Another unreasonable person, readying themselves to take their anger on me, while I did nothing wrong. Instead of a promised reward, the violence would be enacted on my person. The exact opposite of what I agreed on with the queen. So in order to prepare for the inevitable violence, I applied protective film all over my body and steadied the spear in my hands. As a retired soldier, I was very good at enacting violence after all. Not that I preferred it over sane and logical discussion, but I refused to be a scapegoat for incompetent people, who blamed others for their own shortcomings.
But just at the moment, the standoff was about to boil over into a violent confrontation more women appeared. These were the guards since all of them were equipped with a spear and some light armor. My initial thought was that they would strike me from the other side, a textbook pincer attack. Alas, the worst scenario did not come to pass. Instead of pointing their weapons at me, they harmlessly passed around my person and stood their ground between the angry mob and me.
This left me confused, as to why they did such action. Why would they betray their allegiance to their queen? Why would they try to protect a monster that I was, since my non-human parts were clearly visible? But my questions were soon answered. The leader of the guards, stood directly in from of the queen and in a loud voice she explained, that it was me who protected them from certain death. That it was I, who protected them from the raging beast of a man when I attracted his attention to me and subsequently killed him. That it was I who protected the queen from Athena's wrath when she was almost impaled by the spear.
And while in truth both of those accounts were wrong. Because Athena did not attack their queen but me and the berserker reacted instinctually to me as the biggest threat. I would not correct the statement that the leader of the guards provided, as her description of events was favorable to me. What a great unknowing asset she was to me right now.
Her words managed to calm down a big portion of the mob and some of the women left for their homes. No better advocacy, than saving someone's life I suppose. Even the queen was forced to admit, that I saved her's and her subjects' lives. Though I could still see in her eyes, the unreasonability and anger, wanting to blame me for her own mistakes. Alas her hands were tied, because most of her people were elighted enough to see the reason.
Since the conflict was resolved peacefully, I decided to leave the island as soon as possible, should any of the women or the guards get any second thoughts about blaming me. The ship that was rewarded to me was indeed prepared in the harbour and several of the gardswomen were so generous to escort me there. Truly, they could make some useful human resources, should I ea able to train them. They appear to already have some rudimentary training and seemed organized just enough.
But soon after finding my new boat, I was surprised by the request of the guardswomen. They wanted to sail with me. And there lies the problem, or rather several problems. One, purely logistical problem, I did not have a ship that could fit more than fifty women, myself and enough supplies. Two, even if I had a bigger ship I knew nothing about how to sail it and I doubted that the women who wanted to join me knew either, because if they did, they would have left the island a long time ago. And finally, three, even if I had a ship big enough and the women knew how to sail it, I did not know if I could trust them. Although they proved themselves to be capable and grateful to me for saving their lives, they quite easily turned on their queen.
So when I mentioned my objections to their request, to them, the guard's leader decided to dismantle them one by one. The men's ship was just on the other side of the harbor and was fully stocked, with the exception of fresh water, which could be collected within a few short hours. Most of them knew how to control such a big ship because they managed to observe it from their men relatives. Some even seem to be able to name parts of the ship, with throughout explanations of how they work and what to use and not use in certain situations on the seas.
And when I was finally forced to use, their seeming lack of loyalty, as proven before when they stood against their queen. They first begged me to reconsider, prommising their unquestionable loyalty to me. I refused once again and then they were ready to end their own lives just to prove how loyal they would be to me. I had no intention to force them to enact such a drastic measure but rather reprimanded them for thinking of such a thing and asked why would they go so far as to end their lives. I needed to know whether I was dealing with unreasonable fanatics or not.
To say their explanation for their actions was surprising, would be underestimatement. Apparently, it seemed that Athena's blood possessed some healing properties. All of them were initially crushed under the temple's debris, but once the god-pretender exploded in the geyser of golden liquid after my attack and the said liquid reached the victims, they were miraculously healed. Of course, it was not a miracle, but rather a property of that unnatural liquid Athena possessed instead of blood, but it would be very hard to explain to these people, especially if I myself did not know how it worked.
Suddenly regrets hit me for killing Athena too quickly. If I did not kill her so fast, I could drain her blood and attempt to use it to heal my missing limb. As the golden blood seemed to accelerate the healing to an unreasonable speed, I might have been able to attach my amputated limb back. Alas now was already too late as the wound looked to be healed, probably thanks to my own strange silvery blood.
In the end, all of my arguments to persuade the women to stay on the island were picked apart and objections were addressed proprietary. Therefore there was no reason to leave the women, who wanted to sail with me, on the island.
Actually having them with me would be a great boon to my journey. In case the sea monster decided to appear again, the ship and the women could be used as meatshields, while I escaped on the smaller boat. This way my chances of survival grew greatly.
And since these women, who unless eaten by a sea monster, would become my permanent subordinates. Therefore I decided to ask for their names. Knowing their names would greatly improve our relationship, after all, calling them by their names would signal to them, that I cared about them and thus compel them to listen to my orders, whatever they might be.
The leader of the guards, who first found me and who also was the speaker when the guardswomen decided to support my side of the argument against their queen, introduced herself as Penthesilea. I named this young woman to be the leader in my absence. Despite the obvious lack of experience, she seemed to possess a talent for the role.
Another thing was to reintroduce myself, with my real name. Since I decided to commit to this relationship with these women, I could not build it upon such a fundamental lie, should I want my subordinates to trust me. It seemed that the explanation I provided, of being cautious with them, was understood and wholly accepted, without any signs of distrust.
