The ruler of the underworld enjoyed a deep sleep after a long time.

His mind rested, uninterrupted even by the god of dreams Morpheus or the god of sleep Hypnos.

Waking up, Hades smiled with satisfaction as he tidied the blanket.

It was then that something light fell from the bedside table to the floor with a thud.

Lowering his eyes to the marble floor, a linen pouch came into view.

It was a sachet containing lavender.

At that moment, the corners of Hades’ mouth drooped.

“Haaa……”

As he let out a deep sigh, memories of last night flashed through his mind.

Hades had tried to showcase the advantages of the underworld to melt into the tiniest crack in Persephone’s heart.

But Persephone just stared at him without answering. As if staring would make something fall from his face.

It was around then that Hades’ triumphant mood began to crumble.

“…I’ll think about it.”

In the end, he had to quickly usher the unblinking Persephone out of the bedroom.

As he lay in bed trying to sleep, Persephone’s visit to leave the sachet on the bedside table was an added bonus.

Hades, aligning the square corners of the blanket, suddenly muttered.

“Should I have just pushed forward……”

But Persephone’s eyes had been as fierce as a cat eyeing its prey. As if she would challenge what he meant.

Either way, the conclusion was that he had lost his nerve and cut off the conversation first.

……Even to himself, it seemed like such a pathetic and weak reason.

Hades let out deep sighs like a steamer as he made his way to his office.

After that, it was the usual repetition of daily tasks.

Reviewing documents, receiving reports from Hydra, wondering why Persephone didn’t come to play today while accepting documents written by Thanatos and Hermes, and so on……

However, the end of today had to be concluded somewhere other than the bedroom.

Hades looked around the dimming office and pulled darkness to his feet.

His divine form, which had vanished like a flame in the wind, soon reappeared in Tartarus, the vast innards of the underworld.

From a distant mountainside came the screams of the Titans, once neighbors.

……Such vigor. To cry like that for hundreds of years.

Hades, rubbing his eyes firmly, deliberately started walking slowly.

With each step he took, the darkness pooled below writhed and twisted.

The shadows, which had been bubbling as if alive, soon took on a color darker than any black in the world……

Whoosh!

It raced in all directions, causing a sharp gust of wind.

The wailing from the distance finally subsided.

God-slayer. The Unseen One. Symbol of mercilessness and cruelty.

They too had noticed the arrival of the underworld’s ruler, burdened with all sorts of infamy, in Tartarus.

Hades, his mouth corners set firm, neatly gathered the darkness. He entered the cave that Persephone and Asclepius would have passed through.

“……Greetings, Lady Nyx.”

Judging by the pitch-black surroundings, it seemed he had entered Nyx’s domain appropriately.

【Yes, it’s been a while.】

Soon after, the goddess of night opened her large eyes. Hades asked her.

“How is your…… condition? Are you feeling better?”

【……Ah, did you come because of the hair?】

“……”

As Hades lowered his eyes as if ashamed, Nyx’s laughter, reminiscent of bells, spread.

【It’s alright. When I washed my hair in the River Styx and went back to the surface, it grew back quickly.】

“That’s a relief then.”

【And that child?】

“Pardon?”

【Your lover.】

Nyx tapped Hades’ shoulder as if to say ‘why are you like this’. Momentarily flustered, Hades bit the inside of his lip and answered in a thin voice.

“……Not yet.”

【Oh my, ‘not yet?’】

The bell-like sound grew louder.

Rubbing his cheeks that were about to flush, Hades decided to change the subject.

“……More importantly, there’s something I’d like to ask.”

【At times like this, I feel you’re still young after all…… What is it?】

Nyx, who had wanted to tease Hades, lowered her voice as she noticed his expression turn serious.

Hades asked.

“Have there been any problems in Tartarus recently?”

Nyx’s long eyelashes fluttered like a fan.

Whether the underground prison was still stable. This was the true reason Hades had come to see Nyx this time.

【……Nothing else.】

Nyx shook her head.

“If it becomes unstable, please send word through your son.”

【I will.】

“Thank you.”

Hades, having briefly greeted her, hid himself in the darkness as if to say he would be leaving now.

As if checking his physical condition, he clenched and unclenched both fists, then made a fist. Prominent veins stood out on the back of his hand.

‘……Not bad. Perhaps because I slept.’

