# Chapter 5
@ch.2. The Oracle Has Spoken
Eutostea got wind of the secret plan behind her bedroom window. No matter how many times she called in the repairman, the latch on her window was hung upside-down or was sloppily adjusted, which would fall just by touching it. It was a serious issue that her father would pass out if he knew about it. Every day, Apollo broke into Eutostea’s bedroom, widely open to the outside, which negated the effect of changing the structure of the building to have windows installed, just like her sisters’ bedrooms.
He gifted her with ecstasy day after day. Not sure if one could phrase it as a gift, but since Eutostea became accustomed to his body language and reached the climax of sexual excitement several times, it was now fine to view the situation as Apollo serving her. Anyway, he treated her as his girl.
In other words, he came in and out very often. Looking at the robust man occupying half of her bed, Eutostea got out of the bed, being careful not to wake him up. The windowsill was brighter than the inside of the bedroom in the starlight. The window was wide open. This time, the latch wasn’t the problem, but the smashed hinge. Once it was open; the other day it was sloppily closed. Today, Apollo grumbled why this kind of irritating object was there and climbed over to her room, almost breaking the window.
He did have formidable power, but when Eutostea gave it a touch, the wooden nails rustled down. Someone might have definitely put rusty nails on it intentionally. She looked at the residue on her palm with a meaningful gaze and then wore her robe to cover her naked body and opened the door to go out of her room. Two guards were standing on both sides. The look in their eyes was asking what she was doing in the middle of the night.
‘Security checked.’
Eutostea put her finger on her lips as a gesture to be quiet. Askitea’s bedroom was fifteen footsteps away from her. There were also guards standing in front of that room. Five soldiers were looking after her small bedroom door––more than twice the number of guards than Eutostea’s. When Eutostea walked past them and entered her sister’s room, things came into her sight: soft lamplight, tightly closed windows for no entry allowed, and the silhouette of her sister sleeping carelessly on her bed. The latch was fine, and the hinge was also properly installed.
With a stiff expression, Eutostea took twenty more footsteps and went into Hersia’s bedroom. The number of guards watching over her place was also five, similar to Askitea’s. The lamplight, the closed window, and even about twenty maids surrounding the bed, sleeping curled up, and her red-haired, second eldest sister sleeping carefree in the middle of them looked thoroughly under protection.
“Is he really doing it on purpose, that repairman bastard?”
Eutostea returned to her room and kicked the wall with the window angrily. Whenever she called him in, that old man couldn’t see her straight in the eyes and just trembled his feet. He didn’t do things properly as she told him to do and pulled this cheap trick on her. Eutostea whined as much as she wanted until her feet hurt and then barely managed to calm down, recalling the person on her bed.
Eutostea put her butt on the corner of her bed. The man’s chest moved up and down; she heard him breathing regularly. Since he had a large physique, she could feel that he was there even without seeing it.
“I should have made a fire again and come back.”
She wasn’t able to think cunningly about bringing the lamp and moving fire to hers from another but just went to see the status of the hinges and latches in her sisters’ bedrooms. She couldn’t think of lighting up her cave-like dark bedroom. ‘Don’t light a fire.’ She felt pathetic about herself for not being able to deny Apollo’s words, even unconsciously.
“But still, I don’t care,” Eutostea said bluntly.
‘I don’t care what you look like when you come here.’
The god visited her every night, and she welcomed him unwillingly. Even though it was a unilateral relationship, she didn’t want to be clingy with him no matter what––even if she called it petty pride. Eutostea regarded it as a weapon that would make her not be swayed by the self-centered god while she lost her virginity.
“Why are you sitting still like a ghost?” Apollo woke up from sleep and asked, grabbing her hand.
“I had a bad dream, so I woke up.”
Eutostea could now make up this kind of lie without batting an eyelid.
Apollo smiled in a low tone and replied, “Weird. I also had a dream.”
Eutostea followed his lead and lay down next to him. Apollo’s finger touched the side of her hair. Amid the darkness, he exactly knew which part was her eyes, nose, and hair. His eyesight was really strange. He knew more than anyone else about her facial features and the structure of her body, but why couldn’t he figure out that she wasn’t Hersia?
“Don’t you want to know about what dream I had? You never ask.”
“I don’t.”
“If you said you wanted to, I was about to tell you.”
“I’ve heard gods’ dreams are about the future. It isn’t something that I should dare to take a glimpse of.”
