Hera and the goddess Rhea made their bodies transparent and slipped unnoticed into the merfolk marketplace, where they grabbed Poseidon and dragged him out.
“Aaagh, Hera. Your hands are too strong—stop pulling my ear.”
“When I look at an idiot like you, I get so angry I can’t help myself. Shut up and follow me.”
The place Hera dragged him to was an unnamed island.
There, Hestia and Demeter—who had arrived earlier—watched Poseidon being dragged by his ear and calmly drank tea as they evaluated the scene.
“No different from before.”
“No, I think Hera’s strength got even stronger. Look at her biceps.”
“Hm, I suppose she trained them thanks to Poseidon.”
As soon as Hera arrived on the island, she released Poseidon’s ear, crossed her arms, and asked:
“What are you planning to do?”
“What…?”
“I mean Metis. If you meant to deal with her, you would’ve done it already. Do you have a plan, or are you just watching?”
At Hera’s sharp question, every goddess on the island looked at Poseidon.
All of them were on the side of protecting Metis and the children, so Poseidon’s intentions were extremely important.
“Hm…”
Guessing their intentions, Poseidon collapsed onto the beach, sitting cross-legged and letting out a groan.
‘I still have no particular plan… If I say that out loud, they’ll beat me, right?’
Contrary to his real thoughts, his silence only heightened the tension among the goddesses.
After a while, Hera suddenly sensed something strange.
The fool she knew wasn’t the type to agonize like this.
He always rushed forward without thinking and got punished by her for it.
“You… don’t tell me you really have no thoughts at all?”
Poseidon only groaned again at Hera’s question.
If he answered wrong now, she might actually kill him.
“Hmm…”
Seeing Poseidon’s reaction, the other two goddesses also understood.
“Yeah, he didn’t think anything through.”
“He probably thought: ‘This is a disaster, so the best thing is to sit still like always.’”
“He doesn’t use that thing on top of his neck unless it’s war or fighting.”
Standing nearby, the goddess Rhea felt awkward at the atmosphere and tried to defend Poseidon.
The Poseidon she knew was a child praised during the Titanomachy for his charisma, might, and insight.
And now, the child sitting seriously before her was one of the Three Chief Gods alongside Zeus and Hades.
“Um… aren’t you all underestimating Poseidon too much? He fought both the Titanomachy and the war with Pontos successfully.”
But at Rhea’s words, her daughters looked at her with pity in their eyes.
“Mother still hasn’t opened her eyes.”
“Well, Poseidon does look cool on the outside…”
Meanwhile, on the other side, Hera was gripping Poseidon like she was wringing out a rat.
“You—think of a solution right now. Or I will bury you on this island and seal you inside.”
“Aagh! Why are you like this? This has nothing to do with you in the first place!”
“Unfortunately, it does. Mother Rhea and we sisters decided to take Metis’s side.”
Even as Hera kicked him, Poseidon was shocked.
‘Hera? Taking Metis’s side? Why?’
Rhea, Hestia, and Demeter he understood.
They were gods who had felt compassion for all life suffering injustice or slaughter since the Titan War.
The last remaining conscience of Greek mythology, so to speak.
But Hera was different.
She was a cold-blooded goddess who could cut off anything unnecessary, even family, just like Zeus.
And ever since the days in Kronos’s stomach, she had never grown such soft emotions.
“Judging from your face, I can guess your thoughts. It’s not like I pity Metis. But if I save those children, the divine authority of ‘Guardianship of Home and Children,’ which I gained when giving birth to Eileithyia, will settle firmly upon me.”
With that, Hera lifted her staff and looked up at the sky, speaking as if savoring a pleasant imagination.
“With that much, I should be able to stand equal to Zeus in both power and status someday.”
Poseidon finally nodded, understanding.
Then he shuddered slightly and rubbed his arms.
“Of course. There’s no way you’d have the same motives as Demeter and Hestia. If you did, it would be a sign the world is ending.”
Crack!
A vein bulged on Hera’s temple.
Grinding her teeth, she loosened her hands and spoke:
“You need to learn respect and manners toward your elder sister.”
“W-wait… don’t come any closer.”
“Shut up.”
Kkiyoyot.
With Poseidon’s scream, birds scattered into the sky.
Demeter and Hestia, long accustomed to Hera and Poseidon behaving this way, calmly poured tea for Rhea and paid no attention.
“There they go again.”
“I told you—never let Hera lead the conversation.”
“Hera says she’s always busy, but whenever she sees Poseidon, she wastes so much time on him.”
Rhea glanced at Demeter and Hestia’s relaxed expressions, then at Poseidon being beaten like a dog on midsummer’s hottest day, and let out an empty laugh.
“Ha. Ha. Ha.”
‘I really didn’t know my children at all. They’re all so different from how they act on Olympus…’
* * *
Some distance away, Poseidon—with a face puffed up like a steamed bun—raised his hand weakly.
Beside him, Hera was panting as if finally tired, taking a moment to catch her breath.
“Haa… haa… haa… Now speak. What is your plan?”
“Well… maybe we should rest first and discuss together…”
As Rhea was about to stop Hera—feeling this wasn’t the time to interrogate—
“Um… Hera, what you need is justification, right? Then, even if we can’t overturn everything immediately, you only need something barely persuasive, don’t you?”
“……”
Hera stopped mid-motion at Poseidon’s sudden words.
