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(Fate) Chapter 219: Ride the chariot..
🕑 Added 2024-12-06 16:13:57 +0000 UTCColchis
Beside the Argo, in the woods near the shore, the noonday sun cast long shadows on the ground.
Today, Hestia, draped in vibrant red, stood before Promise. As one of the three great virgin goddesses and the eldest among the gods, she looked as radiant as she was aggrieved.
Pouting, her expression was filled with dissatisfaction as she stared at Promise.
"Promise, tell me, are you brushing me off?"
"I would never, beautiful goddess Hestia," Promise replied, his face the picture of innocence.
"You are brushing me off!"
Hestia widened her eyes and pointed at Promise, her voice rising.
"Everyone else’s painting is grand and magnificent. Even that fool Ares got a masterpiece made by you! But why is mine so plain and perfunctory!"
"Goddess Hestia, you can’t say that."
Promise remained calm, unfazed by her loud voice as he responded, "I fulfilled your wish, didn’t I? I invited the Olympian gods and hosted a grand banquet in your honor. Not only that, but all the heroes of the Argo participated.
And besides...Goddess Hestia, doesn’t the fact that the painting is complete mean that deep down in your heart, you’re satisfied with it?"
What’s this? You don’t want to admit it now?
This was undeniably one of the simplest paintings Promise had ever created.
Even Athena had remarked on it.
While she could be quite cunning, Hestia, as a responsible elder sister, truly didn’t have extravagant demands. All she wanted was a harmonious banquet.
The banquet didn’t even need to be grand.
As long as her siblings could all attend and happily gather together, Hestia would be content.
Under normal circumstances, such a thing was nearly impossible.
After all, Olympus was famously chaotic, and it was really difficult to have the kind of family gathering Hestia expected, where everyone was in harmony.
Even in the beginning, when Promise first arrived, it would have been unthinkable.
But now?
With the gods showering the young man with affection, and many of them indebted to him in one way or another, it was as simple as asking.
Promise enlisted Hermes to deliver invitations to the gods and then gathered the Argonauts to organize a barbecue banquet.
And well...nothing fosters lively gatherings or even a big party quite like a barbecue.
And with Promise’s cooking skills, which were far ahead of this era—the result was unforgettable.
By the time the banquet ended, and Hestia snapped out of her daze, she found her painting completed and taken away by Promise.
To be fair, Hestia wasn’t exactly dissatisfied.
As Promise said, if she hadn’t felt a sense of fulfillment, the painting wouldn’t have been finished.
But whenever she compared herself with everyone else's situation, she always felt like she was being treated perfunctorily.
After all, even Hermes’s painting included a lively divine hunt!
Seeing her pout and complain, Promise could only shrug helplessly.
"Even so, I don’t care! Promise, you must make it up to me!"
Hestia declared loudly.
Promise looked at the pink-haired goddess with her mischievously darting eyes and could only sigh and say.
"O kind Hestia, goddess of the hearth, please... have mercy on me!"
"Relax, I won’t make you do anything too difficult,"
Hestia said, a sly smile forming on her lips.
"But Promise, about that golden apple dedicated to the fairest... shouldn’t it be the time to give it to me?"
Ah!
That’s it?
Just as Promise blinked in surprise, nodded in understanding and was about to reach for a golden apple.
"And, to make it up for me, you’ll write on it: ‘Dedicated to the most fairest,’ right?"
Promise froze mid-motion, staring at the mischievous goddess in front of him with a blank expression.
'I knew you black-bellied goddess was up to no good!'
Adding just one extra word, "most," would undoubtedly cause a stir among the jealous goddesses.
Artemis, in particular, who had already thrown a fit when she wasn’t chosen.
If she got wind of this...
Promise touched his neck.
He didn’t think he’d make it back in one piece—even now, he felt like he was walking a tightrope!
But refusing Hestia didn’t seem like an option either...
Thinking about this, Promise glanced at Hestia, who was clearly looking forward to the drama as his eyes lit up and an idea formed in his mind.
He pulled out a golden apple and carefully inscribed: "The most fairest golden apple dedicated to goddess Hestia."
"Here you go, Goddess Hestia," Promise said with a smug grin, raising his eyebrows as he looked at the goddess in front of him. "Your golden apple."
When Hestia accepted the apple and read the inscription,
For a moment, she was silent.
"Am I starting to act like Ares?" she murmured, seemingly lost in thought.
