Chapter 64: When the Kitchen God thinks, the Dionysus laughs
In the evening, they returned home.
As soon as he entered the room, Loen went straight to the second floor with a clear purpose, opened the door, rushed into the bedroom, and fell asleep.
Hestia, who was downstairs and had a lot of questions in her mind, looked at the closed bedroom door, opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing. She turned around, carrying the supplies she had bought, and walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Since little Anna is not here, I only need to prepare meals for two people tonight, so the workload is reduced.
However, the stove goddess in front of the stove was a little absent-minded and almost cut her fingers with the knife several times. She also made frequent mistakes in the cooking, seasoning and other steps.
As a result, it took Hestia more than two hours to prepare a simple dinner, which she finally brought out from the smoke-filled kitchen.
At this time, Lorne in the bedroom on the second floor still showed no signs of waking up.
Hestia had no choice but to finish her own portion with a tasteless taste, and then she sat restlessly at the table, looking out the window from time to time into the pitch-black night.
Time passed by minute by minute, and just as the intolerable goddess of the hearth wanted to rush upstairs, break in the door and pull someone out of bed, a series of dull roars exploded along the coast outside the city of Knossos.
“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!”
Accompanied by a violent roar, colorful light patterns set off a fierce ether storm, sweeping across the entire coastline.
Defensive spells? And magic traps? So many?!
Hestia was stunned when she saw the beams of light outside the city that almost illuminated half of the night sky.
“Puff, puff, puff!”
At the same time, dull sounds of flesh tearing rang out one after another in the shallows and on the sea surface. Things that looked like broken limbs and organs were scattered around, and a strong fishy smell floated in the turbulent wind.
Hestia, standing in front of the window, looked at the twisting and wriggling outlines on the sea, as well as the shadows constantly floating up from the deep water, with a look of astonishment on her face, relying on the flickering light patterns of the magic circle.
"W-what?"
"Beast Tide..."
Accompanied by the lazy sound of getting up, the tightly closed door on the second floor opened, and Lorne yawned as he walked down the stairs. He sat at the dining table, picked up the plate, and slowly served himself some rice and dishes.
Hestia was shocked when she recalled what this guy had told Anna during the day.
"You guessed it already?"
"It's not a guess, it's a calculation!"
Lorne took a bite of the still warm food, corrected unhappily, and then knocked on the corner of the table to signal.
"If you want to know the reason, sit down and I'll tell you."
Hestia, who couldn't stand the curiosity, had to be patient and sit down opposite him, listening attentively to his explanation.
Seeing that the stove goddess had surrendered obediently, Loen spoke softly.
"I guess you saw what happened at the harbor during the day. Those ships were definitely not destroyed by any wind or waves. After all, the wind doesn't kill people..."
"Yes, they should have been attacked by sea beasts."
Hestia's mind flashed with the damaged ships and the bodies that had died in various tragic ways. She nodded in agreement, but she was still confused.
"But, what does this have to do with the beast tide outside? Every year when winter approaches, ships sailing out will inevitably encounter some sea beasts."
"But three ships that set out at different times, in different directions, and in different waters were attacked and damaged almost at the same time, and then washed ashore on Crete by the tide the next day. Do you know what this means?"
Ron gave Hestia a meaningful look.
Although this stove goddess is simple, she is not a real fool. When she thought of the sea chart that Loen borrowed during the day, her face changed.
"You mean, at that time, the area between the fishing grounds and the trading routes was swarming with sea beasts!"
"Yes, this is the conclusion I came to based on some information such as the time of death of those crew members, the time they went to sea, and the approximate direction and range of activities of the ship."
As Lorne spoke, he took out several sheets of papyrus covered with characters from his pocket and threw them on the table.
Hestia recognized these as the statistics that Lorne had asked Anna to obtain from the priestesses and priests.
One doubt was solved, but more doubts came to my mind.
"Then how do you know these sea beasts will attack Crete tonight?"
"I told you to use your brain to think more and calculate more..."
Seeing Hestia's clear eyes, Lorne sighed helplessly.
“It’s been several months since the harvest festival, and it’s the winter season when we need to fatten up. So many sea beasts have swum all the way from the inland sea to the open sea and gathered near Crete. They can’t have come all the way to celebrate the Minoans’ birthday and have a feast, right?
Plus, there aren't many human gathering places nearby, and King Minos and the sea god have always been at odds. They had some friction a while ago, so if you think about it, you know that they are probably heading for Crete."
Amidst the tangible contempt, Hestia nodded awkwardly and muttered to herself.
"Time, I'm asking where you got such a precise time of the encounter?"
"It's not accurate."
Lorne shook his head, picked out a few pieces of papyrus, and showed them to Hestia one by one.
"I calculated the approximate sinking location based on the departure time and speed of the ship. Then, combined with the tidal conditions, the swimming speed of some sea beasts that left traces on the wreckage, and the activity habits of those beasts, I was able to roughly estimate the time when the beast tide landed on the island.
Moreover, the old man said that every winter, sea beasts have the habit of coming ashore under the cover of night, tides, and waves, and then attacking livestock and villagers, but their numbers are relatively sporadic and their activities are not concentrated.
Mutual evidence, coupled with sufficient relevant data as a reference, makes it not difficult to draw this conclusion. "
Hestia looked at the three full pages of manuscript paper, the characters so densely packed that made her dizzy, and swallowed unconsciously.
You call this... not difficult?
Luo En, who had no idea that he was being admired by a poor academic goddess, finished his last bite of rice, turned his head to look at the coastline with shimmering light patterns outside the window, and couldn't help but sigh.
"But to be honest, I wasn't completely sure. I just gave it a try. I didn't expect that King Minos actually believed it. Looking at the density of the defense spells and magic traps, I'm afraid he must have mobilized half of the priests and officials of the temples in Knossos."
"Yeah, with all the preparations, there shouldn't be any problems now, right?"
Hestia stood up and stared at the group of sea beasts on the sea that were constantly being killed and repelled by many attack methods such as curse bullets, magic beams, arrows, and javelins, and she couldn't help but mutter to herself.
"Laaaa..."
At this moment, a melodious and lingering song came from the sea. The soldiers in the front row were immediately intoxicated by it, their souls resonated with it, and then... they moved forward woodenly, stepped into empty air, and either fell straight onto the cold cliff and turned into a pile of minced meat, or fell into the surging waves and turned into food for sea beasts.
"Siren! The blood clan of the gods!"
Hearing the beautiful yet cruel and crazy demonic sound on the sea, Hestia's face changed, she stood up suddenly and rushed to the door.
"If I were you, I wouldn't walk out of this door tonight..."
A faint groan came from behind. Loen stood up, took out the refrigerated fruit wine, and filled the two cups on the table.
The third update is here.
(End of this chapter)
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