Chapter 417: A Feast for the Eyes

Aiden followed at a leisurely pace, fully prepared to watch a good show.

Sure enough, by the time he slowly caught up to the "main force," the battle was already over.

The so-called "brave warriors"—every single last one of them—had been beaten black and blue. They were hogtied together in a long string and casually dumped in the clearing.

As for their "general," Hermes, he received special treatment. He was strung up upside down from a thick tree branch, swaying gently in the evening breeze. He hung his head in absolute defeat, looking exactly like a dried salted fish.

"I knew something like this would happen." Asfi stood with one hand on her hip, staring blankly at the tightly bound string of "warriors." Her tone was cold enough to freeze the surrounding air.

"Men... are they all idiots?" The Chienthrope, Lulune, crossed her arms, completely baffled and at a loss for words.

"A bunch of hopeless perverts," the Prum girl with the magic staff complained, her cheeks puffed out in anger.

"Is this... what men are?" Lante's worldview had clearly taken a catastrophic hit. She covered her face, looking as though her entire reality had crumbled. "Disillusioned... Every beautiful fantasy I had about men has been smashed to pieces..."

"By the way," Hyacine said, glancing around and blinking curiously. "Darling Aiden isn't in there, is he?"

That single sentence caused the surrounding temperature to drop by several more degrees.

"If he actually dared to come," Robin said, her beautiful lake-green eyes narrowing slightly as a dangerous smile played on her lips, "then we shouldn't hold back against him."

Aiden, perfectly concealed behind a large tree, felt a bead of cold sweat slide down his forehead.

Under no circumstances can I reveal myself.

He held his breath, controlling every muscle in his body to ensure he didn't make a single sound. Like a ghost, he silently backpedaled, preparing to detour and escape this danger zone from another direction.

"Aiden—! Charge! Step over our corpses and seize the final victory—!"

Right at that moment, Hermes, who was swinging from the tree like a pendulum, suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs with every ounce of strength he had left.

Aiden's body instantly froze. He cursed internally: You absolute bastard!

"No way, he actually came?!" Hyacine's eyes immediately lit up with the thrill of pure chaos. "Quick, quick, let's find him!"

A glimmer of distinct interest flashed through the eyes of Tifa, Firefly, and the others. Catching Aiden red-handed was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they weren't about to pass up.

A "search and capture" operation targeting Aiden commenced immediately.

Complaining bitterly in his head, Aiden relied on his far superior perception and agility to stealthily navigate past the meticulous search efforts of Firefly, Jeanne d'Arc, and the rest.

He leaned against a tree, letting out a long exhale, his heart still pounding in his chest. That was too close. He had almost been sold out by that treacherous god. If he had been caught and strung up from a tree as well, his lifelong reputation would be completely ruined.

Still reeling from the close call, Aiden suddenly realized that in his blind panic, he had gotten himself completely lost.

Relying on his instincts, he parted the bushes in front of him and stepped out of the woods. The sight before him instantly rooted him to the spot.

It was a shallow lake draped in moonlight, as tranquil as a hidden realm plucked straight from mythology. The water was crystal clear, its surface coated in a layer of shattered silver light.

And right in the center of the lake, a lone figure was bathing in the mercury-like moonlight cascading from above.

The moonlight poured down like liquid silver, coating her snow-white skin in a holy, hazy halo. Droplets of water slid down the elegant curve of her neck, tracing her delicate collarbones, trailing over her flat stomach and slender waist before finally slipping into the shimmering surface of the lake, rippling outward in expanding rings.

The moonlight served as her finest garment, gently draped over her smooth back, outlining an elegant and supple curve. Her silky blue hair drifted on the water like the finest satin, swaying gently with the gentle waves.

She turned her head slightly, the moonlight illuminating her flawless, holy profile. Her green eyes were closed, her eyelashes casting faint shadows in the silvery light. Her expression was serene and peaceful, as though she had merged with the moonlit lake itself, forming a breathtaking, suffocating scene that belonged only in the divine realm.

The night breeze drifted past, carrying the fresh scent of the forest and the cool chill of the water, making her reflection on the surface sway gently.

That figure was Artemis, bathing here all by herself.

Aiden's mind went completely blank. He even forgot how to breathe.

"Who's there?"

The figure seemed to sense his gaze and instantly grew alert. She instinctively shielded her chest with her arms, her sharp gaze piercing toward Aiden's location like a drawn sword.

The icy coldness in that gaze instantly snapped Aiden out of his reverie. He immediately threw his hands in the air and shut his eyes tight, his face burning with absolute embarrassment.

"Lady Artemis, if I said this was purely a misunderstanding, would you believe me?"

The air fell silent for a moment.

"I believe you." Unexpectedly, Artemis's voice was perfectly calm. "If you really intended to spy on me, I probably wouldn't have been able to detect you."

There wasn't a trace of anger in her words; instead, they carried the weight of logical deduction.

She stepped out of the water. Droplets rolled down her perfect curves, glittering like diamonds in the moonlight. Unhurried, she walked over to the pile of clothes on the shore and slipped on her form-fitting white underwear.

"You can open your eyes now."

Only upon receiving permission did Aiden slowly open his eyes to look at the Goddess of the Moon, now clad only in pure white undergarments. Her skin seemed to glow in the moonlight, her damp silver-blue hair clinging to her shoulders, and her expression remained incredibly tranquil.

"Would you mind telling me how exactly you ended up here?" Artemis narrowed her eyes, a playful smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

Holding nothing back, Aiden recounted the entire story—from Hermes's grand yet anticlimactic "holy war," to how the treacherous god had sold him out, and how he had panicked and fled blindly until he arrived here.

"I see. So you ended up here because you got lost." Artemis stood barefoot, her toes lightly treading the shallow water by the lake. The splashes scattered like crushed silver under the moonlight. "Your luck is truly quite good, isn't it?"

She added with a radiant smile, "If it were the old me, I would have shot you full of arrows regardless."

"My luck really is pretty good," Aiden muttered to himself.

This wasn't just because the Artemis standing before him had drastically changed and wouldn't attack him for seeing her naked. It was more because he had picked a random direction and had somehow stumbled upon her bathing alone.

To call this feast for the eyes anything less than absolute luck would be an insult to heaven itself.

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