Before a god, no one can lie...
Night had that strong, inexplicable gut feeling.
If he lied, the result would be terrible. Apollo could tell the truth of every word he said.
Thinking about it, the young man calmed his nerves, emptied his mind, and tried his best not to think about anything unnecessary.
He was afraid that if he couldn't hold back, he'd think of something disrespectful and make Apollo unhappy enough to squash him with one finger.
For instance, things along the lines of "Apollo, you're kind of gay." He was afraid that the moment he finished that thought in his heart, this sun god would fly into a rage and literally sun him on the spot.
After all, Greek gods were famously petty.
No hiding it, and no need to hide it either.
In that instant, Night thought of a good idea.
He didn't even bother concealing the thought in his mind of wanting to use a god's power to achieve his own goal.
He started deliberately guiding his own thinking and began laying out the rough plan forming in his head.
When Night finished explaining the overall plan, Hector was the first to disagree. "This is too dangerous! I can't just watch you go and take that risk!"
Chryseis also nodded.
"Yes, Hero, you don't need to take such a risk."
Even though she once hoped so deeply that the great hero would respond to her and save her sister the way he saved her.
But the difficulty was on a completely different level.
Night, however, said.
"This isn't just about saving Briseis. It's about winning this war.
Although right now, Troy holds a slight advantage.
The Greek forces are still very strong. I'll find a chance to break them from the inside."
Genius!
Not to mention mortals, even Apollo had never expected Night to have such a bold and imaginative idea.
So, hearing his words, he went silent as if short-circuited, with no further sound.
But compared to these mortals, Apollo, who knew the truth of this war and the purpose behind it, suddenly found this a very interesting proposal.
Although he saw that Night hid something, Apollo didn't care.
He even felt a little anticipation for how far this man could go.
If Night really pulled it off, it might just give his father-god Zeus a good headache.
Though they were father and son, Apollo and Zeus did not have a particularly good relationship.
Or rather, most of Zeus's children didn't have a great relationship with him.
Apollo even looked forward to seeing Night make that omnipotent god, king of all gods, the great Zeus, eat some dirt.
That would surely be very satisfying.
...
"So, what you want is a face that no one can recognize, is that right?
Son of man, that I can help you with.
You chose a path that is insane and dangerous.
But as long as hope does not leave your heart, the light of the sun will guide you forward."
...
With that, a burst of sacred radiance suddenly descended from Apollo's statue, and being struck by it,
Night's heart jolted, but he did not dodge.
The next moment he felt his skin itch a little, especially around his scalp.
However, in his mind, he was extremely worried that Apollo might just shave him bald and turn him into a Kratos cosplay.
Hmm, Kratos was handsome too, very fitting for the Greek aesthetic, but the bald head was unnecessary.
He had a pretty good impression of his hair and had no desire to lose it.
At that moment, in the middle of channeling his divine power, Apollo accidentally caught a glimpse of Night's thoughts.
Although he couldn't directly read what this guy was specifically thinking, he got the general direction.
"...Why would you think I would like that kind of bald look?"
Apollo's brow furrowed slightly!
Greece did not only have musclemen.
There were also youths as beautiful as narcissus flowers.
As god of music and god of the arts, Apollo's taste was quite refined, leaning toward the elegant and beautiful.
Though he didn't reject that kind of wild beauty either, comparatively speaking, that bald, hulking, musclebound type was more Ares the war god's thing.
And when Apollo's radiance finished pouring down.
When Chryseis looked at Night again, her gaze instantly got stuck and couldn't move away.
Her lips parted slightly, and her earlobes went red again.
Well...she was rather stunned by Night's new appearance.
His head of short dark hair turned into silver-white locks that draped down over his shoulders.
His pupils shifted to a silver-white threaded with a touch of blue, like starlight.
His clothes became a white robe, quite open at the chest.
At that moment he looked like a young, strikingly handsome sage walking the earth.
His fair skin and those faintly detached eyes, free of the world's dust, were sacred and dignified.
Apollo was very satisfied with Night's new look.
If there was a harp, and he could play some music, that would be even better.
A youth this sacred, how could he not have a matchless singing voice to go with it?
And at that moment Apollo used his divine power to conjure a mirror in front of Night. "Take a good look at your new appearance..."
For daring to suspect he would turn him bald, for daring to question his taste, the god of light wanted this little brat to see with his own eyes what he looked like now.
And just as Night looked at the reflection in the mirror, he froze.
Because at this moment, not just his appearance, it seemed even his aura had changed dramatically.
It was clearly just a change in hair color and eye color, with his hair being a bit longer and slightly wavy.
But he looked completely different now.
Forget strangers; even people who knew him well would probably fail to recognize him unless they personally witnessed the change with their own eyes.
That sacred feeling, like sunlight through the mottled stained glass of an old church falling across a youth's gentle smiling face, clean and beautiful, beautiful enough to make one forget gender entirely.
A few figures flashed through his mind: Griffith from Berserk: The Egg of the Supreme Ruler and the Silver Saint, Orpheus.
The former was breathtakingly beautiful, possessing fierce ambition and a powerful magnetic personality.
The latter was the handsome man who entered the underworld alone to save his wife.
With a tranquil, mournfully beautiful song, he moved Hades, lord of the underworld, convincing him to allow his dead wife to return to the world of the living, yet at the very last moment forgot the agreement that he must not look back until they had fully left the underworld's soil.
At the entrance, with half his body not yet completely off the underworld's ground, upon seeing sunlight above his head, he turned back joyfully to share his happiness with his wife.
The result was that he broke his agreement with Hades, causing his wife to be trapped in the underworld forever, while he himself willingly stayed behind in that sunless place, never leaving again.
And speaking of that sorrowful yet hauntingly beautiful musical genius, Orpheus happened to be none other than the son of the sun god Apollo and one of the Muses.
Thinking about it, Night couldn't help but suspect that this guy did it on purpose.
What left him even more speechless afterward was that Apollo conjured a magnificently stunning lyre out of thin air.
The lyre dropped straight into his arms, without even giving him a chance to refuse.
Apollo looked at him and spoke.
"Just disguise yourself as a musician then. Ah, that way the image would be perfect.
But since you are a musician, how can you not have a beautiful voice and powerful, skilled musical technique?
Apollo then continued.
"In the name of the god of music,
I bestow my blessing upon the son of man before me.
You will possess a voice more beautiful than a hundred birds combined. Even beasts that know nothing of art will stop in their tracks for your song.
You will, with no teacher needed, master all manner of musical skills. No matter the instrument, you will quickly pick it up and play it with ease."
...
Accompanying his blessing, a rush of colorful phantom musical notes suddenly appeared and surged into his body.
At this point he was completely lost trying to keep up with what Apollo was doing.
.
.
.