The Aphro in Aphrodisias means foam. The people of this land believe that the Mother Goddess was born from the foam.
Yet it is questioned that Aphro sounds similar to an ancient word for gas, and from this perspective, one wonders if the original deity might not have been born from gas rather than foam.
Outwardly, the queen was called Potnia. She ruled over nine distinct tribes united under her. The elders representing each tribe met annually to secure their interests and profits while pursuing harmony.
The capital of Aphrodisias was located in the highlands atop the rugged Eatos Mountains. The Eatos was a massive mountain range spanning the eastern and western continents, called the Savage Mountain since ancient times, having claimed countless victims.
The highest peak in the range was the active volcano called Parnassus. Its last eruption was roughly a thousand years ago, boasting such tremendous power that it blanketed the entire surrounding region in volcanic ash, plunging it into darkness.
Each tribe, being a people of hunters, worshipped various native gods. But the greatest Mother Goddess, Ananke, ruled over all these lesser gods. Her statues—a byword for wisdom and terror—were erected everywhere, and each tribe carved the symbol of their own patron god into her body.
Thus Ananke was sometimes given dozens of breasts, her buttocks were wide and ample as jars, and all manner of fruits symbolizing eyes were carved upon her head.
Like a goddess of a hunter people, she was sometimes depicted holding bow and arrow; at times she was draped in wild boar’s blood, and other times she grasped the necks of snakes in both hands.
The tribes of hunters revered the mountain above all else. Among them, the active volcano that rumbled and spewed heat from its crater was a symbol of vitality and an irresistible terror.
Then, one day.
A twelve-year-old shepherd girl watching her flock near the mountainside called the Gray Valley chased after a lamb that had strayed from the herd, stumbled, and tumbled down a cliff.
Luckily, her life was saved when the adults of the tribe, hearing her scream, set out to search for her. But after suffering a high fever through the night, the girl began to exhibit bizarre behavior.
At first, she rolled her eyes back and trembled violently, shrieking, “The god is angry!” Eventually she flailed her arms as if seeing things and wailed, “Everyone must run!”
Terrified by her ghastly behavior, the women took their children and fled to a nearby cave. The elders claimed the god had laid a curse upon her and insisted she be abandoned on the mountain immediately.
But the chieftain and his close aides dismissed it, saying she had simply injured her head and lost her mind.
A few days later, a strange illness of unknown cause began to spread through the tribe. It started with a burning fever, and every orifice of the body bled until the victim died.
Half the tribespeople, including the chieftain, lost their lives. The shepherd girl was no exception.
The new chieftain ordered the site of the girl’s fall to be investigated. The young men, armed with bows and axes, discovered something seeping from a crevice in the mountainside where the girl had wandered—something like smoke.
“What is that?”
“Is it mist?”
“No... it’s yellowish.”
They sensed something odd about the surroundings. It was silent, devoid not only of mountain beasts but even the chirping of insects. And that wasn’t all. The gloomy ground was covered entirely in black rocks. There was no sign of trees, let alone a single weed.
“I’ll go take a look.”
“Be careful; something feels off.”
The youth who summoned his courage was the chieftain’s nephew, a man renowned in numerous hunting contests. He gripped his hunting knife tightly and advanced.
The closer he got, the stranger the smell became. The man squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his nose to the crevice. The billowing fumes instantly seeped into his eyes and nose.
“Ugh!”
The sharp stench of sulfur pierced his nose, and his vision swam. Beyond the hazy smoke, something black approached, pressed flat against the ground and growling.
“A monster... it’s a monster! Aaaah!”
That night, the young men who had inhaled the fumes began to act just like the shepherd girl. They trembled in terror, uttered dreadful words like divine punishment, and made prophetic pronouncements.
“Women crawling on all fours!”
“Tearing out the lungs of mountain beasts and feasting on their entrails...”
“It’s a curse! The god has cursed us! We are cursed!”
The tribespeople were gripped with fear. The chieftain proposed a meeting with the other tribes. It turned out that there were others showing similar symptoms in the other tribes as well.
The common cause was obvious: gas seeping from various places in the Gray Valley. The chieftains agreed unanimously to call it by one name.
The Breath of God.
Soon after, the tribal alliance began building a sacrificial altar near the foothills of Mount Parnassus. They erected pillars of costly black marble and gilded the gables of the roof with gold. The nine tribes agreed to take turns offering sacrifices.
But as tribute accumulated daily and was gradually stolen and desecrated, the need arose for personnel to manage the altar. Soon after, a priestess was chosen to represent the alliance.
There existed those who congenitally did not lose their minds even after breathing in the gas.
The priestess was revered as a noble vessel who interpreted the Breath of God. She became the official medium of the god’s voice, and only the nine chieftains were permitted to meet her.
Thereafter, the foothills of Mount Parnassus—a place called Delphi—began to spread its sacred renown even to neighboring regions as the site where oracles were delivered.
