[Greek Mythology] The Demons Under My Command - Chapter 1

The scorching afterglow of the setting sun startled the young girl awake. The sight that met her lightly raised eyelids made her jaw drop.

A park stood abruptly in the middle of a boundless savannah.

Li Jia had only ever seen the ruins of the Olympia Park in historical documents and illustrated books. The mere sight of a few scattered, gigantic skeletal stone columns was enough to shock the world, as if glimpsing the tip of an iceberg belonging to a deity.

But when the complete ruins were replicated right before her eyes, the only feeling it brought her was sheer awe.

Wait a moment.

She needed to sort out her thoughts.

First, she had to confirm the state of her current body.

Things like appearance, health, and age—the only thing she could currently confirm was that she was no longer in her original body.

Her former body was frail, spending long periods in a hospital room, with hands that were slender, pale, and even slightly atrophied.

The hands she possessed now were rough with calluses from prolonged hard labor, and she had old scars scattered on her calves.

It seemed she was not from a well-off family.

The original owner of the body was a little unfortunate soul, just like herself.

She struggled to her feet and followed the sound of a stream to the riverbank. She didn’t rush to wash up but instead quietly gazed at the reflection etched by the water’s ripples.

First off, she liked this face; it was significantly prettier than her original face.

An oval face with a pointed chin, clear light blue eyes without a trace of impurity, thick dark eyelashes fluttering with every blink, and cute little dimples on both cheeks. Her flaxen, curly hair was tied into a ponytail that reached her waist. She wore a white linen robe dyed with indigo waves, the collar embroidered with anemone vines.

Although the clothes were old, it was obvious the original owner cherished them, as they were spotlessly clean.

It was the typical appearance of a foreigner described in textbooks.

After about two minutes, she accepted the fact that she was no longer herself.

Her health had always been poor; she was born with congenital heart disease, and the doctor said it would be a struggle to live past twenty. Her mother had passed away young, and her father had a new family, a new wife, and children. Everyone treated her like baggage, so dying painlessly in her sleep was not a bad outcome.

She seemed to have nothing to be nostalgic about in that world. Being able to live again, she was already quite content.

No matter what identity she restarted with, at least she was a human and not a wild boar or a weasel.

But would such a free second chance, a sudden windfall, simply fall onto her lap?

She was skeptical.

Suddenly, a system notification sound surfaced in her mind:

“Bingo, my host, you guessed correctly.”

“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”

As expected, she had transmigrated into a book—and of all things, the one she was reading before she fell asleep: Greek Mythology.

Li Jia majored in industrial design in college and minored in foreign languages and history. Approaching the end of the semester, her professor gave her several opening proposals for her thesis.

She chose the one she was interested in, Greek Mythology, with the research topic: “How was Hera, the foremost jealous woman, made?”

To be honest, the topic sounded quite bizarre and highly controversial. Zeus, the King of the Gods, had countless romantic dalliances. It could be said that the entire storybook revolved around his endless, complicated love life. From afar, it was the assembly of the gods; up close, it was simply ‘the tadpole looking for its father.’

As Zeus’s only legitimate wife, carried in a grand sedan through the main gate of the Temple of Olympus in Athens, the controversy surrounding Hera, the Queen of Heaven, was constant.

Li Jia had gone through a wealth of data and visual media, and without exception, in all Greek myths, Hera was often portrayed as a jealous wife and a vengeful, spiteful woman consumed by envy. Her image was solely one of malice.

She was even a marginalized character; her sole purpose in the entire book was to punish Zeus’s mistresses, thereby highlighting Zeus’s personal charm.

What was even more ridiculous was that Queen Hera was the goddess in charge of marriage and childbirth. The venerable Marriage Goddess defending her own marriage was branded a jealous woman.

Li Jia felt angry. It was clearly Zeus who was constantly cheating, yet Hera was called jealous—a situation very much like ‘the magistrate is free to burn down houses, but the common people are forbidden to light lamps.’

As a twenty-first-century recluse, Li Jia was well-versed in various transmigration and strategy novels. This setup, complete with a system prompt and various ‘cheat’ abilities, was standard for such literature.

Based on her understanding of strategy novel tropes, her mission must be to strategize and win over the male lead to achieve her goal. Throughout the entire Greek Mythology, the only male lead was Zeus.

She naturally thought she was meant to win Zeus’s heart or break up his messy relationships. Li Jia felt her analysis was perfectly logical, yet the difficulty of this mission was immense.

Strategizing to win over Zeus…

She vaguely remembered that Hera had turned Zeus’s last cheating partner into a little cow.

“Moo, moo, moo,”

accompanied by the bitter taste of chewing grass on her tongue.

Alas, Li Jia sighed helplessly. Why was it so difficult to be human?

The system sensed her thoughts and also sighed.

“My host, aren’t you overthinking it? Your perspective certainly provided a momentary flash of insight, quickly followed by a total blackout.”

“The difficulty does not match your capability.”

This was the system’s assessment of her idea.

Alright then, if she didn’t have to seduce the male lead, what was the purpose of her transmigration?

The system cleared its electronic throat and slowly recited:

“The main mission you are to execute next is: [Spring Bud Protection Plan].”

“Due to Hera’s anger over Zeus’s infidelity, she impulsively cast Demeter, the Goddess of Agriculture, into the ninth layer of the funnel-shaped abyss, preventing the smooth birth of Persephone, the Goddess of Spring. Persephone is the future Queen of the Underworld, the only person in the entire Divine Realm who can restrain Hades, the King of the Underworld, and she alone can prevent the War of the Gods.”

