The sages say that high priests with strong divine power can sometimes glimpse the past and future through dreams.
Nevertheless, Asteril was not one to dream often. She had generally dismissed dreams as inauspicious, believing it better not to dream since they mostly foretold ill omens, yet why….
“Why would I suddenly have such a dream?”
Resting her chin on her hand, Asteril stared blankly at the vase. A shallow sigh settled softly upon her lips.
It had been a dream of nothing but flames. Fire was the most ill-omened of calamities, so she could not easily dismiss it; the sight of her homeland engulfed in a sea of fire chilled her heart beyond description, even knowing it was but a dream.
Was it because she had heard those words?
“Your homeland, Demeter, shall be destroyed.”
For the past three days, her chest had felt constricted, making it difficult to breathe. At night, her lower abdomen felt tightly blocked as if from indigestion, and her heart thumped so loudly she could not sleep peacefully.
Destroyed.
The King of Hades possessed more than enough power to do so. With his infamous army, Thanatos!
Springing to her feet, Asteril dashed out the door. Through the long hanging branches of the garden trees, she could see the Asphodelos standing tall, planted in the red earth.
“Hello?”
At her friendly greeting, small birds perched on the branches chirped in response. But the red sacred tree remained silent.
She gently placed her hand upon the Asphodelos. A faint warmth radiated through the dried, stiffened bark.
“You’ll be alright.”
As if in response to her whisper, the Asphodelos swayed in a gust of wind, its branches rustling softly.
Swoosh.
Leaves fell over her head. Asteril turned at the presence she felt behind her.
It was Rian.
Standing with her back to the sunlight, she was looking this way. Whether because of the sheer white chiton dress through which her skin seemed to glow, or because of the silver hair reaching to her waist, one might almost mistake her for a spirit of this place.
When Rian appeared, the chirping birds fell silent, clamping their beaks shut. The buzzing bees and the butterflies dancing between the bushes also stopped fluttering, hiding themselves among the flower buds.
It was a strange thing.
Whenever she appeared, all living things seemed to bow their heads in awe, holding their breath and watching carefully. In that instant, the words of the princesses flashed through Asteril’s mind—that Lady Rian was truly none other than the true master of this detached palace.
“Have you come to see the Asphodelos?”
Rian simply nodded at Asteril’s question. She appeared composed, but the look in her eyes as she gazed at the Asphodelos was unmistakably worried. And no wonder—the sacred tree still looked desolate and suffused with a red aura, showing no sign of improvement.
A hint of doubt flickered in Rian’s eyes as she glanced sideways at Asteril. Smiling as if to reassure her, Asteril said:
“Just from being transplanted here, it’s already getting better.”
“Getting better?”
When Rian asked back, Asteril forgot to answer for a moment, staring at her blankly.
She had noticed it before, but her low, calm voice was as profound and mysterious as her amethyst eyes tinged with grey.
Though she was not speaking with a spirit voice, her words had a power to pierce coolly through one’s mind.
“Ah, yes… so please don’t worry. It will gradually get better. It will definitely improve.”
Perhaps reassured by Asteril’s confident demeanor, Rian turned and quietly caressed the bark of the Asphodelos.
For a moment, Asteril envied the Asphodelos. To think she would be jealous of a tree for receiving those worried, gentle touches.
“Could it be that Lady Rian is….”
…the spirit of this sacred tree? Unable to finish the question, she trailed off. She looked down at the ground in frustration. She had nearly uttered something absurd. But it was true that she felt something otherworldly from Rian.
Lost in thought for a moment, Asteril changed the direction of her question.
“Do you know why the King values this tree so highly?”
Rian turned slowly and stared at Asteril. She was not one to show much change in expression. Her impassive face was beautiful like a sculpture, yet cold, almost inhuman.
“The fate of a certain clan rests upon this tree.”
“Which clan?”
“If the Asphodelos fails to bear fruit….”
Complex emotions radiated from her clouded eyes.
Then her pupils suddenly widened as if startled, and she threw her head back to look at the sky.
“Rian!”
A sharp, resonant voice echoed from the heavens. The moment Asteril caught the scent of verdant foliage in the rushing wind, a voice with a neurotic tone burst forth again.
“Over here, Rian!”
Thud! Someone landed on the ground. Soon a green-eyed woman appeared through the dust. The stranger was dressed in a short tunic made of tough leather, as if she had just returned from a hunt.
The hair of the woman who had suddenly appeared in the secluded, quiet garden of the detached palace was a bright brown, as if mixed with the breath of a blazing sun.
“Who is that woman?”
