sole pleasure the food stores afforded him was peeling apples; his hobby was slicing the peel into beautiful, curious shapes and making carvings.
And if he had one other pastime, it was catching the rat-bastards that appeared in the storehouse.
"...Hm?"
But today, the rat-bastard was big.
Prometheus gripped the paring knife and watched warily as a presence rustled its way through the passage.
"What the..."
"Puha! ...Huh?"
Someone emerged from the floor.
A blond youth covered in dirt, who upon seeing Prometheus turned pale and lifted the marble floor tile to rise to his feet.
"!!"
The speed was nearly divine.
Like a lion pouncing on its prey, Prometheus was seized by the young man in an instant.
"I'm sorry, but now that you've seen me, you'll have to die."
"W-wait...!"
Feeling a chill on the back of his neck, Prometheus shouted urgently.
"Cronus is coming to the kitchens...!!"
"?!"
Alarm filled the young man's eyes.
Prometheus hastily hid the young man behind a pillar, then picked up the paring knife he had dropped.
BANG!!
The door crashed open to reveal Cronus, thoroughly drunk.
Dead drunk, he stumbled and staggered, then hoisted an oak barrel from the storage room.
"W-wait! Lord Cronus, that is the pre-ceremony wine for tomorrow...!"
"Tch! You gonna die if you don't drink the pre-ceremony wine, you little shit?!"
Slurring his words, Cronus shoved Prometheus aside, grabbed the oak barrel, and left.
"Tcheh. Came 'cause something pissed me off, and there's nothing here but a blind cripple...ptui."
Cronus spat phlegm and left the storehouse.
Prometheus, bleeding from the mouth, wiped his lips with the back of his hand, and the moment Cronus was gone, dusted off his clothes.
"...You can come out now."
"Ah...you are...?"
"I am Prometheus. A prophet. I have been...waiting a very, very long time for you. Last survivor."
The blond youth who stepped out from behind the pillar was Zeus.
Knowing the future was truly a great help.
And I knew this man's identity.
Prometheus.
The one who would steal fire from Zeus and scatter it among humans.
And the humans would begin to extol Prometheus, so an enraged Zeus would bind Prometheus to a rocky mountain and have an eagle peck at his liver every day.
'Isn't that a bit too Greek a way of thinking?'
I would not do that.
Zeus had tormented Prometheus undoubtedly because Prometheus had stolen the popularity Zeus himself was meant to receive.
In that case, I would simply spread the fire myself and claim the glory.
Considering how this man would assist me from now on, I could not repay kindness with such a cruel deed.
"Is Mother truly here?"
"She is. Lady Rhea...is here."
With Prometheus's aid, I stood before Rhea's dwelling.
The vines wrapped around the main gate seemed to reject any intrusion.
The vine thorns, like those of a rose, were heart-rending, as if they reflected the wounds she had suffered.
I reached out and touched the vines with my bare hand.
Sharp thorns burrowed into my hand, and soon the vines darkened with blood.
Rumble.
The vines parted to the left and right.
"Will you keep watch for a moment?"
"Worry not. Today, Cronus has...gone to rape a mortal woman of the earth."
"Thank you."
After bowing my head in thanks to Prometheus, I walked into the cave.
Before I had even fully entered,
a woman came running toward me with urgent footsteps.
A woman with dull blonde hair and a mature, voluptuous bosom bouncing as she ran, brimming with full-blown womanly charm.
"Ah, aah..."
The moment she saw me, she cried.
"...You have waited a long time."
She threw herself into my arms.
"Now, let us go rescue my siblings."
"Ah, aah..."
My mother, Rhea, held me and wept for a long while.
Was it because she was a Titan? Or was it because I am a reincarnator?
'Well, at least my little guy read the room.'
Fortunately, Zeus did not get an erection.