Persephone hastily untied the ribbon of the pouch.
‘This isn’t silver coins, is it?’
Upon closer inspection, the coins inside the pouch did not have the even sheen characteristic of silver coins. The colors, sizes, and even shapes varied.
They were plant seeds.
Without even thinking about reaching the riverbank, Persephone stared intently into the pouch.
After all, she had no idea that the ferryman of the dark underworld would carry such things.
“How did you get these…”
Just as Persephone put her hand into the pouch, Charon, who had been wiping his tears—though no tears would come out, he was brushing his cheekbones with the back of his hand—suddenly lifted his head.
He approached Persephone like a dog that had spotted food.
Splash, splash, splash!
Then he began hitting Persephone’s shoulder quite hard with his staff, and multiple times at that.
It was a gesture filled with resentment, visible to anyone.
“Hey, wait! I’m sinking!”
Persephone flailed about, trying to dodge Charon’s attacks.
“Alright, I’ll give the pouch back! I said I’ll return it!”
Persephone raised both hands as if to say that was enough, but.
“Ack!”
She had no choice but to endure the shower of water Charon was causing.
At that moment, when she thought this simply wouldn’t do.
“Ah! I’m telling you, I’m not supposed to be here!”
As Persephone shouted, a yellow light burst from her body.
Charon flinched and stepped back.
For a moment, the view was filled with golden waves.
A warm and bright color unseen in the underworld. Everyone closed their eyes tightly at the sudden light source.
A wind from an unknown direction touched Charon’s cloak, then immediately flew to Persephone’s wet clothes.
After about three or four deep breaths had passed.
“…?”
Feeling something unfamiliar in her arms, Persephone opened her eyes again.
She was holding an armful of grain bundles and flower stems. Undoubtedly from Charon’s seed pouch.
[This is the timeline separator]Just as the King of the Underworld used darkness itself as power, Persephone also had something called divine power.
Still called by her childhood name ‘Kore’, she was closer to an unnamed deity, but given that her mother was the goddess of the earth, her potential for divine power must be exceptional.
Persephone had just witnessed that potential in action.
She scanned the bouquet with surprised eyes.
‘Did I make these grow?’
An incomparable vitality to the underworld’s overflowed from the fresh leaves, stems, and petals.
‘I’ve never made them grow this big before.’
Persephone slowly raised her eyes with a dazed feeling.
The two eye sockets in Charon’s skull. The will-o’-wisps rising from those holes flickered on and off.
As if a crow was eyeing a jewel…
Watching this, Persephone slowly raised the corners of her mouth.
So, does this Charon long for things from the world above? Carrying a pouch of seeds instead of coins, it seemed he collected seeds with the silver coins he gathered.
If things are like this, couldn’t she persuade Charon by giving him a bribe—no, a gift?
Quickly changing her strategy, Persephone splashed towards Charon’s ferry.
She grabbed the side of the ferry and leaned in.
“Um, I’m sorry.”
She scratched the back of her head with her shoulders slumped.
Charon hesitated, confronted with her sudden docility.
He seemed to have figured out that she was up to something.
But Persephone smiled even more brightly.
“I have urgent circumstances that require me to leave here, that’s why I acted that way.”
“…!”
Charon clacked his jaw threateningly.
Persephone held her hand out in front of her chest as if to say ‘calm down’.
“Well, I’m probably the woman your boss was looking for…”
Charon’s cheekbones tilted as he was about to draw his staff.
“I’m a living deity, so I can’t stay here.”
Persephone quickly added.
“So, could you contact your boss after I go back to the surface?”
Charon’s body leaned slightly towards Persephone. His gesture was mixed with wariness rather than hostility.
The eye sockets observing Persephone repeatedly darkened and brightened.
It was an action similar to blinking if he were human.
Meanwhile, a small messenger bird fluttered behind Charon’s back.
“…Oh ho!”
Clicking her tongue, Persephone jumped out of the river and onto the ferry.
Momentarily suspended in the air, she snatched the messenger bird.
“You shouldn’t try to deceive me!”
Falling back into the river, she lifted the fluttering bird’s wings.
As expected, there were glowing characters dotted on the wings.
The content was naturally something like ‘The woman you’re looking for is at the Acheron River’.
This ferryman had tried to inform the King of the Underworld of her whereabouts while confronting her.
“You thought I wouldn’t know?”
Giggling, Persephone infused the messenger bird with the divine power she had released earlier.
As the daughter of the earth goddess, she was generally close to all animals and plants.
