Hades let out a silent scream.

No, no! He clearly added words in front to tell him not to misunderstand, so why did the story flow that way!

Orpheus also trembled his lips, looking very perplexed.

How much time had passed since Persephone commanded Orpheus?

“…I, I love you.”

In the end, what came out of those lips was a voice like a newborn fawn.

Persephone laughed, as if it was absurd.

“My, my, you do useless things in many ways.”

“……”

“When I say ‘I’, who do you think that refers to? It would be the king of the underworld himself, not you.”

“…So, wealthy one. You are……”

“Yes.”

Persephone declared confidently.

“I want your confession.”

Hades was now on the verge of fainting.

When he was driving Orpheus away, he could have been called an acting genius, but this is just being a lecher. It’s over.

“…Why, can’t you do it?”

Hades looked ahead with a blurred vision.

Persephone tilted her cheek like a so-called ‘languid beast’.

Hades was slowly becoming amazed at how much expression was possible with his face.

…No, actually, it wasn’t amazing at all. Please stop!

Orpheus, who had been hesitating, now shed cold sweat like a waterfall.

Moving his lips, he rolled his eyes back and forth, picked up the lyre he had dropped on the floor, and quickly stepped back.

“…I’m sorry!”

The bard made an escape!

Orpheus left the audience room at a speed faster than light.

Hades, who plopped down on the spot, hung his head blankly.

“Hmm, he’s fast?”

Persephone, who approached cheerfully, wrapped Hades’ shoulders with her large hands.

“It’s okay, Hades! Don’t despair too much.”

“……”

“There’s a reason I said that. I’ll clear up the misunderstanding and repay you with an even greater value than now.”

Hades, who was half out of his mind, stared at Persephone making a circle with her thumb and index finger.

How did his powerless appearance look to her? A pair of black eyes filled with playfulness curved like a crescent moon.

“Our Hades, you really can’t come to your senses.”

“……”

“But it’s better than me publicly recognizing ‘Persephone’ as the queen, isn’t it?”

Hades shuddered at the shocking remark.

This woman was spitting out words that he would never say in his right mind, taking the opportunity of occupying his body.

Even if she was simply saying that out of a desire for power−becoming the queen would make her the joint monarch of the underworld−Hades also had a suspicion that Persephone might be reading the traces of emotions left in his body like a trail.

Of course, it would be a baseless assumption with no meaning anyway, as Persephone wouldn’t love him.

“If your legs are weak, shall I carry you to the office?”

“…No!”

Hades, who pushed away Persephone who was casually approaching him, ran away in a hurry like Orpheus.

She called out to him from behind, but since it was his own voice anyway, he didn’t feel much guilt.

* * *

The underworld is vast.

“…Where am I?”

That also meant it was easy to get lost.

Orpheus sighed and hung the lyre on his back.

Just a few minutes ago, after learning that the king of the underworld was a crazy god who even targeted married men−no, was it a widower?−his head ached.

‘I thought I could save her if I did well, but I guess not.’

He deliberately emphasized that he and his wife were not in a loving relationship, but he still failed to revive her. Was there a problem with his persuasion method?

Orpheus scanned the underworld’s field full of flowers.

It was called a field, but more than half of the flowers that should have been green and lush were either withered yellow or had a strange purple hue.

Perhaps the only decent-looking flowers were the white and yellow daffodils.

Seeing this, he must have come to the Asphodel Meadows, the widest area in the underworld.

‘It’s a place with no special features, so I’ll keep wandering like this.’

The bard, who let out an even deeper sigh, quickened his pace for now.

His wife, who took a vacation with Orpheus after a long time, was bitten by a viper while running away from a rude man who was courting her without knowing anything.

It was a truly unfair, unjust death.

To revive her, Orpheus sought help from fairies who were said to even cure hydra’s poison, and ran around in every direction to find at least the sons of Asclepius, who had left for the underworld.

In the midst of that, as soon as he heard the news that his wife’s soul had departed without a psychopomp, he vowed to break through the underworld.

He frantically collected information, listening to rumors spreading through word of mouth for his exploration.

Among them was the story of Persephone, the goddess of seeds who had come to the underworld.

‘There were rumors that the underworld had changed a bit thanks to that goddess, but I guess not?’

