"So, Goddess Clotho wanted to see me, right?" Thaumas asked.
"Mhm! That child secretly told me many times that she likes you very much. After all, she is responsible for weaving the future of all living beings, and you changed that future. It would be hard not to catch her attention." Nyx spoke slowly.
Then, as if she had remembered Goddess Clotho, she smiled gently.
"Child, Clotho is a little shy, but among all my children, few are as outstanding as she is. Dreams, death, sleep, fate, pain, old age, toil, revenge, discord, vice, deceit, and so on—these are all my biological children, but Clotho makes me the proudest." Nyx spoke tenderly, with a hint of bragging.
Having many children really was nice. There could be many outstanding ones, though unfortunately there would also be plenty of embarrassing ones.
"By the way, have you met my child?" Nyx asked slowly.
"Goddess, do you mean Thanatos?" Thaumas asked in confusion.
"Who was talking about that guy? He is already so old, yet he still lives with his mother! He does not even think about going out, finding a wife, and having a couple of children. Thanatos is truly hopeless! He is nothing like my child at all." Nyx said indignantly.
Huh?
This familiar sense of déjà vu.
It was just like college students being mocked by their parents after spending a few days back home. How miserable. Poor Thanatos—being misunderstood by humans was one thing, but now his own mother was saying this about him too.
He wondered whether Thanatos outside could hear them. Would he be hurt?
If Thanatos were here, he would definitely say he was already used to it.
"Forget it, let us not mention that disappointing child. What were we talking about? Hmm... right, did you not meet Charon?" Nyx asked.
It was Charon, not Chiron—the centaur sage and Thaumas's teacher.
He was the ferryman of the Underworld in Ancient Greek mythology, responsible for ferrying the dead across the Styx.
The ferryman of the Styx, the son of Erebus, the god of darkness among the five primordial gods, and Nyx, the goddess of night.
He was the boatman on the Styx, responsible for ferrying souls of the dead to the other side.
Legend said that as long as the living paid Charon, the ferryman of the Styx, he would carry them across the river. However, the weight of the living would make his boat extremely unsafe.
If they had no money, they would have to wait beside the Styx for a hundred years, or perhaps even dissipate.
Charon was depicted as a filthy old man holding a long pole, with fire in his eyes and an extreme love of money.
He guarded the Acheron River, known as the River of Pain, which every soul had to cross upon entering the Underworld.
"If you mean Mr. Charon, then no, I did not see him," Thaumas answered honestly.
"Huh?! Why? Did you not pass through the Styx when you entered the Underworld?" Nyx asked, utterly confused.
"About that, Hermes directly brought me from the volcanic crater to Hell Gate in the Underworld. We did not pass by that river."
Sorry, Hermes!
Thaumas thought.
"Hermes! Not following procedure! What a ruleless fellow. Forget it, you will meet him someday.
"By the way, for some reason, Charon likes turning himself into an old man and working over at the Styx. He has no ambition whatsoever! I was thinking of having you persuade him while you were passing through. And my other children too—why does every single one of them have so many problems?" Nyx wore a sorrowful expression.
He suddenly felt that night was not so wonderful after all.
At this rate, would she not hand them all over to him?
"Mm, forget it. I will not bother with them. If they want to live like that, then I will let them." Nyx shook her head and sighed.
"Oh, right. Child, since you agreed to meet Clotho, consider this an advance return gift."
Nyx spread her hands. A stream of black divine power surged from her chest, gathered between her palms, and slowly flowed into Thaumas's Bracelet.
"Child, with this, you will receive night's protection. From now on, you no longer need to fear the poisonous fumes around the volcano leading to the Underworld. Night will protect you.
"At night, so long as the enemy's power does not exceed mine, poisons, evil entities, curses, and even hidden weapons will be unable to harm you. Night will help you as well." Nyx said as she stroked Thaumas's head.
!
At that moment, Thaumas genuinely wanted to acknowledge Nyx as his mother.