“Simply put, the goal is to ensure the safe birth of Persephone.”

“Mission Progress: 0%”

Only when the progress reached $100%$ would the entire mission be considered complete.

Li Jia’s head was buzzing. Everyone else’s strategy mission was to win over the male lead; hers was to protect a child.

And the child of a third party, no less. She felt a headache coming on.

She even thought it might be better to try and win over Zeus after all, as it would at least not involve others.

Just as she thought the system mission had been assigned, the cold system prompt sounded again:

“Sub-mission: Prevent the War of the Gods and maintain world peace.”

“Mission Progress: 0%”

Li Jia’s face instantly dropped. This lousy system was really taking advantage of her.

The War of the Gods was instigated by Hades, the King of the Underworld. Persephone, in the story, was the only one who could threaten him. This was essentially forcing her to become a bodyguard for the mistress’s daughter.

Since things had come to this, it seemed she truly had no choice.

It was death either way, but at least her heart was beating now. She would live one day at a time.

What would happen if the mission wasn’t completed?

Li Jia posed the question to the system. The system truthfully replied: “If the host’s mission progress does not reach $100%$, this world will collapse and cease to exist. The host will also disappear with it.”

What if the mission was completed?

“Then the host can return to her own world and receive a reward.”

“The reward is not limited to gold and jewels, but also includes methods of resurrection, and you can even exchange it for a healthy body completely free of disease.”

A healthy body.

The temptation of those few words was immense for Li Jia.

“A further prerequisite warning: To protect the host’s safety, you cannot leak any information about the plot of the book. Informing others about the book’s plot will be subject to a shielding process and will result in a backlash punishment for the host.”

What punishment?

“I apologize, host, but we do not currently have the authority to know. The segment involving this will automatically be rendered as garbled code, and no strategist has ever risked their own safety by testing it.”

“You are no exception.”

“But rest assured, host, the system is humanized. I will help the host successfully complete the mission, providing appropriate tips and strategy guidance.”

It had some humanity, after all.

Li Jia patiently asked the system about the current situation and received two pieces of useful information.

Good news: Hera was young and had not yet married Zeus.

Bad news: Her temper was as bad as ever, and no one dared to approach the divine sovereign.

Li Jia’s ‘cub-protection’ strategy was clear and straightforward:

If Hera could be prevented from marrying Zeus, from becoming his wife, then Demeter would not be the ‘other woman.’ If Demeter married Zeus legitimately and then gave birth to the Goddess of Spring, Hades would not launch the War of the Gods, and her mission would naturally be accomplished.

Hera was the key point of the mission.

What is my identity right now?

Just as Li Jia was about to ask another question, she was encircled by a strong, rough arm. It was an old woman holding a rolling pin.

She used all her strength to pull Li Jia to the ground, her voice hoarse: “Miss Li Jia, as a good child and a lady, you must not lose your temper standing by the river. Miss Melina only meant well.”

Upon hearing the name Melina, scattered fragments of memory drifted into her mind.

The original owner of this body was also named Li Jia, but her full name was Lija Vans, which was homophonous with her own name.

She, too, was a pitiful person.

Her parents died young, and she was sent to live with a distant uncle. Lija’s uncle was a fallen noble, a miser like Grandet, with one son and one daughter.

While it was polite to say Lija was living with him, in reality, her life was worse than that of a maid. Her uncle had agreed to let her stay, believing that providing her with a couple of meals was enough to raise her, which conveniently saved a large sum on maid expenses.

This preserved his reputation for not mistreating his deceased brother’s orphan while also saving on maid costs.

The incident stemmed from the gods needing to select attendants for themselves. An attendant, in pleasant terms, was someone who served the gods, but in reality, they were at the lowest level of the slave system. They were typically nominated by various noble families and chosen by the divine messenger.

Correspondingly, if a god chose an attendant, everything about the attendant belonged solely to the god.

Their life and death were controlled by the divine sovereign, they had no further connection with their original family, and they had to remain at the divine residence until death.

This selection of attendants included candidates nominated by ten noble families, and the Vans family was one of them.

Melina was unwilling to become this lowest form of slave. She discussed it with her mother and added Lija to the list of candidates, as she was just an insignificant bug anyway.

After losing her parents, the original Lija suffered from depression due to prolonged physical exhaustion and mental abuse. Upon learning she was to take Melina’s place in that harsh, desolate land, she ingested a lethal dose of mandrake and quietly died with a smile under the laurel tree, gazing at the Olympic Mountain.

Furthermore, the time of Lija’s death coincided exactly with the time of her death in the modern world, even their birth months were identical.

She was selected by the system and reborn in her body.

In this light, compared to the original owner, her life in modern society was relatively happy. However, since she was occupying someone else’s body now, she felt she couldn’t say much.

Li Jia calmly helped the old woman up, then rose and dusted off her clothes. She blinked her large eyes and smiled, saying, “Madam Anna, you misunderstood. I know I’ve been chosen for tomorrow night’s banquet, so I was naturally delighted and came out to share my thoughts with my deceased parents, asking them to bless me so I may be successfully chosen by the divine sovereign.”

Death was the haven chosen by the weak for themselves; this was the ending the original owner chose.

But living was not the exclusive privilege of the strong. She did not believe in fate; she would seize the moment and fight for herself.

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