On a terrace on Mount Olympus, Apollo was irritably tugging at his golden hair, complaining to the guy beside him who always wore a mischievous grin:
"It's all your fault! Hermes! The Father God scolded me again! He said my recent oracles have been delivered backwards, and the sacrificial hymns were mixed with strange notes... It must be some trick you pulled behind my back, influencing my priests!"
Hermes leaned against a pillar of the terrace, playing with the double serpent staff in his hand. Hearing this, he not only felt not the slightest guilt but also smiled:
"Oh, my dear Apollo, how can you blame me for that? Perhaps the mortals themselves misinterpreted the divine will, or maybe they drank too much honeyed wine and sang off-key?"
His smug look ignited Apollo's anger, which he had nowhere to vent.
His handsome face instantly darkened, and he looked at Hermes's smiling face, only feeling his fist itch intensely.
The next second, without warning, Apollo suddenly threw a punch, powerfully hitting Hermes right in the eye!
"Ouch!" Hermes was caught off guard, cried out in pain, covered his eye, which immediately began to bruise, and staggered back two steps.
Hermes stopped laughing; Apollo laughed instead.
"Apollo! Are you serious?!"
Looking at Hermes's instantly swollen eye and his funny expression of pain, Apollo's heart finally felt a little relieved.
He shook his wrist, a satisfied smile appearing on his face: "Hmph, much more comfortable now. You can smile all day, completely unguarded!"
However, Apollo's smile didn't last long.
He knew Hermes too well.
He saw the beaten trickster god, although covering his eye, the other open eye was rapidly darting back and forth.
Apollo's alarm bells instantly rang—this guy was clearly thinking about how to retaliate!
To avoid the predicament of all his strings turning into snakes in the coming days, or suddenly finding himself dancing a burlesque in front of a goddess, Apollo immediately decided to change the subject preemptively.
He suppressed his smile and cleared his throat:
"Ahem... Don't think about bad ideas! Tell me," Apollo stepped forward, lowering his voice, with a hint of curiosity and scrutiny.
"What 'good deeds' have you been up to behind my back lately? Don't think I don't know; you wouldn't be just loafing around!"
When Hermes heard this, his good eye blinked, and a 'you finally get the idea' expression flashed across his face.
He lowered his hand from his eye, the dark circle standing out on his handsome face, but he seemed not to care and returned to his cheap expression.
"Hey," he rubbed his eye.
"Speaking of which... Isn't this your blessing? Remember our first meeting?"
Apollo was stunned, his thoughts returning to the recent past.
At that time, his sister Artemis and Catia from Hades, for some reason, were getting closer and often met in secret.
Out of concern for his sister, Apollo often followed from a distance to make sure everything was alright.
Coincidentally, Hermes also appeared in the tracking team at that time.
However, his motives differed from Apollo's; his second sister, Athena, had secretly instructed him to 'monitor Catia's safety within Olympus's sphere of influence'.
The goddess of strategy seemed particularly wary of Artemis!
So, at the edge of a forest at dusk, Hermes, clearly superior in tracking techniques, was the first to detect Apollo, who was also sneaking around.
He found this scene very interesting and was about to quietly tease the god of light, but Apollo's perception was very sharp.
Apollo sensed something was wrong, thinking it was someone with ill intentions, and without a second thought, instinctively to protect his sister, he instantly notched an arrow and shot blindly in the suspicious direction!
The arrow, filled with divine power, whistled past Hermes's scalp and nailed itself into a tree trunk behind him, the arrow shaft vibrating violently.
Hermes broke out in a cold sweat and got angry.
"Apollo! Have you lost your mind?!" Hermes jumped out of hiding and shouted angrily.
Apollo also clearly saw it was him and was even angrier: "Hermes? What are you trying to do sneaking around here?!" He decided Hermes had bad intentions.
They couldn't agree and immediately started fighting.
In a frontal fight, Hermes was naturally no match for Apollo, and often ended up pinned down and rubbed in the dirt.
But why is Hermes so cunning?
He soon realized that if he deliberately didn't resist with all his might, he could take a few punches, and then exaggerated cries and screams would make a big enough scene...
And indeed, every time they fought, they quickly attracted the two heroines they were following—Artemis and Catia.
The scene the two goddesses saw was always the same: Apollo threateningly 'bullying' Hermes, who looked pitiful and helpless.
Artemis, naturally, favored the seemingly 'weak' Hermes and scolded Apollo for his reckless impulsiveness.
Although Catia was silent, her eyes clearly showed sympathy for Hermes and disapproval of Apollo.
As a result, Apollo often had to swallow his anger and get lectured by the two sisters, while Hermes was comforted with soft words and sometimes even received a little 'appeasement gift' from Catia.
After a few times, Apollo was simply bitter and beyond words.
And Hermes, although beaten, seemed to enjoy it.
However, it was precisely through this strange 'no fight, no connection' that these two gods, with very different personalities and almost no overlapping priesthoods, gradually became accustomed to each other.
Apollo discovered the quick-wittedness and fun hidden beneath Hermes's slippery exterior, and also saw Hermes's true character and Apollo's own foolishness alongside his pride.
They began to 'cause trouble' together on Olympus and in the mortal world—one openly, the other after the fact (or exacerbating the trouble) in cunning ways—yet they formed a strange silent understanding and friendship.
However, in the eyes of Artemis and Catia, regardless of the facts, they all agreed that it was Hermes, 'full of bad ideas', who had completely 'corrupted' Apollo, who was originally proud but still 'straightforward'.
"...So," Hermes finished recounting their 'first meeting' in a lively voice, pointing to his eye, which was still a little sore.
"See, our deep friendship is built on your arrows and my 'sacrifice'! That punch of yours just now was just payback!"
Apollo listened to his absurdity and couldn't help but want to hit his other eye, but thinking of the endless consequences that might follow, he still restrained himself.
He asked angrily: "Less nonsense! Get to the point! What have you been up to lately?"
Hermes smiled mysteriously, leaned close to Apollo's ear, and lowered his voice: "I recently discovered a fun place... It's related to the secret room where your Father God stores his wine... Want to add a special 'flavor' to the Father God's 'treasure'?"
Apollo's eyes instantly lit up, momentarily forgetting his frustration from the scolding and the dark circles under the eyes before him.
Trouble? Especially concerning the Father God? He was very interested in this!
The two troublesome gods shoulder to shoulder (ignoring Hermes's restless hand drawing patterns on Apollo's back), their figures disappeared into the corner of the terrace.
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