Beauty of Thebes

Chapter 24: Favor of a God

“Ah, here it is,” the figure explained as he pulled out a ceramic jar promptly.

Eutostea recognized the jar and immediately abandoned all thoughts of remaining still and watching from the tarry sideline.

“Put the jar down,” she said, a little too cold a tone than she expected.

The man had plans to pilfer, but he should have chosen a different item.

Eutostea donned a menacing pose and a begrudging look as she held onto a broom standing upside down and aimed it toward the man’s back.

“Put it down carefully. I’d hate to see it break.”

What the man planned to swipe from the wagon was the wine from the holy water of Thebes to be offered to the temple of Apollo.

The man, all the more ready to down the liquid in the jar, stopped his suspicious act at her sharp voice. His burly figure turned and faced Eutostea. Unlike his strong body, the face of a man was of a young boy no older than fifteen.

Surprised amiable eyes looked at Eutostea.

Eutostea had not planned ahead—had no plans to beat him up with the broom, though she had quite the threatening aura.

The man whose appearance was neither man nor boy smiled wide, twinkling eyes crinkling.

“You should sleep more,” he said. “Why are you awake at this time?”

“Pardon?” she raised a brow.

“I’ll make it so you have a nice dream. My sweet, dream a sweet dream where all your problems and bitter worries will disappear, and before you know it, it’ll be morning. Look, your friends are deep asleep,” the man said, swinging the jar in his hand around loosely.

A pair of legs jutted out from behind the wagon. She understood now. It was not that no guards stood watch over the wagon, they were—rather they were drunk till their cheeks and noses turned a bright, rosy red as they succumbed to alcoholic intoxication with loud, blaring snores.

“Did you do this? You drugged their drinks?” Eutostea asked, the slit of her eyes narrowing.

The man chucked a wide smile at her snarky question. “Hardly. I’d been their therapist, listening to them complain their difficult travels from Thebes to Delphi over cups of drinks. Next thing I knew, they fell drunk asleep.”

Just how strong would the alcohol be to render the guards unconscious? On the other hand, the man before her was too… sober. She smelled the faint scent of alcohol from his body, but he was anything but a drunkard.

Coming to the end conclusion, the next question popped in her mind: Why did he drug the guards, and what was his intent to pilfer the jar of wine?

“Are you trying to destroy the tributes?”

She positioned the broom in front of her and gripped it tighter; the man smiled at her bemusedly.

“Rather than that, why haven’t you fallen asleep?”

The man observed Eutostea’s face carefully. There were no hints of flushed redness on his cheeks and discolored eyes; he was focused.

“Are you not nauseous or dizzy, as if you’re drunk?”

“…What are you saying?”

“How strange.” The man ignored Eutostea’s threats and confrontations and murmured to himself.

Eutostea’s gaze dropped to the container in his hands.

“Just calmly put down the wine and leave. It isn’t something you should be touching. If what you seek is alcohol, there’s plenty available outside. Do you understand?”

However, Eutostea’s offer of looking past his crime of sullying the tributes went on deaf ears.

The man sneaked up toward her like a serpent before placing his nose on the side of her face and sniffing softly.

Ah… now he understood.

“You… have you won over the favor of a god?” Figuring out her identity, the man let out a hearty laugh. “So who was it? I can’t tell, but it’s probably 500 million times apart from the ones I’m familiar with.”

Eutostea’s expression cracked.