Ultimately, Alex and Hermes decided to follow the guard.

The guard walked at a brisk pace, thus they swiftly followed too.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Alex didn't think they'd have any trouble defending themselves, but he had to ask anyway.

The guard sternly replied, "I cannot disclose that information, sir."

'Strange.'

'Kids, don't be like me and don't follow strangers to 'places they cannot disclose'.' Alex sarcastically remarked to himself.

They navigated through the streets of Kabura and there were quite a few Olympian temples along the way.

However, almost every temple was destroyed, and there was even one dedicated to Hermes, though the statue of Hermes itself was also beheaded.

Yet, one of these aforementioned templed dedicated itself to Aphrodite.

'She's....entirely intact..' Unlike the other temples, both the statue and the temple of Aphrodite stood gloriously...

"These Bactrians must be very h*rny..." Hermes chuckled cynically when he saw the state of Aphrodite's temple.

Soon enough, the guard asked them to enter a narrow alley, and they obliged.

The alley was dim and the guard lit a torch, even though he didn't know both Alex and Hermes could see perfectly.

At the opposite end of the alley, a staircase led underground.

It looked quite eerie, and obviously not somewhere people should enter with a stranger, but being deities gave Hermes and Alex unbound confidence.

They climbed down the staircase until they were quite deep and a metal door stood before them.

The guard aggressively knocked on the metal door and loudly proclaimed, "This is Abtum, Open!"

Shortly, the metal gate slowly opened and creaked like a pair of gears that needed to be oiled.

A guard nodded to 'Abtum' and led them in.

They were now in a spacious hall. Luxurious ornaments decorated the walls of the hall, but it looked like it was a rushed job, as some of the paintings weren't hung well, and the entire hall looked chaotic.

There were other armed guards here, and they surrounded a small palanquin.

Inside the palanquin, the woman from earlier was sat.

She was fidgeting with her hand on her knees, and she nervously looked around.

When she saw Hermes, she ran up to him and bowed, "Lord Hermes!"

"You are....?"

"Queen Nephis, Regent of Bactria, I humbly introduce myself."

"Why does a person of your stature live underground?" Alex boldly asked, only to gasp as he saw Nephis punch the floor.

"I...apologize, I have a lot in mind." She then brought them some chairs and invited them to sit.

"Nephis, why have you invited us here?" Hermes inquired.

The queen bit her lips until they were devoid of color and said, "I...was rash. I'm occupying the time of a Lord of your stature because I wished for you to resolve issues of mortals."

Surprisingly, she spoke Koine Greek.

"It's alright. We saw the ruined temples, I don't think that's acceptable," Alex waved his hand.

Hermes then asked, "What is the matter with this place? Why is the population so agitated?"

Nephis made a heavy breath and spoke, "It began about a year ago when I was back in Olep and received news of my father's death.

Alex was astonished and exclaimed, "You're from Olep?!"

"Of course, my husband is the consul there." She dropped a bomb.

Hermes was indifferent, but Alex was extremely familiar with the consul of Olep.

He remembered that the man once said that his son was a military commander, his daughter was a scholar and his wife was a princess mourning her father.

'What a small world....!' Alex didn't imagine he would meet the spouse of an acquaintance here.

Alex started listening attentively, considering all the trouble he caused for the consul, he would put more effort into helping his wife out of this predicament.

She resumed her speech, "I came to mourn my father, Diodotus, who ruled over all of Bactria."

"What I didn't expect, was that as soon as my father died, religious rebel groups started attacking Olympian monuments."

"The rebel groups had unusually high influence and strength, and with all of the strong heroes of Bactria entering the rebel's troops, we didn't stand a chance."

"Soon enough, even though I tried to stabilize the situation with the small following I had left, and the influence we had on the people, I was shamefully chased out of Balkh, our capital, and sent here, to Kabura."

Alex listened attentively and remarked, "Why did the heroes of your court enter the ranks of the rebels? That seems...suspicious."

"Exactly, and I discovered that my own blood brother joined their ranks too, but that still wouldn't explain why they have such a strong foothold...."

After she finished speaking, Hermes said, "And you wish for us to help you regain your throne?"

Nephis clenched her fists and kowtowed.

"I have grown up in this kingdom, and to see it fall with my own eyes, I would sacrifice everything to get it back."

Hermes turned to Alex and said, "Alexei-boy, you're the god of humanity, you should decide whether to help her or not."

Nephis had a sharp look on her face as she alternated between Hermes and Alex, but she seemed truly desperate.

"I think....We can offer some help." Alex declared decisively.

Nephis started shaking fiercely, and she said, "Lords, I will rebuild all of your temples personally after this whole ordeal is over!"

"Thank him, not me." Hermes pointed to Alex.

"Cut it out, Hermes, I'm not on a forced conversion program." Alex was exasperated at Hermes.

"Heard him? He said he wants ten thousand temples built to his name." Hermes declared humorously.

Nephis took it seriously and stated, "I shall begin construction of even a million temples when I take back our throne."

_______________________

"The rebels have major hubs all around Bactria, but one of those is located right here, in Kabura." Nephis informed them.

She continued, "The only reason I haven't been executed yet is that they are convinced I have some connection to the Olympian gods through my husband."

"I deeply apologize for not dismissing that rumor, and using the status of the gods to wrongly assure my survival."

She once again bowed.

Alex made her stand up.

"Hence, should we start with dismantling the rebel hub right here in Kabura?"

Nephis nodded and replied, "If you so please."