The lovely, pure goddess now sat stiffly in Zeus's arms, not daring to move.
Her delicate divine body was taut, as if it had become a finely carved statue of jade.
Together with the God-King, likewise motionless and playing dead, they made quite a pair, a charmingly well-matched set.
Metis looked at the two deities before her, statuesque as if chiseled from stone, and couldn't help but shake her head with a smile and a sigh.
At last she straightened her attire, put on that dignified, regal expression once more, and turned to leave the hall to meet the long-waiting Prometheus.
No sooner had Metis's figure vanished beyond the doors than Zeus, who had been like a sculpture, let out a quiet breath.
Without the least hesitation and with no further scruples, he drew the soft, tremulous body in his arms even tighter against him.
The goddess in his embrace was one of the topmost among the Oceanids!
All the more so since she was the goddess who held and represented Grace. If this God-King didn't like her, that would be truly bizarre.
She symbolized all the universe's Grace and Goodness, the clearest and purest, and likewise the most limpid and crystalline.
Pulled suddenly tighter by Zeus, Eurynome's already tense and rigid body seemed to melt in an instant beneath a rush of searing divine force, turning at once into the softest spring water.
It was a full display of this Oceanid's essential nature as an embodiment of pure water.
Instinctively she drew her slender arms in before her, her whole divine form shrinking like a bashful plant into Zeus's embrace.
Her face, fair as a white lotus, had already taken on the gorgeous hues of an evening sea-glow.
From her cheeks to her ears and down her long, graceful neck, she was as red as the sun about to sink into the ocean.
She dared not move a muscle. She only pressed herself carefully against Zeus's chest, even easing her breath,
yet kept secretly, timidly, greedily breathing in the scent of the God-King she had longed for day and night.
"Your Majesty… Your Majesty's scent… mmm—how I love it!"
This was her first time having such intimate contact with any other god.
How much more so when the other was His Majesty the God-King she had long secretly admired!
In her beloved God-King's firm, burning embrace, Eurynome felt as if she had returned, in that very instant, to the primeval ocean of her birth.
Wrapped in endless gentle, pure water, the ultimate sense of safety and bliss nearly made her swoon on the spot.
Zeus, for his part, found it highly amusing.
Among all the goddesses he presently had, not one was so easily shy as she.
That youthful and pure feeling was truly adorable.
This was indeed a kind of goddess he particularly liked!
One of His Majesty's large hands was snug around the goddess's slender, yielding waist, his fingers unable to resist lightly caressing the springy, full curve below her waist.
With the other he gently yet possessively captured the goddess's cool, delicate little hands, which were futilely curled before her chest.
Smiling, he toyed with those boneless jade-like fingers and, in the softest voice, said, "My dear Eurynome, what's this? Am I so fearsome? You don't even dare lift your eyelids—could it be my face is hideous, or that I am too fierce a god?"
At these words, the goddess, eyes tightly shut, feared her heart's sovereign would misunderstand, and in a panic she opened her eyes at once.
Those ice-blue pupils, clear as the polar sea, fixed straight upon the God-King she adored, and she cried, "No! Not at all, Your Majesty!"
Only upon opening them did she realize that the God-King she had long admired was looking at her with eyes full of gentle, teasing mischief.
Understanding that she'd been toyed with, the goddess blushed and flustered, and could only pitifully bury her head once more against Zeus's chest.
In a muffled voice she said, "Your Majesty is the bravest and most valiant god in all the cosmos, and the gentlest, most compassionate king."
"Your Majesty… I—I can never get enough of looking at you."
"It's just… it's just that you are too dazzling and awe-inspiring, radiant beyond measure. I—I don't dare look too much…"
At that, Zeus laughed aloud, delighted. "Then I grant you a special permission: from this day on, you may gaze directly upon me, always."
"All right, my little darling, you may look at me properly now."
The clear-eyed goddess's lashes trembled like butterfly wings.
Carefully, slowly, she opened her eyes again.
Once more her sea-blue eyes met the God-King's bright, gentle gaze, like molten gold.
For a moment, she was entranced all over again.
"Your Majesty… truly, truly so handsome!"
Zeus smiled slightly and, in a low voice, asked gently, "My dearest Eurynome, were the things your sister Metis said just now true?"
"Do you also wish to become my wife?"
That single line was like the Thunder-Lord casting a bolt, jolting Eurynome clean out of her daze.
She did not dare be reserved in the slightest now and nodded at once, again and again.
Her little head bobbed like a chick pecking grain, using all her strength to make it fully, firmly, absolutely clear!
