[Greek Mythology] The Demons Under My Command - Chapter 50

The hotel’s glass window was covered with a thin layer of frost, blurring the ice and snow outside into a hazy white.

Li Jia’s fingertip hovered above the cup’s rim. Only when the warm steam wafted onto her skin did she realize how long she had been standing there.

She and Hera were now legitimate husband and wife; it was perfectly normal to sleep together.

Winslow and Dorin each had their own room, situated close to one another.

The events of this evening made Li Jia uneasy for a long time. She gazed out the window, beginning to worry.

Seeing that the little one hadn’t gotten into bed, the woman couldn’t help but walk up behind her with a thick blanket and drape it over her shoulders.

“Why aren’t you coming to sleep?”

“Standing by the window in the snow, you’ll freeze into an ice sculpture.”

Hera’s arms wrapped around her waist, meticulously tucking the blanket around her shoulders. Her thumb gently squeezed her little belly, which was soft and warm.

“What are you thinking about?”

Li Jia didn’t turn around. She just picked up the water cup, dipped her fingertip in the warm water, and slowly drew on the frosted glass.

First, she drew a crooked ‘A’, then added ‘B’ and ‘C’ beside it, and finally supplemented a ‘D’. Water ran down the strokes, forming tiny streaks.

“I’m thinking about what happened tonight.”

Li Jia was preoccupied with the real-life drama she had just watched. Catherine was Protagonist A, Fran was Protagonist B. Although she hadn’t met Moyce, she inferred from the conversation that she was Protagonist C.

The matter now was no longer as simple as resolving the Marriage Post but concerned the turmoil and reform of the entire Northland.

Mel, who was the center of their discussion, must be Antagonist D.

$B + D + C$

Stepmother + Biological Father + Stepdaughter = Reconstituted Family.

This is a fixed blood relationship in law.

Now it’s $D – C$, $B + A – D = C$.

The biological father wants to KO the stepdaughter, which is discovered by the stepmother and the stepdaughter’s best friend. The stepmother and the best friend plan to join forces to KO the biological father and protect the stepdaughter.

So, the question is, according to Fran, the stepmother is going into this with a “mutual destruction” mentality to kill the biological father.

Two conclusions can be drawn:

1. Success: The stepmother and biological father are both game over. The stepdaughter takes the throne, with the best friend assisting.
   • Disadvantage: They lose a good woman, a good mother, and a good queen.
   • Their Marriage Post mission also fails, with both husband and wife dead.
2. Failure: The biological father counter-kills the stepmother, the plot is exposed, and the stepdaughter’s best friend is implicated.
   • Disadvantage: They lose a good woman, a good mother, and a good queen. The entire Northland will descend into chaos.
   • Their Marriage Post mission automatically fails; the wife dies, and Mel can marry a new wife.

Either way, their mission fails.

The Temple of Marriage has never had a single failure in a thousand years. This would undoubtedly be a slap in the face to the Temple of Marriage.

The snow outside intensified. The wind whipped snow particles against the glass, making a delicate, fragmented sound.

Hera pulled her closer into her embrace, letting her lean against her chest, her palm slowly massaging the back of Li Jia’s neck. “You can’t stand here until dawn no matter how worried you are. This isn’t something that can be solved by rushing.”

“Let’s sleep first. We can meet with Winslow and the others tomorrow, and then take our time thinking.”

Li Jia hummed but didn’t move.

Her gaze fell back onto the glass window. The letters blurred by the steam had faded. In the play of light and shadow, she felt as if she saw the proprietress and Vya. She couldn’t help but clench her fists.

“Your Majesty, I don’t want Queen Fran to be hurt. She is a good person. I feel sad that she has to sacrifice her life for a leech man.”

Hera didn’t understand the term “leech man”; the adjective sounded a little amusing.

If Li Jia said she hated him, he certainly wasn’t a good thing.

A leech man is like a leech, specifically targeting wealthy, only daughters, sucking their flesh and blood, and the flesh and blood of their parents, until everything is drained dry and their substance solidifies into his own.

There are far too many modern examples. Li Jia vaguely remembered a sensational social news story from a few years ago.

A man surnamed Lin instructed a nanny to commit arson, killing his wife and three biological children. It was a supposedly perfect crime that left him completely untainted. He manipulated online public opinion, sold goods through e-commerce, and was quite successful, earning a fortune.

Later, due to multiple suspicious points, it caught the attention of netizens. He cleverly escaped, taking the enormous wealth gained from consuming his wife and children, settled overseas with his second wife, and had a new child.

At the beginning, the man Lin was just a penniless hairdresser (Tony). The woman was a self-made, strong-willed first-generation entrepreneur. Lin Tony’s sweet talk moved her. Despite her parents’ strong objections, she was willing to fly into the fire for love.

She became his wife and bore him three adorable children.