A few hours later, when the sun was rising and all necessary supplies were collected I ordered to sail out. Waiting for the sun was a decision on my part. This way, it should be easier to spot any monster in the sea.
For this very reason I ordered several of the women to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity under the waves. When I was asked why, I explained my precausition as a result of meeting a sea monster. Instead of looking terrified, the crew of women looked at me with shining eyes of expectation. It was as clear as day to me, that I managed to encounter probably suicidal, band of war maniacs.
Yet that was the worst thing I learned about them. Apparently, all of their male relatives were in the business of piracy!
"How did this happen?"
Maybe I should just bail on my own ship on the first possible occasion.
At first, she was ecstatic. The woman who arrived out of nowhere. Who, everyone thought to be a messenger of Aphrodite. Who was so supernaturally beautiful that it hurt the eyes of others, and brought them nothing but despair. The advice seems logical, and very clever. To smoke the men out of the temple. It was so simple, so easy and none of them could think of it. And all she asked for as a reward, was a simple ship she could helm herself, and supplies for several days.
And so they listen. Gathering the leaves and starting fires, they tried to smoke the man out of the temple of Athena. And all it seems to be going well, for a while. Because of that, she, the queen ordered her attendants to prepare the reward for the stranger. She would like the stranger, to be gone the moment the men went out of the temple. After all, the stranger was very beautiful. She wouldn't want the men to choose her over any of the islanders.
But then the noises from the temple finally started to be heard and then the thing had happened. The temple was blown to pieces. Many of her people died in the fallout. It was the stranger's fault that everyone was dead. And so now besides Athena, she also hated the stranger.
As, if it was not enough, some of her own people turned against her. Instead of doing their duty, the guards decided to step between the angry mob, she collected, and the stranger
"Traitors," she called them.
But they were strongly set in their way. They would not back down. They wouldn't let her have revenge. That left her with a single possibility. To let them go along with a stranger. Soon they left the island.
And she could only despair what a cruel fate has befallen her. She was hurt and dirty and felt so powerless. There was nothing she could do. And with her anger dissipating, she realized that she was hurt. Red finally seeped into her clothes. She would have to let her maids clear and bandage the wound.
Oh, if she could only heal just as miraculously as all of her guards, who were hurt by the debris from the temple. But for such a miracle to occur she would need more of the golden blood. The same blood that erupted from the goddess Athena, when the monster hurt her.
Yet all of that blood already disappeared. There was nothing left of it, anywhere. But there was a pool of silver. A big pool of silver. Maybe that could also work. And while she did not know from where it originated, maybe it could also work. At least to heal the wounds, if not revive someone from death.
She sent one of her people, who was hurt to test it. The woman's wounds healed instantly and if the queen was not hallucinating from her own blood loss, the woman looked prettier too. So she herself went for the pool of silver, was immediately healed and the pureness of her skin was anything to tell, she must have looked younger and more beautiful.
He had, for a lack of better word, expected this thing to happen. He was never liked among his peers and siblings, not to say anything about his own parents. Yes, when they needed anything from him, weapons, armor, automatons and other inventions, he was their best friend or their favorite sibling or child. But as soon they got what they needed from him, then at best, his existence was swiftly forgotten and at worst he was ridiculed by them. None of his family and "friends" were ever interested in talking with him about his hobbies and interests. He would not lie to himself, it hurt!
His one and only true friend was A1, but sadly it lacked any real intelligence. After all, it was just a prototype and its artificial intelligence was rudimentary at best. He absolutely hated the fact that A2, the second version, was used by his father for such nefarious purposes. And the fact it was controlled by several tortured mortal souls, instead of actual artificial intelligence, made it an abomination. He would have to make something better, just to offset this crime against engineering.
But that would have to wait. Now that he was dead, killed by his own father, for crimes he did not commit, he would need to be reborn first. Luckily for him, was prepared for this. He devised a plan that he intended to enact in case of getting killed. Yes under normal circumstances he would be reborn in his "godly" body and everything would return back to "normal". Business just as usual.
That would not do anymore! He would not be used and ridiculed, by people that called themselves his family, any longer. And as such he had no plans to be reborn as a "god". No, he would become mortal. Handsome mortal man. Very handsome mortal man, that all women would eagerly look at. Now, just to find a place, that was not worshipping his pantheon too much, so he could hide his presence there. Not that they would notice him missing anyway, but just to make sure.
Looking around the islands and mainland he noticed, that there was one small island with no major temples and only a few little shrines. What was this island called? Lemnos, that would have to do. Now, to just sneakily sneak around and find decent parents. And yes his father would have to be handsome, so he could inherit his handsomeness.
But after scouting the whole island, he found no men! Absolutely none! What was this island supposed to be? How did people even exist here, if they could not reproduce? Did those Amazons of Ares expand their territory? He did not hear anything about that. Ares would have definitely bragged about it. What was he supposed to do now?
Heureka! Not all hope was lost! There was this very, very nice lady, who just decided to bathe, in what seemed to be god's blood. This was not an optimal solution and would need some tweaking in his initial plan, but the god's blood should guarantee him to be born handsome. Or at least became handsome later in his life.
"Well lady, I hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna hijack you for some nine months or so... Not that she can hear me... Anyway, nice to make you an acquaintance, mom,"