Chapter 20: I Want to Choose Him

[3rd POV]

The story that the Goddess of the Moon, Selene, willingly gave up her position is probably not true. Just like Helios, she was likely pressured and tricked by Zeus to give up her role.

These gods represent a region's most significant celestial body, and Zeus would never strip them of their position. 

Even though she took over the position of Goddess of Moon, Artemis still primarily focuses on hunting.

Selene, however, would continue to manage the Moon's movement in the world and serve as Artemis' assistant.

However, regardless of how things happened, it's already decided that Artemis and Aphrodite will replace Selene's position.

Artemis was solely focused on matters related to her divine authority, and it didn't matter who held the position of the King of Olympus.

She posed no threat to Zeus. As for Aphrodite, she was just a decorative figure. 

Ares thought Zeus placed her in this position just to get his hands on the most beautiful goddess.

After Aphrodite arrived, Zeus took the opportunity to introduce her to the other gods and stayed close to her in front of Hera.

One of his hands kept touching Aphrodite, taking advantage of her.

However, this didn't last long as other male gods, such as Poseidon and Apollo, also charmed by Aphrodite, approached her and began overwhelming her with attention. 

This quickly led to a conflict between them over this woman.

After seeing this, Ares quickly moved away from the chaos and stood beside Hecate, watching from a distance.

"Aren't you going to compete for her?"

Hecate, talking with her cousin Artemis, saw Ares avoiding the argument and curiously asked.

"The most beautiful woman in the world is right over there."

"She's also the most troublesome woman." 

Ares said, irritably glancing over at Aphrodite, "Artemis, why don't you pull your brother away? If he gets involved, Zeus and Poseidon will probably knock some sense into him."

"I can't control him." 

Artemis replied, looking at the "most handsome man in Olympus," holding a lyre and arguing loudly with Zeus and the others. 

She frowned and continued, "As soon as he saw Aphrodite, Apollo said that such beauty should belong to him and went right up to her. Even my mother and I couldn't stop him."

"Heh." 

Hecate suddenly chuckled softly, "Who do you think will end up with Aphrodite?"

"That's obvious." 

Artemis scoffed, rolling her eyes, "It's definitely going to be Zeus. He's been eyeing Aphrodite for so long."

"But Zeus has Hera watching him." 

Hecate said, glancing at Ares, "Your mother's being ignored, and you think you could step in and stop him?"

Ares nodded, "I'm not getting involved in this mess."

"Then, Ares, who do you think Zeus will choose to marry Aphrodite?" 

Artemis asked.

Ares shrugged, "Who knows? Maybe my brother will win the prize in the end."

"Hephaestus?" 

Artemis said, with confusion, "I mean no offense to him, but I don't think Aphrodite would like him."

"She might not like him, but as long as Zeus is happy, what does it matter if she likes him or not?" 

Ares said, crossing his arms and answering casually.

As they were talking, the several male gods surrounding Aphrodite ended their argument. 

Since they couldn't decide, Zeus proposed that they each display their best qualities in front of her and let her choose who she wanted to marry.

The gods agreed to this condition, so they all began preparing to showcase their "talents" in front of Aphrodite.

Poseidon went first and raised his trident, calling upon the vast sea and his majestic chariot. Then, he began boasting to Aphrodite about how amazing and powerful he was.

However, Aphrodite asked Poseidon with a smile, who was stronger between him and Zeus.

This question embarrassed Poseidon and quickly backed away, retreating in humiliation.

Next, Apollo and Zeus took their turns. As the most handsome god of Olympus and the dream lover of many goddesses, Apollo performed a passionate melody on his lyre in front of Aphrodite. 

Instead of seeing him as a man, Aphrodite merely watched him with an appreciative gaze, as if appreciating a close friend.

Finally, Zeus stepped forward to Aphrodite, kept it simple, and said, "I'm the King of the Gods."

This declaration was enough to catch Aphrodite's attention, and her gaze seemed to change.

However, when Aphrodite asked Zeus to marry her only if she could have the title of Queen of the Gods, Hera, who had been watching, couldn't take it anymore.

She summoned a thunderbolt from the sky, scaring Aphrodite away.

Zeus's expression darkened after his wife ruined his plans, but he couldn't get angry with Hera.

Then, Zeus decided to take out his anger on Aphrodite instead.

He ordered Aphrodite to choose a husband from the male gods present at the banquet with the condition that she couldn't pick any of the three main gods she had already rejected.

Now, Aphrodite was in a difficult situation. 

After putting aside the qualities of Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo, they were undeniably the three best candidates among the gods of Mount Olympus. 

Aphrodite didn't want to marry any lesser gods who didn't hold important positions, but now, aside from those three, the only other male gods left among the Twelve Olympians were Ares, Hades, and Hephaestus.

Hephaestus was talented, but unfortunately, his appearance was bad, and the prideful Aphrodite naturally didn't care for him. 

Hades, the God of the Underworld, was strong and powerful, and his looks were on par with Poseidon's, but being with him meant spending most of the time in the dark and empty Underworld which Aphrodite couldn't accept.

After some consideration, Aphrodite quickly decided to ignore all the other gods and walked toward Ares, standing next to Hecate.

"Hey, hey, hey, it looks like she noticed you!" 

Seeing this, Hecate pulled Artemis a little farther away from Ares while teasing him.

"It looks like she's interested."

"Stop with the jokes." 

Ares snapped, clearly annoyed, "It's because of the makeup that drew all the attention!"

While they were talking, the two goddesses, the Goddess of Magic and the Goddess of Moon had already moved away from him. 

Ares had planned to leave too but Zeus called out, "Ares, stay right there."

He reluctantly stopped in his tracks, turned around, and found the golden-haired, blue-eyed beauty standing right in front of him, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him.

"Zeus." 

Aphrodite called out, pointing at Ares, "I choose him."

"What?" 

Ares quickly responded, "You ugly woman, get away from me!"

To be continued...

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A/N: We still didn't reach it... but I'll release 3 chapter today... and please give me more powerstone...