Night extended one hand, smiled, and said: "Join us, Achilles.
There is no stage for you here.
Your worth should never be buried in a corner where no one sees it."
Achilles: "Hmph."
At the final moment, Achilles hesitated.
To be honest, as a demigod whose mother was a sea goddess, he genuinely had no fear of the consequences of defying Agamemnon.
Other kings might worry about the backlash from the dominant power if they rebelled, but his mother was a goddess.
His father was the grandson of Zeus, father of the gods.
With a background like that, no ordinary minor king with barely a trace of divine blood could compare.
If Agamemnon wanted to move against him, he would have to think very carefully.
That said, it was one thing to say it.
Achilles still hesitated over whether to actually board Night's ship.
The thought of going directly to the enemy's side had never crossed his mind before.
But he still reached out and took the hand, speaking. "I need to think it over. Give me some time."
.....
"I can wait, but Patroclus doesn't have time to wait, Achilles.
Have you actually made up your mind?"
Achilles felt a jolt inside, and his expression darkened.
Right. The other party still hadn't told him how to handle Patroclus.
He gritted his teeth.
"What do you mean?"
The latter answered calmly.
"As an enemy, I have no reason to help you. Unless you are my friend, my companion.
Achilles, nothing in this world is free.
I think you understand that."
Achilles understood. He needed to make his stance clear.
Already leaning in that direction, pushed further by the fresh anger of Agamemnon's latest insult still burning in him, he answered without hesitation this time.
"Fine. I'll be your partner.
Actually, let's just go cut Agamemnon down right now!! I'll convince Patroclus and Ajax to join us too!" Achilles said it like he was announcing the weather.
He suddenly saw it all clearly.
If Patroclus stepping onto the battlefield meant getting cut down by a Trojan hero, then the solution was simple. Defect to Troy directly.
If I move fast enough, blades and death can't catch me.
Achilles' eyes flashed with murderous intent!
He was even having the thought of finishing Agamemnon on the way out.
Didn't Agamemnon want to use his armor to intimidate the enemy?
He was going to make Agamemnon's clever plan blow up in his face.
Damn.
So Achilles had this kind of personality all along, explosive and completely impulsive?
Night's expression went flat immediately.
But for the other party to get on board this quickly and even volunteer to help recruit others, he was fully in favor.
Ajax was fine.
Patroclus on the other hand, well forget it.
This oversized child would be nothing but dead weight.
They didn't need more trouble.
"You're moving too fast, Achilles.
Do you actually think a sudden defection would be enough to crush the Greeks and get out clean?
Don't forget who's standing behind Agamemnon."
Hearing his words, Achilles snapped back to his senses, and the image of the goddess Athena rose immediately in his mind, along with the possibility of other gods lurking behind her causing him to frown.
"...So what do you suggest?"
"Lean in. I'll tell you."
Even with the sound barrier up,
Night was still extremely careful and then laid out his plan.
Who said you had to defect to the other side to cause Agamemnon trouble and tear things apart from within?
When he shared one scheme after another with Achilles, each one more cunning, or rather underhanded, or rather brilliantly strategic than the last,
All of it was calculated.
So sincerely calculated that Achilles started trembling, feeling like he'd been dropped into a freezing cellar.
Those despicable Trojans.
Good grief, this was terrifying.
Even Odysseus probably couldn't pull off something this ruthless.
Thinking about it, Achilles found his hatred for Agamemnon cooling down slightly.
He even started feeling a faint pang of sympathy for the man.
When Achilles and Night returned to the others, the latter immediately set his sights on the next target, Patroclus.
Achilles looked at his best friend and said. "Patroclus, take the armor off.
This thing will only bring you disaster."
Hearing his words, Patroclus and Ajax were surprised.
Nobody expected Achilles to come back with such an unyielding stance, and Patroclus nearly lost his mind with frustration.
But Patroclus finally spoke in rage. "My friend, what are you talking about? Have you thrown away all honor and pride?"
Achilles's complete indifference finally scared him.
Knowing that toughness might not work and even cause inverse effects, Patroclus immediately switched tactics.
He suddenly started crying about how helpless and weak he was, putting on a pitiful display.
If he didn't have the protection of that armor, what would become of him?
Maybe the next one to fall after all those warriors who already died would be him.
Speaking of how Patroclus and Achilles came to know each other, the myth went back to their childhood.
Patroclus was still a small boy when he accidentally killed another child and fled, eventually stumbling into the place where Achilles lived and finding protection there.
That was how they met and slowly became friends.
But was it really an accident?
This was part of why Achilles could be called too good-natured.
As a child he took Patroclus at his word about everything.
Regardless of how it happened, this guy did kill someone.
And somehow a killer ended up becoming a prince's closest companion, then transformed into a hero, and was now trying to wear a demigod's armor and ride under his name across the battlefield.
Night's assessment for this man was absolutely shameless.
At least this world's version of Patroclus was putting on a particularly disgraceful display right in front of him.
And this was the moment he stepped in.
Night looked at the two and suggested that Patroclus hand the armor back, and in exchange he and Achilles could jointly request a different reward from King Agamemnon as thanks for giving it up.
You don't lose anything this way, and you don't have to risk being mistaken for Achilles and killed for it either.
"If you want to face Hector at his full power, you're welcome to find out for yourself whether you can survive to see the next sunrise.
Even Achilles, with his undying body and divine spear, was held off by Hector on the battlefield."
Night said, smoothly omitting his own involvement in that outcome. "Unless you believe you can defeat Hector at his peak?"
As he said these words, his gaze sharpened into something predatory, like a hawk's stare, and Patroclus felt a wave of fear wash over him and immediately shrank back.
Face Hector?
That monster?
The memory of Hector's terrifying presence on the battlefield came rushing back, along with the rumor that had been spreading through camp that it wasn't actually two people who held off Achilles but Hector alone.
After all, Night had appeared briefly like a flash and then supposedly died, and figures like Paris stopped paying attention to him entirely.
Next to that kind of unremarkable obscurity, people found it far more believable that the strongest warrior of Troy had put down Achilles single-handedly.
And being asked to face that monster, Patroclus started imagining the scene in vivid terror: Hector's gleaming helmet, that divine spear, his own chest being impaled, and his expression went white with horror.
.
.
.
(End of the Chapter)