[Greek Mythology] The Demons Under My Command - Chapter 57

Li Jia inherited the divine king’s authority and her temple, including the citizens of Xiangcheng Quandu (Fragrant City, Spring Capital).

As for selecting a Divine Husband, of course, that didn’t happen.

During this time, she searched for countless ways to unlock the restrictions on the Divine Mountain, but ultimately, she was helpless.

Inside the palace, the woman in divine robes, with flaxen-colored curly hair trailing down to her waist, was visibly troubled, her light blue eyes fixed on the desk where she was organizing the fate scrolls she had dealt with during this period.

Li Jia was someone who utterly disliked trouble. Hera had simply left, dumping all these affairs onto her. She had to understand and handle them one by one, piece by piece, which was exhausting and time-consuming.

She didn’t want to ruin the achievements Hera had accumulated, nor tarnish the reputation of the Temple of Marriage.

She truly didn’t.

Li Jia learned to be like Hera, calmly handling every marital dispute. When encountering a difficult fate scroll, she would even subconsciously mimic Hera’s tone, thinking about what she would do, calmly yet firmly resolving the conflict.

She maintained fairness and justice, protecting the rights of women and children.

Only she herself knew that every time she raised her hand to wave her divine power, a sharp pang of pain would surge up from the depths of her heart when her fingertip touched the ring.

The citizens of Xiangcheng Quandu showed her, their new Divine Lord, the utmost respect. Their daily prayers continuously streamed into the temple, but those devout blessings could not fill the void in her heart.

Outside the window, sleet struck the sill, making a crisp, crackling sound, like countless fine needles gently pricking Li Jia’s exposed wrist.

She missed her.

“System, why do you think this is?”

Li Jia softly called out to the System.

“Hmm? What is it, Host?”

It hadn’t understood Li Jia’s meaning. When Li Jia called it, it would appear.

The person being targeted fell in love with the person carrying out the strategy.

I should have died last summer, but now I’m alive this winter, and I might even live forever.

Isn’t this a deviation from the plot in the book? Why haven’t I been punished?

“The person who was targeted, as a goddess, forcibly sacrificed her own divine will. A divine will cannot be stripped or altered. She gambled everything to keep you here.”

“The person being targeted realized that you, the Host, are not from this world. Your life thread could not be connected to hers, and your Spirit Lamp was not in the Underworld.”

“You are not from this world. Your soul is residing in this body, and the soul that belonged to this body has already perished. She couldn’t find a way to make you stay.”

“She sacrificed herself, allowing you to become the new Divine King.”

“She chose the most dangerous yet foolproof way to keep you.”

The System was also troubled. Persephone was successfully born. According to the original plot, she would meet and fall in love with Hades, the God of the Underworld, thereby averting the War of the Gods.

Both the main and secondary plots had been completed.

In three years, this body would naturally age and perish, and Li Jia would return to the modern world, receiving a healthy body.

She hadn’t expected her lover to use the most tragic method to grant her a grand extension of life.

Li Jia transformed from a mortal into a deity, a transformation brought about by the goddess’s willing sacrifice.

Having traveled through countless small worlds, the System had never encountered such a situation.

A divine blessing.

A plea for her eternal life.

Hera knew everything about her but never exposed or criticized her. She accepted everything about Li Jia, including her flaws, lies, and deceit.

Hera’s sudden action instantly baffled the System, making it impossible to calculate any formula to explain such behavior.

Everything could be deduced through data to find the most reasonable and optimal solution, but love was not. Love was a willing surrender.

As the new Divine King, Li Jia had the right to choose a new divine residence and scope of duties. Without hesitation, she chose everything Hera had left behind.

She didn’t want anywhere else but here.

She didn’t want to go anywhere else but here.

Li Jia became the Divine King, and her marriage history with Hera could no longer be hidden. All beings in the world knew that she and Hera had an indefinable affection for each other.

Hera had presumptuously erased her own name. Li Jia only needed to move a finger, and this marriage would be nullified, leaving no further ties between them.

“Divine Lord, Zeus is outside the hall again, asking for an audience.”

The voice of the maid outside the hall carried a mix of disgust and helplessness, interrupting Li Jia’s daze.

This was a young maid recently hired this year. Li Jia was a bit overwhelmed handling mortal affairs alone. Li Jia was kind and gentle, and the maid was not afraid of her, considering her the easiest-to-get-along-with goddess in the world.

