The color drained from Hades’ already pale face.

“It didn’t go as far as ‘old man’ or ‘grandfather’. That would apply to the generation above me.”

“So that means it went as far as uncle or sir.”

“……”

“Hahaha!”

Seeing Hades’ expression, Hermes clapped vigorously and laughed. He wiped the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

“Come to think of it, uncle is correct. You’re adoptive siblings with Demeter, aren’t you?”

“No, I know that, but……”

“Shouldn’t you be grateful that you’re not called uncle? By the way, why are you suddenly concerned about titles?”

Hades bit his lip tightly.

‘Uncle or maternal uncle are titles mainly used for married people……!’

It was unfair, as he had never been married or even dated.

‘Zeus, was this how you felt?’

Hades, who deeply realized his younger brother’s situation, glared at Hermes.

“……Your tongue resembles a snake’s, yet it’s not forked, Hermes. Shall I split it for you myself?”

“Thank you. I’ll continue to strive for improvement.”

Hermes took off his hat as if bowing.

Hades waved his hand at him, who was acting shamelessly.

“Now go. Don’t you have a lot to do? We don’t have time to chat.”

“I don’t want to leave.”

“Why are you whining again.”

Hades clicked his tongue at Hermes as if to say he couldn’t stand it.

Hermes shot him a look as if to say it was too much to try to chase him away.

A disgruntled mumble came from his mouth as he sighed deeply.

“Damn, everyone just uses messengers……”

Eventually, Hermes let out a groan and stretched his arms.

It was then that Hades’ gaze fell on the pouch under Hermes’ cloak.

“What’s that?”

It was a pouch he had never seen before.

That is, it looked different from the coin pouch he always carried around.

Hermes pointed to his side and answered simply.

“Oh, this?”

“Yes.”

“Persephone asked me to bring some seeds, so I brought them for gold coins.”

“……Why seeds all of a sudden?”

At Hades’ question, Hermes shrugged.

“Who knows? Maybe she’s trying to make a vegetable garden?”

[This is the timeline separator]

The deep abyss of the underworld, Tartarus.

This underground prison, where the powerless cries of sinners could be heard, was where those who rebelled against the gods or committed blasphemy were imprisoned.

“Ugh……”

Inside this underground prison, a prisoner rose from his seat.

Anyone trapped in this dank and dark underground would go mad.

“The boulder I created, I made it for you−”

But strangely, this middle-aged man began to hum while stretching, caressing the large boulder bound by chains.

“Shut up, it’s noisy……”

Sure enough, curses directed at the man flowed from somewhere in the prison.

The man turned his head towards the emaciated prisoner.

“Are you that envious of me?”

He snickered.

“Well, what can I do? There’s no mountain in Tartarus for me to roll my boulder up.”

That’s right.

This man was Sisyphus, the prisoner sentenced to eternally roll a huge boulder to the top of a mountain.

But there are no mountains in Tartarus.

The king of the underworld seemed to know this well, as Sisyphus, unlike other prisoners, was given the opportunity to briefly leave Tartarus through a side door.

The prisoner in the darkness, who had been emitting a piercing gaze, raised a trembling finger.

“You’ll pay for this later.”

“We’ll see.”

“You’ll come to your senses when you run into a madman outside……”

Sisyphus snorted at the prisoner who had cursed him and shrugged.

“There are plenty of madmen in the underworld. We even have someone who ground up his own son and served him to the gods.”

Who was Sisyphus himself?

He, who didn’t want to die, had trapped the god of death in his cave, and even in the underworld, he had tricked the king of the dead with the excuse that his wife hadn’t held a funeral, ultimately living out his natural lifespan.

Although he was now being punished by endlessly rolling a boulder, his achievement of deceiving the gods even overshadowed his record as the first king of Corinth.

In the underworld full of all sorts of madmen, he was confident he could instantly grasp and manipulate the desires and tendencies of those called mad.

Thinking this, Sisyphus once again stepped outside of Tartarus.

The side door of Tartarus opened its mouth to match the large size of the boulder.

Sisyphus, who had passed through the side door, surveyed his surroundings.

‘As expected, it’s quiet today too.’

It was then that his gaze, pondering how to creatively roll the boulder this time, wavered.

“−♪”

‘A song?’

It was because he heard humming coming from somewhere.

Frowning, Sisyphus listened carefully to the singing and headed towards where the problematic sound was coming from.

The owner of the singing voice, which could be heard not far away, was a woman.

Pink hair. A hair color he had never seen before while passing by.

‘Who is that? I’ve never seen her before.’

Just as he was about to turn his gaze towards her, wondering what on earth she was doing.

“Do you hear it, the roar of the ferocious enemies in that field?”

The woman, who shouted loudly, began to pull out weeds at an astonishing speed.

“Form ranks, advance, advance−!”

Moreover, she wasn’t just crouching down and pulling weeds normally, but was doing forward rolls or handstands while working aggressively.

“They are approaching to cut the throats of your wives and children!”

The woman raised her shovel high above her head.

“Arm yourselves, humans, form ranks!”

Having pulled out almost all the weeds along with her song, she stood in place and shouted loudly.

“……”

Momentarily dumbfounded, Sisyphus shook his head vigorously.

‘What kind of song is that?’

No matter how he listened, it didn’t seem to be a work song?

Sisyphus, who had been momentarily confused, soon regained his composure.

‘……Well, humming or talking to oneself is perfectly fine.’

Even Sisyphus himself had started talking to himself more often while living alone.

Singing a tune while saying, “Where is the wateeer?” had become a daily occurrence.

However, it was clearly not normal, so it might be better to investigate what kind of person she was, if only for future reference.

