Chapter 29: Back to Athens, 1205 BCE

The roads to Athens are quite peaceful. The mountain scenery is always ever-calming, the breeze of the forest wash all your worries, and the songs of the birds ease the travel. People that we encountered say that the roads these times are dangerous, hungry wolves stalked travellers, bandits plagued the roads, but we encountered none of that.

Gil was carrying most of our supplies, but to be honest it’s already not much, as we are going home, we didn’t stock up again. He walked in front of us as he hummed an unfamiliar song that I haven’t heard, to which I questioned him.

“When did you learn that?”

“Oh you know, travellers. ” shrugged Gil. “People are quite talented in terms of music in these parts.”

“Oh yes, people are quite talented in terms of art.” added Kingo. “You think I can do it?”

“Do what?”

“You know, become a bard?”

Gil laughed at Kingo’s words. “Sure, if you want the humans to hate you.”

Kingo just snorted at Gil’s answer. “I can sing, you know.”

“More like the death call.” jabbed Ikaris.

“Fuck you.”

I just chuckled at Kingo’s reaction. “Maybe not singing Kingo, perhaps something else.”

“Well, what other things I can do?” he questioned.

“I don’t know, acting?”

“Acting?” said Kingo in confusion.

“I saw some people do it, I mean it’s not a big thing yet here, but I reckon it’ll be in a couple hundred years.” 

Kingo pondered for a second, and hummed. “Yeah, I think I’ll be good at that, I’m good at mingling with the humans right? Should be easy.”

“Sure, whatever you desire Kingo.” Gil added.

—

A couple hours later, we can already see the small city state of Athens. It looks like it’s in the process of expanding. Roads are being built, walls were erected, and homes popping out everywhere. We can already hear the buzzing sounds of the busy city state from here, the others have done well building this place. Lately I’ve been envious of them. Some of them weren’t made for violence, they were made for nurture.

“Halt travellers!” suddenly some guards rushed to us, they were bringing some spears and wooden shields.

“I feel bad intentions from those humans.” Idemnon said in my head.

I narrowed my eyes. “Can we help you with something?”

“What brings you to Athens?” one of the guards questioned, I can see greed in his eyes.

“It’s our home.” Gil added.

“Home?” questioned the guard. “I have never seen you in these parts, are you sure you’re from here?”

“Yes, we’re sure.” Ikaris nodded.

The guards then looked at each other, and their smell of greed increased. “Right, the rules around here have changed, if you want to enter the area, you need to pay a toll.”

“Toll?” Kingo narrowed his eyes. “If we want to enter the city we have to pay a toll?”

“Yes, that’s what I said, it’s the rules.” the guard smiled innocently.

“I’ve never heard of those rules in my entire life. Are you sure that’s really the rules, or are you just extorting us?” Gil questioned, suspicious.

“What are you saying friend, we are the noble guards of the city, we are not extorting you.”

I hummed. We looked at each other, they were definitely extorting us.

“I see human greed will always be the same…” Gil murmured. He then dropped our supplies, and searched for some gold.

But I walked up to him and stopped him. “I’m fed up with this.” I put the gold back in the bag, and walked up to the guards. They were alert, and started pointing their spears to me.

“What are you doing Pluto?” questioned Ikaris with narrowed eyes. “We can’t atta-”

“What are you doing?!” shouted the guards. “I will arrest you for disobeying the rules.”

“What rules?” I questioned, cracking my knuckles. “You greedy pigs will be buried underground in the next few minutes, so stop blabbering.”

The guards were about to attack me, but suddenly, they paused in place, as if they were in a trance. I can see that their eyes are golden, so it’s Druig huh…

“I can see that you all haven’t changed.” Suddenly, a man wearing a black robe appeared behind the guards.

“Hello Druig.” Kingo smiled as he saw the man in black. “You’ve come to welcome us?”

Druig snorted. “No, Ajak tasked me to watch all of you if you made a mess, and turns out, you almost killed these guards.”

“They were extorting us.” I said.

“And it will be dealt with accordingly.” he shrugged. “But for now, Ajak wants to see you all. Especially you Pluto, she has a lot of questions.”

I shrugged. “Hey, It was only natural that I did what I did.”

“I quite envy you Pluto.” Druig chuckled. “If only I was there…”

Ikaris then coughed out loud, interrupting our conversation. “We should get going.”

“Ah Ikaris, annoying as always.” hummed Druig, which made Ikaris glared at him. “Fine, let’s meet Ajak.”

—

We are now walking towards the centre of the city, we aren’t in the city just yet, as around us were fields of crops as far as the eye can see, I can see farmers tending to their crops, and their families bringing them food and drink to enjoy.

“I can see that this place is prospering well.” I commented.

Druig hummed. “It’s all thanks to Phastos and Sersi, as always.”

“So you didn’t do anything here?” I said sarcastically.

“Might as well say that.” said Druig. “At least Sprite got to do her thing. While I mostly just sit, watching humans argue.”

“Argue?” I questioned.

“The king and his advisors often didn’t see eye to eye.” informed Druig. “Ajak asked me if it ever goes south, I should interfere, but so far, it hasn't happened yet.”

“Man, that must be boring,” said Kingo. “So you just sit in the corner of the room all day?”

“If you put it like that…”

“What about Sprite? What is that kid doing?” questioned Gil.

“Oh you know, she was tasked with covering up your mess.” informed Druig. “She would travel to the place that you’ve been and cover your deeds with stories, as well as putting some measures so people won’t be scared of you?”

“Meaning?”

“You must’ve heard the stories of the sailors of Argos… or the unseen one. ”

I turned grim. “Yes… we heard.”

“It’s all so the humans will think that you are divine beings, and won’t interfere with your mission. After all, if they disturb a god’s deed, they would be punished severely.” said Druig nonchalantly.

I sighed, fucking Sprite, at least make me some type of benevolent being or something…

“By the way, could I see the king after I met with Ajak?” I asked.

“What for?”

“Just some debt he needs to pay from me.”

Druig narrowed his eyes. “The king isn’t in the city right now.”

“Really? Where is he?”

He shrugged. “No one really knows, people talked that the king has gone senile, he’s turning old in terms of human age after all.”

After Druig said that. A man in his 50s rushed with his wagon, and I could see that he’s carrying a tied up little girl in the back. The little girl was trying to free herself, to no avail.

“Speak of the devil.” murmured Druig, who was narrowing his eyes.