Apollo's eyelid twitched furiously.
Several full breaths passed before he managed to suppress the impulse to wring this mortal's neck.
Although he genuinely liked this hero before all of this.
But when it involved his precious sister, that was the sun god's one sore spot.
If he hadn't been able to tell that the other party said all of this without any visible trace of romantic feeling,
He would have already sent this dangerous character straight to the underworld.
No.
It wouldn't go that far.
But he absolutely could not allow any further contact between him and Artemis.
Describing the one-of-a-kind crown as a one-of-a-kind iridescent person.
That miraculous radiance born among all the plain and ordinary colors.
He had to admit, setting aside the matter of Artemis herself entirely,
The sun god was genuinely fond of that kind of elegant, refined phrasing, the kind that read like poetry.
These words could also be the purest possible way for two people who had fallen in love to describe each other.
Even Apollo couldn't help being drawn in, finding himself wondering whether he should go out and find someone to fall in love with.
He really liked that feeling.
Though he already had children, as an immortal god who stayed forever young, that didn't stop him from still looking.
.
.
.
At the same time,
The moment Night spoke and Artemis's name was said aloud,
Back in the moon goddess's temple, the goddess felt it.
In Greece, you didn't speak a god's name carelessly.
They could hear it.
The wind told them everything.
Which was why people who plotted against or defied the gods were almost always discovered quickly, then toyed with until they died.
And the wind that carried this was more like a letter of confession.
Every word reached Artemis's ears.
She paid it a little attention and found Night in conversation with Apollo.
Just as Apollo noticed no strong feeling of romantic longing in Night's words and could only conclude the boy really did mean it as a description,
Night once again met the goddess's demanding and nearly unattainable conditions without seeming to realize it.
She knew she shouldn't let her thoughts wander.
And yet she couldn't help being drawn in by those words, so moving and so beautifully put.
Could a person actually be iridescent?
What kind of person would it take to bring her that feeling?
A fierce curiosity rose in the goddess's heart. She knew the kind of comparison being made sounded like something between two people in love.
But she didn't believe only love could show someone that iridescent, miraculous quality.
Having watched her mother and so many other goddesses suffer under the hands of male gods, treated like rags and tossed aside without a thought, Artemis felt deep fear around the idea of finding a partner.
What might be called the "divine-age condition" of distrust toward men.
It was difficult for any male to enter her heart.
No matter how exceptional or stirring a god might be, the more exceptional he was, the more Artemis wanted to stay away.
It wasn't that the moon goddess didn't appreciate fine men.
But the condition was that the man couldn't show any sign of wanting her in return.
The moment he did, it scared her off.
She was really afraid of that kind of feeling.
Love made people blind and foolish, like moths flying into a flame without caring what came after, willing to sacrifice everything.
Good love was one thing. Bad love only brought endless suffering.
Without question,
The new family member she took on was exceptional, beautiful, and genuinely the kind of hero who could carve out a legend worth writing down.
And Night showed no sign of feeling anything resembling romantic interest, which put her at ease.
She acted on impulse when she took him in, but he was still a man.
If he showed even a hint of that admiration, she would be troubled, and it would end the same way as Hippolytus, packed off to some quiet temple somewhere and left to deal with it on his own.
But right now the issue wasn't Night's behavior. It was that Artemis genuinely wanted to know what kind of person could be iridescent.
Thinking about the way Night described the full picture, a sudden image came to her.
Kneeling on one knee in the garden, holding the flower crown up sincerely and asking her, his queen, to take it.
Her heart in that moment was so full of joy.
The feeling of something she had always quietly held onto being seen, acknowledged, and understood.
In all of Greece, no one truly understood what Artemis stood for.
The gods played and indulged without restraint, chasing every pleasure.
They couldn't understand the beauty of purity, and not just in the physical sense. It was a spiritual longing, a standard she held for herself.
It made the moon goddess feel, again and again, like she didn't quite fit among the other gods.
A strange feeling began to take up residence in Artemis's chest, something like the sweetest thing she ever tasted.
Just then, Night said to Apollo below: "Sometimes the sunset is purple and pink. Other times it burns orange-red, setting the clouds on the horizon on fire."
He looked up at the sky outside.
It was already night, and there was no burning sunset to be seen, only a sky full of stars and a beautiful moon.
What Night didn't know was that at that moment his gaze lined up exactly with the moon goddess's own, and a shiver ran through her completely, melting her from the inside out.
That strange sensation, like a static charge passing through.
Artemis didn't mind it at all.
She found herself wanting to see the clouds burning on the horizon.
.
.
.
Meanwhile,
There were quite a few gods keeping tabs on Night during this period, especially after he entered the Greek army's camp.
But this late into the night, the ones still watching were mostly just Apollo and Artemis.
After all, gods didn't have the spare time to track a mortal around the clock.
However, one particular goddess developed some interest in Night after watching the fight earlier in the day, and since this goddess also had an owl as one of her forms and sometimes carried the role of goddess of night, she could fairly be called a night creature.
So the meeting between Night and Apollo was observed by an owl sitting in the branches of a tree outside the tent.
Words that would be enough to make any goddess' heart flutter
Even the embodiment of wisdom had moments of feeling.
And when it came to those moments, being too rational wasn't the right approach for a woman.
What she heard Night say and how Apollo responded made this goddess suspect. Could Artemis actually have found someone she liked?
And thinking back to the fight earlier in the day, watching Night willingly destroy himself, soaked in his own blood, pressing everything he had just to defend his goddess's honor—that fierce will to fight for his goddess with no thought for his own life struck this protective goddess deeply, even stirring a faint thread of envy somewhere inside her.
If a beautiful young man like that was willing to fight like that for her,
She wasn't saying anything against the children already devoted to her.
After all, she never doubted their willingness to risk their lives to protect her.
But there was something different here.
That wholehearted devotion that didn't hesitate for a second, that wouldn't tolerate the slightest slight, that would pour out everything just to protect the dignity of its goddess.
She understood now.
It wasn't simply loyalty. It was mixed with something pure.
Something like love.
She misunderstood, thinking Night had already started a romance with Artemis, and discovered that a goddess who had once sworn alongside her to remain as she was had apparently found someone.
But if it was someone who loved her this purely, she found herself quietly envious that Artemis could have that kind of love.
If it weren't for the fact that Greek gods and heroes were so repulsive, barely one of them reliable, who would actually want to be an iron maiden for eternity.
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.
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(End of the Chapter)