#Chapter 1

Thebes in Greece, the city blessed by God. Aphelius, the King of Thebes, had three daughters. This year, the three sisters, who were born one after another, reached marriageable age.

It was easy peasy to find a good son-in-law, a good husband, and a dashing warrior for them, but King Aphelius was engrossed in thoughts. It was because of protecting his daughters from the playboy gods.

Ever since Princess Persephone, known to be the finest beauty in Greece, got married, the runner-ups moved higher up on the beauty list; as a result, the two princesses of Thebes took over the first and second most beautiful woman titles respectively.

No good would come from being known as a beauty. Think about Helen of Troy. Beauty was something of a curse in Greece. There would be an increase in the visits of wandering heroes who would ask for a race or a bet to win the king’s daughters; only weird messages would be given by oracles, such as marrying off his daughters to strangers coming out from nowhere; above all, every night, male gods, who want to have a one night stand with the princesses, would start climbing through the window––and that was the biggest problem.

King Aphelius, whose goal was to safely get his daughters married whom he had taken great care of, gathered his servants and held a meeting to establish measures in order to not let the unfaithful gods take his daughters’ virginities.

The palace of Thebes with columns followed the open-air architectural style. The structure’s elegance, grandeur, and sublime peace were unbeatable. But it really sucked at keeping out invaders from outside. The servants all insisted that they should rebuild the whole structure to protect the princesses from invaders breaking in.

Therefore, the king built mud-baked walls instead of columns and surrounded the shared bathhouse, where the princesses enjoyed gathering around, with complicated, labyrinthine corridors. However, the princesses who were used to the high ceilings and windowless architectural style complained about their prison-like, breathless and holeless bedrooms. Thus, the king allowed them to have a window in their bedrooms but ordered them to necessarily install a solid window that no one could open from outside, along with a window cover.

He persuaded his daughters, who had no idea about what a window was, that they should certainly check their sealed windows before they go to bed. There was nothing to worry about their bedroom doors since 24-hour guards were in front for security, but the king was very concerned about the wind hole on the walls.

The king suffered from chronic anxiety. No matter what measure he took to protect the princesses, gods would maneuver their ways out to rape the girls. So, the king came up with a marvelous stratagem to protect the two princesses.

But hold on, the King of Thebes was previously said to have three princesses, but why were only two of them were mentioned among the three sisters? There was a reason. Eutostea, the third princess, looked seriously run-of-the-mill to believe that she was from a royal bloodline.

Askitea, the first princess and a beautiful, wavy gold blonde.

Hersia, the second princess and a red-brown hair bombshell with a curvaceous, hourglass-like figure.

People fell in love with the two at a first glance and expressed that their dazzling beauty would later blind them. But on the other hand, what about Eutostea, the third princess?

Even when keep looking at her every day here and there, she wasn’t that pretty or fascinating, which seemed comfortable and easier on people’s hearts. Instead, being between the two beauties, her run-of-the-mill appearance was looked down upon by people as an ugly girl like a pheasant inside a peacock's cage.

Even Askitea said to Eutostea at dinner, “You won’t be able to marry any princes, so it seems to be a perfect fit to marry a tanner in Thebes, so then you may wear high-quality leather clothes every day.”

… Something like that.

Eutostea was, of course, not the type of girl who would listen to that remark just as told.

“Then you must give a strong impression to Hephaestus, the god of fire. He’ll be the one who’ll melt your gold hair, which grows well just by eating and sleeping, in the sky’s smelting furnace and turn it into something else.” Askitea grabbed her neck and cast a sidelong glance at Eutostea.

Hersia, sitting beside them and eating the meat of the lamb, scolded the youngest on behalf of Askitea. “You keep trying to argue with your big sister. You’re the youngest and also the nastiest, so you’re probably going to end up dying a spinster for your entire life. Become a priestess of the Temple of Apollo and seek prophecy.”

“I wish he would allow me. If I become a priestess, I’ll pray for you both to not get raped by the male gods and get married securely.”

“We don’t need your prayers!” Hersia and Askitea shouted simultaneously.

Eutostea knew their minds the best. Her two sisters were extremely looking forward to spending a romantic night with a male god, to the level where Eutostea felt sorry for her father who struggled to keep the two princesses’ virginities.

Would it be Zeus, the god of gods?

It was a well-known story that he changed himself into an animal figure and appeared when he approached a satisfying beauty. Therefore, even though she was allergic to furry animals, Askitea, the first princess, got a pig, cow, and cub as her pets in the palace and created a zoo.

‘It’s alright to get cursed by goddess Aphrodite. I hope Ares, the manly god of war, comes to me.’

Hersia, swirled her red hair with her finger and murmured that way with dreamy eyes. Thinking that she was the most beautiful and younger than her older sister or Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, Hersia moisturized her body with scented oil every day.

