บท 124: Chapter 124
[Third Person's PoV]
A Few Days Later…
Everyone around camp was seen wearing togas even though it was the beginning of the winter solstice.
"I can't believe you actually managed to convince everyone to wear a toga," Annabeth said in amusement.
Lucian shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? I can be very persuasive, not to mention charming."
Meanwhile, Thalia looked a bit nervous, which Lucian and Annabeth both noticed.
"Is someone too nervous to meet their father?" Lucian teased.
"It's one thing meeting him in a dream; it's another meeting him in person," Thalia mumbled.
"All right, everyone! May I have your attention, please!" Chiron called, making everyone stop what they were doing and walk up toward him.
"As you all know, we will be taking a trip to the home of the gods, Olympus, in a few seconds. I want to take this time to warn you all: be on your best behavior. I'm mostly talking to you, Lucian."
"What!? Me!? Why am I being singled out?"
This caused the majority of them to chuckle.
"I'll have it be known that I'm an angel. Even my middle name is Well-behaved. Lucian Well-behaved Blackheart."
"See, that's what I'm talking about. Don't do that," Chiron said with a straight expression before turning toward everyone else. "Be sure to treat the gods with great respect; otherwise, you might end up offending them, which could lead to unfortunate circumstances that not even I will be able to save you from."
As Chiron was warning everyone, Lucian was kicking a rock around with a pout. "He's talking like I'm some sort of problem child."
"Well…" Thalia, Annabeth, and even Luke all said in unison.
Lucian stared at Luke. "Do you only appear to come insult me?"
"Yes," Luke said shamelessly with a nod.
Lucian gave him the middle finger, which caused Luke to chuckle. Just then, Chiron finished speaking and began guiding everyone out of the camp.
…
Lucian, along with everyone else, was now cramped inside an elevator. There was a tense silence as they all began heading up.
The tense silence was then broken by Lucian humming elevator music.
Thalia looked at him with a weary smile. "You don't ever take anything seriously, do you?"
"Nope," Lucian smiled with delight.
A few seconds later, the elevator door opened, and they were welcomed by the sight of clouds and golden buildings everywhere.
Everyone had a look of awe as they admired the place, except for two people: Lucian and Luke.
Chiron started guiding everyone toward the throne room, where all the other gods were waiting for them. "Follow my lead," Chiron advised.
As they entered the throne room, Lucian was a bit surprised to see there were other gods standing around apart from the twelve Olympian gods.
Chiron walked in front of Zeus' throne and went down on his knees. "Lord Zeus," Chiron greeted.
The others followed, kneeling on one knee as they bowed. "Lord Zeus," they repeated.
No one noticed that although it looked like Lucian's knee was on the ground, it was elevated just a millimeter away, giving the illusion that he was kneeling.
"You all may stand!" Zeus announced. "Welcome, young demigods, to eternal Olympus, the home of the gods! I hope you all enjoyed the view," he said, trying to sound charming.
"You may now all stand by your godly parentage," Zeus commanded.
Everyone soon started to break into cabin order and walked towards the throne of their godly parent, while those without a throne stood in front of them.
Lucian and Hades came face to face. "Father," Lucian nodded.
"Lucian," Hades greeted back.
Hades developed a faint smirk. "Are you going to punch me again?"
Lucian smirked back. "You do anything that warrants me to punch you again?"
"No."
"Then you have nothing to fear."
The other gods listening to their conversation looked at them weirdly.
Hades scoffed in amusement as he patted Lucian's head. "I see you decided to cut your hair."
Lucian shrugged. "Was trying out a new look."
"Looks good," Hades nodded.
"Don't I always?"
"Can't you just take a normal compliment?"
"Nope."
Meanwhile, Thalia walked toward Zeus' throne and bowed a second time. "Father."
"Daughter."
"I see you've been well," Zeus then snapped his fingers, which changed Thalia's black toga to a pure white one.
Zeus gave a satisfied nod while Thalia simply stared at him. "What was that for?"
"White is a better color for you. It's the color of purity," Zeus grinned.
Thalia was close to rolling her eyes in annoyance.
Meanwhile, Hades and Lucian appeared to be having the most fun out of this tense reunion.
"You have to come and visit the underworld. Persephone keeps nagging me to bring you," Hades sighed with a faint smile.
"You know I've been interested in exploring the underworld. It sounds cool."
"Only you would describe the underworld as 'cool.' Others would describe it as dreadful, hell, a living nightmare, etc."
"Are you trying to keep me away or something? When you're selling something to someone, you should advertise the good parts."
Hades casually shrugged. "It's the underworld. There's nothing to sell. Well, except Elysium, but come on, we both know you aren't going there," Hades scoffed.
Lucian just stared at him with his mouth slightly agape and an offended look. "Who the hell says that to their child? What's the matter with you?"
"It was a joke, calm down."
"Since when can you make a joke?" Lucian asked, looking at him weirdly.
Just then, Zeus cleared his throat to demand everyone's attention. "Well then, since everyone has gotten acquainted, why don't we gods join you and give you a tour of our home?"
All the gods proceeded to stand up from their thrones and walk in front, motioning for everyone else to follow them.
Hades decided to stay at the back and continue talking to Lucian until Lucian heard someone calling out to him.
"If it isn't my ungrateful student."
When Lucian turned towards the voice, he found Hecate walking up to him. Lucian put his fist on his palm and bowed. "Sensei!"
"You're never going to stop doing that, are you?" Hecate asked.
"Nope. So how am I ungrateful?"
Hecate scoffed. "After our short lesson ended, you don't call or send a message. It's been a few years since we last talked."
Lucian scratched his cheek, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry about that… I've been a bit busy."
"Mmhmm," she said skeptically.
Hecate then turned towards Hades and bowed slightly. "Lord Hades," she said in greeting.
"Hecate," Hades nodded towards her. "I've heard you taught my son a bit of magic."
Hecate nodded. "Yes, although it was only for a few short months. He's a quick learner."
"I had to learn quickly; otherwise, I was going to die," Lucian muttered.
Hades and Hecate both ignored his words and began talking among themselves.
"Really feeling the love here, you guys," Lucian said, rolling his eyes and joining the others.
Thalia, noticing Lucian was next to her, leaned in and whispered, "I didn't know your dad was such a dilf. I was expecting him to be a really scary-looking man…"
Lucian slowly turned to look at her, giving her a 'What the fuck did you just say?' expression. "I should smack you for even saying those words to my face."
Annabeth, who was next to them, backed up and asked, "What's a Di–"
Both Lucian and Thalia's hands quickly went to cover her mouth. Lucian glared at Thalia. "Look at what you did."
"I wasn't expecting her to repeat it."
Annabeth smacked their hands away. "Stop treating me like I'm your child or something."
As that was happening, the gods were giving them a tour of all the buildings and statues that belonged to them and explaining their purpose.
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