Fate: I Heard After Death, You Can Ascend to the Throne of Heroes?

Hermes,

He is one of the twelve Olympian gods in ancient Greek mythology, the son of King Zeus, the messenger of the gods, who can travel anywhere, including the underworld.

And it's not it... 

He is also the god of commerce and cunning, clever and sly, making him one of the smartest beings in Olympus, second only to Athena.

Thus, Zeus often likes to delegate various tasks to Hermes, most notably involving his many lovers.

Whenever he gets caught by Hera, in order to rescue his lovers, he would find Hermes and ask him to find a way to solve the problem for him.

And Io was one of them.

Athena didn't know who Io was, but when she heard that it was Zeus asking for help, she had already guessed most of the answer.

"Why are you looking for a promise?" Athena asked.

"Because of Hera." Hermes replied with a narrowed-eye smile.

Hearing this, Athena immediately understood. 

It was clear that Hermes had seen the painting from the previous night and understood Promise's importance in Hera's heart.

And the one who turned Io into a cow was none other than Hera herself.

"But this isn't what the Father God intended, right?" Athena roughly understood it in her heart, so she relaxed and said.

After all, as long as Zeus didn't send a message asking Hermes to bring Promise to him, everything would be easy to talk about.

Facing Athena, Hermes knew that being cunning was pointless, so he nodded and straightforwardly said, "Yes, but I need his help."

"Then you need to ask Promise himself about this matter. After all, he is a loyal believer of Hera. I can't make the decision."

Hearing this, the latter looked at Athena with some surprise in his orange eyes, and he actually found a hint of jealousy.

But of course, he was not foolish enough to point it out.

So he took off the feather hat on his head, bowed to Athena again, and said, "I understand. I will go to see the child now."

Having said that, just as Hermes was about to leave.

"Wait." Athena stopping him, thought for a moment, and then said, "From today on, you must tell the gods one thing: they can see that child, Promise, and they can ask for tribute, but they need to prepare a golden apple for him."

Promise, now has four golden apples in his hand.

Athena didn't have it anymore, and it was obvious that Hera would not give her any, so she hadn't been able to provide any to Promise recently.

But Clotho had, so he went to the Temple of Destiny once and once the night before.

"And if he is willing, you must promise me one thing."

"Tell me, Athena." Hermes replied with a smile.

For Hermes, being stopped by Athena and asked for a favor was not surprising at all; after all, he was not the battle-idiot like Ares.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have come to Athena before going to Promise.

"If that child falls into the underworld, you have to help me rescue him once."

Hearing Athena say this, Hermes instinctively asked, "Is that child going to fall into the underworld soon?"

"I don't know." The latter shook her head.

"You don't know?" Hermes was stunned for a moment, then looked at Athena's golden eyes with great surprise.

"I really don't know. After all, it seems to me that he wanders around the fork in the road to the underworld almost every day, but he doesn't go in. So I just want to be on the safe side."

Athena said this and paused before continuing to speak to Hermes,

"As for what's really going on, you'll understand everything once you meet him."

Upon hearing this, Hermes, with doubts in his heart, went to the Kingdom of Calydon, and it didn't take much effort for him to meet Promise.

Because at this time the boy in Calydon was just like a star; no matter where he went, people would greet him excitedly.

Not to mention the marks left by several goddesses on him, which to Hermes, were as conspicuous as lighthouses in a sea fog.

And when they met, looking at the black-haired, green-eyed young man, although his appearance was not the most handsome that Hermes had ever seen, the natural artistic aura that adorned him, along with his amiable smile, still made Hermes internally remark,

What a lovely boy.

Then he turned around and prepared to leave.

Hermes now understood why Athena had instructed him to prepare golden apples and be ready to fish someone out of the underworld.

After all, in this age of gods in ancient Greece, even infants could probably live a couple of days longer than Promise.

At this moment, Hermes dismissed the idea of taking Promise to rescue Io.

In fact, due to the competition between Athena and Hera, as well as the fame that Promise had gradually gained so far, any normal person or god would probably think that the boy was nearly as powerful as the great human hero, Hercules.

