Chapter 59
Menthe has changed a lot lately.
Sometimes when I wander around the underworld, I see her passing by with hollow eyes, muttering...
"Ugh... I want to go back... No, but still..."
Occasionally, she's found crouching at the outskirts of the underworld.
When I ask her why she's like this...
"Lord Hades... I... I can't live like this... Please! At least give me a reward!"
She lifts her head slightly and pleads to me with tears in her eyes.
...The problem is that it doesn't end with pleading, she suddenly tries to embrace me,
I kept avoiding it, but once when I weakened and just accepted it, this happened.
Behind Menthe, who was crying in my arms about how hard the work was...
"Menthe? Have you checked the flame intensity of the Pyriphlegethon River I assigned you?!"
"We received a complaint about the mint scent from the ferryman Charon... You have time to cozy up to Hades here..."
"Eeeek?! I-I'm sorry!"
Goddess Styx and Goddess Lethe suddenly appeared, emitting a fierce divine power,
and took her away again.
Menthe, who had the expression of a mortal coming to the underworld, has been flinching and not trying to embrace me since then.
Yes, as if she had received some kind of education or admonition...
As this kept happening, I called Hypnos, the god of sleep, and asked:
"Are the goddesses perhaps bullying Menthe? She seems to be overwhelmed with work..."
"...? As far as I know, she's not even doing half of what Goddess Styx usually does."
Wondering if this was true, I secretly followed Menthe one day.
Menthe worked hard, running around the underworld from morning to evening, but...
'Isn't this rather favorable treatment?'
Menthe's workload was much less than the average workload of gods residing in the underworld.
Moreover, while other gods are several times busier, even using avatars,
she doesn't know how to create avatars, so she's moving around with just her main body.
After that, I thought she'd adapt quickly to that amount of work... and stopped paying attention.
Even I, who was following Menthe, was making judgments using my avatars.
As I watched Menthe adapting to the underworld day by day with fond eyes...
***
One day, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, came to the underworld.
"Hello, Uncle. Cough. Cough."
"...? Why are you coughing?"
We gods don't get sick.
Except for baldness, which is in the realm of power that even Apollo, the god of medicine, can't cure,
most other diseases can't invade the robust bodies of gods.
But an Olympian god, the goddess of wisdom, is coughing?
At my question, Athena smiles awkwardly and says:
"Ah... well.. Sniff! Because of the intense mint scent from the entrance of the underworld to the Acheron River..."
"Is it that bad?"
"...Even ferryman Charon was covering his nose while moving the huge ferry... no, steel ship."
Mint, the symbol of Hades, used to mitigate the odor of the dead.
Originally, mint was used in funerals of Theban people where Hades' temple was located, so it wasn't burdensome.
Thanatos, who harvests the souls of the dead,
and Charon, who ferries the dead across the Acheron River, initially liked its refreshing scent.
But if mint has spread in the mortal world enough for Menthe to be enshrined as a goddess...
How many of the daily dead would emit a mint scent?
"Oh... Mint has spread too much in the mortal world lately."
"Yes, when souls cross the Acheron River, their scent is diluted in the water, but until then..."
"I need to think of a way to reduce the mint spread in the mortal world."
It's good that my symbol, mint, has spread widely, but if gods are suffering from its scent...
I need to think of another solution.
"Um... 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 human funerals..."
"Do you want to naturally reduce it, not prohibit it through an oracle or something like that?"
Of course, that's how it should be.
After giving them mint, limiting the amount used in funerals through an oracle...
That would be interfering too much with humans.
"Then how about spreading mint as food? Then humans won't waste much of the precious ingredient mint in funerals..."
"...! Not a bad idea. Come to think of it..."
Right. As a reward for Menthe creating mint last time...
I said I would officially recognize her as the creator of mint and make mint food spread worldwide.
I forgot about it because I was busy, but I should have used that method earlier.
It's not about eating to get rid of the too strong mint scent.
