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

CHAPTER 23

POINT OF VIEW: DYLAN

Monday, October 24, 2028, around 05.00 P.M

Dylan was scanning through the list of transactions on his shift and matching them with the cash he received as a cashier, when he was suddenly distracted by multiple message notifications coming at the same time. If there were pauses between the notifications, then he usually ignored them. But since they came in sequence, Dylan decided to stop and see whether they were all crucial.

The sender of the messages turned out to be Hephaestus. In short, he notified Dylan that Voulos had finally returned, and indeed Talaria was in William's possession. Surprised with the fact, Dylan replied that he would visit Hephaestus after he had finished the job for the day.

After roughly an hour, Dylan finally arrived at the Fixed My PC store. The hour was 18.35, so Hephaestus had already set the board 'Fix My PC Has Closed' on the entrance. Dylan peeked through the glass door, and realized Hephaestus was standing with his back to Dylan. He seemed to be busy checking the computer mouses, hence Dylan softly knocked the door.

"Come in!" Hephaestus' muffled voice was heard after he noticed Dylan standing outside the store.

"Okay," Dylan replied, before he pushed open the door. "Are you still busy?" he asked as he walked towards Hephaestus.

"No actually," Hephaestus said. "I actually have scheduled this job for tomorrow. But since I'm waiting for you, then I decided to just do it now."

"I see," Dylan nodded. "So ... It is confirmed then that William has Talaria."

"Yes. "Voulos found the shoe in William's display room. He was convinced it was the real one because one of the shoes had lost its wing."

"Match the severed wing object you picked up earlier," Dylan said. "Did Voulos find Hermes?"

"Unfortunately, no," Hephaestus looked disappointed. "But when Voulos was still investigating, he overheard one of William's bodyguards say 'More has appeared' to his friend."

"More has appeared?" What does it mean?"

"I can't conclude anything because there was no more conversation after the sentence 'More has appeared'. But I am pretty convinced that 'More' can refer to anything that clearly is something unusual, at least in this present world."

"Anything that is unusual ... ," Dylan paused. "Do you mean it can refer to any other gods or magical objects like this Talaria?"

"Yes, they could be," Hephaestus said. "We really need to let Athena know about this."

"I agree."

"I will spruce up everything now," Hephaestus said. He then locked the mouse shelf and went into the staff room to do some other stuff. Ten minutes later, Dylan and Hephaestus were already on their way to the LRT station.

*****

Leaning against the train seat backrest, Hephaestus sighed a breath of relief. Stretching up both of his hands, he said, "Finally a proper place for myself to rest."

"You couldn't possibly be exhausted, could you?"

"Nope," Hephaestus shook his head. "I am just relieved after passing through the sea of people earlier. Even after two months being here, I still cannot get used to this situation. You know, even big cities like Thebes and Athens could not even be compared to Carlasco City. So well, I am still not that comfortable squeezing myself in this crowd."

Dylan nodded a few times. "Anyway ... Where have you lived these past two months?"

"I have rented an apartment two stations away from the store. But in the first two weeks after I got out, my boss allowed me to stay at his unused flat."