How-not to be an Olympian God!

Chapter 126 - A Step Back In Time(5)

-Mount Olympus-

Over a mountain peak in Olympus, a tall tower constructed of bluestone bricks dominated the surroundings.

Inside the highest floor of the tower, a blue-robed woman sat on a chair.

She was studying a yellow-ish, tattered scroll.

Although she seemed focused, a closer look revealed that her pupils looked elsewhere than the scroll.

It was Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

Her pupils were twitching rapidly, and this increased in intensity until...

*Tsss*

She abruptly ripped the scroll in half.

'Why am I feeling this way? Why does the time go on so emptily?' Athena wondered to herself.

Recently, she schemed against her father, the King of the Gods, Zeus.

Along with Prometheus and Hephaestus, they stole the divine fire of Zeus and granted it to the mortals, who couldn't eat freezing meat in the winter or spoiled meat in the hot summers.

Unfortunately, the latter had discovered their plans, albeit too late, and sent Prometheus to the Underworld.

When Here discovered Hephaestus' involvement in the plan, she began pestering him again, and now, he hadn't left his base in a few months.

Athena was left unscathed, but that did not matter to her.

Over the years, especially after the exile of Sophus from Gaia, she started feeling emptiness at her meaningless, but immortal life.

When Prometheus spoke to her about the 'humans', her curiosity overwhelmed her.

She found them amazing, even more so than gods could ever be.

Because they didn't have unlimited time, everything they ever did had importance, and they valued the world and their peers much more than the selfish gods of Olympus.

From this intrigue and amazement, Athena began teaching the mortals.

She taught them language, and wisdom, and thought.

Then, she gifted them ink and paper, as Sophus had once done for her.

However, now that Hephaestus and Prometheus weren't her anymore, it felt empty and unfulfilling.

Suddenly, she recalled something.

'Didn't Herme take in two children a few years ago? Should I go see them?' Athena contemplated.

Ultimately, she packed up a few scrolls as gifts and left her tower.

She was soon in front of Hermes' mansion.

*Knock*

She knocked a few times on the front gate.

Athena did not wait too long, and someone opened the door.

Surprisingly, it wasn't Hermes.

A skinny man was at the door.

He had piercing hazel eyes and a serpentine staff in his hands.

The man looked at her and, unexpectedly, he frowned.

"Is Hermes here?"

"No," The man coldly replied.

"Are you...Apollo?" Athena nervously asked.

Apollo did not answer her question, and instead, he incomprehensibly commented, "It's strange..."

Suddenly, he stabbed the serpentine staff into his two eyes.

As his eyes bled profusely, he calmly said, "You have an obsession with injustice, perhaps an insecurity that you won't be seen as a morally just person, if you continue on this path, you will only turn into a monster you've never wanted to be."

Athena stepped back.

'He's...scary...' She clenched her hands on the scrolls, and slowly left the premises while surveying the man in front of the door.

Blood pooled down at the floor.

Even though the man's eyes were bleeding, he stared right at her as if he could see her.

Athena immediately ran away and went back to her tower.

'I'm obsessed with justice...? Athena's heart beat aggressively, and she clenched her hand on her armored chest.

_______________________

A few years had passed by since her first encounter with Apollo, but his words still pierced deep into her heart.

She was trying to predict tomorrow's night sky charts when a woman entered her room.

The woman was clad in priestly clothing, and her face was rather charming

"Lady Athena?" The priestess had red eyes, and her dry face indicated she was crying.

"Oh, Medusa, let me finish this part of the chart, and you'll have my undivided attention."

Soon enough, Athena was over with her study and looked at Medusa.

She was shocked at her clearly tearful face, and she asked, "Medusa, why have you come from Athens to here? That's quite a long journey..."

"Lady Athena, I..I-I have something to say."

"Go on."

"In the Acropolis in Athens, Lord....Z-Zeus forced himself on m-" Medusa couldn't continue, and collapsed on the floor. 

Strangely, Athena's eyes were somewhat empty.

"That means you broke the vow of celibacy you swore when you became my priestess," Athena coldly stated, and her attitude immediately changed.

"B-but! Lady, Lord...forced himself on me," The woman's voice was hard to hear amidst her tears.

"I'll take care of Father later, but you'll have to face justice for breaking your oath first," Athena approached Medusa in slow steps.

"Raise your head up," Athena crouched near the priestess and ordered her.

Medusa obeyed, and Athena proceeded to place her finger on the woman's face.

Suddenly, her face turned green-ish and coarse like sandstone.

She was screaming in pain, and each and every strand of her hair turned into a small snake.

When this stopped, Athena took back her hands and stared at them.

It was perhaps just her imagination, but her hands seemed to be dyed in blood.

"What did I do?!" A random memory popped up in her head.

That time she met Apollo, his bloody face, and his piercing words.

She couldn't think properly with the proof of her crime in front of her, so she threw the monster she created into a cave far away.

She tried to be indifferent and forget this, but every night, whenever she slept, the nightmare of her sins came creeping up, and Apollo's face was always in the background.

'I can't do it anymore...' Athena made a decision.

She couldn't bear to take accountability for her actions, and she came into contact with a newly-risen hero named Perseus.

She fabricated a story about Medusa's evil and sent him to kill her.

Even after this happened, the nightmare only got stronger.

One day, she was training, when the drums of the divine council reverberated throughout Olympus.

She made her way to Zeus' palace, and into the courtroom.

"I have gathered all of you today to decide on a new matter," Zeus declared.

"Demeter, what do you have to say?"

Demeter was the plaintiff today, and she exclaimed, "My daughter, creatress of life, Persephone, was stolen by none other, than the King of the dead, Hades!"

The issue seemed important, but Athena's mind was elsewhere.

Hermes was on the opposite seat to Athena.

His perception was always a strength of his, and he noticed two strange things.

'Why do Father's eyes glow whenever Demeter mentions her daughter?'

'Why is Athena like that?'