Nightfall erased the last trace of the setting sun, and the curtain of night slowly descended like a velvet theater drape.
Darkness had arrived.
Nyx, goddess of night, had come especially early tonight. Perhaps she was answering someone's request, or perhaps Apollo could no longer stand the boredom of being the sun.
The Golden Bracelet lit up, its black halo surrounding Thaumas and Orpheus.
Then, after exchanging a glance, the two of them jumped into the crater together.
Under Nightfall's protection, they passed through an indescribable stretch of space and safely arrived on the land of the Underworld.
In Ancient Greek legends,
the Underworld was surrounded by five rivers.
Among them,
the souls of the dead would first arrive at the "Styx River," the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
The Styx River was not merely a river, but a barrier symbolizing the boundary between death and eternity.
Still,
the Underworld truly was a desolate void. No life from the mortal world could survive here. Even the pomegranate seeds of the Underworld were black.
Thaumas could not appreciate this decorating style. No wonder so many Underworld gods wanted to run off to the surface.
Orpheus had been exceptionally obedient along the way and had not said much. After all, Thaumas had brought him to the Underworld, even if he had not directly taken him through Hell Gate like Hermes could.
Even so, Orpheus was amazed. Their soft, frail little junior disciple had finally grown up!
Thaumas had once needed them to "remind" Jason so that he would not come in last place.
Now, he could probably beat several Jasons at once!
How was Jason doing, anyway? Orpheus had been busy with certain matters and had not paid attention to news from the outside world for a long time.
Even Thaumas had become so outstanding. Jason surely could not be doing badly either!
Just as he was wondering what Jason might be up to, Orpheus saw Thaumas stop.
"Whoa! What a huge river!" Thaumas exclaimed, then shouted,
"Lord Charon, are you there? Come pick up some passengers!"
The shout was deafening, startling the souls lingering nearby because they had no money to cross. They pointed at Thaumas and Orpheus while whispering among themselves.
Then, after a while, just as the two were about to sit down and wait,
"You rude little brat! Do you know you scared this old man? Is this how your parents taught you?"
A small wooden boat could be seen in the distance on the tranquil Styx River, though it looked terribly battered.
Its hull was old, its paint peeling, and on closer inspection, it even had several cracks and holes.
An old man was rowing with all his might, heading toward them.
Legend had it that
on the banks of the Styx River, souls would meet Charon, the ferryman of the Styx. He was a mysterious boatman responsible for transporting souls from the world of the living to the realm of the dead.
Charon only accepted souls who could pay the fare, usually with a coin carried on their person. Those unable to pay were forced to wander the riverbank for a hundred years before being permitted to cross.
That was the filthy old man before them, who looked like some kind of yaksha.
"You little punk, do you even have money? You call me over to pick up passengers, but if you're just wasting this old man's time, you can stay here for a hundred years!"
Charon glared with wide eyes and pointed at his own nose.
Could Charon's eyes really breathe fire? That was what the legends said.
"Greetings, honored ferryman Charon. These are two gold coins. Could you take us across the river?" Thaumas handed Charon two gold coins and asked with a smile.
Thaumas truly could not bring himself to respect such a comical old man.
"No. You are living souls. My boat only carries the dead!" Charon waved them off.
"Then two coins per person?"
"Mm... that... probably won't do."
"Then how about ten coins?"
"Sir, please take a seat! Let me wipe it down first. My boat carries a lot of people, so some grime is unavoidable. We mustn't dirty your clothes!"
And so, Charon smilingly invited Thaumas and Orpheus aboard.
This was a huge deal, a major customer. He had to provide this gentleman with the best possible service!
On the boat,
Charon knocked away several souls trying to seize the chance to climb aboard, then gently pushed the oars through the water.
"Mr. Charon, why did you choose to ferry people across the Styx? You should have had better options, shouldn't you?" Thaumas asked curiously.
"What's there to ask? I wanted to, so I came. What about you, sir? Why did you come to this godforsaken Underworld?"
"Mm, I came because I wanted to as well," Thaumas answered, then added,
"By the way, Nyx asked me to persuade you to leave, but since you like it here, forget it. If you don't want to, I won't force you."
"Nightfall? No wonder you could come here and seemed so familiar with the place. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her in a long time." Charon spoke calmly, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking from his tone alone.
"But if you love this job so much, why did you establish that rule?"
"What rule?"
"One gold coin."
"That's because this old man likes money, of course."
"Mr. Charon, you aren't being honest. No wonder Nyx was so worried about you. If you were greedy for money, you would not stay in the Underworld." Thaumas exposed his lie.
"Fine, fine. It's actually because of Thanatos." Perhaps because of the money, Charon unusually chose to tell the truth.
"Thanatos? Why? What does this have to do with the god of death?" Thaumas found it difficult to connect the two, though they were brothers. Perhaps there was some hidden reason?
"People usually place a coin in the eyes or mouth of the deceased as payment for me.
"But for those without family, if they were good people, Thanatos would secretly slip in a coin. No one knew about it."
So he screened out some of the evil people first, huh?
Thaumas understood.
"Then what about those whose families refused to give them money?"
"If they won't even put in a single gold coin, what kind of people do you think they are?" Charon asked in return.
"What if their children were simply unfilial? That should happen sometimes, shouldn't it?"
This time, Charon did not answer. He remained silent for a long time.
The boat came to a stop.
"Then this old man will investigate personally," Charon said.
"Then I have no issue with that. It seems those ghosts lingering on the shore are all the sort who deserve to die.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Charon. Here are twenty gold coins. Please accept them." Thaumas paid him.
Mr. Charon really was a good man.
Otherwise, Thaumas might have done something unpleasant for the souls stranded on the opposite bank, if Charon had truly only been doing this for that little bit of wealth.
After bidding Charon farewell, Thaumas turned and left with Orpheus. They still had a journey ahead and could not linger here.
Charon watched them depart.
Looking at the twenty gold coins in his hand, Charon remained expressionless, revealing nothing of what he thought.
What an annoying little brat!
Always making more trouble for this old man!
If I hadn't agreed, who knew what that brat would have done? In the end, I might even have lost my job!
I never want to see him again! Who knows what loophole he might think of next to make my workload even worse!
P.S.
Two more readers voted with monthly passes, so I'll add an extra chapter for each of them tomorrow. Monthly passes don't seem all that useful, and my ranking still won't go up, but since they voted, they must like what I write. It really moved me.
Someone also sent me a tip—one hundred Qidian coins. That can buy a lot of words to read. Even one yuan is support, so I'll add another chapter.
Six chapters tomorrow. I've written it down.
Come to think of it, have I been writing a little too much? When I was slacking off at work and watching an editor's livestream, one editor said around four thousand words before launch was about right. I've got at least eight thousand...
Before you continue