I've Possessed Persephone - Chapter 32

“Lord Hades, don’t you think the breeze feels a bit weaker?”

Hades heard the voice of his subordinate near his ear as he was buried in paperwork.

When he raised his head, Hydra filled his vision with her familiar smile.

She returned an even deeper smile to Hades, who was staring intently at her.

“Shall I open the door?”

“No, that’s fine. The window is already open, so there’s no need to open the door as well.”

Hades waved his hand dismissively.

The Underworld wasn’t particularly hot unless you got close to the lava rivers.

Rather, it was on the cool side, the kind of weather where a single layer of wool blanket would be nice. For proper warmth, there was no need to open the door.

“…I understand.”

However, Hydra turned her head with a slightly disappointed expression. The ends of her hair split.

Before he could sense anything strange about this, his gaze shifted to Thanatos, who was sitting opposite Hydra, checking the list of the dead.

“Why do you keep glancing at the door, Thanatos?”

【…It just seems there might be an insect.】

“…”

The warmth gradually faded from Hades’ eyes. Instead, a golden spark-like energy filled the empty heat.

He wasn’t angry because their attitude was disrespectful. It was just, well, this was…

‘No, I don’t understand why everyone is saying it’s nothing. What are you hiding from me?’

Hades rubbed his chest where a strange knot was forming. His brow furrowed slightly as if in pain.

‘Didn’t we work together for at least several decades?’

Moreover, Thanatos was the god who ruled this place before Hades became the king of the Underworld.

Now he voluntarily worked under Hades, acting as a subordinate or colleague, but in his younger days, Hades had secretly looked up to him.

But now they were suddenly acting like this without explaining why, as if plotting something among themselves, and he couldn’t understand what was going on at all.

Hades rested his chin on his hand and tried to recall their appearance from earlier.

More precisely, he tried to recall, but.

“Wow, thank you Lady Hydra!”

The first image that came to mind was Persephone embracing Hydra like the wind.

Hades’ brow furrowed even more. Haah, he sighed and tried to picture the three of them, including Persephone, more concretely.

‘They were all huddled together like baby chicks…’

He thought it was cute for a moment, but from the moment he saw Hydra and Thanatos neglecting their duties to play with Persephone, something bothered him inside. As if a latch had been locked.

He wasn’t sure if he could dare express this feeling as ‘bothered’, but still.

‘Is it just because I’m a stickler for principles…?’

He lived and died by duty and responsibility. He couldn’t be pleased to see his subordinates succumbing to the rare desire for food in the Underworld and becoming lax.

However, it was unclear if the problem was simply the negligence of his subordinates.

“Thanks to you, I just had a brilliant idea!”

Persephone looked even happier than when she had kept Hemera near her domain.

In other words, the three of them without him seemed more, how should I put it, I’m not sure how to describe it, but.

‘They looked relaxed.’

Perhaps a good working relationship and friendship are different things after all.

No, to begin with, he wasn’t sure when Persephone had become friends with these two. He himself hadn’t had any friends since the war.

Maybe such good social skills run in the family, he thought at that moment.

Hades slowly removed the hand that was resting on his forehead.

…Wait.

‘Am I feeling left out? Me?’

The Lord of the Dead’s eyes widened as he quickly recognized his own emotion.

“Ahem…”

Thoroughly embarrassed, he cleared his throat.

How unseemly, to have such thoughts. Hades let out a weak chuckle and rubbed his eyebrows.

He is the king. The ruler who reigns over the Underworld, and also the god among the Olympians most skilled at handling darkness.

For such a being to be unable to control the darkness within himself, isn’t that absurd?

Just as Hades was about to suppress the emotion within him, there came a knock from the door of his office.

Hydra and Thanatos raised their heads at once, as if the item they wanted had arrived – had they asked Hermes for a delivery?

“May I come in?”

Following that, Persephone’s clear voice flowed through the gap in the double doors.

As the office door slowly opened, Persephone’s white arms and legs carefully entered.

Hades rose from his seat as his gaze met her lime-green eyes.

“…Persephone?”

The end of Hades’ words lifted slightly.

“Why are you here?”

Persephone had her hands behind her back. It seemed she had entered hiding something behind her back.

She glanced briefly at Hades, then looked around widely as she brought her arms forward.

“Would you like to try a warm drink?”

“…”

Hades was suddenly at a loss for words when he saw five wooden cups on a silver tray.

‘All of a sudden?’

His wavering eyes landed on Persephone, but she just kept smiling brightly, not seeming to care at all.

“There were a lot of herbs around, so I tried picking some and brewing them together with barley. It smells good.”

“…I see.”

Hades nodded casually as he approached her.

While Hydra and Thanatos, who had taken a decent break, might understand, he himself hadn’t had time to rest yet. It was fortunate that Persephone had come like this.

Persephone handed a cup to Hades first.

As he scanned the rest of the cups, he noticed that one slightly wider cup was covered with a thin cloth.

“What’s this?”

He pointed to the cloth-covered cup.

