Creak...
Creak...
Creak...
Early in the morning, Hestia stood stiffly outside the door, listening to the intense rattling sounds of wooden furniture shaking violently inside the room.
Her expression shifted unpredictably between dark and pale.
Finally, after standing there for half an hour, the Goddess of the Hearth bit her cherry lips and kicked a broken stone in the courtyard with a force comparable to a cannonball.
"Awooo~!"
In the distance, a golden hunting dog that was flirting with a cute little female dog let out a miserable cry and was sent flying backward.
Immediately afterward, seeing the murderous expression on its mistress's face, it hurriedly tucked its tail and bounced over to Hestia, whining pitifully.
The master and the pet are the same kind!
Hestia angrily cursed in her heart.
Then, with a cold face, she kicked the golden hunting dog's butt and raised her hand to point at the wooden house.
"You! Guard the door! Don't let anyone go inside! Otherwise tonight I'll stew you in a pot!"
"Woof!"
Driven by its instinct to survive, the golden hunting dog firmly sat guard in front of the door and nodded frantically.
'I'll settle accounts with you later!'
With a belly full of anger and bitterness, the goddess of the hearth glared hatefully at the wooden house that was almost being shaken apart.
After using her rhythmic divine authority to place another layer of concealment that hid the aura inside, she turned around with a dark expression and walked down the mountain toward the Academy of Athens.
Three days later, inside the academy cafeteria.
The Goddess of the Hearth, acting as head chef, along with the unsupervised little Medea and Nike, directed the Great Witch Circe, who had come to serve her punishment, to carry one basin after another of rich dishes to the serving window.
The students who had just woken up sat in their seats like puppets with cut strings, mechanically stuffing food into their stomachs.
And their tongues, which were almost numb, faintly told them something.
Today's dishes were salty and bitter again...
Slurp... slurp...
As the soups were served, several snorting pink pigs appeared on the students' tables.
Everyone skillfully picked up the piglets, tied them up, and sent them to the private little clinic of the substitute medical instructor, Asclepius.
Along the way, the piglets let out shrill screams, struggling desperately, their humanlike eyes revealing waves of terror.
However, the schoolmates responsible for transporting them skillfully pulled out rags, stuffed them into their mouths, and when Asclepius opened the door, they threw the piglets down with a loud thud.
"Wait..."
Asclepius frowned slightly and snorted with displeasure.
The few students responsible for delivery instantly stiffened.
A cold chill ran down their necks, and their bodies turned around like rusty machines.
Forced smiles, even uglier than crying, appeared on their faces.
"Next time remember to handle them gently. The recent samples are very precious, understand?"
Everyone nodded frantically, afraid that if they were even one second slower, this eccentric medical maniac would drag them onto the operating table for dissection.
"Alright, hurry up and finish breakfast and go to class."
The God of Medicine reminded them seriously with a rigorous attitude.
The group felt as if they had been granted eminence.
After giving the piglets looks that wished them good luck, they fled in panic.
After watching the students leave, Asclepius turned back to look at the few pink piglets that had been delivered and shook his head in disappointment.
Tsk. Their resistance to negative potions is getting stronger and stronger.
Because of that, the materials delivered recently keep decreasing.
'Forget it. I'll just make do with them.'
Asclepius closed the door and entered the room. After twisting the fluorite lamp on, he gently lifted the pink piglets one by one onto the hospital beds and then...used suppression spells and chains to fix them into a standard "big" shape.
Amid the clinking sounds of bottles and jars, the fully equipped doctor shook several transparent potion tubes that glowed with various eerie colors and came to the bedside.
He looked at the patients and asked, with patience and gentleness.
"I'm going to start the treatment. If you agree, blink once."
A warm and comforting doctor-patient atmosphere slowly emerged as their gazes met.
Five minutes later.
"Mm, you blinked! Don't worry. Cooperate with the treatment, and I will cure you very soon."
"Pu-wu...!!"
The piglets' bloodshot eyes bulged out.
Dry and aching, they used their authentic hometown language to send "beautiful blessings" to this dedicated and patient doctor.
Looking at the potions that were pink enough to make people nauseous, green enough to make people uneasy, and blue enough to make people depressed as they were brought to their mouths, the piglets let out hysterical screams and struggled with all four hooves.
They looked exactly like animals that had been dragged into a slaughterhouse.
Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Chiron heard the faint and miserable squealing of pigs in the distance, and his hand trembled, the spoon in it falling into the bowl.
Looking at the fragrant wheat porridge, the centaur sage swallowed his saliva, raised his somewhat stiff head, and looked toward the two cooks behind the stove with bitterness in his heart.
Ever since the cafeteria changed cooks three days ago, the daily meals of all teachers and students have become a living hell.
The food in the cafeteria was either too salty or too bland, making it impossible to swallow.
When the head chef Hestia chopped meat, a black aura surrounded her body as if she had a deep hatred toward the ingredients on the table.
