Episode 3. The River Acheron (1)
July 3, 2024.

“What is it?”

Hermes tilted his head slightly.

At that moment, a gray shadow that had been tucked away in the corner suddenly rose like smoke and completely enveloped Hermes.

The person revealed from the darkness was the King of the Underworld, immersed in grief.

“…I have wronged Sister Demeter’s daughter.”

Hermes’ gaze, which had been wandering among the fluttering leaves, turned toward Hades’ face.

His expression, usually one of coldness, now looked somewhat worried.

“That wrong, perhaps…”

“Yes. On the cliffs of Sicily, I ran over Kore with my chariot. But that child ran away bleeding profusely.”

Hermes’ eyes widened like a rabbit’s.

“Uh.. You really did cause an accident, literally.”

He approached Hades, who could not hide his gloomy expression.

“But isn’t that something that can just be overlooked?”

“What?”

The moment Hermes spoke, Hades snapped his head up.

“How can I overlook it? Are you kidding me? Are you telling me to just stand by and watch Sister Demeter’s child suffer again?”

“No, wait—”

“A god who rules the Underworld is supposed to only collect the dead; how can you intentionally harm a life? I must take full responsibility for this. That is the ‘rule’.”

“Ah, I get it, so please calm down.”

“How am I supposed to calm down right now?”

Finally, a spark of yellow flashed from Hades’s eyes.

“Sister Demeter will think I’m the culprit behind the slacking off!”

Hermes, who had been backing away, frowned at the strange word he had just heard.

Slacking off?

‘Not a hit-and-run?’

He looked at Hades with a gaze as if seeing something bizarre, but Hades stared back at Hermes as if asking what the problem was.

When the talkative Hermes remained silent, Hades, belatedly sensing something was off, also tilted his head.

“…It wasn’t ‘slacking off,’ what was it?”

“‘Slacking off’ is military slang used only in Sparta. It was a hit-and-run accident, a hit-and-run.”

He wasn’t usually such a careless god; he seemed quite flustered.

After all, the King of the Underworld is a god renowned for being a ruthless stickler for principles.

How shocked must he have been to have nearly made a human or a god his own subject himself? Moreover,

having run over Demeter’s child with his chariot, it was understandable that he would be flustered in such an uncharacteristic manner.

Hades nodded.

“Right. In any case, since he caused that hit-and-run accident, you could say it’s a big problem.”

‘I said hit-and-run… …’

Hermes looked at Hades with pity and nodded. After

rolling his eyes for a moment, Hermes cautiously added,

“The reason I asked if we could just let it slide is because Kore is the daughter of Demeter.”

“What do you mean?”

“Demeter is such a powerful god; for her daughter, being run over by a chariot like that would be nothing. Kore herself would consider it a minor injury. A god is a god, after all, so she wouldn’t die from something like that.”

“…….”

“Just contact Hecate, Demeter’s attendant, first. Tell her to take Kore, who is near the island, away. Tell her you will pay compensation by mutual agreement.”

Hades swallowed hard and crossed his arms.

His fingers, stained with dark volcanic ash, tapped his forearm as if plucking a lyre.

“No, actually, how big of a wound she sustained isn’t important.”

“Why?”

“There is a possibility that the child will tell Sister Demeter about this. Their mother-daughter relationship seemed very close.”

“……Ah.”

Hermes let out a sigh, his eyebrows drooping.

Demeter had terribly loved every child she had ever borne. Her daughter Kore was likely no different.

If she found out that Hades had struck Kore with his chariot this time, the throne of the Underworld might change to Demeter.

A shadow fell between Hades’ brows.

“You must find her and make appropriate compensation before she tells Sister Demeter. Otherwise, you will face Sister Demeter’s wrath directly, rather than Kore’s own sorrow.”

“That is true. Now that I think about it, you definitely need to find her beforehand.”

Hermes nodded slowly. He frowned and blinked a few times.

“Well…… Still, since you know that the young lady struck by the chariot is Kore, you can go around asking the nymphs and spirits around you for her whereabouts.”

“…….”

“Cheer up!”

Hermes smiled broadly and clenched his fist.

However, Hades’s gaze was a little strange. It felt as though he were looking at something oddly pitiful.

Confused, Hermes scratched his cheek.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…I’m really sorry, but…”

“What?”

“You are likely included among the targets of Sister Demeter’s wrath, Hermes.”