Since there were no recent heroes who had visited the underworld, this was probably from Hermes, the god of rumors and guide of the dead.

So he thought it would have some credibility compared to what other humans said.

But now that he thought about it, he remembered that Hermes himself was the god of lies.

After all, rumors can only remain as rumors.

Seeing that the king of the underworld was still so eccentric and cold despite the presence of the goddess of seeds.

Orpheus, who let out a sigh, fiddled with the necklace he had been holding and running with.

Slightly stretching the necklace string, he brought the engraved pendant that looked like a decoration into his field of view.

Eurydice.

In other words, what Orpheus was wearing was a gold ornament engraved with his wife’s name.

It was quite bitter that his mood improved a little just by looking at that one thing.

Nevertheless, he moved his feet with a faint smile.

“…Huh?”

It was then that a black nameplate got caught under his foot with a clatter.

It bothered him because it happened to be similar in shape to what he was wearing around his neck, only differing in size and color.

Orpheus grabbed the nameplate he had stepped on and dusted it off.

‘…Goddess of seeds, Persephone?’

Reading the large letters, it seemed to belong to that rumored goddess.

Orpheus looked around with a troubled face.

Since there was no lost and found in the underworld, it seemed he had to put this back where he stepped on it.

He was about to bend over and place the nameplate on the ground.

“That’s mine.”

Suddenly, a large hand entered his field of vision.

It was a familiar voice.

A stable voice that fell low. But it was cold and scary.

Orpheus, who realized that it was the voice of the person he had just met, stiffened his body.

“Can’t you hear me?”

“……”

“What you’re holding now, even if the engraved name is not mine, is still my possession.”

Orpheus, who had lowered his head, raised it again at the harsh echo.

The king of the underworld, whom he had seen in the palace earlier, was frowning and waving his hand.

Since the underworld was like the king’s home, it wasn’t strange for Orpheus to encounter him on the way.

That made it even more desperate.

As if to imply that no matter what kind of resistance he put up, he couldn’t escape from him.

Moreover, look at that scythe on those broad shoulders.

It looked smaller than the weapon scythe carried by Thanatos, the god of death, but it looked very rough and sharp…

‘Huh?’

Come to think of it, why was he holding a scythe?

Orpheus, puzzled by the mismatch between the weapon and attire, staggered for a moment.

“Ah, you don’t listen.”

Persephone−no, the king of the underworld−cursed under his breath and snatched the nameplate from Orpheus.

That nameplate was something she carried around to show to people who might mistake her for Hades.

A week ago in the morning, Sisyphus suddenly became polite, so she had shown him the nameplate. But why did Orpheus have to see this of all things?

“Go.”

For now, Persephone clicked her tongue and issued an order of expulsion to Orpheus.

It was clearly different from the attitude she had shown interest in Orpheus at the palace earlier, but this was deliberately being cold.

She thought she had to make Orpheus desperate to the limit and make him spit out the truth he had in his heart.

This was also the reason why she pretended not to understand Orpheus’ request on Hades’ “demand for a true confession” paper and tested him.

(By the way, truth serum cannot be used because it requires flowers that grow in the underworld)

‘If I question him outright, it won’t work. Hermes said these things should be done subtly, like when he takes off his clothes because it’s hot due to Helios?’

And the nameplate was given by Hades.

Thinking that a liar−or in the worst-case scenario, a guy who sees his wife as a cash cow−touched it, her guts were twisting.

Persephone had no intention of helping Orpheus unless he honestly said why he was trying to revive his wife.

‘Will that guy follow, or will he tuck his tail like a coward?’

She deliberately laughed loudly and walked away from the dazed Orpheus, swaying toward the field.

Orpheus, who had been standing blankly, came to his senses the moment he heard the king of the underworld’s ridicule.

He looked at the king’s receding back with a slightly annoyed face.

‘He seems quite different from how he was in the palace…?’

Seeing him heading somewhere as if he had no interest in Orpheus, even though he thought the king wanted him, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

“……”

Contradictorily, hope gradually appeared in Orpheus’ eyes that had been filled with despair.

Dry saliva went down his throat.

He didn’t completely trust the king of the underworld.

However, for him who had lost his wife, the only god he could ask now was the king of the underworld.

Orpheus began to follow the king’s footsteps.