Percy Jackson: The Firstborn

Chapter 124: Chapter 124: Tea

Damon accepted the cup and took a small sip. The taste was smooth, and for some reason it made him feel more at home than he expected. But should he really be surprised by that? The Shinto pantheon had always been a place of relaxation for him. The truth was that the simple stability in the air calmed his body almost instantly. ”This place feels the same,” he said after a moment, looking at the garden with appreciation.

Amaterasu smiled softly, placing one hand over his on the table. ”This has all been thanks to you, Damon. I haven’t been able to avoid enjoying the peace these past few years. Honestly, it has been incredibly comforting, and Kaguya has also been great company.” Hearing her name being mentioned, Kaguya lifted her gaze from her tea, raising one of her perfect noble eyebrows. ”Wow, so you finally recognize what a great tea companion I am,” the goddess said with her slightly dry tone, though the teasing amusement was noticeable.

Damon could not help but smile as he listened to the exchange between them. It was obvious that the relationship between the two goddesses had changed a lot over the years. They had gone from enemies to sitting together drinking tea as if they had been lifelong friends, and honestly, it was pretty funny to see. But he supposed a cup of tea and talking every day had its own magic when it came to tying bonds between people.

Izanami rested her face on one hand, looking at Damon with a softer smile. ”Damon-kun, even with all the peace we’ve had, this place has truly felt your absence. It became a little boring, honestly.”

Damon let out a laugh, shaking his head. ”Enough, don’t be so ridiculous, girls. You already jumped on me, cried, and screamed. You don’t have to tell me every second how much you missed me.”

Amaterasu looked at him from the corner of her eye, her amber eyes shining with a playful warning. ”If you want, I can do something else to prove it again.”

Damon raised his cup in surrender. ”I take it back.”

”I heard you now have command of Olympus,” the sun goddess said, taking a sip of tea while her eyes never stopped watching him carefully. ”When the news arrived, I was quite worried. In fact, if Kaguya had not stopped me, I probably would have already appeared in Olympus to see you myself.”

Damon let out a low laugh, though it did not sound as amused as he intended. ”Yes, I did,” he said, looking at his cup for a few seconds. ”And I still don’t know whether to regret it or pat myself on the back for not having heard everything that happened in my pantheon during all those years. I think if I had known before...” Damon paused, tightening his fingers slightly around the cup. ”I don’t know if I would have been able to contain myself. And you all know perfectly well why.”

The defeated tone in his voice was enough to erase part of the garden’s calm. Amaterasu, Kaguya, and Izanami did not say anything immediately. The three of them knew better than anyone what Damon had carried for years, and they also knew how dangerous he could be when his patience finally reached its limit. Amaterasu was the first to move. Without saying anything, she moved a little closer and hugged his arm, resting her head against his shoulder.

”What matters is that you’re doing the right thing now,” she said softly. ”Just don’t carry everything by yourself. If you’re frustrated, tired, or simply need to step away for a moment, come to me.”

Damon only nodded. His silence was enough to show that he was grateful to the sun goddess. That said, Izanami quickly broke the silence, leaning forward a little with a playful smile. ”So you came to rest after taking Olympus, right?”

Damon looked nervously at Izanami, and the three of them had their answer before he said a single word. ”Not exactly,” he admitted.

Amaterasu made a small pout, looking to the side. ”Of course not.”

Damon looked at her with a somewhat guilty smile. ”Although I did also want to see you, I have to admit there is another reason,” the god said, his expression becoming serious.

Hearing his tone, the three women straightened slightly in their seats. Damon looked directly at Amaterasu. ”You see, I received a letter from Serafall Leviathan. One of the current Maou.”

The instant that name left Damon’s mouth, the amber eyes of the sun goddess narrowed slightly, and her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth with clear annoyance.

”So they’re causing trouble for you too,” she said.

Damon raised an eyebrow. ”What do you mean?”

Amaterasu placed the cup on the table gently, though her annoyance was clear. ”The devils have spent a long time believing they can stretch their hand wherever they want and then try to act innocent through diplomacy. Some time ago, there was a problem with the Nekoshou, and let me tell you, it was a very dirty matter.”

Damon did not interrupt the goddess, listening attentively. Kaguya and Izanami did the same. Both of them knew about the matter, of course, but things like that were normally handled by Amaterasu. Not because they could not intervene, but because when beings like them intervened, the situation could escalate too quickly.

Amaterasu seemed to appreciate that they did not interrupt her. ”The Nekoshou were under the protection of the yokai faction, and they, by extension, were under my protection. To summarize it, two Nekoshou named Kuroka and Shirone became involved in experiments that were not allowed. Kuroka killed her king when she discovered he was experimenting on her sister. One thing led to another, everything was full of misunderstandings, bad intentions, and devils trying to wash their hands of it. In the end, they blamed senjutsu, and the Nekoshou clan ended up paying the price.”

The redhead’s expression hardened at what she said. If he did not know better, he would say that this Nekoshou matter was far too similar to what the devils might want to do now with the demigods. Cross a line, blame someone else, and then use pretty words to walk away clean. Damon did not expose his thoughts immediately, noticing that Amaterasu was still quite conflicted over the matter.

”I almost went to war over it,” Amaterasu admitted.

Izanami smiled coldly. ”I told her to do it.”

Amaterasu closed her eyes for a second. ”Mother.”

The primordial shrugged with complete calm. ”What? It was a simple solution.”

Amaterasu looked at her with exhaustion. ”Your solution for almost everything is to destroy the culprit and then ask if anyone else is left.”

Izanami dismissed her worries with a wave of her hand. ”It’s what I would have done. It works quite well.”

Kaguya, who was not one to interrupt often, lifted her cup slightly. ”She is not entirely wrong.”

