※
With Theseus gone, and now Heracles leaving as well, the others looked disappointed, already expecting that I would be next.
They said that while friends other than me were fine for playing and training together, they could not open up their hearts and feelings as honestly as they could with me.
But.
“I’m not leaving yet.”
I would only move after at least more than half the people who were going to board the Argonaut expedition had gone out into the world.
“And you lot would just end up bottling things up on your own after I leave, wouldn’t you?”
Peleus, the Dioscuri siblings, Asclepius, Nestor, and Atalanta all looked as though they had been poked in a sore spot, yet at the same time they stared at me as if they could not understand what I was saying. Of course, it was probably not my words they did not understand, but my behavior.
“How fascinating. It really does seem as though you have the power to draw others in, to inspire them.”
Atalanta, who usually kept her words to a minimum when with others, gave a small smile and shook her head.
That was certainly fortunate.
From what I was hearing now, there was a king who was ruling my country, my homeland, my home, my people, and my own with tyranny. No doubt it was my uncle Pelias.
To drive that bastard out, the original method would not do. I had to raise a revolution the right way and force him out. I needed to appeal to people with a legitimate cause, possess the strong charisma to unite them, and have the ability to persuade others and draw them to my side.
“Haha, I’m still far from it. What I’m aiming for is to become a king who can be a steadfast supporter of the people in peaceful times, and a source of strength for them in times of crisis.”
“Hmph. If you keep your current mindset, you will surely become such a person.”
Well now, hearing that from the woman who would become the greatest huntress in the future put me in a good mood.
“By the way, Atalanta, lately the line drawn by your arrows hasn’t been beautiful. Is something wrong?”
“...If it were Chiron, maybe, but for you to notice as well, perhaps I am lacking in training.”
“No. Just as you said, if you want to draw others in, you have no choice but to become sensitive to them.”
With a deep sigh and a scratch at the back of her head, she wore a hardened expression and came to me for advice.
“If it’s you, who once tried to give me a sense of kinship back then, then I suppose it’s fine to ask.”
Then ask away, my first male human friend.
“I was abandoned by the people called my parents, raised by a she-bear, and brought to Chiron. Am I a child of those parents? Should I call them my parents? What is a parent? What are children? Why must innocent children be abandoned by parents who have sinned?”
It was such a very Atalanta-like topic to bring up. The relationship between parent and child...
Soon it would be Atalanta’s turn to leave. As a princess, there was no shortage of reasons why her father and countless men might try to use her.
“And why was I born a woman only to be abandoned? Why can women not resist men? Why must women be swept along by men?”
She was young now, and female. Even when she grew older, she would still be female. In Greece, women had no choice but to live in a rather difficult society. Just look at Zeus. Look at Hera, who could do nothing but fail to stop that philanderer in advance. Look at the married women and the virgins who suffered because of Zeus. Look at Heracles, Zeus’s child, and the Dioscuri siblings.
Look at Helen, who would one day become the cause of the Trojan War. Look at Medea, Jason’s wife. Look at Callisto, the huntress who had sworn to remain chaste.
Look at Metis, Zeus’s first wife. Look at Athena, her daughter, who had brought Zeus relief simply because she was female.
“Tell me, Jason. Why must women be oppressed by men, and why must children remain under surveillance under the name of parental protection?”
As someone who had lived in modern society, I had nothing to say about the relationship between parent and child. I, too, had been a child abandoned like Atalanta, an abused child, an unloved child.
“I’m glad I at least have something to say about relations between men and women.”
So, the relationship between men and women. At least on that front, I had something to say, having experienced the relatively equal relations between men and women in modern times.
“The primary cause is not something we can touch. It’s a matter of innate physical structure. So let’s think about the secondary cause.”
Greece, too, had barren lands. There were lands untouched by human hands. There was wilderness.
“To survive in that wilderness, men, who were naturally stronger than women, had to go out and bring back food, while women, who were naturally weaker than men, had no choice but to wait for the men to bring it back.”
That is where it begins. Animals that merely follow their wild nature and instincts do not use them as a pretext for discrimination.
“But what about humans? What about gods?”
In the end, the problem is the reason of humans, who became aware of the innate differences between men and women.