Then, with a self-deprecating smile, Hestia muttered, "I can’t believe I actually forgot, you’re a master at appeasing goddesses. A real goddess-slayer, aren’t you?"
What? No! That’s slander!
Promise really wanted to shout and prove his innocence, but he didn't do it in the end.
He knew all too well that the harder he tried to defend his innocence, the guiltier he’d seem.
"Brother Promise!"
At that moment, the most beautiful girl, Helen, came running toward them.
And then with a plop, she threw herself into Promise’s arms.
Perhaps because she hadn’t had the opportunity to shine during this latest adventure, Helen had been particularly clingy to Promise ever since their return.
"A god is looking for you!"
After greeting Hestia, Helen turned to Promise and said, "It’s the great sun god, Helios!"
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.
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The one who attempted to replace the sun god Helios and drive the solar chariot was named Phaethon.
When Helen found Promise and they waited together until sunset, they finally saw the great sun god, Helios, descend before them in his radiant chariot.
Helios was draped in a purple robe and wore a golden crown from which beams of sunlight emanated.
Well..he was a tall, burly middle-aged god.
Helios wasted no time and told Promise about the matter involving Phaethon.
"I once made a vow."
By the seashore of Colchis, Helios, who had invited Promise onto his solar chariot, sighed deeply as he spoke.
"Because Phaethon is not a god but a child born of a mortal woman, I swore upon the waters of the River Styx—a vow that cannot be broken—that I would grant him whatever he asked, to prove my love for him. But..."
"But you didn’t expect that he would ask to drive your chariot and control the sun?"
Hestia, who had followed out of curiosity and was sensing drama in the air, furrowed her brow and interjected with a grave expression.
Looking at the sun god Helios with a very serious expression, she said "Helios, do you even realize what you’re doing? Are you seriously considering granting such a ridiculous request?
Do you understand the catastrophic disaster this could bring upon the world if anything goes wrong?"
Though she could be cunning at times, Hestia, elder sister of the gods, clearly leaned toward lawful good or at least neutral good.
After all, as the goddess of the hearth and home, her role was deeply rooted in serving humanity.
"Of course, I understand, noble Hestia," Helios replied with a bitter smile.
"I don’t want to grant the boy’s unreasonable request either, but... I can’t bear to see him cry or feel heartbroken.
What's more, I am bound by my oath."
As Helios, the god of the sun, saw that Hestia wanted to say something, so he set his eyes on Promise and said,
"And, to be honest, my feelings toward Phaethon are just like yours toward this boy, Promise.
When he comes to you, crying and pleading, how can you bear to deny him?"
"Tell me..could you truly harden your hearts and refuse him?"
Wait, hold on—why am I being dragged into this?!
Hearing Helios’s tale, Promise, who had been silently contemplating the myth, was dumbfounded for a moment.
What left him even more speechless was how, after glancing at him, Hestia immediately nodded in agreement with Helios’s words and let out a deep, exasperated sigh.
"Wait a second," Promise interjected. "I feel like I need to defend myself here. I would never do anything that would make you all feel this conflicted!"
Promise’s declaration earned him an admiring gaze from Helen, who was quietly sitting and listening nearby.
Then...
"Heh," Hestia scoffed, giving Promise a sideways glance.
"The whole ordeal with Hades, the king of the underworld, and Persephone, the queen of the underworld, shooting that arrow at Athena on Mount Olympus...
Honestly, compared to all that, this Phaethon kid wanting to drive the solar chariot doesn’t sound so bad."
Promise opened his mouth to protest but found himself at a loss for words.
Under Helen’s curious gaze, he could only shut his mouth in silent defeat.
Hunting down Hermes, using Nyx’s body as a canvas, escorting Persephone step by step to Hades’s palace...
Compared to Promise’s antics, even Heracles would seem like a well-behaved child.
Looking at Promise’s awkward expression, Helen couldn’t help but giggle behind her hand.
Hehe, but even like this, big brother Promise is so adorable.
Ignoring Promise' situation, Hestia turned her attention back to Helios and asked in confusion.
"But what does this have to do with Promise?"
"Are you saying..."
"Yes," Helios replied with a nod, his gaze sincere as he looked at Promise.
"I don’t trust Phaethon to drive the solar chariot alone, but I also cannot bring myself to refuse him.
So, young man, I hope you can help me.
Ride with him—guide the sun together!"
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