just finished my first playthrough (well, through chapter 19), planning to make an in depth post about that later, but something that specifically stuck out to me in the MC's discussion with Kota at the end of the chapter was his insistence on working on contracts with Asterion, especially finding and attempting to undo the contracts that prevent Asterion from having relationships with guests or being nude in front of them. Naturally he states it's an equality/trust thing and part of his overall mission to undo any damage caused by the previous masters, but he also talks about the hotel's future and how he won't be around forever. Maybe I'm reading a little too much into it, but to me it felt like the MC is actually considering the likelihood that Asterion will outlive him (which he definitely will as long as he is the labyrinth's prisoner) and may be trying to make it possible for Asterion to find love after the MC's eventual passing.

The way you think about it, I'm quite impressed

Yes, I made a post about the hope of the MC finding some way to have immortality with Asterion using the contracts; or completing this final task of gathering the ichor for the remaining gods will convince them to grant him favor or a boon giving him immortality. Who knows, it could be multiple endings.

"Immortality" is a strange concept to talk about when the afterlife is known to exist.  (Remember, Asterion isn't "alive", and hasn't been for thousands of years!)  

I think that immortality in the sense of *living* (in the real world) forever would be both unlikely, and problematic for a lot of reasons.  (Remember Asterion's backstory, and what happened when someone *else* wished for immortality....)  But given that there are many afterlives, it seems reasonable to hope that the MC and Asterion end up in the same (pleasant) one.  

It's plausible that this could be Hades--it's where Asterion should rightfully be.  Logically, since the MC has firsthand knowledge that the Olympian gods are real, has offered a sacrifice to them (at Argos's behest), and might plausibly take future actions that could be regarded as worship of at least *some* of them (e.g. actively participating with Asterion in a pre-meal offering to Hestia), it's entirely possible that the MC could end up there as well.  They could either go to the Asphodel Meadows, or the gods might decide that both the MC and Asterion took such heroic actions with the hotel to warrant Elysium.  

An alternative is that the Labyrinth itself is, in a very literal sense, Asterion's personal hell.  But we're not entirely sure what the power of the gods *with* the ichor is, and the extent to which *they* can break or creatively bend the contracts.  Maybe a majority of the Olympian gods could rewrite the laws of the realm to make it pleasant instead, and the MC and Asterion keep running the hotel forever.  

I hope that I (MC) can find a way to free Asterion. He's such a sweet boy and doesn't deserve the crap hand that he's been dealt in life.

Even if I can't find a way, I'm happy to spend the rest of my life with him as his husband. I hope the next chapters come soon