Child of Hades

32. The Emperor's New Clothes (Lié)

With every passing minute, I realized more and more that I did not think this through. Help the kids? I couldn't even help myself. 

Being back in the Hubris all by myself gave me a sense of security. A familiar place and the familiar company of no one but myself. Hibiscus would help me relax. 

Hades' business relationships were many. Most interactions were routinely performed by obedient worshipers. I had to read through dozens of summaries to make sure everyone was acting according to my interests. What interests? As long as my empire remained unchallenged and untouched, my will was done. After just a few hours of being Hades, I was exhausted and perplexed. In theory, I had always known that many people were acting in their own interest even if it meant double-crossing powerful people. But it was different now that I had to actually deal with those people in some way. Was I just supposed to kill them all or should there be some kind of leniency? And how was I supposed to come up with guidelines on who to kill and who not? Every rival Hades had was an ally and every ally was plotting to kill me. The biggest part of my empire was made up of subsidiary enterprises, all of which were given information they needed so they could work for me. But the more they communicated with each other, the more they'd grow to become something that could potentially hurt my empire. There wasn't a single person that I could trust with any of it. Even Hades dies, a lesson I learned recently.

I demoted Ribbit so he would work in safer locations in the future. I could hear him rant through his techdevice when he thought I wasn't listening, but he never dared to question the wisdom of Hades.

By midnight, I would attend the ceremony at Nyx's temple using the avatar that Hades had used when we first met.

When I first arrived I felt like an imposter. I spat out a few verses from Nyx's scriptures and the other attendants looked at me with big eyes. "Praise Hades.", they greeted me. I was surprised they did not see right through me. The more I spoke the more I felt like they were going to find out. I would misspeak and say something incriminating and then they would know, I wasn't the real Hades. Some time passed, but the horrified look that I was expecting to come with the realization that I wasn't Hades did not sneak on anyone's face. The darkness of Nyx's temple hid much. It hid my expressions, the ones I didn't want anyone to see. It seemed the greatest mercy I had ever experienced.

The ceremony ended and the crowd of my followers embraced me in the same way that they had embraced the man I used to think of as my father. I felt relieved, but also for the first time in a long time, I felt proud. I had established an identity that I could keep playing and that was essential for doing what I wanted to do.