“It seems you are quite intelligent… Do you know that Lady Demeter and Lord Hades possess interconnected powers?”

At this moment, Persephone, who had become her mother’s aide, raised her index finger.

As if she was about to teach a lesson to a younger deity.

“Ah, yes. I know that much.”

“Recite why that is so.”

“…I’ve heard that their powers are closely related because death is a prerequisite for life to bloom. It’s a kind of cyclical relationship, you could say.”

Persephone nodded and quickly added.

“Yes, that’s right. The principle of that cycle applies to me to some extent as well, as Demeter’s aide.”

“Then…?”

“It means I’ve also become a manager of the underworld. I’m one of the security officers, responsible for overseeing gates and borders like this.”

The guard sighed and bowed.

“…I apologize, Lady Hecate. Being a low-ranking guard, I wasn’t aware.”

Persephone looked at the top of the guard’s head and smiled victoriously.

Hecate was not only Demeter’s aide but also the goddess of magic who helped raise Persephone.

She presided over road intersections and thresholds created by humans.

Though she hadn’t yet heard news of her managing the gates of the underworld, the reputation of Hecate as the ‘goddess of crossroads’ seemed enough to make this lower deity bow his head.

Persephone waved her hand gracefully.

“No, even I didn’t expect to come this far in. I originally intended to just patrol the boundary between the living and the dead, but I sensed a strange magical power here. Somehow, I ended up coming all the way here.”

“Magical power, you say? Can you feel it too, Lady Hecate?”

The guard earnestly asked about the rambling excuse Persephone had made up.

‘…I don’t know anything about magic or sorcery.’

Persephone glanced at the guard.

Then, as if all his previous sharpness had been an act, the guard shook his head with an innocent expression.

“Ah, I don’t mean to complain about Lady Hecate’s work. I’m sure the judgment of Lord Hades, who placed Lady Hecate here, and Lady Hecate’s decision to come this far were wise. After all, isn’t this place also a ‘threshold’?”

“…Then why are you asking?”

“The stones of the underworld used to build the walls usually drain energy. I wondered if you had sensed the magical power contained in them.”

The guard looked around the walls and suddenly turned his head towards Persephone.

“And there’s one more thing I’d like to ask… Why were you clinging to the wall?”

Reflexively, nonsense spilled from Persephone’s mouth.

“I thought I might take one piece to use as material for a spell.”

“…”

“…”

Surprised by her words, the guard swallowed.

“Uh… I see.”

He seemed confused, as if this was the first time he had encountered a deity so bold towards the underworld’s property.

‘I’m sorry, Hecate.’

Persephone imagined putting her fist in her mouth and shed a small tear.

At that moment, the guard who had been looking at the wall pointed to the gate.

“Are you perhaps thinking of leaving?”

Persephone’s gaze suddenly lifted.

“I’ll escort you to the boundary you’re in charge of, Lady Hecate.”

As the soldier scratched the back of his head, an indescribable vitality swirled in Persephone’s irises.

Persephone, who was about to nod her head vigorously like a waterwheel, tensed her neck. Then she nodded silently up and down.

Passing through the gate right in front of them, another gate greeted them.

Somehow, the soldiers’ gazes seemed to be gathering in their direction.

Persephone, who had inconspicuously scanned her surroundings, reached out to the guard beside her.

“Do you have any spare cloth? I’m more used to wearing a veil.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll give you a spare cloak.”

Persephone draped the dark cloak over her head. The guard, letting out an exclamation, moved closer to her.

“With that cloak on, you really do look like a goddess of magic.”

“Is that so.”

“By the way, how did you get in here? This is inside the walls, and I don’t think you were here when I was outside.”

Why does this soldier have so many questions?

However, as he didn’t seem to be a bad deity, Persephone decided to answer with appropriate questions.

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Don’t you guys have shifts? Lord Hades seems to be much harsher than I thought. Not even giving his subordinates time to rest.”

“That’s absolutely not true!”

At that moment, the guard frantically waved his hands.

Persephone’s eyes widened like a rabbit at the sudden outburst.

Surprised that he had raised his voice so much, the guard took a small step back.

“I-I’m sorry. But Lord Hades treats us very well.”

“…It seems so.”

“It’s true. He not only gives us shift times but also provides bonuses depending on the work, and sometimes even shares ambrosia or nectar. He even patrols the area himself at times.”

The guard spoke quickly.

Persephone’s fingers twitched slightly.

‘A low-ranking soldier defends him this passionately?’

