Most Powerful Entity in Academy-Chapter 55: Passing time.

Artemis POV.

Damn it, damn everything!

I don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel.

After I shot that arrow at Andras, I fell into a coma, and I wasn’t even using 10 percent of my power....

There’s a reason people fear the Sisters of Fate or all the fate gods.

Because you have to face the consequences of your actions.

But the more important thing is not that I fell into a coma.

Raul especially gets on my nerves.

When I look at him, my eyes light up, yet he keeps pulling away, making me feel like he’s slipping further and further from me.

The last time I felt these emotions for someone was Orion.

My brother Apollo tricked me. I’ve had nightmares ever since.

With my own hands, I delivered the one I loved to darkness.

With my own hands, I destroyed the one I loved.

But I realized: the real reason Orion couldn’t love me was fate.

I still remember Orion.

Orion was born as the son of Poseidon.

I normally shunned the company of men.

Yet I made an exception for Orion.

The two of us became inseparable hunting companions, roaming mountains and forests together with my pack of hounds and Orion’s unmatched strength.

I was simply delighted to have found a mortal hunter who could almost keep pace with me. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

This closeness alarmed my twin brother Apollo.

Apollo feared that Orion’s charm and boldness might eventually sway me.

One day, far out at sea, Orion was swimming with only his head visible above the waves.

Apollo, seeing an opportunity, pointed to the distant dark speck on the horizon and challenged me:

"Sister, you claim no arrow ever misses your target. Can you hit that tiny thing bobbing out there on the water?"

I was proud and unable to resist a challenge to her archery, took aim, and let fly a single, perfect shot.

I shouldn’t have listened to my brother back then.

The arrow struck true.

When the body of Orion washed ashore later, I discovered in horror that I had killed the one companion I had ever truly cherished.

That was my love story, my Orion, and I regret everything.

I didn’t know at that time why I fell in love with Orion.

But I’m sure this is because of the arrangement of the sisters of fate.

That’s not what’s happening with Raul...

Sometimes Raul’s presence is faint, sometimes it’s so overwhelming I wonder if a new universe is being born.

He has friends too, most of them girls, but friends are friends.

That idiot Raul never falls in love with any woman, as if he’s sealed his own emotions.

He’s too intense.

And even if he falls in love, he will erase the sensation of love to prevent danger.

Around him, there’s a fairy-like girl like Victoria.

A girl like Lara who has both innocence and deadly charm.

Or an archangel with a lustful figure.

Any man in the world would have given his life for even one of the girls Raul talks with, as in the Trojan War was fought for Helen.

I even asked Raul once...

"Raul, are you gay?" I asked while he was keeping watch beside my coma bed, but his glare was murderous.

He started yelling: "Say that again, virgin goddess, and see what happens."

"Pfft, if Zeus were in your place, he’d already be sleeping with Victoria, Bella, everyone. Yet there’s not even a twitch from you," I said.

Because it’s true: Zeus has extremely broad tastes when it comes to girls.

Raul started talking so fast it was like he was rapping: "Zeus slept with men too, don’t compare me to that guy. He even tried to fuck a tree. For him, if there’s a hole, it’s a target."

I laughed because Raul was right, and Zeus really did try to fuck the world tree...

Back then, there was a prophecy about Typhon.

Gaia was furious, and Zeus thought fucking the world tree was a good idea...

Thinking about it now, I feel sorry for Hera.

"Well, you’re harsh, but what about Apollo and Daphne’s love story? My brother isn’t bad, right?" But Raul looked at me like he said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

He paused for a second: "Your brother chased a girl without her consent until she had to turn herself into a tree, then he made a flute out of that tree. Anyone who finds that romantic needs to go into a mental hospital."

I raised a finger: "Okay, but what about Hephaestus..."

Raul leaned forward from where he was sitting and looked straight at me: "I feel sorry for that guy. He was forced to marry a whore like Aphrodite, and every god on Olympus fucked his wife. But he stayed loyal to his craft, an honest man, like your uncle Hades... Persephone, the bitch made your uncle suffer so much. There’s definitely pain inside him. Persephone was Zeus’s daughter, but Zeus fucked that woman anyway, and they had Zagreus... Hades was forced to be a sugar daddy."

I nodded, but the thing I was most curious about, the reason I asked all this, was to finally turn the conversation to myself: "And what about me?"

"Hmm, you have a terrible personality. You turned a man who accidentally saw you naked into a stag and had him torn apart by your dogs. He didn’t even want to see you. You kill men for no reason. I’m sure if the Jade Emperor saw you, he’d run for his life. You’re literally the embodiment of man-hating..."

Damn, that hurt...

So he has a low opinion of me: "You’re a bad woman, but so am I, Artemis. Neither I nor anyone else has the right to label someone good or bad. What matters is whether good or bad, you and your actions won’t change, and you have to carry them and keep living."

Raul’s words felt like he was saying them to himself as much as to me.

But he wanted my heart. He judged me, Artemis, not by my past actions but by how I treated him.

Because I know it myself: no matter how immature I was back then, what I did won’t change and will stay with me.

Yet I was proud of what I did, because that day Raul had openly shared his worries for me.

That’s why I felt strange staying with Raul in front of the cemetery.

If I had interfered with fate earlier, the backlash would have been greater, and instead of one day, I’d be in a coma for a hundred.

Even so, the fact that Raul stepped in at the last moment and took Andras’s soul, even if he hadn’t died yet, relieved me.

I returned from the cemetery; Raul and a few others stayed behind.

I slowly sat on a bench.

But the way Raul walked, the academy wrapped in light—it was all because of his actions.

People spit on the ground as they pass him, whispering curses.

Some shopkeepers look at him with disgust.

Because he took the sins of the people upon himself.

Even though he killed Andras, he got no credit.

Instead of being angry at the academy professors, everyone is angry at Raul.

To them, Raul is just a 6th-tier magic swordsman.

To me, Raul is a light in my life, like the glowing phenomenon that enveloped the academy city that night.

Since we have a one-week break, everyone has either scattered or is hanging around cafés.

As if they didn’t go to the cemetery yesterday.

But that’s how people are; even if it’s family, you keep going.

Raul didn’t show himself, and I didn’t look for him.

Because of my experience living with Raul, if there’s one thing I know very well about him, it’s that times like these are his most fragile moments, and as someone who has never comforted anyone in my life, I don’t know what to do.

He’s so fragile, almost like Raul is afraid of something.

The man who used to never take his eyes off me now looks away.

It’s not just with me; he’s the same with Bella.

Bella manipulates Raul without him realizing, and wants him to take her side, but Raul is a lone wolf.

That "great power, great responsibility" nonsense rarely works on Raul.

Because while Bella’s perspective is human, Raul’s perspective is unintentionally closer to a god’s.

Yes, you can help people, but if a divine being interferes, your free will is meaningless.

Gods don’t see a problem with that, but Raul respects free will except in special cases.

Ah, why does everything have to be so complicated?

The fact that this man doesn’t even have a shred of lust drives me insane.

I, who have been praised for my beauty all my life, just wanted one compliment from Raul just once.

But getting a comment about my appearance from that man is like talking to a wall.

One day, that lone wolf will need a partner.

When those mortals are gone, he might come to me...