The etymology of Delphi is said to come from Delphy, meaning “dolphin,” but is that truly so? What connection could a land deep in the mountains, surrounded by the Eatos range, have with a sea creature?
Originally, the dolphin was named for its resemblance to the womb. In that sense, interpreting Delphi as “sacred womb” is more plausible.
The womb is female, and the Mother Goddess. Thus Delphi itself became the priestess who interpreted the Breath of God.
As time passed, the nine tribes united into a single kingdom. The former chieftains became elders and presided over the Council of Elders beneath the king, and the king named the country Aphrodisias.
Though they had established a unified state, each tribe still preserved its own traditions and customs intact, and the aged Council of Elders remained robust in power.
So long as there was no foreign invasion from beyond the mountains, the nine tribes rarely moved as one kingdom. While the king became a symbolic figure, the priestess who delivered oracles grew in fame even to other nations, expanding her influence.
In Delphi, a magnificent temple was erected. Below it, great and small marble temples were wrought with jewels and gold, dazzling from the city’s entrance. Moreover, there were numerous warehouses for receiving tribute.
The desert nation to the east sent a statue called the Sphinx, gilded all over so that it gleamed. The sea people of the Northwestern Sea offered precious pearls as large as rocks, called mermaids’ scales.
Naturally, Delphi became the wealthiest city in Aphrodisias.
The priestess who came to rule a city kept several lesser priestesses beneath her. These lesser priestesses each took a young child as a disciple to serve them.
Then where had all those children in the temple come from?
According to an official announcement by the High Priestess, the children were orphans who had lost their parents, or disabled, or afflicted by illness. It was a plausible facade. After all, in any nation, temples had a duty to care for the weak.
Generation after generation, Delphi’s priestesses gradually rotted away. Revered from childhood as vessels fit to be priestesses, they enjoyed luxuries rivaling royalty, and learned to twist the world with a three-inch tongue. It would have been absurd for them not to become intoxicated with their own power.
To restrain the priestesses who ran rampant wielding absolute power, the Council of Elders moved in secret. They slipped money into the hands of those coming and going from the temple and began digging up various pieces of information.
Interesting reports came in.
Occasionally, children of unknown origin descended from the rocky gorge where the Breath of God seeped out. Emaciated and starving, the children told horrific stories.
“Mother danced naked and tore Father to death with her bare hands. Then she pulled the blood and entrails from Father’s corpse and laughed as she clutched them.”
“Other women also stabbed their husbands, brothers, and children to death, then stripped naked and praised the gods. They decorated the corpses with flowers and offered them upon the altar.”
“The dark gods drank their blood and said they had done well, then cut their own wrists and poured down the blood of the gods.”
“When they ate it, the women’s faces grew pale and beautiful. Their wrinkles disappeared and they became incredibly strong.”
“Mother, who had been beautiful from receiving the gods’ love, became a wizened old woman and died a few years later.”
To seal the children’s lips, the priestesses and lesser priestesses took them deep into the temple and locked them away. If they happened to be noticed by worshippers, they passed them off as temple servants.
Delphi began serving the dark gods. The children whispered to the priestesses with innocent faces.
“The dark gods are called Keton. The most terrible among them is a god named Nyx.”
As the years passed, the priestesses of Delphi grew powerful enough to become an organization transcending borders. Kings of various nations sought out the priestess to discern the will of the gods before making important state decisions.
Even if it was a mistaken decision, one had only to dismiss it as the natural flow of what the gods had ordained.
The lifespans of the priestesses, who had to tend to those seeking oracles all day long and inhale the Breath of God, visibly shortened. Women chosen as priestesses died within mere years at most.
In response, the Council of Elders created the position of High Priest to select someone who could manage the ever-changing priestesses and the growing temple. Yet no ordinary person could seize control of Delphi, nor win the priestesses’ recognition.
Delphi was a city that had carved out an independent history for centuries while bearing the sacred duty of the oracle. Not only the priestesses, but Delphi’s nobles and common citizens as well took immense pride in their city.
After much deliberation, the Council of Elders prepared a special test to select the High Priest.
The Ordeal.
Each tribe would select two intelligent and exceptional children, who would undergo a grueling test for about half a month.
The two children ultimately chosen from the eighteen candidates would be elevated as the next High Priest and the King’s successor.
Melinoe, fifteen years old and of the Serpent Tribe, was one of the candidates who would face the Ordeal.
The Serpent Tribe was also the tribe of the shepherd girl who had first discovered the Breath of God and died of the illness. They had long coveted Delphi’s wealth and power.
If their tribe’s child was elected to the position of High Priest, it would be like possessing a goose that laid golden eggs.
The Serpent Tribe prepared meticulously. They managed the every move of children selected by strict criteria from birth, raising them in education and training that rivaled any royal house.
