"Teacher Chiron. There's something I need to talk to you about."
"Oh? What is it, Iskios?"
In the stable where Teacher Chiron stayed, I began speaking with him alone.
As always, Teacher Chiron welcomed me with that gentle, mild expression of his and listened to what I had to say. The reason I had come to speak with him today was—
"A gaze, you say...?"
"Yes. I could usually tell who was who just from the way the other kids looked at me, but today... I felt a strange gaze."
"A strange gaze?"
"Yes... At the very least, I don't think it was one of the perverts trying to target me. I couldn't feel the usual filthy thoughts from it."
Back in my previous life, I never would have been able to distinguish things like that or sense them one by one, but ever since I came to this end-of-days Greece, if someone was looking at me, I had become able to roughly tell who it was.
Especially the gazes filled with lust toward me... in other words, the homos' gazes. I had become faster than anyone at sensing those, without even Teacher Chiron knowing.
"...Has the time finally come to let you meet her...?"
"Teacher Chiron?"
"Iskios. If you have the time, could you come here tonight?"
"Tonight?"
Teacher Chiron, usually so gentle, looked at me with unusual seriousness as he asked whether I had time tonight. I mean, I did, but what was this about...?
"Yes. There's someone I would like you to meet today."
ΊΣΚΙΟΣ
Night fell. All the students slept together in the large room built behind the stable used as a classroom, though even in that large room, several people shared each section.
I was sharing a room with others too. Specifically, Heracles and Jason. Heracles had said he didn't want to share a room with anyone, but Jason and I were exceptions.
At the moment, Jason was asleep, yet still scrunching up his face and muttering, "I will become king...!" in his sleep, while Heracles was sleeping so still he looked like a statue... or a corpse.
I was grateful to Heracles. Thanks to him, I'd been able to sleep soundly these days without worry. The reason was simple: the guys trying to bed me never came near.
Until Heracles arrived, I always had to stay on guard against someone. I don't have even the slightest taste for that sort of thing, and I won't submit to anyone. Even if that someone were a god... I—
"Is it about time...?"
Looking up at the full moon veiled by clouds in the night sky, I rose from the hay I used as a bed and left the room. Whenever I stepped outside, I always checked my surroundings. Having to watch out for the bastards trying to bed me had turned it into a habit... but there was nothing wrong with being careful.
Leaving the stable, I walked as quietly as possible, making almost no sound, and headed for the stable where Teacher Chiron was. I could see a faint light glowing inside. As that light drew nearer and I reached the door, I lightly knocked three times.
"Is that Iskios? You may come in."
"Eeh...!? You're already here...!? W-wait... I! I-I'm not mentally prepare—"
Who was that...? I heard someone else's voice from inside Teacher Chiron's stable. From the delicate sound of it, I could tell it was a woman, but at the very least, I knew it wasn't the voice of Teacher Chiron's wife, Lady Chariclo.
Even from outside the door, I could feel that person's flustered panic from within, but I opened it anyway. And when I did, inside were Teacher Chiron and someone I had never seen before... no, a being I couldn't clearly say was even human.
The third party waiting in the room could only be described as beautiful. Her long black hair was gathered with a circular hairpin, and the moment she saw me, her purple eyes widened. Then, as soon as she looked at me, the tension in her face suddenly brightened into joy. And then she asked me,
"Are you... Iskios...?"
"Ah, yes..."
"Yes, there can be no doubt. He is your son, Lady Selene."
Hm...? W-wait a second...? Selene? I've heard that name somewhere before, and that's—
"Cute...! So cute...! Too cute...!"
"M-mmph—! (Urk, I can't breathe...!)"
Her voice was low and timid, almost lacking in confidence, but the force with which she pulled me into her arms was unbelievable. Before I could even think... she hugged me so suddenly that my body started screaming for oxygen.
And in the process, my face got buried in her chest, and I thrashed desperately in search of air. Oxygen!!! Oxygen!!! Oxygen!!! Please, oxygen—!!!
"...I can't believe a child this adorable is my son!!! This child is the crystallization of the love between me and darling, the ultimate result of it...!"
"Lady Selene. Your child is in distress."
"Ah...!? S-sorry...!"
Gasp... gasp...! I-I almost crossed the River Styx... Once that person called Selene finally let go of me, I barely managed to breathe again.
What the hell... what kind of chest was that...? It went beyond anything like a realistic G-cup...! If a child's face gets buried between two of those, forget breathing—you're guaranteed a one-way trip to the next world.
"T-Teacher Chiron... th-this lady is..."
"My apologies for the late introduction, Iskios. This is Lady Selene, the goddess of the moon. And she is the one who entrusted the infant you to me—your mother."
...Now that I could breathe again and had calmed down, I still couldn't make sense of Teacher Chiron's introduction for a moment. Teacher Chiron introduced Lady Selene with a smile, but I couldn't smile at all.
So... this timid-looking woman with a chest that blew straight past every standard of common sense I knew... this Lady Selene was actually a goddess, and on top of that, my mother here...? Iskios's mother—in other words, my mother?
"It seems that today, Iskios, you finally noticed Lady Selene's gaze. And I thought the time had come, so I arranged this meeting because I believed it would be best for you to meet now."
"Th-then... the gaze I felt today was—"
"Yes, it was Lady Selene's gaze. In truth, she has been watching over you for quite some time before that as well..."
...Ah, but even so, I felt relieved. At least if she was my mother, then unlike the homos, she wouldn't do anything that would seriously harm me... or at least, that was what I thought at the time. Later, there would come a moment when I'd want to grab the me who had such naive thoughts by the collar and smack him around while yelling, "Ow, ow, ow!"
Of course... that moment is a story for far in the future, so there's no need to talk about it now.