Chapter 6
When I came to my senses, I was tangled up with Pallas, sprawled on the ground.
Where Pallas had been standing, a blue-steel arrowhead was embedded in the earth. It had been a near thing—by a hair’s breadth.
Pallas, who had regained consciousness before me, sprang to her feet. Seeing her unharmed, my eyes welled up with tears of relief. You’re safe, Pallas…
“B-blood! There’s blood—!”
Blood was nothing new to me. It was part of everyday life. So I should have been fine. I had to be fine. Then why—why was I so dizzy…?
It seemed the arrow had only grazed me, but blood was flowing down my left arm. The skin was already turning a deep purplish blue.
Only then did I remember Artemis boasting that she would definitely bring down the boar this time—and that she had coated her arrow with poison.
Of all times.
My luck was truly atrocious. Of course it had to be a poisoned arrow—of course.
“I-I’m sorry! I should have—hic—I should have listened to you! Waaah…!”
Pallas burst into heartrending sobs.
I wanted to tell her it was okay, but my head felt like it was splitting apart. My mouth opened and closed uselessly, no sound coming out.
From far away, I thought I saw Artemis running toward us—then my vision blurred. Strangely, it felt different from the times I’d fainted before.
My body felt weightless, as if my soul were slipping free from it…
And just like that, I closed my eyes.
Everything went dark.
—
“Hoo…”
The meeting held on Olympus had dragged on far longer than expected.
By the time Hades finally returned to the Underworld at dusk, he let out a deep sigh. His head throbbed.
A sudden supernatural phenomenon, followed by a prophecy from the Moirai—
Because of it, he had been forced to travel to Tartarus at the break of dawn, then straight to Olympus, all in one relentless stretch.
Growing rapidly exhausted, Hades went for a solitary walk along the banks of the River Acheron to gather his thoughts. That was when—
Splash!
Just now…
Had he imagined it? Thinking he’d heard something fall into the river, Hades moved closer.
“!”
It wasn’t a mistake.
Silk-white hair and a slender arm suddenly surfaced from the water—then sank again.
And why, of all moments, did the image of the silver-haired woman he’d glimpsed briefly that morning come to mind?
An uncanny certainty took hold of him: the one who had fallen into the river was her.
He immediately shrugged off his himation and dove in.
The pitch-black waters of the Underworld swallowed his vision. The current was fierce, making it difficult to move forward.
But nothing of the Underworld could bar the path of its ruler.
Before long, he reached the river’s depths—and found her.
From a close distance, a thin, fragile breath brushed against his cheek.
It was an unexpected, sudden contact. Hades felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as he clenched his fist in instinctive restraint.
Before he knew it, his ears were burning red. Heat spread across his cheeks as if it were contagious.
…Damn it. What is wrong with me?
He was a man unmoved by beauty of any kind. He had never once felt stirred by desire, not even in the presence of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty herself. Yet this time was different.
Without realizing it, Hades inhaled the breath that slipped between her pomegranate-red, softly full lips. It was sweet.
And her eyelashes—white and delicate as butterfly wings, resting against her skin—made him anxious, as though she might vanish at any moment.
I’ve truly lost my mind.
Even as he cursed himself as a beast, his hand reached for her face.
Carefully, Hades brushed aside the strands of hair clinging to her cheek and tucked them behind her ear. The soft, pliant feel of her small ear beneath his thick fingers made him flinch in shock.
I want to bite—
Wham!
He punched himself square in the face.
“Eeek?!”
Umpa, who had been wriggling up nearby, leaped back in alarm at her master’s incomprehensible behavior. Something was clearly wrong with him today.
Better keep my distance…
Umpa slipped quietly back into the darkness.
—
“Ugh…”
How did this even… happen?
“Cough! Hack—cough, cough!”
I sat up, retching black river water. Only then did I piece together what had happened to me.
Apparently, cases like this did occur from time to time—souls that had not yet reached the end of their lifespan, shoved temporarily into the Underworld by an unforeseen accident.
Proof of that lingered faintly around my ankle: a thin thread of life still attached.
That was why I had awakened not at the gate to the Underworld, but in the River Acheron itself.
Up to that point, things had been manageable. The real problem was that I’d run into zombie-like water ghosts.
Ugh—seriously disgusting.
A perverted zombie with its organs hanging out, skeleton zombies stripped down to bare bone—I’d seen every kind of zombie imaginable.
I’d rather deal with trashy gore than zombies. Zombie stories were not for me. I was the kind of coward who couldn’t even watch that kind of thing.
They’d grabbed my ankles, struggling desperately to drag me down. I fought back with everything I had, but eventually I ran out of air and passed out.
And then…
“Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Who… is this?
“Did you save me?”
“Yes. I did.”
My benefactor!
I bowed repeatedly, thanking him over and over.
“Thank you so much! Truly, thank you for saving me!”
If it weren’t for him, my soul would surely have been torn apart and erased.
“I’ll never forget this debt. First, let me introduce myself—I’m Okeanis Leuke, and—whoa…”
When I lifted my head, a gasp slipped out on its own.
Light radiated from his face.
Not metaphorically—literally. Every compliment I’d ever known felt suddenly inadequate.
H-how can someone be this beautiful?
