"You were trying to degrade yourself to make me stay.
But I cannot bring myself to watch a free soul sacrifice herself in exchange for another person's safety.
Chryseis, you can hold your head up high. There is no need to feel ashamed. I did not turn you down because you are not beautiful.
Quite the opposite.
You have a soul just as beautiful as that beautiful face of yours.
A soul this pure should not be tainted by anything unworthy of it.
I can freely admit that when you first spoke just now, I shamefully felt something stir in me.
After all, you have a face more beautiful than the moon and stars above. Any hero would be moved by you, and I am no exception.
But I cannot stop yet.
Not just to save Briseis, but to end this meaningless war!"
....
Chryseis heard his words and felt silent.
'It was not because you are not beautiful, but because I have to end this meaningless war!'
With a deeper understanding of the breadth of his character, she felt genuine admiration rise within her, a hint of reverence taking root.
She noticed he compared her beauty to something more beautiful than the stars and moon.
The stars and moon of Greece were no simple things.
Every named star could represent a goddess, and especially the goddess who represented the moon was none other than a close relation of her patron Lord Apollo.
The moon goddess, Lady Artemis!
What did she deserve, to be compared to the stars and the moon?
But this did genuinely send her heart racing.
And his next words pushed that inexplicable fluttering, that quickening heartbeat, straight to its peak.
To give Chryseis confidence and to steel himself for the mad, bold plan ahead, the young man lifted his gaze toward the direction of Greece, and in a trance seemed to see across the distant sea, to an island far away,
The land is called Greece, and the highest peak upon it is the place of Olympus.
The hood of his cloak was gently lifted by a breeze, revealing silver hair tips as beautiful as clear moonlight.
Those starlit, dreamlike eyes gazed quietly into the distance.
"You said something wrong just now. I disagree with it.
You said that even all the heroes of Olympus by name would likely be unable to complete this trial..."
...
The corner of his mouth curved into a faint arc, a moment that left a deep, lasting impression in Chryseis's heart forever.
A hero touched by radiance, one who could bring hope and miracles, spoke with such calm, unwavering confidence, "Then now you have seen it. On Olympus, not a single remarkable figure capable of completing this trial appeared for tens of thousands of years.
It was probably waiting for me."
When his words fell, the stars shone brilliantly in the night sky, and the light of the moon draped over him like a thin veil of gauze, illuminating him in breathtaking beauty.
Confident, audacious, and brimming with life, a strikingly handsome youth,
Like someone pointing to the other side of the sea and declaring that sooner or later, through this achievement, even the gods would remember him, with his name personally carved into the most radiant chapter among all the hero epics of Olympus.
Chryseis was stunned, her thoughts scattered.
Her mind went completely blank at that moment, leaving only one thought.
She believed he would succeed.
She was willing to believe he could succeed.
If this was true, she felt nothing but admiration, reverence, and deep affection.
If it was not true, then she wanted it to be true.
She wanted it to be a future that was about to happen!
...
Night, no, Griffith left in the end on the merchant ship.
Watching the departing vessel slowly disappear beyond the horizon, Chryseis felt an overwhelming sense of loss and reluctance, even an impulse to run after it.
In the end she bowed deeply toward the direction the ship had gone, then knelt at the shore and began to pray for the hero.
May this journey be successful.
She would wait in Troy for the hero's return, waiting for him to come back with Briseis.
Simply because he made a promise, and she believed that if it was him, he would surely be able to keep it.
.
.
.
And on the other side,
Far from the land of Troy, with no sight of land in any direction, Night thought back on the bold words he had just declared, and a sense of urgency rose within him.
Since he had already boasted so much, even declaring himself as the best in Greece, the plan better not fall apart right at the start.
If he accomplished nothing and slunk back to Troy empty-handed, ah...he would rather march straight into the Greek alliance and fight Agamemnon to the death.
At least that way he would go out in a heroic way, not quite so embarrassingly.
And just as he was racking his brain over every detail of the plan ahead, making absolutely sure nothing could go wrong,
Night did not notice that his bold declaration by the sea had drawn quite a few unnecessary eyes.
As everyone knew, Greek gods were famously petty and very fond of eavesdropping and peeking into what humans thought of them.
They would also personally descend to the mortal world from time to time, disguising themselves to catch people off guard.
So in Greece, the less one said, the less one did, the more hidden one stayed, the better.
And never say what is on your mind out loud in a crowded place.
A passing god might just happen to overhear.
And at this moment,
Among the stars, beneath clear moonlight, a goddess with pale silver-blue hair and violently beautiful violet eyes was gazing down at the ship sailing away below.
She was none other than Artemis, known as the goddess of the hunt and the goddess of the moon.
It was because of his declaration by the sea that the moon goddess Artemis noticed his existence.
The scene Chryseis witnessed of stars shining brilliantly and moonlight draped like a veil was not simply a natural sight.
When he compared Chryseis to someone more beautiful than the stars and moon, Artemis, quietly watching from above, furrowed her brow, and a small trace of discomfort stirred within her.
But she did not think much of it.
She just thought this mortal probably had never seen how truly beautiful a real goddess was, and that was why he formed such a shallow impression.
If he ever laid eyes on the radiant face of the moon goddess herself, he would certainly never be able to say something that arrogant again.
Fortunately, Artemis was not the kind of goddess prone to jealousy.
If it were Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, standing here instead, she would already have moved against him from the shadows without hesitation.
Artemis actually knew something of his existence.
In the past few days, her brother Apollo had been frequently watching over the Troy region below.
The moon goddess, who was on very good terms with Apollo, had not deliberately looked into the matter but happened to notice Night's existence and learned that Apollo gave him his blessing.
A human who earned that level of attention from her brother, the god of light, also stirred curiosity within Artemis.
She never expected to then witness such a moment of grand declaration.
Even Artemis could not help herself when the atmosphere reached its peak and cast down a beam of moonlight to illuminate that human figure.
Olympus produced no remarkable figure for tens of thousands of years, and it was waiting for him?
He really dared to say that.
Still, if one set aside someone like Heracles, those who had already ascended to godhood, if he truly accomplished a feat without equal in the world,
As though something amusing came to mind, a genuine smile quietly appeared on Artemis's cool, moonlit, breathtakingly beautiful face.
.
.
.