Children of Zeus (7) Persephone
Zeus, Neptune, Hades, Hera, Demeter, Hestia.
Athena, Hephaestus. Ares. Apollo. Artemis.
Counting myself and Rhea's six children, I had filled eleven of the Twelve Olympians' seats. One more, and the roster would be complete—then we could formally spread the name of the Twelve Olympians far and wide.
The question was what to do about that last seat.
The situation was a little awkward. There were multiple candidates, but only one slot remained.
'Aphrodite, Hermes, Dionysus.'
Once I accounted for children not yet born, there were actually more candidates than seats.
But expanding to fifteen Olympians was out of the question. The Round Table was already being built with twelve seats.
The Knights of the Round Table were twelve. Jesus's disciples were twelve. If I arbitrarily expanded it to fifteen, all sorts of problems would follow.
One: the prestige of the "Twelve Olympians" would gradually erode.
The image of chief gods occupying a limited number of seats is exactly what elevates the authority of the Olympian gods. If the number swelled haphazardly, the authority of Olympus's rulers would diminish.
Challenger has value precisely because its ranks are capped at a few hundred. If the count kept inflating to a thousand, then two thousand every time, Challenger's value would plummet.
It's not as if I planned to invent a Grand Challenger tier later. Better to set the limit in stone from the start.
Even those around me who normally rejected fatalism grew intensely worried about "superstition" the moment we started deciding the Olympian seats.
-Thirteen is a little...
-Twelve is good. Twelve.
"Is it fate that the great gods of Olympus number twelve?"
I had tried to avoid accepting fate as much as possible.
My approach to the original myths had been to pick the parts that favored me and ignore the rest as best I could.
But when I floated the idea of expanding from twelve to fifteen, starting with Athena, everyone recoiled in horror.
I had thought the unlucky image the number thirteen carries in the West definitely came from Jesus Christ and Judas's relationship, but apparently the roots ran far deeper than that.
Fourteen... they disliked fourteen too, just not as much as thirteen. Quite different from the East, which hates the number four.
Anyway, expanding the seats had become more trouble than it was worth. To be precise, the idea provoked such a backlash among the gods that dropping it was better than going through with it.
Which meant we would have to fight tooth and nail over that one remaining seat.
Should I fill it with my children yet to be born, or with someone already born, already present?
To discuss whether to elevate a leading candidate to the Twelve Olympians—and to weigh my dilemmas—I sought out someone who would listen.
"Goo-goo."
"Lord Zeus, please maintain your dignity."
"Goo-goo, I'm baby Zeus."
I buried my face in her soft chest. Rhea worried someone outside the door might see, but even so, she wrapped me in a warm embrace as I acted spoiled.
"All right, what's the matter?"
Rhea drew me naturally toward the bed. She looked as though she had something else in mind, but she laid my head on her lap and slowly stroked my hair.
"What's troubling you?"
"I'm agonizing over how to fill one seat."
"What seat?"
"The last seat among the Twelve Olympians. I'm torn between following fate or defying it."
"That doesn't sound like you. Weren't you always the one who defies fate no matter what?"
"This case is a little different."
Think about it.
Among the Olympians, no Aphrodite? No Venus?
That might actually be for the best. Aphrodite may be beautiful, but she's also supposed to be sexually quite promiscuous, having had intimate relations with many gods.
She'll be born female, but since she's a being born from Uranus's genitals, her very origin is dick. There's even a chance Aphrodite, born with the shell parting open, might show up as a blonde-tanned delinquent.
Almost everyone is being born female except me, and if the cost of that trend is just one Aphrodite, it's a sacrifice worth making.
I might not get to bed the Goddess of Love and Beauty herself, but I've bedded countless other goddesses instead.
Yes.
With so many male gods being born as goddesses, it wouldn't be strange if one or two beings originally destined to be goddesses were born male.
So Aphrodite goes on hold for now. Likewise, Hermes and Dionysus, not yet born, go on hold.
In the end, if I keep the last seat vacant for one of those three, we currently have eleven Olympians with three candidates waiting unborn.
And there's one more figure whose status as an Olympian is uncertain in my memory.
This one possesses more unquestionable legitimacy than anyone else. The mother who bore this child is fiercely pushing for one of the Twelve seats. The child herself has abilities fully comparable to her sisters. And I remember her name with perfect clarity—a genuine Named figure.
Including her makes it fifteen. If three were to drop out, three more could fill in later, but there wasn't really anyone who deserved to drop out.
"The problem is that the person I'm considering for that candidate—someone you know well—is causing trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"...The person in question doesn't want it."
