Chapter 40

“Did you get in touch with Hephaestus’s workshop?”

“They can’t take orders right now due to a large order from Olympus!”

“What about Athena’s architects?”

“They’ve all gone on a business trip to Athens for the construction of the Olympia Temple!”

Chariclo’s cabin, where we were supposed to greet her first, was extremely busy.

Messengers flew in and out without rest, and nymphs and centaurs ran around busily carrying papyrus scrolls and stone tablets. In the midst of this bustling crowd, Chariclo was the busiest of all.

“This scene looks very familiar.”

“Familiar?”

“Uh… well, oh right. When I was staying at Zeus’s temple, the high priest grandfather was always this busy during the festival period.”

In truth, what I recalled was not the grand feasts after conquering the martial world, but my past life drowning in paperwork.

Chariclo seemed as busy as my past life or Grandpa Efaros.

“Chariclo, why don’t we just demolish the Colosseum and build something else instead…?”

“Demolish a training ground blessed by the God of War? I hope that boar isn’t around here.”

Chariclo scolded the centaur who made the ridiculous suggestion.

Even so, her eyes and hands didn’t rest for a moment as she constantly wrote and read tablets.

“You seem busy, should we come back later?”

“But why is Mother so busy?”

“Why do you think?!”

I don’t know how she heard our voices in this commotion, but Chariclo accurately spotted Atalanta and me amidst the crowd and gestured for us to come over.

“Mother Chariclo!”

“Talli! I just had something to give you, perfect timing!”

With a bright smile, Chariclo hugged Atalanta. She could be described as an ancient businesswoman.

Long dark green hair neatly pulled back, blue eyes weary from the demands of office work.

Despite all the fuss, her white Greek peplos remained perfectly intact.

Her overall appearance, contrasting yet harmonizing with fiery Atalanta, made her seem more like Atalanta’s mother than that crescent moon brat.

“Here, it’s a gift for you. Read the instructions on the amphora’s surface carefully. And…”

Handing a small, palm-sized ceramic amphora to Atalanta from under the desk, Chariclo kept her fresh smile and glared at me.

Yes. She didn’t just look at me. She glared.

It was as if she were looking at a troublesome customer who placed an order right before the deadline.

“Dianes…?”

“Yes?”

Unlike her affectionate greeting to Atalanta, Chariclo’s face showed concern over what to do with a troublesome kid when looking at me.

“Sigh… No, it’s not your fault. It’s my fault for giving the forest to Chiron.”

With that, Chariclo let out a deep sigh and shook her head.

Then she kindly smiled at me and greeted.

“I am Chariclo, the caretaker of the Forest of Heroes, taking care of the little heroes. Let’s get along well.”

“Haha… Nice to meet you.”

A quick glance at the document on the desk made me understand why Chariclo couldn’t see me in a favorable light.

The title written at the top of the document was the Ares Memorial Colosseum Reconstruction Plan.

“Uh… I inadvertently caused a disturbance. I apologize.”

I knew that feeling well.

When I was still the grandmaster of the Heavenly Demon Cult.

Thanks to my energetic subordinates running amok, the squad’s quarters were destroyed.

I heard that report from Gwi Hyun-sa just before leaving work, and I had to rack my brains until the next morning to come up with solutions and follow-up measures.

I was so furious that I personally visited their unit and turned everything upside down. Chariclo, too, wouldn’t have been pleased with the sudden workload and the troublemaker who brought it.

Yet, seeing her welcome me with a smile like that, I could only guess that her time managing the Forest of Heroes wasn’t ordinary.

“Hehe, at least the new little hero this time speaks politely, so I’m pleased. Hercules and Theseus boasted proudly that a man should at least demolish a building or two.”

“Did you let them live?”

“After not giving them food for three days, they finally came and begged.”

Indeed, her approach was anything but ordinary.

Three days without food as punishment, instead of relentless torment for three days and nights?

Chariclo possessed enough patience and mercy to earn my respect.

“Your mercy rivals that of Hestia.”

“Is that how you see it, too?”

Starving children might be seen as a harsh punishment from a 21st-century perspective.

But considering that those who starved for three days were beings capable of completely demolishing buildings with their strength, it might be seen as a fitting punishment even by 21st-century standards.

“Oh! That’s right. Ask Mother! Whenever there’s a riddle that can’t be solved, everyone takes it to Mother Chariclo!”

“A riddle? Ah, did Hermes come by? If he did, tell him there’s a message for Olympus.”

Hermes… He disappeared with a flash of blinding light.

He must have run away to avoid getting more work from Lady Chariclo.

The desk trembled dangerously under the weight of scrolls and tablets as Chariclo pounded it in fury.

It was too risky to ask her to solve a riddle now.

