NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5
It was completely unexpected content. I rubbed my eyes and read it again.
[Sell seawater to the Sea God Poseidon.]
Sell seawater to Poseidon, the god who governs the entire sea…
Rather, waiting for dried persimmons to fall from the sky would have a higher chance of success.
Is this really a task given by a god?
Was I too overconfident with my modern knowledge?
At that moment, the letters peeled off the parchment like stickers losing their adhesion.
The floating letters intertwined and formed into a black bracelet, wrapping around my left wrist.
It had settled like an eerie tattoo on my wrist.
I looked at my wrist and recalled the content of the task.
To be honest… I had no idea how to unravel and proceed with this task.
“How does it feel? Do you like the task I gave you?”
Artemis approached, smirking provocatively.
It was undoubtedly a shallow ploy to gauge my inner thoughts through my next words or actions.
Instinctively wanting to hide my innermost feelings, my right hand instinctively moved toward my mouth.
But that was a miscalculation.
“…Hmm.”
Thinking my mouth was covered, I inadvertently let out a grunt.
It’s fine. It’s fine.
The sound of the clock ticking in the sealed room where heavy metal music played would surely go unnoticed.
“Ukhehehaaa!”
Though no sound had been made, it seemed the smell couldn’t be erased, and Artemis, with her uncanny ability to read vibes, caught my awkward and uneasy demeanor and grinned in triumph.
Perhaps due to her lifelong experience hunting wild beasts, she was remarkably sensitive to her environment and emotional changes.
It seemed she had read my growing unease and fear after the task assignment like rising heat.
“Stupid Ark. You underestimated the task given by a god, didn’t you?”
“…Did you rack your brain a lot? Still, not bad for a first trial.”
In modern times, I had detested pretentious people more than anything, especially those who flaunted expensive bags, watches, and cars while being superficial.
Yet, even someone like me didn’t want to show weakness to someone I liked, so I put on a strong front.
But isn’t it said that whoever slices the steak knows best how it’s cut?
Artemis was not the type to overlook awkward pretense as someone considerate.
“Ark, you roll your eyes around when you try to solve difficult problems, so stop it if you’re thinking of putting on airs. Rest your eyeballs, will you?”
“……”
Pretense doubles the embarrassment when it’s exposed.
I encouraged myself that the attempt wasn’t bad.
“Wasn’t the reward for completing the first task mutual informal addressing?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I acknowledge that.”
Artemis coolly acknowledged it after reconfirmation.
There was some confidence beneath her straightforward acknowledgment.
Artemis, who had always believed the task had a 99% failure rate, had just added 1% after seeing my expression of difficulty.
But how many things in this world actually have a 100% probability anyway?
History has shown that even the naturally impregnable fortress could fall embarrassingly easily when its interior cooperates with the external.
In that sense, this first task was incredibly important.
What if I solved a supposedly impossible task unexpectedly easily?
Then the burden would shift from me to the other party.
Additionally, the special reward: I would become the only human who could speak informally to the inviolate virgin goddess Artemis.
Cool! Very good.
In a romance novel I once read with interest, it was said that the process of making someone yours is like a land grab battle.
It’s about starting by coloring the surroundings of the opposing side with your own colors.
Using mutual informal address as the first step of taking over the opponents’ camp isn’t bad at all.
Of course, it’s a right one can enjoy only after achieving the first task.
Therefore, though difficult, I had enough motivation.
I’m a man who burns brighter the harder it gets!
My enthusiasm was soaring.
Let’s go meet Poseidon.
I must meet him to sell or buy seawater, right?
He must be in Portna, the port city he governs.
Great. Let’s leave Artemis Temple momentarily for the conquest of the task.
Tuuueng!!!
Suddenly, a pile of documents as tall as me appeared by my side.
“There’s the tax omission issue, surrounding city cooperation issues, and city civil issues. Handle them all.”
“Excuse me? What in the…”
Ignoring my words, she turned around, opened the door of the administrative room’s storage with a bang.
She grabbed a pile of bows with snapped strings from inside the storage and threw them at the floor.
“Fix all these bows, too.”
“Hey, Lady Artemis? I need to leave to execute this task, right?”
