The Greece Antagonist

In the evening, the two returned home.

As soon as he entered the door, Luo En headed straight for the second floor, opened the door to his room, rushed into the bedroom, and fell asleep right away.

Downstairs, Hestia, full of questions, looked at the closed bedroom door, opened her mouth, but ultimately didn't say anything. She turned around, holding the groceries, and went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Since little Anna wasn't there, she only needed to prepare dinner for two people tonight, which meant a bit less work.

However, Hestia, distracted at the stove, nearly cut her fingers with the knife several times, and made frequent mistakes in steps like frying and seasoning.

As a result, what should have been a simple dinner took Hestia over two grueling hours to complete, emerging from the smoke-filled kitchen as if she had survived a catastrophe.

At this time, Luo En in the second-floor bedroom still showed no signs of waking up.

Hestia had no choice but to finish her own portion with a waxen taste, then sat restlessly at the dining table, occasionally glancing out the window into the dark night.

Time ticked by, and just as the Goddess of the Hearth, who could no longer stand it, was about to rush upstairs, break down the door, and drag a certain someone out of bed, a series of dull roars exploded along the coastal areas outside Knossos City.

"Boom, boom, boom, boom!"

With the violent roaring, dazzling patterns of light whipped up a fierce Aether storm, sweeping across the entire coastline.

Defensive charms? And magic traps? So many?!

Hestia, looking at the ribbons of light that almost illuminated half of the night sky outside the city, was utterly dumbfounded.

"Thud, thud, thud, thud!"

Meanwhile, dull sounds of flesh being torn apart erupted one after another over the shallows and the sea surface, with what seemed to be pieces of limbs and organs thrown about, and the rich stench of the sea wafted through the turbulent winds.

Guided by the flickering light of Magic Arrays, Hestia, standing at the window, saw the distorted, writhing outlines on the sea's surface and the shadows constantly moving up from the deeper waters, her face filled with astonishment.

"What, what?"

"The beast tide..."

Accompanied by a somewhat lazy getting-up noise, the tightly-shut door of the second-floor bedroom opened, and Luo En, yawning, came down the stairs, sat at the dining table, and leisurely served himself dinner.

Recalling what this man had told Anna during the day, Hestia was shocked.

"You knew in advance?"

"Not guessed, calculated!"

Luo En took a bite of the still-warm food, corrected her irritably, then tapped the corner of the table as a sign.

"If you want to know the reason, sit down, and I'll tell you."

Hestia, unable to contain her curiosity, managed to sit patiently across from him, leaning in to listen to the explanation.

Seeing that the Goddess of the Hearth had obediently complied, Luo En then began to speak softly.

"You must have seen what happened at the harbor today. Those ships weren't destroyed by any storm, after all, the wind doesn't eat people..."

"Right, they must have been attacked by Sea Beasts," Hestia interjected, with images of the wrecked ships and the terribly mutilated corpses flashing in her mind, nodding in agreement, yet still puzzled.

"But what does this have to do with the beast tide outside? Every year, as winter approaches, ships that set sail will inevitably encounter some Sea Beasts."

"But three ships that set off at different times, in different directions, and were in different areas of sea all were attacked and damaged at almost the same time and then washed up on Crete Island the following day. Do you know what this means?"

Luo En gave Hestia a meaningful glance.

Although the Goddess of the Hearth was naive, she was not a fool. Thinking of the sea charts Luo En had borrowed during the day, her face suddenly changed.

"Are you saying that between the fishing grounds and several merchant routes, the waters were packed with Sea Beasts?"

"Exactly, this is the conclusion I reached through information such as the sailors' times of death, when they set out to sea, and the rough directions and range of their ships' travels."

As he spoke, Luo En took several papyrus sheets covered with characters out of his pocket and threw them onto the table.

These, Hestia recognized as well, were the statistical data that Luo En had Anna acquire from those priestesses and priests.

One mystery was solved, but many more questions flooded her mind.

"How do you know that these Sea Beasts will attack Crete Island tonight?"

"I said it before, you need to think more, calculate more..."

Luo En sighed helplessly as he saw Hestia's clear eyes.

"Several months have passed since the Harvest Festival, and it's now the time for fattening up before winter. So many Sea Beasts have traveled from the inland sea for thousands of miles to the open sea, gathering near Crete Island; they couldn't possibly have come all this way just to celebrate the Minosians' birthdays and feast, right?

Besides, there aren't many human settlements nearby, and King Minos and the God of the Sea have never gotten along, having had some friction recently. A little bit of reasoning and you would know that they are most likely targeting Crete Island."

In the face of such disdain, Hestia nodded awkwardly, mumbling to herself.

"Time, I'm asking you where did you get such precise timing for the encounter?"

"It's not about being precise."

Luo En shook his head, pulled out a few of the papyrus sheets, and pointed out the details to Hestia.

"Based on the departure times and speeds of the ships, I figured out the rough sinking locations. Then, combining the tidal conditions, the movement speeds of the Sea Beasts that left traces on the wreckage, as well as the creatures' behavioral habits, I was pretty much able to estimate the time of the beast tide's landing on the island.

Moreover, that old man mentioned that every year as winter approaches, the Sea Beasts have a habit of coming ashore at night, with the tide and the wind, to attack livestock and villagers. It's just that the numbers are sparse and not concentrated.

With mutual corroboration and a sufficient amount of related data for reference, reaching this conclusion wasn't difficult."

Hestia looked at the three pages full of dense text that made her dizzy, and she unconsciously swallowed hard.

You call this... not difficult?

Unaware that he was being looked up to by a failing goddess, Luo En finished his last mouthful of rice and turned to look out at the coastline, shimmering with light patterns, feeling somewhat emotional.

"However, speaking of which, I wasn't entirely certain. It was just an attempt. I didn't expect King Minos to actually believe it. Looking at the density of the Defensive Charms and Magic Traps, it seems he's mobilized half of Knossos City's temple's worth of sacrificial offerings and priests."

"Yeah, with such thorough preparations, there shouldn't be any problems now, right?"

Hestia stood up, staring at the swarms of Sea Beasts that were being bombarded, repelled by spells, bolts of magic power, arrows, and spears, and murmured softly.

"Laaaa..."

Just then, a melodious and lingering song came from the sea, and the front-row soldiers were instantly enraptured. Their souls resonated with it, and then... they stepped forward woodenly, one foot stepping into emptiness, either plummeting onto the cold cliff face and shattering into a lump of flesh or falling into the churning waves to become fodder for the Sea Beasts.

"Sirens! Divine Blood kin!"

Hearing the beautifully insane and savage magical tone of the voice, Hestia's complexion changed, and she swiftly rose and rushed toward the door.

"If I were you, I wouldn't step through this door tonight..."

The deep murmur came from behind, and Luo En stood up, took out the chilled fruit brew, and filled the two cups on the table.