[Greek Mythology] The Lady Archon

[Release announcement: After discussing it with my editor, this story is expected to go premium on November 24, 2022. I hope all you lovely ladies will support me! Many thanks to the lovely designer A-Song for making the cover! It’s so beautiful, I’m sobbing my heart out!!!]

---A hymn to humanity.

Princess Macaria of Athens has a secret: a wondrous thing called the System often follows her around, making her do all sorts of strange things, like build a city-state.

Forced to leave her comfortable homeland and come to this vast, uninhabited new land, Macaria fell silent for a while.

[This city-state, blessed by the gods, shall be named Olympia!]

[People are beginning to like you.]

[You’re invited to all the social gatherings.]

...Forget it. I’d better just focus on building the place.

On the first day of construction, Dionysus, god of wine, descended and tempted Macaria to build a temple in his honor.

Macaria appeared to obey, but was actually thinking that all the god of wine could bring the city-state was wine and merriment. He’d be a complete burden.

A year into construction, Apollo, god of light, descended and tempted Macaria to build a temple in his honor.

By then, Olympia was thriving. Looking at the steady stream of new residents moving in, Macaria was in such a good mood that she casually agreed, then immediately planned to build a temple to Hades.

After all, the god of wealth and the three-headed hound of the underworld were obviously more useful.

One late night, while Macaria was working overtime, reviewing documents and doing her best to build Olympia, the god of wine suddenly appeared and gave her a terrible fright.

The god of wine was furious. “Why don’t you worship me? You promised you would!”

Macaria: “...I’m sorry, Lord Dionysus. We don’t have enough marble or statues...”

The god of wine flew into a rage. “Liar! You just finished building Athena’s temple this morning!”

Macaria: “That’s because the war god Ares attacked last time, and Lady Athena happened to be passing by and drove him away...”

The god of wine: “But I can bring you wine and joy!”

Macaria: “...”

She thought of the god of wine’s followers, who went berserk whenever they got drunk, and felt conflicted.

The god of light, who had come to scold her that morning and was eavesdropping behind a pillar: “This is hilarious.”

Meanwhile, the goddess of love and beauty, who had long since become best friends with the young magistrate and didn’t want her name revealed, openly stepped past Apollo, shoved Dionysus aside, and threw herself into the magistrate’s arms.

The goddess of beauty: “Darling, let’s sleep together tonight!”

Macaria: “Sure.”

The god of wine/god of light: “No way!!!”

The goddess of wisdom, who arrived a moment too late: “...What’s going on?”

Later, Macaria would win over this bunch of lofty gods, teaching them to respect humanity while joining forces with them to challenge authority.

At the very top of the hierarchy stood the supreme god.

And she would make him bow to her, as a human being.

Notes:

1. The female protagonist’s CP is Dionysus, god of wine.

2. The story is told mainly from the human perspective. It’s set in a lightly fictionalized version of ancient Greece. The System appears, but isn’t very prominent.

3. Includes women showing affection and supporting one another.

4. Inspired by the author’s recent obsession with the Greek mythology game Zeus: Master of Olympus. The early part focuses on strategy and simulation, while the later part focuses on the story.

Theme: Whether weak or not, a strong desire to protect will ultimately overcome everything.