Prometheus still wore an extremely respectful expression.
He stepped forward and said reverently, "Honored Majesty, You once said the bull offered to You must be divided in two. You would accept humankind's sacrifice, and the other portion would be the token granted by the gods to humankind."
"Now the bulls have all been slaughtered and, strictly in accordance with Your instructions, have been equally divided into two parts."
"You are the supreme Sovereign; please choose personally how they are to be allotted."
The smile on Zeus's face faded, inch by inch.
Without the smile, the God-King's expression was austere as stone; His deep golden eyes in an instant became like ten thousand-year ice, without a trace of warmth.
The light, easy mood seemed to freeze at once beneath that gaze.
The smiles on the gods' faces also set, then quickly vanished.
Even the temperature in the highest heaven seemed to drop a few degrees.
Prometheus had deliberately made the hide covering the meat so filthy with blood.
The gods' nature is lofty and pure; how could they possibly choose something so foul?
All the more impossible in so sacred a setting, and before the holiest God-King of all.
It looked like letting the God-King choose; but how, in truth, could He choose otherwise?
On the surface it was a humble request; in truth, it was bribery by force.
Humility above, calculation beneath.
All that little cleverness was spent on "using the false to cover the real"!
Earlier it was so; now it was still so!
This trick of masking substance with semblance was indeed well-played.
But however pretty, it could not hide the arrogance and the lack of virtue.
He did not understand that false is false, and real is real.
To use the false to cover the real is deceit.
And deceit will certainly be discovered.
All the more so deceit against the God-King!
Anything gained through deceit will in the end be repaid with double pain and loss!
And such deceit in the very ritual of establishing a sacred covenant is the gravest of calamities!
The light, festive atmosphere in the clouds now congealed solid; one could almost hear a pin drop as every god looked at Prometheus with a darkened face.
This clumsy little trick fooled not a single god.
Clymene, whose heart had been happy and relaxed and even proud of her son a moment ago, turned deathly pale in an instant.
Her thoughts tangled; her chest felt tight; her divinity went dark. If Metis at her side had not discreetly steadied her, she might have collapsed on the spot.
She had known Prometheus might have calculations in his heart.
But she had never, never imagined he could truly do something as hopelessly foolish as his stupid brother Menoetius!
No—more foolish than his father Iapetus!
To play at stupid scheming before the gods, trying to deceive the omniscient God-King and the Olympian gods!
Foolish—too foolish!
Could there be anything more foolish in all the cosmos?
He might as well rebel outright!
That would be far better than this humiliation!
For a moment she truly doubted herself.
How had she born four sons without a single one whose mind was "normal"?!
By this act, Prometheus had already offended every god present!
He loved his "children" humankind—there was nothing wrong with that.
He wished to help humankind a little more—no fault in that either.
But his method was terribly wrong!
Wrong unto death!
He actually dared use such deceitful, filthy means, in a sacred covenant rite, openly scheming against the God-King before nearly all the gods!
Using "false" to obscure "real," using this dirty performance of deception in a mad attempt to leave all the benefit to humankind!
This wasn't benevolence; this was presumption! This was defiance!
If the offering to the God-King today were allowed to stand—
then in the endless ages to come, all offerings the gods received would follow this pattern!
This would no longer be a matter of "who gets more to eat," but of "who can be trusted."
The gods do not care about a few offerings.
What is beef or fat worth to a god?
What they care about is the sincerity of faith!
After offerings are presented and the rite is complete, you can ask the gods to return this crude food to humankind.
The gods need none of these mortal goods; to feel humankind's devotion and reverence is enough.
On such a fine day, with all in high spirits, if you had openly entreated, would His Majesty's generous, merciful nature not likely have granted it?
The gods may bestow; mortals may petition.
But you must not deceive!
This is a matter of attitude—of principle!
The "attitude" represented by this act and the baleful influence it brings are something no god can tolerate!
It means that from this day on, relations between men and gods will be conducted with "falseness" in place of "truth"!
It means Prometheus is openly, nakedly encouraging humankind to deceive and scheme against the gods—
instead of honoring them with sincerity and honesty!
It means that just as His Majesty the God-King has set down the "covenant of gods and mortals," the "middleman" is already destroying the very foundation of trust beneath that covenant!