Displeasure was evident in the woman’s eyes as she caught her breath in agitation. Rian, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm. After looking at the woman for a moment, Rian replied coldly.
“She is nothing to concern yourself with.”
The green-eyed woman couldn’t shake her suspicious gaze, sending a sharp look.
“Nothing to concern myself with?”
Her narrowed eyes turned toward Asteril, as if the one standing beside Rian was utterly unpleasant and obnoxious.
“Is that so?”
Making a crooked expression, she lightly raised her hand. The moment that hand clenched into a vicious fist, Rian hurriedly grabbed Asteril’s arm and swept her up into her embrace.
“Kyaaah!”
Asteril felt her body float upward along with the scream that had burst out unbidden. Leaping into the air, Rian instantly jumped onto the detached palace and landed on the roof.
“L-Lady Rian?”
With a composed expression, Rian made no reply and looked down at the ground. At the end of her gaze, the green-eyed woman stood frozen.
“Rian, what are you doing….”
The woman who had been muttering in a daze trailed off and bit her lip. The atmosphere was ominous. Asteril clutched Rian’s collar.
“I’ll kill her.”
A murderous glint flashed in her eyes. The woman’s right hand, fingers extended like claws, looked as threatening as a blade.
“Stop, Aris.”
“If you want me to stop, put that woman down first.”
Rian fell silent again. Judging by the strength of her grip, she had no intention of letting go willingly.
Asteril looked at the green-eyed woman. She was still glaring with a hostile expression. At the slightest opening, she looked ready to draw a blade from her waist and swing it.
Asteril wanted to ask to be put down immediately, but on the slanted roof, one misstep would send her straight into the waters of the Styx.
“Get away from Rian right now!”
As Aris shouted and charged, dust began to rise from the ground. It was a massive cloud of dust, as if a herd of cattle were charging. Rian took a step back while holding Asteril.
No—before she could even feel the retreat, she saw Aris floating in midair. With her hand extended like a blade, she struck sharply toward the nape of Asteril’s neck.
Swish.
When she opened her tightly shut eyelids, Aris had vanished without a trace. Instead, she saw something tumble down below the roof.
It was Aris’s hand. The wrist that had approached right before her face had been severed clean at the cross-section and was rolling in the dirt.
Had it been cut by a sword? Asteril turned to check Rian’s waist. Other than the golden cords tying her dress, nothing could be seen.
Just how…
Nor was Rian holding even a small dagger in her hand.
Aris, with one hand severed, steadied herself at the edge of the roof and rose. Despite having her wrist cut off, she didn’t even look flustered. Lian, too, stood with an unconcerned expression.
“Aris.”
Rian called her name softly, as if scolding her. Short sighs escaped in succession. Aris scrunched her forehead like a scolded child and pressed her lips tightly together.
“I don’t understand. What’s so special about that wretch….”
“She is an important existence.”
“That woman?”
“I mean she is important to the Asphodelos.”
Rian spoke in a tone that suggested she was too tired to even explain. Aris paused and looked toward the west of the detached palace. That was the direction of the hill where the Asphodelos had been before it was transplanted.
She pouted her lips with a “Hmph.” It was a look of clear displeasure. Aris glared at Rian’s hand resting on Asteril’s shoulder, then leaped down to the ground. She kicked her severed wrist up into the air and roughly snatched it.
Asteril was at a loss for words. No, wasn’t Aris targeting the wrong person to be angry at? If she was going to be jealous, it should be directed at the King of Hades in the main palace, not an innocent bystander.
Having retrieved her wrist, Aris turned back as if to say farewell, then shouted with a sulky expression.
“You haven’t forgotten, have you? What day today is.”
Asteril glanced sideways at Rian with a pitiful look. She didn’t know what it was about, but Rian seemed to have completely forgotten. It would probably be best for her to leave.
“It’s finally the day I establish myself as the Guardian of Hestia. It was decided long ago, but I suppose I can’t help feeling nervous and happy.”
Guardian of Hestia? What was that? It seemed the two had known each other for a long time. Were they comrades? Or perhaps lovers? There had occasionally been priests who shared their hearts with the same sex.
When no answer came from Rian, Aris whipped around, waved her hand as if to say she was leaving, then vanished in an instant amid a cloud of dust that suddenly arose.
Unable to control her trembling legs, Asteril slumped down. It was the feeling of tension snapping loose. Rian held her and landed gently on the ground.
It was an elegant posture, as if she had wings on her back. But the moment her feet touched the ground, she promptly released the arm that had been holding Asteril.
Thud. Asteril fell hard on her bottom and looked up at Rian. Wasn’t it too much to let go as if dropping a bundle of firewood?
