Chapter 208: Rejected by the Goddess Again

If Metis is the most authoritative god in the Kingdom of Athens, even if Metis is not the only god in the Kingdom of Athens, Roy should treat Metis with caution.

But in fact, in the Kingdom of Athens, which is composed of the Attica Peninsula, the Thebes region, the island of Eubia, and the Corinth region, Metis is not only not the only god, but also a new god who has only been the patron god for more than two months. Her authority is far less than that of the ancient Mnemosyne and Amphitrite.

So in the contest between royal power and divine power, Roy has an overwhelming advantage.

If Metis is the only god in the Kingdom of Athens and has an ancient and powerful authority, the contest between royal power and divine power may be unpredictable.

At this time, Roy finally deeply understood why in the history of another world, only in the European continent, which practices monotheism, has the situation of divine power overwhelmed royal power.

For example, if we regard the kingship as the king and the divine power as the queen, monotheism is equivalent to the king having only one queen, and polytheism is equivalent to the king having multiple queens.

When the king and the queen fight for power, because the king has only one queen, the only target for the queen to fight for power is the king.

The king has multiple queens, and the queen wants to fight for power. She must first defeat other queens before she can fight for power with the king.

When the queens fight for power, in order to gain the support of the king, the queens all have to try their best to gain the king's favor.

In the history of another world, theocracy did not overwhelm the kingship in the era of polytheism in the European continent. Instead, theocracy has always flattered the powerful king and regarded the king as the son of God.

In the European continent ruled by monotheism, there is no king being regarded as the son of God.

Because he has the confidence to fight against Metis, Roy said frankly.

"I am not a dog who will only take the blame if I refuse. If you reject my confession, I will definitely be dissatisfied with you, so are you going to deprive me of my priesthood?"

"The greatest power you have now is the power of the king! I can deprive you of your priesthood of Metis, but I cannot abolish your identity and power as a king. What is the point of depriving you of your priesthood?"

Metis said with a serious face.

"As a new god, I now finally understand why those gods who become patron gods must kill other gods. Zeus and Poseidon are even willing to bear the infamy of being ungrateful and drive Hestia out of the Argos region. You dare to treat me like this now because I am not the only god in the Kingdom of Athens. You can replace me with other gods at any time."

Roy said with a smile.

"Metis! Now that you know the problem, what are you going to do next?"

"I can wait!"

Metis said with a confident smile.

"Now I am just a new god without enough authority, but I can accumulate authority over hundreds or thousands of years, and swallow or expel other gods in a long time. Mnemosyne and Amphitrite were not the only gods in the Thebes and Corinth regions at first. They also swallowed other gods over thousands of years. What they can do, I can do too."

"Metis..."

Roy couldn't help but said to Metis.

"Why don't you consider accepting my confession? As long as you become my wife and let me share eternal life and divine power, I will worship you as the supreme god of the Kingdom of Athens."

"Since I have another choice, why should I surrender to a human, give birth to children for you like a human woman, and let you share my eternal life and divine power? I don't want to be the object of ridicule and humiliation by other gods. You should pursue other goddesses and see if they will accept a human man as their husband."

Metis sneered and said, her body turned back into the statue of Metis.

Rejected by Metis again, Roy smiled bitterly and said.

"Should I threaten Metis that if she doesn't accept to marry me, I will drive her off the throne of the patron saint?"

There are only two results if this is said.

Either Metis surrenders to Roy and accepts to marry him.

Or Metis is unwilling to surrender, and Roy and Metis become enemies. The Kingdom of Athens will lose a patron saint, and Roy will also lose the blessing and power given by Metis.

Thinking of Metis's life-saving grace to him, and thinking that he relied on the blessing and power given by Metis to gain a firm foothold in this world step by step, Roy finally did not want to do something ungrateful.

The Palace of Athens.

The hall where the throne is.

When Roy, Procne, Philomela, and Khione were eating dinner around a table, Khione took the initiative to say to Roy.

"My dear! Today, the number of merchant ships coming to Piraeus for trade has almost doubled. I asked the ship owners and learned that the merchant ships passing through the Sea of ​​​​Sira between the southern Peloponnese and Crete were charged one-tenth of the cargo as tolls by the navy of the city of Donia."

Poof--

Hearing what Chione said, Roy directly sprayed a mouthful of wine on the face of Philomela who was sitting opposite.

Philomela not only didn't mind, but also licked the wine near her lips.

Roy didn't care about Philomela's reaction, and said to Chione with wide eyes.

"Donia collects a toll of 10% from merchant ships. They are collecting taxes in the name of tolls! The commercial tax in Knossos is 10% and with this 10% toll, those merchant ships will lose 15% of their goods just by paying taxes."

"It is because Donia collects a toll of 10% that those merchant ships come to Athens to trade in order to avoid losses."

Now Athens has no commercial tax. For those merchant ships that are charged a 10% toll by Donia, as long as they do not want to be further taxed by Knossos, the best choice is to come to Athens to trade.

On the surface, Donia's approach will encourage more merchant ships to come to Athens.

But Roy did not intend to make Athens tax-free forever.

"Now Donia collects a 10% toll from merchant ships. How can Athens collect taxes in the future? As long as Athens starts collecting taxes, merchant ships will go to other tax-free ports to trade in order to avoid losses."

Chione nodded and said.

"When collecting tolls, the navy of Donia City also told those merchant ships that as long as they paid the tolls, they could trade tax-free at the port of Donia City. It seems that Donia City, like us, wants to develop into a trade hub."

"Although Donia City's approach seems to be beneficial to us on the surface, Donia City is also using the collected tolls to grow rapidly and become a threat to compete with us for hegemony."

Roy said with a serious face.

"It seems that I have to negotiate with the king of Donia City, Pandora's brother Radamanthys, to let him give up his ambition."

Thanks to the book friend Chenxi Yuhan for the reward of 500 points.

I really thank all the book friends for their continued support.