Li Jia retracted her hand, the hem of her divine robe sweeping the floor and kicking up fine streams of light. When she stood up, the warmth in her eyes had completely faded, leaving only a chill like a deep pool: “Let him in.”

As Zeus’s figure appeared at the doorway, he carried his usual arrogant smile. His gaze swept over the stack of fate scrolls on the desk, his tone filled with a condescending pity: “Li Jia, are you still clinging to this useless thing? Hera is already…”

“Silence.”

Li Jia’s voice was not loud, but the air in the hall suddenly froze, and the silver candle flame violently flickered: “You are not worthy to utter her name.”

Zeus had come multiple times to persuade her. Why dwell on someone whose life or death was uncertain? Why not marry him and share the Divine King’s authority together?

The news of Hera and Li Jia registering their marriage had spread throughout the Divine Mountain territories, which finally eased the arrogant burden on Zeus’s heart.

No wonder she wouldn’t accept his love no matter what. He was the most magnificent and graceful god under the heavens; how could any woman not love him?

Zeus spoke earnestly to Li Jia, who was also a deity: “If only you had come to me earlier about this, it would have been better. Hera liked you, so she wasn’t willing to accept me. If the two of you had simply married me together, wouldn’t that have solved the problem… when she tries a man’s charm…”

As he spoke, he actually reached out to touch Li Jia’s shoulder. Before his fingertip could touch the fabric of the divine robe, a red starburst suddenly sliced through the air, carrying a sharp edge.

Zeus recoiled in shock, only to hear a “crack,” and his golden laurel crown, which held his hair, snapped. His long hair tumbled down, and a few broken strands, still scorching hot, fell to the ground and instantly turned to ash.

Before he could utter more vulgarities, the Judgement Blade severed his proud long hair. Before the man could react, the woman said coldly: “Say one more word, and I’ll kill you too.”

Li Jia’s hand, gripping the Judgement Blade, did not lower, and the divine power on the sword’s edge was still faintly hot.

She approached him step by step, her light blue eyes churning with murderous intent. The Divine King’s pressure enveloped him like a tide, making it almost impossible for Zeus to breathe: “Get out.”

The air in the hall instantly froze; even the burning silver candle seemed to shrink.

Zeus clutched his severed hair, staring at her in disbelief.

He had never imagined that a mortal, who had only gained authority by chance, could possess such fierce murderous intent.

But when his eyes met Li Jia’s—a look identical to hers—the arrogance in his heart was instantly replaced by fear. He could only retreat in a panic, clutching his wound, and leaving resentfully.

Li Jia wore Hera’s ruby ring and the starburst divine power mark between her knuckles.

He suddenly understood that what this mortal-turned-goddess was guarding was never the Divine King’s authority, but all the traces Hera had left in this world.

Zeus stumbled out of the hall, clutching his scorched scalp. The hall doors slowly closed behind him, cutting off all external sounds.

Divine King Li Jia was unwilling to erase her name.

The other party on the fate scroll was absolutely firm and also a deity, so the scroll could not automatically be dissolved or disappear. This could be understood as a divorce cooling-off period.

It was common for ordinary couples seeking a divorce where one party disagreed, leading to the other party filing a lawsuit five or six times without success. The tug-of-war battle would start at two years—marriage was easy, but divorce was hard.

Hera was the initiator of the dissolution of the covenant. She proposed the termination, and she erased her name from the marriage history. However, at the same time, she was no longer the Goddess of Marriage. Li Jia inherited the authority and became the Divine King above her.

The System’s voice softly sounded in her mind.

“Host, you can actually erase your name from the marriage history record anytime.”

“Why should I erase it?”

Li Jia softly counter-questioned, a stubbornness in her tone that she herself hadn’t noticed.

“She initiated the dissolution of the covenant, but she forgot that I am the other party on the fate scroll. Ordinary couples squabble for years over a divorce, let alone a divine marriage?”

“I do not agree.”

She turned back to the desk, her fingertip resting on the scroll of marriage history. Divine power was injected, and the name that Hera had previously erased began to reappear, inch by inch, pressing closely against her own name, making it impossible to separate them again.

Even if she couldn’t see her now.

She would still be her husband, even if it was a marriage in name only.

