Had Athena arrived ahead of him?
Was sending these soldiers to bring him here actually her order?
Night couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
There was an inexplicable sense of dissonance hanging over the entire situation, and the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
For the moment, he decided to take things one step at a time.
He also temporarily abandoned his plan to trap and kill Cycnus here.
Setting aside his father, whose tastes were admittedly rather disgusting, Cycnus was not a bad person despite being somewhat arrogant and proud.
At the very least, when Troy had fallen into danger, he had taken the initiative to come to their aid instead of being like the other allies who had initially tried to shirk their responsibilities and find excuses to stay out of the conflict.
That alone was enough for Night to give him some credit.
Unless absolutely necessary, he had no desire to kill the Trojans' remaining fighting forces.
"I'll go and pay my respects to the goddess myself," Night replied.
He didn't question Cycnus about why they had suddenly changed their destination, nor did he ask why the route to Troy had been changed to some city-state whose name he didn't even know.
Perhaps everything would become clear once he entered the Temple of Athena and met the goddess herself.
Night pulled open the carriage curtain and reached inside, taking Chryseis and Briseis by their hands and helping them down one after another.
"Stay close to me once we're inside," he told the two sisters quietly.
The atmosphere was strange enough that both women had already noticed something was wrong, and they nodded without hesitation.
They had heard Cycnus' words while they were still inside the carriage.
Neither of them possessed the extraordinary instincts of a hero like Night, but a woman's intuition could sometimes pick up on things that reason failed to explain.
More importantly, they still remembered the strange sense of dissonance they had felt when they said goodbye to Athena before leaving.
If this really was an order from Goddess Athena herself, then why hadn't she simply told them about it directly?
And yet, there was another problem.
Surely no one in Greece would be bold enough to forge the goddess' will and issue a false divine command in her name, right?
That was simply too outrageous.
The two sisters couldn't make sense of it.
But there was one thing they were certain of.
As long as they stayed close to the hero, they would be safe.
Night led Chryseis and Briseis toward the front of the army.
When they finally reached the head of the formation, however, he discovered that another group was already waiting for them ahead.
And the familiar face standing at its head made him stop in surprise.
"Diomedes?"
What was he doing here?
Could this really be Athena's divine command after all?
Night's expression became thoughtful.
After everything that had happened, he had technically been through life-and-death situations alongside Athena.
Admittedly, most of the time, Athena had been the one helping him rather than the other way around, which made the phrase 'fighting side by side' somewhat embarrassing to use.
Still, during the time he had spent interacting with the virgin goddess, he had gradually developed the faint desire to regard her as a true companion.
Perhaps...
Perhaps he could even try to persuade Athena to join Troy's side.
But he hadn't even started trying to convince her yet.
Athena had already poached one of her own followers from the Greek camp?
Night fell silent.
...
According to his original plan, since the God of War Ares had gone over to the Greek side...
That being said, if he could bring over Athena, who is even more powerful, to compensate for the loss of a major powerhouse on Troy's side, wouldn't that be far more cost-effective than losing a War God?
Furthermore, the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, had never liked the sight of the human world plunging into the flames of war, and she had once been the guardian deity who personally raised Troy into what it was.
Though because the former elderly king of Troy had refused to pay for the city walls and even drove her away during the initial construction, he not only offended Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo, but also left Athena deeply disappointed.
Coupled with the incident of the Golden Apple, where Paris failed to choose Athena, it deeply offended the Goddess once more.
Ultimately, this resulted in Athena abandoning her stance of standing with Troy in this conflict.
Among the three goddesses,
Paris chose the weakest one.
One could only say he truly was a person with his brain in his lower body.
Athena offered him wisdom and the skill, so he could grow strong on his own, yet he rejected it. Hera offered him power and status, yet he rejected those too, desiring solely a beauty.
Once you possess power or the greatest authority and status, couldn't you simply go and seize the person directly?
