Oh no, damn it! Persephone bowed her head first.

“I’m sorry!”

[…..]

Even she, who didn’t think of the consequences, felt her vision go dark at the accident she had caused.

Just the thought of ‘Oh no, I’m screwed!’ made a nervous laugh escape from the corners of her mouth.

[A color rarely seen in the underworld, and a goddess of life……]

Nyx’s pitch-black fingernails moved towards Persephone, who was bowing with her head on the ground.

[Stand up straight and raise your head. Who are you?]

Persephone stood up quickly but kept her gaze lowered instead of raising her head. Her answer was uncharacteristically polite and quiet.

“I am one of the administrators of the underworld.”

[Hmm.]

“Here, I have my administrator badge too.”

She handed over the badge she had kept in her pocket with both hands.

But Nyx brushed it aside as if it didn’t matter. The rectangular metal clattered as it hit the ground by her feet.

It meant she didn’t even want to see who it was.

‘……I’m doomed……’

Persephone kept blinking her moist eyes. Nyx’s hair falling over her shoulders came into view.

Her hair, as if coated with the scales of the night sea, was truly awe-inspiring.

[If you’re able to pluck a primordial god’s hair, you must be quite a high-ranking administrator.]

A voice more irritating than Hemera or Thanatos, bending as if using the air as a mirror.

She never knew a broken mirror’s reflection could be transformed into a biological echo.

As expected of a primordial god, her anger was palpable through her presence alone.

[So, are you the queen? Are you even the queen?]

……And this, isn’t she implying that if I’m not the queen, why did I pluck it?

Persephone, examining the scattered hairs at her feet, clicked her tongue.

‘Is it possible to replant them?’

Could hair that’s already been plucked be replanted? The roots must be damaged— no, do gods even have human-like ‘hair roots’ to begin with?

Nyx continued speaking, not caring that Persephone was lost in thought.

[Did that fellow get married or something?]

It was then that Nyx was tapping her lips as if pondering.

Hearing her muttering, Persephone clenched her fist. Veins popped up on the back of her hand.

Alright, world!

“Was Lord Hades someone who could get married?”

The one who acts innocent wins!

[……What?]

Nyx turned her head in surprise.

White pupils. However, where the whites of the eyes should be, there was a night-sky black.

It was as inhuman a form as Hemera, the only primordial god she had met so far, but she confidently shouted.

“I didn’t know Lord Hades was someone who could get married! He doesn’t date, and I’ve never seen him like anyone either.”

[……Is that so?]

“Yes, he doesn’t even sleep at night, just stays cooped up in his office!”

Persephone was about to add ‘like you, Lady Nyx’ at the end, but managed to hold her tongue.

As she was thinking of what to say next.

[……How do you know he stays in his office ‘all night’?]

Nyx tilted her head quizzically. A lie that wasn’t a lie slipped out between Persephone’s lips.

“……Because I’m sort of his assistant.”

[Even for an assistant, that doesn’t make sense. That fellow doesn’t force his subordinates to work all night.]

“Uh……”

[And you don’t look much like an assistant either. I am also an honorary assistant to the Lord of the Dead, so if the assistant staff had changed, a messenger bird would have come to me as well.]

Nyx’s gaze fell on Persephone after adding those words. Persephone’s throat became wet with dry saliva.

‘I need to think carefully.’

If she said even one wrong word, the primordial god’s anger would fall upon her.

And if she incurred Nyx’s wrath, even if Demeter or Hades came, they wouldn’t be able to easily save her.

Maybe they’d end up living under the same roof in Tartarus.

[Answer.]

Nyx urged.

In the end, what Persephone chose was…….

“I’m in charge of the office balcony.”

Emphasizing her close relationship with Hades.

Wanting to live, Persephone did her best to improvise. Packaging everything she had done so far as ‘administrator duties’.

“Since my role is to make him get some fresh air, he always stays inside unless I take him out.”

I can control the most powerful being in this world!

“Last time we made butter together, and I gave him a daffodil pot which grew too fast so I repotted it for him. Oh, and he asked for a cake recipe first, so I wrote it down on a wooden board for him!”

I’m this close to the powerful one!

“And this time, it’s Lord Hades’ turn to give me a gift!”

It would be a big deal if you ‘killed’ me now, since we’ll meet again in the future!

[…..]

Nyx’s eyes widened like a full moon, quite literally.

Perhaps because of the size difference of hundreds of times, Persephone could clearly see her gaze wavering.

How much time had passed?

[So you’re saying that fellow cares for you quite a bit.]

Soon, Nyx smirked.

Her finger came down gently and tapped Persephone’s crown. White irises, cold but equally mature, gazed at the goddess of seeds.

[Truly…… fortunate.]

