Post-War (1) Rhea's Pregnancy Special Lecture
Post-War (1) Rhea's Pregnancy Special Lecture
About a week had passed since the destruction of Othrys.
It had been a grueling ordeal for someone like me, who had waged a proper war for the first time, but with the help of many goddesses and a few gods, I was pressing forward with the post-war clean-up at full speed.
The disposal of the crumbled Mount Othrys.
The disposal of over a thousand Titan gods and their underlings.
The number of pure-blooded Titans is extremely limited.
But if you count the countless children they fathered with goddesses and female nymphs as Titans too, the numbers become staggering.
Gaia and Uranus bore twelve children,
and among them, Cronus and Rhea bore six.
Were the Titans limited to just these?
They bore, and bore, and bore again.
The modern birth-control policy of having one child and raising them with loving care would, in this world, be grounds for immediate impeachment from the seat of a chief god.
You must bear at least one more—how dare you speak of bearing and raising only one?
In a world where even that single child schemes to seduce her own father and conceive his seed, it was only natural that the Titans' numbers would explode.
The Titans bickered among themselves over pure-blooded versus mixed-blooded descent from nymphs, but as of today, all of them will be divided into two camps.
The Titans of Olympus.
And the Titans of Othrys.
Before any argument over mixed blood or not, they became divided into the victorious Titans and the defeated Titans.
"Aaagh! Lord Zeus! Please have mercy on me!! If you command me to press my lips to your instep, I shall! If you command me to suck your cock, I shall suck it!!"
"There is no need even to hear your crimes. Tartarus."
"Aaaaaagh!!"
Thus far, I had accepted the surrender of countless Titans.
The center of gravity, Cronus, had walked himself into Tartarus, but his subordinate Titans had struggled hideously and resisted to the bitter end.
"Die, Zeus! I'll make you just like Uranus!"
"Uranus Thunder!"
BZZZZT.
"Send him to Uranus's side."
"Acknowledged."
Over the past week, I had been so busy that I had not once risen from my throne.
For what reason?
"What is your name?"
"Ah, I am called Atlas."
"Gender?"
"I—I am female."
"...I was told her elder sister was Epimetheus and her elder brother was Prometheus. Hmm. Will you swear absolute loyalty to Olympus?"
"Yes, yes! If you command me to suck Lord Zeus's cock... I shall suck it..."
"Suck it. And you shall receive a role as a Titan of Olympus."
I was selecting those useful to Olympus and throwing every last one of the rest into Hell.
And even within Hell, I was deciding which part of Hell to send them to.
Those whose evil deeds were not severe would live in the Grey Zone of Hell, where not a single blade of grass grows, as 'residents' of Hell.
But those who had committed grievous atrocities would of course go to the 'Abyss.'
This past week, I rendered judgment on hundreds per day, one by one.
I was no Solomon, nor was I a judge, yet I was forced to bring multitudes of Titans before my court and pronounce verdict upon them.
For a clean and radiant Olympus.
"You are sentenced to Tartarus."
"..."
The male Titan before me was led away without a word.
"Thank you, Lord Zeus..."
Beside the judgment seat stood a nymph with tears streaming down her face.
"I beg you, please grant me the chance to strike even just their cheeks but once."
"Permission granted."
Smack!
With my permission, the nymph slapped the Titan across the face.
Whether the suffering she had endured could truly be offset by a single slap was doubtful, but the nymph wept tears of joy from the mere fact that she had dared to strike a Titan's cheek.
"Place the restraints and take him away, Heraes."
[We obey your command, great Zeus.]
And beside him, the man who was the Titan's brother crawled before me on his knees and pressed his forehead to the floor.
"Lord Zeus! Forgive me! From now on, I will serve only you!"
"You had ten years' time. And now you say you will serve me? You are far too late."
"Ten years are but a fleeting moment compared to the eons ahead!"
True.
To a Titan god, ten years is so short a span that the word 'merely' hardly sounds strange.
But to me, whose entire life from my previous existence to this one does not yet total half a century, ten years can only feel endlessly long.
Moreover, these were the very ones who had attacked Olympus multiple times during that period.
How am I to judge such individuals?
"Foolish one, descend quietly into the Abyss."
Themis, standing beside me, raised her Scales high.
A blindfold covered her eyes so she could see nothing before her, and she held the balance of the Scales perfectly centered.
"In the name of the great god Zeus, I pronounce judgment. This large bead is your conscience and good deeds, and this small bead is your karmic burden."
Themis placed the bead of conscience and good deeds onto one tray.
And onto the opposite tray, she placed the bead of karmic burden.
Creak, creak, creak.
The Scales swayed left and right.
With each shift of the oscillating balance, the Titan's expression swung between heaven and the Abyss again and again.
And very slowly, gradually.
"Ah, aah...!!"
The Scales tipped toward the Abyss.
The tiny bead of karmic burden, not even a tenth the size, had clearly outweighed the other, and Themis nodded toward me.
"Chief God Zeus, the verdict."
"Hear me, Hecatoncheires. Hurl this one into the River Styx. Bind his hands and feet tightly so he cannot resist, and the ghosts of the River Styx will willingly deliver him all the way to the Abyss."
The wraiths of the River Styx are, at their core, water-ghosts.
They seek to drag the living into the same wretched state as themselves, and they tend to participate enthusiastically in such malevolent festivities.