The two sisters, lost in silly thoughts, seemed immature to Eutostea. God was eventually a god. Humans rarely ended up coming to good, being involved in god’s things. Even if her sisters gave away their virginities to the gods and spent a night with them, they would just incur the goddess’ jealousy and wouldn’t benefit anything from the one-night affair.

Eutostea had only one wish. She wanted her country Thebes not to be swayed by the gods and to continue its history.

Her two sisters, reciting the names of male gods, wishing that they could drop by at their bedrooms, ignored Eutostea and left the dining room. They also knew that it was a pipe dream for their run-of-the-mill youngest sister.

As the night deepened, the top beauties of Greece washed their bodies, applied scented oil, and ordered their maids to comb and smoothen their hair so hard that their arms were about to fall off.

Meanwhile, Eutostea was in her room, getting ready to go to bed. The king’s soldiers who took charge of evening security duties were thoroughly guarding where the princesses’ bedrooms were. Could humans beat gods? Handling humans would be easier for them than killing an ant.

“Ah, father…”

Feeling dumbfounded, Eutostea closed the window in her bedroom. The latch was missing. If the servants who cleaned her room every day had found it, they would have not let it that way at all.

The first and the second princesses, who left the windows open on purpose, got door lock inspection by the chamberlain to the king no matter what, before they went to bed. Eutostea never got checked at all. However, locking the window was the king’s command, and she carried it out all the time.

“Did it fall by mistake and roll somewhere?” Eutostea wandered around the window, holding a lamplight, and began to find the missing latch. That was why she couldn’t notice someone’s presence over the windowsill.

A sharp wind howled into the room. The light went out. The straight wick flickered, leaving a thick smoke, then turned black. The room was plunged into darkness in an instant. Eutostea was bewildered by the window opened to the outside.

A man was plopping down on the windowsill against the moonlight.

“Only this door is open.” The man’s voice tickled her ears dulcetly like honeyed liquor.

Eutostea was ready to shriek. “Th… Thief…”

A man’s big hand covered her mouth. He didn’t restrain her, but Eutostea had no strength in her body. She felt like a servant obeying his command just by that small action. The force he had was overwhelming, which she never felt before.

“Are you the princess of Thebes? Although I’ve climbed in through the window, don’t worry. I won’t harm you. Forgive me that I can’t light up the darkness. It’s clumsy of me for coming here without hiding my real appearance.”

‘Who is he?’

His voice was continuously whispering to her.

‘Obey. Obey. I’m the master you must serve.’

The man took his hand off Eutostea’s mouth. Even though she was freed from his hand, she couldn’t speak as if her tongue clogged her throat. Eutostea floundered her feet.

It was an instinctive behavior that she wanted to escape from the scary man. But his hand restrained her like a shackle. The man’s hands grabbed Eutostea’s back and her waist. Her fragile skin blushed and popped out between his pressing fingers. It seemed that his clutch would leave a red mark if he removed his hand. His force was that strong.

Eutostea, in a posture of almost half lifted in his arms, strained the tip of her toe on the sleek marble floor. Her foot slipped in vain as if it was greased.

The man whispered in a honeyed tone, “I came to become your one-night lover. After this night, you will neither remember me nor see me again.”

‘Who is he?’

Holding his hand, Eutostea wondered hard, almost being dragged to the bed in his arms. The man’s hand slid down to her braided hair end and untied the ribbon. Her thick long hair ran down like water. He held up a handful of her hair, brought it near his lips, and smelled the scent of it.

“I heard you enjoy using scented oil, but I smell nothing.”

‘Because I don’t use it,’ Eutostea answered his weird question in her thoughts.

It was Hersia, her second oldest sister, who was obsessed with scented oil to death. To Eutostea, oil was just like olive oil she drizzled during her meals. The man released her hair and put his hand on her cheek. He touched her gently like cupping a flower so as to not let the fragile petals fall.

“If I saw you in the daytime, your hair would have shone like the color of a rose.”

Eutostea replied again in a sullen whisper, ‘My hair is black.’

Since Eutostea’s hair was less saturated, her sisters often teased her hair color as faded brown.

The man’s face was gradually getting closer. Even though it was invisible without a light, Eutostea could feel it. The warning signal got louder. The man completely mistook her for someone else, Hersia, the second princess of Thebes.

Before their lips stacked, he whispered in a sweet voice. “While we are together, I allow you to call my name as much as you want. Princess of Thebes, I’m Apollo, the god of prophecy.”

‘Awk,’ she wanted to shout but couldn’t resist him. His warm lips covered hers. Swallowed. Someone else’s tongue broke into the inside of her mouth and captivated her vulnerable tongue. The purple carpet dropped to the top of the foot.

‘Hey man, you came to the wrong room!’

Eutostea would normally pound his shoulder and shout, but the following kiss made her cling to the man powerlessly. He sucked the inside of her mouth so fiercely almost like taking away her breath. Their kiss went on wet and sloppy. Her body collapsed onto her bed little by little against her will. The two overlapped on the mattress.

‘I screwed up.’

It was now hopeless to become a priestess of the Temple of Apollo.