Interlude: An artist

When Pluto wanted to start his search for knowledge, he had realised something that was not a problem when he still had his powers, he needed money for his travels, a lot of them. He still had some from his journey with the others, but it is not enough. Travelling in ancient times is expensive as hell, food is easy to spoil, bandits are rampant, he still had the carriage he had with Helen, but the horses couldn’t really travel anymore, so, he decided that he would travel to Athens, finding a business opportunity.

He packed up his things from his home, he went to Helen’s grave for the last time in a while, he took the carriage, he said goodbye to his home, and finally, he was bound to Athens.

The road to Athens was peaceful. Some travellers asked him if they could go with him, seeing that there was no harm, Pluto accepted, and around 5 men were travelling with him to Athens. On the way, bandits attacked them, it was easy for Pluto to deal with them however, as he still has his inhuman strength.

As they arrived in Athens, the travellers said goodbye to Pluto, and went along their way. Pluto however, searched for a lodging, he found a place near the gate of Athens. On his first night in Athens, he thought about what he wanted to do. For the whole night, he kept thinking about what could make him some money, but then, he remembered the statues that he made that were now in the Domo, and he knew that the Greeks loved statues.

So the next day, he searched for a workshop that was for sale, he found one near his lodging, and he bought it using all his remaining money.

Because he had no money left, he needed to quickly find a customer. One way he could think of is to make a spectacle, he needed to do something eye-catching. So, he went to find a marble deposit near Athens, it took a few days to find it, and once he finally found it, he needed to dig it himself. He made a makeshift pickaxe, and started mining. The whole day he spent on cutting a big chunk of white marble, and at night, he finally finished it.

Because it is night, it doesn’t make sense to bring the block now, as nobody will see him, so he decided that he would wait until morning as he found some kind of rope to drag the block.

Morning came, and it was time to drag the block. He tied the block using a makeshift rope, and he pulled the rope, so that the block was dragged by it. It was a slow and painful process. His inhuman strength and stamina helped him a ton, but it took him all day to bring the block to the gate of Athens.

As he arrived there, the guards were surprised by his strength. The guards questioned what was his business, and he told them that it was for a statue. At this point in time, the Greeks weren’t adept in sculpting yet, so the guards find it strange and doubtful that Pluto could make a statue from the giant block that he dragged all the way from the deposit.

Nevertheless, the guards allowed him to enter with his marble block. He continued to drag his marble block towards his workshop, and all the way there, the pedestrians watched him with curiosity and surprise. His strength was not common at all in Greece, the age of heroes has passed as Deviants died out in Greece, and his kind of strength would surely be the talk of the town for the next few weeks.

As he arrived in his workshop, a lot of pedestrians asked him what he was doing, Pluto, seeing the opportunity, told them that he would be making statues from now on. Again, they were doubtful that he could do it, but they took interest in his skill.

So, he began to work. He made the marble block stand, and started sculpting it. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and he finally finished. When he was working, he always opened the door of the workshop, so the pedestrians could see what he was doing. As he finished, a statue of a beautiful woman stood inside the workshop. He had based his work on Helen, who he remembered vividly.

The pedestrians were in awe when the statues were displayed. It was so beautiful that Pluto had caught someone in the middle of the night jerking off to it. Pluto was furious, and so he kicked him out of the workshop, banning him to ever enter again.

Soon, the news of Pluto’s skills entered the palace of Athens, the king himself travelled to his workshop, interested in his art.

The king asked if he could order a statue of himself to be put in the palace of Athens, he said he would pay Pluto handsomely. Pluto happily agreed, and he dragged another piece of marble block from the deposit to the workshop, and started to work.

A couple months later, the king came again to see his work, and it was magnificent. It was so detailed that the king himself questioned how Pluto was able to remember the king’s face so vividly, Pluto just answered with a smile. “A trade secret, your majesty.”

