Time flew. The sun sank westward.
As the competition neared its end, the battle between the two goddesses entered its climax, to the point where both began employing tactics that, while technically allowed, bordered on loopholes.
For example —
Artemis leveraged her divine hunting instincts to command a battalion of hounds, coordinating wide-area flanking maneuvers.
Athena, using her essence and aura, summoned flocks of mountain birds to relay messages and create a full battlefield overview.
The judge in charge of the review, while lamenting the breakthrough attempts of the two goddesses, could only complained about the unrighteous family style of Olympus who likes to break the rules to their benefits.
And as the last ray of sunlight dipped below the horizon, the goddess-to-goddess hunting contest was officially over.
Lorne, who was responsible for the final judgment and ended a day of slacking off, finally stood up with a serious face, and began to count and weigh the prey of both sides.
As the goddess of war, Athena preferred challenging powerful magical beasts, so most of her catch was large-scale prey.
Though fewer in number, the total weight exceeded ten thousand kilograms.
Artemis, being the goddess of the hunt, was clearly more professional.
She not only selected medium-to-large animals that were easier to kill, but, most of her targets were social creatures.
Among them, hundreds of demon pigs whose nests were destroyed were lying on the ground in a row. The scene of more than ten generations of grandparents and grandchildren gathered together was spectacular.
Lorne suspected that the entire population of demonic boars in the Cretan Mountains had been exterminated by this one goddess.
After several rounds of weighing and tallying, Artemis's total kill weight for the day came to over 20,000 kilograms.
The result, went without saying.
Almost instantly upon hearing the verdict, Athena's expression visibly darkened.
Standing in charge of the final announcement, Lorne, who saw such scene, swallowed nervously, feeling the overwhelming pressure.
Should he… be a little more biased?
At this point, he hesitated.
Anticipating unexpected situations, Lorne had sneakily left a loophole in the rule wording, it specified victory would go to "the party whose total prey weight is greater."
Classic shady merchant move.
— "All rules subject to interpretation by the organizers."
By that logic, Artemis and each of her 13 hounds could be counted as separate "parties."
Divide the 20,000 kg among 14 units, and Athena, hunting alone, could flip the result instantly.
But such manipulation would be too deliberate, too obvious.
What's more, Athena had also summoned birds to aid her hunt, so, strictly speaking, she wasn't perfectly clean either.
Even if he twisted the rules so far they snapped just to win Athena's favor, it would almost certainly earn him Artemis's eternal grudge, and earning a grudge from the goddess known for her narrow mindedness..well, that's it
All in all, the risk-to-reward ratio was disastrously skewed.
Was it worth taking that gamble?
'Should I just?'
Just as Lorne stood at the crossroads, his peripheral vision caught Athena's fingers tightening ever so slightly around the Victory Spear.
His eyes flickered as he declared with solemnity and clarity.
"This competition's winner — Goddess Artemis!"
With the result of the contest finally settled, Artemis wore a thoroughly satisfied smile and her gaze fell upon the "fair and impartial" referee, filled with faint approval and admiration.
In contrast, Athena's expression was noticeably less pleasant.
Still, with everyone watching, the goddess of wisdom maintained her composure, keeping up appearances even through a cold face.
She gave the victor a proper reward.
"You've won. For the next three months, you may freely use any hunting grounds on Crete."
Then, Athena turned her head toward the referee of the competition and gave a sharp snort.
"During that period, you will accompany her on all her outings and hunts!"
With that said, the proud goddess of wisdom shot one last frosty glare at a certain someone, then turned on her heel and walked off toward the far side of the valley, without looking back, clearly deciding not to get involved in whatever the two of them did from here on out.
"Help gather the prey. I'll go check on her..."
Seeing that the situation was not good, Lorne quickly flashed Artemis an apologetic smile, then hurriedly rushed after Athena.
As the winner, the huntress goddess showed no signs of being upset by the snub. Instead, she stayed behind with calm grace, leisurely cleaning up the remnants of their hunt.
Fifteen minutes later, after a hurried chase, Lorne finally found the goddess of wisdom, who had been sulking beside a pool on the far side of the valley.
Hearing the movement behind her, Athena, who was not in a good mood, turned around and snorted.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be by Artemis's side right now?"
