Fucking Humans Never Change (1)
Ever since the Twelve Olympians took their places, the world had grown steadily more stable. The goddesses who governed the land made grain and fruit flourish across the earth, and the gods who governed the sky helped me stabilize the climate.
Ahh, this is the Mediterranean climate!
I finally understood why Greece had prospered. The weather was so dependable, and we could truly savor life here.
And.
I experienced the dignity of a Titan god firsthand. Time might be relative, but about two hundred years had already flowed by since my reincarnation into this world.
That was it.
Two hundred years.
I still maintained the exact same appearance as when I defeated Cronus, and the other gods also kept their looks from their prime. Unless something special happened, our current appearances would probably become fixed. Occasionally I thought I'd grow sick of seeing these faces for a lifetime, but since every single one of them was a beauty, the thought never stuck.
Two hundred years later.
I stood at a crossroads.
"Fucking hell."
Humans.
"I hate human wretches."
Humans.
The humans I loved so dearly.
Right now they were showing me how utterly shitty they could be. Showing me exactly the kind of behavior you'd expect from Greeks.
Was it Uranus's curse? Cronus's curse?
Or a curse from Gaia, who had become my enemy?
If not that, a curse from the Titan gods we'd buried in Tartarus?
"Athena, shall we just sweep the humans away?"
"I don't particularly mind either way, but only if that is your will, Lord Zeus."
By now even Athena had reached the point of defending me. Back when she was Metis, she had protected and cherished intelligent humans. Now she was agreeing with my proposal to exterminate every last one of them.
"How did things end up like this?"
It was truly ridiculous.
I'd thought humans would naturally thrive and prosper, but reality was different.
The law of the jungle was fundamental to all animals, and humans on the whole were not exactly sane.
"Athena, shall we disguise ourselves as travelers for a bit?"
"You intend to disguise yourself as a human and observe their lives directly?"
"Yeah. I think I need to experience it for myself. How they think, how they live."
It had been scarcely two hundred years since Prometheus shared fire with the earth.
In that span, humans and humanity had flourished considerably.
Faster, more strangely, and in a more revolting direction than I'd ever imagined.
"Won't it be dangerous, Lord Zeus?"
"If that happens, you'll have to rescue me."
"Understood. Then... what shall we disguise ourselves as?"
"Let me think... to deceive those bastards, siblings would be fitting."
I would see and hear the actions of humans with my own eyes and ears.
* * *
"Almighty Zeus. Merciful Prometheus. We are overcome with gratitude for granting us light and fire again today."
Homoeros pressed his hands together and offered a prayer to the stone statues of the two men standing in front of the village. Like guardian deity statues protecting the settlement, the two figures faced each other while seeming to glare at any intruder.
"Huh?"
Homoeros noticed the two people, a man and a woman, standing beneath the statue of Zeus. Dressed in high-quality clothing, the two looked like they had come from a distant tribe, and even standing motionless they radiated dignity.
They were no ordinary beings. Homoeros approached them cautiously.
"Greetings, strangers. What business brings you to Promethepolis?"
"Is this place called Promethepolis?"
The man's voice was a deep, beautiful mid-range tone. Just hearing a voice that seemed to resonate in his lower body made Homoeros feel oddly embarrassed.
"That is correct. To honor Lord Prometheus, who brought fire to mankind, we named this place Promethepolis."
"...Hmph."
The blonde woman who appeared to be the man's sister had eyes that looked somewhere between dissatisfied and disapproving. A woman daring to make such an expression was unthinkable in Promethepolis, but since she was a stranger, he let it slide.
"So, what business...?"
"We are pilgrims. Guided by the wise goddess Athena, we travel the world gathering wisdom."
"The goddess Athena? Hmm, she is indeed a wise being. However..."
Homoeros pounded his chest and grinned broadly.
"Could she be wiser than the great Lord Zeus, for goodness' sake?! No matter how wise she is, she is merely the wisest among goddesses. She cannot be wiser than Lord Zeus, who is like the sky itself. Ha ha ha."
"..."
The man's expression hardened. The woman who had been full of discontent just moments ago now held the man's arm and soothed him instead.
"...Ahem, my apologies. You said you follow the guidance of the goddess Athena. I was rude."
"...We'd like to stay for just a day. Must we ask permission from a village representative?"
"That won't be necessary. Ordinarily perhaps, but right now the city is open to all. A festival begins this very night, you see."
"A festival?"
"That's right. A festival for men. For true warriors."
At Homoeros's words, both the man and woman's expressions went stiff. Because they'd spotted two men walking behind him and had turned deathly pale.
"Hah, hah."
The men each clutched several leashes in their hands. The leashes, more than one or two, were fastened around the necks of women barely clothed in rags.
