The Argonauts (15)
Everyone stared in disbelief at the feats accomplished over those three days.
The labors had been carried out in a wide open space where all of Colchis could watch, with our people and the soldiers ringing the area so that only Medea and I looked down on everyone from on high. Of course, with Queen Medea not only sporting a swollen belly but seating a boy at her side, everyone was bound to stare with curious eyes. The prevailing tone was one of "surely not" mixed with bewilderment—but since age gaps meant almost nothing here, the fact that the two of us had shared a bed had already settled into near-certainty among the locals.
Anyway, that was how things stood. Let me cut straight to the results.
"You did it again, didn't you?!"
Medea's reaction was catastrophic.
The moment we returned to the palace after the third day's labor ended, that was the first thing she said to me.
"Did what? I didn't do anything. I didn't even pray to the gods."
"You're the one who gave them advice!"
"You never said I couldn't give advice. Were you seriously going to ban that too?"
"Ughgh-?! Th-th-that's, well, no, but—!"
A victory banquet for the expedition was about to begin. Besides Medea's attendants, women hoping to receive the heroes' seed and men eager to praise them were all hard at work. Thanks to that, the area outside the palace—down in the polis—was incredibly noisy, and I alone was left sprawled on the floor in wolf form.
Medea had said she wouldn't interfere with us, yet she clearly wasn't happy about how easily the labors had been completed. She glared at me as I lay on my belly, tail swishing. She wanted to vent her anger at the mastermind behind it all, but since wolf-form me had a history of roughly ravaging her, she found it hard to scold me freely.
"When they captured the fire-breathing bulls… how did that even happen…"
In the end she carefully approached, scratching my belly as I lay on the floor, and asked. I couldn't stop wagging my tail as I answered freely.
"The fact that their bodies didn't burn was definitely Iolaus's doing. This voyage has been so smooth she must have figured she could call on Lord Poseidon for help—and I figure she prayed that way herself. If you hadn't spilled every detail of the legends, maybe nothing would have happened, but once a sharp-eyed priestess heard all that, there was no way she'd just sit on it. She got the jump on us."
"That surprised me too, but before that! I'm talking about how they brought our bulls' calves out of the stable! You told them that, didn't you?!"
"Of course."
"You cruel, heartless bastard! How could you kidnap children?!"
"Hearing that from a witch like you is unexpected. I just told them the obvious, didn't I? Cattle are extremely intelligent creatures that know how to protect their masters, with deep maternal instincts—and considering Colchis's bulls are fire-breathing monsters yet you yourself handle them so well, that only proves how high their intelligence is."
"So?"
"So I told Jason! 'Kidnap the fire bulls' calves and use them as hostages when you perform the labor!' I gave him the idea, and he put my scheme into practice! ──That's all there is to it."
"Y-y-you trash~! You piece of trashhh~! You know what?! Our bulls were shedding big fat tears! And the one that went berserk got subdued by Heracles!"
"If the bulls had all banded together and gone wild at once, they might have at least done some damage. But what can you do? We've got the ultimate weapon Heracles under Poseidon's protection right there."
"You're so damn irritatingggg~!"
I laughed like a dog, yipping away. Medea, finding that look of mine hateful, grabbed my wolf ears and yanked hard. Of course her questions didn't end there.
"The Spartoi were your doing too!"
"Don't scold me so much. Those things are genuinely dangerous. Heracles could have gotten hurt if things went wrong. So I just told them to form ranks and respond like an army. If you know the myths, you'd know their eyesight is poor and their blood rises easily to their heads—so if you sow discord among them, they won't cooperate with each other and will just charge mindlessly. I knew that."
"I'll grant you the sowing discord and provocation! But setting traps in the middle of the night beforehand?!"
"That wasn't me. Probably Jason or Iolaus's idea? Digging up that much ground in the middle of the night means Heracles and the other crew members must have helped too."
They fought well enough even without my advice. The moment the Spartoi, blinded by Jason's party's provocations and discord, charged in, the ground gave way and they plummeted down, badly injured or dying. On top of that, they'd prepared several long spears we hadn't brought on the ship and finished off those who'd fallen—so the fight ended completely one-sided.
"I never expected Heracles would join in on that. He usually prefers fighting one-on-one, so the Spartoi must have been that much of a threat."
"Enough excuses! Next!"
Next would be about today's labor with the dragon.
"Where should I start? Right—covering the dragon's head with a cloth and making it burn its own face with its own flames? Or having Heracles pull out its teeth in the meantime? Using those teeth to summon Spartoi and having Jason shout, 'Glory to whoever slays that dragon!'? The Spartoi who got suddenly called forth joining forces with the expedition members? I prepared even more just in case, so which part do you want to hear first?"
"It was all your faulttttt!!!!!"
Yip!
Her patience finally seemed to snap as she kicked me square in the belly. I let out an involuntary dog-like yelp, but it didn't hurt that much. My body was coated in Styx water, so Medea, who'd done the kicking, seemed to be in more pain—she clutched her ankle and sobbed "ow ow ow" with tears streaming.
"There's a child in your belly, so getting angry isn't good for you."
"Ugh, u-uuugh, and whose fault do you think this is…?"
"Yours—the one who said you wouldn't interfere and then threw dangerous labors at them?"
