Chapter 424: I know me and I blame myself, only Homer
After a brief struggle, Loen changed his mind and felt relieved.
Destiny is not a fixed straight line, but a long river with ups and downs, the waves in which hold countless possibilities.
And from the moment he chose to marry Thetis, Achilles' original destiny had already changed beyond recognition.
Since even the biological father is completely different, it is not surprising that the gender has changed.
Moreover, in the original legend, Thetis was worried that if she gave birth to a boy, the curse of fate would come true and the child would die, so she not only found ways to give the child immortality, but also entrusted the child to Lycomedes, the king of Scyros, so that the original Achilles would grow up disguised as a girl.
It was not until the outbreak of the Trojan War that Odysseus, who came to deliver the oracle, used a trick to identify Achilles from a group of girls, and then took the child of destiny step by step towards death.
Perhaps, Achilles changing from a boy to a girl and avoiding the curse in the blood of the gods is exactly the future that Thetis desires most.
In another dimension of time and space, an Amazon girl who also had the name "Diana" was also favored by fate and the gods from the day she was born.
The goddess of agriculture Demeter gave her immortal life; the goddess of wisdom Athena gave her wisdom and courage; the goddess of hunting Artemis gave her the heart of a hunter and the ability to communicate with animals; the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite gave her beauty and love; the goddess of the hearth Hestia gave her the sacred fire of truth...
Therefore, she is described as being as beautiful as Aphrodite, as smart as Athena, more agile than the messenger of the gods Hermes, and more powerful than Hercules, the son of Zeus, with unlimited potential!
So, isn't Diana another possibility for Achilles?
Luo En thought of this and smiled at his daughter who was also stunned by the revelation:
"Diana, you should call yourself this from now on. It's not easy to change the habit you've been using on Paradise Island for so many years. Also, although Thetis and I are your biological parents, it was Hippolyta who raised you. She is also your mother, so there's no need to prioritize her."
Diana, who was struggling with her identity, couldn't help but brighten her eyes when she heard this. She nodded heavily and looked at Lorne with gratitude. She gradually developed a good impression of this father whom she had never met.
I have to say that her father is really considerate, and every word and action of his is full of personal charm.
It is no wonder that her adoptive mother Hippolyta was not only willing to raise her daughter for this man, but also still misses him until now, and often mentions his divine name and great deeds.
"So, what's the matter that you called us here for?"
Diana asked in a deep voice, subconsciously using honorifics in her words.
Luo En came back to his senses, gathered his wandering thoughts, and looked seriously at the daughter he had just adopted:
"Join me to solve the mystery that shrouds all of Greece and find the lost gods and your biological mother, Thetis."
"They are all still alive?"
Diana couldn't help but show a hint of surprise on her face when she heard this.
In fact, the Amazons have never stopped searching for the gods and heroes of divine blood for hundreds of years, but have always found nothing.
As time went by, Diana had to wonder whether the disappeared gods and heroes still existed in this world.
“To live is to live.”
Loen gave the answer in a deep voice, and then added the basis for his judgment.
"If all the gods and heroes were really annihilated, the God King of Olympus would have no control. Given his personality, he would have personally stepped in to rebuild the faith of the Greek cities. Or he would have simply destroyed them and rebuilt them, exterminating humanity once again, instead of boiling the frog in warm water like he is doing now, using disputes, epidemics, misfortunes and other small tricks to eliminate the God-blooded heroes of various factions who refused to submit.
In addition, the disappearance of the gods seemed to be a choice they made on their own initiative, and they did not forget to leave a few arrangements on the eve of their departure.
So, I think they must have sensed some kind of unstoppable danger, so they chose to retreat and secretly wait for a turning point."
Everyone listened carefully, and their eyes, which had been somewhat silent at first, gradually began to light up.
That's right! Judging from various signs, the situation of the gods and heroes may not be as bad as people think. They still have at least some strength that Zeus fears.
Just as everyone was rejoicing at the good news, a low voice chilled the atmosphere in the temple again.
“Maybe he’s alive, but his situation won’t be very good.”
Seeing everyone looking at her, Diana also gave her opinion.
"The premise of retreating in order to advance is to be able to turn passivity into initiative and always have the opportunity to counterattack. It is not like this, directly cutting off all contact with the outside world, disappearing for hundreds of years, and waiting for an illusory possibility."
Loen looked in surprise at his daughter, who was not only extremely powerful but also seemed to have inherited wisdom, and nodded with satisfaction.
