I smiled down at my sibling.
"So? What did we learn today?"
The river banks where we stood remained silent. No answer to my question.
Don't like it. Definitely don't like it.
My displeasure must have shown on my face because Zeus finally spoke up while still kneeling in front of me.
"That I am a fool for getting distracted and allowing those three to trick my mind."
"And?"
He bit his busted lips as his sole, unbruised eye stared at the ground with loss clear in his gaze.
"And to trust more in my family instead of letting my paranoia consume me."
I huffed at his answer and flared my Ki, guiding it into his body and unlocking the healing ability that all gods have within them, one that I locked away before our training session so that this lesson would stick in this blockhead's brain.
"You better remember that, brother. The next time you pull a stunt like that, I am telling Mother to deal with you."
That elicited an even more terrified reaction than when he faced me during our training.
Seriously, I don't know what mother threatened him with back then during that marriage ceremony of his and Metis, but it has worked wonders to keep this spoiled brat that I call brother in line.
Really effectively. Must learn this secret.
I sighed and sat down at the river banks, letting go of my control over my domains except that of Destruction. That, I kept locked up as always.
The land around me became more vibrant, the water clearer, the atmosphere more pleasant.
Even the animals that had run away during our spar came back rather quickly and repeated that familiar ritual where they either snuggle up against me or sleep in my lap.
Zues silently sat by my side and spoke up softly.
"It never ceases to surprise me how your mere presence makes life glow like this, brother."
"And you never cease to surprise me with how stupid and reckless you can be, Zeus."
I glared at him as he scratched his head with embarrassment.
If he were anyone else, after what he pulled? I would have erased him on a conceptual level for repeating what Kronos did to us.
Unfortunately, this is my brother, one who most definitely did not want to do what he did. So, this is all I can do for now.
"First, it was your marriage to Metis right after the war. That, I can accept since I already sense you two had something going on even during the war. Waste of time in my opinion, time which you could have spent training. But still, I let it slide because it was your choice."
"Then, it was you and Demeter and that whole drama when Metis caught you two."
I felt that familiar twinge of weirdness in my chest whenever I think of this incident and the more recent incident with Zeus.
As far as I remember, we, Saiyans, never had many taboos in our culture. For us, strength was everything.
However, there were a few fundamental rules that we all instinctively followed.
Vegeta spoke about this when his wife, Bulma, was complaining about aging faster than her husband and fearing that he would move on to a younger woman should she lose her beauty.
He explained it like this to Kakarot and I. When a Saiyan mates with someone, they stay with them for life. It is not a rule. It is just a natural inclination of our race. An instinct. No exceptions.
So, when Zeus got involved with Demeter, I felt like something fundamentally wrong was happening in my family. Because he was getting involved with another female while already having a mate.
Of course, I knew that my siblings are not Saiyans like me, so they don't operate on the same principles, and that thing with Demter was consensual, and Metis too did not care too much about it, apparently, so I let it be.
But still, it is a feeling that refuses to go away.
I sighed as I continued speaking, the feeling within my chest growing stronger with my words.
"And then, you devoured Metis while she was still with child, albeit under the manipulations of the fates, somehow wooed Hera soon after, and wedded her, all under the span of a single year!"
I could not help how my voice rose an octave at the end.
How? Just how did he do so much damage to our reputation and family in a single Tartarus-damned year I was away?
The only reason I even knew about all of this was that literally everyone, beginning from the minor gods and goddesses on Olympus, all the way down to the Oceanids in the distant seas that border our realms, was talking about it.
The literal moment I returned from my expedition, returning from the flux of the world to the steady, solid realms of my home, I heard them discuss this matter down in the ocean.
Somehow, the King of Olympus had turned himself into gossip entertainment for literally everybody in the realm in the short time frame I was gone!
So damned frustrating!!
Of course, the gossip was the method by which I discovered what happened to Metis. As for how I discovered Athena's existence within her father's thick skull? That was tied to my domain of 'The Lost'.
I would have pulled Metis out as well. To me, who has already mastered the spiritual arts from my old life and unlocked the power of magic, it is child's play to create a new body for her and place her soul in it.
