For Persephone

Chapter 42 – Revelation (1)

Hades called the dead servants and asked them if the cap of invisibility had been moved to somewhere else, but everyone shook their heads. After that, the first thing Hades did was meet Kharon, the one who the girl ran into the most.

She tried to cross the Acheron River even before she knew who Hades was, a past that could no longer be overlooked. Could it be that she only made a big fuss wanting to cross the Acheron River?

Whether or not she simply wanted to see the underworld, suspicions about her were raised.

What he did after that was an investigation on Niasis. All he did was wait for her without any doubts, it was his own problem to neglect what should have been preceded.

However, three days after sending a message up to the ground, a message returned to the underworld.

-No one knows where the nymph girl Niasis is.

That was impossible. After a night of chaos, a second night of embarrassment, and a third night of anxiety, he sat on the throne again.

The door opened.

Creak.

The head of a crane was caught between the crack in the door. This was shortly after the dead servants had left. A two-headed snake design on the cane was seen by the door.

It was always more eager to present itself more than its owner, so the mystery of its owner used to be unknown. It wasn’t long before a young man pushed in the door and entered.

“Is there a final ruling for that one guy?”

Hermes had never crossed the Acheron River after leading Sisyphos back to the underworld, so it had been a while since he has seen Hades.

“Nope.”

“Well, what’s taking so long?”

Zeus hoped that as soon as Sisyphos was captured, he would be thrown into Tartarus without delay. However, Hades said against Zeus’s will that whatever punishment should be taken was the jurisdiction of the underworld. It wasn’t a small assessment of Sisyphos’ sin, but because it was the definition of the land of the dead. A court-appointed trial was indispensable.

He had made his deputy, Hermes, blush. That day.

“The judgment will proceed according to the sequence and procedures.”

The day she last disappeared.

Hermes yawned loudly and asked,

“You look very upset today… If it’s not business about that guy, I think I have something else to do, so what is going on, sir?”

“Hermes, you are the only earth messenger I trust and you are more diligent and capable than any god.”

“A bit much, but thank you for your kind words, sir. But we can’t mess this up. We must not mess this up.” Hermes, who quickly noticed that Hades would ask for a difficult favor, pretended to shake his finger. However, Hades immediately brought up the matter because he didn’t want to play along with his jokes.

“I’m looking for some nymph… And I think you’re the right person to help me.”

“A nymph? Has one of your servants escaped, sir?”

“It’s a live one. That nymph girl, wherever she may be, I want to check where she is from. I’m not even sure if she’s really a nymph.”

Suspicion arose on Hermes’ face, who listened carefully as Hades spoke in a flattering manner.

“You don’t plan on investigating a kidnapping or something like that, right, sir?”

Hermes threw his cane down when he heard that. One time he insisted on letting Zeus, who was closest to him, use him when he kidnapped a girl, and sometimes it was quite difficult to use him as a shield to avoid Hera’s eyes.

“The first thing is to find her.”

“What about your—”

“Don’t ask about details, just go find her. A nymph named Niasis. If you know where on earth she is—”

Hermes, who turned away as if he was fed up with just imagining it, suddenly recalled a fact while still engraving the name Niasis in his brain.

About a girl from a while back who made a fuss about how she was a nymph and wanted to find Hades.

It wasn’t something that popped in his head just now but rather something he had been thinking of for quite a while and just forgot about. The girl he let cross the river, like it wasn’t a big deal, a few days ago. No matter how much he thought about it, she looked familiar.

For him, who was proud of his own eyesight, it wasn’t right to dwell on memories that induced subtle, complicated feelings in his mind. For thieves, distraction was their most attentive vice.

That’s why it came to his mind after several days of contemplation, the fact that he has seen her before. Hermes blinked his good-hearted eyes and lifted the bottom end of his cane.

“Oh, right. I had something to ask. How in the world does Demeter’s daughter know you, sir? Were you two close?”

Hermes had his conviction. Although he had never spoken to her, heard her voice once chatting with the nymphs over a wall, and only glanced at her face once or twice, he was certain that it was Demeter’s daughter. One can’t mistake a thief’s keen eyes.

But today, Hades, who openly welcomed women, looked at him with strange eyes as if he had never heard of Persephone before.

“Why are you looking like that, sir?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Why does it matter whose daughter that is?”

“The girl who came all this way looking for you that day. She is Demeter’s daughter. Don’t you know?”