King Of Underworld [EN]: Chapter 59

The King of the Underworld is Tired – 59 (59/82)

The Story of Perseus – (1)

These days, Menthe has been acting very differently.

I often see her wandering around the Underworld, muttering to herself with a hollow look in her eyes…

“Ugh… I want to go back… No, but still…”

Sometimes, she’s found squatting on the outskirts of the Underworld.

When I ask her what she’s doing…

“Lord Hades… I… I can’t live like this… A reward! Please give me a reward!”

She slightly raises her head, her eyes filled with tears, and begs me.

…The problem isn’t just the begging, but that she suddenly tries to hug me.

I kept avoiding it, but once I felt sorry for her and accepted it, and then this happened.

Behind Menthe, who was crying in my arms about how hard her work was…

“Menthe? Did you check the flame intensity of the Pyriphlegethon River [one of the five rivers of the Underworld] that I assigned you?! We received a complaint from the ferryman Charon about the mint scent… Do you have time to flirt with Hades here…”

“Hieeek?! I… I’m sorry!”

The goddesses Styx and Lethe, emitting a terrifying divine power, suddenly appeared and took her away again.

Menthe, who looked like a mortal arriving in the Underworld, flinched and stopped trying to hug me from then on.

Yes, as if she had received some education or lecture…

As such incidents kept happening, I called Hypnos, the god of sleep, and asked him.

“Are the goddesses perhaps bullying Menthe? She seems to be overwhelmed with work…”

“…? As far as I know, Styx isn’t even doing half of her usual work.”

Wondering if that was true, I secretly followed Menthe one day.

Menthe was diligently running around the Underworld from morning till night.

‘Isn’t this rather lenient for her?’

Menthe’s workload was much less than the average workload of the gods residing in the Underworld.

Even other gods were using clones and working several times busier than her, while she didn’t know how to create clones and was only moving around in her original form.

From then on, I thought she would adapt quickly with that amount of work… and stopped paying attention.

Even I, who was following Menthe, was using clones to make judgments.

I was watching Menthe adapt to the Underworld day by day with a satisfied look…

* * *

One day, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, came to the Underworld.

“Greetings, great-uncle. Cough. Cough.”

“…? Why are you coughing?”

Our gods do not get sick.

Except for hair loss, which is in the realm of authority that even Apollo, the god of medicine, cannot cure, most other diseases cannot invade the robust bodies of the gods.

But one of the Twelve Olympians [the principal gods of the Greek pantheon], the goddess of wisdom, is coughing?

Athena smiles awkwardly at my question.

“Ah… that is… *sniff* From the entrance of the Underworld to the Acheron River [one of the rivers of the Underworld], the intense mint scent is…”

“Is it that bad?”

“…Ferryman Charon was even plugging his nose while moving the giant barge… no, the steel ship.”

Mint, the symbol of Hades, used to alleviate the scent of the dead.

Originally, mint was only used during funerals in Thebes [an ancient city in Greece], where the Temple of Hades was located, so it wasn’t too overwhelming.

Thanatos, who harvests the souls of the dead, and Charon, who carries the dead across the Acheron River, initially liked the refreshing scent.

But if mint has spread to the mortal realm to the point where Menthe is worshiped as a goddess…

How many of the dead would smell like mint every day?

“Oops… Mint has become too widespread in the mortal realm these days.”

“Yes, when souls cross the Acheron River, the scent is diluted in the water, but before that…”

“We need to think of a way to reduce the mint spread in the mortal realm.”

It’s good that my symbol, mint, is widespread, but if the gods are suffering from the scent…

I need to think of another way.

“Um… great-uncle. The reason I came to the Underworld is…”

“Athena, do you have any good ideas? A way to naturally reduce the mint used in funerals among humans, without…”

“You want a way to reduce it naturally, not by prohibiting it through a divine decree, right?”

Of course, that’s what I want.

Giving mint and then restricting the amount used in funerals through a divine decree is…

Interfering too much with humans.

“Then how about spreading mint as food? Then humans won’t waste the valuable ingredient, mint, on funerals as much…”

“…! That’s not a bad idea. Come to think of it…”

That’s right. Last time, as a reward for Menthe creating mint…

I acknowledged her as the creator of mint and said I would spread mint cuisine around the world.

I had forgotten because I was busy, but I should have used that method sooner.

Because the mint scent is too strong, eat it to get rid of it… no, not that.