Melinoe did not even know the faces of her parents. She had heard countless times that she was destined to lead Delphi, and from around the age of twelve, even the elders bowed their heads to her in respect, along with the tribespeople.
Contact with others was strictly forbidden, for she was to maintain the dignity of one who would be the deputy of the god.
The candidates undergoing the Ordeal varied in age, from seven to eighteen. The Ordeal was held every five years, regardless of whether the current High Priest or King was still in office. Even though it was held so frequently, the number of children who passed safely was so few it could be counted on one hand.
The Ordeal took place on Mount Parnassus when the season of fire was at its peak, and the absolute first condition was to survive in the mountains on one’s own for half a month.
They could bring clothing and weapons, but could not carry food or medicinal herbs. Fortunately, enough food and water to fill their stomachs was provided for the first three or four days.
Most children scattered and took shelter in caves, valleys, or beneath cliffs.
Melinoe climbed the mountain with the bow and arrows she had prepared. She climbed a tall tree, tore apart the bread given by the Council of Elders, and dropped it to the ground.
Shortly after, a stray dog approached, sniffed, and snapped up the bread. Melinoe sat quietly on a branch, watching the scene.
In the meantime, the other children were meeting wretched ends. One child who had been foaming at the mouth and leaping about under the moonlight became wolf fodder. Another child who had been staggering about staring into the air and then slept in a rock crevice was bitten by a venomous snake and died.
Both children had been clutching rye bread in their hands. Melinoe looked at the corpse of the stray dog collapsed at the edge of the valley. The moment she saw it retching and whimpering, she unhesitatingly discarded the food the Council of Elders had provided.
It was bread made from rye infected with ergot fungus. She had been unable to check the water in the flask, but there was no guarantee it wasn’t poisoned as well.
Ergot is a fungus that mainly infects grains such as wheat and barley. If eaten, it causes vomiting and skin rashes, and in severe cases, death. Judging by the symptoms, it seemed they had added a lethal dose.
When ergot ferments, it produces peculiar symptoms—namely, hallucinations and auditory hallucinations.
In the Serpent Tribe, since ancient times, those who had eaten ergot were bound hand and foot. Because without warning they would shriek and leap about as if dancing, posing a danger to the entire tribe.
There were children like Melinoe who recognized the poisonous herb and did not fall for it, but they too did not last past ten days.
Children who entered caves to avoid wild beasts suffocated on the sulfur gas seeping from the cave floor. A child who had lit a campfire near the river to catch fish and then slept was swept away by a sudden surge of water. Children who had settled beneath cliffs were buried by landslides.
When the alliance of the nine tribes chose its first king, true to their identity as a mountain people, they elevated the strongest among the chieftains. The ability to survive in the mountains had been the foremost qualification for a chieftain since time immemorial.
Even now, Aphrodisias’s New Year sacrificial offering was, by tradition, a beast hunted by the king himself.
Be suspicious. Watch your back. Do not believe what you see. Do not sleep easily. Make no friends. Do not hesitate...
The education she had received for fifteen years made her doubt even her own kin.
They were all foolish. Most tribes no longer held hunting festivals, so perhaps that was why.
The other candidate from the Serpent Tribe who had come with her died on the fourth day. He had eaten rabbit meat given by a candidate of the Deer Tribe.
He had also been naturally suspicious. It was simply that hunger had clouded his judgment. He couldn’t help it, needing to maintain his bulky frame.
On the morning of the fifteenth day, Melinoe descended from the mountain peak. Having sustained herself on fruit and rainwater, her face was gaunt and pallid.
Meanwhile, there was one other surviving boy besides her. The blond boy, unlike her, seemed perfectly sound in body and spirit. His clothes and shoes were neat and clean, as if he had been sheltered somewhere.
“By the grace of God.”
A gentle smile graced the boy’s lips beneath his mantle.
The elders nodded.
“Melinoe of the Serpent Tribe and Eleusis of the Moon Tribe have passed the first Ordeal. They now enter the second Ordeal.”
They moved before a certain cave. The eldest of the nine elders stepped forward. He was the elder of the Sun Tribe, the same tribe as the current king.
“The second Ordeal tests your wisdom and insight. Answer after careful deliberation on the question I am about to ask. Very well, the question is this: What is the darkest and yet the brightest thing in the world?”
Melinoe was at a loss for words. The darkest and yet the brightest thing in the world? If dark, then shadow? Shade? A cave? The night sky? How could it be bright at the same time? Bright things are usually light. Or the sun and day...
The candidate who answered first would win. The elders let their shoulders relax, as if content to wait leisurely. The forest was still, as if waiting for the young girl’s answer.
“The answer is...”
The elders raised their heads to look at Melinoe. It seemed they expected her to speak first.
“The answer is the sky. The darkest thing is a moonless night, and the brightest is the day when the sun rises; thus the sky may be called the darkest and brightest thing in the world.”
