How long had I waited for this moment? At last, Atalanta and I stood before my mother's temple.
My mother, Selene, the goddess of the full moon, seemed to disapprove of my marriage to Atalanta so much that she flew into a rage and turned me into a beast. When I'm awake, I take the form of a beast; when I'm asleep, I become human.
I have a duty to see Atalanta through to the very end. That's why I came here. To my mother's temple... and to make my mother understand my relationship with Atalanta. Just as I was thinking that—
"Hmm... a beautiful boy. Who might you be?"
As befitted a goddess's temple, two black-haired women stood guard at the entrance, armed and ready. One wore her hair in a side tail tied to the right, and the other wore hers tied to the left.
For a moment I wondered if they were twins... then I realized they weren't ordinary women. I knew because I could feel divine power coming from them. After meeting so many gods already, I'd become able to tell at a glance whether someone was a god or not, whether I liked it or not.
Their rank as gods was far below my mother's, but they were still genuine deities. They blocked the entrance with spears and watched us warily. But that was only natural. ...If only those women hadn't gone red in the face...
"Selene's youngest, Iskios. I came here because I have something to say to my mother—"
"""Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!!!?"""
The two armed women looked at me and screamed in shock. To put it mildly, they stared at me as if their eyeballs might pop out.
Then, with expressions that were no longer fit for guards at a temple gate, they went slack-jawed and lowered the spears blocking the entrance. No... rather than slack-jawed, they looked utterly pathetic.
At first I was ready to complain at full force about how sloppy they were and how easily they'd dropped their guard, but the moment their gazes landed on me, my whole body tingled.
"Oh! So you're Iskios, are you? How lovely, our youngest!"
"That's right! We'll welcome you here anytime!!!"
"....."
I had no choice but to learn the identity of these two gatekeepers guarding my mother's temple. I'd once heard from Teacher Chiron that I had fifty older sisters above me.
Fifty daughters, my mother who bore them and me, the youngest, and my father Endymion, who had fallen into eternal sleep with eternal immortality after asking Zeus for it. That was Selene's family tree.
I was stunned that I'd been let through so readily just because I was family... but just now, the moment their gazes touched me, my body had tingled. And when I thought about that tingling sensation, and the fact that this was the end of the world in Greece—
"Ah, shit..."
—outside or here, I was exposed to danger all the same. Let's be careful not to end up in some twisted "entrance fusion" situation.
-Entrance fusion! Incest raga!!!-
My mother's temple was larger than I'd expected. Even if she wasn't one of the Twelve Olympians, my mother was still a proper goddess in Greece. Naturally, the temple where she lived couldn't possibly be small.
The sister with the left side tail continued standing guard, while the sister with the right side tail guided us through the temple. At first the two of them had argued over who would guide us, but in the end, the loser of rock-paper-scissors had to stay on guard duty.
Anyway, as we walked down the temple corridor, guided by my sister, we arrived at the chamber in the center of the temple. The chamber was splendid. Four white pillars were wrapped in vines of flowering plants, and in the center stood a long, large table. All kinds of delicacies had been laid out on it.
...It looked delicious, but it reminded me of the time Apollo had set out a banquet to tempt me, trying to lure me in with the smell, so I instinctively stayed on guard. And then—
"Mother! Iskios has arrived!"
"Eh!? Iskios!?"
"He really came...!"
"So cute~!"
"This is my first time seeing his bare face!!!"
"Kyaaa~!"
Inside the chamber, nearly forty black-haired goddesses, including my mother Selene, were squealing and laughing as they looked at me, and quite a few of them wore those gloomy yandere faces.
They and the sister with the right side tail who had been guiding me... in the end, there wasn't much difference. Even if their looks differed a little and their personalities were all over the place, what they were thinking was probably almost the same. And then...!
"I-Iskios...! Y-you've come...! If you'd asked me, I would've brought you here myself...!"
—The final boss, my mother, appeared. Though timid and dark in temperament, there's a saying that even spoiled fish can be a decent catch, and my mother was still a goddess of the end-times Greece.
My mother, who had shown no sign of assertiveness, took my hand with both of hers and led me to the table in the middle of the room.
"Now, you must have had a hard time coming all this way...? Your sisters have prepared a banquet, so let's eat together!"
"W-wait...!?"
