Chapter 247 Athena's Road to Losing (3.4k)
At the same time, Ares Mountain.
A stealthy figure appeared in front of the great temple, occasionally poking his head out to peer inside.
Athena was sitting under the fluorite lamp, flipping through the files. She looked up at the familiar figure in the darkness and sighed helplessly.
"Aunt, if you have anything to say, just come in, no one is stopping you."
Hestia, who was outside the door, heard this, smiled awkwardly and slipped into the empty temple. After a moment of hesitation, she spoke hesitantly.
"Athena, can I give you a little suggestion?"
"What?"
"Don't be so harsh every time. Can't you be a little gentler to him?"
Athena closed the file in her hand and looked at the goddess of the hearth in front of her with a half-smile, who had a resentful look on her face.
"Why, are you feeling sad?"
"He is my subordinate god after all. He hasn't committed any serious crime. A small reprimand will do. But every time you find an opportunity, you beat him so hard that he can't get out of bed. I doubt if you are targeting him intentionally."
"Yes, I was targeting him intentionally."
Athena pushed the file aside and nodded without disguising anything.
Hestia was stunned when she heard this.
"Why?"
"If he was just an ordinary demigod, and then became an ordinary subordinate god, just wanting to live a stable life under your and my wings, I certainly wouldn't deliberately do these things."
Athena spoke softly, her deep purple eyes flickering faintly under the light.
"Unfortunately, he is not..."
"I don't quite understand what you mean."
Hestia, feeling confused, scratched her head, looking bewildered.
Athena rolled her eyes at her aunt and snorted in annoyance.
"You don't really think that he is just a collateral bloodline of Ares?"
"Isn't it?"
"Can an ordinary collateral easily accommodate the incarnation of Crete's divinity? Can an ordinary collateral single-handedly defeat two Gorgons who absorbed the divinity of the old sea god Pontus? Can an ordinary collateral withstand a hundred of my attacks with the strength of a god? Even Ares himself can't do this, how could it be a talent that only an ordinary demigod can possess."
Hearing that meaningful reminder, Hestia suddenly realized a possibility and murmured with a dry mouth.
"You mean... the bloodline of the God King!"
"What else?"
Athena rolled her eyes at her aunt who realized what was happening late, sneered and shook her head.
"I'm afraid his tricks can only deceive you."
After being teased by her niece, Hestia couldn't help but feel annoyed: "Why have you never said such a thing?"
"He doesn't want to say it."
Athena spread her hands innocently, her face calm.
"Since he has concerns about his background, why should I bother with that? Some things are better left unsaid."
Then, a hint of hidden evil appeared in the purple eyes of the goddess of wisdom, and she smiled playfully.
"Besides, isn't it interesting to watch him rack his brains all day and come up with all kinds of excuses to evade me?"
“…”
Looking at her niece's smiling face which revealed a hint of sinisterness and evil humor under the fluorite lamp, Hestia felt a chill all over her body and couldn't help but ask cautiously.
"So when did you discover this?"
"Probably after the Battle of Crete."
Athena yawned and spoke nonchalantly.
"His performance and talents are too outstanding, far beyond the ordinary demigods. He is very sharp and does not know how to hide his shortcomings. Moreover, he always gives me a sense of déjà vu..."
Hestia was slightly stunned when she heard this.
"Feeling familiar?"
"Ahem, that's about right. It could be a resonance between the bloodlines of the God King."
Athena responded vaguely, her purple eyes flickering slightly.
If she only had some suspicions and feelings before the Battle of Crete, then after the Battle of Crete, the great sacrifice of the Bull, the visit of Circe, the great witch of Aeolus, and the ambiguous relationship between Hecate, the goddess of the underworld, and that kid, had made her basically certain of the true identity of a certain little bastard.
However, these matters involve too many things and it is not convenient to explain them clearly to Aunt Hestia.
Hestia was not satisfied with Athena's ambiguous answer.
"Even if he has the blood of the God King, Zeus has left many descendants. There is no need for you to target him specifically, right?"
"I have many brothers and sisters, but few of them plot against the God King and the Olympian gods like he did!"
"?"
Hestia was stunned when she heard this.
Athena rolled her eyes at her aunt who hadn't come to her senses yet, and snorted meaningfully.
“Just because I don’t talk about something doesn’t mean he didn’t do it, or that I’m not aware of his little tricks behind the scenes:
In the last battle, I lost Crete and Poseidon lost Atlantis, but he not only established his own sect on my territory and successfully ascended to godhood, but also condensed two incarnations of the divinity of the sea and the divinity of the earth;
During an Arcadian hunting trip, Hermes lost his son;
Helped Apollo take care of the nine Muses, and ended up taking care of them on the bed of Mount Ares;
On behalf of Asclepius, the three Graces under Aphrodite changed their masters;
Even the goddess of memory and the goddess of justice, who had always stayed indoors, came to Athens because of him and stood up for him;
…
In each and every incident, whenever he was involved, others suffered heavy losses, but he made a lot of money. It might be a coincidence once, but is it always the case? "
Listening to Athena's faint question, Hestia thought about it carefully and sweat broke out on her forehead.