“You’re busy with work, so it’s hard to ask you to take on my burden too.”

“…You’re so thoughtful for someone your age. Now I see why Atalanta got so attached in just a day.”

“Mom!”

Atalanta and Chariclo were giggling and getting along well.

Indeed, that’s how a mother and daughter should be.

Nodding quietly in agreement, as I watched the mother and daughter, Atalanta slipped out of Chariclo’s arms and linked her arm with mine.

“Then, we’ll be off!”

“Sure, you’ll be busy exploring this forest. Hurry along.”

“See you again later, then.”

As Chariclo returned to her work mode, I was about to leave when an idea suddenly popped into my head.

“Haven’t you contacted the Cyclopes?”

From what I vaguely remember, the one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes, were also renowned blacksmiths comparable to Hephaestus.

It was originally they who forged the three sacred weapons for the Olympian trinity—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.

Being born from Kronos, the Cyclopes and Chiron, who were equally hated in the past, might unexpectedly get along well.

“The three Cyclopes brothers?”

“They are originally blacksmiths, but I heard there is nothing they can’t make when they wield their hammers. Could it be possible?”

At my suggestion, Chariclo, as if she hadn’t thought of it, propped her chin and began calculating various things.

“Cyclopes… I need to think about it. Come to think of it, since Lord Hephaestus moved to Mount Etna, the three of them have retired and settled in Sicily… Polyphemus!”

From what I’ve heard, Chiron and Chariclo were immortals respected by the gods of Olympus.

The Colosseum they were fixing was also said to be a gift from Ares, so I thought maybe we could reach out to them, and fortunately, it seemed to have worked well.

“Then, I’ll be going!”

“Take care!”

Leaving behind Chariclo, who was starting to bury herself in the stone tablets and scrolls again, Atalanta and I hurriedly looked around the Forest of Heroes.

“To the north, there’s the centaur camp guarding the forest entrance, the nymphs stay in Lady Chariclo’s territory in the center of the forest, which we saw earlier, and we stay in the central residential area next to it.”

“Right, the place we passed by in a hurry earlier?”

Like a package tour guide, Atalanta excitedly led me around the entire forest with her arm linked to mine.

Not to mention, walking arm in arm with a beautiful girl who could be compared to a goddess, the nymphs, centaurs, and all sorts of minor heroes either cheered or cast jealous glances.

But more important than those trivial things was that Atalanta was the second person to make me feel the changes.

“There, there! New items have arrived at the Hermes Market!”

“Go slowly; you’ll fall.”

“We don’t have time for that!”

As her small hand pulled me along, I realized that although I had lost my martial skills and physical strength, the burdens once placed upon me had also disappeared.

“Who is that pretty girl?”

“Atalanta? Is it perhaps Atalanta?”

“Wow… Should I try talking to her?”

“Hey, be quiet. The boy next to her is the new student, Dianes.”

“Oh my… He’s so handsome…”

“…Tch. He looks like a playboy.”

Amidst the envious and jealous gazes around me, I felt that I was no longer a supreme being who incited fear and awe, but a small child who could laugh and chat normally.

“Dianes? What’s wrong? Are you tired?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

The maddening sense of alienation and emptiness I felt when I first stepped into this forest.

Such empty emotions were slowly pushed away, replaced by something else.

They were the colorful, unfamiliar emotions that I thought I had buried in my previous life.

Lost in these vivid feelings I had never experienced in the strict orphanage, I walked dazedly behind the beautiful huntress.

Before I knew it, we were sitting in the central clearing of the forest, where we had held the last feast.

“Heek..! Heek…! I-it’s finally over!”

“I told you not to run around so much.”

Atalanta, who had been joyfully pulling me along as if matching my pace, collapsed in exhaustion at the end.

It made sense since the Forest of Heroes was called a forest, but it was almost as large as a decent-sized polis.

It was divided into twelve blessed zones, each named after an Olympian god, and categorized into training, commercial, and academic zones based on their functions.

In the eastern training area, there were Ares’s Colosseum, Athena’s Tactical Field, and Artemis’s Hunting Ground.

In the western commercial area, there were Hephaestus’s Forge, Hermes’s Market, and Demeter’s Farm.

In the southern academic area, there were the Forest of Arts, blessed by Apollo, and Aphrodite’s Lake of Love.

“Huff…huff… And finally, the central grand altar. The place where Hestia herself kindled the eternal flame.”

I wondered why the fire in the central brazier was warmly burning even though there were no people around.

This must be the domain of the goddess of the hearth.

As I absentmindedly looked back at the brazier warming my back, Atalanta, having caught her breath, slyly approached and brought her radiant face close to mine.

“How was it?”

Like a puppy seeking its owner’s praise or a child longing for their parents’ approval, Atalanta asked me with a bright smile.