“Who told you not to go? You’re a priest. Finish the pending tasks before you leave.”
“……What…”
“You should have put forward the condition of putting off the priest duties during the task if you wanted to complain~ Ukehehehaaa!”
She smirked teasingly, quickly turned her head toward me, flipped her left eyelid with her finger and stuck out her tongue.
Then, like someone who’s had a stubborn tooth pull out and feeling relieved, she energetically waved her hand to bid farewell and left the administrative room.
Kwaang!
The door slammed shut, and the shock caused the stacked documents to slide and scatter all over the floor.
Damn.
Artemis had let her guard down, believing I would definitely fail the task.
But that was a huge misunderstanding.
Targeting a flaw in the primary condition, she had dumped excessive work on me from the moment the task began.
She was using a lowly strategy to waste as much of my time as possible, just in case there was even a small likelihood of success.
No, it wasn’t a lowly strategy.
It was proof that Artemis, in her own way, was taking this fight seriously and trying her best to protect her authority of purity.
The fool was me.
Thinking my life was at stake, I had been too complacent.
Though resentful, I couldn’t help but admit that Artemis had won the initial battle.
“The challenge isn’t trivial. Let’s set aside the reflection for later and start with the workload estimate.”
Processing hundreds of documents would take up to a maximum of five days.
Repairing bows would likely take one day.
I moved the bows and stacks of documents to my office and began working earnestly.
A week later…
“Huff~ Done.”
The golden time I needed to send for task achievement had been wasted for a full week due to Artemis’ strategy.
To avoid any loose ends, I completed all tasks by cutting down on sleep.
Because if any problems arose while I was away in Poseidon’s city, it would be troublesome.
As expected, the documents took five days,
but the composite bows, whose limbs were subtly warped, took two days due to the proper repair.
Now, we have only a week left until the deadline to achieve the task.
There’s really no more time now.
I have to hurry.
I grabbed the backpack I had prepared in advance and rushed out.
“Yo~”
At the same moment I locked the door to my quarters, the familiar, laid-back voice of the troublesome goddess came from behind.
Looking back, Artemis looked as if she had come to a swimming pool villa, she had set up a cabana umbrella in the temple courtyard and was lounging on a sunbed, enjoying her break.
She lifted her sunglasses slightly to flash an evil grin.
Trying hard, I refrained from pinching her cheek, which was annoying to the heavens.
“Why don’t you wear a swimsuit, if you wanted to enjoy the summer mood?”
“For whom?”
……Me.
“Anyway, as I’m about to leave now, is it okay if the Lady Goddess doesn’t come along?”
“I’m bored. Now that I think about it, it seems I gave you the first task a week ago… Aren’t you quite lazy to just start now?”
She’s so annoying, feigning ignorance and acting like she doesn’t know.
Ugh… this is all because of who.
“It’s more than sufficient with a week, isn’t it? It’s rather similar to a vacation.”
“Vacation? Pfft! Isn’t the expiration date your impending doom?”
Artemis enjoys our cutting remarks like a child eating the tastiest part of a fish cake last.
On normal days, I would have played with her a little more in a verbal battle, but to me, time is gold right now.
I need to go see Poseidon quickly.
As I tried to leave the temple, ignoring her, she sweetly tempted me again, binding my ankles.
“If you repent now, I’ll forgive you with my broad heart.”
“Forgive?”
When I turned my body and asked in return, Artemis coolly took a refreshing sip of her pineapple juice with ice, showing it off to me.
She’s in stark contrast to me, who was sweating cold sweat due to the excessive workload.
What’s her plan this time?
“Isn’t everyone’s life precious?”
“……”
It’s not a lie to say my mind wasn’t swayed.
Because even now, after a week, I still haven’t figured out the answer to the task Artemis gave me, ‘Sell seawater to Poseidon, the Sea God’.
Moreover, worse news…
“Poseidon is not just generous, he’s also suspicious, isn’t he?”
That’s precisely what she said just now.
An ocean of generosity. A sea of suspicion.
This is the famous line that best represents Poseidon’s character.
No matter how skilled I am at persuasion, the moment Poseidon begins to suspect, the decade given to me would be useless.