Ten years later, they had all the houses, cars, and money one could want, but the man cheated. He was afraid his wife would make him leave with nothing, as he knew everything he had now was obtained through her.

Girls, remember: never marry down, and never gamble on a man’s conscience.

You think he will remember the hardships you went through together. In reality, every night, when you close your eyes, he looks at your face and thinks of his past, impoverished, foul-smelling self.

We often see poor men with infatuated women, but rarely rich men holding the hand of their long-suffering wife.

That’s why Li Jia was furious. Like countless netizens, she went online to denounce the leech man Lin, but what was the outcome?

The man Lin is still free. His wife, underground, must be choking with indignation and pain. Even a tiger doesn’t eat its own cubs, and for a mother, having the biological father kill her three children is simply heartbreaking and unbearable.

If there truly are ghosts in the world, most are female ghosts—women who were murdered. When they return at midnight, remember to claim his life!

Fortunately, those of us who grew up in a patriarchal society have learned all of this through the blood and tears of our predecessors, through reading, and through the internet.

It turns out that girls can grow up and choose not to marry; they can do what they like.

To this day, it has been less than a century since women globally gained the right to an education for themselves.

And yet, this kind of life is just a normal day for men.

The growing awakening of women’s consciousness makes people realize that women will inevitably rise to high positions and hold the power of discourse.

Now, Li Jia faced the same plot. She began to tremble. This time, she would not be helpless, only able to watch Queen Fran fight to the death, sacrificing her own life to protect this country, her people, and the child she leaves behind.

Sincere friendship triumphs over love. Hawthorne’s child is her child.

Lying in bed, Li Jia still couldn’t sleep. She turned over and poked the woman’s back.

Hera sighed, “Speak up, what is it?”

Li Jia whispered, “I think Moyce has the right to know. Her stepmother is about to become a dragon-slaying warrior for her, and she knows nothing. I think that’s unfair.”

Hera noticed that this little one was always concerned with fairness.

She was so tangled up over this matter that she couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night. If this wasn’t resolved tonight, she’d probably stay awake until dawn.

If she couldn’t sleep, then Hera couldn’t sleep either.

“Alright, let’s get up. Put on your little yellow chick outfit; it’s very cold outside.”

Hera was referring to her little yellow chick cotton jacket.

“Where are we going?”

Hera glanced at her gently and said helplessly, “To find Moyce.”

Li Jia happily jumped out of bed, swiftly pulled on her cotton jacket, linked arms with Hera, and waited for her to use Shadow Warp.

Hera: …

Has the process become this familiar already?

A tall figure stood next to a little yellow chick. They stood motionless in front of the gold-and-silver-carved four-poster bed in the bedchamber.

“I’ve brought you here.”

“Why aren’t you as noisy as you were just now?”

Hera touched the fluffy chicken crest on the hood of Li Jia’s cotton jacket, puzzled.

Li Jia: …

What was she supposed to say? Yes, you brought me here. You secretly broke into someone else’s room while they were asleep.

Ask yourself, what would you think if you woke up from a sound sleep and found someone standing by your bedside, let alone two people?

The bed curtain was half-drawn, shrouding the girl in a hazy moonlight.

She was lying on her side, her ink-like ebony hair like a fluffy cloud. A few mischievous strands clung to her neck, making the skin near her collarbone look like thin snow. Her skin was so delicate that faint blue veins were visible, and her lips were a dark, frozen cherry red.

Li Jia was captivated. It was the first time she had seen such pure, dense black hair since she came here.

Due to regional and ethnic differences, the proportion of black hair among Westerners is low, but not entirely absent.

Hera noticed the little yellow chick staring intently at the girl on the bed, frowned, and reached out to pinch Li Jia’s wrist. “Do you like this kind?”

Li Jia was greatly startled and immediately shook her head in denial. “No, it’s not what you think. Doesn’t Your Majesty know what kind of person I like?”

She looked extremely wronged. Based on Li Jia’s past experience, Hera would console her, and the matter would be over.

But this time, Hera was determined. She looked down into Li Jia’s eyes and said, “I don’t know. Tell me, what kind is it?”

Li Jia was speechless. Who else could it be? We’ve signed the Marriage History and gotten the marriage certificate; who else could it be?

But she knew what Hera wanted to hear. She had been by her side for so long that she had become quite adept at flattery. She was best at buttering up her leader.

So she broke free, held Hera’s palms with both hands, and smiled, “I only like a Jie-jie like you.”

Sure enough, as soon as Li Jia said this, the woman’s frown smoothed out, but she wasn’t going to let her off so easily. “You say you like my kind, so why were you staring at her?”

Why is she getting jealous of a girl roughly her own age?

Li Jia felt enormous pressure. If she didn’t explain clearly, she would definitely be in trouble later. She confessed honestly, “I was looking at her hair. Black hair is rare here, but almost everyone has that color where I come from.”

