# Chapter 3
Not only her sisters in the morning but also everyone wondered about the scent from Eutostea’s body. Whenever she passed by, the servants of the palace whispered about it. Her maid who combed her hair every day was frozen for five seconds, holding the comb.
“Princess, your scent makes my heart race.”
Leaving that remark, her face flushed like a tomato, then the maid ran out of the room. She looked like she wanted to pee. Another maid also followed her and got out of the room. Eutostea, who sat absent-mindedly in perplexity, finished dressing up alone and went outside to the garden.
A carpet imported from Persia was on the floor of the wooden pavilion with marble columns supporting the roof. Servants brought trays of food. Eutostea sat in front of a plate stacked with purple grapes. Before freshly baked bread came out of the fire pot, she was about to alleviate her hunger with the fruit. Since she stayed up all night, there was a need to make up for the loss of energy.
She was enjoying her meal for a while. The king asked, “Eutostea, you smell good. Did you finally get interested in adorning yourself?”
Eutostea, who was almost shoving her nose onto the plate and eating food, raised her head with a bewildered look in her eyes at her father’s remark. Excuse me?
“Right. I wondered where this scent came from, and it was from you. What scented oil did you use? Let’s share it between women.” Her mother also threw in a helping word.
Eutostea’s sisters, who played a prank on Eutostea in the bathhouse and got violently pinched by her, also opened their eyes round and intervened in the conversation.
“See? I never smelled this kind of scent before. But she keeps saying from earlier that she hasn’t worn anything and playing innocent that there isn’t any smell,” said Askitea.
“That’s unfair, little sister. Have I ever been stingy about sharing my cosmetics or makeup products with you? As your second oldest sister, I’m so sad.” Hersia pressed out her fake tears with her finger.
Eutostea was briefly at a loss for words as she felt so disconcerted, humiliated, and ridiculous that her scent became the topic of conversation during their family lunch of all circumstances.
“I really didn’t apply anything.” She would have not felt this unfair if she applied at least some olive oil.
“Stop lying. I smell this floral scent.”
“Floral scent? I think it’s like a sweet aroma from fully ripened fruit.”
“As a mother, it feels like a cool and refreshing scent from a deep forest after the rain.”
The three women explained it differently. The king of Thebes listened attentively to their words with excitement in his eyes.
“Eutostea, stop teasing your mother and sisters and tell the answer now.”
“Father, what’s wrong with you either?”
The king accepted Eutostea’s response, which emphasized how unfair she was, as being stupid and stubborn that she was not going to reveal the secret at all. It wasn’t his first time experiencing women’s stubbornness. Therefore, he didn’t ask further and just had a spoonful of fish, not letting his laughter slip out.
“Anyway, it’s good to see that you’re also caring about adorning yourself. Follow your sisters and try to look like a princess. You’re also the princess of Thebes and must get married one day. Don’t you think so?”
“Engrave in your mind what your father just told you. As a woman, having naturally good looks isn’t everything. Although I gave you birth without having an attractive appearance, when looking over your face carefully, you aren’t that ugly either. If you keep adorning yourself and looking polished, you’ll become beautiful to that extent, my dear.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Eutostea always heard tips and advice about her appearance. It was an era where an unattractive, unmarried princess was natural to become a priestess or spinster. Eutostea was also halfway to thinking about really becoming a priestess of the Temple of Apollo. Those complacent thoughts were, of course, shattered from last night’s incident. How could a nonvirgin become a priestess?
Something more serious was elsewhere. If the king discovered that she had a sexual relationship with god and lost her virginity, it was clear that he would immediately expel her. It would also become an obstacle in getting married afterward. A woman with a flaw in arranged marriage would have a low product value as a princess.
As the rumors spread that his two daughters were the top beauties in Greece, the king put guards in front of Askitea and Hersia’s bedrooms for maximum security in order to protect their virginities and to get them married to legitimate grooms suitable for the kingdom.
For instance, entering into a marriage with the Kingdom of Ragnars to strengthen the Boeotian League. Thebes was a small city sandwiched between powerful nations, and therefore, the marriage of alliance was absolutely significant, also for the city’s survival.
Eutostea was aware that her father was racking his brain for how to make good use of the cards in his hand. And on top of everything, she, as a princess, knew very well what her duty and responsibility were more than anyone else.
She worried more about her sisters, whose brains seemed to belong to that of a snail sometimes, and thought over and over about their futures including hers. But why did the window latch get off yesterday of all days? No, before that, why did Apollo mistake her as her second eldest sister…
“Ah, I’m screwed.”
Eutostea returned to her room and pounded her head on the desk with a cry. When she hit it hard with a loud bang, she saw stars floating in front of her eyes.
“Dear Artemis, what’s going to happen to my life now?”
The goddess of virginity would probably not give attention to her prayer. Heaving a deep sigh, Eutostea checked the window. Since she told her maid about it in the morning, it would be repaired by now. However, the part where the latch should be was still empty.
