The Villain of Ancient Greece

”All right, let’s put the gossip on hold. It’s getting late—I’ll go prepare dinner. You two chat in the meantime.”

Inside the cozy house, Hestia, who had gorged herself on gossip until she was practically full, clapped her hands and stood up from her little stool, heading toward the kitchen.

Dinner?

Lorne blinked, slightly surprised as he glanced out the window and realized that at some point, the slanting sun had dipped below the horizon, more than halfway swallowed by the earth.

Unknowingly, their deep dive into Olympus’s prime-time soap opera had taken them from noon all the way to evening.

Thankfully, thanks to the snacks Hestia had thoughtfully prepared, none of them felt particularly hungry.

They had been completely absorbed in the juicy tales.

Damn that curiosity!

Lorne smacked his forehead, a little annoyed with himself.

”Don’t worry, my aunt lives alone and has more than enough rooms. She loves having guests—you’re welcome to stay the night.”

Athena glanced at Lorne’s strangeness, put down the cup of honey water, paused slightly, looked at the bustling street outside the window as she smiled and suggested.

”Also, the Harvest Festival is just around the corner. It’s a rare treat. This place is packed with food, drinks, and entertainment. Why not stay a few extra days and enjoy the celebrations before you leave?”

Lorne’s eyelid twitched.

He instinctively opened his mouth to refuse, but then he felt someone tugging firmly at the hem of his robe.

Turning his head, he found himself staring into the eager, glistening eyes of little Medusa, who was practically drooling with anticipation.

Lorne’s heart stirred.

He thought of the desolate, crumbling temple on the Isle of the Unseen, and the constant flow of humans landing there in droves to slay monsters, all at the gods’ behest.

For ages, humanity had been incited by the gods to hunt down the scattered remnants of the Titans and other divine beings—glorious deeds in the name of divine favor.

The three Gorgon sisters, who had fled from the Arimoi Caverns all the way to the Isle of the Unseen, were prime examples of this persecution.

But in facr, humanity and ”monsters” weren’t natural enemies. And the gods’ motives were far from pure.

More likely, the gods deliberately provoked tension between humans and divine beasts, two powerful groups who might otherwise unite and become a threat to Olympus.

Perhaps… this was a chance.

A chance to slowly introduce a still-sane Medusa to human society, to shift her view of humankind.

After all, humans weren’t just glory-seeking heroes, monster-slaying warriors, or power-hungry rulers seeking immortality.

The majority of people, those who gave everything for a warm meal, who chased after simple happiness with all their strength, who neither wished to harm nor be harmed, were the real face of humanity.

If Lorne truly wanted to shake the gods’ hold on Olympus, he would need to harness every possible source of strength.

His eyes shimmered with thought and after a long internal debate, he made up his mind.

He first turned to the hopeful young Medusa and gave her a reassuring smile. Then he looked back at Athena and nodded.

”Then I humbly accept. Thank you for your hospitality.”

”Just a small convenience. Moreover, during the festival season, it is the tradition of the Minos people to do their best to accommodate guests who have come from afar. There’s no need to be so polite.”

Athena smiled faintly and nodded, then called over the little blonde girl who had been wandering in the corridor.

”Nike, take them upstairs to find two empty rooms and settle their luggage first.”

”Okay!”

The golden-haired little girl, wearing a floral wreath, trotted over cheerfully and happily accepted the order.

Then, she grabbed the little Medusa, with whom she had somehow clicked, and eagerly headed upstairs.

Lorne followed at a leisurely pace, carrying a few pieces of luggage, his gaze thoughtfully resting on the little girl named ”Nike.”

If he wasn’t mistaken, she should be Athena’s most important subordinate deity, the Goddess of Victory, Νίκη (Nike).

The name ”Nike” was a feminized translation of her title.

According to mythological records, the classic image of this Goddess of Victory was that of a figure adorned with a floral wreath, sporting a pair of golden wings on her back.

