For instance, something like "acknowledging kinship."
Gods—especially high-ranking gods—could not casually acknowledge someone as kin.
Because "a god's word is no jest."
For a god as elevated as Apollo, once he acknowledged someone as kin, it would stir the rules and forcibly bind the two together.
Those who had originally been unrelated would become related. That was far more serious than becoming a "chosen one."
Using Athena and Ergane as examples had clearly been meant to mislead him.
Because Athena and Ergane had not acknowledged each other as kin. They had been kin to begin with.
Dark still lacked understanding in this regard and merely took Apollo's words as a rhetorical tactic.
Naturally, he had not believed the claim about an "adopted daughter." Instead, he sensed the "anger" Apollo had been suppressing deep inside.
Yes, he had already realized that Apollo was angry...
"Getting angry over just this? Why does he value Oli so highly?"
Dark was puzzled, but he immediately reassessed the importance of the matter in his mind.
Then, finding an angle in Apollo's words, he cut in, "Officiating the wedding..."
Apollo smiled and shook his head. "How dull."
Oli froze completely in place.
By this point, those words had practically laid Oli's feelings bare for all to see.
Apollo could be quite frightening when he got angry.
However, he did not know that Dark had long since seen through Oli's feelings. It was simply that Dark himself was also filled with conflict deep down, and for the moment, he could not determine how to deal with this relationship.
"Pride," "Bliss," and "Greed" were currently the emotions he had studied most deeply.
Still, since Apollo wanted to demonstrate that "making him angry is a very serious matter," perhaps he ought to indulge him.
With a turn of thought,