If I make people eat mint in tea or food, the amount of mint used in funerals will naturally decrease, right?

In this era, ingredients are precious, so the amount of mint leaves thrown away with corpses will decrease, and the souls will no longer have a terrible mint scent.

“…Great-uncle?”

Honestly, I’m fine, but Charon of the Acheron River is suffering, so as the King of the Underworld, I can’t just stand by.

Therefore, the reason I’m making mint into food is all thanks to Charon… no, because of him.

I was about to call Menthe right away to entrust her with this task when Athena called out to me.

“The reason I’m here is that I want to borrow your kynee [a helmet that makes the wearer invisible].”

* * *

She wants to borrow my kynee, which Arges, one of the three Cyclops brothers, made for me?

It’s the same as borrowing Zeus’s lightning or Poseidon’s trident.

I straightened my posture and looked into Athena’s eyes.

“There must be a reason why the goddess of wisdom is saying such a thing to me. Explain.”

“Yes. It’s to lend it to a human named Perseus, who is destined to become a hero.”

“…I’ve heard of him. Are you talking about the unfortunate human who is destined to kill his own maternal grandfather?”

King Acrisius of Argos [an ancient Greek city], a human nation in the mortal realm, had no sons, only daughters.

So he went to the Delphi Temple [a famous oracle in ancient Greece] to hear a prophecy about children, but…

“You will not be able to have sons in the future, and you will die at the hands of your daughter’s child.”

“What? What did you say?!”

King Acrisius, who heard the terrifying prophecy, imprisoned his daughter Danaë in a large tower, but Zeus transformed into golden rain and entered the tower, having relations with her.

Thus, Danaë and her child with Zeus, Perseus, were abandoned at sea by King Acrisius.

To be exact, he put them together in a wooden box and let them float on the sea, and they were rescued by a kind fisherman and lived on the island of Seriphos.

But…

“Perseus. This is His Majesty’s order. Bring the head of Medusa.”

“Are you saying… bring the head of Medusa?”

“If you refuse, you will be executed for disobeying the royal command. What will you do?”

“Damn it… I understand.”

King Polydectes of Seriphos was infatuated with Danaë’s beauty and tried to kill her son, Perseus, who was an obstacle to him.

By sending him to Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters, a monster with snakes for hair that turns people to stone when they look at her!

“You knew about that human, great-uncle.”

“Even if I’m in the Underworld, how could I not know about a human destined to become a hero?”

With the threat of the Gigantes [giants in Greek mythology] not yet over, I was aware of the humans who were destined to become heroes.

Especially Zeus’s son like Perseus.

Destined fate.

An absolute law that even immortal gods cannot dare to change.

Changing the fate learned through prophecies is impossible even for Zeus, the king of the gods.

That’s why I knew that Perseus was destined to kill his maternal grandfather, but I didn’t dare to change it.

“If he’s Zeus’s son, then he’s my nephew, so I can’t let him die.”

“So you’ll lend me the kynee?”

“Well…”

However, Perseus is indeed a human who will become a hero, and he may be a hero who can play a role in the war against the Gigantes.

I could lend him the kynee as an investment for the future.

If that’s fate. But…

“It’s true that Perseus is the human who will slay Medusa and become a hero. But…”

The only reason I’m not immediately accepting Athena’s words is one thing.

“Wasn’t it you who turned Medusa, a victim of rape by Poseidon, into a monster? I heard she was originally a priestess serving you.”

Medusa was a priestess of Athena’s temple, but she was raped in the temple by Poseidon, who coveted her beautiful appearance.

And like Artemis, Athena is a virgin goddess.

Having relations in her temple was an enormous sacrilege, and Athena, unable to protest directly to Poseidon, who had great power, instead turned Medusa into a monster.

“Your temperament is no less than Artemis’s, it might have been difficult to protest to Poseidon… but your nephews are taking it out on humans.”

“Great-uncle, that is…”

“You can’t say anything to Poseidon, who raped Medusa, but you’re going to borrow my kynee to give it to a human hero who is destined to kill her?”

Perseus is destined to kill Medusa and his maternal grandfather.

But in the first place, it was Athena who turned Medusa, a victim of rape, into a monster.

I can’t let Perseus die, so I’m thinking of lending him the kynee, but she’ll have to persuade me a little more.

“Try to make an excuse with your wisdom, which is famous throughout Olympus.”