Hermes, who had been blinking his eyelids, jumped in surprise.

“Wait, why am I bearing joint responsibility?”

“…Because I just asked you for help and explained the whole situation.”

“…….”

“You must remember that the sun is right above our heads.”

Hermes’s gaze slid slightly toward the sky.

There, the sun, said to watch over everything in this world, was rising.

He wondered what he was talking about; was he implying that the sun god had witnessed the entire course of events?

“Surely you aren’t suggesting that I have to find Kore with Lord Hades, are you?”

Clenching his teeth tightly, Hermes glared at Hades.

“…….”

The King of the Underworld gave no answer.

After a brief silence, Hermes finally let out a hollow laugh.

“I understand. So you intend to drag me into hell with you no matter what! Ha, hahahaha!”

“Hermes.”

At that moment, Hades sighed as if resigned to the situation.

“You are fundamentally a messenger god, but you are also the god of thieves.”

“…….”

“I know you stole a golden goblet from my palace. If you cooperate with me in finding Kore, I will let you off the hook for theft.”

Cold sweat trickled down the back of Hermes’s neck as he stood speechless.

He bit his lip, glancing nervously.

Hades pointed his finger at him as if to say there was nothing more to say.

“You are the living world.”

Then he pointed at himself.

“I am the underworld.”

“…….”

“Do you understand?”

Swallowing dryly, Hermes nodded with a solemn expression. He gripped his staff tightly.

“I understand.”

* * *

At that very moment, what state was Persephone in, whom the King of the Underworld and the Messenger God were searching for?

“I’m lost—where should I go—♪”

… … She had become lost somewhere in the Underworld.

Persephone looked around as the surroundings grew darker.

‘I thought that if I hid in the cliff shadows, a path leading up to the surface would naturally appear… …’

She had originally planned to walk along the cliff and somehow grab onto a rock to climb up whenever a climbable spot appeared.

However, as she headed further in, no place to grab onto seemed to emerge. Instead, the sky closed off into a stone ceiling, and a valley appeared.

It was the upper reaches of the River of the Underworld.

Persephone touched the nearby river water with her toes, and shivered instantly from the cold rising to the crown of her head.

Even though it was almost summer, the temperature, which cooled the valley, was exactly what one would expect from the source of the River of the Underworld.

She had no idea which of the many rivers of the Underworld she had arrived at.

‘Should I just go back the way I came?’

Persephone spun around and glared at the darkness behind her.

Even after standing there for a long time, she sensed no presence through the gap she had just passed through, yet her heart pounded faintly with anxiety.

“…Is he serious?”

Recalling the beam of light that had momentarily flashed through her dark eyes, Persephone shuddered.

“Ugh…”

A groan escaped her lips.

‘What if I go back and run into that guy?’

She had never seen such a sharp gaze in her life.

Even Demeter, back when young Persephone was at the height of her mischievous tomboyishness, had never uttered such a sinister voice.

Persephone scanned her surroundings like a guard dog wary of an intruder.

In any case, this was Hades’s territory. If she delayed even a moment, that madman might come after her.

If she couldn’t retrace her steps, she planned to follow the river downstream to find another path.

‘To think I would end up using the methods used by humans stranded in the mountains.’

Demeter said that if one got lost in the mountains, one should simply follow the stream flowing down the slope. She claimed

that by doing so, one could escape the mountains no matter how long it took, as long as one did not encounter a wild beast.

Persephone began to follow the river downstream.

A triumphant smile formed on the corners of her lips as she followed the winding path through the valley.

‘There it is!’

As expected, her mother was not wrong.

Far in the distance, a river with a moving ferry came into Persephone’s view.

It was the Acheron River, where ferrymen transported the dead to the other side.

‘Since it is the first river the dead cross, if I go there, I will be closer to the surface…!’

With a look of delight, Persephone’s feet began to move busily.

Fortunately, a blue light was rising from the air like sparks, so seeing ahead was not difficult. Although

she encountered a sheer cliff midway through her walk—she had nearly fallen off because she was only looking straight ahead—it seemed she could make it down if she just endured the pain.

It was then.

“Uh…!”

A bewildered exclamation burst from Persephone’s lips.

A god with jet-black hair came into her sight.

‘Why is that guy there?’

Hades, the King of the Underworld, was at the Acheron River.