Rian looked at her as if asking if there was a problem. Indeed, she couldn’t say anything in front of that face. Clearing her throat, Asteril looked in the direction Aris had disappeared and spoke.
“Um, will your friend be alright? Her hand….”
“She is nothing to concern yourself with.”
Dismissing it briefly, Rian turned and headed toward the garden.
“She is nothing to concern yourself with.”
One side of Asteril’s chest stung, as if lashed by a whip. It always felt as if a cold mist encircled Rian like a fence.
If she herself, who was not particularly close to Rian, felt this way, how must Aris feel? Recalling how Aris had pouted like a child while looking at Rian, Asteril too became infinitely melancholic.
Ψ
Time in Lethe flowed slowly and desolately. As a day felt like half a month and a week felt like a season, the daily lives of the princesses likewise continued in boredom, one yawn after another.
“Lady Asteril, you seem very tired. Haven’t you been sleeping well these days?”
Seated beneath the fig tree where they always gathered at dusk, the princesses were enjoying apple wine with dried fruits.
“By the way, it’s about Lady Rian.”
“Yes?”
“How old do you think she is?”
“I wonder.”
The King of Hades seemed young. She hadn’t seen his face, but judging by his aura, that was the impression.
“How long has it been since the King ascended the throne?”
No one said anything. Then, was the invasion of Demeter indeed the previous king’s doing?
“We know just as little as Lady Asteril about this place and the King of Lethe. The same goes for Lady Rian.”
Almost nothing was known about the history and dynasty of Hades, even among the elders and priests. This military power that had emerged suddenly was still shrouded in all manner of mysterious tales that seemed to belong in legends, driving neighboring kingdoms to terror.
Someone’s eyes shone with curiosity. But no further questions followed. After all, no one could answer them.
Princess Leuke, who had been waving her hands to shoo away nearby bugs, noticed something in Princess Melinoe’s wine glass and shouted in surprise.
“Don’t drink it!”
“What?”
“There’s a bee that fell in and died inside the glass.”
Princess Melinoe, who had been sitting up straight, frowned and set down her glass. As if even the hint of pleasure that had lingered on her tongue had vanished.
“Poor thing. It must have been lured by the sweet scent.”
Princess Tetis clicked her tongue, and Princess Melinoe snorted in response.
“The end of a foolish creature that could not overcome sweet temptation. Whether a mere insect or a human, such lowly things deserve punishment, so please do not pity them.”
Princess Tetis stared at the honeybee in the glass with a sour expression.
“You are cold, Princess Melinoe.”
Her murmur vanished into her newly filled glass. Her trailing, fading voice was ambiguous—whether agreeing reluctantly or rebelling, it was impossible to tell.
Asteril watched them with an intrigued gaze. The five princesses gathered in this small palace each had vastly different personalities, hobbies, and interests.
The strict and authoritative Princess Melinoe, the inquisitive and mediative Princess Tetis, the curious and impulsive Princess Amphitrite, the emotional and aesthetic Princess Leuke, and the kind and dexterous Princess Metea.
What kind of person did they see her as?
“The sun is setting. The nights of Hades seem especially deep and dark.”
“Perhaps because it’s as quiet as a dead mouse?”
“They call it the Hour of Hypnos or whatever, but why do they lock people in their rooms? And it seems no minstrels come to this palace either. I’m truly dying of boredom.”
While each complained, only Asteril and Princess Melinoe remained silent.
When darkness fell, the smell of blood permeated the palace. Even the impertinent Boreas wrapped his tail around himself and hid away—surely because of those women.
The screams of women who were stripped naked and thrown into fire pits came every night, causing terrible insomnia. Who were they, and why were they receiving such heavy punishment?
“The end of a foolish creature that could not overcome sweet temptation.”
Princess Melinoe, who like Asteril had her mouth tightly shut, was staring at her wine glass in silence. Could she also know something?
“What is this noise?”
Princess Tetis suddenly sprang to her feet and asked. The other princesses looked up at her with bewildered expressions, their cheeks flushed with drink.
“It’s noisy outside.”
“Outside?”
“Outside the palace.”
Tetis had exceptionally sharp hearing. They said she even slept with cotton in her ears, and according to Amphitrite, she was so sensitive that she would wake at the sound of her own breathing.
Then the sky flashed as if reflecting off clouds.
“It’s flames, Lady Asteril. There seems to be a fire over there.”
It was true. One side of the dark sky suddenly blazed bright, as if spewing out the breath of the sun. The princesses, who had never been outside the detached palace, were visibly flustered and at a loss.