Her tone and behavior seemed passive, but I couldn't resist my mother's strength. No, what kind of absurd strength was this? As I was thinking that, one of my more boisterous-looking sisters pushed me from behind, and I realized I was being forcibly moved.
I was being separated from Atalanta, so I reached out toward her, but another sister appeared at my side and said with a smile, "Don't worry, don't worry! This sister will take care of Iskios's little pet~!"
"No! Leave it to this sister instead!"
And so I... was truly, completely, unintentionally dragged into my mother and sisters' pace, separated from Atalanta and made to eat with them.
Normally I never would have expected this to happen... but this was Selene's temple, my mother's home turf. If I ran wild here more than necessary, the fallout might hit Atalanta even harder.
...Besides, I was hungry, that much was true, but I was still worried about Atalanta. This was the end of the world in Greece; my mother might secretly order her killed.
—So I couldn't let my guard down. Not ever... No matter what happened, I couldn't relax. This was the final boss's home turf.....
"Hey, hey, Iskios! Try this too, it's delicious! Have a bite!"
"Come on, aah~♡"
"N-no... I'll eat it myself."
I was served nectar and ambrosia, food said to be for gods alone. And apparently they'd arranged it specially, because the sisters who had cooked it proudly said it was different from the usual.
When a few of them tried to feed me with "aah," I was too embarrassed and said I'd eat it myself. I'm how old, and they want to do aah? I'd rather eat it on my own. But nectar and ambrosia... I really was being treated to something precious in my lifetime...
—But when the sisters saw me eating cautiously, they brought both hands to their cheeks and screamed. Screams of joy, that is.
"Kyaaaaaaa!!! So cute~!"
"He's so adorable when he's embarrassed!!!"
"I want to preserve him forever~!"
"To think such a cute kid is our youngest~! I'm so glad I was born~!"
There were nearly fifty women here, so the temple was noisy, but I kept nibbling at the dishes on the table, slowly, little by little, and carefully.
I still didn't feel that sticky, lecherous kind of gaze. Right now, the gazes were only warm, excited looks at something cute... in other words, my sisters getting excited over me being cute, and my mother smiling as she watched them.
After carefully eating until I was full, another sister suggested that I take a bath. The moment I heard that suggestion, I became even more wary. This might not be a bath at all, but a trap.
This was my mother's home turf. To block my escape route, they might secretly hide my clothes somewhere while I was in the bath. Thinking of the worst-case scenario, I hid my clothes in a double layer and quietly entered the bathhouse.
"Oh... this is surprisingly nice?"
I hadn't expected much from a bathhouse in ancient Greece, but inside it was more comfortable and pleasant than I'd imagined. The water for bathing was like a huge lake, and around it were all kinds of decorations and blooming flowers.
The size and convenience reminded me of the public bathhouses I'd visited before, but it was definitely a beautiful place. Still... just as I was admiring the bathhouse, I felt a gaze inside the room.
"—We've been waiting for you, Iskios!"
"You're cute even when you're naked~!"
"Kyaaa~!"
"...Shit."
—There were already sisters waiting inside the bathhouse. Among them, the one who seemed most like the leader stood with her arms crossed, greeting me boldly in her nearly naked state.
She was covering her lower half with a towel, but the sister who had been waiting for me in the bathhouse was blushing bright red at the sight of my nearly naked body. And then... that sticky gaze, as if it were pricking my skin...
Exposed to that gaze, I was dragged back into an old fear... the days when Apollo had chased me. Without thinking any further, I hid in the shadows and concealed my presence. The moment I vanished, the sisters waiting in the bathhouse fell into chaos.
"Huh?! He disappeared!?"
"Find him! Find him right now!"
"I'm the one who's going to find him first!"
"Shut up! Just stay out of the way!"
"What did you say!?"
Because I'd suddenly disappeared, the sisters all changed their plans on the spot. Some couldn't understand what had happened, some tried to find me, some were practically steaming from their noses as they searched for me, and some started fighting each other.
...It had become a cauldron of chaos, but thinking that it was better to bathe when no one was around, I left the bathhouse to meet Atalanta, taking my clothes with me and changing before heading out.
Ah... I really had done well to hide my clothes in a double layer. Since the fake set I'd prepared had already vanished... I just wanted to finish this quickly and feel at ease.