Promise was left speechless, once again.
To be honest, he couldn't help but marvel at how this child, believer of the goddess of beauty, had grown up.
Well..as expected of someone following Aphrodite.
Promise had actually discovered it when they were in that maze.
This little girl could charm better than he ever could!
To say she was more flirtatious than a man like him...uh!
"Besides, Brother Promise, it doesn't really matter if my arrow can hit you, or not does it?"
Helen tilted her head, looking at him. "At first, I thought the goddess of beauty was testing you with this arrow. But after thinking it over, it didn't feel like a test at all, and felt more like she just wanted to watch something amusing..."
"...Helen, let me tell you something."
After a moment of silence, Promise sighed and, said with a serious expression, "Smart girls aren't very likable!"
"That's a lie, Brother Promise!"
Helen didn't even give him a chance to breath and shot back immediately, "After all, isn't your favorite goddess the wise Athena?"
Hearing her words, Promise froze in silence. "Who told you that?"
"I noticed it the last time I saw you," Helen said. "Brother Promise, your expression changed the moment you saw the wise goddess."
And since that day onwards, she had prepared a lot of white dresses for herself.
My Favorite? Her?
If I really liked her, would I have dared shoot her with an arrow like that?!
Promise pouted and said, "No way. You must've misunderstood!"
And as soon as he finished speaking, he was met with Helen's gaze as if he were a fool.
"Sigh, so it's like that."
Helen gave a deep sigh as she said. "Poor Atalanta, poor Medea... and poor me!"
Hearing her words, just as Promise instinctively turned his head away, feeling a bit guilt and after reorganizing his words, turned his head to look back at Helen once again, he couldn't help but be stunned.
Because the lovely young girl's eyes were brimming with tears, showing a vulnerable look that could melt the heart of even the gods.
"Helen, you..."
Promise started to speak, but Helen interrupted with a choked voice.
"I don't want to cry," she whispered, "I really don't want to. I've been holding back because I know you don't like girls who cry, Brother Promise. But... but I feel so so sad."
"Because I couldn't hit you with the arrow... I really really wanted to, but I just couldn't!"
If one thought about it carefully, the answer had been clear from the moment the two of them met and Helen immediately lowered her bow.
Because at that moment, she had already accepted her defeat.
Her arrow failed to strike Promise.
In other words, in that instant, Helen knew she had been rejected.
Promise fell silent.
After a long pause, he finally whispered, "Helen, you'll be the most beautiful woman in the world one day, and everyone will be madly in love with you. Don't you know that?"
"But I only want you, Brother Promise. I don't want to be like the goddess of beauty, unable to win the love of the one I love... Also, please stop trying to comfort me, Brother Promise. The more you say, the worse I feel."
Hearing her words, Promise obediently closed his mouth.
In that moment, he almost couldn't help but think..it would be great if Helen were a goddess.
Then maybe he would know how to handle this!
He sat beside the girl, quietly waiting for her to calm down, and this time, it didn't take long.
"Brother Promise," she asked softly, "is there really no chance for me, at all?"
She hesitated, then added, "And while I'm at it, can you answer on behalf of Sister Atalanta and Sister Medea, too?
Why have you been pretending not to see us all this time?"
This was, without a doubt, a challenging question.
Promise wasn't cursed, nor was he some naive fool like a protagonist of some harem genre.
On the contrary, because his fate was connected to the goddess of wisdom, he had a very keen insight.
It was often said that wise men don't fall in love, and the goddess of wisdom herself had taken a vow of chastity.
But that didn't mean Promise was oblivious, and didn't knew and understand anything.
If that were the case, he would never have gotten involved in Atalanta's race.
"Please tell me, Brother Promise."
Helen continued, "I have the right to know. And... this is your trial, isn't it?"
"This is the trial left by the goddess of love and beauty and the thing she is testing is love. She told me long ago that love is incredibly sweet but at the same time unbearably painful. So, Brother Promise, this time... please don't try to brush us off!"
"...Honestly, there isn't any complicated reason behind all of this."
Faced with this trial from the gods and the tears of the girl destined to be the most beautiful in the world, Promise finally opened up about what he truly felt.