Asteril, who had been staring at the flames, opened her mouth.
“I’ll go check.”
At that moment, Boreas came rushing in and urgently blocked Asteril’s path.
“Why are you blocking the way? It’s not even the Hour of Hypnos yet.”
Watching Asteril speak to the empty air, the two sisters Tetis and Amphitrite looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
Boreas shook his head firmly.
“You mustn’t go, Princess.”
“Then let me hear the sounds.”
After a moment of deliberation, Boreas slightly released the noises from outside the palace that he had been carrying in his tail.
Waaaah.
It was the roar of soldiers. The sound of drums, shouting, and flaming arrows being shot into the fortress could be heard.
“It’s a surprise attack.”
When Asteril turned and shouted, the remaining princesses’ faces turned deathly pale.
How could they not have known?
The trees and bushes that would normally relax leisurely in the night air were standing stiff with tension. The breath of the atmosphere, holding still, was dizzying. Frightened birds could be seen flapping their wings and flying away outside the palace.
Boom!
At the thunderous sound of a massive stone collapsing like a landslide, someone let out a scream. It was Princess Metea. She crouched down, covered her ears, and trembled violently, burying her face in her knees.
Should she evacuate the princesses? But where to? Where on earth had the attendants gone?
Despite this disaster, there was no sign of the maids and ladies-in-waiting. Looking at Tetis, who was hugging her sobbing sister Metea and younger sister Amphitrite protectively, Asteril looked toward the sky where flames rose.
“Everyone stay here quietly. If something happens, flee in the direction the fig leaves fly on the wind.”
Asteril placed a fallen fig leaf on Tetis’s palm.
“Boreas, you stay here and help the princesses evacuate in case of emergency.”
Asteril sent a signal to Boreas floating in the air and whispered softly. Then Boreas, who had been hovering worriedly, shook his entire body in alarm.
“No, Princess. You mustn’t go alone. It’s dangerous, I said it’s dangerous!”
“Don’t worry.”
To Princess Tetis, who was looking at her with an expression asking what she intended to do, Asteril gave a small smile, then turned and began to walk quickly.
Tetis, standing anxiously, looked down at the fig leaf Asteril had left behind.
It felt as if someone had breathed an icy breath into her chest. A premonition of ill omen. The feeling that something she must see with her own eyes lay ahead. The excited shouts grew louder as the flickering flames approached.
“Come out! King of Hades, show yourself at once!”
“Bring the dead princesses back to life!”
“Barbarian! Insolent invader!”
Surprisingly, not a single soldier stopped her before she reached the gate. It seemed there wasn’t so much as an ant living in this palace, not just the detached palace. Or had everyone taken refuge due to the surprise attack? Even so, it was strange that no sentries were visible.
In the center of the stone wall stood two black marble leopard statues facing each other, and between the leopards with their mouths gaping wide, the gate was firmly shut. Of course, neither outside nor inside the gate could any soldier bearing arms be found.
Having climbed atop the gate, Asteril paused at the sight of a towering marble pillar. At the top of the white pillar positioned like a spear thrust down through the center of the gate, a gleaming marble cup was carved as decoration.
The Holy Grail guarded by black leopards…. Pillars usually signify a deity. Then that grail must be the grail held by a deity.
Suddenly, the voices of the reeds she had encountered when coming to Lethe flashed through her mind.
“Lethe was never a place with physical form.”
“Lethe means the Cup of Oblivion.”
After gazing at the marble cup for a moment, she turned her head and stared toward the main palace visible in the distance.
The Cup of Oblivion…. What could that be?
Inside that pitch-black marble main palace, the King of Hades would be sitting on his throne in a relaxed posture. For some reason, she felt he was observing this entire situation.
Many flags were visible outside the gate. They were the banners of generals from various nations, or their direct royal forces.
If they spoke of dead princesses, did they mean the princess of Corinth who was said to have been killed by the King and abandoned outside the castle before Asteril came to Hades?
“Charge!”
A banner bearing a dolphin and trident rose high at the front. The soldiers raised their spears and shouted.
Watching the scene, Asteril’s eyes widened.
A dolphin and trident. It was the flag of Poseidonia, homeland of Princesses Tetis and Amphitrite. Could it be they didn’t know the princesses were alive?
The image of naked women burning in flames and the King of Hades watching them indifferently flashed through her mind.
At this rate, the princesses’ lives might be in danger….
Asteril straightened up and shouted as if pressing down on the wind.
“Everyone, stop!”
