[Born in the Kingdom of Thebes, you are extremely fortunate. From birth, you possess a far stronger background than others your age.]
[The hereditary gifts bestowed by your parents have granted you a formidable body. The blood of a demigod flows through your veins.]
[But the homunculus body you possess seems incapable of enduring such overwhelming power. You were on the verge of dying the instant you were born, until some inexplicable force suppressed that explosive agony.]
[Trait — A Constitution That Can Contain Everything: You are able to accept any power and allow them to coexist without conflict.]
[Your wailing gradually stops.]
After taking a little time to adjust to the environment of his birth, Tia slowly opened his eyes.
His mother was not the sort of hardened woman one might expect from ancient times. She seemed instead gentle, soft by nature.
Alcmene gazed at the newborn child with eyes full of tenderness, both hands lightly caressing his cheek.
But as a figure of myth, she knew full well what kind of mistake she had committed.
So that tenderness was quickly buried deep within her eyes.
"My child... I'm sorry."
It was then that Tia noticed the way Alcmene was holding him protectively in her arms.
[The delivery room is not dark. Servants illuminate the surroundings with torches. You look toward the door that had been tightly shut moments ago, only to find it now blocked by a cold-faced woman.]
[You are not unfamiliar with her name—Eileithyia, daughter of Hera and Zeus, your elder half-sister, and the renowned goddess who governs childbirth.]
[The instant she sees you, the anger in her eyes looks ready to burst into flames.]
[Originally, Hera had ordered her to use divine power to prevent Tia, Zeus's illegitimate son, from being born successfully. But one of the maids had deceived her just now, causing her to release that divine power by reflex.]
[And so, you—who should never have been able to enter this world—were successfully born.]
"Do you have any idea what you've just done?!"
Eileithyia vented her fury on the mortals.
But just then, a sudden whisper drew her attention.
"Hah. A goddess who got tricked."
Eileithyia seized the maid who had muttered those words, lifting her with one hand. Divine power suspended the woman in midair, crushing her throat.
"I curse you!" she roared. "From this moment on, your limbs shall waste away! You shall become a weasel, never again to see the light of day, forever driven out and cast aside!"
Tia watched as the maid's body gradually changed. Suspended in the air, her form shrank smaller and smaller until her clothes dropped to the floor, and from within them darted out a snow-white little creature.
[This is the first time since your birth that you have witnessed the use of divine power. You are stunned. A human being transformed into an animal right before your eyes, in complete defiance of physical law.]
[Trait — Soul from Another World: Your soul will forever remain pure and untouched, incapable of being interfered with by outside forces. This is the only gift left to you by your transmigration.]
[You quickly calm down.]
[Eileithyia turns her gaze toward you, but she can no longer lay a hand on you, and this was all Hera's command to begin with.]
[Thus, your cheap half-sister soon leaves the place, and the farce that unfolded in the birthing chamber comes to an end.]
[Your nominal brother, Iphicles, is crying incessantly.]
[You, however, do not make a fuss like he does. Instead, you quietly observe everything around you.]
[And this abnormal behavior causes the look in Alcmene's eyes when she turns toward you to shift, ever so slightly.]
[The days that follow are peaceful. Around two days pass. As an infant, you are not especially sensitive to time, especially while spending all your days in a dark nursery.]
[Then one night, as you drift into sleep, you seem to feel a warm embrace.]
[You open your eyes. That face is one you know well.]
Holding the swaddled child in her arms, Alcmene slipped out of the kingdom under cover of night.
"Haa... haa..."
That night was not the storm-ridden darkness one might have imagined. The only things overhead were a handful of stars twinkling in the sky.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry."
She kept apologizing, tears sliding down her cheeks and falling onto Tia's tiny arm.
His infant body instinctively wanted to reach out and wipe away her tears, but when Alcmene saw that little arm stretching toward her, she hid the bitterness in her expression and forced a smile instead.
"I... am not a qualified mother."
Tia knew something of Heracles' origins. In his previous life, he had loved studying myths of this sort, so the scene before him was familiar enough—
Zeus had taken on the form of her husband, slipped into her bedchamber, and had relations with her.
Naturally, as Zeus's wife, Hera loathed his entanglements with other women. This time, a demigod had even been born from it, and thus the earlier scene had come to pass.
And because Alcmene feared Hera's curse, she could only sacrifice this newborn child for the safety of the entire kingdom.
Abandon him in the wilderness.
[Your heart is calm. Even though you have been cast aside by your birth mother, not a ripple of emotion rises within you.]
[Perhaps it is because of your soul from another world, but you feel no particular resentment.]
[You simply watch in silence as she leaves you somewhere on the grasslands, walking away with repeated backward glances, unable to let go.]
[Before she goes, she whispers something softly into your ear.]
[It is your name—Alcides.]
The tiny hand sticking out from the swaddling cloth stretched toward the heavens. There was nothing outwardly visible to suggest some extraordinary talent, but Tia felt very reassured about his future.
Because so long as he simply grew step by step, he would eventually inherit all of Heracles' gifts.
A steady, peaceful upbringing. As long as everything continued as usual...
[While you are still thinking about your future plans and wriggling clumsily in your little body, you suddenly feel hunger.]
[You seem to realize that these past few days, you have not eaten anything at all—not even a single drop of your mother's milk.]
[You find yourself momentarily speechless. This fabricated story seems to have quite a few loopholes.]
[Before long, as you stare up at the sky, boredom sets in.]
[The drowsiness unique to infancy washes over you, and your consciousness gradually grows hazy before sinking into sleep.]
[You do not know how much time has passed, but it seems you are once again roused to awareness by a warm embrace.]
[By now, dawn has already broken.]
"My, my, little one, why are you all alone out here~?"
At the sound of the voice, Tia opened his eyes again.
A woman with silver-gray hair tied in a high ponytail, clad in Greek dress, her cool and elegant face softened by a smile, was looking down at him.
Behind her stood another mature woman with long dark-blue hair, examining the child before her with a measuring gaze, as though judging something.
[The two women in front of you make you feel an inexplicable sense of closeness. For reasons you cannot explain, you want to reach out and touch their cheeks.]
[That innocent gesture is caught by both of them. The silver-haired woman seems especially delighted by you, while the dark-blue-haired woman, though silent, still feels a natural fondness toward you deep inside.]
[Trait — Big Sister Killer: You possess a certain degree of devastating charm toward all mature women. Targets begin with a higher initial favorability toward you. As long as they appear to be mature older women, they fall within the effective range of this ability.]
[You are soon treated like a toy and endlessly fussed over by the two of them. And in the process, you learn their names and identities.]
[The silver-haired woman with the high ponytail is—Athena.]
[As for the dark-blue-haired woman, she is—Hera, the last wife your cheap father took.]
"Mother, this little one seems a bit hungry~"
Athena pinched the cheek of the child in her arms with fingers white as jade, then turned and gave Hera a meaningful look before handing Tia over to her.
Hera looked at the child, and a faint flush seemed to rise to her face.
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