Respecting Fate, or Defying Fate?
"Promise, student of the centaur sage Chiron, you... have shamed the goddess of fate!"
Under the afternoon shade of the tree, the awakened goddess of fate, Clotho, raised her head and, trying to suppress her voice, spoke with a tone of authority to Promise.
But looking at the petite goddess in front of him, who was trying hard to 'look' at him and was still rubbing her eyes from having just woken up, Promise couldn't feel any sense of authority.
However, Promise could tell that Clotho had come specifically for him.
"Goddess Clotho, may I ask what I have done wrong?" So, after thinking for a moment, he asked as he stood before Clotho.
"You have revived those who were supposed to be dead, continued things that were meant to be destroyed, and furthermore..."
Clotho pointed towards Aegina's kingdom in the distance and paused.
Furthermore, you made me change and revise my prophecy for Queen Hera again and again!
"You have interfered with fate, turning what was orderly into chaos, shaming the goddess of fate. Therefore, Promise, student of the centaur sage Chiron, do you... understand your mistake?"
As Clotho's words fell, seeing her visibly angry and indignant, anyone else in this world standing here might have turned pale and fled in panic.
After all, to shame and anger a god... especially a goddess of fate, was almost equivalent to being sentenced to death!
But Promise didn't.
He looked at the goddess of fate before him, pouting in anger, and couldn't help but chuckle before replying, "So that's the reason. But Goddess Clotho, I wasn't the one who did these things.
It was Goddess Themis, Goddess Athena, and Queen Hera, wasn't it?"
Clotho was silent for a moment before replying, "Actually, back with Jason's incident, as a goddess of fate, I let you off the hook.
Although you altered some aspects of fate, you still returned everything to its original course, so I didn't blame you.
But this time, it's different!"
"Do you know how much disaster your arbitrary decisions have brought to this world? Not just in the mortal realm, but even the gods are now running around because of the fate you've altered.
The entire world is in chaos!"
Clotho spoke sternly to Promise.
Well...this was quite easy to understand.
Think of the world as a book, and the spindle of fate controlled by the goddess of fate is like a script or story already fixed in the book.
If you compare it to a machine, it would be the preset program.
The goddesses of fate are responsible for guarding and smoothing the threads of fate, ensuring the world runs orderly.
Promise's actions undoubtedly disrupted all this, altering the fixed script and causing a BUG in the program.
To ensure the world runs properly, the goddesses of fate have to reconnect the broken threads of fate to the world.
They have to write new stories and fix the BUGs to get the world running again.
That's why Clotho fell asleep here.
She didn't fall asleep out of boredom while waiting for Promise, but purely out of exhaustion.
During this period, she and her two sisters have been doing one thing.
Working overtime, working overtime, and working overtime again!
Therefore, Promise should feel fortunate that the one seeking him out is the youngest and most delicate of the goddesses of fate, Clotho, and not one of her elder sisters.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be a conversation, but a chase with a spindle...
"So, Goddess Clotho, have you come to punish me?" Promise naturally followed up with this question.
But Clotho fell silent again upon hearing this.
"And if I say that even if time were to rewind and we did it all over again, I would still make the same choices as I did now?"
Clotho was stunned, raising her blindfolded eyes to 'look' at Promise again.
"Because I believe I haven't done anything wrong," the latter replied, turning his gaze towards the now barely visible kingdom. "I don't know what disasters my actions have brought to this world, but I do know that the people there seem to be doing quite well."
Unexpectedly, Clotho did not refute his words.
Because when fate was altered, as they wove the new future, they naturally saw the kingdom's renewed state.
"But that's because the goddesses are helping you," Clotho answered seriously. "And do you know that during that process, if you had taken even one wrong step, you would have faced completely different consequences, likely leading to utter ruin."
The fate of the world isn't easily altered.
In most cases, those who try to change fate end up being toyed with by it.
"Hmm... Even so, I think I might still fight against certain fates in the future," Promise replied to Clotho, the goddess of fate.
To his surprise, instead of getting angry, she asked, "Why?"
"Because I suddenly feel like I can try to do more things," Promise answered.
Promise was a transmigrator, so he knew a lot from the beginning.
For instance, he knew that Chiron, the teacher who had taken care of him for three years and secretly protected him and Jason when they descended the mountain, would ultimately be shot in the throat by Hercules with an arrow soaked in the Hydra's venom.
Due to the agony caused by the poison, Chiron would eventually relinquish his divinity to Zeus and embrace death.
Additionally, he knew that Hercules, who had been kind to him, would go mad due to Hera's curse and kill his own wife and children, suffering torment for the rest of his life.
Promise's purpose in this world was straightforward: to leave his mark using his golden finger, the Heroic Spirit Class Card, and ultimately reach the Throne of Heroes.
Because the quality of a Heroic Spirit was related to their legend, he actively participated in various legendary stories, getting to know the heroes.
Descending the mountain with Jason and then setting off to find the other heroes wasn't just to bring them onto the Argo; he also hoped to join more legendary stories along the way.
Thus, Promise initially didn't have many additional thoughts, but today, the goddess of justice, Themis, had told him that even with his vow to the goddess of wisdom, Athena, he could still make his own choices.
"So even though it's supposedly impossible to change fate, now I suddenly want to see if I can witness different outcomes. Besides... honestly, it does feel rather heroic."
Promise said this and couldn't help but laugh.
A hero who defies fate, huh? That sounds pretty good!
"So even though I have come before you specifically, even though I have warned you like this, between respecting fate and defying fate, you still choose the latter, right?"
The goddess of fate, Clotho, asked.
In Greek mythology, there's a story like this.
When the great hero Hercules left the centaur sage Chiron and bid farewell to his teacher, Zeus sent two goddesses before him.
One was the goddess of vice, Kakia, and the other was the goddess of virtue, Arete.
Ultimately, Hercules chose the goddess of virtue, Arete.
From then on, his life followed this path.
"Fate is no trifling matter. Since you insist, I will let you personally experience the consequences!"
Clotho was angry, and this time it was different.
Although her expression seemed calm, her words revealed a blatant disdain for Promise.
Promise had changed the fates of the river goddess Aegina and her people, causing them to work much harder.
However, Clotho also saw the prosperity of the kingdom and the smiles on their faces.
Therefore, she didn't actually dislike Promise.
Her purpose in coming here was merely to inform him of the seriousness of his actions and to warn him against attempting to interfere with fate again.
But now, things had changed.
In the next moment, the spindle of fate appeared in Clotho's hand.
Using her power, she displayed the threads of the world's fate before Promise.
Promise found himself in a special temple, encompassing everything in the world, with threads representing everyone's fate winding throughout the temple.
The delicate goddess of fate, Clotho, wandered among the threads, touching them as she searched for the appropriate fate.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually, she stopped before a particular thread of fate.
When she picked it up, the temple vanished from Promise's sight.
Coming back to his senses, he realized he was still standing under the tree's shade, conversing with the goddess of fate, Clotho, in the afternoon sunlight.
The only difference was that she now held a thread of fate in her hand.
"Since you choose to defy fate, I, Clotho, the goddess of fate, will give you this opportunity... To the east, about five days' journey from here, there is a town where you will find someone you are looking for.
His name is Actaeon, a friend from your time studying under the centaur sage Chiron."
Clotho, gazing into fate, spoke to him:
"He has offended the moon goddess Artemis and is about to die.
Aren't you looking for people to invite on your quest for the Golden Fleece? ...Without the help of any goddess, if you truly have the courage, go and face the wrath of the capricious moon goddess Artemis.
Then, you will see if you can truly bear the cost of defying fate!"