If the enemy stores grain, I store spears; the enemy becomes my grain storehouse.
Setting aside personal grievances with Paris and the others, the cities of Troy and Athens in Greece were both primary operational hubs for Athena.
For her, standing on either side of a divine war was originally an appropriate choice.
And judging from how the Goddess of Beauty, Apollo, and the War God could all stand on Troy's side in the original myths, even though Zeus had decided that Troy would ultimately lose, he did not overly restrict which side the descending deities chose to support.
Theoretically, with proper handling, it was not entirely impossible to charm this guardian deity of Troy back to their side.
However...
His plan had not even begun yet.
The original Athena had consistently aided the Greek side.
Even when she escorted him during his escape, it was primarily to help him pull off the undercover operation in Troy.
By the time she realized his true predicament, they were already midway through their flight.
Unless Athena had made up her decision within a short span of time to abandon everything on the Greek side, throw all her chips onto this side, and follow him all the way to Troy to have enough time to notify Diomedes to rebel as well.
Yet how much of a love brain would someone have to be to pull off a stunt like that?
Even though she had already displayed a rather unconventional demeanor contrary to her in the myths, and possessed a high probability of simply craving his body, would the Goddess Athena truly go to such lengths?
Suddenly...
Night sensed something amiss with the Diomedes standing before him.
The man offered no reply to his words, simply nodding in silence before turning away...
It appeared he was leading the way...
Since when did Diomedes adopt such a cold and aloof persona?
That expression of deep grievance and bitterness.
How many times must a man be cuckolded to transform into such a gloomy state?
Something was wrong...
Even though he had stolen the man's patron goddess, based on Night's understanding of his personality, the probability of him directly initiating a challenge, igniting his fighting spirit, and bursting forth with a small cosmos should have been infinitely higher.
The man was absolute in his conviction that he wasn't the type to easily lose his fighting spirit; he was like a wolf, a ferocious beast whose claws and fangs wouldn't yield to anyone until they were cleanly broken.
He didn't press this version of Diomedes any further.
However, he could sense the man's formidable vital energy, confirming it was undeniably him in the flesh.
But that made the underlying problem deeply intriguing.
Hm...not thinking too much, he led Chryseis and the others silently as they followed behind him.
Until they arrived before a grand temple, where what met their eyes were a few devout believers kneeling upon the ground.
Instead of entering the temple to pay homage, the believers were praying outside its gates?!
The scene looked exceptionally bizarre, yet Night and his companions would soon learn the exact reason.
...At the very front, two fully armored soldiers stood guard before the temple gates, barring anyone from entering.
"Turn back."
The crowd looked at the soldiers in front and asked. "Do you mean returning just for today? In that case, we shall visit the Goddess again tomorrow."
Soldier: "..."
"No, do not waste your effort. ...
No matter how many times you plead, that is not within my jurisdiction. Until the Goddess issues an oracle, the temple will remain closed to all."
Crowd: "We merely wish to enter the temple to personally pay homage to the great Goddess Athena and express our gratitude for her protection. We shall not disturb the Goddess; is even that forbidden? Please help us report our sincerity to the Goddess."
Soldier: "....No. Regarding the reasons, I am forbidden to speak of anything. We have already made inquiries earlier, but Lady Hecuba stated that nothing must be allowed to disturb the Goddess."
Consequently, disappointment surfaced across the faces of the crowd.
For devout believers, knowing that the Goddess resided right upon this soil and within this city, yet remaining unable to pay her a personal visit, was a profound regret.
Even within the mythic age of Greece where gods walked the earth, for the vast majority of ordinary mortals, a deity remained a presence one might struggle to catch a single glimpse of across an entire lifetime.
Compared to the total number of gods, the population of humanity was simply astronomical.
The population of ancient Greece hovered around one million or so.
While that scale fell far short of the ancient eastern nations, across the expansive land, letting a single opportunity slip meant the probability of encountering a specific deity a second time dropped close to zero.
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