“I heard everything from your father.”

Before Persephone could say anything, a hand shrouded in darkness grabbed the soul’s arm.

“I’m not sure if I can solve this problem, but…”

Hades, surveying Persephone’s translucent soul, bit his lip tightly.

Regardless, the determination to somehow make it work dominated Hades’ mind.

He no longer wished for anyone else to get hurt or die.

At the very least, if he could just pull the soul and tie it to the body…

“Excuse me.”

Persephone’s soul was slowly drawn towards Hades, who had firmly made up his mind.

Crying out in surprise, her consciousness once again sank into pitch-black darkness.

* * *

That evening, in Hades’ office.

[…]

Thanatos, who had secretly followed Persephone in Tartarus, guarding her and working all the while, quietly entered the office.

Usually, Thanatos performs field and office work flexibly.

It meant that it was fine for him to work in the field for a day and submit the report tomorrow.

However, today he was completely exhausted by his superior due to the agriculture goddess’ request.

Thanatos had voluntarily worked hard and returned, being considerate of him.

[…Hello.]

He greeted Hades as he walked silently towards him.

Hades’ black eyes, which had been tapping the desk with the tip of his quill, also rolled over.

His superior, who had been staring at him without a word, took the documents Thanatos handed over.

Usually, he would process the documents immediately upon receiving them, but seeing him stack them on the desk without approving them, he seemed quite angry.

Thanatos, looking dejected, lowered his head.

[I’m sorry.]

“…For what?”

[About the agriculture goddess’ request that happened today. We were rash.]

Hades still refrained from answering.

It was at that moment when Thanatos swallowed a sigh mixed with anxiety in secret.

“Heh.”

An impossible laugh was heard.

Thanatos frowned and raised his head.

Hydra seemed to have left her seat for business, so the person who laughed just now must be Hades, but when he looked up, all he saw was the King of the Underworld with a greatly distorted face.

“…Oh, is that so?”

Only after the silence passed did Hades ask in a very low voice.

“Are you really sorry? Is it sincere?”

[…If you felt it was a lie, I apologize. However, I will make sure that such a thing never happens again next time, so I would appreciate it if you could watch over me.]

“Hmm…”

Hades, who was shuffling through the documents, looked very uncomfortable somewhere and did not relax his expression.

Soon, as if a good idea had occurred to him, he leaned the back of his head against the end of the backrest.

The posture of the superior sitting in the chair gradually loosened like a cat on a summer day.

Hades, who had taken a comfortable but bad posture for the spine, pointed outside the window.

“Yes, if you’re really sorry, go and manage the fields in Persephone’s domain.”

[…]

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

…Is that really Hades?

At the moment Thanatos felt doubts.

“Persephone!”

The office door opened with a click.

“Don’t do that to Thanatos!”

‘Persephone’ shouted at Hades.

Thanatos stared at ‘Persephone’ who crossed the office with even steps, as if walking on water.

‘Persephone, you say?’

Thanatos’ gray eyes flew to Hades−no, someone pretending to be Hades.

That someone, who had been giving a languid look to ‘Persephone’ holding a file, eventually laughed as if he had no choice.

“Oh, damn it.”

“…”

“I could have used it, but I got caught.”

* * *

[…So.]

“The bodies have been switched?”

The King of the Underworld’s aide asked Hades, who was sweating profusely, and Persephone, who was smiling innocently with Hades’ face.

Persephone, who had explained the whole situation so far, pointed to her body sitting next to her.

“You understood well. Hades-nim was trying to solve my out-of-body experience earlier and ended up like this.”

“So right now, Lady Persephone is…?”

“That’s right. Right now, Hades-nim is inside my body, and I’m inside Hades-nim’s body.”

She placed her hand on one of Hades’ hard cheeks and narrowed her eyes disgustingly.

“Honestly, I wanted to treat Hades-nim like a stranger, but since Thanatos-nim recognized me right away, I gave up on the plan to permanently take over the body. Aren’t I nice?”

“Persephone…?”

When Hades was shocked, Persephone’s cute impression completely crumbled.