But she refused when I tried while rescuing Athena.
For some reason, she chose to remain within Zeus's head as his voice of reason and wisdom.
Of course, I checked her to see if it was those three messing with her again, but I found no traces of their manipulations, which meant this was all her.
"....Hera wanted to wait until you returned to hold the wedding, but Mother and...the fates...said that the auspicious timing would be gone by then...."
I snoted at Zeus's words, knowing that this kind of trick was exactly the forte of those three old women.
They knew they could not write my fate, and as long as I exist in the vicinity of Olympus, neither could they write the fate of my siblings and the rest of my family.
That must be why they took full advantage of the time when I was gone and tried to write their 'story' into reality like they always do with their precious threads.
'Maybe I should pay them a visit and Hakai all of their strings away? Can they produce new strings if I destroy all of them? How do those threads and their power work anyway? Must investigate later.'
I sighed and lay down on the ground.
"Are you two happy? With this marriage? Is Mother happy? And the others?"
Zeus had a rare soft smile on his face at that question as his gaze turned to the sky.
"Yes. I am happy. It still stings that they made me devour Metis, but Hera...she makes me very happy. And, I think she feels happy with me as well."
...'Stings' is an understatement. I still remember how....broken you were in the past few days.
His face broke out with a broad grin as he continued speaking.
"Mother was very happy on that day. Even Mother Earth sent Hera a gift, a tree that produces golden apples. Solid. Gold. Apples. Full of divine essence. It is beautiful."
"Hm. I see. If you all are happy with it, I guess I won't say anything about it. But make no mistake, brother..."
I sat up and leveled a glare at him, making him sit up straighter.
"If you make a repeat performance of what happened recently, I really will sic mother on you. And not just mother, I will take you on a mandatory training journey with me down to the Underworld."
The look of abject horror on his face satisfied me a lot, knowing that I had made my point with this brain-dead idiot.
We sat there on the banks for a long time, having small talk and catching up with everything.
But finally, the time came for me to talk about the serious stuff.
"So, you found nothing?"
I shook my head at his question.
"While our realms have stabilized after the defeat of the Titans, solidifying into a world with solid rules. The world beyond our borders, beyond the oceans, are still in flux, it would seem. I travelled at my maximum speed for nearly half a year Eastward, following the trail that the Oceanids pointed out to me, but still failed to reach any landmass or any other life. So, I decided to return and rethink our strategy."
Zeus nodded at my words while deep in thought, as I immersed myself back in my domain.
After the defeat of the Titans, I believed that I was now the indisputably strongest being on the planet, strong enough to destroy it like those delicate utensils the Oni used to have back in hell, after the world solidified into a proper planet.
However, as it turns out, I was too naive and too little informed about this world as a whole.
The Greek lands solidified into a proper reflection of a planet, that much is true. And I am currently the indisputed strongest being in our realms, bar none.
However, we discovered shortly after our ascension that, beyond our realms, the world was still in a state of primordial flux. Something that should not have been possible if we and our lineage were the true rulers of the world.
This led to a single, terrifying conclusion for all of us.
There were others out there, beyond our borders.
Other gods, other monsters, other beings that might be tyrants like the Titans or something else entirely, something so utterly alien that we might not even be able to comprehend.
That is why I have been expanding my power as much as I could while occasionally taking trips out of our borders, to try and find what lies outside.
However, given that the fates have now taken advantage of my prolonged absence, perhaps it is better for me to wait for a while before going out on another expedition.
".....Want to eat something?"
I glared lightly at my stupid little brother, who gave me a wry smile.
"Hey, don't look at me like that. I am not trying to change the subject, I really am asking you if you are hungry."
"If I am?"
"Then, how about a celebration?"
".....You just want to party, don't you?"
"Ehe."
Somehow, that expression and that word of his sent irritation coursing through my mind. But I let go of it.
Since I have already punished him for his actions for now, it won't do for me to hold any more grudges lest Hestia start lecturing me again.
"Fine. Let's see what you got."
The grin on his face could have lit up the sky.
How unfortunate, really. If only he held the same enthusiasm for training....
.....Yeah, then he wouldn't be Zeus, would he?
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