Putting himself in someone else's shoes!
That must be a despair and suffering that ordinary people cannot endure.
Not recognized by the Greek land they love, and even viewed with hatred and skepticism by their former comrades.
Suffering numerous infamy and curses...
These things filled even Agamemnon with immense fear just to think about them.
If Griffith really wanted to defect, that would be better, at least he wouldn't have much psychological pressure, or rather, it would be much less.
But the heroic souls who were determined to die for the Greek land were subjected to unwarranted suspicion and distrust.
The pain of not being trusted and the unspeakable inner torment were inexplicable and could not be explained...
The pressure involved was simply too great.
Meanwhile, Night stood entirely frozen, his mind short-circuiting as he stared at the despairing king.
What the heck?
A spy acting as a spy?
However, he quickly realized that he needed to fabricate a look of profound agony just to play along with the theatrical tragedy unfolding before him.
Empathizing deeply with the silence, Agamemnon could already feel the despair and suffering that no ordinary man could ever endure.
He imagined Griffith being disowned by the beloved land of Greece, viewed with absolute hatred and suspicion by his former comrades, and bearing countless curses while his true loyalty remained locked away in painful silence.
The prospect was so harrowing that it made the king feel like a cruel, cold tyrant for forcing his finest hero into such torment just to save him.
"What?!" Night finally cried out, his pupils contracting perfectly as he forced a look of absolute shock onto his face, though internally a metaphorical magnitude-nine earthquake of sheer disbelief was ripping through him.
The king was literally ordering him to go undercover in Troy, turning this entire deployment into a bizarre double-agent drama that even the grandest epics wouldn't dare write.
"No, I cannot—" Night started, cutting his own sentence short with a sharp intake of breath, a display of shock that Agamemnon immediately interpreted as the cracking of a shattered heart.
"Rest assured," The latter interrupted quickly, eager to ease the blow. "To ensure you successfully gain the trust of the Trojans, I have prepared a gift for you to bring to their gates."
Night's expression remained tense, waiting for him to speak.
"Briseis," Agamemnon revealed, a grim smile touching his lips. "The daughter of the high priest of Apollo and a royal princess of Troy. If you deliver her back to her people entirely unharmed, even Hector will not allow anyone to make things difficult for you.
Given how deeply that man values loyalty, the man who restores his sister to him will undoubtedly be welcomed as a true friend."
Hearing the name, an absolute explosion went off in Night's mind, leaving his thoughts completely blank as he stared at the king in front of him.
Fucking hell?
So, the long sought mission objective was personally handed over by the man himself.
"I know this path will be grueling, painful, and widely hated," Agamemnon continued, forcing an overbearing tone into his voice despite the heavy ache in his chest.
"But this is my command as your king. This is not a flight of cowardice, Griffith. You are heading to Troy to fulfill a crucial mission for the future of Greece, and I expect you to remember that."
Night slowly lowered his head and closed his eyes to hide the sudden, powerful urge to laugh.
To be honest, he found the entire situation incredibly comical.
His original goal was to rescue Briseis anyway, and now that the Greek side was fracturing under the interference of the War God, it was no longer ideal to keep plotting from within.
And so, the most daunting obstacle of all, the challenge of shielding the liability that was Briseis across a volatile battlefield and bringing her safely back to Troy, suddenly seemed to transform into the simplest part of the entire plan.
Night slowly closed his eyes.
"I understand. If this is your command, my King!"
"Excellent," King Agamemnon said, his voice hardening into a cold, clinical tone. "Then move quickly.
The War God Ares could return at any moment. I will personally lead you to the place where Briseis is held, and after that, you take her and fly far from here. Though Ares has decimated the surrounding cities of Troy, the kingdom's elite vanguard remains entirely intact, meaning their core foundation hasn't been broken. Perhaps you can even try to dismantle them from the inside out."
Having offered his grim piece of advice, Agamemnon immediately spearheaded the group into motion.
Watching Night finally accept the mission to Troy, Goddess Athena let out a quiet inward sigh, pondering the sheer weight of him infiltrating the enemy as a double agent.
However, she knew it was undoubtedly the most logical solution given their current plight.
So, in the end, using her divine power to shroud their physical forms from view, she guided them through the camp until Agamemnon brought Night to the dark, isolated chamber where Briseis was locked away.
The moment they stepped inside, Briseis caught sight of Agamemnon.
The faint color that had only recently returned to her face after she finally resumed eating drained away instantly, leaving her pale and visibly trembling with terror.
She had already been growing anxious over the past two days because Night hadn't visited, worrying constantly that something terrible might have befallen her heroic savior, and now, laying eyes upon the royal demon Agamemnon, pure despair threatened to crush her heart.
Yet a sudden light appeared at the end of the tunnel when Night stepped out from the shadows right behind the king, offering her a subtle, reassuring wink.
Briseis immediately read his signal, letting out a heavy sigh of relief as the suffocating tension left her frame, and a flash of irrepressible joy gleamef deep in her eyes.
Still entirely confused by the context of the situation, she wisely chose to remain quiet, watching the scene unfold in silence.
In the dim, shadows of the subterranean room, under the crushing pressure of time, Agamemnon completely failed to notice the subtle shift in Briseis's expressions.
Instead, he turned to Night and raised his voice. "Alright! This is the chamber holding the royal princess of Troy.
I guarantee that you can take her out of here safely and return to Greece. You damned hero, Griffith! You promised me that if I brought you here, you would let me leave with my life. Now it is time to fulfill your oath!"
Hearing Agamemnon instantly launch into an aggressive, theatrical performance the moment they walked through the door,
Night finally understood why the king had practically begged Goddess Athena to hide herself outside.
Looking at Agamemnon's terribly forced anger and utterly atrocious acting, he couldn't help but feel an incredibly bizarre sensation washing over him.
'Wow, this is so incredibly weird!'
'To be honest, King, you really don't need to put on a show. Briseis trusts me completely.'
Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would get to experience such a spectacular script play out in his life, and even less did he expect that Agamemnon would willingly surrender the very woman he loved.
This was the Trojan princess the king wouldn't even hand over when his relationship with Achilles shattered, yet here he was, presenting her on a silver platter just to serve as Night's perfect letter of introduction to the enemy.
Even now, a persistent sense of unreality clung to him as if he were walking through a dream, but
Night finally accepted the absurd reality that he was about to head back to Troy under the official mantle of an undercover Greek spy.
'If I told Agamemnon the absolute truth right now, he would probably try to murder me.'
Faced with such a monumental, accidental favor, Night could already envision the king completely breaking down into a blackened villain if the truth ever came out.
He decided to let it rest because that would simply be far too chaotic.
For now, it was best to utilize Agamemnon's royal status to ensure he and Briseis could exit the camp without a hitch.
'This guy is actually weirdly helpful, to the point where it's getting hard to betray him.'
Night had originally considered finding an opportunity to run King Agamemnon through with a blade, but now he felt genuinely embarrassed to even think about it, especially with Athena standing guard just outside.
.
.
.
(End of the Chapter)