Chapter 14 | When an Over-Achiever Transmigrated as the Goddess of Sloth

Aergia wondered if she had misheard.

She had only just completed the ascension of the godhead of Rest, the divine power surging within her body had not yet fully settled, and she had not even had time to carefully examine the changes brought by her advancement to Second-Rank Divine Power before the God of Death before her suddenly threw out an invitation completely beyond her expectations.

Leave the Temple of Sleep and become Thanatos's subordinate deity?

Aergia subconsciously glanced at the young God of Death, trying to find a trace of a joke on that slightly youthful face.

Unfortunately, he was clearly deadly serious.

Residue of his earlier surprise and excitement lingered in his ash-blue eyes as he stared intently at her, as if he were already considering what work to assign his new subordinate deity.

No, wait...

Did Hypnos know about this?

Aergia suddenly felt a bit of a headache coming on.

In terms of rule compatibility, Thanatos's invitation was not actually baseless.

Her godhead of Rest, which she had just elevated, indeed shared an extremely close connection with death.

Although this divine portfolio could not decide when a life ended, it could fill in the spiritual rules surrounding the arrival of death that had remained unperfected.

If Sleep Induction was the path leading from wakefulness to sleep, then Rest was the process that allowed a soul to peacefully accept its end when life reached its conclusion.

Looking at it solely from this perspective, the domain of death indeed seemed more suitable for her continued research.

The problem was that she was currently Hypnos's subordinate deity.

It was Nyx herself who had originally settled her in the Temple of Sleep, and Hypnos had not only granted her protection but also allowed her to access the rules of the sleep domain, even if they were merely scraps.

Strictly speaking, the fact that she could reach where she was today in such a short time was inextricably linked to that God of Sleep, who lay upon his obsidian couch all day.

And now, look at this.

She had merely stepped out once to fulfill her divine portfolio and accompanied Thanatos to reap a single soul, yet this younger brother was already planning to poach his elder brother's subordinate deity directly.

What was this?

A talent poaching war between gods?

Aergia sighed inwardly, trying her best to maintain her composure on the surface.

“Lord Thanatos, I am deeply honored by your invitation. However, I am still Lord Hypnos’s subordinate deity, after all. Shouldn’t we seek his opinion first?”

Upon hearing this, Thanatos’s originally enthusiastic expression suddenly turned somewhat subtle, before settling into a look of realization.

“You don’t need to worry about your father god. I’ll speak to him.”

“...”

Aergia froze.

Father god?

Her father god?

Aether?

When had Thanatos met Aether?

And what did this matter have to do with Aether anyway?

Countless thoughts flashed rapidly through Aergia’s mind as she tried to piece together a reasonable explanation from this baffling remark.

Yet no matter how she pondered, she could not understand why her transfer from the Temple of Sleep to the Temple of Death would require disturbing the God of the Upper Sky, who resided far above in the high heavens.

Thanatos, however, did not notice the confusion in her eyes.

In his view, since they had already reached this point, he might as well lay out his plans clearly once and for all.

“There really isn’t much point in you staying with Hypnos anymore,” he said, crossing his arms with quite a serious expression. “The authority over sleep that guy holds is already near complete. Finding a new rule like Sleep Induction was extremely rare as it is. But what about after this? The domain of sleep is only so large, after all. How could the remaining blank spots be so easy to find?”

Aergia did not refute him right away.

Though these words were a bit absolute, they were not entirely without merit.

Hypnos’s authority over sleep was indeed very complete. Being able to find a gap in the rules like Sleep Induction within it had a considerable element of coincidence in itself.

As her understanding of sleep continued to deepen, attempting to discover another blank spot of similar scale would undoubtedly become harder and harder.

However, understanding was one thing.

If Hypnos were to hear these words...

Aergia silently broke into a cold sweat on behalf of the young God of Death before her.

Thanatos continued.

“Death is different.”

When mentioning his own domain, his spirits visibly lifted, and the pair of dark wings behind his back gently unfolded.

“Life will eventually reach its end, and death is a rule that the entire world of Chaos cannot avoid. But death isn’t just as simple as harvesting souls at the very end—there are plenty of troubles in it that even I am too lazy to deal with carefully.”

As he spoke to this point, he seemed to remember those lost souls in the Underworld who wailed relentlessly all day long, and his expression instantly turned somewhat unsightly.

