Chapter 389
I'd become official successor; even though I was the one who said it, it didn't feel all that real to me .
However, it seemed that I wasn't the only one who suspected the sincerity of my declaration . The King of Tartarus and the ruler of the night, Hades, was glaring at me .
[You have spoken a lie in . ]
Accompanied by the icy sensation, cold enough to freeze my toes, 'death' was now staring straight at me .
[Right after becoming our child, I see you're already learning to deceive us . ]
Hades rebuked me in a cold voice and stood up from his throne to walk closer to my position . I wanted to stand up from my spot right then, but my body didn't want to move .
The Status of a Myth-grade Constellation had currently suppressed my entire body, that was why .
Thankfully, nothing untoward happened . Hades did get to where I was, but then, unhurriedly brushed past me and walked straight out of the royal palace .
I breathed a sigh of relief and turned my head around to find Persephone rubbing her chin with a meaningful smile on her face .
[H-mm… . Is this the conflict between father and son that I've only ever heard about . . . . ?]
For a tone of voice coming from a troubled-looking face, she sure sounded rather entertained .
[An eternal battle between a father and a son, with the mother in between . . . . . ]
… . That sounded like a narrative deeply stained by the ways of Olympus .
As if to say I shouldn't worry, Persephone lightly patted me on the shoulder . Only then did I sense the muscles of my body frozen by Hades's Status loosen up .
[Do not be too concerned, for your father's personality has always been like that . ]
" . . . . "
[However, your guilt in this matter is just as grave after daring to spout a lie first . You've never harboured thoughts of staying in from the beginning, have you?]
She perfectly hit the mark and I had nothing to say . I never wanted to take over for Hades and become this realm's king . What I wanted was powers, not to inherit its throne .
Hades probably had cottoned onto my motives a while ago .
[It will take some time before that fellow's anger has sufficiently cooled down . ]
"I'm sorry . "
[No need to apologise – it's true that both Hades and I already knew you never planned to remain in this realm anyway . ]
Persephone's eyes arched to a pair of gentle crescents .
[If it's alright with you, accompany your mother to a meal . ]
*
Persephone's dining table I hadn't seen in a while remained pretty much the same; slabs of well-cooked and delicious-looking steaks, as well as salad, laid out in several layers on top of a large plate . On the outside, they resembled foods commonly found everywhere, but I already knew very well that those were no ordinary meal .
[Bravery of an Empress of Swords who Conquered the World]
[Wisdom of a 3rd Circle Magician who Spent his Entire Life in a Library]
[Will of a Swordmaster who Couldn't use Either Sword Strengthening or Sword Manifestation]
I wondered if I saw something wrong here and read the menu one more time .
[Hurry and have your fill . Do you not find the menu to your liking?]
" . . . . No, it's not that, but . . . . "
[Now that you've become a Constellation, you must consume proper Fables to survive . You won't be able to absorb enough nutrients through the foods of regular humans . I hope that, as you're an adult now, you've managed to fix your picky eating habit . ]
She sounded like my real mother by saying that .
[Your mother worries a lot about you – whether you're eating properly and on time or not, if you're getting enough sleep . . . . ]
My hand moving towards the fork came to a stop at her words . "Have you spoken to my mother?"
[Fufu . We've talked to each other a few times . ]
If it was Persephone, then she was fully capable of doing that . The foie gras placed before me had this name, even:
[Heart of a Mother Sending her Child Away]
… . This couldn't have been my mother's actual heart, now was it?
I put the fork down and spoke . "I see that the type of foods has changed since the last time . There were Swordmasters and Archmages here in the past, if I recall correctly . "
[The 'Isle of Reincarnators' have opened now, so we should enjoy special dishes for a change, wouldn't you agree? I may look this way, but I'm still a member of the Gourmet Association, so I shouldn't be eating the same food every day . ]
Her fork and knife moved; accompanied by rich gravy, aromatic paragraphs leaked out from thinly-sliced Fables . Persephone's graceful hand movements brought that food into her mouth . What she ate just now was [Will of a Swordmaster who Couldn't use Either Sword Strengthening or Sword Manifestation . ]
[And, some Fables will disappear if you don't make an effort to consume them . ]
Dying Fables were disintegrating at the end of the fork .
Fables that no one searched for were pouring out entrancing sentences on the tip of Persephone's tongue right up until she consumed them .
I felt complicated while watching that sight; Persephone looked back and smiled . [I'm aware that you are dissatisfied by the eating habits of the Constellations . You probably don't like the way we easily consume the joys, angers, sorrows, and pleasures of Incarnations . ]
" . . . . "
[However, every incident taking place in the universe is destined to be left behind as a Fable . You, me, other Incarnations, and Constellations . We'll be consumed by something else eventually . ]
The lives of all living beings would become the stories of the .
[If we're bound by such a fate, then the best any Constellations could do is to act towards preserving the most varied spectrum of Fables… . That is my belief . ]
Leaving behind varied Fables, and preserve varied types of stories .
Maybe, what Persephone said might not be wrong . In her own way, she was pursuing what she believed to be right in the . This was probably the reason why she was a member of the 'Gourmet Association', too .
But, I was sure that she didn't invite me here to speak of her philosophy towards Fables .
"May I ask what is it that you really wish to tell me about?"
[In truth, Hades does not want you to remain in this place . ]
" . . . . . Does that mean he doesn't want me to be his successor?"
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[It's different from that . If I were to put it into words . . . . ] Persephone spoke, as she began cutting the delicacy placed on the plate in the middle of the table . [Hades, and I… . We do not wish for you to stop as just the 'King of the Underworld' . ]
"That means . . . . "
[Olympus has fallen . The Underworld, too, has lost its former glory . Being satisfied with the position of the 'King of the Underworld', now that is no different than placing your name on the coattail of a disappearing Fable . ]
"Underworld is a good Fable . "
[And it's a declining Fable, too . ]
Indeed, the power enveloping currently was not like this in the past . An ancient and withered Fable; a story that got progressively spoken of less and less in the would lose its power little by little .
Persephone's unreadable eyes staring at the delicacies contained deep-seated melancholy . Maybe, she had been constantly thinking about this, even as she dined on and enjoyed many different Fables .
The fear that eventually, his and her would be buried under the forgotten alleys of passing time and become another stuffed piece in the 'Isle of Reincarnators' .
[That is the undeniable way of time itself as long as we exist within the . ]
The moment I heard her words, I was overcome by this unfathomably deep, intense sorrow . It was the kind of sadness that I'd never experienced before .
Both Persephone and Hades would disappear . From the memories of people, from my own memories – and the story they had compiled would disappear forever .
I didn't like Constellations . I disliked their actions, and I disliked the way they peeped on the world itself, too . But why… .
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