(Fate) Chapter 54: Athena: Hera, You Can't Handle It!

In the Temple of Fate,

The fate goddess Clotho, with blank eyes, had been sitting there, motionless, for several days.

But tonight, she finally spoke her first words.

"He hunted that boar."

With her head lowered and her soft voice, Clotho whispered, "He ultimately did it; he rewrote the original fate and defeated me..."

Her words were light, making it hard to discern her current mood.

But as she gently held the crystal ball in her arms, Clotho's expression grew more complex...

On the night when Promise caught the star, Athena had said something to her.

That it wasn't Athena who had been harming Promise all along, but Clotho, the fate goddess.

And that was actually true.

The proof was the crystal ball she held, containing the thread of Promise's fate.

It wasn't a form of protection but a form of constraint.

Clotho used it to sever Promise's fate from the world, preventing it from intertwining with other destinies.

This crystal ball of fate first appeared after the pure white judgment of Themis, the goddess of justice.

Hera, through a marriage, had secured the souls of those she had cursed to death from Hades, the king of the underworld.

From that moment on, Promise had entered the sights of the three fate goddesses, who saw him as a nuisance.

Because of Promise's uniqueness, any fate he touched could change.

For such an unstable existence, the first thought of the three fate goddesses was to eliminate him.

But by then, Promise already had three goddesses standing behind him: Hera, Athena, and Themis, the goddess of justice, so they had to give up.

They planned to inform Zeus of this matter, letting him decide.

But at that moment, Clotho stepped forward.

Clotho, at the time, was very angry because Promise had altered the future on his own, touching her domain, and repeatedly changed the prophecy.

So she enclosed Promise's fate in that crystal ball and stepped out of the Temple of Fate, coming to Promise.

'I just wanted to show you, the fate goddess, a more beautiful future.'

Every time Clotho thought of this excuse from Promise, her heart would stir slightly—not with emotion, but amusement.

Quietly watching and weaving the future threads of all living beings, how could she be swayed by changes in fate?

Clotho believed she wouldn't be... She truly thought so once.

Until that night, when Athena showed her the captured future, where the boy she had seen fall to the meteor a hundred times, soared in the night sky, shining like a star.

After returning to the Temple of Fate, Clotho sat quietly ever since.

Until Promise hunted the Calydonian boar, she had to face her failure... The end of her bet with Promise.

Even though Clotho had known she lost the bet with Promise when she saw that future from Athena.

"Trying to show me... a more beautiful future."

The goddess whispered again, and at that moment, when everything truly ended, her body relaxed completely.

Then, as if thinking of something, she slowly stood up.

She gently placed the crystal ball in the air, then reached out, plucking a strand from the threads of fate above her head.

It was the fate thread of Actaeon, the student of the centaur sage Chiron.

Clotho grasped it and gently waved it, intertwining it with the crystal ball containing Promise's fate, observing the extension of fate.

Thus, she saw the ship named Argo.

Transformed into a giant stag by a curse, Actaeon stood on the ship, but he was smiling happily.

No one on the ship discriminated against him, and he raised his drink high, drinking with his friends.

Clotho also saw the thread grow longer, and at the end of the quest for the Golden Fleece, Actaeon brought glory to Artemis and spread his story throughout ancient Greece.

When Actaeon returned to Greece and stepped off the ship, he transformed back into the handsome hunter.

At that moment, all those around him were astonished and accepted him once again.

Clotho remained silent for a moment, then plucked another thread from the fate-woven sky of the Temple of Fate.

This was the fate thread of Meleager.

She then saw the wise mother who, this time, did not have to choose between her brothers and her children.

She protected the flame throughout her life, living happily.

Clotho also saw Meleager board the Argo, drinking with his friend Actaeon, whom he was destined to kill.

Seeing this, Clotho stood there in a daze, watching everything unfold.

She felt a sudden urge to throw all the threads of fate from her head into the crystal ball, but fortunately, her divine nature suppressed this desire.

However...

"Interesting," she murmured softly.

With that, she knelt back down, reaching out to gently grab the crystal ball again and carefully cradled it in her arms.

At that moment, a soft smile graced her lips, a smile she herself wasn't aware of.

All of this was seen by the two other fate goddesses, also clad in white robes, quietly hiding in a corner of the temple.

Second sister Lachesis, with her long hair as beautiful as the night, looked weak and frail due to her responsibility for the length of life threads, seemingly always on the verge of fainting.

Eldest sister, Atropos, the oldest of the fate goddesses, was meticulous, calm, and ruthless.

She was in charge of death, cutting the threads of fate at the destined moment.

Atropos was essentially mechanical, unmoved by anything or anyone, devoid of any emotions—no pain, sorrow, joy, or happiness touched her.

