I Became a Slave to a Mythical Shepherd

Episode 47. name

I didn’t know what to say.

After thinking about it for a while, I just bowed my head as Anchises and Aeneas stood next to me bowed. The marble tiles on the floor reflected my face smoothly under my feet.

Then he raises his face for a moment and carefully meets Priam’s eyes.

my father’s eyes.

It has a slightly darker green aura than mine, and somehow seems to overflow with anguish and remorse.

As soon as those eyes began to focus on me, I turned my head away without realizing it.

However, it did not happen that Priam’s gaze moved away from me.

The nearby eunuchs and attendants, and even Anchises, seemed quite taken aback.

For the lord of Dardanos, who had returned from his mission under the king’s command, Priam did not offer any formal words of congratulations.

In this situation, the king had the right to speak first.

Therefore, as the king kept an icy silence, no one thought to open his mouth and only looked at the king.

and the king,

“…”

see only me

I could feel that fact even now, even when I tried to avert my gaze.

What is the meaning of the eyes looking only at me?

Fear, doubt, pity, pain… which emotion are you referring to?

Afraid to check it out, I couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes.

and,

“Aren’t you neglecting archery?”

In an unexpected rush, I averted my eyes involuntarily.

Priam looked down at me calmly with eyes that still seemed to be unable to sort out his complex emotions.

Since the sentence was so out of the blue, Anchises and Aeneas looked up to see if the question was directed at them.

And, after confirming that the subject of the question was me, I just politely lowered my gaze again.

I had no choice but to answer.

“···yes.”

“okay. How often?”

“I have been training every two days.”

“Since I was seven.”

Since I was 7 years old, it was when my brother Theo was in the midst of diligently posting reports about me.

It was the point when I first asked my father… no, my adoptive father to teach me how to shoot.

My past from 8 years ago flowed out of the mouth of a person I had never met before, so I closed my eyes in anticipation of being nervous.

I couldn’t open my mouth any longer because of the tension.

Priams watches me like that, then continues to talk again.

“You know?”

The king’s voice was soft, with a slight tremor at the end of each word.

The king tightened his grip on the armrest of the ebony throne.

“In the royal capital, an archery competition was originally held every year to please Apollo.

. . Anchises?”

“Yes, my king.”

“Originally, only a few samurai were selected in advance for the tournament. Do you remember when it became possible for anyone to participate?”

Anchises frowned at the unexpected question and muttered silently with only the shape of his mouth, as if parting numbers. One Two Three Four Five···

“It was eight years ago.”

When Priam’s gaze returned to me, Anchises closed his mouth at the right time.

Except for the lark’s cry from outside again, there was silence.

I stood blankly for a while, unable to digest the meaning of the question and answer just now.

And it was only after enough time had passed that I realized.

It was 8 years ago that anyone could participate in an archery competition.

I started learning archery when I was 7 years old.

So, 8 years ago.

In the original myth, the reason Paris met Priam again was…

archery competition.

When the puzzles were put together, I couldn’t help but stare at Priam any longer.

Now I could fathom the emotion in those eyes.

It was a deep longing.

“I believed you would come. Because, like me or your older brother, you will be good at archery. Because Theo said he saw a sprout in you too.

You too… will have a strong sense of victory. Because you’d love to chase fame.

. . as I did.”

The trembling increases with every word of Priam.

Sadness begins to well up in his eyes.

“Because you are my son.”

son.

I am that man’s son.

“Because I am your father.”

And that man is my father.

My nose resembles that person’s. The dimples on his cheeks and dark eyelashes were also inherited from him.

“I wanted to hold a festival when the day comes when you come back.”

The king, Priam, my father,

One cheek was moist.

A blurry line is drawn from the left eye to the chin.

“When Hector… Hector grows up and you can no longer threaten the throne, I would like to call you again and have a meal with all of you around the same table.

At that time, I wanted to say that I was sorry, but that I always thought of you.”

Faris did not simply live as a slave and accidentally win an archery competition to meet her birth parents.

Priam accepted his son into the palace despite Cassandra’s pleas not to bring Paris, saying that disaster would begin. He welcomed his son who won the archery competition.

It wasn’t because of stupidity either.

Everything was his meticulous planning.

A prince who is not the eldest son threatens the kingdom?

The most conceivable possibility is that he threatens the throne.

If only that possibility was removed, she was waiting to bring her son back.

Over the past 10 years, while brooding over the news of his son sent by Theo from afar, one by one.

To the point where my son, whom I have never seen before, memorizes when he started archery.

“Was I resentful?”

I wanted to answer no.

However, Priam’s face seemed to already know the answer.

“Have you ever planned a rebellion? By taking over cities, building roads, and gathering people?”

“that···”

“If you had waited for me just a little bit, we would have been able to meet again happily.”

Now in Priam there was no composure that had been seen at first.

“Answer me.”

Step by step the soldiers come closer to the king and then to me.

“The lives of both of us depend on your answer.”

***

Priam.

As he grew older, the years he was called by this name were longer than those he hadn’t.

This wasn’t his original name.

His original name was Podarces, son of Laomedon.

The youngest of 50 sons of Laomedon, proud and foolish.

The task of life given to him was not difficult.

Either remain in the capital and live out the rest of your life peacefully, or build a new city with the people who follow you.

Many older brothers had already become lords of the new city and had sworn allegiance to Troy. The young Podarches had no doubt that it would be his future.

I will pay attention to a small village and make it my own.

I will put a wall around it and give riches and honor to the people. Loyalty and honor will be given to the King of the Royal Capital, and he himself will take the satisfaction of doing his duty.