Damon looked at the white-haired woman.

Kaguya held his gaze calmly. ”I’m just saying.”

Damon ran a hand over his face, but he could not help a small smile at how little those two ancient women seemed to care about sounding dangerous. In the end, for them, destroying the culprit was a normal option. The difference was that Amaterasu was the one who had to govern and carry the consequences afterward.

”Then why didn’t you do it?” Damon asked, looking at Amaterasu. He was not reproaching her. He already had an idea why, but he wanted to hear it from her herself. After all, Damon knew how strong the Shinto pantheon was.

Amaterasu was not offended by the question. She had had countless similar discussions with Damon before. After all, you did not spend a thousand years trying to bring peace without questioning the methods of someone like him a few times.

”I didn’t do it because protecting my people does not always mean throwing them into a war because of my anger,” the sun goddess said. ”I wanted to do it, I won’t lie to you. There was a moment when I almost crossed that line. The yokai were furious, I was furious, all the gods were furious and wanted blood. But if I had declared war, the supernatural world would have become the Elemental Nations 2.0.”

Damon was not surprised by her answer. It was natural coming from Amaterasu and the Shinto pantheon. It was not that he completely agreed, because if something like that happened to him, there was no hell that would stop him. After everything that happened in his own pantheon, Damon was quite reluctant to let certain things go unpunished. But he would not reproach Amaterasu for it either. She was the leader of the Shinto pantheon, not him.

Amaterasu let out a sigh and continued.

”Anyway, I had a conversation with Serafall. I won’t say things improved by magic, because they didn’t. But in the end, her reasons managed to convince both me and Yasaka. So things ended there, at least officially.”

Izanami clicked her tongue. ”Boring.”

”I see... so you already have history with the devils and with Serafall,” Damon said after a few seconds.

Amaterasu nodded slowly. ”You could say that. And Serafall... well, I don’t hate her. In fact, among the devils, she is one of the few who at least has common sense. But she is still a Maou. Her duty is to protect her faction, not mine.”

Damon nodded, somewhat more interested in meeting this Serafall. From the little he had heard, she seemed like quite a strange mix of politics, madness, and common sense, which sounded dangerous in anyone with power. ”Then I’m right when I think I should expect something absurd coming from her.”

Amaterasu let out a small laugh, though she did not deny his words. ”That’s right. Serafall can be kind, even funny, but she is not stupid. If she called you to Kuoh for something, then there is something behind it. Maybe it won’t be completely hostile, but it won’t be a simple friendly conversation either.”

Damon moved his finger along the edge of his cup. ”That’s what I thought.” Then he decided to tell them what had happened in his pantheon in more detail, at least enough for them to understand why he was here. The three women listened carefully, surprised by how absurd the situation was. A devil entering Greek territory without permission, disappearing, and then his faction demanding explanations as if Olympus were the culprit from the start. Even Kaguya raised an eyebrow at that, while Amaterasu clicked her tongue once again.

Izanami, for her part, did not seem surprised. In fact, she looked like she had been expecting something similar. ”My advice is simple. Kill a few devils or show your power from the beginning. That will make things clear to them.”

Amaterasu sighed. ”Mother.”

Damon almost laughed, but he had to admit he was not completely against it. ”You don’t have to scold her, Ama-chan. Izanami has a point.”

Izanami looked at him with a glint of amused madness in her eyes, clearly pleased by his words. ”You have always been so fun, Damon-kun.”

Kaguya took another sip of tea, watching Damon attentively before placing the cup back on the table. ”Well, are we really going to spend the whole day talking about devils? Assuming your meeting is not right now, it would be better to stop making ourselves bitter.”

Izanami looked at her with amusement. ”I have never agreed with you more, Kaguya-chan.”

That caused a small round of laughter to rise in the garden, finally breaking the tension that the topic of the devils had left among them. Amaterasu calmed down first, setting her cup aside before looking at Damon with a calmer smile. ”Actually, you arrived at a good time. Today there will be a meeting with all the gods. It will be the first one in a long time where everyone will be present.”

Hearing that, Damon grew a little more animated. It had been far too long since the last time he had seen Susanoo and several of the other Shinto gods. He could not deny that a part of him wanted to see them again. However, before he could say anything, Amaterasu rose from her seat and offered him a hand.

”But first, I want to show you something. I think you’ll like it.”

Damon raised an eyebrow, curious. Then he stood beside the black-haired woman, accepting her hand with a small smile. ”Lead the way, beautiful lady.”

Amaterasu smiled in satisfaction and intertwined her arm with his. After saying goodbye to Kaguya and Izanami with a glance, the two began to walk away together through the garden, moving with a naturalness that made it clear that even with the passage of time, some things between them remained the same.

Kaguya followed the couple with her gaze until they were far enough away. Then she took another sip of tea, barely hiding a smile behind the cup. ”Fu fu... Damon has become more attractive with time, I must say.”

Izanami looked at her from the corner of her eye before giving the white-haired woman a small nudge with her elbow. ”So you finally have eyes, white girl. I thought you were immune to those things or something.”

Kaguya’s eye twitched slightly at the comment.

Izanami, of course, did not stop there. She wrapped an arm around the white-haired woman’s neck, pulling her closer with a smile far too amused to be innocent. ”Ahhh, I suppose I was too quick with my assumptions... So the ice princess also knows how to appreciate a good man.”

Kaguya held her cup calmly, though the small twitch in her eyebrow betrayed how close she was to losing her patience. ”Izanami,” she said in a flat voice.

”Yes?”

”Remove your arm before I tear it off.” Izanami only let out a carefree laugh, clearly not afraid in the slightest. ”I definitely like you, Kaguya-chan.”

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