"I was just following your order, to accompany her. It's not like I sold myself to her entirely."
Lorne rolled his eyes and retorted with equal annoyance.
"Of course, if that's how you want to interpret it, I don't have much to say."
"You were the one who judged the winner, and now you're trying to argue back?!"
Hearing this, Athena couldn't help but scoff in disbelief, her expression growing even more irritated.
"That's not quite right…" Lorne said quietly, a meaningful smile spreading across his face. "This is exactly the result you wanted."
Their eyes met and the goddess of wisdom restrained her anger, her blinking eyes looked playfully across at the other side.
"So, when did you find out?"
"Just now."
Lorne snorted lightly and irritably pointed at Athena's right hand holding the spear.
"If you really cared about the outcome of this match, that expression on your face wouldn't be enough, right?
At the very least, you should've gripped your spear tighter..."
"Not bad observation."
Athena smiled, without the slightest look of surprise on her face.
Seeing this expression on her face, Lorne's suspicions were completely confirmed.
"You did it on purpose!"
"Reason."
Athena clasped her hands behind her back, smiling as she looked at the referee before her, as if testing him.
At this point, Lorne's thoughts became even clearer, and he calmly explained. "You're the god of war, not the god of hunting. Trying to surpass Artemis in hunting is probably not so easy.
Even with me as the judge, it wouldn't necessarily increase your odds of winning by much.
To willingly jump into a game you know you're likely to lose, this isn't like your usual personality..."
Saying this, Lorne paused and looked deeply at the goddess of wisdom before him. "...Unless you never intended to win from the very beginning!"
"Clap clap clap clap!"
Accompanied by a crisp round of applause, Athena revealed a satisfied smile.
"Not bad, I knew I didn't misjudge you."
"So the flaw in your grip was something you deliberately showed me?"
"You guess."
"..."
Lorne's face darkened, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he couldn't help but complain.
"If you had just said it clearly earlier, would I have racked my brains trying to create winning conditions for you?"
"If I didn't do that, how would she believe, that she was truly the winner?"
Athena smiled, offering a half-hearted consolation. "In any case, your efforts weren't entirely in vain."
"So should I thank you then?"
"Of course!"
The goddess of wisdom nodded bluntly, her gaze full of deeper meaning.
"If not for me, could you have gotten a major god to guard the gates of Crete in my absence and personally protect you for three whole months?"
"...!"
With a slight thought, Lorne instantly realized a certain possibility, and his expression changed slightly.
"Poseidon still hasn't given up?"
Athena first nodded, then shook her head. "I'm not sure either, but based on our last clash, I have a feeling he won't just let it go."
Lorne frowned, but did not argue.
The logic was simple, with that guy's petty nature, he's capable of doing anything.
Out in the open, Athena could still rely on Zeus's name to block a few moves.
But in the shadows, the goddess of wisdom standing alone against the vast sea gods would likely find it hard to guard against every scheme.
And once something unclean from the ocean comes ashore, the culprit who ruined Poseidon's plans last time, and the current de facto ruler of Crete, would be the first targets.
Realizing that he was in a bit unpleasant situation, Lorne's frown deepened with a few more creases.
"Shouldn't this kind of thing be reported to the goddess of the hearth?"
"If Aunt still wants to live peacefully, then she can't interfere."
Athena pressed her lips together and looked toward the distant silhouette of Mount Olympus in the clouds, sighing softly. "And once some matters are entangled in, it's not so easy to get out again..."
The power struggles in the royal family of the gods have always been life-and-death, leaving no room for sentiment.
Since she's already chosen to stay out of it, there's no reason to drag that elder, who is like both sister and mother, into the mess again.
At the end, to prevent any misunderstanding, Athena added a clarification. "Besides, when it comes to schemes and brutal fights, Aunt really isn't that good at them."
Lorne caught the hidden meaning in Athena's words, looked toward the far side of the mountain, and revealed a teasing smile.
"So, you're planning to drag Artemis into the water?"
"What do you mean drag into the water? Don't make it sound so bad, it was clearly her own decision to come, her own decision to stay, has nothing to do with me."
Athena rolled her eyes at the person opposite her, with an innocent expression on her face, but the corners of her lips were raised inadvertently.
She came of her own accord?