Sisyphus carefully pushed the boulder to one side and stuck to it.

‘What she’s holding is a shovel, and that water jar……? What is it?’

His eyes carefully moved to the water jar the woman was holding.

The woman carefully grasped the handle of the water jar, then poured it onto the ground.

The contents of the water jar scattered on the ground with an ominous sound.

“……!”

Sisyphus’s eyes, upon seeing the contents of the water jar, popped out like those of a deep-sea fish.

‘Blood?’

A reddish substance, mixed with brown and black colors.

Yes. It was definitely blood.

Moreover, it wasn’t just the liquid cleanly extracted, but blood clots of unknown origin.

Soon, the woman who had poured the blood clots on the ground shouted even louder.

“Advance, advance! Let that filthy blood soak our furrows!”

At that moment, goosebumps spread across his skin.

Sisyphus opened his mouth.

‘I thought I had seen all kinds of madmen in Tartarus……’

The world is wide, and there are many madmen, is that it?

‘I’d better avoid the area where that woman is.’

Sisyphus clicked his tongue as if regretful.

“Person……”

At that moment, the woman’s muttering reached his ears.

Sisyphus glanced ahead.

“I need a person…… I neeeeed a person……!”

The woman let her hair down and now repeatedly muttered that she needed a person.

“……”

Cold sweat pooled and ran down Sisyphus’s spine.

It seemed that if he got caught, he would definitely not meet a good end.

Just as Sisyphus, who had silently pushed the boulder with amazing hand skills, was about to turn away from the woman.

Crack.

A branch got caught under the boulder.

Sisyphus, horrified, looked at the boulder, but the noise had already been made.

He turned around.

“……”

Sure enough, the woman was staring straight at him from the shadows.

“A person?”

Yellow eyes, glowing even in the darkness, turned towards Sisyphus.

“It’s a person.”

Those eyes soon curved into crescent shapes and closed.

[This is the timeline separator]

The woman put both feet on the upright shovel and gripped the handle tightly.

The unidentified woman leaped and approached him at a rapid pace.

Sisyphus suddenly found himself face to face with a mad woman who was literally grinding people to farm.

The opponent in front of him hopped up and down in place with the shovel. Then suddenly she raised her hands above her head and.

Slap−!

She hit her own cheek hard.

The woman, blinking from the pain, pointed straight at Sisyphus and shouted.

“Person!”

“……”

“Persooon!”

……Is she a woman who can only say the word ‘person’?

Sisyphus, who had frowned for a moment, quickly smoothed his expression.

He put on a kind, grandfatherly expression.

“Yes, as you can see, I’m a person.”

He slightly lowered his posture as if talking to a child.

“Who are you? Seeing as I don’t recognize your face, you seem to be new to this area……”

At this, the woman closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head.

“……Hmm.”

She folded her arms somewhat discontentedly and answered stiffly.

“Haven’t you heard of me?”

“……”

“I thought I had become quite famous by now.”

It was only for a moment that he felt strange about the sudden change in tone and attitude.

Sisyphus, with his characteristic perceptiveness, immediately realized that the woman before him was not an underworld dweller but a god.

At times like this, it was best not to reveal the strange points he had noticed about himself.

Deciding to quickly change his stance, he promptly bowed his head.

“Ah, I apologize. Being a lowly human, I didn’t realize you were a god.”

“Really?”

“Yes. If I may be so bold, could you please tell me your divine name so that I don’t make a mistake next time?”

Sisyphus smiled kindly and clasped his hands together.

“Persephone.”

The woman answered proudly.

‘What?’

Sisyphus’s eyes filled with confusion.

‘Who… is that?’

Just as he was about to frown, barely restraining himself, ‘Persephone’ frowned even more.

“Do you really not know who I am?”

“Ye-yes?”

“The goddess of seeds, Persephone.”

‘Persephone’ pointed at the plowed field with her finger, as if to ask if he couldn’t see the furrows over there.

……The problem was that even with her zealously explaining her identity, Sisyphus still had no idea who she was.

Sisyphus’s head spun like a waterwheel.

Judging by how she had raised her nose high as if subtly wanting to be recognized, it seemed that carelessly saying he didn’t know who she was could lead to big trouble.

‘……Is it all just a lie?’

Sisyphus swallowed dryly.

Although he didn’t understand the reason for using the name of an unknown god, it could turn out that Sisyphus was facing someone so important he couldn’t even look up to them.

Among the gods, there were those who could transform into the appearance of other gods, and there were many more who impersonated others.

In other words, this could be a trap to test him.

It could be that a god with a very great reputation had set up a nasty trick to see how a single human’s reaction would change depending on how they revealed their identity.

‘Until then, I have to play along with this tune. I can’t act indifferently just because it’s an unknown god, and there’s nothing to gain by letting them know I’ve figured it out.’

Sisyphus hid his cold sweat and clasped his hands together.

“Oh, so you’re Lady Persephone! What an honor to meet someone rarely seen in the underworld.”

He bowed his head respectfully.

This should be enough. Sisyphus straightened up and pulled on the iron chain connected to his boulder.

“However, as you can see, I have work to do.”

“……”

“I’ll be careful not to enter Lady Persephone’s domain. Then, I’ll take my leave−”

It was just as Sisyphus was about to turn away from the self-proclaimed goddess of seeds.

“But you have such a good body.”

His arm was suddenly grabbed.

A chill ran down Sisyphus’s spine for a moment. He turned around and managed to speak.

“……Pardon?”

“You look like you’d be excellent at plowing fields.”

Persephone chuckled and gripped Sisyphus’s arm tightly.