I've Possessed Persephone (9 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 5
Persephone hastily untied the ribbon of her pouch.
‘These aren’t silver coins, are they?’
Upon closer inspection, the coins inside the pouch lacked the uniform sheen typical of silver. Their colors, sizes, and even shapes varied widely.
They were seeds of plants.
Before she could even think of reaching the riverbank, Persephone stared fixedly into the pouch.
No wonder—she never expected the ferryman of the gloomy underworld to carry something like this.
“How on earth did you get something like this…?”
Just as Persephone reached her hand into the pouch, Charon, who had been wiping tears—or rather, dragging his knuckles across his cheeks despite having no tears to shed—suddenly jerked his head up.
He approached Persephone like a dog that had spotted food.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
Then, without warning, he began striking Persephone’s shoulder fiercely and repeatedly with his staff.
To any observer, it was clearly a gesture fueled by spite.
“Hey, wait! We’re going to sink!”
Flustered, Persephone flailed about trying to dodge Charon’s blows.
“Alright, I’ll give your pouch back! I said I’ll return it!”
Persephone raised both hands as if to signal him to stop—
“Haah!”
—but instead, she was drenched by the waves Charon deliberately stirred up.
At the exact moment she decided this was utterly hopeless,
“Ah! I already told you—I shouldn’t be here!”
A burst of yellow light erupted from Persephone’s body as she shouted.
Charon flinched backward.
In an instant, golden ripples filled everyone’s vision.
A warm, bright radiance unseen in the underworld—everyone instinctively squeezed their eyes shut against the sudden glare.
A mysterious breeze, origin unknown, brushed against Charon’s cloak before rushing straight toward Persephone’s damp clothes.
After a few slow breaths had passed,
“…?”
Persephone opened her eyes again, startled by an unfamiliar sensation against her chest.
She was now cradling an armful of grain bundles and flowering stems—undoubtedly sprouted from Charon’s seed pouch.
* * *
Just as the King of the Underworld wielded darkness itself as power, Persephone also possessed divine power of her own.
Though still known by her childhood name “Kore,” she was nearly a nameless deity; yet, as the daughter of the goddess of the earth, her innate divine potential was undoubtedly remarkable.
Persephone had just witnessed this potential manifest.
She examined the bouquet with wide, astonished eyes.
‘Did I make this grow?’
Vitality, incomparable to anything in the underworld, overflowed from the vibrant leaves, stems, and petals.
‘I’ve never made anything grow this lush before.’
In a daze, Persephone gently lifted her gaze.
In the two hollow eye sockets of Charon’s skull, the luminous specters bloomed and flickered dimly.
Like a crow gleaming with desire upon spotting a jewel…
Watching this, Persephone slowly curved the corners of her lips upward.
So, Charon yearned for things of the living world. That explained why he carried a pouch of seeds instead of coins and apparently spent his collected silver acquiring seeds and such.
If this was the case, perhaps she could persuade him—not with a bribe, but with a gift?
Quickly changing tactics, Persephone splashed toward Charon’s ferryboat.
She grabbed the boat’s outer plank and leaned forward.
“I’m… sorry.”
Her shoulders slumped as she scratched the back of her head.
Taken aback by her sudden meekness, Charon hesitated.
He seemed to sense she had an ulterior motive.
Yet Persephone smiled even more brightly.
“I have urgent business that requires me to leave this place, so I acted rashly.”
“…!”
Charon clicked his jawbone threateningly.
Persephone extended a calming hand toward her chest.
“No, actually—I think I might just be the girl your master’s been looking for…”
Charon, who’d been about to draw his staff, froze mid-motion.
“I’m a living goddess; I shouldn’t be here.”
Persephone quickly added,
“So—could you contact your master after I return to the surface?”
Charon leaned slightly toward Persephone, his posture more wary than hostile.
His eye sockets, observing her intently, alternated between dullness and brightness—
much like a human blinking.
Just then, a tiny messenger bird fluttered past behind Charon.
“…Oh, come on!”
Persephone clicked her tongue, leapt out of the river, and scrambled onto the ferryboat.
She hovered briefly in the air before snatching the messenger bird.
“You can’t trick me like that!”
Back in the river, she flipped open the fluttering bird’s wings.
Sure enough, glowing letters dotted its feathers—
a message undoubtedly reading something like, “The woman you’re looking for is at the River Acheron.”
The ferryman had been trying to inform the King of the Underworld of her whereabouts while confronting her.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?”
Chuckling, Persephone infused the bird with the same divine power she’d just released.
As the daughter of the Earth Goddess, she shared a natural closeness with all flora and fauna.