This was practically an enhanced version of [Protection from Arrows], along with [Poison Immunity] and other abilities. Though it was night-exclusive, it was terrifyingly powerful.
He had struck it rich. He had really struck it rich.
At first, he had truly only wanted to become an ordinary Heroic Spirit. He never expected to have come this far.
He even felt that he had become absurdly overpowered. Without being nerfed, he would not even be able to descend from the Throne of Heroes.
Praise the great Goddess Nyx!
Praise the night! I love the night!
But everything came at a price.
Nyx suddenly said slyly, "But since you have accepted the betrothal gift, you must marry my little Clotho! No backing out!"
"Huh? A betrothal gift?" Thaumas said in shock.
She really had become his mother now!
"What else would it be? My little Clotho talks about you every day. As her mother, how could I not help my beloved daughter? Little Thaumas, we will be family from now on! You must love each other dearly!" Nyx happily stroked Thaumas's head.
"Th-this... can I refuse?" Thaumas asked tremblingly.
He had said it long ago: if possible, he truly did not want any romantic entanglements with gods.
This was Greece!
Greece!
Greece!
That was important, damn it!
Had he not seen that Apollo had even wanted to change sex just to get him?
Thaumas could not get over that hurdle. At the end of the day, humans and gods were two different species.
Cross-species relationships were simply too advanced for Thaumas. He had never even dated before...
Humans were strange. Some lived plainly, some cared greatly about cleanliness, and some would even screw monitor lizards.
Anyway, Thaumas felt that he cared greatly about cleanliness.
Because Thaumas himself was clean, he had the right to demand a clean partner. That was equality.
When it came to relationships, Thaumas had an almost obsessive pursuit of purity.
He hoped that husband and wife could achieve a kind of relative equality.
Nyx's expression changed drastically after hearing this, and she said unhappily:
"How could a god's gift be casually taken back? As for the oath of loyalty you swore to Hera, that is an even bigger bonus!
"I am worried that my little Clotho will be bullied! You are Hera's believer. If you marry my Clotho, you will definitely be faithful to the marriage, right?"
"But I am human, while Goddess Clotho is a god! I will eventually die!" This was Thaumas's struggle.
"Do not worry, Thaumas. Those are all minor issues! And perhaps you do not know this, but Athena is already making preparations. Hmm? It seems I have revealed too much. Oh well, you have already accepted this betrothal gift anyway," Nyx said.
"Then... can you give me some time to think? After all, I still have many things unfinished, and I do not even know Goddess Clotho," Thaumas tried once more.
"Hmm... all right! You are right, after all. But you must hurry. Do not make my little Clotho wait too long, or I will get angry," Nyx said.
"Of course!" Thaumas replied firmly.
"By the way, the sun will soon set. Apollo must be very happy right now, right? His work was not busy before, yet now he has actually taken the initiative to work overtime.
"Judging by Apollo's nature, I estimate that before long, he will return the sun chariot to Helios and merely enjoy the title of sun god without doing any work. Helios, on the other hand, is passionate about this job.
"So today, stay with me, Thaumas!
"Raise the night together with me!"
Nyx said gently.
P.S.: Those concerned about the romance route, please take a look.
First of all, I need to make this clear: I do not bait readers into shipping.
I will not exploit readers' enthusiasm. As a reader myself, I would not want to be baited into shipping either, so I will write IF routes later. Whoever's ending you want to see, there will be one. That is what makes it satisfying.
There will be a harem route, a single route, and perhaps some female lead routes depending on the situation. Those will be included in later side stories.
But to make the main story easier to write, he is currently single.
The reason today's update was late was also this. Originally, I wanted the official pairing to be Caster Medea, but I ultimately gave up on that.
This chapter was posted late because I hesitated for three or four hours before deciding to write them all. Just like the Moirai—since I could not figure it out, I decided to have them all.
I do not know what you all think. To prevent a sense of disconnection, I will try to downplay romance in the main plot and focus on it in the side stories.
Before you continue