Gender equality? Sounds nice.
But would gender equality arise by favoring only one side? The answer is no.
Look at the Amazons. There, they are hostile to men and look down on them instead.
Is there gender equality there? Of course not. That is discrimination in the opposite direction.
“If you want to achieve gender equality, become a strong woman. And make other women strong as well.”
Then there would be a path for that strong woman to seep into society and change it. Whether she would be broken by that society or change it would be up to that strong woman herself.
※
It was a relief that she seemed to have developed her own beliefs in her own way.
After that, a week passed, and Atalanta left as well.
Ever since my parents died, time seemed to pass rather quickly.
In the meantime, I grew closer to Caeneus, Peleus, and Nestor by talking with them about various things, even though we had been somewhat distant before.
Caeneus was a strong woman with a different direction from Atalanta, so all that was needed was to create the right situation. Peleus had virtue and reputation, but lacked personal desire, so I tried to stimulate that. With Nestor, I talked about the stories of how people lived.
As for Asclepius, well, we had already been close because of our shared interest in caring for others, and as time passed he rose to a position similar to Heracles.
“...? What is it, you guys? Why are the three of you coming to see me together?”
“““We ran into each other up ahead.”””
Oh? In unison!?
“Anyway, yeah. You’re here because it’s about time for you to go too, right?”
The three of them had entered Chiron’s tutelage around the same time, one every other day, so they must have become close friends with one another.
“Yeah.”
I sent the two aside, excluding Peleus, so they could talk alone. Peleus... before I possessed Jason, he was the hero I knew the least about.
At most, he was Achilles’s father, or Thetis’s husband.
“So you’re jealous of my reputation?”
And unlike the combative Achilles, I only knew him as a pacifist and a simple, honest man, unfit for the position of king.
“Yeah...”
But then.
“It’s just... I’m not very good at making new friends... heh heh...”
I had not expected him to be this honest. I had not expected him to be this incapable of feeling the goodwill of others.
What I had to say to this guy was, of course...
“Quit it, you idiot.”
You hypocritical bastard. You have more reputation than I do, so what are you even complaining about?
“Get lost!!!”
I chased him off for the moment and called Nestor over.
Nestor, the hero of wisdom.
He was already showing the signs from a young age.
“How should this be resolved? Isn’t there any other way?”
Don’t ask me when you already know the answer to everything, you’re just as much of a hypocrite as Peleus.
“You get lost too.”
Smiling brightly, I kicked him away.
Lastly, Caeneus. A female hero, just like Atalanta.
As expected, she had come to me with the same concern as Atalanta. The difference was...
“Hahahah!! Now this is fun!”
Her personality was considerably more boisterous.
Both of them were easygoing in their own way. If Atalanta was rather taciturn, then Caeneus was lively. That made her easier to get close to, though.
“Indeed, Jason, you are impressive. From the very first time I came here, you saw through the fact that I was dressed as a man and said nothing, and on top of that you even hold such views.”
A woman like her was exactly the strong woman I had spoken of to Atalanta.
“Then, Jason, let me ask you one more thing.”
Why must humans be toyed with by gods, unable to resist even once?
...The gods, huh. Thinking of Caeneus’s future made it even more so. I was curious about that too.
Why could “Jason” not escape the frame of fate set by the gods? Why did Medea have to become unhappy? Why did Hera make Jason face judgment? Why did Medea have to have her emotions manipulated by a god so that she would come to love Jason?
“Just as we want to carve our ‘existence’ into the world and leave it behind.”
It was probably the same for the gods.
Humans believe in gods. Humans are believed in by other humans.
Only humans believe in others. And carry them forward forever as stories.
With that consultation as the last, the three of them also left Chiron and went out to face the world.
It was about time I went out too.
The preparations were complete.
Now all that remained was...
Preparation for departure.
※
Even Asclepius had gone out into the world, and the only ones left were the Dioscuri siblings and me.
The three of us would step into the world almost at the same time.
We would each walk our own path, and meet again when I gathered people around me.
The Dioscuri siblings were no longer the mischievous little rascals they had once been.
They really had grown up...
