Golden specks swirled in Hades’ eyes.

It seemed that the smile of that fellow had never been so annoying when he was alive.

When Hades gave no answer, Hermes innocently asked again.

“Did you not know that the 4th of every month is a festival? I received this from Miss Persephone since the 4th has passed this time.”

“Isn’t that just a day humans celebrate? I recall not caring much about the dates they use, saying it doesn’t matter in usual times.”

The end of Hades’ voice inadvertently sharpened.

“Surely you’re not going to receive something every month?”

Hermes opened his eyes wide and waved his hands as if asking what kind of person Hades took him for.

“Of course not! Miss Persephone said she’s giving it to me because she’s grateful for the occasional favors I do for her.”

Hermes’ palm drew a horizontal line like the pan of a balance scale.

“In the end, it means we gave each other compensation.”

“……”

“Hades, you can’t scold me, one of the 12 Olympian gods, over something like this. Do you understand?”

Hermes chuckled with a triumphant expression. It was a look that suggested he had nothing to be ashamed of.

Hades’ gaze lowered slightly.

‘Compensation, he says.’

In his mind, he recalled the time not long ago when Persephone had given him a birthday gift.

“Could it be… a repayment?”

To his question of whether it was a repayment, Persephone had…

“No, no! Of course not, it’s not a repayment.”

She had clearly said it wasn’t a repayment.

Repayment is equivalent to compensation. As Hermes said, it was close to paying a price corresponding to the help they had given each other.

Having thought that far, Hades’ eyes softened.

‘At least it’s better than that Hermes fellow.’

For some unknown reason, his briefly tangled feelings became at ease.

Just as Hades raised his lowered eyes after that silence and gripped his reed pen again, it was then.

“Oh, but when I go back to the surface later, I must try Miss Persephone’s cake.”

The tip of the reed pen crumpled with a thud.

“Later, you say?”

“Well, who knows if I’ll be able to get cake again next year around this time under the pretext of a birthday?”

Hermes grinned as he picked up his utensils.

Pieces of cake disappeared one by one into his mouth, which opened like a wide cave.

As if that weren’t enough, he made useless dedications for each piece he ate, like ‘This is for Mother,’ ‘This is for Miss Persephone.’

‘Come to think of it, that fellow could freely come and go between the surface and the underworld as he pleased. Unlike me.’

Hades was about to rub his face but barely lowered his hand. Ignoring the crumbled corner of his heart.

He cut the tip of the reed pen with a shadow and lightly bit the inside of his lip.

Well, fine. What’s the big deal about his own birthday anyway.

Even Hermes, who spends considerably less time in the underworld, was given a cake made with flour from the newly opened mill.

He couldn’t be the only special one.

By the time he had sorted out his emotions in his own way, it was then.

“Hades, did you hear?”

Was it coincidence or an inevitable misfortune that Hydra, who had just visited Persephone’s domain, returned at that moment?

“What.”

“Miss Persephone made a spinning wheel!”

Hydra raised her voice in great excitement.

A spinning wheel, she had already made such a thing?

He was inwardly surprised. A spinning wheel was a machine difficult to make without someone’s help.

“…I see.”

Nevertheless, Hades merely gestured for Hydra to sit down, deliberately trying not to show a big reaction.

Deciding to praise Persephone for making the spinning wheel later.

“A spinning wheel? A water wheel?”

The problem was that right next to her was a god who reacted quite well.

Hermes and Hydra primed each other’s words, instantly flooding the office with chatter.

“Whew, I thought I was going to die trying to put up with Thanatos and that prisoner acting like old men putting on airs!”

“What? What do you mean by ‘old men putting on airs’?”

“You know, that thing where they go on and on about how much they suffer because of their daughter, but it’s actually all just boasting about themselves. They were doing exactly that, bragging about Miss Persephone.”

“Ah, I know that well. But Thanatos and the King of Corinth did that? Neither of them has a daughter, right?”

“I swear they really did. I thought what I ate in the morning was going to come up. Especially the way they competed subtly, not wanting to lose to each other…”

“Too bad, I should have been there in that situation.”

“Hermes, unlike me, you have good hearing. It was bearable only because it was me.”

The chatter between Hermes and Hydra continued even after that.

“Oh, and did you hear that Asclepius came out of the hut?”

“The god of medicine? Hmm, I heard rumors that he wasn’t in the hut.”

“He was with Miss Persephone! It looked like they were making something like an herb garden.”

By now, in Hades’ mind, which had focused on their conversation, information about ‘Persephone’s surrounding people’ was being reorganized piece by piece.

