The Argonauts of the Argo and the Queen of Colchis
That should finally put an end to this round of Jason!
It was obvious from his eyes alone that he was reciting those words. Jason, who had taken the rays straight to the face, nodded his head with purple smoke and light spewing from his eyes. He had clearly fallen into a magical daze, drooling while looking at me like he had no sense of reality.
“Ah, euh… gaah~!”
“Hahahaha! The ninth one had exactly that kind of appearance! I boasted that I wouldn’t be swayed by my wicked sorcery while showing off my broad-mindedness and never expecting to get hit in the back of the head! The results were the same back then as they are now! How cruel! What a stupid hero you are~! Hahahaha~!”
“Khhheuuuuurgh?!”
Jason let out a shrill scream and was overcome with madness. Just as he reached for the sword slung at his waist, I calmly placed my palm on his forehead, thinking I couldn’t leave him like that.
“What are you doing? Even if I try, Jason-!”
“Ugh… uh… uh… uh…”
“Huh?”
The hammer and anvil engraving on my back burned brightly. The curse smoke that touched the tips of my fingers flared up wildly and affected Jason’s body as well. I had worried it might only work on me, but luckily it passed through to Jason. The curse vanished in the flames of Hephaestus’s Fire, and he closed his eyes and fell silent, as if losing consciousness.
“Oh no, I knew I’d be burning away the curse, but I didn’t expect him to pass out. Hey, hey, Jason? Jason? Wake up already.”
“……………”
I shook my small palm and slapped Jason’s cheek, but he didn’t get up. He must have been exhausted, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep, breathing heavily with soft snores.
“Wait, wait, wait! What is this?! My magic is a miracle bestowed by Hecate-nim! How dare you burn my magic like that! Only a deity who has received divine grace from a deity of that caliber can do something like that──? …… That’s impossible… Burning it with fire…”
It seemed he had already guessed.
“Helios?”
“No.”
“Hephaestus?”
“That’s not it either.”
“Then it must be Apollo-nim?!”
“Wrong.”
“If it’s a flame and not one of those three…”
Outside the room, a loud clanging sound echoed from what sounded like something being smashed to pieces. It was clearly someone causing a ruckus during the feast and breaking something. I had been sighing at Lemnos too, wondering if this place was no different, but right as I was marveling, Medea got inspired by the sound and answered.
“Hephaestus!”
“Call him here, you fool.”
I turned around and closed the entrance to the corridor. After confirming no one was listening outside, I returned to find Medea with a pale face that didn’t suit her vibrant red appearance.
“Why are the Twelve Gods interfering on the surface! Especially the one who’s the least noticeable!”
“I didn’t really interfere. I just joined the voyage after receiving a personal request from Hephaestus-nim.”
“A personal request?”
“The gods may not show it on the surface, but they watch everything on the earth. The news that you successfully expanded the Golden Fleece reached even Hephaestus-nim’s ears, so he must have wanted it. That’s why he ordered me to join this expedition and bring back one of those Golden Fleeces. He said he’d gladly give it if I mentioned his name?”
Medea’s red eyes sparkled as she fell into thought. It didn’t matter to me who gave it, but I couldn’t hide my displeasure while thinking about the relationship between me and Jason.
“Then I’ll give you the fleece. Now get out of here! I’m going to cook this man, boil him in a pot, and feed him to the expedition members!”
“Sadly, because we’ve come this far together, I can’t turn a blind eye to such behavior. You’d better obediently step back.”
“What?!”
Pung!
Another purple ray shot out and pierced my face, but right after that, flames flared up and burned it all away. The burned curse turned into smoke swirling around my nose, and since it smelled unpleasant, I waved my palm to swat it away. This made Medea’s arrogance crack.
“It didn’t work?”
“Khhk! It’s just a kid who can’t even kill you?!”
“Oh my, what a woman who never gives up.”
Ching!
“Kyaa?!”
As I relaxed, this time I pulled out a dagger from the drawer in the corner and smacked it with the mace, finally silencing even his snores. He glared at me with narrowed eyes several times, as if he hadn’t expected me, a child, to overpower him, but since I still couldn’t kill him, he eventually sat down quietly.
“Medea. I know you dislike the descendants of Jason. But the eleventh Jason has no interest in you, and I have no interest in you either. As the queen of Colchis, you just need to bestow a great deed upon us. Then we’ll complete the deed, leave here, and never have to face each other again. Isn’t that good for both of us? Right?”
“Hah!”
“What else is there to be unhappy about?”
Medea took a deep breath and calmed down a bit. But her tone remained rough, as if she couldn’t control her own anger.
“With that young mouth of yours spouting nonsense, it’s hilarious! The ancestor of Jason might be dead, but I’m still alive! Because of what I did to that bastard, I still have to face these kids’ successors!”
“Isn’t it your fault?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes yes yes! Of course!”
“Really? Hephaestus-nim called you a witch who rides the waves of this era and torments the successors of Jason?”
“Hah, haha, hahahaha! In the end, it’s from a divine perspective! Ah, well, that’s not entirely wrong. It’s true that I enjoy tormenting them! But I’m a person too!”
Medea stood up and spun around the Hecate statue. Then she shivered like from a chill, hiding her rage and revealing her sorrow.