As written on the map he gave to Persephone, the underworld was usually called ‘Hades’, just like his name.

Even if he possessed a personality capable of communicating with sentient beings, humans called it that.

Ironically, because humans referred to it as such, Hades was somewhat assimilated with the underworld. This was the same principle by which a god’s status changed according to human beliefs.

‘In other words, if I become unstable, so does the underworld.’

And Tartarus, which belongs to the underworld, also shakes.

These days, he often lost his reason because of Persephone. More so than when he first realized he was in love.

So Hades thought to prevent any bigger incidents in the underworld beforehand.

Vowing that if he couldn’t completely erase his feelings for Persephone, he would prepare thoroughly in advance like this.

This was also for Persephone’s sake.

He now intended to gradually reveal fragments of emotion so that she could make the underworld her resting place even after returning to the surface.

Hades, having left Tartarus, looked back.

The bronze gates built by master and disciple were tightly sealed.

Yes.

For now, for now it’s still alright……

* * *

This place bathed in Hemera’s blessing was Persephone’s field.

She was still exerting all her efforts with Asclepius to restore the herb garden ruined by Cerberus.

“Ungh……”

But had something gone wrong?

Persephone was emanating quiet anger while staring piercingly at an herb with its stem risen.

That herb, similar to a carrot that had flowered, was silphium. It was a crop that was expensive but traded preciously even on the surface as both a spice and medicinal herb.

After glaring at the silphium for a long while, Persephone slowly exhaled.

Her breath, several times denser than when she first came to the underworld, tickled the leaves, but the thin stem showed no reaction at all.

“……Strange, usually by now the others would have grown their stems at least a finger’s length more.”

Persephone relaxed her arms as she scanned beside the herb garden.

There, unlike the strangely weak silphium, other herbs and vegetables that had grown very lushly were in abundance.

‘Onions and garlic are growing extremely well though…..’

The Swiss chard leaves had already grown beyond palm size.

The cabbage was larger than Persephone’s head, and the leeks, which originally grew well, had become almost as thick as an arm.

When she experimentally pulled up a few beets and carrots first, they had ripened into beautiful round or straight shapes.

‘I want to somehow make them grow well and give them to Lord Hades.’

Disheartened, Persephone infused divine power into the silphium several more times, but there was no visible change.

Some even had their leaves turning yellow and withering. Her divine power was quickly depleted.

“Ah, this is driving me crazy!”

She had cherished and cultivated them, managing to pull out decent stems, but seeing them droop so alarmingly, it seems the sensitive ones couldn’t survive the watchdog’s claws after all.

……No, but still, showing no reaction at all is too much! It’s not completely dead yet!

“What really is the problem?”

Persephone scratched the back of her head vigorously and wiped her nape irritably.

And there were senior gods and a monster watching her from afar.

【Has a problem arisen with cultivating silphium?】

“It seems so.”

As Thanatos and Hydra whispered to each other, the messenger god slacking off beside them looked around curiously.

Hermes, who had been quietly observing the field, clicked his tongue.

“Tsk tsk, looks like Cerberus ruined too much.”

“Should we bring a spirit who’s good at farming?”

“Hmm, no. Honestly, I don’t think a human would do better than Lady Persephone.”

In Hermes’ view, to revive a plant that even Persephone couldn’t properly grow, the counterpart had to be another god.

Especially if that plant was silphium, known for being difficult.

Around that time, as they gathered under a tree shade watching Persephone, Hydra, who had been looking on with worried eyes, suddenly asked Thanatos.

“I wonder if we have any farming manuals in our records repository?”

【Probably not.】

“Then, could we bring a god who symbolizes farming itself?”

【What other such gods are there?】

Thanatos asked back as if it was absurd.

【Among life gods, those properly in charge of abundance are only Lady Demeter, and including sprouts, just the two of them.】

Just as Thanatos was scolding Hydra, who had narrowed her eyes into triangles.

‘Just the two of them?’

A flash of inspiration struck Hermes’ mind.

He slowly raised his index finger towards Thanatos.

“……No.”

【What?】

“There’s one more.”

The fleeting flash gathered here and there inside his head, and soon after, molded into one man.

For a moment, he wondered if that male god would want to meet Persephone.

But Hermes, concluding that was for that god to decide himself, smiled brightly.

“Hey, if I help, can you put in a request to that guy?”