She was not certain. But she thought it was right. The elders looked at one another.
“We have heard Melinoe’s answer. Eleusis, you are quiet. Do you not know the answer? If you thought of the same answer, since she spoke first, you have lost.”
Only then did the boy remove his outer garment, which had been covering even his head. Melinoe blinked in surprise. The blond boy—both his eyes were milky white and blind.
“No, Elder. I too shall give my answer.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, my answer is...”
Melinoe gripped the shoulder strap of her quiver. Uneasy. There had been something different about him from the other candidates. Most candidates were physically superior. But Eleusis was a blind man who could not even be called average.
Nevertheless, the fact that he had been sent as a candidate meant that there was something about the boy that offset even such a disadvantageous physical condition.
“The human heart.”
Eleusis gazed into empty space without focus. Upon his lips hung a bright smile, as if he were seeing the light of the world for the first time.
“The darkest and brightest thing in the world is precisely the human heart.”
The hand gripping the shoulder strap fell limply. Melinoe stared blankly at the elders. She saw smiles rise on the lips of the black-robed elders.
Melinoe, who had paused her story for a moment, rubbed her calloused hand.
“Then the final victor of the Ordeal was that boy, Eleusis?”
“Yes. I, the runner-up, became the King’s successor.”
A hollow position.
“I was highly vigilant, resistant to deception, and excelled at making cold judgments based on strong stamina and endurance. But I lacked the power to pierce through to human nature. It was Delphi that truly ruled Aphrodisias. The king was merely a symbol. Still, I was content. My life had but one goal: to wear the crown...”
“You became the successor to the throne, so why did you come to Hades?”
“Seven years after becoming the successor, the king collapsed and took to his sickbed, and the actual affairs of state fell to me. By then, Eleusis had already inherited the position of High Priest and seized control of Delphi.”
The blond High Priest with his pale eyes grew ever more beautiful, stealing the hearts of the priestesses known as the Sibyllae and the devotees. The young man kept his pale eyes lowered and wore a gentle smile. His kind, soft voice tenderly soothed the listener’s heart.
“After Eleusis became High Priest, Delphi prospered further, becoming a city dozens of times wealthier than the capital. Messengers sent by foreign kings and high priests lined up to await the oracle, and the tribute offered was enormous.”
She had expected as much. The fame of Delphi’s oracle had been great for a very long time.
“But then people began disappearing near the capital and Delphi. They were nobles or wealthy landowners, and most of them were women.”
The number of missing was considerable, and it had been happening for quite some time. The reason the severity was recognized so late was that most of the missing were perceived as runaways.
The missing persons had left home expressing their intention to travel, to buy something, or to recuperate for a while. And then they vanished.
Melinoe’s suspicions turned toward Delphi. Because Delphi was the last place all of the missing had visited before disappearing.
She disguised herself as a noblewoman and headed to Delphi with an investigative party.
Even then, she could not abandon foolish hope. That though their meeting had been brief, they would never have to point blades at each other. Perhaps she too had given her heart to him from the first moment she saw him, drawn by an unknown force. To Eleusis, the youth who was both dark and bright.
“Famous high priests are usually beautiful. Or they possess strange gifts. The worst is when it’s both...”
Asterill murmured with eyes that seemed to bask in a hearth fire. Melinoe’s expression grew complicated.
Beautiful and bizarre beings. Humans either worship them like gods or loathe them like plagues.
Would it have been different if she were Princess Asterill? Upon closer look, the two were strangely similar in some aspects. Though one was light and the other shadow, it was as if they faced each other with palms pressed together on one side.
“At the time, Eleusis had even formed a merchant guild in Delphi using the authority of the High Priest.”
Not content with the elixirs and aromatic oils said to be made by the priestesses, they brazenly sold forbidden herbs such as poison hemlock, mandrake, sari grass, and jimsonweed, claiming they had been purified by divine power.
Having discovered this, Melinoe immediately informed the Council of Elders, who sternly warned Eleusis. He responded as if he had been waiting.
“The city of oracles, Delphi, shall sever the name of Aphrodisias and declare independence from the nine tribes and the Council of Elders.”
Delphi was already receiving ample support from the kings and temples of various nations. If the Council of Elders attempted to suppress it by force, it could easily spark a great war.
The elders agonized.
As if reading their thoughts, Eleusis sent a second letter.
“Wise and prudent elders, how much do you trust the wisdom of Delphi? The god hints that the center of Aphrodisias must be Parnassus. Those who receive divine protection have no need of the royal tent. Whose city is Delphi now? How dare you oppose the will of the gods?”
It was a chilling warning. He meant to invoke the name of the gods to punish anyone who dared oppose him and Delphi.
The Council of Elders split into two factions: the hardliners who believed Eleusis must be subdued, and the conciliatory faction who advocated accepting Eleusis’s declaration and recognizing Delphi’s independence.
