The heavy door to Zeus's wine chamber was just ahead.
On either side stood two sturdy guards.
Apollo looked at the closed door, then glanced at Hermes beside him, who was rubbing his eye but had a cunning smile on his lips, and his heart beat a little faster.
Forcibly breaking in was definitely impossible; it would alert the Father God, and the consequences would be far worse than a simple scolding.
"Hey, God of Trickery, what's your 'good plan'?" Apollo asked quietly.
"Watch me." Hermes proudly lifted his chin, although the bruise around his eye made him wince slightly.
He quietly took a small runestone from his chest—a little trick he had learned from Hecate for 'communication', a powerful hypnotic magic of suggestion, especially effective on creations without a divine spark.
He whispered a few vague incantations into the runestone, then gently blew towards the guards.
An invisible, drowsy wave of magic spread like ripples.
The two guards' eyes, originally sharp as eagles', instantly became dazed and dull, as if shrouded in a layer of mist.
Their massive bodies trembled slightly, then they remained standing, emitting a low, steady... snore?
They fell asleep standing up!
"Done!" Hermes clapped his hands, confidently stepped forward, and with a light push, the door, which usually required a special password to open, swung silently inward.
Apollo was stunned, and he was a little more impressed by Hermes's ability to 'go through the side door'... well, his complex thinking.
They slipped into the secret chamber, and the heavy door quietly closed behind them.
The interior was dimly lit, only the gems set into the walls emitting a soft light, reflecting the mountains of wine jars and barrels.
The air was filled with a rich, mellow aroma of wine, so potent it was slightly intoxicating.
These were rare wines collected by Zeus, his favorites.
As soon as he entered, Hermes felt right at home, his purpose clear.
Without hesitation, he pulled from his endless bag several small crystal vials containing strange colors and faint bubbles.
"Hey, this is good stuff," Hermes said, shaking a vial; the viscous liquid inside glowed with a sinister purple-green hue.
"I 'borrowed' this from the goddess Hecate after some persuasion, both soft and hard. Even if the God-King drinks it, he'll sneeze so hard it'll shake the earth!"
Apollo looked at the strange potion and twitched the corner of his eye: "You... you're really going to pour it in? Isn't that going too far?"
Although he also wanted to mess with the Father God, he hadn't thought of using such... direct medication.
His original plan was to secretly take a few jars of the best wine to make the Father God suspicious.
"Too far? Not at all!" Hermes was not only straightforward but also fierce.
"It won't harm the body, just make him sneeze! How fun is that! Just imagine, the God-King is giving a passionate speech at the council of gods, and suddenly—"ah-choo!" with a spray of snot... Hahahaha!"
He was delighted just imagining the scene.
Ignoring Apollo's slightly hesitant look, he began to act quickly.
He was like a nimble civet cat, moving between the different wine jars and barrels, precisely dripping the potion into the most precious and best-sealed containers.
As soon as the potion touched the wine, it instantly dissolved and disappeared, colorless and odorless, as if it had never been there.
"Don't worry, I calculated the dose, spread it out; the effect will be just enough to annoy him for a while, and it won't make him realize the problem is with the alcohol."
Hermes reassured Apollo while busily working.
At that moment, Apollo's attention was drawn to the wine jars emitting an enticing aroma.
He temporarily put the drugging aside and began to implement his original 'plan'—theft!
He chose the wine jars that looked oldest and most richly adorned, and unceremoniously stuffed them into his arms.
"This jar is good... Hmm, this barrel should also be taken... And this one, said to be made from the first grapes of the Golden Age..." Apollo muttered to himself, his face filled with the joy of a 'good harvest'.
He completely failed to notice that behind his back, Hermes was dipping his fingertip in special ink and quickly drawing a highly inconspicuous, tongue-sticking-out grimace on the back of his magnificent golden bow.
Hermes, having completed his prank, nodded with satisfaction, looking at Apollo's focused 'thief not trivial' expression and the fresh 'artwork' on his back.
He clapped his hands and walked over to Apollo:
"Okay, that's enough! Hurry up, hurry up, the hypnotic effect on the guards is almost wearing off!"
Apollo then came to his senses and looked somewhat reluctantly at the wine jars he hadn't looted, but still decisively stopped.
They quickly exited the secret chamber, and Hermes snapped his fingers, lifting the hypnotic magic at the door.
The two guards suddenly woke up, shook their heads, and their eyes regained their sharpness.
They looked at each other, both slightly dazed, but seeing the door closed and everything as usual, they returned to their statuesque poses.
Unaware that two daring gods had just conducted a joint operation of 'drugging' and 'theft' right under their noses.
Leaving the wine chamber area, Apollo breathed a sigh of relief and excitedly patted Hermes on the shoulder: "Well done! Hermes! Now the Father God is in for a treat!"
Hermes rubbed his still-aching eye and smiled: "Naturally! However, Apollo, you've taken so much wine; maybe you should share a little 'hush money' with me?"
"Dream on! This is all mine!" Apollo immediately protected his wine and glared warily at Hermes.
The two gods bickered as they walked, their figures gradually disappearing into the shadows of Olympus's elegant columns.
Deep in Hades, Hades observed the pranks on Mount Olympus throughout the entire process.
When his 'gaze' 'saw' Hermes skillfully hypnotizing the guards with Hecate's runestone, cunningly dripping the potion into Zeus's most precious wine, and even remembering to leave a childish grimace on Apollo's bow, a faint, almost imperceptible trace of... helplessness flickered across Hades's eternally frozen face.
Such an emotion was rare for him.
His union with Metis was a fusion of wisdom and power, an alliance of reason and foresight.
Why... why had they given birth to a child like Hermes? Never mind Eros—Thalia too.
His bloodline inherited a part of his [Secrecy], but used it to its fullest extent in pranks, deception, and all sorts of absurd mischief.
Hermes's agility and ingenuity, if used correctly, could have made him an excellent intelligence officer or diplomatic envoy in the Underworld.
However, it seemed Hermes was born without the proper respect for order and majesty, and his boundless energy and endless mischievous ideas seemed born to add a chaotic footnote to this overly 'serious' world.
"Could it be... that everything must have its opposite?" An almost absurd thought flickered through Hades's mind.
His thoughts involuntarily drifted, recalling the god of trickery causing a stir in the Norse world—Loki.
Who is more 'annoying'... Hermes?
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