While keeping myself hidden, I searched the inside of my mother's temple for Atalanta. Since this was a temple where a Divine Spirit resided, it was said to be huge just by itself... so how big was the temple of Olympus, anyway? This temple alone was already about the size of a luxurious mansion if I roughly judged its scale and area... Was the temple of Olympus on the level of Versailles Palace?
As I looked around, I could feel the temple growing noisy. My older sisters were searching for me with fire in their eyes.
"Find him! Find Iskios!!! He has to be somewhere in this temple!!!"
When the bold, big-sisterly sort of sister shouted that, several of the others who agreed with her started looking for me too. Then, centered around her, the rest of my sisters began roaming the temple in search of me.
As they started moving through the temple, old memories came back to me without warning. Back when Apollo had been obsessed with hunting me down, he had ordered the gods and nymphs under him to search for me by force.
Every time that happened, I hid in the shadows and ran to the next place if I thought I was about to be exposed. Back then, it had been the start of hell for me, but now it felt strangely ironic that those days were what made me who I am. Ah, of course, I still hate Apollo.
After shaking off all the sisters who were frantically trying to find me, I was able to find Atalanta outside the temple.
"Sorry! Did I keep you waiting?"
"Grrh!?"
Atalanta looked at me in surprise, as if I had suddenly appeared out of the shadows. She even had a dog collar around her neck, like some kind of pet...
"Nothing terrible happened to you, right? Did you eat?"
"Grr..."
Atalanta averted her eyes with a tired look on her face, but from the way she looked, it seemed she hadn't been put through anything too awful. I thought that was a relief, but...
"Wait for me, Atalanta. Soon I'll—"
"—Hee, so that beast was the woman from before."
Just as I was patting Atalanta's head and trying to reassure her that I would persuade my mother, Atalanta let out a low growl and backed away.
The instant I wondered why Atalanta was frightened, I could feel it. A gaze... not directed at me, but it was definitely directed at Atalanta.
What I felt in that gaze was jealousy, anger, hatred... nothing but negative emotions. I turned around to see whose gaze it was... and froze just like Atalanta.
My mother was standing behind us with her arms crossed.
"I thought maybe Iskios had brought back some beast he'd seen somewhere as a pet, but... so it was that woman."
"Yes, Mother. This is Atalanta."
With my mother's appearance, Atalanta seemed to panic and shrink back in a way that was unworthy of a lion, trying to hide somewhere. No doubt what my mother had done to her had become a trauma...
I was the same way in the past. When Apollo was chasing me, I felt fear toward Divine Spirits. Of course, I still do. Gods are overwhelmingly strong, capricious, and far more childish than children when it comes to causing trouble.
But... I would not be afraid at this moment. At last, this moment had come. This was the destination of the journey to persuade my mother, who had turned Atalanta into a lion, and return her to human form. That was my atonement, and my heart...
"Mother, why did you turn Atalanta into a beast?"
"Why, you ask...? Isn't that obvious!? Because you would be defiled!"
My mother was usually timid and weak-willed. But now, as if that timid side had gone somewhere, she was showing the dignity and fear of a goddess, if not quite on the level of Lady Hera.
But defiled...? What was that supposed to mean...? That thought crossed my mind. I knew my mother's attachment to her children was strong in strange ways, but I figured that was probably just a trait all Divine Spirits shared.
Divine Spirits are different from humans. As long as they have faith, they live on, immortal and deathless, and their power is incomparable to that of humans—unyielding! Invincible! Unrivaled! That is why I believe that for them, "love" is something unchanging.
"You are a beautiful child! Of all the children I gave birth to, you are the most lovely, the cutest, and the most beautiful! But! That is precisely why I cannot possibly accept that you married some insignificant human!"
Divine Spirits do not age or decline, since they are immortal, but humans are different. Humans grow old, lose strength, fall ill easily, and die quickly compared to gods.
I, too, am a demigod who inherited half the blood of a god, just like Heracles. So I admit I am not an ordinary human. Considering my mother's personality, maybe even if the people around me grew old, I alone would remain as I am.
What my mother disliked about my marriage to Atalanta was probably that she thought Atalanta was a human who would age and die with time. But I have never once thought of myself as a god. I am not a god. I am human.
Then and now, born in this end-of-the-century Greece, my wish has never changed. To spend the rest of my life quietly as a human. That is my wish.
"I can't even stand nymphs, and I'm certainly not handing you over to some human! I absolutely won't give you away!"
"But Father is human too..."