“I hear one of your younger siblings is supposed to be unbelievably beautiful?”
“What. You interested too?”
“Of course not. If I were interested, I’d have asked while clinging to you lot like this.”
When I asked about Helen, both of them twitched their eyebrows at the same time, then, after recognizing that I was the one asking, they teased me in return.
Judging by the way their voices trembled, they really did cherish their family tremendously.
As Castor attacked with an overhead slash, his sword thick with emotion, I let it pass with a dry laugh. Pollux’s expression, as she came in with a delayed low slash aimed at my legs, had lost much of the childish mischief it once had.
Taking two calm steps back to evade, I saw that she did not come in with a horizontal slash, but a diagonal one.
Well now, when they were children, their stubbornness made them easy to avoid, but now I had to counter them. I raised my sword and struck the center where their diagonal sword paths overlapped, pushing both of them back at once.
“Now it’s my turn to attack, right?”
Come on, block this! Half-bloods!
I gripped my sword with both hands, lifted it firmly, and brought it down without any flourish, just bluntly. There was no technique to it, only a sword I had swung thousands, tens of thousands of times until now. That strike, pushed to the extreme of efficiency, was enough to force even the half-bloods back for a long while, despite their overlapping swords and their attempt to block it properly, though they had not yet fully grown.
“Haah, this really is like you. You don’t hold back at all, do you?”
Pollux shook out her wrist lightly and exchanged a signal with Castor before charging again.
So you even prepared a combo!?
While Castor rushed straight at me to draw my attention to himself, Pollux hid behind him and then darted in to strike at the opening. But before she could exploit that opening, if I kicked Castor, then Pollux behind him would topple over as well.
“Blinding your opponent so they can’t see is fine, but if you stay in a straight line until the attack comes, then the person in front will get knocked backward and you’ll both fall toge...”
But then, the corners of Castor’s mouth curved into a smile.
“Pollux!!!”
“Yes! Go, brother!!!”
Oh? So she was there on purpose to push him from behind?
Pollux did not resist the force pushing her back. Instead, she leaped farther backward, grabbed Castor’s arm as he was being pushed away, spun him around in a wide circle, and hurled him at me.
As he flew, he thrust his sword forward, making his body the shaft and the sword the spearhead. In other words, he had become a thrown spear.
My stance was not perfect right after kicking, but did they really think I would just take that hit?
The moment I deliberately took my other foot off the ground and ruined my stance, both the airborne Castor and Pollux, who had been setting up a kicking-sword stance behind him, could not hide their shock.
You two? You shouldn’t freeze up just because you’re startled.
Using my ruined posture, I supported my falling body with the sword I had driven into the ground. Then, as Castor passed over my head, I used the rebound to launch myself into the air and drove my knee into his abdomen.
“Guhh!!”
“Brother!!”
“Don’t worry about me!!! Keep going!!”
I grabbed Castor by the nape of the neck and sent him flying into a tree so he could rest for a moment. Now it was your turn, Pollux.
Castor’s scream, torn from him in a fit of fury, came at a timing that was either excellent or terrible. Was that why Pollux had hidden herself behind him?
“Exotho (ἐξώθω / to drive out)! Dei (δεῖ / to bind)!”
To use Magecraft.
That was a nasty surprise. But I had no intention of being pushed back that easily!
Just before the Magecraft could take hold of me, I flung my sword sideways like a boomerang. I had to keep those two from focusing on the sword as it flew.
“Gah!”
So this is Magecraft. My body won’t move. Even so...
“You’re still too earlyyyyy!!!! You brats!!!!!”
Grind, grind...
““...””
“Is that thing human?”
“I don’t know. I’m starting to get scared of him.”
As I roared and resisted the Magecraft itself, the siblings who had approached me could only stand there with their mouths shut, blankly watching the Magecraft sigils carved into my body being erased.
“Hey, Castor, Pollux.”
I waved my empty hand in front of them and lifted only the corners of my mouth into a wicked smile.
“Where did my sword go?”
““Ah!””
The moment both of them turned around, my sword, having completed a full circle in the air, struck straight at the center of their brows.
Ting!
So clear and bright~.
“All right, that’s enough from both sides!”
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