There, they fall in love, give birth to children, and one day, when they are old, they will pass the city on to their children. Maybe another child will go on an adventure to build a new city.

I dreamed of such a simple life.

-“Podarkes… I will choose that child.”

Until, in the ruined city, his sister is sold to enemies, saving young Podarches.

Until eventually, Hercules kills all the other brothers, saving only himself.

Only Podarces, the youngest, survived because of the begging of his sister, Hesione, who had been sold as the wife of an enemy.

What Hesione said at that time, I remember clearly even now, decades later.

– “I bought you (Πρίαμαί).”

On that day, the boy Podarces died, and only Priam (Πρίαμος), king of Troy, survived through his sister’s sacrifice.

He never forgot his sister.

Even when everyone was talking nonsense that Priam had saved and rebuilt Troia, he did not forget the truth.

King Priam’s life was bought back by Hesione’s sister.

With the price of tears from a woman who tried to save her flesh and blood, we were all able to rise again from barbarism.

That’s why he doesn’t deserve to see the blood of his own flesh and blood.

I just realized

He cannot kill his own son.

Perhaps that was why he sent Anchises, who was moderately conciliatory.

Even if he would rather be betrayed, he could not harm his flesh and blood with his own hands.

The boy in front of him, the second son of Priam, stretches his back with his eyes unable to read emotions.

and come to him

Bite all the guards who tried to stop him. A dagger hidden in Paris’ waist catches my eye.

Will this be the fall of Troy?

What is so foolish?

···I don’t know.

Priam watches the approach of his second son, whom he longed for so much.

until he falls to his knees.

“This is something Theo gave me.”

Paris draws a dagger from her waistband. In an instant, the warriors drew daggers of the same shape and aimed at Paris’ neck, heart, and lungs.

And he knelt down and offered the dagger as if he didn’t care about such trifles.

“…he said that he, who had brought up a false report, was not qualified as a king’s warrior, and asked to return it.”

Inscription engraved on a bronze blade.

-‘She bought us.’

Hesione bought this moment we are living and breathing.

From the rebuilding of Troia to the moment when the father and son are reunited like this, Priam owes her all those years.

Paris raises her head and looks at Priam.

It was only then that Priam was able to read the young emotions in Paris’ eyes.

“I dedicate this sword to my father.

I do not have any weapons or armor, so do as you please with the dagger.”

Receive the dagger from Paris.

A cool feeling of weight flows through the arm muscles.

The muscles in his right forearm, which once held a spear and killed countless enemies, throbbed as if thinking about who he would cut with his sword after the first time in a while.

But Priam is old.

no longer a warrior

Now I won’t kill anyone with these hands. There was no need for the excitement of slaughter.

He sheaths the dagger and sets it down on the floor.

And get up from your throne

“… son.”

He hugged Paris.

Feeling the young, powerful forearms wrapped around his back, Priam wished this moment would last forever.

***

To tell you the conclusion,

I’m not dead.

The audience ended with the deepest silence I’ve ever felt in my life.

After that, I was led to a small room at the corner of the palace.

“If you open the door here, there will be an accommodation for Paris.”

The old eunuchs and attendants treated me like family they’d known for decades.

Like I’ve never been kicked out of this palace. I treated him naturally as if I had lived as a prince in this palace my whole life.

“Can you hang this coat over there?”

“Please treat me well.”

“Would you like to walk?”

“All right.”

I was the only one who felt awkward.

The room was not as spacious as expected.

A hearth, a simple table and chair, and a hastily placed bed in the distance.

On one wall, a terracotta painting depicting spring flowers and birds is beautifully painted.

However, judging from the traces of freshly polished floors and walls, it seemed that it had been left dusty for a long time.

I sat lightly on the bed and stared blankly at the peaceful garden scenery that looked out the window.

I, who pursued the cause of the strange sense of deja vu felt here,

“ah.”

I realized that I was with Hephaestus here, more precisely, in the space that reproduced this place.

When I belatedly turned my head and looked back at the attendant who had guided me, the attendant lowered her head as if she already knew what I was about to bury.

“The king has commanded us to come here.”

Is it some kind of apology from ‘Father’? Is it because of regret?

I didn’t know, but somehow it felt warm.

I felt the awkwardness and wariness of entering an unfamiliar space gradually soften in my heart.

I breathed peace and stability for a while in the space where I was born.

-widely. widely. widely. widely.

Until I heard the regular sound of approaching footsteps echoing on the stone floor.

The sound of footsteps gradually increased, then two, three, and more, so it became impossible to guess the number of people.

And soon the door bursts open.

Of course, they are strangers.

An elderly woman who is almost past middle age, and attendants gathered around her.

The elderly woman had all the wrinkles in her clothes and her hair damaged, as if she had come running. The attendants seemed to have followed him to organize him again.

I tried to ask her what she was, but I shut up as the woman approached me with watery eyes.

Quietly, I got out of bed and hugged the approaching woman.

“···mother.”

The answer to my call was replaced by cries. That one sigh and salty tears explained more than a hundred words.

finally realize

I am in Troia.

I am at home.

After ten years, I came back here.

I hugged ‘Mother’ with all my might as far as the muscles in my arms allowed.

Feeling that I inherited the color of my eyes from her.

***

Priam dismisses everyone in the throne room and sits alone and thinks.

Hittites, royal courts, oracles.

Troy, which has been suppressed as a vassal state of the Hittites for a long time.

steel.

Paris.

…His brow furrows.

The moment of decision awaits.