Hades and the returned Metis clearly had more important and secret matters to discuss.
With a single glance, he silently dismissed all the 'idle people' in the hall.
With a stomach full of doubts and a little inexplicable anxiety, Catia left the Obsidian Hall along with her younger brothers and sisters, and Eros, who had slipped away the fastest.
Theoretically, she had indeed 'gotten her wish'—she now had five younger siblings at once!
That was far more than Artemis had!
But reality was far from the image of a sister surrounded by 'good brothers', enjoying great respect and obedience.
Athena, the goddess of strategy and art, understood the mechanisms of Hades almost from the moment of her birth.
She didn't even need Catia to assign her anything; she immediately took charge of a pile of documents.
I saw her fingertips imbued with silver-gray divine power, like the most refined loom, and the complex reports and records of soul judgments that would have taken Catia days in Hades were being sorted and annotated with astonishing speed under her hands.
Organized and amazingly efficient.
Catia wanted to help, so she picked up a case file concerning a dispute among border spirits, one that had previously seemed difficult to her, and was just about to offer her opinion.
Athena, without looking up, calmly pointed out three logical loopholes and one potential risk in her plan, and finally added: "Sister, if you have nothing to do, you could go help the goddess Hecate maintain order on the roads and leave this to me."
Catia: "..."
She silently put down the file, feeling like a superfluous and useless decoration standing next to Athena.
Thalia, the goddess of comedy and creation, didn't feel the pressure of Athena's intellect; she was always smiling and full of energy.
But her 'creativity' and 'sense of comedy' were often applied in the wrong places. She quickly teamed up with the equally restless Eros to form the 'pink-gold duo for creating mischief'.
No sooner had Catia been 'invited' out of the document room by Athena than a bucket of colorful slime, made by Thalia with illusions and emitting a strange odor, was dumped on her head;
She tried to find a quiet corner to contemplate life, and the seat would suddenly transform into a shrieking underworld raven under Eros's mischief, whisking her away in a frenzy;
Her neatly combed hair might, without her noticing, be braided into a funny horned style by Thalia's divine power...
Faced with Catia's anger, Thalia would always blink her big, innocent eyes: "Sister, life needs joy! Look at you, keeping such a serious face all day is so boring~"
And Eros would fan the flames beside her: "That's right~ The little princess is too serious; she needs our 'love'! ♡"
Ares, the god of war, didn't play such virtual games.
He advocated for strength and went straight to the point.
Catia tried to calm him down as a sister, to stop him from roaring all day in Hades and disturbing the peace of the souls.
Ares, carrying his blazing great sword, his scarlet eyes gliding over Catia, said in a muffled voice: "You want to order me around? Defeat me, and I'll listen!"
Then he launched a 'challenge' without another word.
As you can imagine, Catia, who was in charge of the Underworld and part of its order, was no match for the god of war, concentrated with negative emotions and the essence of hell, in terms of pure combat power. After a few rounds, she found herself in an embarrassing situation.
Ares looked at her and sneered: "Weak."
Then he went back to training.
Hermes, on the other hand, was simply a 'pure stream'.
He had a glib tongue, quick reactions, always called her 'sister this, sister that', and seemed happy to help Catia run errands and deliver messages.
Catia thought she had finally found a caring brother.
Until she discovered that her precious starlight had gone missing, and finally found it inlaid on Hermes's scepter;
Until she asked Hermes to deliver a message to Hypnos, and the message was tampered with, causing the shades in a certain region to fall into a strange, swaying sleep;
Until she noticed that sometimes, insignificant but fragile gadgets would inexplicably go missing from the Hades storeroom...
Faced with questions, Hermes could always come up with an impeccable reason, or use his sophistry to easily slip away, not forgetting to flash a harmless bright smile before leaving: "Sister, it's all a misunderstanding~ How could I have taken your things? It was probably Thalia playing another prank!"
As for Poros, the god of opportunity and turning points... Catia had given up trying to understand or nurture him.
One second he'd be helping you sort files, the next he'd reshuffle and rearrange the entire filing system.
He might promise to help you keep an eye on Thalia, but then be tricked into pulling pranks in the blink of an eye by a 'playful opportunity'... His behavior was completely unpredictable, whether good or bad depending on the mood of the god of 'opportunities' (that is, himself) at that moment.
Catia sighed, a heavy, deep sigh.
She had younger siblings, and lots of them.
But...
"I'm so stupid, really," she murmured, a look of resignation on her face.
"I only knew it would be good to have a younger brother; I wasn't sure that not every younger brother was Apollo..."
Now she was a little nostalgic for the days with just two 'troublemakers'—Prometheus and Epimetheus.
At least back then, she could barely maintain the dignity of an 'older sister'.
When Catia next met Artemis.
Artemis was still energetic and bold, a silver bow slung across her back. She appeared in a hurry, her face full of joy at seeing her friend.
"Catia!" Artemis stepped forward quickly and looked at her curiously.
"I heard the Underworld has become very lively lately! You suddenly have so many younger brothers and sisters! Tell me, isn't that great? No one can claim the descendants of the Underworld are scarce anymore! Now you have the most siblings among us!"
Her tone was full of sincere happiness for her friend, and a hint of imagination based on her own harmonious relationship with Apollo—she thought Catia was also living a revered life as an 'older sister', surrounded by a group of 'Apollo-like' obedient younger siblings.
Catia looked at Artemis's smile, purely happy for her, and the corners of her mouth twitched violently, revealing an expression uglier than tears.
Her originally cold demeanor seemed covered with a layer of residual fatigue and world-weariness at that moment.
"A lot... Yes, that's right..." Catia's voice was weak, and she rubbed her brow, which bore faint lines from long-term frowning.
Artemis noticed her strangeness, suppressed her smile, and asked with concern: "What's wrong? Are they... disobedient? They're just born and still don't understand? Apollo was a bit mischievous when he was first born too, but soon..."
"No, Artemis," Catia interrupted her, staring blankly at the ethereal mist in the forest.
"Things... are not as simple as they seem."