To her, who already knew the myth of Persephone and Hades, this was quite a surprising reaction.

A slight lump formed in her throat. Just as she was about to swallow it, the guard asked her a question.

“By any chance, hasn’t Lady Hecate received any… compensation from Lord Hades?”

“As we are equal collaborators, there’s no compensation. I don’t have any particularly bad feelings, but I haven’t been at the boundary long enough to suddenly develop good feelings either.”

“Ah, I see…”

The fierce expression he had shown earlier was nowhere to be seen; the guard’s face was now full of disappointment.

Just as Persephone was about to click her tongue, the guard looked up with a smile.

“But I’m sure Lady Hecate will come to like him too.”

Persephone blinked.

“…I see.”

Her voice sank low.

…So Hades isn’t a bad person as a ruler?

“Ah, once we open and pass through here, the boundary with the world of the living is just a stone’s throw away.”

The guard who had led Persephone through the layers of walls pointed ahead.

Persephone clutched the front of her cloak tightly.

‘Yes, once I pass through there, it’ll be fine.’

She had heard that Cerberus, the gatekeeper and watchdog, was at the boundary between the living and the dead, but she had already devised a solution for that as well.

So if she could just escape like this, she wouldn’t get caught by Hades…

“Thank you for bri-”

Just as Persephone was about to wave her hand to the guard.

“Hey, guys! Urgent announcement!”

A soldier, presumably a colleague of the guard, waved a note.

“Has anyone seen a woman with pink hair and lime-green eyes?”

Persephone’s ears perked up.

A nearby guard walked over to his colleague who had shouted.

“What? What woman all of a sudden?”

“Lord Thanatos sent a messenger bird saying he’s looking for her. There was a note attached to one of its legs.”

Her gaze turned to the one who had caught the messenger bird.

As he waved the unfolded note, several soldiers gathered around it. Fortunately, the one next to her didn’t seem to have heard.

“Is there a lost soul or something?”

“No, I’m not sure, but…”

The one who brought the messenger bird rubbed the back of his neck.

“They say she’s Lord Hades’ bride?”

A chill ran down Persephone’s spine.

Thanatos was the embodiment of death itself.

He was a senior deity who, along with the messenger god, always visited farms or huts when Demeter’s human workers died of natural causes due to old age.

Although she had never spoken to him face to face – Demeter had made her go inside the house – she had secretly watched them talking from behind Demeter a few times.

When she was young and naive, she only thought that death’s black wings looked like a crow’s…

‘Wow, this is quite a mess, isn’t it?’

Now that she’s fully grown, she feels like she wants to sit down and wail right away.

Thanatos, known to have a bronze heart, never lets go of what he has once grasped and never makes exceptions.

If such a deity had circulated an official document in the underworld to catch her, she needed to run away from here right now.

‘And what? The King of the Underworld’s bride?’

Have these guys gone mad! Making someone a married woman!

“I’ll be going now. Don’t follow me.”

“Lady Hecate?”

Persephone, who had responded quickly, started running without looking back.

The guard reached out to her, but she was running so fast it looked as if she was being chased by a wolf.

“She’s just leaving…”

He clicked his tongue and turned towards his colleague holding the messenger bird. The guard grabbed his shoulder.

“Who exactly is this bride? Is Lord Hades finally getting married?”

“It seems so. Apparently, she’s the daughter of Lady Demeter. Her name is… what? ‘Kore’? Her name means ‘maiden’? Is it a nickname? I’ve never heard of it.”

“I’ve never heard of it either. Stop rolling your eyes and quickly read the next part.”

“It just describes what the bride-to-be looks like. Pink hair and lime-green eyes, they say.”

The guard’s eyebrows twitched.

The moment his colleague mentioned ‘Kore’s’ appearance, the image of ‘Hecate’ before she put on the cloth flashed through the guard’s mind.

‘Huh?’

The guard’s wavering gaze flew to where Persephone had been.

‘Didn’t Lady Hecate have pink hair and lime-green eyes?’

As his eyes filled with doubt.

“They say she has white clothes and skin, and isn’t very plump.”

“…”

“Has anyone seen her?”

The guard’s mouth fell open. He shouted loudly.

“That sounds like Lady ‘Hecate’!”

“What? Where is she? She was with you just now, wasn’t she?”

The guard closed his mouth like a duck. Cold sweat began to form in his palms.

“I lost her…!”

Pulling at his hair, he let out a lament as if talking to himself.