Early the next morning, the rustling sounds downstairs woke Lorne from his sleep.
"Athena's chest is padded!"
As soon as he opened his eyes, he habitually offered "praise" to one of the chief gods in his daily notebook, then got out of bed in high spirits and went downstairs.
At this moment, in the living room—
Hestia, who had woken up early, and the little Medusa, who hadn't slept all night, were gathered at the dining table, heads down, enjoying their own boxes of delicate pastries.
"You're awake?"
The goddess of the hearth, who first noticed the sound, turned to look at Lorne coming down the stairs.
She waved in greeting while curling her pink tongue to clean the few pastry crumbs from the corner of her mouth.
Obviously, she was quite fond of the taste of these treats.
Lorne's eyes swept over the snake-patterned symbol on the pastries, and his eyelid twitched.
"Temple offerings? Where did they come from?"
"They were entrusted to me by the goddess before she left, to be delivered here."
A pleasant voice rang from outside the door.
Standing respectfully at the entrance was a girl in a plain white long dress, a golden snake-patterned bracelet on her fair wrist, with a beautiful oval face and long flaxen hair cascading over her shoulders.
Her graceful demeanor exuded quiet elegance, and her bright eyes held a trace of subtle apology.
"Recently, Crete has been unstable with storms and turmoil. The temple is also overwhelmed with affairs. I wasn't able to visit in time—please forgive us."
Three people? Two gifts?
Lorne glanced at the two half-empty boxes on the table and the two heads buried in their pastries, Hestia and little Medusa, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Two peaches kill three warriors, huh?
Even at a time like this, you're still trying to mess with me. You really are petty, sister.
Noticing the subtle change in his expression, the bright-eyed girl at the door quickly bowed and spoke.
"This visit is rather sudden. To thank you for your warning yesterday, my father has specially prepared a banquet and would like to invite you all to the palace."
She paused for a moment, then looked at Lorne, the main guest of the invitation, and smiled as she continued.
"As a token of gratitude, my father wishes to present you a small gift in person during the banquet."
So… my share of the visiting gifts got skipped, huh?
Tsk tsk, such flawless wording, not only did she cover up Athena's prank and preserve that petty goddess's dignity, she also subtly showcased the royal family's respect for me, a foreigner, without going against the goddess's intentions.
Looks like King Minos raised a good daughter.
Lorne gave a meaningful glance at the princess standing outside, a girl of both inner and outer beauty, and showed a bit of admiration and curiosity in his eyes.
"May I ask, which of King Minos's daughters are you?"
"I am my father's second daughter—Ariadne. I'm currently acting as the temple's steward, sir…"
The bright-eyed girl gently nodded in greeting, humbly lowering herself without a trace of royal arrogance.
Hearing this name, Lorne's expression shifted subtly, and he looked at Princess Ariadne with a slightly odd gaze from the corner of his eye.
Ariadne? Isn't she one of the mortal lovers the wine god Dionysus ends up hooking up with?
Feeling the gazes from the opposite side falling on her, which seemed to have changed, Ariadne couldn't help but raise her head and asked carefully.
"Sir?"
"Oh, sorry, I got distracted for a moment."
Lorne snapped out of it and offered an apologetic smile, his eyes clear once again.
He was himself, and Dionysus was Dionysus.
From the moment he was born, whether it was the future or fate, everything was already completely different.
Sensing the mood had eased, Princess Ariadne probed again.
"So, have you considered it?"
"I don't have a problem with it…"
Lorne nodded calmly, then cast a playful look at the two figures in the living room, one big, one small, happily enjoying the pastries all to themselves.
"But at the very least, we should wait until they've finished eating."
"No need to wait, we're coming now!"
Upon hearing this, Hestia immediately sprang to her feet, dragging along little Anna, who was still stuffing pastries into her mouth, and hurriedly walked out the door, looking as if she couldn't wait.
Compared to these tiny appetizers, of course, the royal feast was far more tempting.