"You guessed right. If the situation is really under control, based on my understanding of them, Ares Mountain will definitely not abandon Helen and send you to Paradise Island to be raised in secret by Hippolyta."
"unless……"
Diana pursed her lips, her eyes flickering with complexity.
"…The place they were going to was far more dangerous than the human world at that time, and what they were going to do was something they themselves were not sure would succeed."
"Don't put all your eggs in the same basket. Even if they fail, at least you are still here, and there is still a spark of fire left in this world. They love you just as much as Hippolyta does, and this is the only way they can do it. I hope you won't resent them for this."
Loen looked at his grown-up daughter and gave her heartfelt advice.
Hearing this, Diana smiled bitterly and shook her head: "Resentment? How could that be? I'm not a child who knows nothing."
Then, her expression became serious and she asked seriously.
"Tell me, what do you want us to do next? How can we find the gods and our mother?"
That apparently unfamiliar name came out of her mouth naturally.
It is obvious that after a short period of time with Lorne, Diana has begun to slowly accept her new identity and new blood.
Luo En nodded with satisfaction, looked around at everyone in the temple, and leisurely announced the answer:
"First, we have to start a war."
"?"
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other in surprise.
Looking at those confused faces, Luo En smiled and explained:
"Don't worry, I'm not crazy. After the gods disappeared, you searched for one or two hundred years and tried all kinds of methods, but you didn't find any news. I've only been back for a few days. How could you find the answer so easily through normal means? So, it's time to change your thinking."
Diana suddenly realized what Lorne was up to:
"Take the initiative and let the person who set the question solve it?"
"Correct answer!"
Lorne snapped his fingers in satisfaction, vaguely seeing the shadow of Thetis in this clever daughter.
Helen, who was standing by, also solved the problem:
"You want to take advantage of this Spartan civil strife to make things worse, secretly release the information that you and the Argo have returned, and let the disappeared gods contact you! Moreover, as long as the war starts, Sparta's machine, which was born for war, will start working again. If you use military merit as bait, it will be easy to transform this internal contradiction into an external contradiction, and the civil strife will collapse on its own!"
"Not bad Helen, it seems you have learned a lot over the years."
Lorne was generous with his praise and gave an approving look to the little fan who was looking forward to it.
When Helen received the affirmation, she felt a sense of sweetness and pride in her heart.
"So, the opponent is Mycenae?" Penthesilea's eyes lit up, and she couldn't help but rub her hands excitedly. "That's great! I've always disliked that old guy Agamemnon!"
Lorne shook his head and spoke meaningfully:
"No, it's Troy!"
"You want us to go to war with our allies? They are all subjects of Lord Apollo."
The twin brothers frowned, a little hesitant.
In fact, both Sparta and Troy were city-states that worshipped the god of light, Apollo, and the two sides had a certain friendly relationship.
It was for this reason that their sister Clytemnestra warmly received the Trojan envoys and was deceived by the Trojan prince Paris with sweet words.
"There's nothing we can do about it." Loen paused and explained the reason in a deep voice, "If we go to war directly against Mycenae, on the one hand, it will easily alert the enemy and attract the attention of His Majesty the God King. On the other hand, your sister Clytemnestra made the mistake first, and we don't have the advantage in public opinion. It will be easy for King Agamemnon to take advantage of the situation and incite the Spartan God Blood Family to follow him to the end. But there are not so many concerns when attacking Troy. Not only do we have a legitimate reason to send troops, but we can also take the opportunity to win back the God Blood Family who have defected. Moreover, attacking Troy is exactly the purpose of Mycenae's trip, so we can just pull them on board together."
"Attacking Troy together with the Mycenaeans? Wouldn't that be too risky?" Diana was somewhat surprised at her father's fantastic plan and raised questions.
"It was the Mycenaeans who took the risk first." Loen blinked and said quietly, "We are the ones who want to fight the war. The initiative is in our hands. When to start, when to end, to what extent to fight, and who to let be the vanguard, in theory, should all be decided by us."
When everyone heard this, they immediately understood the hidden meaning, and a hint of malicious dark color appeared on their faces at the same time.
That’s right, if the Mycenaeans want to start a war so much, then let them fulfill their wish and have a good exchange of feelings with the Trojans on the battlefield.
Anyway, one of these two families abducted the Spartan princess, and the other wanted Sparta's powerful army. No matter which of them was killed or crippled, Sparta would definitely make a profit.
