“I’ll give you everything you desire. You’ll have everything you want to possess. You need only desire, Livia.”

Triton’s voice seeped deeply into Livia’s ears like a wicked spell.

As if knowing her wavering heart, his sweet voice traveled across her ears and flowed into her heart.

“If you’ll only give yourself to me.”

The voice that had seized Livia’s heart in an instant whispered thus. As if everything would be resolved if Livia would just surrender herself to him.

The blue waves that held her image fully within his seductively curved eyes rippled quietly. Her heart pounded painfully because it felt like her reflection pooled within his heart.

…If this person truly loved me. If he truly loved me, beyond simply desiring and wanting me.

It was an absurd assumption, but the man before her was too sweet to deny. Just imagining it made her tongue feel ticklish and sweet, as if her mouth was full of the sweetest grapes.

Livia suddenly wanted to ask and hear the answer from his lips.

Perhaps, if he had come to love her….

She impulsively moved her lips but quickly closed them. She bit down hard on her hesitating tongue to hide it and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Livia…?”

Livia rested her head on his shoulder and swallowed her rapid breaths.

That was close. It was a question better left unasked a hundred, thousand times over.

Because whether she heard an answer of love, or its opposite, nothing good would come of it.

No, far from good, only the worst assumptions would follow in succession.

Echidna had said she must hear words of love from Triton. That it would lead that arrogant god down the path of destruction.

Of course, she had said to make him take the potion first, but….

“Here, just make Triton take this, and get him to say he loves you, that’s all.”

Livia simply couldn’t bring herself to make Triton take that potion.

But even without making him take the potion, if something were to happen when he said he loved her…?

When a sea god comes to love a human, he will vanish into sea foam.

That eerie ancient legend…. It made Livia’s heart uneasy.

Moreover, since Echidna was a witch who used dark and gloomy magic, she might have placed a curse on Triton that shouldn’t be cast.

Of course, since gods were immortal, Triton wouldn’t die… but the problem was that Echidna’s goal from the start wasn’t to ‘kill’ Triton.

From the beginning, Echidna had told Livia to stab his heart with a dagger that could harm gods.

Though gods wouldn’t die since they were immortal, they would fall into a deep sleep to recover, she had said.

Perhaps Echidna would plot something when Triton fell into a deep sleep.

For instance… she might terribly devastate and destroy the sea that had lost its guardian.

So that when he woke again, he would feel frustration or pain, or at least irritation or anger.

It was a somewhat reasonable assumption.

In any case, hearing words of love from him in this state was undoubtedly also an adventure.

‘Instead of stabbing his heart, I’m anxious that something might happen to him.’

Livia could only laugh at herself. From the moment she began to care for him, stabbing his heart became as difficult as stabbing her own heart.

The wave called Triton crashed into her heart that had known only revenge. What she had thought would merely splash and wet her at first, she felt had now risen to fill her heart completely.

Her heart was changing.

No, perhaps it had already completely changed….

Livia closed her eyes tightly in self-mockery.

With such feelings, if she were to hear him say he didn’t love her, that too would undoubtedly torment her.

Whether he loved her or not, the result would only bring pain.

Living only for revenge was a deception, and having to kill someone she had begun to give her heart to was a contradiction – in the end, only the worst remained.

Livia pressed her forehead against Triton’s chest and forcefully contained the hot breath rising in her throat.

It felt like being trapped in a very narrow, dark box. She was confined with walls on all sides. She had to take deep breaths several times to clear her stifled breathing.

Her head burned as if about to burst with tangled thoughts, and her heart, now aware of its feelings, beat violently as if about to jump out.

Stay calm. At times like this, she needed to think about what must be done.

Though all manner of divine gazes clung to them, Triton held Livia in his arms as if to block even that, meeting the eyes of each god looking their way and turning away their gazes.

Those of lower divine rank didn’t dare raise their eyes, and even those of similar rank looked elsewhere with awkward smiles at his fierce eyes.

His embrace was as solid as if he had no fear even if left alone in a strange place. At that, her excited breathing gradually settled.

‘…If I could just check on Lete’s condition…. If I could just find a way that wouldn’t put that child in danger….’

Tell Triton.

These complicated and difficult matters that she couldn’t resolve on her own might be nothing to him. Since he was such a powerful god, he might know ways she didn’t.

Though Echidna’s threats were frightening, perhaps Triton had a way to deal with the witch….

So, let’s acknowledge my weakness and reach out to him.

Before the worst happens.

‘After checking Lete’s condition….’

Having made her decision, Livia raised her head again and looked up at him with flushed, heated eyes.

She gazed as if licking over his smooth jaw and moist tightly closed lips, his nose standing tall like a mountain, and his eyes containing the sea.

All things in the world showed on Triton’s face. Rivers and fields and mountains and seas….

Even among those remarkable gods, Triton was exceptionally beautiful and noble. When she let go of forcefully rejecting him, she saw a brilliance almost too dazzling to look up at.

Could I really have someone like this…?

Some kind of tremor struck Livia’s heart. It somewhat resembled both an extraordinary ecstasy and the tiny joys that had led her through each day.

As if reading her trembling gaze, Triton looked down at her with gentle eyes and whispered in her ear.

“You’ve been strange for a while now. Why do you keep looking at me with eyes begging to be held?”

“…What?”

“Make such lovely faces only under the sea, Livia. I feel like my eyes might roll back with excitement.”

The gradually warming mood suddenly cooled. Livia, drained by Triton’s constantly aroused energy, pulled away from where she had been leaning and glared at him.

She couldn’t just treat his words as crude jokes. Because she could feel something rising heavily beneath her body where she was reclining against him.

He truly was a man she couldn’t let her guard down around.

With a bright red face, Livia quickly covered his body with the hem of her chiton lest anyone see. His fingers that had been gently stroking her side burrowed between the folds of cloth as if searching and traced over her bare skin.

“Triton…!”

Just as she was glaring at him to mean remove his hand, Triton’s gaze, which had been giggling as if enjoying teasing her, suddenly turned toward something beyond Livia’s shoulder.

Triton’s face hardened in an instant. Wondering if he had seen something ominous, she turned her head following his gaze and saw a light green butterfly fluttering toward them.

“A butterfly at this hour…?”

The butterfly passed by Livia as she muttered in confusion and flew to Triton’s ear. Following the butterfly’s small wing beats, the sound of wind seeped softly into his ear. It was like the sound of someone whispering.

“……”

Triton nodded briefly as if understanding.

Then the butterfly passed him and flew high into the sky before vanishing without a trace. Watching this, Triton grabbed Livia’s shoulders to push her away and said.

“I need to go somewhere briefly, so wait here, Livia.”

“Where are you going?”

“Someone said they wanted to talk for a moment.”

“…Will it take long?”

As Livia asked carefully, Triton gazed at her quietly before pressing his lips to her forehead and whispering.

“Don’t cause trouble and stay here quietly, Livia.”

Livia’s eyes darkened as she watched Triton’s retreating back for a long while.

***

Step, step.

Triton deliberately made footsteps as he went to the place the butterfly had indicated.

Perhaps it had deliberately done so to shake off the gazes following him?

The location was quite secluded and considerably far from the feast.

She was there on a small hill inside a great forest where golden wheat fields were clearly visible.

“Persephone.”

When he called her name, the goddess who had been gazing at the wheat fields under the moonlight slowly turned to look at Triton.