Nyx’s laughter, like a sigh, enveloped her body.

As she blinked, about to look up at her.

“……Huh?”

The presence disappeared.

“No, what, where……”

A confused Persephone looked around in all directions, but not even Nyx’s fingernails, let alone her fingers, were visible.

“You there! What are you doing there?”

Asclepius’s voice came from behind her head.

“Lord Asclepius? Have you finished harvesting the fruits?”

“Lord Hypnos helped me. But what about you? You’ve been standing still and muttering to yourself for a while now, you’re not crazy, are you?”

“……Was I doing that?”

Did Lady Nyx cover for me?

Persephone blinked dumbly and flailed her arms and legs.

Something soft caught on her toes besides the badge. As she lowered her head…….

“And what is that?”

Nyx’s hair was scattered like wheat stalks after threshing.

……Alright, I survived for now!

* * *

[By any chance, did a pink-haired woman come here with the god of medicine?]

Nyx took in her son with narrow eyes.

The boy, all black on the outside, seemed to have just finished his work, walking well despite being only as big as her finger.

[Well? Did she come, or didn’t she?] [Mother.]

Her son’s emotionless, yet strangely reproachful voice echoed.

It meant how could she not know when he had brought that pink-haired woman himself.

[Hypnos, did you see her by any chance?]

Thanatos threw a question at his twin, but Hypnos only turned away pretending not to know, as if trying to match his mother’s tune.

He asked, tapping his scythe handle on the stone floor.

[Mother, did that one do anything disrespectful?] [Ah, some hair was plucked.] [Pardon?]

Thanatos’s surprised voice tore through the air.

Biting his lips tightly, he rubbed his forehead.

[Ha, that wild filly….. She should have plucked my hair instead, the one who gets free meals…..] [Haha! I didn’t know you could use such words!] […..]

Thanatos brushed back his shortly cut hair with a disgruntled face.

Nyx wrapped her son in darkness that shimmered silver —brighter than Hades’— as if telling him not to be like that.

[It’s fine, she was an interesting child.]

It had been amusing entertainment after a long time.

It was fun to see her flustered, and it was admirable how quickly she wiped that emotion from her face.

That level of brazenness is necessary to walk with her head held high even among the Olympian gods.

If Persephone had heard, she might have said, “Wow! How unlike the Greek mythological gods!”

[When I went to the surface, I thought I saw a girl with Demeter….. So that was Kore, that child.]

At that moment, Thanatos shook his head.

[It’s Persephone now.] [……Her name changed? She handed over a badge, I should have looked at it.] [Kore was her childhood name, Persephone is her real name.] [Hooh…..]

Nyx’s eyes sparkled with interest.

Kore means ‘maiden.’

Then Persephone is…….

[‘The destroyer’?] [……Pardon? Was that the etymology of that one’s name?] [I’m not sure, but it seems like it.] [I think it means ‘she who cuts down grain.’]

Nyx slightly furrowed her brows at her son’s cursed sense.

[A thresher? Isn’t that too plain?] [Not just an ordinary thresher, but a ‘soul thresher’. She tamed the prisoner, Sisyphus.] [……That child did? Impressive. The King of Corinth is unparalleled in his cunning.] [It wasn’t much.]

Thanatos made the scythe he was holding disappear by putting it on his back.

His actions seemed indifferent, but somehow his expression was subtly bright.

Is he happy because I just evaluated Kore, no, Persephone as ‘impressive’?

As Nyx was covering her uncertain face, it was then.

Praise for Persephone continued from Thanatos’s mouth.

[She managed to nullify the bet with the messenger god and gain recognition. She deserved it.] […..] [The meals she makes are delicious too. It must be ambrosia since it’s made by a god, but it’s much more diverse than what’s sent from Olympus…. Mother? What’s wrong?] [……Are you perhaps.]

Nyx’s eyes narrowed.

[That child’s second lover?]

Thanatos’s pupils snapped to the center of each eye.

His slightly dimpled mouth corners froze in place.

[……Urgh.]

Thanatos bent his back, covered his mouth, and lowered his head.

[Thanatos!] [Ugh, Mother, I’m, sorry, but, what you just said, makes me so nauseous, hrrk…..] [Stop! Don’t!] [Hrrgh, keh…..]

Nyx covered her son’s mouth and tried to soothe Thanatos.

After she had been rubbing her son’s back for quite a while.

Thanatos, having regained his senses, stood up again.

[……But what do you mean by ‘second’ lover? Then who’s the first? Did that one have a lover?] [Hm? You didn’t know?]

Nyx, blinking her pair of full moons, gazed blankly outside the nest.

[Who else could it be?]

Then she smiled contentedly, as if pleased.

[The lord of the underworld, of course.] [……Pardon?]