King Of Underworld [EN]: Chapter 10

The King of the Underworld is Tired 10

The Story of Tartarus – (1)

Tartarus.

The deepest hell in the Underworld, the world of the abyss.

The deepest and most secret place, where the abode of Nyx, the goddess of the night, also exists.

It is also the space where the Titan gods, who were defeated by our Olympian gods, are imprisoned.

And I am about to head there now.

If you ask why I would bother going to a prison that even the gods avoid due to its thick fog…

First of all, Tartarus is close to the Underworld, which is my jurisdiction, and it is a place where very dangerous criminals are imprisoned.

Although the Hecatoncheires brothers [giant gods with 50 heads and 100 hands each] guard it as gatekeepers, I also have a duty to check it periodically.

If the Titan gods escape from that hell, the primary responsibility will fall to the three brothers, but the secondary responsibility lies with me for failing to respond quickly.

I left the bedroom with the Styx sword at my waist and light leather sandals on my feet.

In the fortress of the Underworld, officials and lower gods were always busily working for the people.

“Postponing the assignment of newly arrived souls for a while, for now…”

“Lord Moros has temporarily taken over the work… Oh, Lord Hades!”

“I’m glad that more people are refusing reincarnation and choosing to stay here.”

“I’ll go ahead and wait; let’s have a meal together in the Overworld sometime.”

“If you can avoid Lethe’s blessing, haha!” [Lethe is the goddess of oblivion, so avoiding her blessing means not forgetting who you are.]

Officials with parchment scrolls in one hand, giving instructions to souls with the other.

A senior soldier explaining the shift rules to new soul soldiers.

Young souls playing pranks by passing through buildings with their translucent bodies.

The old human spirits talking with their neighbors while waiting for reincarnation.

This is the everyday scenery of the Underworld that I rule.

More and more souls recognize me as I slowly walk around, looking after my people.

Officials and lower gods tried to follow me to attend to me, but I waved my hand and was about to go alone when I saw a familiar face.

“Hades, where are you going?”

Very tired, with dazed and unfocused eyes and a listless voice.

This goddess, with silver hair reaching her waist and clothes clinging to her body, is Lethe, the goddess of oblivion.

Usually, she blankly stares at the riverbank in the River of Oblivion, so what brings her here?

It hasn’t been long since the Great Flood ended, so there isn’t much work to help with.

“Those eyes… are you wondering why I came here?”

A voice that induces sleepiness lingers in my ears.

Her soft and drawn-out voice itself seems to be encroaching on the realm of Hypnos, the god of sleep.

She trudges over and looks up at me with dazed eyes, as if asking why I’m not leaving quickly.

“Haa… It looks like you’re going to Tartarus. Can I come with you?”

No matter how I look at it, she seems more like the goddess of sleep than the goddess of oblivion.

Since it would be lonely to walk to Tartarus alone, I nodded.

Tartarus is the very bottom of the Underworld, which humans fear.

The road to it is guarded by countless soul soldiers that I have placed.

“We greet Lord Hades.”

“Glory to the Lord of the Underworld.”

The souls wearing translucent armor and holding spears bow to me and the goddess Lethe.

Today, I also moderately encouraged the guards who are working hard to guard the road to Tartarus.

“May glory be with the goddess Lethe as well.”

“Yes. Yes… Good work…”

We passed the braziers that Hestia [goddess of the hearth] came down to the Underworld to make herself and headed to an increasingly dark place.

The path going down gradually narrowed, and a cold feeling began to linger.

* * *

After passing through a stuffy space for a long time, a wide road finally appeared, and a bronze fortress shrouded in fog appeared in an open space.

As I got closer, the huge bronze gate that Poseidon [god of the sea] made himself and the thick bronze walls that continued endlessly greeted me.

The Hecatoncheires brothers who guard this place… are over there.

The giant gods, each with 50 heads and 100 hands, are looking this way.

Looking at this side with a total of 300 eyes from the three brothers gives me an indescribable feeling.

“Yo, Hades. It’s been a while.”

“Ummm? Hades has come. He must be busy with Underworld affairs…”

“Did you finally marry Lethe next to you?”