Even with his swollen, bun-like face, him raising his hand and suddenly saying something reasonable was absurd.
And not only Rhea—the other goddesses also felt Poseidon’s idea might be worth hearing.
Hera nodded for him to continue, so Poseidon casually lowered his hand, grabbed the tea Hestia had poured, and spoke:
“Look. The prophecy says he will unify all gods and mortals and seize the father’s throne. Since Zeus’s throne is the throne of the King of the Gods, that means overthrowing the king. But here’s the thing—if you just make the child the heir, seizing power won’t be easy.”
“……”
“Who would support overthrowing one’s own father when that father already named him legitimate successor? And later, Zeus can just give him the throne. Zeus can sit above the king like the current Protogenoi. Like a retired king.”
Everyone fell silent at Poseidon’s words.
There were many flaws.
But in terms of justification, it wasn’t bad.
Look at this. Since there’s such an idea, maybe we can actually attempt it.
Like that.
“Well, the idea itself doesn’t seem bad.”
“True. What matters for us is persuasion.”
“And the more unreasonable a situation is, the more our Olympus Divine Authority Committee must act.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
Poseidon asked because he heard strange terminology mixed into their conversation, but the goddesses ignored him and began their discussion.
Just as Poseidon said, the goddesses needed justification above all.
A justification that they were allowed to help Metis.
Poseidon himself could do as he pleased—he was an independent ruler, like the king of his own nation.
But the goddesses belonged to Olympus, an ambiguous position.
Somewhere between insiders and outsiders.
Which made it natural that they sought Poseidon.
‘Honestly, Hera… if you could just talk things out, you wouldn’t always use your fists whenever you feel embarrassed or cornered. But what is this Olympus Divine Authority Committee?’
If the goddesses hadn’t needed him, Poseidon would never have tolerated Hera’s violence.
He definitely wouldn’t have…
And Poseidon had no idea.
That the very organization he found suspicious—the Olympus Divine Authority Committee—already had Poseidon forcibly appointed as its “Advising Chairman” by Hestia and Demeter… soon to become a major headache for him.
* * *
While Poseidon and the goddesses were aligning their positions…
Inside the palace, Metis was becoming increasingly sensitive and unstable.
Having experienced Kronos’s terror firsthand, Metis was mentally crushed by the pressure to protect her children.
And Zeus’s thunder, striking endlessly, echoed vividly even inside the palace.
Watching Athena and the youngest grow day by day, she had no idea how long she could endure.
“My babies… my sweet babies. Mama will protect you. Don’t worry too much.”
Metis clutched her children tightly and obsessively layered more spells over Poseidon’s palace as days passed.
* * *
Even though Poseidon and the goddesses had agreed among themselves, they could not simply decide that Poseidon would protect Metis and the children.
The goddesses agreed on this as well.
The gods who followed Poseidon needed to accept it too.
Poseidon and the goddesses alone could not withstand both Zeus’s and Hades’s forces.
Soon the council of the sea gods convened, with Poseidon, Amphitrite, and Euryname at the head, and every sea nymph, god, and fantastical creature gathered.
They burned with fervor despite not being fire-aligned beings.
“Lord Poseidon, they must be dealt with. They are nothing but seeds of calamity.”
“But Lord Poseidon promised. He said he would protect them.”
“That was when they weren’t a threat. Look at the power leaking from the palace. Newborns shouldn’t possess such strength.”
“Right, and it was the goddess Metis who swore on Styx, not the children.”
“But they are still young gods. Killing them is too extreme.”
“That is true. And the prophecy doesn’t guarantee they threaten us. It’s only a threat to the lord of the heavens.”
“But there is still a possibility.”
The longer the meeting went on…
Aside from Poseidon and the high gods, most of the assembly was evenly split, arguing fiercely.
Those who opposed keeping the children insisted that they could not risk planting the seed of another war.
Even though much time had passed since the war with Pontos, by divine standards the scars were still deep.
Another war would be too much—they were not prepared.
Those in favor of keeping the children argued that they were still young gods, and Poseidon’s name could not be tarnished.
Since Poseidon had declared protection, the entire sea was obligated to protect them.
The strange part was that Amphitrite, Eurynome, and the guest goddesses Hera, Demeter, and Hestia did not voice their opinions.
Or rather—could not.
The debate was far more intense and polarized than expected.
At this point—
It required a ruler accepted by everyone, not outsiders or powerful individuals, to declare a definitive position.
But Poseidon sat silently, expressionless, listening to all sides.
This worried three figures the most:
Oceanus, father of Metis; Styx, her sister; and Doris.
They knew.
Because of persuasion by the goddesses from Olympus, Amphitrite and Eurynome—who held the greatest influence among sea deities—had shifted to “maybe Metis can be saved…”
And that shift was the reason the vote was so evenly split.
Until then, the majority had been firmly on the side of eliminating potential danger.
Especially Amphitrite, who had been more excited about Metis’s pregnancy than anyone, but then changed completely and said they must root out anything that threatened the sea and Poseidon—her transformation had been terrifying.
‘Please, let Poseidon choose mercy…’
Poseidon watched the argument calmly, then rang the bell.
Ding-a-ling.
“Everyone, settle down for a moment. I want to hear from those most closely connected to Metis. Oceanus, what is your view? Do you truly believe, as others say, that killing Metis’s children is the right choice?”
“I…”