The candidate refused my offer.
She confidently rejected my proposal to become one of the Twelve Olympians. The truth is, her mother had been the one to make the request of me in the bedchamber first, but the sharp-witted girl realized my suggestion came from her mother and politely declined.
The reason was simple.
-I prefer living on the earth.
Rather than looking down upon the land from the heights of the sky, she wanted a life in nature, with the earth as her companion.
"That's a fine sentiment. Surely you can respect it. I don't think you're someone who would break another's will and force them."
"True. I want my children to do as they wish and grow up freely. But the problem is the child's mother."
Rhea's hand went still. The fingers that had been stroking my hair shifted to caress my cheek.
"Since you came to confide in me, it must be one of my daughters. Who is it? Neptune? Hades?"
"It's Demeter."
I tattled. I couldn't help it—among her sisters, the one closest to Rhea was none other than Demeter.
"And the child I want to elevate to the Twelve, the one who refused my offer... is Persephone."
Persephone.
The child Demeter and I conceived.
"So what you're telling me is that you've already accepted the refusal, but Demeter is now fiercely insisting on it?"
"Yes."
What's the cause of all this?
"Why on earth?"
"Goddess Gaia gave her a prophecy. That Demeter's child will one day be abducted by the king of the Underworld and live never seeing her parents' faces again."
"When did Mother ever say such a thing?"
"Back when we were staying at Gaia's domain."
In the end, it's Gaia again.
She could just stay quiet, but as she's aged her mouth has gotten itchy, apparently, and she trolls people with prophecies.
The last time I clearly warned her, so why am I still suffering from these prophecies? Because this one was something Gaia spread around a loooong time ago.
And it's not just one or two. Goddess Gaia has handed out life spoilers to more than a few people, and the spoilers they've heard number more than one or two each.
"Demeter is terrified of being separated from Persephone."
The Leto incident was something I endured and endured until I finally exploded and practically did it in a fit of reckless acceleration, but the process leading up to that involved truly countless moments of patience.
"So Demeter is trying to make Persephone an Olympian. Clearly to ensure she won't be sent down to the Underworld."
"That seems rather pointless. The king of the Underworld is Hades. Who would dare abduct Persephone?"
"...That's exactly the point."
I know.
I have some knowledge of the original myths, and I know who it is that abducts Persephone.
Hades.
In the original, Hades comes up to the surface and abducts Persephone. A furious Demeter is about to overturn the earth—Underworld and all—until eventually Persephone ends up living between the surface and the Underworld at fixed intervals, or so I remember.
Knowing the future is such a headache.
The reason I begged Gaia to please stop talking about fate is that it makes people in the present live in fear and suffering over a distant future.
For example.
What am I supposed to do if Persephone really is abducted by Hades?
What do I do when the fate Gaia foretold comes true yet again?
It's a headache.
"Surely Hades wouldn't do something like that?"
"I wonder myself if it might not be Hades at all, but rather some monster that's broken out of Tartarus and abducted Persephone."
"Mother, you know, don't you. The one who said that to Demeter was none other than... you, Mother."
"..."
Rhea fell silent. I hadn't come to pick a fight, but I could no longer share my troubles with her.
"Ah, forget it. Brooding over it won't bring any new answers."
"Th-then...?"
"Let's just have sex."
Once post-nut clarity hit, some brilliant idea was bound to spring forth.
* * *
La, lala—
A golden-haired woman was singing in a lovely voice. Before her stood another woman, gazing at her with adoring eyes.
"How lovely, Persephone. Truly beautiful."
"Thank you, Mother."
Persephone, who resembled Demeter, was like a single blossom.
Smiling brightly with a flower crown Demeter had made resting atop her head, she spoke.
"I feel truly blessed. I get to grow the earth's crops and make flowers bloom together with you, Mother."
"Yes. And that is exactly why you must... all the more stay with me."
Demeter's expression was resolute. Persephone looked at her, smiling bitterly, and shook her head.
"Mother. That is confinement."
"Confinement is fine. If only I can protect you from those who covet you."
Demeter pulled Persephone into a tight embrace.
"Once your truth is revealed, how many do you think will try to claim you? This is why I want to hide you!"
"..."
Reflected in the spring water, Persephone's face was fair and beautiful by anyone's measure.
However.
"Have I not told you? If the goddesses of Olympus learn your true nature, they will lose their minds!"
The deity called Persephone.
"Those mad bitches will try to rape you! Especially that Apollo, that one above all!"
So feminine in appearance.
"Watching my son get raped—I cannot bear it!"
Is a man.
Zeus's only son whose truth is known to only a handful.