Although the messenger bird was close to an inanimate object, it wasn’t entirely devoid of living aspects, so once infused with divine power, it quickly began to follow Persephone.
Charon prostrated himself in shock and despair.
Persephone gathered the bouquet she had been holding in her arms. Then, applying force to her arms, she put her weight on the ferry.
“Don’t be like that, I’ll give you this.”
Charon’s head turned towards Persephone.
“If I give you this, you just let me go.”
Upon seeing the bouquet, he repeatedly opened and closed his mouth with a rattling sound.
The will-o’-wisp in his eye sockets kept blinking.
Persephone waved the bouquet in front of Charon’s eyes enticingly.
“You like these, don’t you.”
“…”
“No?”
[This is the timeline separator]“…Is it all over.”
Hades sighed and rubbed his furrowed brow.
Finding a person is harder than expected.
This was absolutely not something Hades could handle alone, so he had sent notices to the managers of all the rivers that traversed the underworld.
Asking them to inform him if they found ‘Kore’.
‘Should I go back to the palace now and give orders to the advisors as well?’
Heaving a deep sigh, Hades trudged into the palace corridor.
The king who had returned to the underworld had much to do.
Not only did he have to review the judgments made by the judges who judged the sins of the dead, but he also had to design the kingdom for the ever-increasing residents of the underworld, and oversee public safety on top of that.
Hades, who had now entered his office, swallowed a sigh as he saw the pile of work accumulated on his desk.
Even though he had only been away for a short while, the work that needed to be reviewed had multiplied…
‘Kore should be coming here soon too.’
But with so much work, it seemed there wouldn’t even be a chance to meet with the victim and discuss appropriate compensation.
‘It can’t be helped.’
Shaking his head, Hades called for a nearby advisor.
“Hydra.”
There was no answer.
“Hydra!”
When he called out a bit louder, the advisor’s jade-green hair shook as if startled.
The advisor jumped up from where she had been sitting.
“Ah, Lord Hades!”
The advisor smiled broadly, revealing sharp fangs.
“You’ve returned quickly!”
Her yellow eyes with vertical pupils filled with joy at finding a superior who could suffer together in the pile of work.
Hydra. The monster that had coiled in the slimy swamp.
The water snake whose hundred heads were cut off by the heroic Heracles.
Hades had originally transformed the fierce, resentful monster into human form and given her a new life, and in return, Hydra was repaying his kindness by assisting him.
Apart from occasionally not understanding words well and needing to be called loudly and clearly, she was a capable advisor.
Hades gestured for her to come closer.
“I have a task for you.”
“Ah, yes. Please tell me.”
Hydra approached him, holding a reed pen and papyrus paper.
The task Hades was about to assign to Hydra was to create a place for Kore, the victim of the accident, to stay temporarily when she came to the underworld.
‘First, how should I explain what I’ve done in a way that softens it…’
Hades’ image in the divine realm was that of the cold and merciless king of the underworld.
If news spread that he had hit Demeter’s daughter with his chariot, he feared he might be treated as scum without even a sense of ethics.
After pondering for a moment, Hades began to speak.
“Originally, in our underworld, entering is at will, but leaving is not. However, there was a living guest who recently visited and left the underworld.”
“That’s right. So?”
Hydra nodded, rolling her eyes.
The recent living guest who had visited the underworld referred to Heracles, who had dragged Cerberus to the surface.
Hades continued carefully.
“Such a guest might… come to the underworld again in the near future. I’d like you to prepare a room for such a guest.”
“Was there another one like Heracles?”
Hydra, who disliked Heracles, revealed her fangs with disgust.
“That bastard isn’t a guest, he’s just an intruder, isn’t he? Why do we need to make a room? I could just kill him with poison.”
“No, calm down. It won’t be someone like Heracles. This one didn’t seem to be that strong.”
At that moment, Hydra’s eyes widened.
“Could it be that this guest is someone you know?”
“…”
Hades’ lips clamped shut.
Pushing his guilt aside, he opened his mouth again.
“…Why do you ask that?”
“Well, you said they didn’t ‘seem’ to be that strong… I thought maybe you had seen them directly.”
“…”
“But did Lord Hades have a friend? You didn’t, right?”
Hydra’s eyes narrowed as she casually hit Hades’ bone.
“…Could it be…”
Pursing her lips, she snapped her fingers.
“Ah, you have a fiancée you’ve promised to marry!”
The advisor, excited about her superior’s love life, clapped her hands.
“So you’re trying to make a newlywed home!”
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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