The hardliners were led by the Serpent Tribe, Melinoe’s own, and the conciliators by the Sun Tribe, Eleusis’s birth tribe.
Day after day, fierce debates raged in the royal palace. The elders’ expressions were always angry or anxious.
Beneath the surface, a bloody political war unfolded. It was a sight to make the Mother Goddess herself sigh with pity—descendants of warriors who had barely survived, aiming arrows at one another’s hearts.
In the end, before they could even fight Delphi, the elder who represented the Serpent Tribe was found dead. It was said he met his end on his way home at night through thick fog. The warriors of the Serpent Tribe assigned as his escort had also perished from a single blow.
Melinoe, sitting on the throne shrouded in darkness as the king’s proxy and watching the old men’s war of words, looked up with a foreboding premonition.
The heavy ash door was groaning open. The shadowed interior of the audience chamber was flooded with light like a wave.
Melinoe watched as a blond youth appeared in a sight as dazzling as the sun god.
His eyes closed, he curled the corners of his lips up beneath his hood. Her heart surged.
Eleusis.
The moment she murmured that name, soldiers in golden armor engraved with Pythia’s emblem surged in with spears raised, leveling sharp spearpoints at her with murderous eyes.
Eleusis, walking slowly, said nothing. The hardliner elders were already on their knees, forced down by the soldiers.
Melinoe rose from the throne and descended one step. She calmly bowed her body and closed her eyes in resignation.
“End this with me alone.”
In that instant, the smile on Eleusis’s lips vanished without a trace. His tightly pressed lips gazed at her for a moment, unable to hide his disappointment. He turned as if he had taken a needless step. An inexplicable rage radiated from his back as he strode out.
“The next day, I was given two choices. Suicide or exile.”
She heard that the Serpent Tribe had been expelled from the Council of Elders. She heard rumors that even the village where she grew up had been engulfed in flames. Everyone whispered that it was shameful. Still, she did not take her own life. For her, survival was as instinctive as breathing.
“The place I chose was Hades.”
Melinoe fell silent and stared at Asterill.
“I thought that was the only place beyond Eleusis’s reach. When I learned there were even more terrible things there, I resigned myself, thinking that my fate was simply meant to be.”
“You speak of resignation, yet you hung evening primroses on your door like that?”
When Asterill asked in feigned surprise, Melinoe laughed hollowly. As if to ask whether she was joking even now. For a moment, tension melted in their smiling eyes.
“Princess Asterill, from now on, I shall have my revenge.”
“Keton show no mercy, even to humans.”
“I don’t care. Must one be a god to avoid retribution? There must surely be a way to punish them as well.”
“...”
“I have known Metea far longer than the other princesses. She was a kind and gentle person. It seems that before coming here, Metea married the son of some noble family. Unfortunately, she had a stillbirth. She was treated as a sinner for being the sole survivor, and while living as such, her husband took a second wife. As soon as that wife bore a child, Metea was sent back to her parents’ home with her dowry, or so it is said.”
The visage of Metea came to mind, calling out, “Lady Melinoe, Lady Asteril,” in a soft, gentle voice and smiling shyly. Everyone’s eyes turned red.
“We buried the body beneath the fig tree in the inner courtyard. Metea dearly loved that place.”
“She must have loved it.”
“Yes… she must have.”
A brief silence fell. Asteril straightened her stiff neck. Her gaze had grown even colder.
“Then now… is it time to kill a god?”
It was an outrageous, blasphemous plan. Yet the priestess who held a sword feared nothing.
Who punishes divine authority?
The moment fear vanished from the pilgrim’s eyes, the altar would begin to collapse like an empty sack.
Their conversation continued for nearly half a shichen afterward. Once each understood the other’s resolve, they could read one another’s intentions with a glance alone, and they knew what had to be done.
The Pythia of Delphi. The collapsed Council of Elders. The captured Princess Penelope. Worshippers of the Oracle, steadfast as castle walls. The hidden power behind the throne, Eleusis.
“The Council of Elders has already abandoned me. Even if I returned, they would not take my hand. Those I must reach out to are not them.”
“Then who?”
“If my memory serves me, this is the year the new trials begin. Each tribe will have prepared their candidates. I intend to meet those candidates. Their individual abilities and knowledge are no exaggeration equal to an entire tribe combined. They are exceptional talents, and they also stand in positions where they can easily reach the next candidates who will succeed them. All of them are warriors with the potential to bring ruin.”
Just then, the bell attached to the entrance rang with a clear chime.
The princesses simultaneously looked toward the closed door.
The guard standing watch outside had pulled the cord connected to the bell. It meant someone had come seeking the Room of the Red Rose.
Melinoe fixed the straps of her sandals and walked toward the secret passage.
“I shall take my leave first. There is no time to delay. The trials will soon begin.”