Though messenger birds bordered on inanimate objects, they weren’t entirely without life—so once infused with her power, the bird quickly submitted to Persephone.
Charon, horrified, collapsed in despair.
Persephone gathered the bouquet looped around her arm, then shifted her weight onto the ferryboat with deliberate strength.
“Don’t be like that—I’ll give you this instead.”
Charon’s head turned toward her.
“In return, just let me go.”
The creature, upon seeing the bouquet, repeatedly opened and closed its mouth with a dry gulp.
The luminous specters in its eye sockets blinked rapidly.
Persephone waved the bouquet temptingly before Charon’s eyes.
“You like this kind of thing, don’t you?”
“….”
“Or… not?”
* * *
“…Is it all over now?”
Hades sighed and rubbed his furrowed brow.
Finding someone was harder than he’d expected.
Knowing this task couldn’t be shouldered by him alone, he had circulated notices to all riverkeepers traversing the underworld:
“Please inform me if you find ‘Kore.’”
‘Now I’ll have to return to the palace and assign individual orders to my advisors as well.’
Hades trudged wearily into the palace corridor, exhaling deeply.
The returned King of the Underworld had much to do.
He needed to review judgments rendered by judges of the dead, design expansions for his ever-growing realm to accommodate new residents, and oversee law and order throughout.
By the time he reached his office, Hades sighed again at the mountain of paperwork piled on his desk.
How could it have multiplied like this just because he’d stepped away briefly…?
‘Kore should be arriving here soon as well.’
Yet with so much work piling up, he might not even get a proper chance to meet the victim and offer appropriate compensation.
‘Well, nothing to be done about it.’
Shaking his head, Hades called out to his nearby advisor.
“Hydra.”
No reply came.
“Hydra!”
At his louder call, the advisor’s jade-green hair finally jerked in startled response.
She sprang up from her seat.
“Oh! Lord Hades!”
Her sharp fangs flashed as she beamed widely.
“You’re back so soon!”
Her vertical, amber eyes sparkled with joy—having found a superior willing to share in her paperwork-induced suffering.
Hydra—the monster who once coiled in swampy marshes,
the serpent with a hundred heads severed by the hero Heracles.
Hades had reshaped her savage, vengeful form into a humanoid one, granting her a new life; in return, Hydra served loyally as his advisor.
Aside from occasionally needing to be called louder and clearer due to her poor hearing, she was a capable aide.
Hades beckoned her over.
“I have a task for you.”
“Oh, yes? Please tell me.”
Hydra approached, carrying a reed pen and papyrus sheets.
Hades intended to assign her the job of preparing a temporary lodging for Kore—the accident’s victim—once she arrived in the underworld.
‘First, I need to figure out how to carefully explain what I’ve done.’
Among the gods, Hades was known as the cold and merciless King of the Underworld.
If news spread that he had run over Demeter’s daughter with his chariot, he feared he’d be branded a conscienceless monster.
After a brief pause, Hades began cautiously,
“Ordinarily, anyone may enter our realm freely, but leaving isn’t so simple. However, recently, a living visitor passed through the underworld and departed.”
“I recall. And…?”
Hydra nodded, rolling her eyes slightly.
The “living visitor” Hades referred to was clearly Heracles, who had dragged Cerberus up to the surface.
Hades continued warily,
“There might be… another such visitor arriving in the underworld quite soon. I’d like you to prepare a room for them.”
“Wait—another Heracles-type bastard?”
Hydra bared her fangs in disgust—she despised Heracles.
“That guy wasn’t a guest—he was an intruder! Why build a room? I could’ve just poisoned him to death.”
“No, calm down. This one doesn’t seem nearly as strong as Heracles.”
At that moment, Hydra’s eyes widened in realization.
“Could it be… someone you know?”
“…”
Hades’s lips clamped shut.
Pushing aside his guilt, he spoke again.
“…What makes you ask that?”
“Well—you said they ‘didn’t seem’ strong… So I wondered if you’d seen them yourself.”
“…”
“But… Lord Hades, you never had any friends, right?”
Hydra narrowed her eyes, delivering another casual jab to his core.
“…Could it be…?”
She pursed her lips, then snapped her fingers.
“Oh! You have a fiancée!”
Ecstatic about her superior’s romantic prospects, the advisor clapped her hands together.
“So you’re preparing a honeymoon suite!”
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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Oh my God, poor, pitiful Hades! I hope he finds happiness with Persephone.
Oh, poor Hades! He’s so sweet. Why doesn’t anyone like him? I hope Persephone likes Hades and brings spring into his world.
Poor Hades, how can a little child be hungry? How sweet, how his expression changes upon hearing Persephone speak.