“You’re right, princess of Thebes.” Apollo then said, wiping out the smile in his voice, “I may let the oracle speak tomorrow on my behalf. Tell your father to send a hawk with a white ribbon on its leg to Delphi.”
“Is that dream, by any chance, related to Thebes?” Apollo laughed at Eutostea’s question.
“You said, you don’t want to know.”
“It’s a different story if it’s about the fate of the nation.”
The look in her eyes was now covered by a veil of seriousness.
“You’re too clever.”
He didn’t sound like he was criticizing her. Eutostea couldn’t feel it, but Apollo’s eyes were curved into a soft smile and were looking at her warm-heartedly––as if he was seeing something really charming.
“You appeared in my dream.”
Leaving that last remark, Apollo went back to sleep, hugging her tightly.
In the morning, Eutostea refused to take a morning bath and went to have an audience with the king. Aphelius was enjoying a sauna in his private bathhouse. No one could disturb the king’s rest until the breakfast was over, but when Eutostea shot daggers at his servant that she was here for an urgent matter, he sent an urging signal inside the room. After rubbing the king’s body with pine needles and applying the scented oil, Aphelius finished polishing his body. The king dressed up properly and asked his servants to open the door. Eutostea walked into the room with short and quick steps and bowed to the king.
“Father.”
“What brings you here early in the morning?”
His brown eyes, the same eye color as Eutostea’s, were filled with annoyance. However, he soon put away that look.
“I have a request to ask.”
“Is there something you want to have?”
“No. The request I want to make is that, without a moment’s delay, you must send a hawk to Delphi with a white ribbon tied to its leg and relay the message from the oracle.”
“The oracle?”
Aphelius’ mouth turned stiff like a plaster.
“The oracle speaks the words of the god just like once in a few years, but how on earth do you know that the oracle will deliver a message in Delphi? And what’s about tying a white ribbon on a hawk’s leg?”
“I can’t explain how I got to know it. But I heard it from a reliable person. The oracle is going to speak shortly. So for now, please trust my words and send the hawk.”
His daughter’s determined expression proved that she wasn’t telling a lie. She wasn’t a girl who made a request carelessly. Her sisters quickly asked him to buy this and that or stubbornly persisted to allow the import of things they wanted. Aphelius didn’t sweep away his doubts but decided to grant Eutostea’s request. He sent his servant to the official who managed the messenger hawk and told him to send it to Delphi. He also didn’t forget to request that they should make sure to tie a white ribbon on the bird’s leg.
“There’s one more request.”
“Tell me, Eutostea?”
“Is it you father who asked the repairman fixing my bedroom window to ruin it on purpose?”
“!”
Eutostea woke up in the morning and slowly organized her thoughts in a fresh mind. Many things were suspicious to just consider that the repairman played a joke on his own. Recently, the maids who assisted her acted strangely. They rarely had eye contact with her and also showed excessively anxious reactions when Eutostea pointed out the condition of the window.
At first, she wondered if she got caught having a sexual relationship with a man. But if the king found out Apollo’s identity, he would have not stayed put. The incident didn’t reach his ears yet. Since the god perfectly covered up his traces and disappeared in the morning, she didn’t get caught even by her close maid. But the window kept breaking and the repairman didn’t do his job intentionally.
“What makes you think that it’s me?” Aphelius didn’t deny and questioned Eutostea.
“I thought logically and reached the conclusion.”
“You’re smarter than the scholars working for me.”
Aphelius complimented his daughter without a change in his facial expression. But to Eutostea, it felt like a deceitful, evasive action. That was because the person who should be blamed for this was being nonchalant when she was struggling to control her boiling anger from having realized the truth.
“Instead of a compliment, you must explain why you’ve done it as to reduce my anger. Don’t you think so?”
Eutostea’s eyes shone frigidly. It was now the time to cast the question she really wondered about.
“Father, am I a discardable card for you? Because I’m less pretty and less precious… I’m asking if I were a bait that you give away to protect my sisters’ virginities.”
After her question, the room was enveloped by a long silence.
“That was the best way to protect your sisters and our kingdom,” Aphelius replied. He looked at his daughter straight in the eyes who was biting her lips to suppress her; this time, he tossed a question he wanted to ask the most.
“So, who whispered to you that the oracle would deliver the words in Delphi? Is it the man who climbed over through your bedroom window?”