Rapist Zeus (5)
Rapist Zeus (5)
Thud. Thud.
Leto trudged aimlessly, clutching her swollen belly.
The nymphs watched her with pity, but none dared to help her.
Leto asked no one for aid.
She accepted help from no one.
She seemed terrified that if anyone tried to help her, that person would suffer terrible consequences.
"If you help me, you will incur the wrath of the goddess Hera."
With those words, Leto refused every helping hand extended toward her.
The misunderstanding had already been resolved, but that was only Zeus's word.
A woman's enemy is a woman.
Leto was perceptive enough to know that the Hera that Zeus saw and the Hera that a woman saw were not the same being.
Hera was a Titan goddess.
No matter how much Zeus insisted Hera was different, how different could she really be?
So, unable to shake off her fear of Hera, she ended up wandering the world.
Though labor had already begun and time dragged on, she only twisted her body and walked on, and on, without a destination.
No one was obstructing the birth.
She desperately wanted to show her children the light of the world, right then and there.
"My children... hic... will definitely be hated by Lady Hera...!"
The goddess Gaia's prophecy refused to leave her mind.
If things happened according to the prophecy, Hera would surely try to do something to her, or to her children.
"Hic, huuuk...!"
Leto collapsed onto the ground.
She had tried to get far, far away, but at some point, she found herself facing only a vast sea.
Walking aimlessly, she had arrived at an island whose name she didn't even know, and the island was quiet, as if telling her to rest.
"Huuuk, I don't even deserve this... aah..."
She could hear the children crying from within.
Even filled with self-loathing, even trembling before a fate decreed, Leto was a woman who had become a mother.
"Little ones... I'm so sorry. Just wait a moment, I'll rest..."
Leto sat cradling her belly, thinking of her children, when she felt a strange sensation.
"Light...?"
A golden light descended from the sky.
Amidst the radiant golden glow, a woman appeared, landing on the ground carrying a spear adorned with ornaments like peacock feathers.
"You seem full of worry."
A Titan goddess revealed herself before Leto, scattering brilliant light.
Her flowing blonde hair gleamed, swept back from a crown, and her passionate red dress gave her the appearance of a deity with formidable authority.
"You are...?"
"I am... the goddess of childbirth, Juno. A great goddess... who presides over the birth of all gods."
"A great goddess...?"
"In the beginning, there was Chaos, and from it, Gaia was born. I am a being derived from Gaia. I bestow blessings upon the birth of all life."
The woman who called herself Juno knelt before Leto with a benevolent face and met her eyes.
"The sound of a mother grieving over her children's birth, sobbing, has led me here. What pain drives you to weep so?"
"I..."
Leto told her of the fate she had been given.
At this, Juno firmly shook her head.
"It is wrong. The goddess Gaia's prophecies are not absolute."
"What...?"
"A prophecy may come true. But is it not also true that there is no law requiring a prophecy to be fulfilled?"
"But... Lady Gaia's prophecies are absolute..."
"Do you know the story of Metis?"
Juno's face was profoundly sad, yet she continued speaking as if shielding Leto, firmly gripping her shoulder.
"The goddess Gaia prophesied that Metis's son would overthrow Zeus's throne. But what happened? Is Metis still alive?"
"...No."
"Then can that prophecy ever come true?"
"...So?"
"That is not a prophecy. It is merely one of countless futures. In some other world, perhaps Metis bears a son who drives Zeus out. In another, perhaps Hera, out of jealousy and spite, obstructs your childbirth and ensures you can never lie down and rest, no matter where you go. But this world is different."
Juno stroked Leto's hair.
"In this world, Hera blesses your childbirth. In this world, Hera will regard your children as her own and love them."
"Why... do you think so?"
"Whose children are yours?"
"Ah...!"
Tears flowed from Leto's eyes.
"They are Zeus's children. They are the children of the man Hera loves most, so how could Hera dare harm them or feel jealousy?"
"Is that truly, truly the case...?"
"Of course. I guarantee it."
"Will my children truly be loved by Lady Hera too...?"
In response to Leto's heartfelt tears, Juno patted her back.
"Yes. So for now, focus on giving birth. Show your children that this land is full of love. If you had tried to avoid giving birth out of fear of Hera, that is what would have outraged her the most. How could such petty worries bring harm to a child of Zeus?"
"Ah, aah...!"
"The prophecy laid down by the goddess Gaia has already been derailed. So Hera will not believe that prophecy to be true. And even if your children eventually wield power second only to Zeus, that is no reason to prevent their birth."
Juno embraced Leto into her arms.
"Hera will, together with you and your children, serve Zeus with love."
"Ah, aaaah...!!"
Leto burst into loud, gulping sobs.
