Beauty Of Thebes

Chapter 25: Fear In Her Eyes

Though she nearly lost her composure and was debating whether to hit the man’s good-looking face, Eutostea managed to stay on the defensive, reminding herself of the times when she failed to maintain her cool.

It seemed the man didn’t realize how rude it was to get so close to a woman’s face and outright sniff her. She needed to put some space between them. When she slowly took a few steps back, the man thought that she was afraid of him.

“I’m not trying to threaten you. Come on now, don’t be scared. I’m asking because I’m genuinely curious.”

“Do you think I wouldn’t be afraid?”

His haggard appearance looked like a beggar. He was the size of a bear, and thought he didn’t have any weapons, he kept swinging around the container of wine that could break at any second while practically naked. 

Even with the hair on her arms standing on ends, Eutostea was completely aghast.

“Look, if I planned to hurt you, I’d have already done so before you could blink. Do you really think I’m the type to hurt a person? Jeez. I’m not so bloodthirsty like Ares. You’re looking at me as if I think all humans are mere ants and prey that are meant to be shot down with arrows in the wilderness like how Apollo and Artemis hunts. That’s a big misunderstanding.”

Upon the mention of Apollo’s name, Eutostea’s willowy eyebrows furrowed.

Regardless, the drunkard continued to mumble. He was like a comedian putting his heart and soul into his routine even if Eutostea was the only audience member listening. 

“Ah…” the man let out a long breath, “this saddens me deeply. Even if I’m still a greenhorn that only recently joined the twelve gods, I’ve been doing my best to hear out all the emotions and feelings of the people, and uh… I even came down myself to oversee this festival from start to finish. I checked to see that there was enough food and wine to go around, and I even kept the people who had fallen unconscious on the streets warm by intoxicating them so that their bodies stayed warm. If I spotted someone drinking alone, I’d go and keep them company over ten or eleven drinks. After all of my services and volunteer work, I thought that I deserve a little treat and luckily came across a container of such high-quality wine in this wagon. Yet… to be treated like a complete burglar is completely unfair!”

Eutostea wondered what the drunkard was thinking, ransacking another person’s wagon like it’s an excavation.

“Hey, young miss holding the broom who’s won the favor of a god…” the man hollered, “psst! Hey!”

“It’s Eutostea. Princess of Thebes.”

‘At least for now.’

Even though she didn’t like how he said she won the favor of a god and didn’t feel inclined to share her name, she did so anyway.

The drunkard resumed shaking the bottle of wine around as he exclaimed, “Oh, so you’re a princess? I heard that the princesses of Thebes were true beauties. Was that rumor a lie, or are you lying to me right now?”

“…..”

She swallowed back the urge to say that the rumors referred to her sisters.

Eutostea sent a wary, piercing gaze towards the man. He was too suspicious to simply label him a drunkard beggar pillaging to find something to drink.

“Why do you say that I’ve won the favor of a god?” Eutostea asked sharply.

“If you want to know, then give this wine to me.”

What kind of childish nonsense was he trying to pull?

Eutostea’s forehead crinkled deeply. 

The drunkard pulled the precious bottle of wine closer to his lips as he stared with pleading eyes at her. 

“I said this before, but that wine is meant to be offered as tribute. It seems that you really don’t understand how much I’m holding myself back against you right now, but when the festival ends, the soldiers guarding this wine will come back. Do you think they’ll only stop at flogging you when they figure out you’ve ransacked the wagon?”

In other words, she was telling him to stop saying nonsense and put down the wine and leave while she was being nice, but the man smiled simply at her threat.

“Who’s there to come? Everyone in this city is sleeping under the spell of sweet intoxication. They won’t wake up till dawn,” the man whispered. “The only person awake is you. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you see for yourself?”

He told Eutostea to go to Agora herself and see to believe his words. 

The voices of merchants and the laughter of people on the streets that Eutostea heard just before she fell asleep were now absent. The only sound that remained was the chirping of bugs.

“Do you think I’ll just leave a thief alone by themself?”

Eutostea was nervous, but she didn’t let it show in her calm and composed voice.

“I can see fear in your eyes, Eutostea,” the man said.