As their thoughts suddenly became clear, the Spartan twins felt relieved. They looked at Lorne with admiration and praised excitedly:
"As expected of you, my Lord. You are still so cunning..."
"Um?"
"Wise and intelligent! Foresighted!"
Pollux, the more alert younger brother, quickly covered his brother's mouth and corrected his mistake.
Loen gave the two guilty brothers a cold look, knowing that their opinion of him as the commander was probably somewhat dark.
Oh, forget it. I'll just put on a pseudonym and write more poems in the future, so that "The Iliad" can clear my name.
Just as Lorne was secretly thinking about his future whitewashing mission, the thoughtful Diana next to him raised another question:
"It's a nice idea, but what if the Mycenaeans refuse to send troops, and Sparta and Troy fight to the death?"
“No, they will definitely get involved!”
"Why?"
"Because, this is [Destiny]!"
Luo En answered leisurely, with a firm look in his eyes.
The Trojan War has extraordinary significance for the Greek Gods, and is a node of destiny that is difficult to cross.
For example, Helen swore chastity because of her faith in the virgin goddess Artemis and did not marry Agamemnon's brother, which became the fuse of the Trojan War. But his sister, King Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra, replaced Helen and eloped with Trojan Prince Paris.
This is enough to prove that some minor disturbances cannot prevent the arrival of this fateful battle.
On the other hand, due to its special geographical location, the city of Troy happened to be on the road of Greek expansion. The large amount of treasures and population in it made the Greeks drool. Therefore, the Trojans had long been conducting "cordial and profound friendly exchanges" with the Greek states. This place is almost a fixed check-in point for a group of heroes with divine blood.
If I remember correctly, long before the Trojan War broke out, Hercules, Telamon and other older generation bandits had turned going to Troy to fight, rob money and people into a classic game.
The reason why Priam, the current King of Troy and the father of Prince Paris, was able to succeed to the throne was because he witnessed his father and brother being chopped to pieces, and he himself luckily escaped, so it was his turn to take the throne.
By the way, the one who cut people was Hercules, and the one who robbed people was Telamon.
Telamon's current wife, the mother of his son Ajax the Great, is the unfortunate Trojan princess.
Of course, the previous Trojan king who was beheaded was not a good guy either. He always intercepted Greek caravans and captured Greeks as slaves to build city walls for him. These were the old guy's favorite things to do.
The reason why Troy became a strong fortress that was easy to defend and difficult to attack was that there were countless Greek corpses buried underground.
Therefore, this brought about fierce revenge from the divine blood heroes of various city-states.
If this group of bandits had not been collectively recruited to the Argonauts for the Argonauts Expedition, the walls of Troy would have been flattened long ago.
Because of this, the old man learned the lesson of the previous generation and let the cat grow up peacefully in Troy. Even with the assistance of his son Hector and the blessing of fate, Troy continued to grow stronger. He was always committed to making peace with the Greek states and had no intention of raising an army to avenge his father and brothers.
Before the Trojan War began, the Trojan prince Hector, at the order of his father, led a fleet with his brother Paris to Mycenae to negotiate with King Agamemnon because of conflicts of interest with the Mycenaeans.
As a result, the relationship was not restored. Paris, the good son picked up by the old king, not only secretly stole King Agamemnon's woman, but also stole many beautiful maids and treasures from the Mycenae palace.
As a result, the furious King Agamemnon called on all Greeks to gather heavy troops for revenge, and the Trojan War began.
The reason why King Agamemnon was able to gain so much support was not only because of Mycenae's status as the leader of the alliance at that time, but also precisely reflected the Greeks' attitude towards the wealthy city-state of Troy.
In the final analysis, both Helen and Clytemnestra are just a cover for starting a war.
The Greeks and Trojans were fighting for each other's development and the favor of heaven, so they had to go to war.
In the original trajectory of fate, since the massive Trojan War involved almost all the Greek city-states, the gods, whose interests were deeply tied to those of each city-state, had to intervene one after another.
Since this is inevitable, Loen estimates that the gods who have disappeared for a hundred years will appear one after another.
By then, I will hide in the dark, gather this power again, and solve all the puzzles step by step, and then I can settle the accounts with His Majesty the God King of Olympus.
And if I am correct, the war between gods caused by Troy and the Greek states was also the last collective descent of the Greek gods.
Loen touched the frosty blue tag on his chest with his fingertips and looked up meaningfully at Mount Olympus that was looming among the stars.
In this case, let Troy be the end of fate...
(End of this chapter)
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