The anger burning in Apollo's chest froze for a moment under Hermes's seemingly innocent rhetorical question.
He looked at the cunning yet sincere concern of the 'friend' before him, and the thread of honesty and pride in his heart was neatly plucked.
Yes, he hated deceit and despised trickery.
But it was undeniable that Hermes's move, however absurd the method, was indeed intended to help him escape the cold treatment from the Father God and regain his glory.
Such a heart brought a slight warmth to Apollo.
He might disagree with the method, but he couldn't completely deny this... friendship. This clumsy care.
The anger in his golden pupils subsided slightly, and the tense line of Apollo's jaw softened a little.
He took a deep breath, as if trying to expel the suffocation and helplessness.
Finally, with a slight helplessness and a hint of genuine emotion, he reached out and put his arm around Hermes's shoulder—not lightly, with a little punishing force, but also as a sign of reconciliation.
"You tricky guy..." Apollo's voice was low, but no longer cold.
"Don't do that again. Come on, let's try our 'hard-won' wine."
Hermes's eyes lit up, and a bright smile instantly appeared on his face, as if the tension just now had never happened.
He smiled and hooked Apollo back, and the two of them, arms around each other's shoulders and backs, as if returning to the days when they used to have fun together, headed towards Apollo's temple.
However, this newly restored, slightly awkward harmony did not last long.
As they walked along the starry path, the nymphs, low-level divine servants, and even a few gods passing by showed extremely strange expressions when they saw them.
At first, they saluted Apollo respectfully, and when their eyes touched his back, they instantly froze, as if they had seen an incredible sight, then quickly lowered their heads, their shoulders trembling slightly, suppressing smiles, and hurried away.
At first, Apollo didn't care, just thinking the gods were still discussing the events of the banquet.
But such glances became more and more frequent, like thorns in his back.
His golden brows furrowed again, and a sinister premonition arose in his mind.
"What... are they looking at?" Apollo couldn't help but ask Hermes quietly.
Hermes looked innocent and blinked: "Huh? Are they? They're probably still admiring you, the great hero who just calmed the God-King's thunder, right?"
Apollo didn't believe that.
He abruptly stopped, condensed a mirror of light with his divine power, and turned it on his back—
only to see that the back of his magnificent and elegant golden robe had been painted with an extremely bright, exaggerated, and funny pattern by invisible magical paint:
a figure of Hermes with his tongue sticking out and making a grimace, next to a crooked line of small words shimmering with light: "Apollo's Exclusive Sidekick!"
The pattern was vividly colored, and Hermes's funny expression jumped on the 'clothing', contrasting horribly with Apollo's usual noble and beautiful image!
In an instant, all the feelings, all the reconciliation, all the helplessness were washed away by this huge sense of humiliation!
Apollo only felt a surge of blood rushing to his head, and his handsome face instantly turned red, even brighter than the sunset in the sky.
"Her-mes!!!"
A roar, filled with infinite anger and shame, shook the surrounding clouds, nearly dispersing them.
Apollo spun around sharply, golden light flashing in his hand, and even the lyre was used as a throwing weapon, hurling it at Hermes, who had already slipped a few steps away.
Hermes, as if expecting this, laughed and leaped out like the wind, deftly dodging the flying lyre.
He turned back while running, looking at Apollo, who was practically steaming with rage and frantically chasing him, his face full of the joy of a successful prank, and shouted:
"How about it now, my dear Apollo! Still feeling uncomfortable about those 'credits that aren't yours'?! Hahaha——!"
His laughter echoed along the winding paths of Olympus, full of mischief and energy.
And behind him was Apollo, chasing like a golden meteor, vowing to catch this bastard and beat him severely.
At this moment, the Father God's praise, the eyes of the gods, and the false glory were all thrown out of the clouds.
All that was left in his mind was the most primitive and pure thought—to catch this damned liar and graffiti artist before him and make him taste the wrath of the God of Light!
A new chase, a new farce, was once again playing out on the sacred mountain.
When Helios had crossed the sky twice, the chase finally ended, and Hermes's face was already covered with several noticeable bruises.
He smiled, rubbed his sore shoulders, and sat down with Apollo on a terrace by Apollo's temple.
Hermes carefully used his divine power to soothe the bruises on his face, muttering discontentedly: "Hiss... You're too ruthless, Apollo! It was just a joke, using force like crushing rocks?"
His aggrieved look was as if the one who had just left a 'masterpiece' on Apollo's back wasn't him, making Apollo want to hit him again.
Apollo snorted coldly, elegantly poured himself a glass of amber divine wine, his golden eyes squinting at Hermes, and warned: "This is just a small punishment. Hermes, remember, if you use these stupid pranks on me again, next time I'll let you experience my arrows firsthand."
His tone was calm, but carried undeniable seriousness.
Hermes pouted, but in the end, he didn't argue anymore. He took the wine jug and poured himself a large glass.
The pure and mellow aroma of the wine spread, temporarily soothing the pain and grievance.
He raised his head and took a sip, feeling the warmth and comfort brought by the divine wine. The depression of being beaten seemed to ease a little with the wine, and his mood gradually cleared.
However, just as he put down the wine glass and was about to exchange a few more words with Apollo, enjoying the peace after the 'no fight, no connection'—
"Ah-choo!"
Suddenly, a loud sneeze erupted from his mouth without warning, interrupting his thoughts.
Hermes was stunned and rubbed his nose, a little confused.
He didn't feel any discomfort; the sneeze came too abruptly.
Immediately after—
"Ah-choo! Ah—choo!!"
Two violent sneezes in a row brought tears to his eyes, and the wine glass in his hand nearly flew out.
The trickster god instantly realized something. He suddenly looked up and looked at Apollo, who was slowly sipping wine from the opposite side, in disbelief.
He noticed that the corner of the light god's mouth was uncontrollably lifting.
"You...!" Hermes pointed at Apollo, his voice slightly distorted by surprise and the stinging in his nose.
"When did you...?!" He couldn't believe when Apollo, always known for his honesty, had learned this way to trip him up behind his back?
Was the ink really black, and had he been 'contaminated' by himself to this extent?
"Hahahahaha——!"
Looking at Hermes's shocked expression, as if he had seen a ghost, Apollo couldn't help but burst into a roar of laughter, echoing under the quiet night sky, full of vengeful pleasure.
He laughed for a while, then barely stopped under Hermes's accusatory gaze, and slowly revealed the answer with a smiling voice:
"At the banquet... how was the taste of the leftover divine wine? My dear, 'exclusive sidekick'?"
It turned out that Apollo had already poured all the leftover divine wine that Hermes had mixed with Hecate's potion at the banquet into the wine jug in Hermes's hands.
Use the other's own methods to control their body!
Hermes opened his mouth and looked at the wine glass in his hand that had just made him so happy—his expression was extremely complex: shocked, helpless, but in the end, it all turned into an absurd feeling that he could neither laugh nor cry.
He had calculated everything, but hadn't expected that Apollo, who was always straightforward, had learned such clever countermeasures.
"Ah-choo!!"
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