The holy voice is the voice used by priests when conducting rituals or ceremonies, a method of using divine power to make one’s voice resound through the atmosphere or wind. Most ordinary people feel the back of their necks grow cold and their entire bodies overwhelmed the moment they hear the holy voice; it is said that a priest with powerful divine strength can even knock opponents unconscious with the holy voice alone.
But the commanders standing here were not such ordinary people. They were generals of nations who had traversed countless battlefields. They paid no heed to her holy voice, standing with eyes wide open. And only then did they discover Asteril standing above the gate.
Flustered by her sudden appearance, they exchanged glances and struggled to ascertain her identity.
“General Menaseus, is she your princess?”
“No, she is not our princess.”
“She doesn’t belong to Aphrodisias or Athenai either.”
“She’s not from Poseidonia either. That’s not an Ionian-style garment.”
“Isn’t that Hades’ attire?”
“Hades’ attire?”
At that moment, hostile gazes poured forth. The commander of Athenai gritted his teeth and shouted.
“She’s undoubtedly the King of Hades’ woman. A noble of Lethe!”
At the commander’s words, over two thousand soldiers pointed their sharp spear tips at her. Though it was dark and distant, she could feel it—their resentful eyes, biting down hard in fury.
“Kill her!”
When the general at the front raised his spear high, the soldiers assumed a throwing stance toward her.
Flustered, Asteril faltered and took a step back.
“W-wait! I am a noble of Hades….”
Then it happened. The flames suddenly subsided, and the wind fell as silent as a dead mouse. The sky where embers had flown was being swallowed by a deep, heavy darkness.
It was darkness. No, a profound wind was blowing in.
“Thanatos.”
At the king’s low spirit voice spreading like wildfire, the earth heaved as if breathing.
Thump, thump.
The commanders’ eyes went round as they looked around and gulped dryly.
Had they heard correctly just now? Surely he said Thanatos….
What is Thanatos? It is the army of death, whose name alone is said to make children stop crying instantly. Whether a robust warrior, an aged sage, or a newborn babe—the fear of Thanatos was one from which the rings of age offered no protection.
“Go.”
Rumble rumble rumble.
The sound of something charging and shaking the ground echoed. The general of Poseidonia, who had been listening intently, stepped back with a white face and shouted.
“Th-those are chariots…. It’s the black chariot corps!”
As if in response to his shout, the gate opened, and black chariot forces appeared, sweeping through the surroundings. Black armor, black spears, black horses pulling the chariots.
Their limbs moved like black smoke, swift without a moment’s hesitation. In an instant they beheaded the allied soldiers, pierced the ribs of soldiers crushed under chariot wheels, and drove sharp spear points home.
“Aaaaack!”
A fallen soldier flailed his arm, and a soldier in black armor on a charging chariot slashed his neck with a swift cut. Watching the severed neck spray fresh blood, Asteril blocked her ears in horror.
She had seen countless sick and dead. She was familiar with death.
She had seen skin decaying, flesh rotting from burns, maggots swarming from the nostrils and throats of corpses…. But why, oh why, was this so horrific?
Then a soldier who had climbed the wall panting swung a dagger at Asteril.
In that moment, moonlight rushed in and obscured her vision. The moonlight shining through the clouds reflected dazzlingly off the tip of the soldier’s dagger floating in the air.
Time suddenly seemed to flow very slowly, like a stretched harp string. All the scenery seemed to drift slowly, floating among sparkling dust particles.
The soldier who had been charging with a venomous glare was now screaming and floating in the air. Before him stood a man with a crimson-purple chlamys draped over his shoulder, blocking the path toward her.
When on earth had he….
The soldier, coughing and clutching his neck as if unable to breathe, flailed in the air before being flung below the castle wall like a wooden doll. “Aaaargh!” A desperate scream rang out. It was a height from which survival was impossible. Watching the scene, Asteril exhaled roughly.
The King of Hades.
Even the passing wind seemed to bow its head low. The master of dominion before whom all living things held their breath in submission. It was a supernatural power she had never felt from any priest.
“Thank you, Your Majesty….”
Her strength leaving her legs, Asteril muttered.
“Boreas.”
At the king’s spirit voice, Boreas, who had been hiding on Asteril’s shoulder, raised his head in surprise.
—Take Persephone.
North Wind shot forward like an arrow and yanked Aseuteril’s hair.
“W-Wait a minute….”
Sand carried by the gust got into her eyes. Aseuteril rubbed her eyelids and smoothed her furrowed brow.
Huh? Looking around at the now-quiet surroundings, she blankly let her mind wander at his presence, which had vanished without a trace.
Gone, once again.
As expected, the King had been watching everything.
An ability hard to believe even though she had seen it with her own two eyes.