“For all eternity, you can forget about getting rid of me.”

Winslow, dressed in a little yellow chick cotton suit, burrowed into the ice cellar. Inside, a large, double-door cabinet had been built—Li Jia called it a refrigerator.

The white vapor seeping from the double-door gap condensed a thin layer of frost on the surface of the little yellow chick cotton suit.

Winslow stood on tiptoe to reach the cold metal handle on the cabinet door. As his knuckles touched it, he was startled by the suppressed groan emanating from inside.

“How much longer are you going to stay in here?”

Winslow put the other little yellow chick cotton suit he brought over Li Jia. The inner walls of the refrigerator were covered in thick ice. Li Jia was curled up in a corner covered with three layers of blankets, yet her entire body was still an abnormal red, as if she had just been pulled out of boiling water.

Li Jia didn’t have the strength to look up; she merely buried her face deeper into the little yellow chick cotton suit. Her voice was muffled, as if wrapped in cotton: “Wait another half hour… It feels a little less painful today than yesterday.”

Every day at midnight, Li Jia would punctually shut herself into the refrigerator to cool down.

Since Hera’s disappearance, at this specific hour every day, her whole body felt like a skewer roasting on an iron rack—burning and painful everywhere, yet without a single visible wound.

Initially, she couldn’t figure out the reason. Dorin told her that she only needed to seal her five senses with divine power to stop feeling the pain.

At night, Li Jia sealed her five senses with divine power. Sure enough, the fatal sensation of a magma strike disappeared. But Li Jia felt empty inside, which was even more unbearable than the burning.

She even wondered if she was a masochist who felt uncomfortable if she wasn’t being burned a little.

Li Jia confided her troubles to Artemis, complaining all the while that if Hera were here, she wouldn’t have to specially trouble her.

Artemis hesitated for a moment but decided to follow her heart. She told Li Jia that the reason she felt such unbearable pain was that she and Hera had signed a Master-Servant Pact.

Blood from both parties had been dripped onto the ring, long since permeating each other’s lives.

If Li Jia felt ten parts of pain, Hera would bear nine parts of it for her.

Now that Hera was no longer a deity, the Master of the pact had ceased to function, and there was no way to continue protecting Li Jia.

If Li Jia felt nine parts of pain, she would feel nine parts of pain herself. This was the result of the Pact’s backlash, its overturning, and its agitation.

“Dissolving the pact is incredibly easy for you now.”

Artemis thought of her old friend’s eternally calm and beautiful face and advised gently: “Let it go, Li Jia. More than anyone, she wishes you a happy, joyful, healthy, and long life.”

“Then was she in this much pain every day?”

Li Jia lowered her eyes and murmured, “Then this one part of ease was worth it.”

Winslow squatted down, looking at her exposed ankle. There were no wounds there, yet it glowed with an abnormal red, and even the blanket touching it seemed to be scorched hot.

“Didn’t the Goddess of the Hunt say you can dissolve this pact?”

Winslow’s voice was very soft, afraid of touching Li Jia’s sore spot: “If Her Majesty Hera were here, she would absolutely not allow you to harm yourself like this.”

“Dissolving the pact is easy.”

The woman raised her eyes, which were red-rimmed but without tears: “But I’m afraid that if I dissolve it, even this last little thing connecting me to her will be gone.”

The temperature in the freezer was low enough to freeze breath, yet Li Jia felt a faint warmth in her chest.

Even if she had to rely on the physical suppression of the burning sensation by the ice in the refrigerator, and even if she had to endure the bone-chilling cold every night until the pain subsided, she wanted to keep this pain.

A little longer, just a little longer.

Winslow said nothing more, only taking off his own little yellow chick cotton suit and laying it over Li Jia’s blanket.

He stood at the entrance of the ice cellar and declared loyally: “If the pain really becomes unbearable, just shout it out. I won’t laugh at you, and whoever dares to laugh at you, I’ll destroy them.”

“Winslow.”

Li Jia said weakly: “I want to eat fermented glutinous rice with osmanthus, and it needs a lot of soft, sticky little dumplings.”

He had been moved for nothing.

Winslow sighed. It seemed the Divine Lord was right; Li Jia was someone who, no matter where she was or what serious trouble she faced, would never be unable to survive.

If she could eat, everything was fine.