She was depicted as athletic, with fluttering robes, as if strolling down from the heavens, her full-bodied form exuding strength and health beneath thin garments, embodying victory and the joy that came with it.

Because she was the personification of victory, wherever she went, triumph was sure to follow.

However, at this time, the twelve Olympian gods had only just experienced the Titanomachy against the twelve Titans of Mount Othrys, and their divine authority was still being consolidated.

Athena herself had been born after the Titanomachy.

Though she possessed the dual divine authority of wisdom and war, she had not yet experienced many battles or victories.

Therefore, it wasn’t hard to understand why Nike, her subordinate deity and the Goddess of Victory, still appeared as a child.

Under Nike’s guidance, they selected two adjacent guest rooms.

After setting down the luggage, Lorne smiled and spoke.

”You two go play nearby for now. I’ll take care of tidying up the rooms.”

The two little girls, now free to go, were instantly overjoyed and turned to dash downstairs.

”Wait—take these with you.”

The voice from behind stopped little Medusa.

As she turned around, Lorne, who had spoken, took out a bronze emblem from his pocket and tied it around her neck with a string.

He then stuffed a few dozen ”Athenian coppers” into the pockets of both little girls as spending money.

Watching the two of them walk downstairs hand in hand, passing right by Athena without drawing the attention of the Goddess of Wisdom, he couldn’t help but let out a slight sigh of relief.

Just like the [Die of Chance], the emblems Lorne had obtained from it were also imbued with the unpredictable [Chance] aura of the world’s providence, effectively masking Medusa’s identity as a mythical creature and preventing her from being easily detected.

Of course, you get what you pay for.

According to the [Die of Chance]’s description, the bronze emblem was only valid for the day, the silver emblem’s effect lasted about a week, and the gold emblem could sustain itself for at least a year.

That was precisely why Lorne wanted to keep working.

He had already given one to Medusa before they went to Athena’s temple and now another.

To be honest, such resources were to scarce and important.

If he didn’t want to be detected by Zeus or the world’s providence, he needed to keep stirring up trouble, using his own [Chance] to disrupt the [Necessity] of fate’s calculations, allowing him to safely remain hidden.

Because, perhaps from the moment he was born prematurely by accident, he had already become an [Anomaly] that this world could not tolerate.

Glancing at the two little ones holding hands as they bought snacks by the roadside, Lorne gently closed the window, tidied up the bedding, and then stepped out of the room.

”Thud!”

The moment he exited, a dull thud echoed from the corridor.

Lorne turned his head and saw Athena standing by the second-floor railing, her hands hovering in the air as if she had just released something.

At that moment, she was staring intently at an apple and an orange lying on the floor below, two objects of different sizes and weights that had landed almost simultaneously with brows furrowed as she murmured to herself.

”Objects of different weights and sizes, if the interference of factors like shape and material is minimized, really do fall at nearly the same speed.

If two objects of the same material and shape, differing only in weight and size, were dropped from a height, perhaps the margin of error would shrink even further...”

Hearing Athena’s conclusion, Lorne was stunned.

Just from hearing him mention it in passing, she had extrapolated the idea of reducing variables to conduct a more controlled and objective experiment.

Not only had she bypassed conventional assumptions like ”Why do a feather and an apple, or a lead ball and a sheet of paper, fall at different speeds?”—she had nearly deduced the complete law of free fall.

To put it into perspective, from the time Aristotle first posed the question until Galileo corrected the misconception, humanity had spent nearly two thousand years on the issue.

What else could he say?

Truly worthy of the Goddess of Wisdom.

”You’re out? Perfect, how did you know about this? Come here and explain.”

Athena, still standing on the second-floor corridor, turned her head upon hearing the noise and casually beckoned Lorne over.

Instantly, Lorne’s face stiffened.

After all, was a theoretical smooth-talker, not a hands-on experimenter who could derive the entire process.

Damn this curiosity, it was going to be the death of him!

Seeing how Athena’s thirst for knowledge had been ignited, a sweat-drenched Lorne frantically racked his brain for a way to escape.

*(End of Chapter)*