"If only my curses worked I'd have turned you into a pig right this instanttt~! Hwaaah~! I'm so pissed~!"
To make her even angrier I shifted back into my human boy form and cackled, which made her look ready to die of rage. But she quickly cooled down, exhaled, took a swig of what looked like deliciously sweet wine, sat down beside me, and pouted.
"………Hmph. Congratulations. Not a single one died, huh? And here I was being spiteful on purpose."
"You mean keeping me from participating in the labors?"
"Yeah."
I scratched the back of my head and snorted leisurely.
"They're not the type to fall apart just because I'm not there. Athena herself issued an oracle before we even set out, so they would have managed somehow even without me."
There was the strongest of all, Heracles, to begin with—and without empty flattery, that was the truth.
"I heard you only just met them. You've grown quite attached already?"
"I'm just stating facts."
I took a sip of the wine Medea had given me. Drinking it in this young body, the buzz hit hard right at the base of my throat. Not enough to lose my reason, but enough to reaffirm that underage drinking is dangerous.
"When are you leaving?"
"That's for you or Jason to decide. But given Jason's personality, he won't stay here long. If things go well, they might leave as early as tomorrow."
"You're not saying you'll stay?"
"Unfortunately I already have an owner. ……But how many times have I said this? You're overflowing with lingering attachment. It's practically dripping onto the floor."
"Is that not allowed?"
Medea quietly showed her feminine side and pulled me into an embrace. My eyes closed involuntarily against her maternal breasts, but I wasn't the type to take back words I'd already spoken.
"When you jumped me, you said once you got the seed you'd raise the child well just the two of you after giving birth. You spoke like I was nothing to you—how can you get attached already?"
"Then drop by sometimes? Once the kid's grown some, at least come see their face."
"Using the child as a hostage—how underhanded."
"You're one to talk. Besides, is it underhanded for a witch to use a woman's weapons and make a request of a man? It's perfectly natural."
Was it underhanded because she was a witch, or was this just Medea's nature? From the start Medea was the type of woman who'd do anything for the person she'd fallen for, so it wasn't hard to understand. Still, getting any more attached would clearly become a hassle, so peeling away soon would be better for both of us.
"What are you going to name the child? I'm terrible at naming, so I'd like you to do it."
"Don't worry. I've already decided."
"Oh?"
"If it's a girl, Mecos, after my name. If it's a boy, Percos, after yours. Personally I'm hoping for a girl."
I understood—she'd taken our names and the name of the wolf (Lykos/Λύκος) that had ravaged her. Since Medea herself, who'd aimed for pregnancy, wanted a girl, I also hoped a girl would be born. I already had an eldest son, so wanting the next child to be a girl was a simple reason—but if she took after Medea, she'd surely be born a cute and vicious little girl.
"But before you leave, how about one more time? Everyone's busy, and this time even if I scream, no one will notice."
"How am I supposed to face Achilles tomorrow if I do that? Besides, your belly's swollen so big it seems dangerous."
"I don't want it as rough as last time… please…"
"Even so…"
As I fled to a corner trying to escape Medea, familiar footsteps sounded at the entrance. Anyone who'd barge so freely into the room Medea used had to be one of the heroes currently being hosted—and among them, I was certain of only one person.
"Achilles?"
"What crime did you commit? You recognized me just from my footsteps?"
Sure enough, my wife poked just her face in and glared at me. I'd thought she'd be exhausted after battling Colchis's dragon just now, but rather than tired, she looked extremely pleased—as if running around to her heart's content had done her good.
"P-perfect timing! I was just about to commit a crime in real time!"
"What, were you getting jumped again? Leaving your wife aside and having fun all by yourself—what a terrible man."
"Why are you so calm about this?! You're walking in on me cheating right now—why are you acting so relaxed?! Given how you got mad when I wouldn't make a kid with you, I kind of expected this, but still! This isn't a normal person's reaction!"
"You want me to get jealous? Well, I'm human too so I do a little, but more than that I'm ridiculously fired up right now so I don't care about that stuff."
"………Fired up?"
"I finally got to fight my ass off after so long, of course! When a Greek hero gets fired up, the next step is working off the lust, right? That's why I came looking for you."
"Oh gods……"
So after fighting to her heart's content, she'd come looking to fuck me as the afterparty—and walked in on Medea about to jump me. After declaring she was going to fuck me, she immediately turned her gaze to Medea, but showed no sign of wanting to fight her.
"I'm pregnant so I don't plan on doing it intensely. I don't want to strain the baby in my belly either. Just… a little affection before you leave…"
"That much is fine. Our husband has plenty of room."
Apparently our Achilles had been some kind of absolute chad in a past life, because right then and there she whipped off her chiton. The heat of battle against the dragon still lingered in her body—smoke rose around her flesh—and Medea, as if responding, slowly stripped as well, showing off her bulging pregnant belly.
"You, what are you doing? Just going to sit there staring?"
Achilles grinned fiercely, telling me to hurry up and transform. In the end I wasn't a devoted husband but a henpecked one—I trembled all over as I transformed into a black stallion for the first time in a while.
"Whoa…"
"How about it? My husband's cock is amazing, right?"
Achilles grabbed and shook my horse cock as if showing it off to Medea. Medea wasn't frightened by my form as a horse rather than a dog, and before long she set off down the same path as Achilles.