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Once again, we rowed with all our strength, and even when rough waves and fierce winds hindered our voyage, the sailors never lost their spirit. Before long, the Argo ship was passing near the coast of Thrace.
I stopped rowing for a moment and climbed up to the mast to survey the sea, and when I spotted an old house atop a cliff, I recalled the contents of the original tale connected to it.
Ah, that place is definitely...
“Everyone, stop! Let’s go to that house on the island.”
I pointed to the house on the cliff and had the ship brought in toward the island’s shore. All the sailors looked up at me with puzzled expressions at the sudden order to stop, but after following my finger to the place I indicated, they nodded.
“For now, not everyone needs to get off. Only those who want to go to that house should follow me down.”
When I said that, everyone except Theseus, Asclepius, Nestor, and Peleus among my close companions followed me ashore, and among the heroes, Idas, Zetes and Calais, Acastus, and Meleager came along.
Finally, about ten of the ordinary sailors followed after me.
When we reached the house, we knocked carefully and listened for any sign of life, but there was no response from inside.
Even if I knew the original story, in this world where so much had already changed, it would only be of half use at best.
I signaled everyone to prepare for the unexpected, gripped my spear again, and gently pushed the door open to look inside. Fortunately, there was no trace of Mana or Magecraft either outside the house or within it.
I motioned to everyone standing a little way behind me to come closer, then kicked the door wide open.
Fortunately, this part seemed unchanged. Inside the door, an old man was collapsed on the floor, and his life force was so faint he seemed almost dead.
“Sir? Please, wake up!”
I hurriedly turned the old man over, supported his neck, and listened for his breathing. Luckily, I could hear a faint breath, so he had only lost consciousness. I had worried this story might have changed too, but it was a relief that it hadn’t.
“Mm, ngh...”
At my voice, the old man frowned briefly, then slowly opened his faded, empty eyes.
“Ugh... could you be... the Argonaut expedition?”
As expected. This part hadn’t changed either.
“Yes, but... how did you know that, sir...?”
I asked him in feigned surprise, and before telling his story, the old man first checked whether the Boreads, Zetes and Calais, had come here to protect him.
Realizing that the beings who would save him had arrived, he let out a relieved sigh.
“Sir... it seems you possess the power of prophecy.”
“Oh? You’re Jason, the captain of the expedition? You’re sharper than I expected. Yes, I am a man named Phineus, once a king of a country, and one who received the power of prophecy from Lord Apollo, the sun god.”
The blind old man, Phineus, calmly began to tell his past. He had been a king who faithfully served Apollo, and as reward, he received the power of prophecy. With that gift, he cared well for his people, but as he grew proud, he began to flaunt his prophecies for self-display and made the mistake of boasting in the name of Zeus.
Zeus, enraged, struck him with lightning and blinded him. Then, whenever he tried to eat, Zeus sent the monstrous birds called Harpies to snatch away his food, and they would foul the place with their droppings and stench.
So this was why he had waited for the Boreads, who could catch them.
Phineus weakly begged us for food.
I first told the sailors to give him some of our provisions, and they, too, must have pitied Phineus, because they brought the food without a word. While the sailors were fetching it, I went over to the Boreads and explained what would happen next.
“Most likely, Lord Zeus will send the Harpies to Sir Phineus again this time. Under no circumstances should you kill them. If you kill one of a higher god’s beasts, then even if you are the son of a god, divine punishment will fall upon you. Simply threaten them hard enough to drive them all the way into the sky, then follow after them upward. Then another god will appear to convey Lord Zeus’s will, whoever it may be, and block your path.”
As they watched me give them calm, cool, and precise instructions, while I had no prophecy or anything of the sort, only an accurate prediction close to one, they gave me a very peculiar look.
“...Well, fine. We’ll just threaten them, then.”
“Good. Thank you for telling us in advance.”
The food was laid out before the old man in a full spread. I felt sorry for Phineus as he swallowed hard while staring at the delicious dishes, but he wouldn’t be eating them just yet. I hadn’t had this food prepared specifically for him in the first place.
As expected.
The Harpies came flapping in, drawn toward the open window. ...Wait, are all those Harpies really going to force their way in here? Will there even be enough food...? Those girls will need to eat too.
From the start, the food I had prepared with the sailors was made up of dishes the Harpies would like.
Well, that was a secret no one knew.
A secret even the gods did not know.
That was...
=Wow! It’s packed with only our favorite foods!!=
=How strange. Phineus’s tastes are different from ours, so there wasn’t much we could actually eat here.=
To my ears, the language of beasts sounded like human speech. And without needing to howl along with them, I could convey my own meaning. We could speak both ways.
=[That’s because I prepared this spread for you all.]=
The fluttering of wings and the shrill cawing stopped all at once.
