Afterlude: Theseus’s true face

We have sailed for a couple of days, and we’ve decided that we’re not going to Athens yet, and we wanted to land at an island, so we’ve found an island nearest to us, the island of Naxos.

We docked at the beach in the middle of the night, and we carried our stuff out of the boat.

“You sure you don’t want to go to Athens?” Theseus nervously questioned. “They’d look at you as heroes there.”

“We’ll pass,” Gil shrugged it away. “We have a job to do, so you’ll go be a hero in your city or something.”

“O-Okay…” Theseus murmured.

“Everyone’s asleep right?” I questioned as I jumped from the boat.

“Yes, let me help you load off your stuff, in fact, just let me do it alone…” said Theseus hurriedly.

Gil raised his eyebrow. “Okay…”

“Yes… you all find some shelter while I drop off your stuff…”

“No, I think I’d rather stay looking out for our stuff.” I said, making Theseus gulp.

“R-Right…” Gil hummed. “Then the rest of us we’ll find some shelter.”

Gil, Kingo, and Ikaris then walk to the island to find some place to stay, while I watch Theseus as he carefully unloads our stuff from the boat.

“What are you planning, boy?” I asked. “You look suspicious…”

Theseus gulp even more. “I-”

“No excuses please, straight to the point.”

Theseus nodded weakly. “I- I want to leave Ariadne here…”

Ah, of course he wants to. “So you didn’t ‘love’ her after all.”

“Of course I didn’t, I only met her for one day, I only did what I did so I could have some sort of leverage against the king…” Theseus murmured. “But now she’s stuck with me, I don’t know what to do with her.”

“So you’re just going to abandon her here?”

“I- Do I have a choice? My father would be furious if I took on a Cretan bride…”

I sighed. “What are you going to say to her?”

“Nothing…” he murmured. “I’ll just place her on the beach, then sail away…”

“At the end of the day, you are a coward.” I shook my head in disappointment. I then conjured my bident, scaring the boy.  “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now? If I let you go to Athens, you’ll become king, and what good would a cowardly king do to Athens?”

“P-Please don’t kill me! I- I promise I’ll bring Athens to glory! You have my word!”

“And why should I trust you?”

“I-If I fail to bring Athens to glory, you can kill me then! But please, not now! I- I’m still young and-”

“Yes yes, you’re still young and have a lot of time to fool around… I will let you go if you bring Ariadne with you.”

“P-Please! Anything but that!”

“Why?”

“My father would-”

“Hate you?” I raised my eyebrow. “I’m willing to bet that he’ll praise you that you kidnap a Cretan princess.”

“W-What? Really?”

“Of course. Cunning is a good ability to have as a king.” I shrug. “So, bring Ariadne with you to Athens, and I will spare your life here.”

“O-Okay! I’ll bring her! I’ll marry her!”

“Good.” I nodded. “Don’t just pump and dump, you need to take responsibility for it.”

“O-Okay…”

I sighed, I felt like an old man preaching about responsibility…

“Go then, remember the law of surprise boy.”

“Y-Yes…”

The boy quickly climbed up to the boat again, with the sleeping Ariadne, and I helped him push the boat towards the sea again, and finally, the troublesome boy left.

After that, Gil and the others came back. “They already left?”

“Yup.”

Gil shrugged. “Oh well.”