The many heads attached to the three giants’ bodies greet me and the goddess Lethe.

I was happy to see them after a long time and greeted them.

But marriage? The goddess Lethe and I are not like that.

“It seems right to see you holding hands.”

“Doesn’t Hades have Styx?”

“Hahaha! It looks friendly and good.”

Holding hands… what does that mean?

I should have come down here with the goddess Lethe a little further apart.

Listening to them, I feel warmth in my left hand.

The soft and small hand of a goddess.

Looking to the side, the goddess Lethe slowly lets go of my hand with the same dazed face as always.

No, her face seems to be slightly flushed…

“Please suppress the power of oblivion a little more.”

“Tsk… Can’t I hold your hand…?”

The goddess Lethe, who wields the power of oblivion, gradually makes the memories of the surrounding creatures fade, even if she does nothing.

Of course, there is a clear limit. The more wary you are of her, the stronger you are, the less likely the power is to work.

Still, it is possible to play petty pranks and make you forget for a while, taking advantage of my carelessness.

Everything will be remembered again if you are even a little away from her.

To forget the fact that she had slipped in and held my hand… she is indeed the granddaughter of Nyx, the primordial god [goddess of the night].

I have to be more careful from now on. I don’t know what kind of prank she will play next.

As I subtly circulated my divine power, my head cleared, and Lethe’s power was swept away in an instant.

“You only keep Styx by your side every day; that’s too much…”

“I have never done that, though?”

I shook my head at the goddess Lethe, who spoke in a sulky tone but with the same dazed face as always.

And I have never kept only the goddess Styx by my side, even if it’s the Styx sword.

“Hehehe! Is it not yet time?”

“Hades, Zeus and Poseidon have all found partners, why haven’t you yet…”

“Why don’t you ask Hera, the goddess of marriage and family, to be a matchmaker?”

Zeus’s mistress is naturally Hera, the queen of the gods.

And Poseidon held a wedding with Amphitrite, a sea goddess.

Of course, I was also invited to the wedding held in the sea, and I was able to see thousands of sea creatures speaking like humans.

There was also a seahorse there crying because her father had gone to my Underworld a while ago.

I later found her in the Underworld and gave her some convenience, but is this the weight of the god of the Underworld?

It could be seen as the responsibility of the king of the Underworld or a burden.

The increase in my people also means an increase in the sorrow of the living in the Overworld.

The power of the Underworld grows stronger as wars, famines, and floods occur, but I couldn’t just be happy about it.

“Anyway, tell me how things are going outside.”

“Didn’t you say you were creating life?”

“I wonder if Zeus, who saved us, is doing well.”

I gave them a moderate account of what had happened outside.

You might say that you can just send a messenger to inform them periodically, but this is a sign of respect.

Respect for the three brothers who made great contributions in the war with the Titan gods.

If I, the master of the Underworld, come down here and talk to them in person, they will not feel that they are being treated poorly.

“What?! Extincting a life form called humans?”

“Heo… A great flood… Poseidon must have suffered.”

“Prometheus ended up being firmly targeted by Zeus, tsk tsk…” [Prometheus was punished for giving fire to humans.]

“I agree; his prophetic abilities were very helpful during the war…”

The three brothers, Kottos, Briareos, and Gyes, are very interested in the stories I told them.

The 150 or so heads roared and chattered, and the surroundings were filled with noise in an instant.

At that moment, a loud noise was suddenly heard from the gate dividing Tartarus and the Underworld.

Thump! Thump!

The sound of a prisoner trapped in Tartarus knocking on the bronze gate!

The three brothers, me, and the goddess Lethe immediately stopped talking and became alert.

Inside Tartarus, hot storms that even the gods fear rage incessantly.

And it is full of power that suppresses the divine power of the Titan gods, making it difficult to exert more than a certain amount of power.

Even when entering from the outside, there is no resistance, but when trying to go out from the inside, the raging storm intensifies.

Therefore, there are not many who can break through the increasingly strong storm and knock on the door as they get closer to the bronze door.

Only the strongest among the Titan gods can do it.

For example…

“The voice I just heard must be my eldest son, Hades! Please… please take me out of here!”

My father, Cronus, the god of agriculture and time.