A blush that had never been seen before frosted on the cold impression, and the always brightly smiling face was tinged with heavy seriousness and bewilderment.

Hydra, who was sweating coldly, tried to turn her head towards her superior, but realized her mistake and met the eyes of her friend.

“Well, it’s a relief for now. I thought Hades-nim had finally made up his mind.”

“…What did I do?”

“No, I mean, if you switch bodies, you can at least make a contract to tie her to the underworld with blood−”

“Wait, wait!”

Hades covered Hydra’s mouth with a small hand.

When the startled girl stepped back, worried that she might be pricked by the fangs, Hades also hurriedly took his hand off as if he had made a mistake.

“…I’m sorry.”

Despite his words, the face that actually looked sorry was Persephone’s, causing a very large cognitive dissonance.

[…For now, I will bring Asclepius-nim.]

“No, wait−”

[Hydra, take care of this.]

Unable to watch the scene any longer, Thanatos escaped from the office first.

The beast, sad for having slow feet, missed even the chance to escape. Hydra mumbled her lips and turned her head back to the two.

The first to break the silence was Hades.

“Anyway, this is a big problem. It would be difficult for me to perfectly imitate Persephone.”

“But if you try, wouldn’t it work out? The souls will eventually return to their places.”

“Then, for now, I might need soft wool clothes and a warm cup of goat’s milk with honey and barley flour.”

“…Not a shovel or a hoe, why would you need such things?”

“Huh?”

Hades, shaking off the pink hair flowing down his shoulders, asked back.

“Well, doesn’t it seem like Persephone would wear wool pajamas and drink a warm beverage from a cup?”

“What? Me?”

Persephone, who had been examining Hades’ large hands as if they were curious, asked.

The black eyebrows, which had been hanging limply, were twisted as if they were very absurd.

Looking at her with troubled eyes, Hades said in a small voice.

“…No, I mean, those things would suit you well enough.”

Hydra wanted to advise that Lady Persephone was not such a cute impression at all, and where did he hear and ignore the fact that she just said she wanted to take over Hades-nim’s body.

A little later, Thanatos brought Asclepius. Iasion, who followed them with a swollen face, was an extra.

“I wondered where Lady Persephone’s body had gone… You were here.”

Sighing at Hades, he examined the bodies of the two and quickly came to a conclusion.

“Time is the answer to this.”

Persephone jumped up and waved her arms.

“Ooh…!”

“…Persephone, don’t like it.”

Hades, who barely caught her forearm, covered his face with one hand.

Asclepius, who also rubbed his brow with a tired look, stared at Hades.

“For now, match your words with Persephone.”

“…Words?”

“Yes. If you don’t, who knows what disaster might happen.”

“…”

“Why are you doing that?”

Hades fumbled and wiped his mouth.

“No, I mean, the words are a bit…”

“…”

“Isn’t it too blatant, I thought…”

Seeing the face that had turned red and blue, a vein popped in Asclepius’ temple.

“…Tsk.”

He clicked his tongue and showed genuine contempt.

“That’s not it, I mean match your stories.”

“…”

“Set the boundaries of actions with each other, saying ‘You must never do this!’, and tell them where to come if any abnormalities occur! That’s what I’m telling you to do. Do you understand?”

“…I will do that.”

“It’s fine as long as you understand.”

Asclepius, who snorted, muttered, “Seriously, accidents happen too often, so my lifespan will be shortened.”

Unlike Hades, who was embarrassed, Persephone had no thoughts at all.

“Well, still, it’s fortunate that no one’s soul has disappeared or anything like that. Like this, it will only be a bit inconvenient but okay.”

Asclepius loosened the strength in his eyes as if this much was favorable.

However, things in the world do not always go as expected.

It was around the time when Iasion approached Persephone, who was excited to be in a much larger man’s body than hers, that another problem arose for them.

“…Huh?”

Two messenger birds perched on top of Persephone’s head.

Hades realized that these fellows had followed the small amount of divine power remaining in Persephone’s body and infused her power into one of the messenger birds.

[Intruder detected at the ramparts!]

When the text appeared, the green eyes widened in surprise.