Pherenike - Chapter 85

Humans often trusted the honesty of speechless animals, believing that creatures without language couldn’t possibly use deceitful words.

Even Vianor, who scorned the ‘filthy girl’s’ pet lioness, Atalanta, believed in the true eyes of the lioness. In this way, some trust stems from disdain. Much like how all of Dexikos’s noble-born friends came to trust him, despite his humble origins.

While Dexikos exchanged a few more words with Vianor, Ramkos, with a sly smile, charged at him with a practice spear. Dexikos’s spear barely managed to block the attack amidst the crude weapons.

“Crazy.”

“I thought I could kill you today.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? I won’t die before you do, Ramkos.”

Dexikos twisted his spear and hit Ramkos hard on the thigh. Amidst shouts and curses, the training ground echoed with their clashing. Each trying to outdo the other, stepping and being stepped on in turn.

In the midst of their dust-covered brawl, Vianor, who had been watching them indifferently, suddenly noticed the darkening sky. Darkness in the ‘canyon’ was not a good sign

“Dexi. The sky’s getting dark.”

Pausing their fight, Dexikos looked up at the sky, acknowledging that darkness often strengthened the monsters of the canyon. While Dexikos knew Deucalion might find this more entertaining, such amusement seldom extended to his loyal hounds.

“Isn’t His Highness pushing himself too hard?”

“The last thing he needed to do is prepare. The ‘day’ is approaching.”

Ramkos responded nonchalantly.

He was aware that Deucalion often spent early dawn to dusk guarding his soldiers, paying close attention to their training. However, much of these bright days were spent in the shadowy canyon.

The barren lands of Paetusa came from the monsters that the canyon of Argos birthed. It was named after the mythological giant with a hundred eyes.

The entire bizarre and magnificent geography of the canyon was essentially a colossal monster in itself.

The monsters constantly springing from the forests and crevices of Argos were like the hundred eyes attached to Argos. They served as eyes sent by some ancient God to curse the land of Paeatusa.

They were meant to watch over and restrain the cursed land of a doomed king.

Before the first king, Pelagon, established the kingdom of Evdokia, and before this land was known as Paetusa under the rule of the kingdom of wolves. There was a king who thrived in a prosperous city-state on this land, long before Kybellar even set foot on it.

Some said he and his people were irreverent in the eyes of the queen of the gods, or perhaps they say they were profane in front of Leto’s daughter.

Thus, the land was twisted overnight; rugged mountains rose, entangled with each other, and the thriving city-state vanished beneath the earth in an instant.

Monsters always lurked beyond the small mountains that served as the gateway to the canyon. Although they generally stayed within the canyon, even one or two lost monsters wandering out posed a significant threat to humans.

Since then, Paetusa was left empty. Those who remained lived far away, and no tribe dared to covet such a vast empty land. Those who did vanished until King Epicydes handed that cursed land to his second son.

Speaking of the land bestowed upon King Actor at birth, Nikandros, it was a land where merely scattering seeds under the sun would make Demeter smile. The farmers there slept during the day instead of toiling under the sun. Even the laziest person did not starve.

In contrast, in Paetusa, sometimes even the most diligent person starved to death. In comparison, Paetusa was like the shadowy realm of Hades where he hid Persephone. A land Demeter could never love forever.

Yet, like Hades’ dark and rich storehouse, minerals were found beneath the cursed canyon. King Epicydes probably bit his tongue when his young son discovered mines. It was from that moment that Deucalion started to amass great wealth on his own, stepping out of his maternal family’s shadow.

If the eyes of the monsters, the creatures of the canyon, were indeed the curse of the land, the notion that they could be eradicated by simply killing them off stemmed from their lord.

The monsters never completely disappeared, and Argos never fully closed its eyes. However, after reaching maturity, Deucalion periodically led his elite troops to sweep through the canyon.

This began after he realized that the farming in seasons with many monsters slain was fairly good, while the farming of less monsters slain was poor.

Years passed, and from the season Pherenike became the queen, he started to focus on Argos.

Some days he was accompanied by a couple of close henchmen, other days a few beasts joined him in the hunt. But it was not rare for Deucalion to traverse the canyon alone.

It was, in fact, something that only happened in legends, which occasionally made Deucalion seem less than human.

When the prince returned to the castle, his noble silver hair inherited from his mother was drenched in blood, even his closest friends could not meet his gaze for a moment. His eyes were like moss. His Orthea rippled, deep and unfathomable as a bottomless lake.