The Villain of Ancient Greece

Seeing her like that, Lorne couldn’t help but chuckle. He reached out and tugged little Medusa along to a nearby food stall.

”Excuse me, how much is this?”

”Three Athena coppers.”

”And that one?”

”A bit more expensive — five coins.”

”…”

Before long, Lorne’s hands were filled with an assortment of local snacks.

”Here, try it.”

Medusa gulped unconsciously at the delicious-looking skewers presented in front of her, but seemed hesitant, trying to maintain her usual cold and aloof image.

Seeing this, Lorne slowly raised his hand higher, wearing a mischievous grin.

”Oh? You’re not eating? Guess I’ll just eat them all myself then.”

”Who said I wasn’t?!”

The smell was simply too much, watching those fragrant treats about to fly away right in front of her eyes, little Medusa could not longer resist the temptation and finally gave in.

She grabbed Lorne’s hand, snatched her share, and started munching down with no mercy.

With every bite, the layers of flavor lit up her taste buds, bringing her real joy, and with that, her last shred of shyness and reserve vanished, leaving her completely focused on stuffing her face.

Lorne shook his head with a smile, tossed a skewer of grilled bird eggs into his mouth,

At the same time, he continued walking through the bustling city with Medusa in tow, asking around about prices for their goods.

After a few rounds of inquiry and haggling, he settled on a fairly honest-looking shop and sold off their haul.

Earnings: 14 Hera silvers and 107 Athena coppers.

But between walking and snacking their way through the city, they’d already burned through a quarter of that income.

It had to be said that Crete’s royal capital sure wasn’t cheap.

Of course, the ship they had hidden still held plenty of valuable items, such as temple tablets, Poseidon’s ritual relics, arcane materials…

These are all the private collections carefully selected by the thief, and they can definitely make a fortune if they are taken out.

But there were two problems:

1. Too flashy. It’d draw way too much attention and cause trouble.

And secondly, thanks to the Twelve Olympians dropping gold coins every day, Lorne wasn’t exactly broke and had plenty of money in his hands.

Worst case? He could just cuss out a few gods to keep the money flowing, so, no need to risk exposing the rare stuff.

Casually stuffing the day’s earnings into his pocket, Lorne flashed a friendly smile as he made conversation with the elderly shopkeeper.

”Boss, excuse me — are there any temples in the city and how to get there? I’d like to offer a prayer and ask the gods to bless our journey.”

”You’re not from around here, are you, young man? I’m afraid temples aren’t so easy to find in Knossos City these days.”

The old man smiled helplessly, wrinkles creasing his weathered face.

”For reasons no one’s quite sure about, the current King Minos doesn’t seem to care for the gods very much. He rarely attends rituals and never bothers with restoring the temples, most of them are in ruins now.”

After listening to the old man’s words, Lorne nodded thoughtfully.

He could guess the reason pretty easily.

Eighty percent chance: blame the Minotaur.

After all, his wife got cursed by the gods and then... by a beast, giving birth to a half-monster.

That kind of humiliation, no man would just get over it, especially not the King of Crete.

The fact that he hadn’t sacrificed the Minotaur or burned every temple down in revenge already showed impressive restraint.

Worship the gods again? Yeah, not likely.

But this… kind of screwed his plans.

Lorne scratched his chin, frowning slightly.

The cooldown on his [Weekly Main Dungeon] was about to expire, meaning he’d soon have to offer something to the Twelve Olympians so as not to be forced to die by the cheating dice on his body.

This wasn’t looking good.

”But, if you’re truly set on worshipping the gods, there is one place you could try.”

With the old man’s slow second half of the sentence, Lorne, who was thinking about getting screwed over, couldn’t help but come back to his senses, and his eyes lit up as he turned back.

”Where is it?”

”In the northwest corner of Knossos, up on a small hill… there’s still a shrine dedicated to a goddess.”

”Which one?”

”The Lady Sovereign Athena.”

Lorne was slightly stunned when he heard that title. Then, historical records surfaced in his mind, and he understood.

Legend has it that in the Minoan civilization, goddess worship was deeply rooted. Among them, the most revered and highest in status was Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war.

They respectfully called her ”πτνια,” meaning lady, queen, sovereign — corresponding records had appeared later on Mycenaean tablets.

Of course, Athena was absolutely worthy of such honor.

Because in the process of creating mankind, Prometheus only gave humans form, while Athena bestowed upon them their souls.

In a certain sense, she truly was the ”Sovereign of Humanity.”

It’s just that Lorne originally only intended to flip Hermes’ card, to mess around with that old ancestor of Greek thieves.

Bringing Medusa along to mess with Athena, that really wasn’t something he had planned to do.

But right now, other than this, there didn’t seem to be a better option.

”Stranger, may the goddess bless your journey.”

The old man placed his hand on his chest and nodded to offer his blessing.

Lorne simply thanked him, then pulled little Medusa out of the shop and looked toward the columned temple in the northwest.

Just a worship visit, surely this lady wouldn’t be that petty, right?

He muttered inwardly for a bit, then looked down at Medusa, who was still going hard on her snacks and forced a friendly smile onto his face.

”Want to go over there with me for a bit?”

”I don’t like them.”

Medusa shook her head, her eyes full of resistance.

In the mythological world of Greece, monsters were often labor tools for the gods, and a whole pile of demigods’ exclusive achievements and leveling experience bags.

Though she and her two sisters had escaped servitude, they still hadn’t been able to get rid of the relentless pursuit from the outside world.

So, naturally, Medusa didn’t have much good will toward those gods orchestrating everything behind the scenes.

Lorne blinked and said slowly,

”I heard the market over there is more bustling than the one on the east side and there’s way more food.”

”…”

Medusa’s eyes lit up when she heard this, and she was obviously tempted.

”And there’s stuff to drink. In this weather, a cup of iced grape juice or pomegranate juice would be just perfect.”

”I’m going!”

Instantly, the gorgon girl whose craving had been aroused didn’t hesitate as she raised her little hand excitedly, her face full of eagerness.

She didn’t even wait for Lorne to move. Instead, little Medusa decisively grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the northwest corner, walking straight into the trap on her own.

Seeing this, Lorne, being half-dragged along, couldn’t help but shake his head.

Tsk tsk, this girl’s way too easy to fool. I could con ten like her in one go!

Immediately, Lorne curled his lips, and a wicked arc formed on his face.

’How could I let this slide? While I have the chance, I must let her know the darkness of the human heart, what it really means to be ”cruel”!’

The Minoan civilization is probably the earliest Greek civilization.

And Athena seemed to be the most worshiped goddess on Crete, it’s just that, with later cultural shifts and fusions, she got downgraded to being the daughter of Zeus.

So…

You know whose mindset is next to get messed with, right?

(End of Chapter)