"It's not that I haven't been happy about your feelings for me, Helen, or that I haven't noticed you. After all, to be honest, dealing with feelings like this would seem like a dream come true for any man."
"It's like being the main character of a story, and I've never wanted to be the oblivious protagonist, but... Helen, we're different."
"I have no future in this world, but you do. I can't take away the future that awaits you because of my own selfishness."
What Promise said was a little bit implicit.
But what happened was that Helen was able to understand.
To be precise, not only her, but anyone else could understand as long as they knew what the boy's dream had always been.
The truth behind all this was very simple: Promise always knew he would die.
Even before the goddess of fate revealed her prophecy, he had a vague feeling.
When the journey to the Golden Fleece reached its end, when the bright sun finally set—that would be the end of his time in this era.
So when Helen finally understood everything and found out that all the obstacles in front of her love were caused by this little reason, she stood there, staring at him with wide eyes before, for the first time in front of Promise, displaying a look of pure anger. She sprang to her feet and yelled, "Are you an idiot?!"
Huh?
Promise looked up in confusion, bewildered by her reaction.
"Sister Atalanta must be a saint for not having already shot you herself," she said. "I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me, that maybe I wasn't charming at all. But all this time, it turned out, it was just because this…Brother Promise, do you think we don't know about you? Do you think we don't understand why we're all here together?"
"Originally I thought that using this arrow at you, Brother Promise, might be too much, but now I see it's exactly what you deserve.
You deserve to be treated like this!"
With that said, Helen didn't even Promise any chance to respond.
She lifted her head, gazing up at the stars above in the sky.
Then, she made her vow once more, calling out to the gods, "My beloved goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, and the revered, magnificent Queen Hera, please listen to my vow once again. I solemnly swear to you both:
"No matter the cost, no matter how long it takes, One day, I will shoot Cupid's golden arrow into Brother Promise' heart!"
Aphrodite heard her vow and glanced at Hephaestus beside her, a playful smile on her face.
Queen Hera heard the vow, and when she looked down at Helen's beautiful face, she nodded in satisfaction.
Together, they accepted her vow.
Once her vow was made, Helen turned her head and looked again at the boy who was now completely dumbfounded, feeling the resentment and sadness that had accumulated in her heart disappeared at this moment.
"Brother Promise, I know what you wish for. It's not just me; I'm sure Sister Atalanta and the others know too."
With a bright smile, Helen continued, "We don't care that you are looking for a grand ending. We want to witness and look forward to the day when you fulfill your wish. But you don't even have the courage to give us an answer, and you're trying to hide from it all!"
"You say you don't want to interfere with our futures, yet haven't you already changed enough futures until now? And besides you've already barged into our hearts and now you want to just disappear and pretend like nothing happened? Don't you think it's a bit late for that?"
Promise never really imagined that one day he'd be scolded like this by a young girl.
And on the topic of love, no less.
But this exactly corresponded to the trial of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
Whether it was the goddess of beauty accepting the "Fidelity of the Rose" ring or everything Helen was saying to Promise, it was all in alignment with Aphrodite's divine domain—her portrait.
Perhaps Aphrodite hadn't even expected this outcome.
Her original intention in giving Helen the magical arrow was for her to toy with Promise.
But now, Helen had truly fulfilled her role and had become the true test that Promise had to pass to earn Aphrodite's blessing.
When a god casts their gaze upon you and bestows the magical arrow of love—would you dare to pull back the bowstring and release that arrow, knowing what it symbolizes?
Helen, in this moment, gave her answer.
And so, at this moment, the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, from the night sky, took out her portrait, and, smiling at what she saw, cast it down to Promise as the portrait appeared before the young man.
It was a scene filled with red roses on the ground, and standing nearby was Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, wearing a thorned rose ring in her finger.
Her gaze was directed ahead, where a lovely girl stood, possessing beauty so captivating it could enchant the world.
The girl held a golden bow in her hand, with a golden arrow on the bowstring, pointed it into the distance.
The arrow would inevitably be released one day, just as those roses on the ground; covered in thorns, so painful to long for, yet so beautiful to miss.
.