"These are slaves captured in an earlier war. They foolishly attacked us with weapons made of wood. Ha ha, as if we don't possess the power of fire granted by merciful Prometheus. Do you happen to know of 'bronze'? It's extraordinary, that stuff."
"So you... plundered other humans?"
"Minerva."
The man addressed the woman as Minerva.
"This is how the people here live. As strangers, we can only observe their way of life. Calm yourself. Forgive us."
"Not at all. She is a fellow female, so... it's understandable if she's uncomfortable. But this is the providence of nature. It is a common matter here. That is because we have come to realize the truth."
Homoeros nodded as if it were obvious.
"Just as the great Zeus is male, men are beings akin to the great sky itself. How could a man possibly look a woman in the eye and... ahem. Anyway, that is the way things are here."
Pointing at the men carrying the women off as though they were accessories, Homoeros smiled greasily.
"In nature, the weak are weeded out. The weak become prey for the strong. If left alone, these women would have been devoured by beasts. But we protect them instead."
"What exactly do you do when you lead them around like that? Do you just lay three or four down on a bed and toy with them?"
"Excuse me? Why would a man lie with a woman? It's not as if you intend to make her bear children."
The two seemed greatly shocked by Homoeros's words.
"A man and a woman..."
"...don't have sex?"
"Ha ha, indulging in lust is not a matter between men and women. Anyway, welcome. This place, Promethepolis, welcomes pilgrims."
With bitter expressions, the man and woman quietly entered the house provided for strangers.
Their eyes took in men on all sides who kept women as slaves.
* * *
"I thought maybe they had some special taste, but no. They were just perverts."
"Yeah."
Minerva, Athena, sank down onto the bed, her face showing she truly could not understand.
"They were only given fire, and yet why did they change like this? The people on Crete were not like this."
"Isn't it because they gained power?"
I agreed with the phrase 'law of the jungle.'
Because I'd lived through the modern era and experienced it directly, and while learning history I'd come to know the countless patterns in which humans split into rulers and the ruled.
But Greece was different.
Back when I lived on Crete, the humans then were so good-natured that I thought the theory of innate human goodness must be definitely correct.
-Ha ha, Lord Jupiter! I baked bread, want some? Lady Metis, please eat with us!
-That's bread? It's a lump of rock.
-Ha ha, Lady Metis is always so happy whenever Lord Jupiter comes, so this is the least we can do in return— Eep!
-Get out!
-Thank you, Lord Jupiter!
Compared to future humans they were nothing but kindhearted pushovers, but they were pure and good, so we trusted humanity.
We believed in humanity's potential.
"I feel like we somehow botched raising our children."
"We didn't raise them, so what do you mean botched."
"Giving fire to humans was our decision."
Athena let out a deep sigh.
"I never imagined it would lead to such results. Just because they have a little power, they turn people into slaves and act as if they themselves are something magnificent..."
"It's fine. Don't be disheartened. Maybe humans were always this kind of existence."
"Is that really so..."
Creeeak.
The door opened.
Outside stood a man who had shaved his head like Prometheus. Wearing only trousers and with his chest thickly coated in olive oil, he stood at the doorway.
"My dear, won't you enjoy the festival?"
Dear? Dear?
"The festival?"
"Yes. Today is the festival. Let's enjoy it together. All. To, ge, ther."
Chills ran down my spine.
I had the feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.
And then.
"This is the festival."
"..."
ANG!
I'm certain I never taught them, but as soon as roughly two hundred years had passed, Greek bastards were rubbing their dicks together.
"Men are truly great. The great Lord Zeus is also a man, is he not? So... the joining of men with men, that is the truest union."
I realized anew once again.
That these creatures were Homo sapiens sapiens.
"Darling. That a human's asshole has another use... did you kn—"
SMACK.
The bastard yapping in front of me got his jaw blown off. I'd tried to avoid using this expression whenever possible, but looking at the bastard's face, I couldn't help thinking it.
"Minerva."
"Brother! That bastard!!"
Fury blazing in her eyes, Minerva pointed at the wretch whose face she'd pounded into a bloody pulp with her fist.
"He dared to try and touch your ass, Brother!"
"Yeah. You did well. Though the fact that your fist landed on that filthy bastard's face bothers me more, actually."
I picked up a shovel-like object leaning against the wall.
"From now on, let's use a tool."
Clang.
Clangclang.
Clangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclangclang.
"Hoo."
I made a resolution.
"Minerva."
"Yes."
"Let's smash the skulls of all these... fucking faggot bastards."
They weren't just bastards who dared rub their dicks at Zeus; they were bastards who tried to ram their dicks into him.
"It's divine profanation."
I endured the slave system.
I endured the plunder economy.
I endured the wars of conquest.
I endured the contempt for humanity.
But.
"I hate human wretches!"
That was the day that marked the beginning of Project <Pandora>.