“Will you truly be alright on your own?”
“It is easier to move alone. Do not worry. Until now, I have never once imagined that I could stand together with another. But in Lethe, I learned from Princess Asteril. That if I take a step forward with courage, this damned world might just change.”
She smiled meaningfully. It was the look of someone who had resolved herself for something.
“Let us meet in Delphi, Princess Asteril.”
Asteril nodded. Melinoe closed the door disguised as a wall and disappeared.
Shortly after, through the slightly opened crack in the door, the guard bent his body and spoke.
“I apologize for interrupting your conversation, Your Majesty… Lord Epas has arrived.”
With a slightly surprised expression, Tethys asked back, “Lord Epas?”
Soon, from beyond the door, an old man gave a sigh of relief. “Yes, Your Majesty. It is I.”
Before long, the thick door opened with a creak. Once the guards nodded their permission, two figures entered in turn.
“Callian?”
Asteril rose in surprise. Behind the old man dressed in a mouse-gray peplos stood Callian, draped in an ultramarine chlamys. His expressionless gaze swept across the room.
“Weren’t you waiting downstairs?”
Instead of answering, Callian shifted his eyes to the crown of the old man’s head, which barely reached his chest. Epas seemed to feel the piercing gaze on the back of his head; his expression was fraught with tension.
“That gentleman was rummaging through the forbidden archive. So I stopped him, but…”
He squeezed his eyes shut, his expression dizzy. Thinking back on what had happened mere moments ago, cold sweat trickled down his back once more.
“Remove your hand from my shoulder. If you wish for that arm to remain attached, that is.”
For an instant, Epas felt the man’s height shoot up, as though he would break through the ceiling and grow gigantic. An austere yet arrogant gaze, like some male deity descending in a flash from the heavens, looked down upon him.
“W-which god am I in the presence of?”
“Please, tell this humble being the name of your divine authority.”
“If I were a god, do you think you would still be standing here alive and breathing?”
The unidentified young man merely gestured, and from somewhere a wheeled cart appeared; he loaded artifacts onto it. Wondering if someone else had brought it, Epas turned to check, but the shadowed passage was completely empty.
In that time, Callian, who had been ascending the stairs, sent a sharp glance toward the dazed Epas, as if urging him to follow.
Epas was bewildered.
Could he be an assassin who had come to kill Her Majesty, who had just ascended the throne? Or perhaps a member of a thief band targeting the honored guests in the Room of the Rose?
Though unable to collect himself, Epas could only guide the other as if bewitched toward the Room of the Rose.
When Asteril stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around Callian’s neck, Epas’s eyes widened in shock.
“Did you come here because you missed me already?”
The man who, just moments ago, had emanated a cold killing intent with the bearing of a war god melted his expression like spring snow.
He embraced the waist of the woman wearing a fluttering linen dress, her black hair cascading voluminously, and whispered into her ear as if to melt it.
“And you?”
“Did you come here because you read my mind? Ah, but you said that is impossible now, didn’t you?”
Asteril poked near his heart with her index finger, smiling as if teasing him. Callian silently looked down at her. His eyes gradually narrowed.
It was true that, unlike when he had been a Keton, he could no longer sense and feel everything about her in real time.
If she learned that he was slowly going mad from the anxiety and deficiency this caused, what reaction would she show?
Callian lifted Asteril straight up into the air. The startled Asteril let out a small cry.
He pressed his ear to her chest as she hung in the air and listened to her heartbeat for a moment. After lowering her to the ground, he bent at the waist as if to kiss her.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
Her breathing grew heavier from nervousness. She glanced down at his lips, which had stopped just before touching hers.
His rose-colored lips brushed against hers in time with her breathing, touching and retreating. When she inhaled, their upper lips met; when she exhaled, their lower lips met.
“Your heart is beating faster and faster.”
“It’s because you’re doing this….”
“Doing this?”
He whispered low.
“I am merely confirming your well-being. As you said, am I not now one who can only confirm it in this manner?”
She wanted to retort whether he truly needed to confirm it this way, but her heart was beating too wildly for her to speak.
Callian flicked her lower lip with his tongue and slowly straightened up.
“To me, this is a more satisfactory method than before.”
When Asteril glanced at his face, she found his amethyst eyes rippling like waves with faint pleasure.
Like a mischievous moon distorting as it toyed with the lake that reflected it.
Th-that rascal.
If she thought about it, he quite enjoyed seeing her at a loss. He had been that way from the start. Stealing her breath with a sudden kiss, eavesdropping on conversations with Himeros as if it were nothing.
Now that he had become human, his emotional expressions had become richer, perhaps unintentionally, and it showed all the more.
She never would have dreamed that the man who seemed carved by the breath of a frozen wasteland would so abruptly play such pranks, shamelessly committing such sly acts.