Faith is faith—without "trust," what else can there be?
This was the gravest, most shameless, most unforgivable challenge to the God-King's majesty!
To speak bluntly, Prometheus had practically betrayed the gods' camp!
He had wholly and utterly taken humankind's side!
His love for humankind had become so sickly that it surpassed his reverence for Order and the God-King!
He had even lost his loyalty toward His Majesty the God-King!
He was spoiling these humans!
No—this was obsessive love!
He was even imposing his own selfish schemes upon those still-innocent humans!
Newborn humankind could never have conceived such deceit; even if they had, they would never have dared act so wantonly before the gods!
Every god could see that His Majesty had been in an excellent mood regarding humankind from start to finish.
Had Prometheus plainly asked for some wish, with His Majesty's generosity and mercy, He might well have granted it.
But now… everything was different.
The very way Prometheus had chosen was, in itself, the gravest affront to the God-King's majesty!
The holy Queen of Gods, Mother Rhea—whose face was forever gentle and smiling—now had no expression at all.
For one as soft and loving as she, that was already her angriest state.
The Mother of All, Gaia, stared at Prometheus in utter shock.
She marveled inwardly again and again: "For such a dull child as Iapetus, to have sons this audacious—each more reckless than the last!"
"So brave!"
"Not a point lost!"
"I, Gaia, would name you the bravest of the second-generation Titans!"
Of course, she only thought this to herself; she would never dare intercede for Prometheus.
In a case like today's, anyone who dared plead would be walking to their death.
In truth, she herself could not understand what Prometheus was thinking.
As for the Night-Goddess, her cold, noble face drew her brows high, and the corners of her lips curved in a frigid smile that could not be colder.
To shame the God-King she most loved was to shame her!
Tartarus! He had to be cast into Tartarus!
Let this reckless wretch go keep company with that equally reckless brother of his!
There were more goddesses than one could count on two hands who shared that thought.
The holy Goddess of Just Order, Themis, now had her sword-brows standing sharp.
The Sword of Order at her waist, which judges all things, had quietly slid three inches from its sheath; golden light of Order flickered and breathed along the blade.
To scheme, to deceive, to defile and shame the Sovereign of Order—this was the greatest harm to Sacred Just Order!
Her gaze was as keen as a drawn edge.
Hera's little fists were clenched so tightly they creaked.
Her golden eyes were full of unhidden fierceness.
If Zeus gave the word, she would gladly strike with her own divine fist and smash Prometheus's divine body to dust.
Even the ever-warm Hestia now felt only extreme speechlessness and disappointment.
Even she, as merciful and magnanimous a great goddess as she was, could not fathom the strange thinking in Iapetus's line.
If you want something, then say so plainly!
You're all gods together; His Majesty is, after all, your "Father-God." It's not such a big thing; the God-King has never been stingy with boons.
Whether He grants it is another matter.
But to begin with deceit—there is no way to justify that!
In all His dealings regarding humankind, where has Zeus ever been wrong?
On the contrary—He has been as generous and loving as possible!
Is that not enough?!
Just how greedy can you be!
Truly… beyond all bounds!
Now the bright, easy mood in the highest heaven seemed clenched in a giant invisible fist and hung frozen.
The rain of blossoms and pure rain had, without anyone noticing, ceased.
The endless auspicious clouds were swiftly swallowed by heavy, brooding thunderclouds, spreading visibly toward all directions until they covered the whole mortal sky.
Blinding lightning flickered silently among the rolling billows of cloud; the light did not break forth, but slid back and forth across the sky like the God-King's icy gaze.
Dull thunder began to rumble faintly from the depths of the clouds.
It was no longer a joyous music but the sullen "echo" of a funeral toll.
Only one did not yet know for whom the bell would toll.
On His throne, the God-King Zeus sat straight-backed like a world-pillar, solemn majesty over all. At the tips of the fingers resting on His armrest, a faint, terrifying electricity had begun to glow.
More gods than one silently sighed: a perfectly good "team-building" among the gods, all but wrapped up, and Prometheus had to stage such an outrageously foolish incident.
Whatever fresh goodwill the gods had felt for humankind's simple, sincere performance was wiped out in an instant by Prometheus's act that bordered on "sacrilege."
Now, of course, no god cared to spare another thought for those tiny mortals below.
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