That power, and the gaze looking at Sisyphus himself, felt like a strange pressure. He could shake it off anytime if he wanted to, but he didn’t even dare to attempt it.

Sisyphus cautiously asked a question to the unknown deity.

“…This is the first time I’m meeting you and ‘Persephone’ today, how do you know that?”

“Well. I don’t know you, but you look like you’d be very good at plowing fields. I can tell just by looking that you have a talent for plowing.”

So in the end, this is just asking me to plow the field!

Thinking it had become troublesome, Sisyphus clicked his tongue. He scratched his head and pointed to his face.

“Um… As you can see, I’m quite old.”

“No, even at that age, you have a blessed body exuding vitality.”

“…I was a nobleman in my past life, so I won’t be able to plow well. I recommend you find another spirit who was a farmer in their past life.”

“No, that means you’ll find it even more interesting as something new. For farmers, plowing is their livelihood, but for you, it will feel like a hobby.”

There was no answer.

‘I guess there’s no choice.’

Finally, as a last resort, Sisyphus opened his mouth.

“I am a prisoner, Persephone.”

“…”

“Every day I have to roll a boulder up that rocky mountain, then catch the falling boulder and bring it back to Tartarus. Because of that duty, I can’t fulfill your request.”

Persephone pursed her lips into a round shape.

‘Now you realize the seriousness of the problem?’

Sisyphus inwardly mocked Persephone.

“Then plow even half before you go.”

But she was a formidable opponent.

“I’m close with Hades, so he’ll understand even if you don’t roll the boulder.”

“…”

No, now she’s even threatening by invoking her friendship with the king of the underworld?

Sisyphus was about to open his mouth in disbelief.

His cunning mind quickly turned.

…Ah, no.

‘Should I use this as an opportunity?’

Sisyphus grinned.

“Then… before plowing the field, I have one request.”

His hand lifted the iron chains connected to the boulder, and the handcuffs.

“Would you kindly ask Hades to let me remove my ‘burden’?”

“…”

“I think I’d be able to plow better if at least these handcuffs were removed.”

Sisyphus was a man who never missed an opportunity.

If by chance this woman called ‘Persephone’ was really close to the king of the underworld, and thus knew a way to remove the handcuffs.

‘At least I won’t have to see these iron chains anymore, that’s what I mean.’

If the handcuffs were removed even for a very short time, there would be a chance. If they try to put the handcuffs back on after finishing plowing, I can shake off this seemingly weak deity and run away then.

“What do you think, Persephone? If you remove them for just a moment, I’ll plow quickly and put them back on.”

Sisyphus urged Persephone’s answer. He smiled, pretending to be quite pitiful.

“In my old age, I couldn’t even have a proper funeral. I had nowhere to return to anyway.”

A strange silence filled the space between Sisyphus and Persephone.

How much time had passed?

Persephone tilted her head with a sardonic smile.

“You know what, King of Corinth?”

The hair on the back of Sisyphus’s neck stood up when he saw that smile.

This woman knows who I am.

“There are people in the world who want to have a funeral but can’t.”

“…Pardon?”

“Those who committed suicide, died alone, or passed away while traveling… Or those too poor to even have a funeral, who die without proper rites to let the living survive a bit longer.”

Persephone shrugged her shoulders.

“I’ve seen quite a few such people while wandering the mortal world. So I’ve put coins in their mouths before.”

A nasal sound escaped between Persephone’s lips. She stroked her chin, rolled her eyes, and smiled brightly.

“But in my opinion, you… despite telling your family not to hold your funeral because you didn’t want to die, once you came to the underworld, you blamed that very family for not holding a funeral.”

“…”

“Using the excuse that no funeral was held, you probably asked to be sent back to the mortal world.”

The corners of her mouth rose even higher. She pointed at Sisyphus with her finger.

“I guess the reason your final years weren’t good was because you blamed others?”

Sisyphus swallowed dryly.

‘So she wasn’t a newcomer to the underworld?’

It was pink hair he hadn’t seen in the underworld before.

He thought she would have forgotten stories from the mortal world, or as a newcomer, wouldn’t know them at all.

But this seemed to be a complete misjudgment. This woman even knows that he lied about not being able to have a funeral in order to deceive the king of the underworld.

Seeing Sisyphus’s bewildered face, the corners of the woman’s mouth rose even higher.

“It seems I know who you are, but you don’t know me.”

The woman covered her mouth and shook her head as if pitying him.

“This is more thrilling than I expected.”

The color gradually drained from Sisyphus’s face. Just as he bit his lip and was about to run away without looking back.

Clank.

An ominous noise came from far away.

Sisyphus turned around.

His eyes fell upon the iron chains firmly tied to a stake.

‘When did she…?’

Persephone was standing straight on top of the stake that fixed the hole in the iron chains.

Sisyphus grabbed the handcuffs and tried to pull the chain, but was it because his strength that had once overpowered even death had weakened due to his aged body?

“Ugh…!”

No matter how hard he pulled, the stake wouldn’t budge.