Zeus smiled tenderly. "Good. Then it's settled. Before long I shall proclaim this joyous news to all the gods of the cosmos."
"My Eurynome, do you know that you are the indispensable portion of pure goodness in this universe?"
"The whole universe has its most innocent laughter and purest simple joy because of you. To be loved by you is my honor."
Eurynome's inner excitement and ecstasy had already gone beyond words.
She even began to wonder if she was dreaming.
A wish long buried in her heart, one she had always thought a dream beyond reach, had so easily been fulfilled.
At last she summoned all her courage, stretched out her arms, and clung tightly to her beloved God-King.
Her voice, clear as a mountain spring, trembled with boundless tenderness as she spoke the gentlest words: "Your Majesty, is… is this real? Am I truly not dreaming?"
Zeus smiled softly and, in the most ardent way, proved that none of this was illusion.
He bowed his head and precisely captured the Oceanid's most tender, most full, dewy lips.
Carefully he savored whether different Oceanids indeed had different flavors.
At length, their lips parted.
With utmost seriousness and authority, the God-King confirmed one crucial fact.
Though all were daughters of the ocean, their flavors were utterly different!
The delights therein were truly each their own.
Metis's kiss was a refreshing sweetness, like a freshly picked lychee, its aroma sinking to the heart and leaving a god with endless aftertaste.
Eurynome's, by contrast, was supremely sweet and juicy, like a peach ripened under the sun; a light sip brought crisp, fragrant nectar to the tongue—likewise unforgettable.
Experienced as he was, such small intimacies had little effect on him.
But for the inexperienced, clear-hearted goddess, this long kiss, filled with the God-King's endless love, truly left her unable to contain herself.
In the Oceanid's blue eyes now shimmered rippling, enamored lights.
Her whole divine body was like water, collapsed helplessly in her beloved's arms.
Having fully accepted reality, the feelings she had long suppressed, surging like stormy seas, could no longer be held back.
She spoke to the God-King she had long adored all that she had stored in her heart.
There was so much—so very much—she wished to say to the god she loved.
Secret love is the most wrenching flavor in this world.
It is to strive to draw one drop of sweetness from ten thousand parts of sourness.
Only by that one cool sip can one barely soothe a heart long cracked by the blaze of love.
Only by that faint dew can one keep one's heart alive with difficulty.
She gazed, entranced, at her beloved God-King and murmured, "Your Majesty, I love you so much—so very much, from so long, long ago."
"You are the greatest Lord; you are the embodiment of courage! You always shield us behind you, and you always stand at the very front, to face the most terrible foes alone!"
"You are the wisest god; even my sister Metis's wisdom is far beneath yours—the greatest, most radiant wisdom that truly shines upon what was and what will be!"
"You are the most compassionate king; your loving heart has brought the most precious warmth and peace to all gods and all beings in this universe."
"Your Majesty… to be loved by you, even if only a little, even if only a small measure of favor—that has been my greatest, longed-for luxury."
"Your Majesty, you are my Lord, my King, my supreme God! Only by your side do I feel vitality and life."
"The universe will never be beautiful because of someone as small as me, nor does it have laughter and delight because of a small one like me."
"This whole universe is beautiful because of you!"
"It was you who overthrew the rotten, brutal old rule and ended that dark, benighted age!"
"It was you who laid down the sacred order of justice and brought the light of hope to the entire universe!"
"The cosmos shines because of you! The world is radiant because of you! Civilization flourishes because of you! The gods, too, enjoy all goodness because of you!"
"Uuuu—Your Majesty—my Majesty—I finally… finally can lean in your arms like this—I truly… truly am so happy!"
Hearing the sincere, adoring words of the goddess in his arms, Zeus himself was stunned for a beat.
He even wondered to himself: Me? Am I really that good?
After mulling it over a moment, His Majesty the God-King was greatly pleased.
Mm! Indeed I am! She's only speaking the truth!
The God-King was all but carried away by the purest, most earnest declaration of the clear-hearted goddess!
For a moment, his vanity swelled to bursting!
Understandable enough.
A thousand-charms, peerless-grace, pure and kind Oceanid sitting in your lap, pouring out, from the bottom of her heart, a love as deep as the sea—
who could possibly withstand such a fierce assault?
Faced with such an adorable goddess and such burning, heartfelt words, what more could he say?
As usual, he would prove it with action!
Those cherry lips were far too eloquent!
Every line she spoke could unsettle a god's heart.
He simply had to taste their sweetness again—more deeply, more thoroughly.
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