Just what… was his true identity?
When she returned to the detached palace, the princesses gathered in the inner courtyard welcomed Aseuteril all at once.
To them asking what on earth had happened, Aseuteril explained the situation at the front gate.
“It was a surprise attack by the allied forces. Athenai, Poseidonia, Hermeis, and so on…. The commanders all thought that Your Highnesses had lost your lives, like the Princess of Corinth in the previous battle. But because the King of Hades sent out Thanatos, the situation was resolved in an instant.”
“Thanatos, you say?”
At the word “Thanatos,” the princesses’ complexions paled. Among them, Princess Leuke staggered for a moment, then suddenly grabbed Aseuteril’s hand and asked with a frantic face.
“Who was the commander of our Crete?”
If it was the Kingdom of Crete…. The flag with the bull emblem running atop foamy waves.
She recalled the figure of the young commander who had stood at the very front, shouting excitedly.
“Is that person… still alive?”
Seeing Aseuteril unable to bring herself to answer, Leuke’s eyelids turned red. She buried both hands in her face and burst into tears.
The princesses who heard the story could not hide their anxiety. When she described the commanders’ appearances, they all seemed to be people who had direct or indirect connections to the princesses.
From relatives to lovers they had admired.
“But how on earth did the allied forces get all the way to the royal palace of Lethe?”
“Tell me about it.”
“What… do you mean?”
When Aseuteril asked without understanding the conversation, Princess Tethys opened her mouth.
“Do you know why this place is called Hades, Lady Aseuteril?”
Hades means the unseen place.
A kingdom beyond the netherworld that cannot be found even if sought, cannot be touched even if reached for, and cannot be arrived at even if one tries.
“The moment you reach the banks of the Styx River, thick fog obscures your vision. And no matter how much you row on a boat, you cannot reach Lethe. There is only one way to come here. Only by riding the boat of the black ferryman drifting along the Styx River.”
“Then all of you princesses….”
“Came on that ferryman’s boat. You too, right, Lady Aseuteril?”
“But there’s no way all of the allied forces could have ridden the black ferryman’s boat, which is like a small rowboat.”
What could it be?
Just how did the allied forces reach the palace of Lethe?
Just then, North Wind approached her ear, gauged her mood, and whispered carefully.
“What? The commander of Crete is alive?”
When Aseuteril exclaimed in surprise, Leuke, who had been sitting under an olive tree crying endlessly, suddenly raised her head. A ray of hope flashed across her swollen red eyelids.
“He’s alive? Where… where is he? Who? Who said so?”
“Well….”
Leuke sprang to her feet and approached Aseuteril, who was making a troubled expression. The whimpering woman grabbed Aseuteril’s shoulder and asked again.
“The wind spirit whispered it to you, right? Lady Aseuteril, you have mysterious abilities. Did they say so? That he’s alive? Please, Lady Aseuteril… go and check if that person is safe. You are close with Lord Rian too.”
At Leuke’s words, North Wind shook his head violently. Several commanders had been captured alive and were being interrogated at the main palace.
—No, Princess of the South. You mustn’t go to the main palace. Don’t anger him. If you go, you’ll die, you’ll really die!
Shortly after, a small twig was clasped in Aseuteril’s hand as she trudged along the path toward the main palace. She held it preciously as she went, but North Wind followed at her ear, nagging incessantly.
He grabbed her hair as if to bite it, puffed out his chest, blew a whoosh of breath, and blocked her path. But when none of it worked, he eventually tired himself out, flopped down, and cast resentful glances.
“That’s why I said I’m going alone. Didn’t I tell you to just wait quietly in the detached palace?”
North Wind shouted, hopping up and down as if hurt.
He said he was not such a bloodless, tearless yin wind (陰風). He thought they were comrades, but the princess was truly cold-hearted. He raised a fuss asking how she could do this and rolled across the lawn. Anyone seeing him would think he was a mole spirit, not a wind spirit.
Why didn’t he just dig into the ground?
“Princess, if you’re going to die, shouldn’t I at least see you off on your final path…. What? Do you really think I’m going to die?”
When Aseuteril asked incredulously, North Wind flinched and quickly tucked his tail behind him.
Aseuteril looked at him playfully, then crossed her arms and asked.
“How about you stop talking now? Why on earth are you staying here in Lethe? I thought wind spirits don’t stay in one place?”
Wind spirits are originally chatterboxes.
Because they wander here and there, seeing and hearing all sorts of stories, they know much and have much to talk about.
But ironically, their duties mostly fell on the side of keeping secrets and protecting.