***
The rumor about the third princess effusing a suspicious scent spread like wildfire inside the palace of Thebes. It had credibility since the maid who was in attendance on Eutostea and the maids of the first and second princesses testified in person.
“It’s a strong smell. Did she use musk?”
“Musk? Hey, our princess doesn’t adorn herself or do anything like that, so she just leaves the scented oil unopened and lets it collect dust,” Eutostea’s maid murmured sulkily.
“Then what is this scent? I’ve never smelled it before and it’s so sweet as if it doesn’t belong to this world. No, the royals use the expression, ‘captivating.’”
Washing the bedsheet collected from the princess’s bedroom, the maids of the laundry room huddled around the sheet and smelled the scent. The bedsheet where the princess slept had a stronger smell of it. Did she spill oil? Or did she spill an extract from crushed flowers? Just by sniffing it, the mysterious scent made their hearts flutter and sting.
“Until when are you going to just smell it like that!”
The captain of the laundry room scolded the maids and poured the foaming detergent on the floor.
‘Piles of laundry are waiting here, but are you just going to wash the princess’s bedsheet all day?’
Reading the captain’s countenance, the maids dispersed in different directions, holding their baskets. The bedsheet was now all hers––the maid of Eutostea’s. She had to put the sheet in the detergent and step on it to lather and get rid of the dirt. But strangely, the scent became stronger under the water like sweet osmanthus and filled the whole laundry room.
“You know when the princess gets to know this, she’ll definitely blame us. What should we do?” One of the maids mumbled.
“What do you mean?” A maid immersed in doing laundry asked apathetically.
“We broke the window latch on purpose, you know. What if she finds out that it’s us who did it? This morning, she even noticed it right away and ordered me to fix it. But I didn’t tell the repairman. He must be off work now and has left the palace.”
“Come on, since when did the princess become interested in the window? She won’t notice even if we don’t fix it. She might have just said it without any intention.”
“But…” The timid maid kept being anxious. She rubbed the sheet in the detergent, then threw it inside with a splash and threatened, “It was the king who asked us to take off the latch from the window in the first place. We just followed his command. The princess is his daughter, so no wonder King Aphelius’ order has a higher priority than that of the princess.”
“Right, that’s the point of my curiosity. Why does he ask us to thoroughly lock up other princesses’ rooms, but why… why… why not our princess…”
“Shhh. Watch your mouth, Claria.”
The two maids’ conversation stopped at that part.
While the laundry was drying in the hot sunlight, the three princesses spent their time individually with their own leisure life. The evening came faster. Eutostea leaned on her bedroom window and watched the sun slowly setting over the ridge stretched far in the distance. She tried to call the servants to fix the window but only received a response that the repairman had left the palace earlier since he had his work backed up outside the palace. The empty part of the latch made her very anxious.
‘I must close the window tonight by all means.’ Eutostea bit her teeth down and wandered around the window.’
“He seems to come tonight as well.”
The night came fast, regardless of her mental agony. Eutostea let her maids leave earlier than usual. Listening to the roll call, she turned all the lamplights inside the room. She heard that gods refused to show their true appearances to humans.
Last night, there was only one lamplight, so once it quickly went out by the wind, she had to encounter god in the darkness without any moonlight. She had no idea what his hair color was, how he looked, and if he was really Apollo. Since it wasn’t this bright, it would be very easy to see his appearance.
She wished this room was too bright for him to think that this wasn’t the same room as yesterday’s, and therefore he could just go somewhere else. No. Then it would be one of her sisters’ rooms. That was also troublesome.
How could one male god put the princesses of Thebes and their virginities in danger? The world was coming to an end, for sure.
The footsteps of the soldiers guarding the place came consistently from outside the window.
Eutostea bit her nails. What was the point of having those securities when they weren’t reliable? She thought she would ask her father tomorrow to have them well trained. If they guarded her properly, who would have dared to sneak into her bedroom?
The ominous feelings were always right at the perfect timing. Suddenly, a gust of wind swept inside and turned off all the lamplights she worked hard to make it on.
“Wh… What was that…?”
Eutostea jumped up from her seat. Last night’s memory overlapped with the reality she was watching. Lightless darkness. A window rattling in the wind. A man climbed over the window against the spider web-like moonlight. With an elegant movement, he slid into the room and soon blended into the darkness.
Eutostea’s legs were trembling. One step and another. The man walked toward her without hesitation. The threatening atmosphere he had, which almost made her kneel down just by looking at it and just by a touch of his breath, got thinner now. Apollo didn’t forget today to hide behind a male human’s figure.
“Princess of Thebes.”
His sweet and soft voice got stuck in her head, proving that last night’s incident wasn’t a dream. Eutostea felt that his touch groping around her back and waist now reached the tip of her chin.
“I smell my scent from you. It pleases me. I could smell it from afar.”
The man was smiling.
Right. It was all because of this god.