First, a brief summary of how Odysseus originally got rid of Palamedes in the myth.
After the Greek forces took Apollo's prophetess by force, Apollo hit the Greeks with one divine punishment after another and nearly tortured them to death, until King Agamemnon finally agreed to release her.
But Apollo still issued a divine oracle. Not enough! He also wanted one hundred sheep.
And he designated Palamedes to handle the offerings. This was a special honor, but it also drew Odysseus's jealousy, completely igniting the accumulated resentment Odysseus had been building up.
Afterward Odysseus quietly buried a sum of gold in Palamedes's tent, then forged a letter supposedly written by Priam, the old king of Troy, to Palamedes.
The letter spoke of thanking him for selling the Greek military secrets, and rewarding him with gold.
This letter was passed to a Phrygian slave prisoner, and then Odysseus himself pretended to discover it, and killed this go-between in a fit of rage.
When Odysseus brought this letter and revealed it to the other heroes, the outcome that followed was easy to imagine.
But in reality, different from the myth, Odysseus this time also seemed dissatisfied with Palamedes, and accumulated grievances over many days made him start burying gold and forging letters nine years ahead of schedule.
But when he went charging furiously to Agamemnon with the letter, intending to summon all the heroes, he found the heroes had all already gathered.
And he learned that Palamedes had already been dead for some time.
Before he could frame Palamedes and shout that line, "Truth, you died before me," and have him stoned to death by the heroes as a traitor.
Palamedes had already been assassinated.
And in his room, a letter was found. It was actually Palamedes's final will.
It laid out clearly that he discovered Odysseus deeply hated him because of all the prior incidents between them, and had already begun scheming against him.
He discovered Odysseus's plot, and was preparing to expose him when the plan was put into action. He would reveal his ugly side in front of all the heroes.
And then...
Palamedes was simply gone.
After that, Odysseus was arrested as the prime suspect, and the forged letter was also found during the search.
But Palamedes was already dead. Never mind showing respect for the dead!
This time there was basically not a single hero willing to believe in the authenticity of Odysseus's forged letter.
If anything, it made them even more suspicious of Odysseus.
And another hero also raised the point...
Palamedes was originally chosen to inherit Achilles's armor, and nearly died on the battlefield. Was that not also because Odysseus said Palamedes was the most suitable candidate?
Odysseus saying that. How sinister!!
Odysseus: "..."
Nonsense! What he actually said was that the most knowledgeable among them was probably Palamedes.
Patroclus was the one who chose him for that reason.
What does that have to do with me, Odysseus?!
But sometimes once the seed of suspicion is planted, it is not so easy to clear away.
Absolutely nobody believed a word the suspect Odysseus said.
Even everything Odysseus had said and done before was brought back out by the heroes, and suddenly all of it seemed to carry enormous doubts and problems.
This time Odysseus was mud in the pants.
Completely impossible to wash clean.
And the only person who might actually believe Odysseus was actually a double agent.
Night knew that Odysseus was in all likelihood falsely accused.
After all, this guy was not dumb enough to directly murder Palamedes outright.
And that an honest fellow like Palamedes could have predicted Odysseus's schemes with such clarity was also bizarre.
Night even suspected that Palamedes's "will" was probably also forged.
After all, there was already a precedent of Odysseus forging a letter from the old Trojan king to Palamedes suggesting their collusion.
For a forged will of Palamedes to then appear, as though someone had God's-eye view and had already completely seen through and calculated every single one of Odysseus's plans in advance.
Did that not also seem perfectly normal?
Although he couldn't figure out exactly what happened in the middle of all this, but the incident put Night on alert, making him realize that apart from himself, it seemed there was someone else stirring things up?
Crafty Odysseus this time actually became the victim and was locked up in prison.
Until his name was cleared, there was no way he was getting out.
And because of all the time Night was unconscious, so many things happened in just those short few days.
Even his revival as the great hero did not cause much of a stir on the Greek side.
Under one blow after another, the atmosphere in the allied camp was especially heavy and tense.
Only Night's awakening brought some happiness and slight improvement to everyone's mood.
But only slight.
With the thought that it might take more time to find out who the other person stirring things up in secret was.
Night spent the day gathering in the allied camp every piece of information he wanted to know, useful or useless, and took in a whole pile of it.
He also stopped by to look in on poor, lonely Chryseis where she was being held, which delighted her enormously.
After soothing her mood a little...
However, when night fell and he was returning to his own quarters, a familiar feeling suddenly came over him causing him to stop in his tracks at his own door.
"..."
The heck.
Which god descended this time?
An unfamiliar presence!
At this rate he had practically stirred up the entire gods' nest!!
Knowing there was no avoiding it, Night calmly stepped inside his own tent.
And then...
He saw on his bed a beautiful figure with short red hair, lying face down.
Wearing something very revealing.
A semi-transparent black fitted outfit.
An exaggerated and breathtaking silhouette on a perfect and fiery body, the pairing of an ample figure and a tiny waist was simply not a shape any human could possess.
Her legs in black boots were slightly pressed together, swinging lazily up and down, and the way her thighs and calves pressed together from time to time gave an impression of fullness and softness, full of enticing temptation and absolutely dripping with allure.
It seemed she noticed Night come in as she propped her face on one hand and looked him over with interest.
She had a delicate face full of temptation like a succubus.
Without any doubt.
What stood before Night was a goddess he did not recognize.
"You finally came back, great hero Griffith!! Oh my, from the look of you, you do not seem the least bit surprised that I am here.
You really are far too calm.
Are you not the slightest bit curious about the identity of the unfamiliar and beautiful woman who appeared in your tent?"
"Then may I ask who you are?
My uninvited and beautiful visitor!" Night shot back with a question.
She did not reply immediately.
Instead she flipped herself over, stretched her legs out straight and lifted them high, then let them fall.
With the elegance of a queen she rose from the bed sideways, then with enchanting steps slowly walked to his side and pressed a fair and beautiful finger against his shoulder.
"You can call me Mach! Little one.
A beautiful woman who can bring you the most supreme pleasure."
As she said this, the goddess who called herself Mach pressed herself up against him from behind after rising, the impact of that exaggerated silhouette against his back, combined with the slow and soft whisper she breathed warmly against his ear.
It was a supreme temptation capable of instantly stripping away any man's reason and plunging him into the primal instinct of reproduction.
And yet...
Night, who knew her divine nature from the very first moment and could be called a god detector, kept his mind at the highest level of tension throughout.
At this moment his full attention was concentrated on the name she spoke.
That was not a Greek god's name.
A false name?
No. I think I already know who this is!
.
.
.
(End of the Chapter)