The final result was as follows:

– Thanatos, Worker 1. Specialized in physical labor. Sees Persephone as a friend or daughter.

– Sisyphus, Worker 2. Good at both using his head and physical labor. Sees Persephone somewhere between a boss and a daughter (‘boss-daughter’ is a vast difference in relationship, but it seems to be real).

– Hydra, Friend. She also sees Persephone as a friend.

– Hermes, Intermediary god. Sees Persephone as a junior god.

▶NEW! Asclepius, Teacher. Sees Persephone as an assistant.

The reed pen moving over the report suddenly stopped.

‘…Why are there so many?’

Listening to it, there were notably many people around Persephone. Even Asclepius, who had been in seclusion since coming to the underworld, was by her side, so his influence couldn’t be ignored.

Moreover, after organizing the list of Persephone’s acquaintances, the true problem became apparent.

‘Then what am I to Persephone…?’

Among these, he didn’t know what Hades’ own position was.

‘Boss?’

No, the management position is temporary anyway. Persephone didn’t treat him as a direct superior either.

Perhaps as the lord of the underworld, but that’s it.

‘Senior?’

But that didn’t seem much different from Hermes or Asclepius.

Especially, Hermes was a headache.

That fellow had openly called himself Persephone’s ‘senior god’ since the day she decided to stay in the underworld.

Feeling unnecessarily wronged, Hades glanced at Hermes, who was still chattering.

Feeling the persistent gaze, the messenger god turned his head towards the lord of the underworld with a sour face.

“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“…Who knows.”

Hades leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.

Am I sick?

“That might be the case.”

In the sense that he thought of her the moment anything even slightly related to Persephone appeared, his state these days was no different from being sick.

Because he was doing things he never used to do.

He wanted to find—no, he had to find—a reason not to think about her anymore.

Hermes made a gesture of putting his hand on Hades’ forehead, looking genuinely worried.

“Oh dear, what should we do. Hades needs to work like an ox with me.”

“You even worry in an annoying way.”

Hades, who spoke gruffly, waved his hand in the air.

“That’s enough now. Let’s work.”

Hermes’ voice could be heard grumbling that they didn’t have to do it right now, but Hades ignored it. Hydra also picked up her pen while organizing the documents.

Soon, the office was filled with silence.

Around the time the last grain fell in the hourglass placed on the desk.

The lord of the underworld found a justification for not thinking about the goddess of seeds.

“Hydra.”

Hades threw a question at his assistant.

“What are my epithets?”

Hydra’s yellow eyes blinked with question.

“…Why are you suddenly asking about epithets…?”

“There’s a need to go over them.”

Hydra opened her mouth, carefully rolling her eyes.

Her fingers began to fold one by one.

“Ah, first there’s the Unseen One Aidoneus, God-killer, Receiver of Many Guests, Good Counselor, Zeus of the Underworld, and…”

Finally, all five of her fingers were folded, and her pinky unfolded again.

“The Wealthy One, Pluton.”

Hades, who had been silent, slowly nodded.

“…Right.”

“Shall I list more?”

“No, that’s enough. That’s sufficient.”

Hades put the reed pen on the document. Then he stood up and pushed his chair into the desk.

“I’m going out for a moment.”

His hand grabbed the hourglass and turned it upside down.

“Don’t look for me until all the sand has fallen.”

The Olympian gods fought two major wars.

The first war was the Titanomachy.

Literally the ‘Battle with the Titans,’ it was a war between his teacher Cronus and his step-brother Zeus for the throne of the gods.

After this war, Zeus became the king of the Olympian gods.

The second war was the Gigantomachy.

This was a battle to stop the Gigantes, children of Gaia, and was a war between Gaia and Olympus.

…There was someone who died in that second war.

“……”

Somewhere in the deep forest of Elysium. Under a large tree with lush foliage.

Hades fixed his gaze on a large amphora (*jar) placed near the tree trunk.

The amphora, larger than Persephone, was placed on a pedestal made of white marble.

Hades, who had been examining the grains, coins, and a certain young man depicted in gold leaf on the surface of the amphora, slowly bent down.

From the darkness lingering at his feet, a small bottle of wine emerged.

Hades tilted the mouth of the bottle slightly and poured the wine into a hole drilled at the bottom of the amphora.

By the time all the wine in the bottle was emptied.

Hades stood up again. Then he fixed his gaze on the name of the deceased written just below the amphora.

I wonder if you’ve heard the name engraved here.

Plutus. The symbol of wealth.

He was the half-blood son of Demeter and Iasion, who was ‘human,’ and thus was a half-god who was an older brother to Persephone.

And.

“…It’s been a while.”

He was also once a friend of Hades.