It’s undeniable that half the reason I haven’t found the answer is due to his character.
Is she trying to apply psychological warfare after attacking me with the overwhelming workload earlier?
“If you give up asking to become my boyfriend, there will be no reason for such hardship or suffering. Of course, I’ll let you maintain your position as my priest.”
“Hardship?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you get your sleep messed up for over a week? Can your brilliant mind work properly in such condition?”
“Why are you trying to persuade me so much?”
Taking one of her previous statements,
I, in front of her, induce the goddess to swear by the River Styx, making me a person with base desires.
Yet, despite all this, she implies that she wishes to keep someone like me by her side.
Not psychological warfare—entrapment.
At my wary retort, Artemis sighed deeply and closed her eyes.
“The task I gave you… Apollo’s 6th rank priest took more than a month to finish it. You completed it perfectly in a week.”
She evaluated my performance objectively in a rather serious tone, uncharacteristic of her.
Because I handled the administrative issues perfectly, Artemis’ authority and prestige naturally rose.
Not just the human evaluation, but also during the annual feast held by the gods,
three months ago, Artemis who used to sit lonely in a corner, sipping wine quietly, was asked for advice by some gods regarding her city’s rapid development.
It’s fair to say that our goddess, well known for throwing tantrums and being short-tempered, owes most of her better reputation to me.
Standing up from her sunbed, she approached me seriously.
“To be honest, I was surprised! Given your intelligence, I thought you’d tie me up for two weeks, not a month. But I didn’t expect you to finish it in just a week.”
“Praise is still a bit awkward.”
“Exactly. That’s why it’s regrettable. Finding a smart priest like you is as hard as picking stars from the sky. So don’t strain yourself pointlessly.”
The feeling that my love for Artemis had been reduced to mere hardship with such a trivial word made me slightly choke,
but I didn’t show it outwardly.
I scratched the back of my head while smiling bitterly and opened my mouth.
“Haha… How should I proceed?”
“Kneel right here and now and ask for my forgiveness. Then, I’ll cancel the task.”
Seeing me ponder, Artemis grinned as if it was as expected.
Her excitement was evident in her voice.
“Then what?”
“Are you stupid? It’s obvious—change the content of that wish you told me!”
“To what?”
“Pray to remove all your fondness toward me. According to the oath of Styx, I’ll definitely eliminate all your affections if you do. Hmm, should I call Eros? Though I don’t want to owe him, I can’t help it.”
She casually mentioned it as if swatting an annoying mosquito buzzing near her ear.
She crushes my love so casually.
Even more maddening is that it’s another test from Artemis.
She forced me to weigh giving up on the difficult task for immediate comfort versus my love for her.
The moment I declare that I’ll give up on the task due to its difficulties to change the wish,
her plan is to brand my love as mere fleeting feelings not worth considering and pin it on me.
Look. You’ve abandoned the trivial emotion of love like trash because of the fear and pain right in front of you.
Indeed, the goddess I’ve fallen for!
Although she keeps causing troubles, her centuries-long experience and her propaganda skills are impeccable.
Good. Very good.
But doesn’t work on me.
“Thank you for the suggestion, Lady Goddess.”
“So, you’re giving up?”
“Do you know how to throw a punch well, Lady Goddess?”
“What?”
She frowned at my unexpected question.
“I’m not good at fighting. Back in school, whenever someone picked a fight with me, I always ended up getting beaten.”
“Is that something to brag about?”
“But after the first period ended during recess, I fought again. And again after the second period ended. I kept throwing myself into those fights every recess until the opponent finally raised his hands, conceding defeat, sick and tired.”
During those times, if the opponent had thrown 20 or 30 punches, I had barely landed three or four.
Despite low efficiency, victory always belonged to me.
After two or three such fights, even the bullies avoided me.
“You’ll regret this.”
Understanding my refusal, Artemis revealed the hidden hostility she had concealed so far, her fangs showing.
I sent her the god’s fierce anger away with a leisurely smile,
“I, myself, will always be the one to decide the end of giving up or loving.”
I declared every word to her with emphasis.
Then I headed toward the town square to use a carriage, leaving the temple behind.
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