Thus, wind spirits who remain in one place are often gatekeepers guarding something there.
What the West Wind guards in Cocytus, I still do not know….
North Wind clamped his mouth shut like a clam.
At his appearance of playing dumb and sneaking away, Aseuteril said, “Fine, fine!” and turned her steps again.
The area before the main palace was brightly lit by reed torches. The soldiers were nowhere to be seen. Only the commanders sat kneeling in a line, bound with ropes.
And higher even than the torch stands, upon a black marble chair placed like an altar, he sat.
The King of Hades.
Neither the flickering torches nor the dim moonlight could illuminate his face hidden in shadow.
Draping plain black silk over his shoulders, he lay his body obliquely, placing his starkly pale hand upon the armrest.
“You bastaard! After killing the princesses like that, did you think you would be safe? Don’t count on it. Even if you behead us right here right now, the allied forces will not give up. Until the day your head is cut off, our allied forces will….”
Shiiiiik.
“Kuk!”
Blood suddenly sprayed from the shouting general’s neck like a fountain. Writhing his bound arms in agony, he gurgled and thudded to the ground.
The general’s corpse lay with eyes open, mouth gaping wide enough to show his Adam’s apple. At the sight of him perishing in an instant, the other commanders tied up beside him turned deathly pale.
Aseuteril, who had been watching the scene from behind the garden trees, turned around in shock.
“North Wind, you!”
—It wasn’t me.
“….”
—I said it wasn’t me!
North Wind waved his hands as if wronged and shouted. He said he had been right here the whole time, looking only at the princess’s back, his tail coiled tightly around the elm tree here.
“Then what just cut that general’s neck….”
That sharp sound of wind….
—Hanpung.
Following the deep, clear voice, another sharp blade-like wind struck. The cold wind winding around the waists of the garden trees slashed the side of the young commander tied beside the fallen general with a sickening squelch.
“Aaack!”
The screaming commander thudded over to the side. The remaining commanders bowed their heads in terror. When faced with such a situation, they ended up lowering themselves before death.
To be precise, they had surrendered to fear.
“What is Hanpung?”
To Aseuteril’s question, North Wind cleared his throat beside her and opened his mouth: they are beings different from pure and free spirits like himself.
“Free? I see…. I thought you might have shackles tied to your tail or something. I mean, you’d have to have left the palace at least once. It’s not like you’re a kite stuck in a willow tree; you’re a wind spirit, and not just any passing breeze, but the breath of the Northern Heavens famous for its swiftness. Yet you buzz around only the detached palace garden like a bee guarding buried honey. And yet you were a free being…. I see, so you were free.”
At Aseuteril nodding her head vigorously to convince herself, North Wind scrunched his face as if his pride were hurt and shouted.
—Princess of the southern kingdom, you are truly insolent! Do you think I’m just staying here? It is because I am carrying out a very important mission, without even knowing….
“An important mission? What is it?”
—Well, what it is….
“Ischys!”
Just then, Leuke burst through the bushes, shouting her lover’s name, and ran. She embraced the fallen commander of Crete, wounded in the side, and burst into tears.
Seeing that, Aseuteril looked at North Wind again in shock.
No, how did that woman get here….
North Wind, who had been muttering excuses, suddenly felt wronged and shouted fiercely.
—Princess, I am not some patrol dog patrolling the detached garden as you said! My breath does not exist just to tickle your earlobes. Besides, I have no hands or feet. How could I stop that woman running with her life on the line? No, why on earth do I even need to list such excuses?
“You grabbed my hair just fine by making it catch on a branch, kicked up sand onto my feet, covered my eyes with fallen leaves—are you saying you didn’t notice Princess Leuke following on my heels? And you call yourself a wind spirit?”
—That just means I was putting all my strength into stopping you, Princess of the southern kingdom. Anyway, that woman is as good as dead now. Just give up….
Before North Wind could finish his mumbling, Aseuteril burst out from between the bushes.
No, does that damn princess really want to die?
“Please spare me, Your Majesty. Please, please spare my life! I will deliver word to my father the king. Such disrespect shall never happen again…. I can promise it truly will not happen again. So please….”
Leuke bowed her head even deeper under the gaze piercing the crown of her head. She clasped both hands and begged earnestly until her palms were worn, sobs leaking between her choked voice.
“Please, please, please….”
Aseuteril approached beside her and cast a pitiful gaze over Leuke’s hunched shoulders.
There was no point in pleading like that; he wouldn’t listen anyway.
From the moment she first met the king on that cold throne on her first day in Hades, she had sensed it.
There was something lacking in him as a human.
—Kill them.