“I know, I know. You’ve really defeated me. I’ll go prepare it.”

Since she wouldn’t be pained to death, Winslow scurried to the small kitchen to boil water and make the fermented glutinous rice with osmanthus for Li Jia. Li Jia loved the sweet aroma of osmanthus, and it meant Hera would also join her for half a bowl.

Osmanthus is a seasonal flower; the blooming and falling only take a few gusts of wind.

Winslow stored several large jars every year, preserving them with honey according to Li Jia’s method, which allowed them to be stored for a long time. She could just scoop out a couple of spoons whenever she wanted a drink.

Today’s fermented glutinous rice with osmanthus was half a bowl short of the usual amount.

Winslow’s heart also felt empty.

After two years of being intermittently roasted like this, Li Jia felt that if she were thrown into Turpan now, she could peacefully lie there like a salted fish.

Li Jia climbed out of the refrigerator, returned to the inner hall to change into a clean robe, and only felt better after drinking a mouthful of the osmanthus dish. She complained to Linai while drinking: “I feel like a piece of meat that can’t be frozen to death, undergoing a freezing ultrasound treatment cycle every day. My skin even feels much firmer.”

The little penguin held the bowl with its small flipper hands, looking up with its fluffy little head, and gulped down some of the osmanthus dish, saying helplessly: “The solution was told to you, but you can’t bear to lose it. This is what you call pain and happiness.”

Although Li Jia complained verbally, losing this pain would truly be the death of her.

Pain was pain, but through it, she could sense that Hera was still alive.

Just being alive was enough.

Live first. Even if it felt like death, she had to live. Only by living could she turn the tables and have a glimmer of hope.

Another six months passed like this. The burning sensation became fainter and fainter, which Li Jia felt was not a good sign—it was more agonizing than being killed.

She knew she couldn’t wait any longer.

“System.”

Late at night, Li Jia called the System’s name.

The System, having gone through this mission, had now transformed into a major taxpayer for the Book-Crossing Bureau. Not only had it paid back all its previous debts, but it was also rolling in wealth, earning a fortune.

When Li Jia called it, it was preparing to flirt with its eighteenth male model.

Its precious darling was calling. The System kicked the male model away and returned to Li Jia’s mind.

“Host, what can I do for you?”

“The mission is complete. You still owe me a wish, do you remember?”

“Of course I remember. This is what you deserve for completing the mission, Host. Although I still don’t know how to get you back to the real world, since the mission is complete, this wish will not be voided and will be permanently reserved.”

For a System, integrity was the most important thing.

“Can I realize my wish now?”

“Of course you can, but weren’t you hoping for a healthy body? It will be fulfilled immediately upon your return to modern society.”

The System knew what Li Jia had always wanted.

“No, I want to change my wish.”

“I can feel she is slowly disappearing.”

“My wish is to bring her back.”

Li Jia spoke very calmly, without a trace of hesitation.

The System was instantly stunned. It thought the Strategist was crazy. This was just the world in a book; they were merely strings of data here, a pile of corrupted code. To waste her chance at survival for a pile of worthless data—what else could this be but madness?

“Host, the world in the book doesn’t count. When you return to the real world, everything will go back to normal. You can have a healthy body and a brand new life.”

The System warned her repeatedly, hoping Li Jia would come to her senses. She was the first honor student it had ever guided, and it cherished her talent immensely!

She said: “If she dies, I absolutely will not live alone. If I die, the mission is immediately declared a failure, and you can go back to the furnace for a complete rebuild.”

With those words laid out, the System’s brainwaves nearly exploded.

After running through all sorts of rule manuals and calculation methods in the database, the System felt like it was practically smoking.

Seeing the utterly resigned look on Li Jia’s face, the System grit its teeth. At worst, it would just get struck by lightning a few more times. It spent points to exchange for a Difficult Case Solution Pouch and told Li Jia the method.

Watching the girl regain her smile, the System felt a terrible pain, like it was infected with a virus.

It said gloomily: “There is only one reward. Your original body, Host, has already died. After returning to the real world, your soul will have no host body, and you will vanish into ashes, without entering the cycle of reincarnation, and with no next life.”

Looking at the woods outside the window, the branches already had flower buds. When spring came next year, they would bear fruit, and she would see this gift of hers.

Li Jia smiled: “Mm, I know.”

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