“It’s my secret weapon.”

So what is it?

Hades raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but Persephone didn’t give a separate answer.

When she didn’t answer, Hades had no choice but to bring the two cups closest to him to Hydra and Thanatos respectively.

“Ah, thank you.”

【…Thank you.】

But something seemed very awkward.

It was as if they wanted to know what the drink Persephone had brought was, but felt they couldn’t ask because they had already done something wrong.

Hades watched Hydra’s ears twitching constantly as he tilted his cup.

A refreshing herbal taste with a slight kick remained on the tip of his tongue, but.

‘The amount seems subtly less…’

…Well, alright. She could give less, couldn’t she?

No matter how much he had decided to bring Hemera to his domain and even give her administrator privileges, he hadn’t become close friends with Persephone.

Hades bit the inside of his lip. Just as he was trying his best to push aside his increasingly petty feelings.

“Ah, I’ll give you one more.”

Persephone held out another cup as if she already knew his mind.

“What’s this?”

“Try it and see.”

While the previous one seemed to be a light green liquid, this time it was a clear brown liquid.

There was something floating on top, perhaps some kind of oil or something…

Hades looked into the cup with suspicious eyes, but obediently followed Persephone’s words.

When he finished drinking the contents, Hades’ pupils shook with unexpected pleasure as he tried to suppress his expectations.

“…It’s delicious.”

Contrary to his half-belief, the drink that seemed to have been steeped in something was very tasty.

Judging by the deep flavor, had she steeped some spices? Actually, questions just arose, but he wasn’t sure what it really was.

What was that clear drink with a plain taste again…

At that moment, Persephone held out the cloth-covered cup.

“Then would you like to try this too?”

It was the last drink in order, and Hades repeatedly opened and closed his lips slightly after seeing inside it.

“…Isn’t this soup rather than a drink?”

He looked skeptical.

“Not at all.”

However, Persephone shook her head vigorously as if to say, what are you talking about?

“This is called ‘meat tea’.”

Hades blinked rapidly.

“I heard you drink a lot of steeped leaf water. Lady Hydra here told me that’s called ‘tea’.”

“…”

“This is similar. It’s meat-steeped water.”

“Isn’t that called broth?”

“That’s what it is. Anyway, since something was steeped, can’t we call it tea just the same?”

“No, but there are a lot of solid bits in this broth now, so this is closer to soup-”

“No, it’s meat-steeped water. What’s in the cup isn’t the solid bits of a soup dish, but sediment.”

Persephone’s index finger pointed to the sky.

“Don’t they drink a lot of mint or peppermint-steeped water on the mainland? This is no different. It just didn’t have a name before.”

She winked and smiled mischievously.

“Then is the wine Dionysus makes ‘fruit tea’, and the alcohol made from malt is ‘grain tea’ after all?”

“Correct! As expected of the Lord of the Underworld!”

Persephone’s attitude was confident as she smiled broadly and made clapping sounds with her mouth.

Hades bit his lip as he stared at that uniquely brazen expression that seemed to say he didn’t know what was wrong.

“…Ha.”

He rubbed his forehead hard.

Who would have thought she’d interpret her experience meeting the King of the Abyss like this.

It was amazing that Hydra had remembered what he drank relatively well, but it was even more surprising that Persephone had perfectly – no, more skillfully – recreated the drink purely by intuition.

Probably the three of them were worried about him not eating food anymore and that’s why they did this.

Thinking that way, the stiff feeling quickly dissolved like salt in water.

“Huh, I can’t believe this…”

He kept letting out empty sighs.

“Kuk…”

Hades soon lowered his head and swallowed his laughter. After shaking his shoulders and biting his lips tightly for a while, he raised his head with moist eyes.

“That was a good twist in thinking, Persephone.”

“Ah, then will you drink it?”

“Alright, you made me laugh so I’ll eat… no, I’ll drink it all.”

He nodded lightly as he showed his approval.

Strangely, it was difficult to refuse Persephone’s requests. Is it because she’s a young god and seems admirable?

The moment he showed his approval, Hydra and Thanatos jumped up from their seats as if struck by lightning.

They whirled around and shook their heads to peer into the cups on the silver tray, like beasts fighting over prey.

“No, what did you bring that made such strange noises earlier?”

【What did you do to make laughter flow from the King of the Underworld?】

Hades, who had been watching this scene, called to the two.

“Hydra, Thanatos.”

“Yes?”

【Yes.】

“Was this what you were plotting with Persephone earlier?”

Hydra and Thanatos looked at each other, then nodded.

At that, an even deeper smile formed at the corners of Hades’ mouth. They looked surprised, as if wondering if their boss was someone who could smile like that.

Persephone gazed at Hades with a bright expression as he obediently took the cup.

Her gentle gaze fell upon him, and then she opened her lips as she tucked the silver tray under her arm.

“Um, Lord Hades.”

“Yes?”

“May I visit you tonight?”

At that moment, Hades, who had been emptying his cup, hurriedly covered his mouth.