Well, to him, the garden trees of the detached palace and princesses alike were surely mere mortals; perhaps he simply acted without regard for anyone’s gaze, as had been his habit in Lethe.
At that arrogance, her whole body flushed like a peach. She did not know why her heart fluttered, but it felt as though her already stolen heart was being snatched away again.
As the atmosphere grew strange, Tethys cleared her throat.
“This is perfect timing. I had intended to introduce him to Lady Asteril anyway.”
After gauging Callian’s mood, she gestured toward Epas.
“This is Lord Epas, known as the Sage of Poseidonia. He currently serves as the Chief Librarian of the Library of Alexandria, and he is also my teacher who taught me many things from a young age.”
“Pleased to meet you, Lord Epas.”
She had once asked Tethys how many sages there were in Poseidonia. Tethys had replied with pride.
“There is only one who can be called a sage, but his knowledge is scarcely lacking even when compared to a hundred scholars.”
Epas was aged, but his eyes blazed with a vigor no less than that of youth.
Befitting a librarian, he had gathered his few remaining silver-gray beard hairs into a neat binding, kept his nails trimmed short and tidy, and though his clothes were old, not a single seam was frayed; he was immaculate.
Unwittingly, Asteril made a soft expression.
From the old sage emanated the musty scent of old stone and paper, and incense of sandalwood and myrrh. It was like greeting the oldest tree in a vast forest by its growth rings.
“If you are Lady Asteril, could it be….”
“That is correct, Lord Epas. It is that Lady Asteril, the daughter of the great Anasa of Demeter and the High Priestess of Cocytus who receives Gaia’s blessing.”
As Tethys added the explanation, Epas quickly placed his hand to the floor and knelt. His gaunt body trembled.
“Blessings to Mother Gaia! This humble being is called Epas, hailing from Parnassus of Aphrodisias. It is truly an honor to behold the miracle of Cocytus in person.”
“Please rise, wise Lord Epas. You need not show such excessive courtesy. I too am deeply moved to meet the Sage of Poseidonia whom I had only ever heard of in stories.”
Tethys looked back and forth between the two exchanging greetings, then spoke up.
“Could the reason Lady Asteril came to find me in Poseidonia have been because of Lord Epas?”
Asteril touched her cheek as if embarrassed. Tethys continued.
“In Lethe, whenever I told you stories of the Library of Alexandria and its sage, you would listen with your eyes shining like this.”
“I truly cannot hide anything from Lady Tethys. That is right. I came in search of the Library of Alexandria and the sage, Lord Epas….”
It was a thread of hope. If it was the Library of Alexandria, if it was the sage there, might they know something?
“Do you remember the tree I cared for in Lethe? The sacred tree is called Asphodelos, but it perished in a fire some time ago. I am currently searching for clues about Asphodelos. I had intended to ask Lady Tethys about the Hecate clan, but I was fortunate enough to meet Lady Leuce in Nysa. Contrary to my expectations, the Hecate clan did not have any significant information about Asphodelos….”
Epas, who had been listening to her story, cautiously stepped forward.
“This humble being has lived his entire life dedicated to the Library of Alexandria. It would be no exaggeration to say that I have examined every single book and artifact here with my own two eyes. Yet, ashamed as I am, this is the first time I have heard of a sacred tree called Asphodelos.”
“I see….”
Asteril’s expression fell with disappointment. Tethys too looked regretful.
“I am ashamed that my shallow knowledge could not be of help.”
“Not at all. How could mere mortals such as ourselves know a whereabouts that even the gods do not know?”
Silence descended. Asteril fell into deep thought, and Tethys, looking anguished, asked as if to console her.
“What do you plan to do now?”
“The West Wind said so. Find the four ancient chambers and the four legacies. Then the vanished Gaia will appear again.”
Now the only remaining clue was the one the West Wind had given her.
“From what I have experienced so far, the sanctum of Chronos, the God of Time, appears to be those ancient chambers.”
The legacies found in the ancient chambers had been the Cup of Oblivion, Hestia, and herself. For now, she had decided to keep such detailed matters secret. The fact that she might be of Gaia’s bloodline as well.
“Now I need only find the last, fourth chamber, and I am hoping that there might be a clue about Asphodelos within it. If this too proves wrong, then I will truly have no more clues.”
Epas unrolled a papyrus map that had been rolled up on a beautifully grained round table. The topography of the major nations, including the Eastern Continent, was marked in detail upon it.
He pointed to Mount Parnassus, the center of the Eatos Mountain Range that divided Aphrodisias.
“To my knowledge, the oldest surviving sanctum of Chronos is on Mount Parnassus.”
“Near Delphi.”
“Correct. And that land is also where Mother Gaia was born.”
“Were not the Ketons born from Erebus, the first darkness?”
“Precisely, they were born from the womb of Erebus. All except Gaia, that is.”
Asteril cast her gaze over her shoulder. Callian’s eyes had sharpened with concentration.
