In fact, unlike the original tale, where they loafed around on Lemnos Island for days on end and did not set sail from there for quite some time, we arrived in Colchis several times earlier than that.
Which was why we had disguised ourselves not as an expedition that had come for the Golden Fleece, but merely as adventurers traveling the world.
It was impossible to eliminate every possible danger, but I wanted to remove as much as I could wherever my eyes reached, so the next day I began laying the groundwork for giving the people of Colchis a good impression of us.
From the start, what I had asked the Theseus side to do was plant suspicion toward Aeetes, the king of this country, and intensify that suspicion.
Ideally, I wanted all that suspicion to be directed at just that one man.
Making them feel favorably toward us was my side’s role.
I had never made the Golden Fleece my ultimate goal in the first place. That so-called Golden Fleece. Prosperity for a nation because of some object? The survival of a country? Spare me! There were plenty of nations that prospered without such a thing. A country would fall just because one object was stolen or taken by force? Hah. Even a passing dog would laugh at that.
As I said before, prophecy is a story of hindsight.
Think of the Colchis of the original tale.
Think of the way the country that loses the Golden Fleece is doomed.
Medea, who fell in love at first sight with Jason, the Jason of the original tale who had come to take that fleece, helped him seize it and flee, and even killed her younger brother Absyrtus and cast him into the sea. Because of that, there was no prince left to succeed the throne, and the king, stricken by the shock of losing his son, grew ill and died. The country fell into chaos and was ultimately ruined. That was the path by which the nation was destroyed.
Surely they should have heard this sort of story about the prophecy more than once, so why did the people of this world not know it...
Were they so consumed by fear of the prophecy’s inevitability that they could not even think of it?
Foolish. Utterly foolish.
As I thought that, I steadily narrowed the distance between myself and the people of Colchis.
From the beginning, we had not come here to fight, so I had firmly warned the more belligerent heroes as well...
“Hah, where did these country bumpkins come crawling out from...”
I had not expected the other side to pick a fight this quickly.
Perhaps because we were disguised as adventurers, a few in the crowd who looked at us with disdain began to start trouble. I had anticipated that much. And also...
“What did you say!!!”
“Country bumpkins!?”
“You want to die!”
I had also expected the heroes who had come on this expedition in the name of Greek honor to take offense at that. So I drew the spear on my back and preemptively stopped them from attacking those people.
“...Stop. Idas, Ancaeus, Tigresion. I told you not to cause friction with the people of this land.”
We had not come here to fight.
The end of this expedition was revolution.
“Or would you rather I personally shame you in front of the people of another country, just as I did on Lemnos Island.”
If they were to harm the crowd first here, then our expedition would be stained by violence at once.
But I had no intention of simply swallowing the insults they had thrown at us, either.
“Would you really retreat only after being torn to pieces by some country bumpkin? No matter that we are adventurers, or that we came from a backwater you do not know, we look far stronger than you, who were merely raised in this great nation.”
It would not do to answer insults with violence, because that would create a favorable situation for them. But there was nothing wrong with answering insult with insult.
Hearing that, the other side trembled with humiliation and glared at us, but under the faint pressure I was scattering and Heracles’ overwhelming aura, they would have had no choice but to shrink back quickly.
And even if I pressured them like this, our impression would not suffer. This time, all we had done was answer them after they insulted us first.
If they took offense and attacked us, only to be crushed in return, then it would simply mean they had attacked outsiders who were only adventurers, which could be turned into a national disgrace.
Even the crowd that had been eyeing us with suspicion seemed to know this and slowly backed away.
“Let us go.”
And so a day passed in Colchis.
“So, Theseus. How is it going?”
“Heh heh, for the first day, it’s going smoothly. King Aeetes doesn’t seem to be a tyrant, but he does seem close to a weak ruler.”
We returned to the Argo ship and gathered everyone together so we could report on our progress. I had been worried about Theseus’s group, since they had a high proportion of ordinary sailors who were not among the fifty recorded as Argonauts, but it seemed they were doing well enough, which put me at ease.
“Then, is it our turn this time? First...”
I calmly explained to everyone, one by one, the day’s friction with the people of this country and the results of looking for things we could do as adventurers, saying that there were almost no tasks we could not handle. Then I laid out tomorrow’s plan in a steady tone.
“So, you lot will keep working to intensify suspicion, while we’ll take on tasks that directly help the people. If any of you would rather do the opposite, raise your hand now. I’ll switch you.”
As expected, there were a few who were dissatisfied with the tasks assigned to them, and those people were switched exactly as I had said.
And so, on the fifth day after arriving in Colchis, we were steadily building our reputation by helping the people with the things they struggled with as adventurers, killing monsters that threatened the populace and even the kingdom’s army, and taking food and water as payment.