Watching Sisyphus’s futile efforts, the woman burst into loud laughter, “Wahaha!” Chuckling, she lightly flicked her finger in the air.

“You dared to try and deceive a deity again, Sisyphus.”

A glint flashed in the woman’s eyes.

“So shut your mouth and hurry up and plow the field, got it?”

“One, two, three.”

This place where the numbers are increasing one by one is Persephone’s temporary farm.

Persephone has acquired a worker− or rather, a slave from among Tartarus’s prisoners!

“Two, three, four.”

“…”

“Three, four, five.”

“…”

“Four, five, si−”

“No, wait a moment!”

The slave’s protest squeezed in between Persephone’s counting shouts.

“Why?”

Persephone replied brightly while scratching her ear. As if wondering what could possibly be the problem.

Sisyphus put down the plow and straightened his back.

“Haven’t you been counting strangely since earlier?”

“What do you mean? I’ve been counting properly? I was counting to match your painfully slow pace. Aren’t you going to plow faster?”

“Never mind the pace, the numbers weren’t continuing properly!”

“That’s how life is. Just think ‘that’s how it turned out’ and move on.”

“It’s not about moving on or not…!”

“Ah, if it bothers you that much, just forget about it! If you forget one number and I forget one number, it’s good for both of us, isn’t it?”

Persephone waved her hands dismissively.

“…Good grief.”

Sisyphus let out a laugh of disbelief.

But even while grumbling, he couldn’t talk back.

It was partly because the stake still wouldn’t budge even after Persephone had come down from it, but more decisively because she had threatened him.

“You, if you keep being uncooperative, I’m going to tell Hades everything you said to me!”

Sisyphus, who had been struggling to untie the iron chains from the stake, immediately lowered his tail when Persephone declared that she would reveal all of his statements.

However, still having some pride, he tried not to use extremely polite speech to this unknown deity who seemed younger than him.

“Tsk, how insincere! Let’s start over from the beginning!”

“This is unfair−”

“Ooooone! Twoooooo−”

“No, it’s unfair−”

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, fivefourthreetwoone−”

“Ah, yes! I understand! I said I understand! I’ll plow!”

Only when Persephone acted unreasonably like this did he inevitably use polite speech.

Persephone looked over Sisyphus as he plowed. Her gaze, which had lingered on his shabby appearance, moved to the small vegetable patch that was already quite plowed.

Persephone threw him some bait.

“If you do a little more, I’ll give you food. Don’t worry. I may not know about clothes and houses, but I’m the type who provides food, okay?”

“Food or whatever, it’s not necessary for a prisoner like me!”

“Hey, don’t talk about yourself in such a self-deprecating way, saying ‘a prisoner like me’. You should love yourself.”

“Ugh…!”

As Persephone placed her hand on her chest and closed her eyes, Sisyphus grabbed the back of his head with a face turning red and blue.

‘Oh? He’s trying to sneakily put down the plow while acting like that.’

Persephone’s wide-open eyes turned into a triangular shape.

“Hey, grab the plow again! If you don’t, I’ll bury you in the ground!”

Sisyphus’s hands grabbed the handle faster than light.

Persephone snorted.

“What I sprinkled is crushed volcanic rock, so you need to plow quickly. If you leave it, it won’t mix with the soil and will harden.”

She walked leisurely to the edge of the field and brought a water bucket.

Inside was coarse powder with a dark reddish tinge.

Sisyphus frowned as he looked into the bucket.

“This came from a volcano? It seems a bit wavy…”

“I added a little water. If I sprinkled it as is, the volcanic ash powder would fly around a bit.”

That’s right. What Persephone had brought in the bucket was red volcanic rock powder.

According to her, having moved her residence several times, harvests were particularly abundant on the island of Sicily. It was all thanks to the material from volcanoes that helped with farming.

Of course, it was difficult to use at its hot temperature, and even though volcanic ejecta are rich in nutrients, there were many questionable points in using them as is.

But if you cool it down like this and take appropriate measures−for example, blessing it with divine power−it could be sufficiently used as fertilizer depending on the soil condition.

Even Sisyphus, who had been a king of a country, seemed to find this interesting, his eyes fixed on the inside of the bucket.

“Where on earth did you bring this from? Was there a volcano around here?”

“It was near the Phlegethon River. I scooped it from there.”

Persephone had thought there was no red volcanic ash around Greece, but since the Phlegethon is a lava river in the realm of the underworld, there were many materials she had only heard rumors about.

She discovered the red volcanic rock there as well.

Persephone sprinkled the volcanic rock powder on the rest of the vegetable patch that Sisyphus hadn’t plowed yet.

Watching this, Sisyphus asked a question.

“What are you going to plant?”

“I’ll decide that later after seeing how it goes.”

“…What?”

The end of Sisyphus’s voice rose sharply.

He realized that Persephone’s statement was a declaration to tie him down semi-permanently.

“Ugh…”

He groaned as he sank down in place.

And at the exact same time, near Persephone’s temporary farm.

【…】

Here, there is a certain elder deity watching the young deity.

【…What on earth is she doing?】

Thanatos, watching Persephone, muttered a question softly.