“In the ancient tongue, Delphi also means womb. It is a name derived from the meaning, ‘the womb of Gaia,’ or ‘the womb where Gaia was born.’”
Epas, who could fittingly be called the walking Library of Alexandria, truly knew a great deal.
He was particularly well-versed in ancient myths, legends, and artifacts, and among them, the god Chronos was one of his primary interests.
“The sanctum of Chronos on Parnassus, unlike other places severely damaged by theft or destruction, is in perfect condition regarding the preservation of its relics and ruins. This is likely because the Council of Elders of Aphrodisias and the Sibyls of Delphi have consistently maintained it. Because of this, an astonishingly vast amount of records remain on Parnassus. The most marvelous among them is a mural recording the first meeting of the Creator Chaos and Gaia.”
Epas cast his gaze toward Callian. To be precise, he was looking at the wheeled cart behind him.
“Now, I believe it would be good to take out what that young man wished to examine. Let us look together.”
Having said this, Epas stole sidelong glances at Callian as he took artifacts from the cart.
Having handled books and artworks related to mythology and history his entire life, Epas possessed an exceptional aesthetic sense.
Even to him, the young man before his eyes was shocking. Words like simply beautiful or like a sculpture were insufficient. He felt like an ancient, mystical artifact come to life and moving before him.
Especially those amethyst eyes—when they looked at him, he felt his soul being absorbed and sucked in without resistance.
Was he really just an ordinary human?
Callian placed the cloth-wrapped chunks of stone on the table and called out to Epas, who was still staring blankly.
“Epas.”
“Y-yes… yes?”
Epas blushed at his unwitting response.
Was it because he had answered so naturally to a young man around his grandson’s age speaking down to him? Or was it because it felt so natural despite that? He felt a shame that was not quite shame.
Callian urged him with an irritated gaze.
“Unfold it quickly.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Epas fitted the shapes of the sharply split stones together, completing a rectangular flat stone.
“This is the front.”
The edges, which served as the background of the mural, gleamed like colored marble.
It was made by applying plaster and gypsum to the surface and painting over it with high-quality pigments. Whoever the craftsman was, the workmanship was extremely delicate and outstanding.
“Except for the cracks, the preservation state is perfect.”
“In Delphi, when ruins or artifacts are damaged, they call in professional conservators to restore them to a state surprisingly identical to the original. I know such specialists well. Our Library of Alexandria smuggles in such damaged artifacts.”
Callian narrowed the space between his brows. He had no interest in such circumstances; his expression said to get to the point.
“Look here at the center of the mural. Do you see an old man standing in black robes holding a sickle? This is Chronos, the God of Time. Do you see four sanctums erected in each of the four cardinal directions around him? These are likely the four ancient chambers Lady Asteril spoke of. Among the sanctums of Chronos built in the past, they are the holy sites believed to have been truly visited by him.”
“There seems to be writing engraved above the sanctums?”
“Correct. Unfortunately, it is an as-yet undeciphered ancient language, so we cannot tell what it says.”
“The Chamber of Birth.”
Callian, who had been watching with his arms crossed, spoke.
“It is written: Chamber of Pain, Chamber of Change, Chamber of Extinction.”
“How did you….”
Epas looked at him, unable to finish his sentence.
“It is the language of the Ketons.”
The power of the clan he had felt had been detected precisely from these letters. Someone had used the power of Erebus to carve Keton characters into the mural.
For a capricious Keton who would go to the trouble of doing such a bothersome thing… no matter how he thought about it, it could only be Gaia.
Epas’s expression turned to wonder, then he sent a questioning gaze. How in the world did that young man know how to read the Keton language?
Bewildered as he was, he quickly collected himself. Questions and answers could come later.
Epas turned over the mural pieces one by one. On the back of the broken flat stone, beautiful letters were densely inscribed like a pattern.
“Is it possible to interpret these letters as well?”
Callian gazed at the letters for a moment. His narrow eyes grew quiet with concentration.
*I, Gaia, erect here the altar of the Creator Chaos, who is both my mother and my father.*
The inscribed passage began thus. As expected, it was Gaia who had erected the altar. But… not Chronos, but Chaos?
As he followed the text, Callian’s expression gradually hardened.
“What is it? What does it say?”
Unable to contain her curiosity, Asteril leaned in and asked. Everyone waited for his answer with similar expressions.
Callian slowly raised his lowered eyelids. Faced with an unexpected conclusion, he could not easily open his mouth.
“The God of Time, Chronos….”
Did Ojwa know this fact? Had Mother Ananke known nothing?
“…was another name for the Creator Chaos.”
The child Chaos cherished and loved the most. Yet the only Keton who had not passed through his hands.
He called her thus.
*The primordial gift born of herself who appeared before me, my wise daughter who brought all life and abundance… O Gaia of the earth, born from the embrace of rain and soil.*