If we make people eat mint in tea or food, wouldn't it naturally reduce the mint used in funerals?
In this era, ingredients are precious, so the amount of mint leaves discarded with corpses will decrease,
and souls will no longer emit a terrible mint scent.
"...Uncle?"
Honestly, I'm fine, but as the king of the underworld, I can't just watch Charon suffer at the Acheron River.
Therefore, the reason I'm making mint into food is all thanks to... no, because of Charon.
Just as I was about to call Menthe to assign this task, Athena called me.
"The reason I came here is that I want to borrow your Kynee."
***
She wants to borrow my Kynee made by Arges, one of the three Cyclops brothers?
It's like borrowing Zeus's thunderbolt or Poseidon's trident.
I straightened my posture and looked into Athena's eyes.
"The goddess of wisdom must have a reason for 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 about it too. You mean that poor human destined to kill his own grandfather?"
King Acrisius of Argos, a human country in the mortal world, had no son, only a daughter.
So he went to the Delphi temple to hear an oracle about his children, but...
"You will not only be unable to have a son in the future, but you will also die at the hands of your daughter's child."
"W-What?!"
King Acrisius, who heard this terrifying prophecy, imprisoned his daughter Danae in a large tower,
but Zeus, disguising himself as golden rain, entered the tower and had a relationship with her.
Thus, Danae and her child by Zeus, Perseus, were abandoned at sea by King Acrisius.
More precisely, he put them both in a wooden box and set them adrift at sea,
They were rescued by a kind-hearted fisherman and came to live on the island of Seriphos.
However...
"Perseus. It's the king's order. Bring me Medusa's head."
"M-Medusa's head, you say?"
"If you refuse, you'll be executed for disobeying the royal command. What will you do?"
"Damn.. I understand."
Polydectes, the king of Seriphos, was captivated by Danae's beauty,
and tried to kill her son Perseus, who was in his way.
By sending him to Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters and a monster with the ability to turn people to stone when they look at her snake-like hair!
"So you knew about that human, Uncle."
"Even though I'm in the underworld, how could I not know about a human destined to become a hero."
With the threat of the Gigantes not yet over,
I was aware of humans born with the destiny to become heroes.
Especially if it's Zeus's son like Perseus.
Predetermined fate.
An absolute law that even immortal gods dare not change.
Even Zeus, the king of gods, cannot change a fate discovered through prophecy.
That's why I knew Perseus was destined to kill his grandfather,
but I didn't dare try to change it.
"If he's Zeus's son, he's my nephew, so I can't let him die."
"Then will you lend him the Kynee?"
"Well..."
However, if Perseus is indeed destined to be a hero,
and might play a role in the war against the Gigantes.
I could lend the Kynee as an investment for the future.
If that's fate. But...
"It's true that Perseus is the human destined to become a hero by beheading Medusa. However..."
There's only one reason I'm not immediately accepting Athena's words.
"Weren't you the one who turned Medusa, a victim of Poseidon's rape, into a monster? And I believe she was originally a priestess serving you."
Medusa was a priestess serving in Athena's temple,
but she was raped by Poseidon, who coveted her beautiful appearance, in the temple.
And like Artemis, Athena is a virgin goddess.
Having a relationship in her temple itself was a tremendous sacrilege,
and Athena, unable to directly confront the powerful Poseidon, instead turned Medusa into a monster.
"Your temperament is no less than Artemis's. It might have been difficult to confront Poseidon... but my nieces and nephews just take it out on humans."
"Uncle, that's..."
"You couldn't say anything to Poseidon who raped Medusa, but you want to borrow my Kynee to give to a human hero destined to kill her?"
It's true that Perseus is destined to kill Medusa and also kill his grandfather.
But it was Athena who originally turned Medusa, a rape victim, into a monster.
I'm thinking of lending the Kynee because I can't let Perseus meet his death,
but you'll need to persuade me a bit more.
"Try to explain with your wisdom, which is so renowned in Olympus."