Episode 4. River Acheron (2)

July 4, 2024

“Did you understand, Charon?”

Hades pointed to the ground where several words were written out.

Pink hair, light green eyes, a cute face, pale skin, etc. Most of them were phrases describing the appearance of ‘Kore,’ whom he was searching for.

The ferryman of the Underworld, Charon, glanced at the words written in stones and nodded. Holding his staff, he wrote an answer in an empty corner.

[So, you are asking me to let you know if a person named ‘Kore’ looking like this comes to the River Acheron?]

“Yes. She is the person I am looking for. Please be sure to tell me.”

[Of course. I will notify you via a messenger bird.]

Charon clattered his fleshless mouth as if to say he understood.

“Good, I’ll be counting on you.”

Gazing at the ferryman who was faithful to his duties, Hades nodded.

Just as he let out a breath and was about to move on past the River Acheron…

“…….”

For some unknown reason, his senses flared.

Hades’s sharp gaze turned toward the distant fortress walls of the Underworld.

His deeply furrowed focus fixated on the empty space where vivid green bushes were rustling.

‘I feel like something was just there.’

The moment Hades turned his head toward the wall.

Persephone quickly hid her body behind a rock.

‘Wow, I’m going crazy.’

She had almost been caught.

Taking a deep breath, Persephone peeked her head out again.

Fortunately, as if the Underworld’s ferryman had asked him something in the meantime, Hades’s attention had shifted away from her.

By the time the King of the Underworld disappeared as if melting into the shadows, Persephone crouched down and approached the edge of the cliff.

“Hup…!”

Enduring the pain, Persephone stretched her arms out. Without hesitation, she stepped downward and began to climb down the massive cliff.

How much time had passed?

‘It looks like a really huge wall.’

Having descended the entire structure, Persephone tilted her head back and looked up at the cliff. A soliloquy slipped through her lips.

“Is that what the outer shell of the houses humans build looks like?”

What she was looking at was the dizzyingly high fortress wall of the Underworld.

Living her current life, Persephone had seen far more of the quiet, vast golden horizons than she had of cities. She had rarely laid eyes on such a massive structure.

‘The color is roughly similar, but the scale is on a completely different level.’

If she hadn’t been absolutely desperate to escape the Underworld, she would never have been able to climb down this place. Hades’s sheer will to never let anyone out once they had entered was palpably clear.

Hurrying to turn away from the wall, Persephone walked toward the River Acheron. She snooped around like a mouse looking for food on the riverbank.

‘So a boat carrying the dead comes from far away over there, and the ones that arrive on my side go into the judgment hall?’

Staring at Charon’s ferry, Persephone’s eyes suddenly narrowed.

“It’s completely packed.”

It was exactly as Persephone observed.

She had wondered if she might be able to hitch a ride in her capacity as the daughter of Demeter, but it seemed impossible due to the sheer number of dead who had flocked in after Hades left.

Clicking her tongue, Persephone glanced at the ferryman.

The ferryman, Charon, was wearing a black robe and rowing the boat. Underneath his hat that was pulled down low, a jawbone shimmered, and a sound like crushing cornstalks emanated from the finger joints gripping the oars tightly.

‘How does he steer a boat with a body that’s nothing but bones?’

She had heard bits and pieces about the members of the Underworld, but Charon truly took on the exact form of a human skeleton. Perhaps because his appearance was so terrifying, most of the dead just sat quietly on Charon’s boat, even as they sniffled.

“What’s this now?”

At that moment, the toe of Persephone, who was walking along the riverbank, caught on some writing on the ground.

[Pink hair, light green eyes, a cute face, pale skin…]

The moment she saw those phrases.

‘Could this be talking about me?’

Persephone’s face turned deathly pale.

She realized that Hades was still looking for her and had described her appearance to the Underworld’s ferryman.

Persephone panicked, tearing at her hair.

‘What do I do? I don’t have anything to cover my appearance with!’

Charon’s boat was now approaching the ferry terminal and was just about to dock. If she couldn’t hide her conspicuous appearance before then, she would helplessly be caught by either the ferryman or the King of the Underworld.

It was then.

“…….”

The pitch-black river water, looking as if black paint had been dissolved into it, entered Persephone’s line of sight.

Right, if there was really nothing to cover her body with…

‘Let’s hide!’

Into the river!

There was no need to overthink it. Once a woman makes up her mind, she just has to dive in.