But the long-standing trust made her unable to help but make excuses.
"Isn't he thinking about you and Athens?"
"Did you ask the three Graces to be your subordinate gods? Did I ask him to bring the two Titan goddesses and a bunch of other people's subordinate gods up the mountain?"
Athena glanced at her aunt who was still blindly protecting her own subordinate god, and snorted.
"Don't think of him as some harmless little white rabbit. He didn't do this just for me."
"Where's the evidence?"
"No."
Hestia perked up when she heard this.
"After all this time, it turns out that these are just your guesses and suspicions."
"That's enough!"
Athena snorted coldly, interrupting Hestia's defense, her deep purple eyes flickering faintly.
“He certainly hid it very well, and I didn’t get any real evidence. But in the world of gods, this little bit of cleverness can’t protect him forever!
Many things do not require evidence. The key is not whether he did it or not, or whether he left any evidence, but what the powerful party thinks!
These were the principles he taught King Minos, but he himself had forgotten them!
Just a little fear was enough to lead to King Minos' death, and the Minoans were almost wiped out.
If His Majesty the Divine King had become suspicious of him and paid attention to such a restless son, do you think he could have lived peacefully until now?
Do you know how much trouble his little actions and the many gods gathered on the God of War Mountain have caused me?
If he hadn't been carrying your banner and I hadn't attracted most of the attention for him in Olympus, his end wouldn't have been much better than Asclepius's!"
Hearing Athena's merciless criticism, Hestia was still a little scared at first, but with the pleasing ending, the goddess of the hearth immediately felt relieved, hugged her niece's arm, and swayed with a smile.
"So, after saying so much, you clearly care about him!"
The goddess of wisdom, who had a stern face, was slightly stunned and immediately realized that she had accidentally exposed her true thoughts.
But being proud by nature, she was unwilling to admit it and just held her head high and snorted.
"I just don't want his self-righteous cleverness to be noticed by my Father God in advance and ruin my plan!"
"Didn't you just say that he had ulterior motives?" Hestia retorted with a smile.
"It doesn't matter. Since I choose to trust him, I am not afraid of his hidden tricks." Athena said calmly, "Whatever he wants to do, he can try. Even if he is so bold as to fight for the throne of Olympus, I, as his sister, will give him this opportunity."
But then, the wise goddess changed her stance, cracking her finger bones with a sneer on her face.
“But if his usual little tricks can’t even be hidden from my eyes, and his own strength can’t even beat me, what qualifications does he have to fool the gods and challenge the supreme father of Olympus?
Without the support of strength, no matter how many conspiracies and calculations you have, they will not come to the fore. If you only rely on your own cleverness, when the real crisis comes, you will only be at the mercy of others. "
After listening to this, Hestia nodded thoughtfully.
"So, you beat him up for his own good?"
"It's better to suffer a little more at my hands and curb your self-righteous cleverness than to be caught by others and die without a burial place!"
Athena spoke confidently, but she couldn't help but touch the protruding finger bones on her hand.
Of course, it's also because I'm itchy...
At this time, Hestia could not help but wave her fist in indignation, acting as if she shared the same hatred with Athena.
"That's right! Beat him! You should beat him! Remember to ask me to join you next time!"
However, when Athena heard this, she looked at her aunt meaningfully.
"That's all? He has been hiding a lot of things from you."
"If you don't care, why should I? He will say what he wants to say later."
Hestia smiled innocently, then looked up at the sacred Mount Olympus among the stars, her eyes filled with clarity and determination.
"And no matter what he thinks or what he wants to do, I believe he will make the world a better place!"
Athena looked deeply at Hestia beside her. After a long moment, she sighed dejectedly, her lips moving silently.
It turns out that I lost here before...
Hestia, who was looking up at the starry sky, seemed to hear some voice from the unknown. She turned around and looked at her eldest niece beside her in surprise.
"What are you talking about?"
"nothing."
Athena frowned and waved her hand gently.
"Aunt, we have talked enough today. If you have nothing else to do, go back and rest."
Hestia did not rush to leave, but instead raised her hand cautiously.
"There is another question. If he is never your opponent, won't he always be bullied by you?"
"If you don't want to be punished, then don't leave any handles behind in the future, or defeat me fairly on the battlefield!"
"What happens after he wins?"
"After I win...I...ahem, we'll talk about the rest later!"
Athena, who was speaking, suddenly thought of something. Her face tensed and inexplicably flushed. She pushed Hestia, who wanted to get to the bottom of the matter, out of the temple.
"Alright, alright, go back first. I have to be busy implementing the ideas he mentioned tonight. Really, he only gave me a rough outline of everything and left the rest to me. I don't even know who is working for whom."
As her niece's complaints disappeared into the closed palace door, Hestia, who was driven to the square, couldn't help but frown.
Being bullied all the time is not a solution, otherwise...
The Stove Goddess pondered for a long time, and finally looked at the bright light with flame patterns that appeared on her palm under the moonlight.
(End of this chapter)
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