“I’ve been here for so long, and this is the first time I’ve seen it. I feel very familiar with it, so I couldn’t help but look a few more times.”

Seeing that Hera’s frown had completely vanished, Li Jia breathed a sigh of relief. She knew Hera had taken her words to heart.

“Next time, take me back to your hometown. I want to see people with black hair everywhere too,” Hera said, thinking about it.

Li Jia looked at the smile on Hera’s face and didn’t notice anything wrong with her words for a moment. As long as she’s not angry, she said readily, “Okay.”

There’s no such thing as a prolonged feud between spouses. If there’s a problem, solve it on the spot. Evasion is not advisable.

Hera stopped moving. She looked at Li Jia with an expression that said, You asked me to bring you, and I have. The rest is none of my business, and stood like a statue beside Li Jia.

Helpless, Li Jia had no choice but to take the initiative. She bent down and gently patted Moyce’s back, softly calling out, “Princess, wake up, wake up…”

Before Li Jia could react, a gilded, slender, and stiff pin shaft was pressing against her neck. The grey-green eyes snapped open.

The girl’s arm was still supporting her on the bed. The hand holding the hat pin was steady without the slightest tremor.

The needlepoint flashed cold, stopping just before Li Jia’s skin on the side of her neck. Her breath was cold and sharp, yet she showed no sign of fear. “Who are you? Why are you in my bedchamber?”

Before Li Jia could answer, the tall figure instantly blocked her, and the shadow enveloped Moyce.

The woman acted without consultation, sharply bending the girl’s wrist and directing the needlepoint toward Moyce. Her tone was hostile: “Is this how the Stuart Heir is raised? With no manners at all.”

Li Jia peeked out from behind Hera, looking at the girl on the bed cornered by Hera.

Anxiously, she snatched the hat pin from Hera’s hand and softly soothed the girl, “Princess Moyce, don’t be afraid! We’re not bad people! Truly not! We’re from the Temple of Marriage… This is Her Majesty Hera, the one you submitted the Marriage Post to!”

After speaking, she sharply slapped Hera’s hand twice, telling her to let go of Moyce. Breaking into a private residence in the middle of the night would land us in jail in modern society.

Hera’s hand paused. Though unwilling, she relaxed her grip, but her gaze remained cold, like a lake covered in thin ice, falling on Moyce with the pressure of a superior.

Moyce rubbed her wrist, which was red from the squeeze. She scanned Li Jia warily, half-believing her words, then her eyes fell back on Hera.

Seeing Moyce’s skepticism, the woman moved her fingers. The starlight covering her instantly scattered, revealing her true appearance.

Her long robe was based on dark raven black, but when she moved, the cuffs and hem would reveal a scarlet lining, like blood splattered in the night. The collar and waist were embroidered with intertwining thorn patterns in gold thread, and tiny rubies adorned the tips of the thorns.

The distinctive golden hair and red eyes.

A shocking, absolute beauty.

She was indistinguishable from the portrait of Hera, the God of Marriage, in the court’s royal albums. Her tense back subtly trembled, but the fingers holding the bed curtain tightened even more.

“Her Majesty Hera.”

Moyce’s voice was still husky from just waking up but held a hint of disbelief. “You came to my bedchamber late at night… for…”

“I am not interested in you.”

Hera was still resentful that Moyce had almost hurt Li Jia. Her tone was quite poor, but Li Jia kept giving her meaningful glances, urging her to calm down. Only then did she forcefully swallow her resentment and said coldly.

“She is looking for you.”

She pushed Li Jia forward toward Moyce and then stood behind her.

Having confirmed that the two people in front of her were not intruders, Moyce let down her guard. She got up, intending to step out of bed barefoot, but Li Jia stopped her—it was too cold.

Li Jia slowly moved a few steps closer to the edge of the bed, within Hera’s perceived safety range. Seeing Moyce’s still-red wrist, she added, “I’m sorry about what just happened. She’s just a little protective; there was no malice.”

Moyce’s gaze flickered between Li Jia and Hera, and she apologized, “I was also at fault. I thought you were in league with the people in the palace.”

“It’s good that the misunderstanding is resolved. Dwelling on it is pointless. Let’s talk,” Li Jia said.

A hint of hesitation entered the grey-green eyes. “Talk… about what?”

“For example, why did you want to submit the Marriage Post?”

“And what does your stepmother’s marriage have to do with you?”

Li Jia took a seat on the edge of the bed, maintaining a safe distance. Her words were sharp; wasting time would only be disadvantageous to them.

Moyce’s eyes dimmed. She didn’t answer immediately, only stared at the gold thread pattern on the bed curtain. After a long silence, she slowly said, “If I tell you, will Her Majesty the God of Marriage help me?”

Hera heard her words and stepped half a pace forward. Her voice lost its previous harshness. “That depends on whether your reason is just.”

Her gaze fell upon Moyce with scrutiny. “Tell me and let me hear it.”

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