There was only one situation in which Atropos would change her predetermined decisions...

"Do we need to remind her?" Atropos asked Lachesis, devoid of any emotion.

"Remind her of what?" Lachesis looked confused.

"To remind Clotho that we should inform the great god-king Zeus of this matter... and also..."

Atropos extended her hand, pointing to the fate thread entwined around Clotho from the crystal ball—a thread similar to those entwined around Hera, Athena, and Themis.

"Are you stupid?" Lachesis rolled her eyes at Atropos. "If you want Clotho to never speak to you again, go ahead and tell Zeus. As for the fate thread... because it seems interesting, let's just pretend we didn't see it for now."

After saying this, Lachesis chuckled but couldn't help coughing violently.

After weighing her options for less than a millisecond, Atropos chose her sister over Zeus!
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Meanwhile, neither Athena nor Hera was aware of these events.

In the forest near the Calydonian boar's death, under the moonlit night, the most revered queen of all goddesses, Hera, and the most brilliant wisdom goddess, Athena, were still staring each other down, eyes locked.

This made Promise feel like he was sitting on pins and needles!

...


"No, no, what is this all about!"

Promise stood there trembling, looking at the two goddesses before him, who were unmatched in status, appearance, and strength.

He was bewildered and frightened.

"My name is Promise, not Zeus, and I'm not having an affair! Why does this feel like a caught-in-the-act scenario?"

Feeling like a drowning man grasping for a straw, Promise's gaze naturally shifted to the moon goddess Artemis.

However, his hope turned to despair when he saw Artemis watching with shining eyes, completely engrossed in the spectacle.

"She'd probably get more excited if you gave her a couple of glow sticks," he thought.

With no one to rely on, Promise considered the pegasus nearby, only to find the clever creature had retreated and was pretending to graze far away.

"Maybe I should just accept my fate," he mused. "If I die because these two are fighting over me, it might not be so bad. At least the story would be legendary!"

Promise recalled the tale of Adonis, a demi-god in Greek mythology.

Adonis's beauty was so unmatched that it captivated everything around him.

He became the beloved of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty.

She gave up everything to stay with him, warning him against hunting dangerous beasts.

It is said that he was killed by a wild boar, which seemed to be the revenge of the moon goddess Artemis on the goddess of beauty, or the jealousy of the god of war, Ares.

But after knowing this, the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, felt extremely sad, so from that day on, this most beautiful goddess cursed love in the world.

Curse that love will always be filled with suspicion, fear and sorrow!

Later, the goddess of beauty carried the body of Adonis to Olympus, praying to Zeus to resurrect the beautiful boy, but the letter was helpless.

Because the moment Adonis came to the underworld, Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, took a liking to him and made him her attendant, so she refused to let him return to the human world.

Hearing this, Aphrodite shed tears of despair, which fell on Adonis' body, mixed with his blood, fell to the ground and eventually turned into the brightest and most beautiful red roses.

This finally moved Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, and she agreed that every year when she returned to the human world from the underworld, she would bring Adonis to the human world and let him meet the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite.

But when she would return to the underworld, the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, had to let Adonis go and let him return to the underworld with Persephone!

In addition, there are many versions of this legend, most of them about the Queen of the Underworld and the Goddess of Beauty, with both goddesses vying for Adonis's affection.

In the end, Adonis became synonymous with exceptional beauty and charm.

The name "Adonis" itself came to describe a man of striking attractiveness.

Back in the present, Promise found himself caught between two powerful goddesses, each seemingly vying for his favor.

Although he didn't think he was such a handsome man,

Moreover, the confrontation between Hera and Athena was not like that at all.

But these two goddesses were special enough in terms of identity, status and strength!

Therefore, in the future, the topic will definitely be higher than that of a goddess of beauty or the queen of the underworld!

Thinking of this, Promise calmed down instantly.

He even picked up the melon that fell on the ground, blew on it twice, and continued to eat it, while thinking to himself,

Hurry up, hurry up!

'Anyway, the result is just death; at least this way, he wouldn’t be caught by the Moon Goddess and get thrown into a small dark room.'

'Oh, yes, it’s better to die early now and not worry about being hunted by Artemis, perfect!'

As soon as he thought of this, Promise noticed that Athena glanced at him faintly.

Only then did he remember that although he had tied the silver hair in his hair, it could only block others, not the Goddess of Wisdom herself.

So he silently threw the melon away again and stood there, looking so well-behaved and sensible...

"Now that things have come to this, Hera, since you know everything, let's discuss it." Athena then smiled and broke the silence between the two.

And once again, she spoke to Hera in a shocking tone: "You can't give Promise what he wants anyway, so just hand him over to me!"