“I don’t want to live looking at the faces of those I hate either! Because I know my own nature! Everything related to Jason is disgusting! I can’t hold back my anger! That’s why I fled to Colchis and hid my body here, but Hecate-nim, my patron, punished me! For the unpleasant task of bestowing great deeds upon the successors of Jason!”
Grurrr~!
She let out a howl like an animal and shouted loudly.
“I’m being cruel to them in order to vent this anger! If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have the will to endure this rage! I hate everything about Jason, but if I just held it back and sent them away, what would happen?!”
“What would happen?”
“They’d surely pour out this resentment on the citizens of Colchis! But I’m the queen here! I can’t allow that!”
It was an unexpectedly rational answer.
“Really?”
Too rational, so I asked again to be sure, and she suppressed her anger as much as she could and spat out something even more unexpected.
“Huu… huu… huu… A while ago… I don’t remember how many, but I did send the successors of Jason who came this far away peacefully… At that time, I gave them only the deeds they wanted and did no harm… But because I couldn’t hold back the anger… I unconsciously cursed my closest female attendants who were the most intimate to me and turned them into golden sheep…”
“Wait, no way.”
“Yes! That’s right! The Golden Fleece you came looking for is exactly that! My precious, adorable attendants! I feel so sorry for those kids that I’d die!”
Her control over anger was failing. She explained several times that this disorder that had persisted for over a century was something she herself couldn’t control. It was true that she was partly to blame, but since she knew that herself, she didn’t want to contact the Jasons, but she couldn’t help it because of Hecate.
“It doesn’t seem like a lie. When she spoke to me, she was unusually rational.”
Medea, who had approached me familiarly, saying she could work in this realm. If it weren’t related to Jason, she would be a normal capable queen.
“Have you offered prayers of repentance to those who died besides the ancestor Jason?”
“Hmph, it’s been over a hundred years! I’ve spent a long, long time repeating human life countless times! Without missing even a single day! For the sake of that hateful ex-husband! Of course, for my younger brother whom I killed too!”
“So have you paid enough debt? Don’t tell me you’re not saying that.”
“Huuu… no, I’m not that brazen. But I can only hope to find a way to stop meeting the successors of Jason. If I could, I’m sure my heart would be at peace.”
“Hmm……”
An unexpected quest had occurred. I didn’t feel like feeling sorry for Medea, and I had no such intention. However, if I didn’t solve this, who knew when or where the expedition leader Jason would die. He had been kind to me and a friend who accepted me as a comrade, so I couldn’t just turn a blind eye to this situation.
“Is that the only command Hecate-nim gave you?”
“Of course there’s more! Until this mission is over, don’t have children! Don’t get married! Don’t sleep with a man! Thanks to that, I’ve only watched men I liked age and die!!!”
“It’s a shame to say this, but it suits you as punishment.”
“……Hmph. I think the same.”
She didn’t deny it.
It had gone well with me saying I wasn’t Jason.
“In the end, is it Hecate’s fault?”
I couldn’t understand why Hecate, the patron of the witch Medea, would do such a thing to her. I hadn’t seen any gods do such things to those who faithfully followed them, and they weren’t the type to do something like this either, so it was even more puzzling. When they cursed or punished someone, there was always some reason, albeit unpleasant, so I had to figure this out first.
“Queen of Colchis and witch of Hecate. Then let us trade, Perseus Second.”
“Trade?”
“Yes. I’ll remove you from the eternal curse. I might fail, but it doesn’t seem like your life will be in danger, so help me test it once.”
“Y-yes, really?! Help me? But why?”
“Even though I look like this, I’m also of the bloodline of Greek heroes. In this voyage, I had no chance to make a name, so challenging the deed isn’t strange, is it? If I dispel your curse, you’ll be the happiest of all, so you won’t be stingy about making my name known?”
“That’s right~! Of course! I’m not a person who doesn’t know favors!”
It was funny that a woman who killed without a second thought didn’t know about favors.
“If this goes well, don’t touch the eleventh one. Make it so he gets what he wants nicely.”
“Alright, I’ll keep my promise.”
She nodded her head repeatedly, her face lighting up with hope as she approached me. Because she had agreed to the last condition, I thought we should call the main culprit to find the clue to the solution.
“Then let’s get to the point.”
I held the mace tightly and walked to the Hecate statue where Medea had been spinning around. The statue of the goddess with three faces was still eerie. But with Hephaestus’s blessing, I figured I wouldn’t die from any curse, so I urged Medea on.
“I’ve never offered gifts or prayers to Hecate-nim, so you probably won’t listen to my words. But since you have been with Hecate-nim for a long time along with Circe, you’ll react immediately.”
“You want me to call Hecate-nim?”
“After calling, I’ll handle the rest. Just in case she doesn’t descend… don’t say she won’t?”
“N-no, that’s not it… I’m sorry, but I’ve called her a few times, and she came every time…”
That meant she was receiving affection. She had said that to use magic, the witch needed Hecate’s power, so becoming a witch itself meant receiving Hecate’s love.
“Why would she punish someone like her?”
I didn’t understand, but I would find out soon.
This is Greek mythology.
When thinking about why gods punish humans, there must be some confused reasoning mixed in this time as well.