"Muzzle him."
"Mmph, mmph!!"
A restraint mask was fastened over the Titan's mouth.
On his cheeks, large letters reading 'A' and 'byss' were engraved for all to see.
The wraiths would first rejoice at the arrival of a new ghost, but upon seeing the word Abyss, they would rejoice even more and send him crowd-surfing all the way down to Tartarus.
It is commonly said that one simply drifts down to the Abyss, but in truth, every current of the River Styx is created by wraiths stretching out their hands and passing the condemned along.
As for whether his whole body is groped by wraiths during the transfer process?
That is not my concern.
"Mmph, mmmph!!"
He was still resisting.
He must be doing so because he knows exactly how dreadful a prison Tartarus and the Abyss truly are.
"Do not resist, foolish one. You are a criminal who has committed terrible sins, and you shall writhe in endless agony in the Abyss. Yes, that look in your eyes. You wear the face of one who does not even know what crime he has committed."
I pointed my thumb sharply down at him.
"In Tartarus, take some time to reflect on what your crime was."
Clank, clank.
The Hecatoncheires seized the chains attached to the Titan's restraints and began dragging him away.
[Accept the Abyss, lowly creature.]
A deep, sonorous voice echoed from within a helm shaped like a beast's skull.
After the great war, the Hecatoncheires had remade their armor to resemble the 'Abyss' more closely, and they had resolved to assist the ruler of the Underworld in the affairs of the Underworld from now on.
"...Well done, Hades."
I reached out my hand beside the Scales and stroked her head.
"Hmph."
Hades, who had remained invisible through the power of the Kynee, revealed herself.
She had kept her finger resting lightly upon the Scales.
A bead of karmic burden?
A bead of good deeds?
How exactly would one judge, quantify, and display such things?
This was nothing more than a performance.
"Themis, the nature of his crime was clearly 'two brothers violated one woman from the front and the back at once,' correct?"
"That is correct, Lord Zeus. The nymph who was raped was on the brink of marriage, and the two Titan gods assaulted her right before her wedding ceremony. Furthermore... she was penetrated even in the rear, which they did not even use."
"Hmm, the Abyss it is. Convey my thanks to the children later. They must have been quite angry watching such things."
By 'the children,' I meant the Horae who govern Order, Justice, and Peace—my first triplets with Themis.
After the Othrys campaign, I had compiled a record of the Titans' atrocities in order to sort out those who had served under Cronus's banner.
Themis, with the help of the Horae, summarized the severity of the crimes, and I passed final judgment after reviewing them.
"...They are children who are overjoyed simply by their father's praise through a stroke of the head. Please show your face to them directly."
"Heh, very well. Once today's trials are finished, I shall drop by for a moment."
"...Hmph."
From beside me came the sound of Hades voicing her dissatisfaction.
I pulled her onto my lap in an instant, and she settled there naturally.
"You shouldn't be jealous over something like this anymore, little sister."
"Hmph. Whatever."
"Oh my, getting angry like that is bad for the baby inside you, you know?"
"..."
Hades fell silent.
Indeed.
Hades had, at last, become pregnant with my child—the very thing she had so desperately longed and wished for.
"Since you too will now be a mother, you must be careful."
"...But I still have to go down to the Underworld."
At Hades' grumble, I fell silent as if I'd swallowed honey.
The Underworld!
Known as the realm beneath the earth, it is a place so distant that even I require four or five hours for a round trip.
Hades had essentially become a goose mother, living apart from her husband.
Although her station remained in Olympus, the time she was required to spend in the Underworld had become so long that she had grown dissatisfied with the reduction in time spent with me.
"Everyone else will be in Olympus, having sex with you, Brother, and raising our children here together."
"...Which is precisely why I told you to do your postnatal recovery here and then stay at least a year."
That dissatisfaction was a complaint born of the choice Hades herself had made.
"I don't want that. A promise is a promise."
Hades had decided to become the Queen of the Underworld.
Now, the Abyss was beginning to fill up with Titans—not ordinary beings at all—as residents one by one, and there was an absolute need for someone to manage it, in case any of them might attempt to escape Tartarus.
If I were to become the chief god of the surface world, I wanted Hades to become the mistress of the underground realm, matching my stature.
"Sister Neptune left first too. I can't just stay here forever either."
Neptune, who had likewise resolved to become the mistress of the sea, had already departed Olympus.
"Sister Themis. Please take good care of our brother."
"I will. Take good care of the Underworld for me."
Kiss.
"...You speak as though you are leaving right this instant, but you still have at least five years before you go? You must greet your nieces and nephews, whom your sisters and younger sisters will bear, before you leave."
"Teehee."
Hades covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.
"Well then, I shall go visit Mother Rhea. Themis, would you like to come along?"
"Ah... yes. It will begin soon, won't it. Rhea's... childcare lecture."
Indeed.
Although only a week had passed since the Othrys campaign, the principal figures of Olympus besides me were now imagining a happy future and attending lectures given by Professor Rhea, specialist in pregnancy and childcare.
-How can one become a good mother?
Right now.
Hera and the majority of the Titan goddesses were in the middle of listening to the famed lecture of Rhea, the top-ranked instructor of childbirth.
How did things come to this?
The answer is simple.
The day we achieved victory over Cronus.
A wild, frenzied party was held, and I had sex with every Titan goddess present in Olympus.
Impregnation sex.