For Persephone

Chapter 41 – Because of Love

“I don’t care if you say you can’t trust me because you have your doubts about me, but didn’t your precious girl disappear?”

Sisyphos spoke vaguely while looking at Hades with pity.

“That’s not true.”

“I think otherwise. She’s gone.”

For the first time, strangeness rose over Sisyphos’ face. However, he soon wiped his face clean like a skilled merchant when Hades had nothing to say.

“… I’m glad she’s gone. That girl, ‘the one’ who made a fool out of you.”

“Made a fool out of me?” After having his teeth clenched for a while, Hades burst out laughing. “You’re wasting my time, I see. If it’s true that she came, then tell me what she said.”

“Then, in return, one time, just once can you go up and speak to my wife? I feel rage just thinking about my wife who couldn’t even give her husband a proper funeral.”

“That’ll be the end of it.”

As soon as Sisyphos’ inner thoughts became clearer, Hades sternly turned away from feeling the need to hear more. And the smiling Sisyphos threw away his relaxed attitude and clung to the cage bars.

“Hades! Hades, sir, you’ll regret your decision if you walk away like this. You have to know how she played a trick on—Wait… Shouldn’t you keep your self-pride? You have a reputation, sir. If you do that, everyone will laugh at you.”

Hades’ walk back to the palace was as slow as flowing molasses but constant as if belittling laziness.

His only response to Sisyphos had been to ignore him. It had been revealed in detail that Sisyphos was just trying to avoid the judge’s blade that was approaching him. So why should Hades listen to him? He marveled at the situation for a short moment. The bastard who read the embarrassment and confusion that occurred deep inside Hades wasn’t just a mere mortal. Such distribution would have been the power of Sisyphos to bully the gods.

But even now, Hades couldn’t say he didn’t listen to him. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that some things were shaken, one or two at a time. Why did she love him for herself? This was why he once felt a sense of incompatibility with concentrated affection, which was hard to explain by saying ‘fate’.

The more days went by that he couldn’t meet her, the more his doubts intensified.

As soon as he reached the bedroom, a cold gust of air rushed to him and hugged him. The thoughts were deep enough to reach the floor, almost reaching Ceres’ words. Even though she had repeatedly said that it was nonsense and that Hades was just swayed by human mischief, he couldn’t easily shake it off. If he hadn’t confirmed it from her, it wasn’t a doubt that would disappear if he let it go.

Something suddenly pulled on Hades’ heel. He walked across the quiet bedroom and opened the door to a side room that hadn’t been used for a while.

The inside was dark, but darkness was no match for the ruler’s eyes. Hades’ mystic eyes slowly scanned around, then stopped at a familiar spot.

It was a nest of old things that didn’t really feel special. The armor that protected him in the fight against the Titans, the sword that cut the ankles of countless giants, and the spear that pierced their necks were triumphantly hung there. Everything was in its proper place.

Everything except for just one thing, the most priceless treasure in all the underworld: the cap of invisibility.

Hades never doubted that the girl was in love with him. Just like her love for him was the only reason for coming to the underworld, she never made any demands, nor did she ever show any other desires.

The only thing she wanted was him, and therefore felt the need to eradicate Ceres the death. Her jealousy revealed her true colors in moments that were hard to understand even for Hades, and even he considered them affectionate. That trust was the same now… That’s why she swore on Styx.

Because of ‘love’.

Even the gods of the earth used to use it for their convenience, but the oath to the Styx River was a leader of the only truth that was so meaningful and effective that it was natural to provide its convenience. No one could look sideways at the weight of oath and Styx in one sentence and doubt the meaning.

This was the truth that all the strange things that happened on goddess Hekate’s night were ‘because it’s her night’ and that many people’s faiths were gained and the truth was ungrateful. No one knew as much about their weight as those in the underworld.

No one can swear a lie.

The proposition states that if there’s a lie, the immortal’s existence falls to Tartaros, or, depending on its gravity, the martyr’s existence also falls to an inescapable hell.

Nevertheless, it was inevitable that Ceres’ sincerity and Sisyphos’ mockery, which couldn’t be true, were in his head.