The king was happy with his work, and he paid him a lot of money, like a lot of money. Pluto’s eyes practically shone as he saw the gold, he never really had an attachment towards money as an immortal, but now, he needs it more than ever.

As the King’s order finished, a lot of richman in the city started to flock in as well, and Pluto was quite overwhelmed by it, so he decided that he would train some apprentice to help him.

—

It has been a century since he first started this business, he was rich as ever now, and he had many apprentices that would work for him. He had changed his name about two times, everytime that he thought he was about to get exposed as an immortal, he left Athens on the pretext of finding a wife. The women of Athens were disappointed, as they could not marry Pluto. He was handsome, rich, and skillful with his hands, he was a dream husband for all those women of Athens.

When he left, he would leave the business to his trusted apprentices, and he would come back almost two decades later with a different name, and a different facial hair, and he would come to the workshop, saying that he was his previous incarnation’s son, and that the previous one died of disease.

And so, Pluto was now getting ready to finally start his journey. He would leave the business to his trusted apprentices, giving them the workshop. He took the money however, as it was his objective in the first place. On the night that he was about to leave, he walked inside a tavern for some drink. There, he saw a peculiar man, writing a book in the corner of the place, seemingly out of it.

Pluto, seeing that there was no harm in it, walked up to him. “Greetings friend, what are you doing?” questioned Pluto.

“Writing a book.” the man grunted. “Can’t you see?”

“Quite peculiar of you to write a book in a tavern like this.” Pluto commented, drinking his alcohol. “Usually scholars like you stay in their houses, writing all day.”

The man stared at Pluto, taking his eyes off of the book. “What do you want?”

Pluto shrugged. “Nothing, I am just curious about your work, my friend.”

The man grunted once again. “I’m writing about the war between Greece and Troy.”

“Oh? The Trojan war?” perked Pluto. “Pardon me friend, but may I ask your name?”

“Homer.” he grunted again. “You?”

“Aidoneus.” Pluto smiled. “What have you heard about the Trojan war, friend?”

Homer was a bit surprised about Pluto’s sudden interest. So he excitedly explained. “From the sources that I have gathered, it starts when Paris, prince of Troy, seduced Helen and brought her to Troy.”

“Kidnapped.” Pluto corrected coldly.

“Pardon?” Homer was once again surprised.

“She was kidnapped, not seduced.” repeated Pluto.

Homer frowned. “How do you know that?”

“Because my family was there.” said Pluto, surprising Homer. “They knew the truth, it was a family story.”

Homer smiled. “Then my friend, could you tell me all about it?”

Pluto shrugged. “I’m curious about your version first, I want to hear it.” 

“Very well then.” Homer nodded. “From what I gathered, after Helen was brought to Troy, King Menelaus of Sparta ran towards his brother, Agamemnon, and his brother called all of Greece to fight against Troy.”

“Then?”

“A lot of my sources told me it was a useless move.” Homer sighed. “In the end, they said that the gods intervened, and burned Troy in one day.”

Pluto hummed. “Okay… what might be the cause of the gods’ intervention.”

“All of my sources told me, because Helen was the daughter of the Uns- the god of the underworld, and he was mad at his daughter because of her infidelity.” murmured Homer, as if scared about the thought of saying Hades’s name, Pluto’s name.

Pluto hummed again, but his eyes were quite shining. “My family said the same thing, except that the truth is, Helen was kidnapped, and the Unseen was simply rescuing his daughter.”

Homer sighed. “That is indeed a helpful insight my friend, thank you.”

Pluto smiled. “Actually, I should thank you.” said Pluto as he stood up, he then took soom gold from his pouch, and gave it to Homer. “Here, you need money to write that book right, I’ll give you some money.”

“M-My friend?” questioned Homer in surprise. “I don’t think I could-”

“Nonsense, I insist,” said Pluto. “Well, good luck on writing your book, Homer.”

“Thank you! How could I repay you with this?!” Homer exclaimed.

Pluto just chuckled as he exited the tavern. “Just write a good book.”