After the banquet ended, deep night had already fallen.
Yet I could not quite fall asleep, so I went out in the middle of the night and wandered the streets.
Truthfully, the proposal I had heard at the banquet did not feel all that dangerous to me.
Even if it was a bull that breathed fire, it could be dealt with easily enough if I made use of the magecraft I had learned from Lady Hecate.
And as for subduing the warriors, I was confident in my strength as well.
What concerned me was whether the king would willingly grant it.
With such thoughts in mind, I walked beneath the faint moonlight.
The night air of Colchis was still, yet within it, magical energy rippled like the eve of a storm.
The palace garden had been meticulously tended, but its artificial order somehow gave off a strange pressure, and I fell into thought as I gazed at the field beyond the walls—the battlefield that would become tomorrow's decisive stage.
"...He does not seem like the sort of man who would hand over the fleece so readily. Even if I pass the trial, the chaos prepared afterward will be the real headache."
Meanwhile, Hera, who reigned over Olympus as queen of the gods, looked upon a certain human she had recently found amusing to watch.
A human king who had earned the recognition of a forsaken divine beast, walked his own path, and brought prosperity to his nation.
And when he became king, he offered sacrifices to all the gods of Olympus and possessed the courtesy to show reverence toward them.
"Jason... that boy is still precarious. But that silver-haired king is different. He knows how to establish order, and he knows how to revere divine power."
Her gaze was fixed on Colchis. More precisely, on a silver-haired figure walking the streets of Colchis: Astellon.
Her discovery of Astellon had been accidental.
She had found him while searching for that irritating Heracles, and among all humans, he was the one who had stirred her interest the most.
In a sense, Astellon could be called an oddity in this Greece.
Defying the common sense of the age, he forged new laws and firmly established his rule; unlike other arrogant heroes or kings, he knew how to consider and respect others. Hera had taken a liking to Astellon for that very reason.
Then, not long ago, she learned that Astellon had formed a master-and-disciple bond with Hecate, the goddess of magecraft.
Seated upon the throne of Olympus and gazing down upon the mortal world, Hera narrowed her eyes.
And the moment she learned that Astellon had become bound to Hecate as teacher and disciple, she felt a strange jealousy—and at the same time, a deep certainty.
"Hecate... so that exacting and lofty goddess of the night has taken in a disciple. Indeed, a normal human would never have been able to endure her. But Astellon, you would have folded even that into your own convictions."
Then, in the midst of it, a woman entered Hera's sight.
"That one... is interesting."
Seeing her, Hera lifted the corners of her lips and spoke.
"Bring me Eros."
Meanwhile, Medea, the princess of Colchis, was looking out from the castle and feeling the cold night wind against her skin as she recalled the words her father, the King of Colchis, had spoken to her.
"Heroes from Greece... and a king, you say..."
At those words, Medea had become interested and wanted to meet them at least once, but her father had opposed it, and so she could only look out from within the castle.
"Oh?"
Then, within Medea's line of sight, a man walking along the forest path came into view.
With an appearance as though the gods had carved him one stroke at a time, and silver hair shimmering beneath the moonlight, Medea found her gaze stolen by him.
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In such a situation, a golden arrow, strikingly conspicuous as it flew from somewhere, came straight at Medea and pierced her heart.