Faced with Hades's question, Hephaestus's face showed pure bewilderment.
He shook his head and answered very directly:
"I don't know."
He really didn't know.
Hades was not surprised by Hephaestus's answer—this nephew had never been good at such twists and turns in inter-divine relationships.
He asked no more, but raised his hand and traced it in the void. On the edge, a dark mirror shrouded in dark mist quietly appeared.
The scene in the mirror flowed and quickly locked onto somewhere in the boundless ocean.
He saw Poseidon, suspended in a magnificent coral thicket, divine power in his hand drawing a stream of water and a glowing jellyfish, as if building a suspended crystal palace.
He looked focused, even with a sense of peace, as if all the upheavals of the outside world, including his broken marriage, had never caused a ripple in his heart.
"Indeed, that's the case," Hades thought. Poseidon's appearance was far from the state of 'anger' he had expected.
However, Hades's sharp gaze immediately noticed an unusual detail—several objects hovering around Poseidon, emitting faint magical fluctuations.
A shell from which water constantly dripped but never spilled—a pearl capable of playing ethereal music with the water flow, and several scales adorned with complex hidden runes.
These magical creations were uniquely styled with the characteristic imprint of Hecate.
Hades's deep eyes narrowed slightly.
Hecate? When did she have such close contact with Poseidon?
Recalling the previous 'accident' when Hecate transferred Eros's divine power to Metis, this magic goddess always seemed unintentionally drawn into all sorts of troubles.
"Hecate."
A moment later, Hecate, who had just fled and was still in shock, was once again brought before the throne.
Her face still held an unfading fear—she thought His Majesty the King of Hades was pursuing her past sins again, and she nearly trembled.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..." Hecate's voice trembled.
Hades did not beat around the bush, but pointed directly at the magical objects around Poseidon in the mirror and asked: "These, from your hands? What is your relationship with Poseidon?"
Hecate followed Hades's words, was stunned for a moment, and then breathed a sigh of relief, as if a thousand-pound weight had been lifted.
As long as it wasn't continuing to pursue the Metis matter!
She quickly replied, and a note of cheerfulness appeared in her voice, as if talking about a close friend: "Reporting to Your Majesty, yes! His Majesty the Sea King is my patron!"
She seemed to forget her nervousness and began to gush.
"Don't you know, there are many rare magical materials in the deep sea,... things you simply can't find anywhere else! And His Majesty the Sea King needs me to take only these... um..."
She glanced at the gadgets in the mirror and chose her words carefully:
"...These little props I made while practicing magic were exchanged, and he was happy to trade! What a great deal!"
She even showed a secret look of joy on her face, clearly thinking she had made a lot of money on this deal.
Hades was silent.
Poseidon exchanged the sea treasures readily available to him for Hecate's magical gadgets, which he considered 'interesting', to satisfy some of his minor needs in creation or life.
One was willing to trade, the other was eager to get.
However, before Hades could continue to inquire about the details of Poseidon's marriage, Hecate's eyes glided over the anxious and bewildered Hephaestus beside him, and then looked at Poseidon in the mirror, who had 'long been silent'.
As smart as she was, she immediately understood the true purpose of Hades's summons—to find out the truth about the Sea King's broken marriage.
To atone for her sins (mainly out of fear that Hades would bring up the Metis affair again), Hecate immediately took the initiative to share a key piece of information:
"Your Majesty, if you want to know the truth about the breakup of His Majesty the Sea King's marriage..."
She lowered her voice, with a certain mysterious air of revealing secrets.
"I'm afraid this time, we'll have to rely on the little god of love—Eros."
As soon as these words were spoken, Hades's eyes suddenly sharpened, and even Hephaestus on the side suddenly looked up, his eyes full of shock and disbelief.
Eros? That mischievous little one?
What had she done this time?!
"Does Your Majesty remember how the first God-King was overthrown?"
A hint of imperceptible guidance sounded in Hecate's voice.
"It seems that something of his... fell into the sea."
A flash of clarity instantly appeared in Hades's violet eyes.
"The goddess of beauty, Aphrodite."
When Cronus castrated and overthrew his father, the first God-King Uranus, the severed genitals fell into the sea, and the blood of the 'essence' mixed with primordial divine power, mingled with sea foam, and gave birth to the goddess Aphrodite, symbolizing love and beauty.
But Hades frowned: "However, I did not sense her birth."
This was a key contradiction.
In this life, Eros had already existed for a long time and fully possessed the authority of Eros.
From the perspective of the law, a goddess of beauty governing the same or similar domain would have almost no possibility or opportunity to be born.
Hecate hurriedly continued to explain, with an expression on her face that said 'this is so absurd you might not believe it':
"Your Majesty is wise! Logically, that should be the case... However, before little Eros's golden bow was confiscated by Catia... At that time, you also knew that Eros was simply lawless, shooting at everything she saw, regardless of the target or whether there was life..."
She paused, as if trying to choose words to describe an extremely outrageous scene:
"It's just that... that... which fell into the ocean... and whatnot... At that time, it seemed to be exactly on the trajectory of Eros's random shooting... and was precisely hit by a golden arrow."
"..."
Hades was silent.
Even he, the King of Hades, who had gone through countless reincarnations and witnessed countless incredible things, felt a sense of speechless condensation at this moment.
Forcibly using divine power to give birth to a god who shouldn't have been born? Or was it just like that? It was simply child's play!
Hephaestus on the side also had his mouth wide open, his face full of the shock of "Is this even possible?!"
He imagined the scene but felt his common sense and worldview had been violated.
Was all the pain his Mother Goddess had suffered related to Eros's prank?
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