Persephone threw herself into the River Acheron.

Splash—!

A splashing sound that had no business existing in the River Acheron erupted.

Since it was a body of water gathered from the tears shed by the living for the dead, as well as the dead themselves, how calm of a place must it have been until now, save for the sound of weeping?

When a cheerful noise suddenly shattered that calm, everyone’s gaze flew to one place as if predetermined.

Even forgetting their sorrow, the surrounding dead stared at the main culprit of the noise—Persephone.

However, a sense of conscience had long since disappeared from inside her.

It didn’t matter who was looking. She didn’t care as long as she could escape.

Instantly turning brazen, Persephone quickly kicked her feet and splashed forward.

‘Hmm, the water temperature is fine.’

Fortunately, as the river entered the middle and lower reaches, the temperature seemed to have dropped to just a refreshingly cool level. Moreover, even though it was a river of the Underworld, it didn’t feel all that bad.

The coolness wrapping her body from head to toe was enough to make her briefly forget her worries.

Aside from her goal of escaping, her diving form must have been quite good. Before she knew it, she had easily crossed half the river.

‘Great, at this rate, I’ll reach the opposite side soon.’

Persephone’s mouth curled into a wide arc. She tightly clenched her fist.

If she crossed the River Acheron like this and found the path the arriving dead used to enter, she should be able to make her way to the surface.

It was when Persephone, thinking such optimistic thoughts, absentmindedly turned her eyes toward the riverbank.

Charon, his jaw hanging wide open, entered her vision.

A blue ghost-light flashed in his eye sockets and mouth, and soon the ferryman began to row his boat directly toward her.

“Uh, huh?”

Panicked, Persephone dove underwater like a mermaid and kicked her legs.

Unfortunately, the ferryman’s rowing speed was much faster.

His boat swiftly reached Persephone, advancing as if it were powered by a waterwheel. The current caught the blue light source, and the vivid blue ripples swayed and glinted like fish scales.

Charon blocked Persephone’s path with his ferry. Right in front of her, the dark and dull hull loomed like a wall.

Seen up close, it was an even more terrifying sight.

Persephone, breaking the surface of the water, glared at Charon.

‘Wait, how did he get here so fast when there are so many heavy pouches of coins inside the ferry?’

The coins the ferryman had were all tolls paid by the dead. Even if the small ones were only about the size of a grain of wheat, they should weigh a considerable amount when piled up.

“……♪ -♬”

Having failed to evade Charon, Persephone this time whistled, pretending innocence. At the same time, she leisurely attempted to dive under his boat to pass by.

Of course, that didn’t work either.

Charon quickly maneuvered the boat to block the exact path she was trying to take.

“……Hmm.”

Gathering her wet hair and sweeping it to one side, Persephone shot a sideways glare at Charon.

Charon had all his attention focused on her. He seemed to be closely observing to see if she was indeed the person Hades was looking for.

Persephone’s seemingly gentle eyes were gradually sharpening into a fierce glare.

Ah, she really didn’t want to resort to this…

‘It can’t be helped.’

The moment Persephone made up her mind.

“Wah!”

She shouted aggressively, making a sudden motion as if she were going to capsize the ferry.

“……!”

Startled by her unpredictable behavior, Charon’s bones rattled.

In the brief moment he hurriedly tried to balance the rocking ferry, Persephone dove underwater as if she had been waiting for the opening.

By the time Charon, sensing something was wrong, turned around…

A pouch of coins was already clutched securely in Persephone’s arms!

Charon jumped up from his seat.

However, Persephone, resolute in her decision to escape the Underworld, was not an easy opponent.

“Just try and come closer!”

Glancing back, she hoisted the pouch high over her head, wearing a devilish expression.

“I’ll drop it in!”

Persephone had assumed that the pouches of coins inside Charon’s boat would be heavy. She figured that if there were several such heavy-looking pouches inside, Charon wouldn’t be able to recklessly steer the boat.

However, contrary to her relaxed calculations, hadn’t she been caught far too quickly due to the ferryman’s waterwheel-like rowing?

This was precisely why Persephone, desperate to escape the Underworld, had resorted to the relatively extreme method of taking a hostage.

‘I was wondering how he came sweeping in like the wind, but it feels like the coins themselves aren’t actually very heavy?’

Persephone, who had been fiddling with the coins through the fabric of the pouch, furrowed one eyebrow.

“Wait a minute…”

Is what’s inside here really coins?