Eat up, all of you. I prepared this food for you.
And if not now, there probably wouldn’t be many chances in the future to eat so freely.
Come to think of it, those girls were pitiable too. Even though they were sisters of Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, they were treated as monsters.
=W-what? How can a human understand and speak our language? Even gods can’t talk with us!?=
=A-and for some reason, that boy smells good and has good energy... why?=
Can you hear everything you’re saying right now too, Harpies?
=[For now, do what you came to do first, then come to our ship. I’ll explain everything then.]=
I rolled my eyes at them and pointed to the food. Only then did they start devouring it, racing each other from one side to the other.
=Mm! It really is delicious!!=
=Ah, but if we finish eating, we still have to leave behind our droppings....=
The Harpies looked at me, the one who had prepared such delicious food for them, and seemed deeply worried about what they had to do afterward. It’s fine, it’s fine. I know it isn’t their intention.
=[And after you leave your droppings, the Boreads will chase after you. Don’t be too surprised then. I’ve already told them not to kill you, and I got their answer too.]=
=C-cough, what!?=
=Huh, this man really is... unusual...? I never dreamed someone would regard creatures like us as mere “life” instead of “monsters”...=
Of course.
The world of Greece itself had that side to it. I hated that, and I couldn’t understand it. If you set aside cases of self-inflicted ruin, then weren’t monsters born from the folly of gods and humans entirely the fault of gods and humans?
It was utterly disgusting to define as evil a being born from one’s own mistake.
I hurried the Harpies along with a gesture, then signaled the Boreads to get ready.
The Harpies kept casting curious looks at me, but perhaps knowing they had to hurry, they began stealing the food about three times faster.
By the time they had nearly taken everything, several who seemed to be their leaders dropped a few feathers into my palm as a gift to the benefactor who understood them, saying they hoped it would be of help, then scattered their droppings neatly onto the empty plates and shot up into the sky at high speed.
“Now, Boreads!”
When the Harpies had risen to about the height of a modern seven-story building, I signaled the Boreads to follow after them.
Now they’d handle the rest on their own. In the meantime, I called over everyone who had not fled despite the terrible stench and began cleaning up the droppings.
“...O-oh... could it be that you anticipated all of this?”
Sensing how calm and unruffled my breathing was, Phineus poked his body out from under the table and asked.
“I had some idea, given that you prophesied that ‘the ones who would save you are us.’ In the end, whenever you ate, they would surely come to interfere.”
So, like this.
I pointed at the leftover food, showing that it had been filled with the Harpies’ staple diet.
“...Ah, truly amazing. You face them properly as living beings, when most people would think of them only as monsters.”
“If what I aim to become is a wise king, then shouldn’t I strive even harder than this?”
At this level, it would be hard to become a wise king, former King Phineus.
“Heh heh. If this were the old days, I would have had something to say to you, but it seems unnecessary now.”
After threatening the Harpies and driving them off, I confirmed that the Boreads had returned through the window, having brought back a promise from the gods, and then I and the sailors began setting out proper food for human beings to eat.
“Now then, no one will disturb you, sir, so please eat as much as you like.”
He looked at me with sincere gratitude, then opened his mouth wide and began devouring the food greedily.
“Phew, I feel like I can live again.”
The food that had filled the table vanished into the old man’s stomach in an instant, and life began to return to his previously lifeless face.
“Now then, since you’ve saved me, I should repay you, shouldn’t I?”
“Well, I didn’t ask for repayment when I gave you the food...”
I already knew what the repayment would be, but I pretended not to and listened to him.
The old man brought up the obstacles on the road to Colchis, the route across the Black Sea, and began explaining the only way to pass through them.
“To reach Colchis, you must first cross the Black Sea, but at the mouth of the strait leading into this sea, there are two rocky islands floating face-to-face with each other.”
Magnetic rocks... was that what they were? Rocky islands that would slam shut against each other and crush anything to pieces if something tried to pass between them.
The only way to get through those rocky islands was...
“When you reach the rocky islands, send this bird through the gap between them.”
If something were sent through and caused them to close, then once something passed between the islands, the two would open again. The only way was to seize that moment and quickly row through right behind it.
The old man called over a pigeon resting on a tree and had it fly toward me.
“If this pigeon makes it through the islands, the two will separate again. Seize that moment and row through quickly.”
However, if this pigeon cannot pass through, then your ship will not be able to pass either, so abandon the expedition and turn back.
“...Thank you. If we hadn’t known this, we would have been in grave danger.”
“Think nothing of it. I, too, owe you my life. I truly hope your expedition reaches its end safely.”
We had now taken care of everything we needed to on this island. All that remained was to cross the Black Sea, and then we would reach the expedition’s destination: Colchis.
“Then, sir, we’ll be taking our leave now.”
“Safe travels.”
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