“For instance, those fellows who keep making noise even after dying, or that Wood Nymph just now. Their life has clearly ended, yet they stubbornly refuse to let go. Every time I run into something like that, it wastes a lot of my time.”

Aergia could not help but remind him, “Lord Thanatos, Aetali merely couldn’t bear to part with the ancient pine that was born alongside her.”

“I know,” Thanatos waved his hand impatiently. “That’s precisely why I said your Rest is very useful.”

He paused, his expression growing serious once more.

“If you are willing to become my subordinate deity, I can grant you a portion of the authority over death. From now on, you can patrol the earth with me, taking charge of calming those troublesome souls while casually researching whether there’s anything else that can be completed.”

By the end of his words, he seemed to already envision his easy and relaxed future life.

With Aergia handling those troublesome souls, he would only need to arrive on time according to the guidance of death, complete the reaping, and hand over all remaining matters to his subordinate deity.

Perfect.

That way, he might even be able to occasionally find a quiet place to take a good rest, just like Hypnos.

Thanatos was extremely satisfied with his arrangement.

“How about it? Surely this has a much better future than staying in the Temple of Sleep all day, right?”

Although Thanatos appeared youthful on the outside, he was an established deity who had been born a long time ago, possessing keen insight. He had long since sensed from this goddess’s various actions her ambition that refused to settle for mediocrity.

Far from disliking Aergia’s ambition, Thanatos actually greatly admired it—not to mention that she was his niece, leaving even less room for complaint.

Aergia did not answer.

Because she had finally seized upon a crucial key that she had previously overlooked amidst Thanatos’s seemingly reasonable yet thoroughly strange words.

Father god...

Hypnos...

And that inexplicable elder-like concern this God of Death had displayed ever since their very first meeting.

An almost absurd guess gradually emerged in her mind.

No way...

Aergia slowly raised her head.

“Lord Thanatos.”

“What is it?”

“The father god you just mentioned... which one were you referring to?”

The young God of Death shot her a rather strange look.

“Hypnos, of course. Do you have another father god?”

“...”

Aergia finally understood.

No wonder.

No wonder when this God of Death had met her for the first time and heard her state her divine name, he had suddenly looked at her with such a loving expression.

No wonder that although he had complained about trouble all along the way, he had always unconsciously slowed his pace, and even voluntarily made her stand behind him whenever danger arose.

It turned out that in his understanding, she was not some lesser deity of the Temple of Sleep at all.

She was the daughter Hypnos had secretly fathered with who-knew-whom!

For a moment, Aergia did not even know what to say.

Looking at this God of Death before her—who looked no older than a teenager yet had already naturally stepped into the role of an uncle—she suddenly somewhat understood why Hypnos had specially reminded her back then that his twin brother had quite a bad temper.

Whether his temper was bad or not aside...

His imagination was truly astonishing.

“My Lord,” Aergia took a deep breath. “I think you have misunderstood something.”

Thanatos frowned slightly.

“What?”

“Lord Hypnos is not my father god.”

The grove fell silent for a moment.

The expression on Thanatos’s face froze bit by bit.

“What did you say?”

“I said that Lord Hypnos is my master deity, not my father god,” Aergia strove to keep her voice steady. “My father god is Aether, the God of the Upper Sky, and I possess the bloodline of the Night lineage. It was the Goddess of the Night, Nyx, who personally entrusted me to Lord Hypnos.”

She did not go on to explain who her mother was.

Matters regarding Gaia were her most unrevealable secret at present. Even if Thanatos also belonged to the Night lineage, and judging from their interaction so far, possessed no malice, she still would not lower her guard because of that.

Thanatos had no mind to care who Aergia’s mother was either; at this moment, his mind was entirely blown away by the hilarious misunderstanding he had created himself.

Aergia was the daughter of Aether.

Nyx had personally entrusted her.

Hypnos was merely her master deity.

So...

His entire set of deductions earlier had actually been wrong from the very start?

The young God of Death fell silent for a long time.

A faint flush slowly spread from the tips of his ears.

Aergia looked at his expression and thoughtfully refrained from speaking further.

Only after a long while did Thanatos abruptly turn his head away, saying in a stiff voice, “I didn’t say anything just now.”

Aergia nearly failed to hold back a smile.

This ancient deity who held authority over death actually had such a childish side to him.

Beside them, Nephele suddenly gave a soft snort.