Dylan King and His New Roommate Called Goddess Athena [1st Book]

CHAPTER 4

POINT OF VIEW: ATHENA

Saturday, October 7, 2028, around 05.20 P.M

Nearing sunset, Athena finally finished and comprehended the three grammar books. Wondering what she could do next, her attention shifted to the refrigerator again. The big box piqued her interest when Dylan took out a sweet brown edible plate and a box of food resembling Laganon. Inspecting it earlier, she wondered how the air inside the box was cold and how it had created snowflakes and ice. Her effort to figure out the power hiding in the container was in vain, even after tapping the refrigerator walls. She then decided to go for another strange object: the microwave.

For sure, the box of Laganon must be cold. But when Athena ate it, it was warm. She did not see a fire lit inside the metal box, but she knew that the buttons near the lid granted the magic to heat the food. She clicked on the red button, which was the most conspicuous one. Immediately, the inside of the box was bright with orange light. However, just a little while later, the light suddenly turned off. That raised a question, as she knew that when Dylan operated the box earlier, the orange light stayed much longer than now.

Athena went to the device that could produce water, which one of the grammar books referred to as the washbasin. She spun the cylinder at the top and cupped her hands to drink the cold water. After turning the cylinder towards the original direction, she placed her ears against the table, trying to figure out whether a river was underground.

She heard the sound of water flowing but could not be sure that it could be sufficient to produce constantly flowing water at any given time. It made her wonder how the mechanism worked while simultaneously imagining how Poseidon, the god of the sea and her lifelong enemy, would feel if he ever saw a mundane device that could beat him in controlling the water.

Suddenly, the light illuminating the table went out. But then, when Athena raised her head, the white light started flickering for quite some time until it returned to normal. This lamp also bewildered her, as it was not a fire but brighter and more stable. The longer she looked at it, the bigger the urge to understand how it worked. When this mortal named Dylan returned home, he must be able to explain everything to her.

Athena returned to her chair. Leaning against the backrest, she grabbed one of the grammar books and started flipping the pages. Seeing again the smoothly written explanation and beautifully drawn pictures made her wonder whether there were books about these strange objects created with the same method. She decided to go out in no time, as it was where the mortal Dylan had acquired the books.

Exiting the room, Athena took in her surroundings. There were no books outside, so she walked down the stairs and soon found many at the lower level, stored neatly inside many wooden shelves. Her eyes carefully trailed over the words on each book's spine, searching for anything related to every object in Dylan's room or other exciting topics. While she did find a few of them, instead of taking them, she decided to explore the place first.

Moments later, she reached the floor without any stairs going down. After moving around a little while, she finally knew which books she would prioritize first. She returned to the first shelf she inspected. When she was about to pull out a book titled 'History of Vehicle,' someone entered the room.

"Who are you?!" the woman exclaimed as she rushed towards Athena. "How did you get here??"

"Because you might not know me, I will have mercy on you this time," Athena said as she pulled out the book.

"Put back that book, or I shall report you for stealing!"

"Did you just say I'm stealing?" Athena asked as she fixed her eyes on the woman. With the book already in her hand, Athena approached her.

The woman looked terrified. She walked backward, trying to keep a safe distance from Athena. But then she bumped the chair, and Athena managed to corner her. Placing and holding the book on the woman's chest, Athena said, "I shall not tolerate your accusation."

The book's surface slowly transformed into a tree's skin from beneath Athena's hand. Two branches grew from the upper and lower part of the book. The upper branch went around the woman's head and covered her mouth, while the lower one twisted her like a snake. This lower one then crawled onto the table; it grew into the body of a tree. By the time the roots no longer popped up, plus the branches with leaves had touched the ceiling, the tree dragged the woman and lifted her. When she was already hanging in the air and facing the floor, the branch that twisted her body hardened like the other branches.

Feeling dizzy since the tree was still growing, Athena fell to her knee. To get up again, she had to hold onto a chair backrest. Her power might not have fully recovered, and she had not eaten for half a day. Remembering two sweet brown plates were inside the refrigerator, Athena returned to Dylan's room, completely ignoring the woman's muffled cry for help.