Several days later, at War God Mountain.
In the afternoon, inside a secluded courtyard residence, the newly appointed young judicial magistrate of Athens sat at a long table in the courtyard, flipped through the thick stack of case approval files in his hands, turning the contents of the verdicts and sentences into written text while making simple records.
After working for three or four hours straight, the stack of files finally reached the bottom.
Lorne, sitting at the table, looked at the dozens of pages of parchment in his hands, densely filled with writing.
After patiently reviewing and revising them once more, he tossed the results of his labor aside, preparing to hand them to Astraea tomorrow as a reference for compiling related laws.
At present, the second-generation Goddess of Justice had already accepted Athena's enthusiastic invitation and entered the Athenian Academy, where she had begun the preliminary drafting of written law.
However, everything is difficult at the beginning.
In an era where "whoever has the bigger fist is right," pursuing a complete judicial system was an extremely difficult undertaking.
First of all, the lack of legal scholars and the weakness of legal awareness were major problems.
As the former clerk of Crete Island, the successor to Minos, the judge of the Underworld, and the guide who had persuaded Astraea to come to Athens, Lorne had no choice but to truly accept the appointment as Athens' judicial magistrate.
Every day he reviewed case files and summarized the customary laws accumulated over the years.
However, one only realizes the truth after looking.
When Lorne actually went through those case files from Athens, he finally understood just how primitive the current laws were.
Even the punishments highlighted a sense of "doing whatever one feels like," completely unrelated to so-called fairness and justice.
The crime of laziness and the theft of vegetables could both result in death.
If a master killed a slave, he might be innocent, or he might compensate with a sheep, or he might offer a cow in sacrifice to the gods as prayer.
Those who could equip themselves with weapons had citizenship and could file accusations and receive formal trials.
Those who could not equip themselves with weapons had no citizenship and were often privately punished by people of higher status when conflicts arose.
As for the upper-class divine-blood nobles and city builders, they possessed a kind of secular criminal immunity.
In short, these customary laws, which were difficult to standardize, gave Lorne quite a headache.
After repeated deletions and revisions, he barely managed to produce a few usable rules.
Although the result differed greatly from what he had originally expected, it would be enough to hand in tomorrow.
After finishing the summary of customary law at hand, he rested for a bit, then took out a few sheets of parchment and began writing tonight's fable.
There was no helping it.
The Temple of Memory had been urging him for manuscripts.
Now even the Nine Muses, having nothing to do, had become fans of "The Collected Tales of Aesop" together with their mother Mnemosyne, waiting every day for his updates.
After working for more than half an hour, until the sun had set and the faint glow of fluorite illuminated the surrounding darkness,
Lorne finally stopped his rapid writing.
He then picked up several pieces of tender lamb from a plate and tossed them into the air.
"Coo... coo coo!"
Along with a crisp cry, two snow-white owls flew down from the treetops, caught the thrown lamb pieces in their beaks, and landed on the table, devouring the food with great appetite.
"Send one copy to the Temple of Memory and the other to Hestia's residence."
Lorne separated the two fable manuscripts filled with writing, placed them into two message tubes, sealed them with wax, and then patted the heads of the two messengers and gave careful instructions.
These two served different purposes.
One copy was meant to amuse Mnemosyne and the Nine Muses.
At the same time, the attached letter subtly urged the Goddess of Memory to settle the manuscript payment and send the Nine Muses to Athens as soon as possible to meet him.
There was nothing he could do about it; after all, compiling books required a tremendous amount of effort and manpower, and doing everything alone was still too difficult.
The Nine Muses in the Temple of Memory were idle anyway, so they might as well come work for him, improving the previously written "Theogony" and "Sacred Hymns," while also helping Athens compile written laws.
Although he did not know how Artemis's attempt to persuade Apollo was progressing, or whether Mnemosyne would release them, it would not hurt to try.
As for the other copy, it would be delivered through Hestia to Athena, Medusa, and the others as shared reading material.
It is not scarcity that causes trouble, but inequality.
In order to avoid future disasters, the emotions on both sides had to be taken care of in advance.
This was practical experience. Lorne had summarized after suffering quite a few setbacks.
Soon, the two owls, having received their wages, burped in satisfaction.
Then they grabbed the message tubes and flapped their wings into the vast night.
Only after the two little creatures completely disappeared from sight did Lorne let out a long breath and lean back against his chair to relax slightly.
After all this commotion, even with his divine body, he could not avoid feeling mentally and physically exhausted.
But there was no other choice.
Although handling things both physically and emotionally produced slower results and required greater cost, the advantage was that the side effects were small.
He did not want to die before finishing his work, only to be chopped down by the women around him.
Especially Athena, this goddess of wisdom.
Ever since he had successfully brought Hecate, Circe, Astraea, and several others from outside, the Goddess of Wisdom had been looking at him strangely.
Being a cautious guy, he immediately bribed Nike with several skewers of roasted meat and a jug of iced grape wine, and the little girl secretly told him the following:
"Athena has recently liked squatting in Hestia's courtyard to sharpen her spear. While sharpening it, she occasionally smiles at the air."
"In short, it is very frightening."
Not to mention Nike, who was personally involved.
Even Lorne felt a chill after hearing it.
So he did not dare continue staying at Hestia's residence.
He moved out alone and used official duties as an excuse to busy himself with the legal construction of Athens every day.
After all, no matter how petty she was, Athena had a relatively good quality.
She clearly separated public matters from private ones.
As long as it was serious business, she rarely let personal affairs interfere with official work.
Therefore, Lorne, who was busy all day, had been living relatively peacefully.
However, this could not continue forever.
Maybe he should find an opportunity to reconnect emotionally with Sister Na.
At least beg for forgiveness before she took some drastic actions or something.
But that's still Athena.
Ah...for safety, it would be best to bring Hestia along as well.
"Eeh?"