Not to mention, they all graduated from the Centaur Sage Chiron... Oh, that's not right, it seems that Promise didn't graduate at all, he ran away secretly.

Hermes obviously thought the same, which was why he came here.

But the reality was, this boy is not even comparable to Hercules as a baby!

And to know, not only had Hera turned that woman named Io into a cow, but she even had her guarded by Argus, the giant with a hundred eyes.

Now, not to mention letting Promise confront that giant and rescue Io, Hermes was even worried that if he took him there, the poor boy might be scared to death by the hundred-eyed giant on the spot!

Just as Hermes was about to leave, a casual glance made him stop in his tracks. 

He even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

He saw a sword on Promise, the sword of the goddess of justice, Themis.

Then Hermes calmed down and thought of Athena and how much she valued her promise.

And Athena's character was well known among the Olympian gods—no one could catch her eye without the qualifications of a hero.

So, Hermes chuckled, coming back to his senses.

He felt that this matter seemed to be becoming more and more interesting.

thus...

...

...

"Meleager, I must go."

In the Kingdom of Calydon,

　　

Promise said helplessly to the red-haired youth Meleager who had forced him to stay beside him: 

"You know, I still have the oracle given to me by the Queen Hera. Now the crew consists of you, Atalanta and Chopper.

I still have to go find Theseus, Hercules, and Peleus!"

There was no need to explain who Hercules and Theseus were. 

As for Peleus, he was the father of Achilles, whose fame would be second only to Hercules in the future.

"I can go with you." Meleager said persistently, "I can be your bodyguard and protect you.

And both my father and mother have already promised me this."

Meleager was a prince, but when he expressed this idea in the palace, even his parents did not object, and even thought it was reasonable.

The painting he presented to the Moon Goddess that night, not only conquered several goddesses, but also apparently conquered the people of this kingdom.

In the past few days, Meleager's parents have been wanting to give Promise something, and have even hinted to him several times that they have several very good-looking daughters.

But the boy still just asked them to help spread his name.

"I personally don't mind if you follow me, as long as you can convince my Pegasus." Promise shrugged.

However, when Meleager heard him say this, he instantly became depressed.

That was Pegasus, a celestial horse that can normally only be touched and cleansed by the nine Muses representing art.

Atalanta was allowed to sit because it was smart. 

After all, every time something went wrong with Promise, it would rush to the scene and eat grass in the first place...

So last time Meleager touched it out of curiosity, he was kicked to the ground and it took him a long time to recover.

If he hadn't been a heroic figure of the Age of Gods, he might still be lying at home recuperating.

"Then you can stay in Calydon. As for the search for Hercules and Peleus, you can leave it to me. I will send someone to find them."

However, Meleager did not intend to let him go.

After all, this time, he undoubtedly owed Promise a huge favor, even though he didn't know his fate.

Not to mention Promise, who made him worried.

"No, this is absolutely not possible. I still need to seek revenge on them!"

Although the quality of Heroic Spirit was very high now making Promise feel that he can fight in the Holy Grail War in his current condition...

Well, even if his constitution was a big problem, at least he could manage a suicide attack akin to a meteor with Pegasus.

But participating in more legends isn't a bad thing, especially since he's only a step away from being an A-rank heroic spirit, and with the legend of the Argo as a safety net.

With an A-rank heroic spirit as a baseline, Promise felt he might reach S-rank, and if he aimed a little higher, perhaps he could even achieve a divine station!

When Meleager heard the promise of revenge, he wanted to laugh.

Not to mention, he was quite curious to see how Hercules and the others would react when Promise sought them out one by one to exact his revenge.

But he was just thinking about it, and when he was about to say something, Meleager suddenly found that his vision became blurred, and he stood there in a daze.

Noticing something was off with Meleager, Promise, who was puzzled, then saw Hermes with his feathered hat and holding a caduceus (double-snake staff) descending from the sky to stand before him.

The God pressed his feather hat, showing a seemingly refreshing smile, took out a golden apple and placed it in the hand of the stunned young man.

"Hello, lovely child of Queen Hera, I am pleased to meet you. I am Hermes, and I bring you a great oracle from King Zeus. Would you be willing to help me fulfill this great divine will?"

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