The attendants lined up on both sides of the throne began to walk over with expressionless faces.
Unable to hear the clear voice, Leuke still bowed her body, begging for her lover’s life.
The remaining commanders, seeing the attendants’ gaunt complexions, were driven to despair and wailed.
“Please spare them.”
At Aseuteril’s voice, the King, who had been disappearing between the curtains, glanced back over his shoulder.
“Hades has not particularly suffered any harm…. Would you not save their lives?”
—The main palace is off-limits.
“I know.”
Did coming here knowing that mean she was ready to die? Was she asking to be killed? Was she attempting a meaningless act of defiance?
The King’s displeasure was felt.
Surely he wouldn’t kill me too? No, that man was fully capable of it.
He could order her beheaded in an instant.
Aseuteril quickly raised the twig she was holding high.
“It’s about to sprout.”
The King stared at her, wondering what bizarre thing she would say this time.
“Look, a tiny bud has formed at the end of this branch, hasn’t it?”
Watching that, Leuke felt all strength drain from her.
Did she bring that dried-up twig to bargain for a person’s life right now?
What on earth was that?
Was it a branch from the golden apple tree guarded by the Hesperian nymphs?
It was absurd.
What on earth did that princess from the southern kingdom think of the King of Hades?
Where was there such a fool who would be swayed by such a twig….
—Are you threatening me now?
The King’s shoulders seemed to tremble, stiffening somewhat.
Leuke looked at him with a puzzled face.
What?
Did she bring a magic staff?
Was some ancient sorcery cast on it?
Did she recite a binding spell to immobilize the King?
“Threaten? I simply brought it to show you because I was happy it had sprouted.”
Leuke looked at Aseuteril, who had been talking to thin air, with a bewildered expression.
Why had she been talking to herself all this time?
The King wasn’t saying anything, yet she was babbling on her own, acting all bold, smiling, then extending her hand as if negotiating, acting so pompous. No matter how you looked at it, she didn’t seem sane.
If the King became enraged by this and ordered everyone killed….
“There was no way to deliver this news without coming to the main palace. Will you not generously bestow mercy? Not only upon me, but upon everyone here….”
An inexplicable composure was felt from the faintly smiling Aseuteril.
But from some time ago, a strange wind had been circling at her feet.
Surely there was something in that twig.
She had cast a secret spell on the King and attendants.
Leuke held Ischys tight in her arms and thought.
Yes, whom could she trust if not Lady Aseuteril in this situation? The wind spirit was protecting the princess like that.
It would be alright. She was the miracle of Cocytus, the blessing granted by Gaia.
“I have heard that Lethe, the capital of Hades, holds a hidden meaning.”
As if asking what it was, the King silently waited for her words.
“The Cup of Oblivion, perhaps….”
At that moment, fierce wind blew in. The gust whirled up sand and fallen leaves, whooshing in to obscure vision and raise white dust, then suddenly settled gently.
—Where did you hear that story?
Aseuteril swallowed dryly. A cold breath was felt beyond her thin linen dress.
He had moved from the stone seat in an instant.
It was her first time being in such close contact with a man.
The faint trembling flowing from her lower lip, roughened by tension, caused a rough heartbeat like a melody plucked on thin lyre strings.
She barely opened her lips.
“I don’t quite remember….”
—Was it North Wind?
“N-no. I just picked it up on the way to Lethe; where I heard it….”
—The reeds of Elysium, then.
“Huh? Ah, no, that’s….”
He, who had stood silently for a moment, turned to conclude the conversation.
—Leave.
“But….”
What about the commanders?
Regardless of her unasked question, he already seemed to pay no heed to their lives.
“Wait a moment.”
—I said leave.
As the King moved toward the inner main palace, the attendants lined up beside him followed like ants. Darkness spreading like a web between marble pillars crept out ominously. And like prey caught in spiderwebs, the attendants trailing in one by one were slowly devoured.
Ow, my head….
A foul stench pierced her nose.
She didn’t know if it was an illusion or not, but often a rotten, corpse-like stench wafted from those attendants.
Was this truly the land of the dead?
When their forms completely disappeared, someone let out a long sigh of relief.
Princess Leuke looked at Aseuteril, asking what had just happened.
—Only this once.
The weight of those words was considerable.
So much so that she could guess the rest without hearing it.
Aseuteril adjusted her grip on the branch of asphodel she held. Still anxious, she opened and closed her palm, then gripped it again.
In the boundless darkness, the only lifeline she could cling to was the old branch of a withered tree.
O gods….
Like the tender sprout budding at its tip, she simply prayed that her fate, too, would remain unharmed.