“Why are those people like that?”
“...You are the adventurers who arrived a few days ago, I take it. Those people, you say?”
Then I noticed people tied side by side to wooden boards. They looked almost like people nailed to crosses.
So, while helping an old man, I asked about it, and after seeming to think for a moment, the old man opened his mouth.
“They are those who are said to have dirtied the name of the gods by recklessly casting doubt before the king, who grieved over the death of Prince Phrixus, and by speaking utter nonsense.”
...Got you.
I wore a cold smile inwardly at having found a lead that could firmly nail down Theseus’s side. Of course, outwardly, I only glared at them with a grave expression.
That evening, I told everyone about those suspicious people above and asked Theseus and Nestor to diligently gather information and intensify the suspicion surrounding them. Theseus grinned with a face full of anger and nodded hard, while Nestor hardened his expression and nodded just as firmly.
On the tenth day, I sensed that all the preparations we could make were complete, and I led everyone toward the royal palace.
Of course, we also restored all the disguises that had made us look like adventurers back to our original appearances, stacked the weapons we had obtained in Colchis in the ship’s hold, and armed ourselves with the weapons we had brought when we first set out. Because we had transformed into a completely different sort of presence, very few people recognized us, except for a few citizens with especially sharp eyes.
And the people were chattering anxiously, with talk about the royal palace pouring out from every direction.
“It did take a while, but this method really is effective.”
“Still, I never expected it to work this well... Didn’t the captain foresee all of this? That’s amazing!!”
“As expected of our captain and leader!!”
You idiots, stop it, stop it already!!! It’s so embarrassing!!!
“Don’t be so shy and look properly. You have every right to.”
“That’s right! Jason, you’re far too harsh on yourself.”
“Mm, that is true. Jason, you are doing deeds that deserve far greater praise than this. Straighten your back a little.”
As Asclepius, Caineis, and Heracles praised my deeds, my face turned red like a ripe tomato, and heat rose so fiercely that steam seemed to come out of my head.
I felt like my brain would boil if I listened to any more praise, so I quickened my pace ahead of everyone and shot forward faster than anyone in the expedition.
Even that seemed to the ordinary sailors like the appearance of a leader charging ahead to stand at the vanguard, and they flayed my soul as though they had run it through a threshing machine.
“...Fine, I don’t know anymore... Say whatever you want...”
By the time we had covered about half the distance from the ship to the royal palace, I threw up both hands and feet and gave up on the sailors still singing my praises.
Before that I had tried to shut them up in my own way, but what could I do when all one hundred sailors had decided to praise me at once...
I would rather just give up.
After arriving at the palace, we revealed our identities and our purpose there to the guards.
Then, following the soldier who guided us through the palace, we stood before the king.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Jason, prince of Iolcus in Greece.”
Now then, King Aeetes. Are you as foolish as my uncle Pelias, or are you cunning in a different way?
“And these people who came with me are those who were burning with a desire for adventure and the heroes of Greece.”
Are you both? Or are you neither?
“Ho ho, welcome to Colchis. Since you are honored guests who have come from far away, we must treat you well.”
I briefly, very faintly, released my aura like a humidifier exhaling moisture into the air, scattering it so lightly on the wind that I could gauge what kind of man he was in this world.
Then the king slightly furrowed the corners of his eyes, which had been smiling faintly, tilted his head, and swept a glance over our side. But that was all.
He is not foolish, but he is not especially cunning either.
And yet this man killed Phrixus... Ah, I see. So he is the type who changes when something is his own.
He is still more thoughtful than Uncle Pelias, at least.
Having finished assessing King Aeetes, I sneered at him inwardly.
“Hah. No wonder he is treated like a weak ruler. He is a foolish man as well.”
I blinked and withdrew my aura, then accepted the meal they said they would treat us to while thinking about how to continue the conversation from here.
At that moment, the king’s expression brightened at the sight of something, and I felt a presence from that direction.
“Ah, so this is what comes next...”
When I turned my gaze there, a woman was entering the dining hall. Seeing her smile at the king as she came in, the memories of my previous life, preserved only in records, suddenly became vivid.
“Oh my, you’re people from Greece? Welcome to Colchis.”
Yes, she was...
A devotee of Hecate, goddess of magecraft and sorcery and goddess of the waning moon. And among the women whose fate I wanted to change, the most important of all. Also, a woman whose destiny had been manipulated by the goddess Hera.
A woman who abandoned her country, abandoned her family, and killed her younger brother for the one she loved.
A woman who took all the blood upon herself for the sake of the man she loved, only to be betrayed by that very man in the end and made to abandon everything.
“I am Medea, second princess of Colchis.”
Please, take good care of me.
The witch Medea, who would become Jason’s wife.
At last, we meet.
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