"Eh...!? Th-that... is... um..."
When I struck her with plain logic, my mother suddenly began to shrink back as usual. I had never met my biological father, but I had heard that father, Endymion, was human.
But even setting aside the fact that she was shrinking back after I brought up such obvious logic, I could feel her suddenly becoming smaller. ...Still, this is where the real battle begins. I came here to return Atalanta to her original human form.
Gods are extremely fickle beings. Even if I managed to restore Atalanta, they might turn her back into a beast again, or in the worst case, into some other creature. So I decided to bring up "those words" here.
"Mother... I have a request."
"A-a request...?"
My mother looked at me with a stiff expression, unlike before. It felt far removed from the expression I usually saw on her face.
All right... I've come this far. There's no turning back now, but I was already prepared for that. I once swore to protect Atalanta. I would stake this life on it...
"—Please acknowledge Atalanta and me as a proper married couple."
—The love of a god and the love of a human are different.—
Selene already knew that Iskios would bring back Atalanta, who had been turned into a beast. To her, Atalanta was an existence of pure sacrilege, but she was happy that her son had returned to his maternal home.
And when she reunited with Iskios in the temple, Selene was delighted. She and the sisters, all fifty daughters, had welcomed Iskios sincerely, not one of them missing. In fact, if he were to be matched with one of her daughters, Selene would have nothing more to wish for.
But Iskios thought differently from his sisters and his mother. His aims were different too.
"Mother... I have a request."
"A-a request...?"
So when Iskios brought Atalanta with him, she was thinking that he would surely ask her to return Atalanta to human form.
Of course, Selene would grant Iskios's request. But even so, her hatred for Atalanta would not simply disappear. The moment Iskios looked away, she would torment Atalanta in a different way, just as Hera tormented Heracles.
That was why Selene waited for the words asking her to turn Atalanta back into a human. But the words that came from her son's mouth were completely different from what she had expected.
"—Please acknowledge Atalanta and me as a proper married couple."
"Eh...?"
He wanted her to acknowledge them as husband and wife? For a moment, Selene felt as if the seal on Tartarus had been broken. Or as if she had heard Zeus say he was going to stop cheating on his wife—an equally impossible statement.
What had her son just said...? That he wanted her to acknowledge him as married to that ugly beast? Selene felt as if her mind had flown far away. She had certainly expected him to ask her to return Atalanta to human form, but...
"I-Iskios!? Do you understand what you're saying right now!? That woman who is no longer human... that woman who has become a lion... you want to l-love her...!?"
"The love you seek, Mother, and the love I seek are different."
Iskios answered Selene, who was reeling from the shock, with confidence. To explain that the "love" of gods and humans was different, and to state his own resolve, he continued speaking.
"For a human to love means to bear all of that. Mother, even if Atalanta looks like this, even if her personality is difficult, even if she cannot bear children, I will love Atalanta for the rest of this life."
"I... Iski... os...!"
"So I beg you, Mother... no, Lady Selene. Please, acknowledge our relationship."
Selene sank down onto the floor. After hearing Iskios's words, she could say nothing more and simply looked at her son standing there with unwavering resolve.
His feelings were sincere. Human love was fleeting to her, so fragile and so easily lost. That was why, to spend eternity with the Endymion she had loved, she had put him into eternal sleep together with immortality.
But Selene was thrown into confusion. Turning Atalanta into a lion had backfired. She had thought that if Atalanta became a lion, Iskios would lose interest and abandon her, but her son said he would take responsibility to the end regardless.
If she left Iskios and Atalanta alone like this, Atalanta would be far uglier than when she had been human. That... Selene found even harder to accept. And... being called "Lady Selene" instead of "Mother" by Iskios was even worse.
"...Iskios... I have certainly heard... your wish..."
Selene had lost. Rather than granting Iskios's request, she snapped her fingers of her own will and lifted Atalanta's curse.
The moment she snapped her fingers, the hide of the black boar burst out from Atalanta's chest, and Atalanta's body began returning from a lion's form to a human one. Seeing Atalanta return to human form, Iskios quickly took off the top of the clothes he was wearing and handed it to her.
Before long, Atalanta returned from a lion to her original human form as if it had all been a lie. But she had not fully returned to normal. Animal ears that had not been there before now stood atop her head, and a tail remained at her hips.
"I hate that human, so I'll stop at this much... I won't compromise any further. Hmph..."
"Thank you, Mother..."
Holding the unconscious Atalanta in his arms, Iskios bowed his head in thanks to his mother as she quietly departed.
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