The sincerity she felt from the chest where she had buried her face was a woman's heart she knew all too well.
"Lady Hera, Lady Hera...!!"
"Cry as much as you need. And afterward... speak face to face with Hera, with an open heart."
Juno continued patting Leto's back and comforting her.
"Through dialogue, you can resolve this misunderstanding. Because both Hera and you... are women who love Zeus."
* * *
"It's a truly wonderful sight. Don't you agree?"
"...I understand, a little."
The nymph smiled wryly toward Leto, who was crying her heart out in Hera's arms.
"Proof that a prophecy can be false. Something no one has ever managed before."
"Yes. Not even I."
A child of Cronus would drive Cronus out and seize the divine throne.
That was exactly how it happened.
I became the king of the gods as prophesied.
"But now, you're saying things are different?"
"Yes. When Metis killed herself... the prophecy lost all credibility. The era where everything happens just as Gaia says is over now."
The eras of Uranus and Cronus.
Both had Gaia as an absolute existence.
But now things are different.
"I don't know what abilities Leto's twin children will have, but it doesn't matter if the prophecy comes true or not. They're my children. If they're capable, they'll claim high positions, and if both twins are outstanding, they'll hold authority second only to mine."
"Isn't that conforming to the prophecy?"
"It's different. A prophecy only points to one possible future out of many. We walk through life with many directions available to us, and it only turns out later that our path happened to match the prophecy. But living your life according to a prophecy... that can't be done."
I patted the nymph on the shoulder.
"If an oracle proclaims that a son will one day kill his father, and the father abandons his child because of it, wouldn't that blow back even harder? The son crying out, 'My father abandoned me!' and then committing the unthinkable crime of killing him."
"Is that from personal experience?"
"Haha, not a chance. I was just trying to survive death. If Father hadn't tried to kill me, I might have lived on as a general of Othrys."
I resisted Cronus to survive.
If that period of endurance were summed up in just two words — 'fate' — then the meaning behind my effort and painful time would be rendered trivial.
"There shouldn't be any such thing as preordained fate. Even if things happen as prophesied for Leto, it'll be because her children are simply that remarkable. Hoho, isn't that a contradiction? To want the prophecy unfulfilled, I'd have to hope Leto's children are incompetent, but because they're my children, I want them to be outstanding."
"They are of Zeus's bloodline, so they won't be merely passable. And since they share my sister's bloodline too... they may well hold power second only to Zeus."
"Is that a prophecy?"
"No. A prediction. Just as when a handsome man marries a beautiful woman, they have a handsome son and a pretty daughter."
"Is that so? Heh heh."
I stroked the nymph's hair and placed a kiss atop her head as a gesture of thanks.
"Thank you. For holding onto Leto. If not for you, she would have wandered the entire world for sure."
"We are family."
The nymph, the woman once called Asteria, quietly bowed her head to me.
"Though I am ashamed to ask, please take good care of my sister Leto. And... please keep your promise."
"A promise? What promise?"
What promise had I ever made with Asteria?
"As for your husband, I already stuffed him into Tartarus."
"You're being mean. My daughter is so looking forward to it."
Asteria puffed out her cheeks and pointed to her lower belly.
"You promised, didn't you? To take my daughter's virginity."
"That was your will, not necessarily hers."
My inner K-Confucian is speaking.
It is a basic human courtesy to refuse at least once for form's sake.
Just as it is proper to refuse pocket money from elders at least once with an 'oh, no, I couldn't,' is it not?
"I shall respect your daughter's will."
Inside, I was genuinely terrified she might actually retract the offer, but I silently waited for Asteria's reply.
"My daughter... Fufu. Very well. I shall take my leave with that understanding."
Shaaa.
"My daughter fervently hopes to be ravished by Lord Zeus. Hohoho."
"...What was that."
Asteria vanished into the earth.
She was still alive, yet no longer a living being.
To heal the physical torment left by the immense suffering at the hands of her former husband, she became the very island on which we stood, the island called Ortygia.
The nymph I spoke with was merely a remnant of her spirit.
Asteria was gone.
I savored the warm breeze circling the island and approached Hera and Leto.
"Zeus! It's urgent!!"
"Hmm?"
"Leto, I think she's about to give birth!"
"..."
I urgently summoned the nearby nymphs and directed them to assist Hera.
The nymphs, together with Hera, devoted themselves wholeheartedly to aiding Leto's delivery.
And so.
Leto gave birth safely to twins.
One was an exceedingly beautiful baby girl.
And the other was an exceptionally handsome...
'Girl.'
Leto had twin sisters.
The pretty one was Artemis, and the handsome one, I heard, was Apollo.
A birth beyond imagination.
I had never imagined that the twin gods of the sun and moon would be Leto's children.