In just a few meals, seven kitchen knives had already been ruined, and eight cutting boards had been shattered.
And the one responsible for the soup, Circe, was even worse.
Even though she had come to serve punishment, she had not changed her habits at all and loved throwing a bunch of random potions into the pot.
As a result, after drinking the soup cooked by the Great Witch, diarrhea was the smallest problem for the teachers and students.
Numbness, confusion, sluggishness, and the side effect of turning into pigs appeared one after another.
Those with weak resistance had already been affected several times.
Similarly, the one responsible for treatment, Asclepius, was no good either.
In order to obtain experimental results from human bodies exposed to different potions, he colluded with the two cooks to complete a closed loop of production and consumption.
And thus, the unlucky teachers and students of the Academy of Athens became tools for both sides to vent their anger and test their medicines.
Although the three of them had some restraint and had not actually pushed things to the point of life or death and even managed to increase the teachers' and students' resistance to side effect potions during the process, the experience of having their stomachs and minds repeatedly tormented by both sides was worse than death.
Even eating a meal required constant vigilance.
This life was unbearable!
Under the tearful gazes of all the teachers and students in the cafeteria, Chiron, who was temporarily managing the academy's affairs, helplessly stood up from his seat and walked toward the kitchen, preparing to offer a few words of persuasion.
Clang!
However, accompanied by a dull boom, a shining kitchen knife split the half-meter-thick marble chopping board cleanly into two.
Chiron glanced at Hestia's dark and stormy face, immediately withdrew the step he had taken, returned to his seat, and "accidentally" swept the wheat porridge on the table into the trash can.
There was nothing he could do about it.
The goddess of wisdom, Athena, had gone to Olympus for business, and now Hestia practically held absolute authority throughout Athens.
On top of that, the Great Witch Circe and the Goddess of Victory Nike had both been brought under her command.
Seeing that even the sage Chiron had retreated, the people of the Academy of Athens could only submit to the tyrannical authority of this darkened goddess of the hearth and complain bitterly in their hearts.
Big sister, whoever made you unhappy, go torment him.
Why take it out on us?'
Screech!
Just as everyone was grumbling resentfully in their hearts, a harsh metallic tremor came from the corner.
The sharp noise almost pierced everyone's eardrums, causing the teachers and students of the Academy of Athens to look over.
"How about we change the menu..."
Hestia threw the kitchen knife that had been twisted into a spiral onto the table, glanced kindly at the pale-faced teachers and students in the cafeteria, and asked with a smile.
"Let's eat dog meat tonight."
Everyone nodded in unison and began enthusiastically offering suggestions for tonight's grand meal.
"Yesterday the teacher just taught us a sleeping potion. I can prepare it. One bottle will make it fall asleep painlessly."
"Me! Me! I can cast suppression spells!"
"We can handle the boiling water, removing the fur, and stuffing the spices!"
"Woof?"
Along with a confused whimper, everyone who had been discussing enthusiastically turned their heads toward the dog's head that had poked in from the doorway in unison, their eyes becoming sinister.
In an instant, figures rushed out of their seats like wild animals, making the cafeteria explode with noise.
"Quick, catch it!"
"Don't let the ingredient escape!"
"Where are the others? Start the pot, boil the water, and heat the oil."
Amid the dog's terrified whining came the crashing sounds of heavy objects colliding.
Plates and dishes on the tables flew everywhere.
And seeing this scene, the teachers and students of the Academy of Athens were almost moved to tears.
Great. We don't have to eat anymore!
Thus, the excited teachers and students chased the golden hunting dog running wildly through the cafeteria with even greater enthusiasm.
Countless plates, tables, and chairs were knocked over along the way, turning the entire cafeteria into chaos.
At this moment, Hestia, who had suggested eating dog meat, ignored the farce in front of her, and a trace of excitement appeared in her eyes.
That dog is here?
Which means they woke up?
Realizing this, the Goddess of the Hearth immediately rushed out from behind the stove and ran straight up the mountain.
~~
Bang!
At the same time, inside the dim medical room, the tightly closed door was violently smashed open.
The future god of medicine, who was mixing potions at the table, glanced sideways at the empty hourglass and casually lifted the black cloth covering a small greenhouse beside him.
The snakes inside had already separated from one another and lazily curled up in their respective corners.
Under the flickering light, several teachers and students who had just received treatment had returned to their human forms.
Naked, they were tied to the hospital beds like piglets, their eyes empty and lifeless, foam spilling from their mouths as if they had just endured some inhuman torture.
"You came?"
Asclepius removed his gloves and pulled back his hood.
As if he had expected this, he turned toward the silver-haired visitor outside the door who had finished testing the medicine's effects, took out a small notebook, and asked curiously.
"How does it feel?"
"..."
The veins on Lorne's forehead twisted together.
A sinister smile slowly appeared on his face as he cracked his knuckles loudly and walked into the medical room.
(End of Chapter)