Having lived in Knossos City for so long, she'd long wanted to try the royal chef's cuisine.
As they watched the princess, who served as High Priestess—go summon the chariots prepared by the temple, Hestia, standing behind, sneakily poked Lorne in the lower back and whispered in awe.
"You're amazing! You guessed it again! The first wave of beast tide was just repelled near the coastline, the sky isn't even fully bright yet, and this daughter of King Minos shows up at our door inviting us to dinner!"
"It wasn't guessing. It was thinking, thinking…"
Lorne corrected weakly, but after last night's blow, Hestia, who had already recognized the facts, had already chosen to give up, and instead handed over this hard and tiring work to the external brain in front of her.
"Fine, fine—thinking it is. Once I'm at the table, I'm just eating, not talking."
"..."
Hearing such a defeatist response from the goddess of the hearth, Lorne rolled his eyes and could only console himself in his heart.
Forget it, forget it. It was my choice anyway.
If she were too clever, I might not have picked her to be my shield.
Before long, a carriage adorned with bronze snake patterns and bird-wing carvings, understated yet luxurious, arrived at the door, picked up the trio, and sped off toward the Knossos royal palace.
Thanks to the layering of various protective runes, the carriage was not only supremely comfortable but also incredibly fast. In just fifteen minutes, they arrived at their destination.
Once the vehicle came to a steady stop, the High Priestess accompanying them lifted the curtain and led the three down.
"This way, please. My father is already waiting for you."
The three nodded and followed the princess. After several turns through the vast palace, they finally arrived at a relatively secluded courtyard.
In the empty courtyard, an aged man sat alone at a stone table. His back was hunched, his eyes seemingly closed, and his deeply lined face radiated fatigue and old age.
But the moment the three of them crossed the threshold, the elderly man at the stone table suddenly opened his eyes. A sharp gleam burst forth from them, and a fierce aura swept through the air, like a lion suddenly awakened from slumber, instinctively baring its fangs at intruders in its territory.
"Father…"
The first to crumble under the pressure was Princess Ariadne. Her face turned slightly pale, her teeth chattering as she quickly whispered a call.
Although, thanks to her exceptional talent and lineage, and under the protection of the goddess Athena, this High Priestess had successfully ascended to demi-godhood…
Compared to the three mysterious figures behind her, there was clearly a very big gap.
After all, one was a child even Zeus feared, the future god of wine.
Another was a snake-haired monster who had absorbed the divinity of the old sea god Pontus, a powerful creature known as a hero-slayer.
And the last was none other than Zeus's sister, a legitimate member of the Twelve Olympians.
"Ariadne? You've come? My apologies…"
King Minos snapped out of his reflexive state. The intense pressure around him vanished like a receding tide as he quickly stood up to welcome them.
Princess Ariadne, always keenly observant, wasted no time. While helping her aging father seat their esteemed guests, she also passed along quiet instructions to the servants to begin preparing dishes and refreshments.
With his daughter bustling about, the now-free King Minos began to seriously study the young man in front of him.
Likewise, Lorne stood firm, neither dodging nor evading, and calmly examined the famed king—praised and criticized in equal measure, shrouded in mysteries and stains of scandal.
After a brief moment of eye contact, it was King Minos who first broke into a smile. He raised a cup filled with fruit wine in a gesture of gratitude.
"You must be the wise man the goddess spoke of. Last night's events—thanks to your warning, we were spared."
"I merely mentioned it in passing. If you hadn't believed me, no amount of talk would have helped."
Lorne smiled faintly and lifted his clay cup.
"Besides, you can distinguish the truth from the falsehood in the words and take countermeasures in advance to prepare for the crisis.
Crete won the first round so easily thanks to you, the wise ruler who controlled the field."
One dared to speak, the other dared to believe.
The elder and the youth at the table looked at each other, clinked their cups in mutual understanding, and drank deeply with knowing smiles.
(End of Chapter)