The trials of the Golden Fleece were divided into three parts.
The first and second, Jason had already completed.
So what remained was only the last one.
That was to venture deep into the ancient grove and defeat the sleepless poison dragon guarding the Golden Fleece!
This poison dragon's name was unknown, but because it guarded the Golden Fleece, it was later known as the Colchian Dragon.
However, its origins could be traced.
Moreover, its identity was indeed quite fitting for the fate of being subjugated by a hero, and it was not entirely unconnected to Jason.
It was the child of Typhon, the ancestor of all monsters, and the serpent witch Echidna.
That was right, it was of the same kind as the monster Chimera that laid waste to the earth, the Hydra, and Ladon, the hundred-headed dragon guarding the golden apples!
...
Jason returned to the side of the Argo's heroes and returned the Heavenly Bow in his hand to Atalanta.
"Atalanta, thank you."
"Mm, no problem..."
Atalanta took the Heavenly Bow, but at this moment, her expression was not very good.
Because...
"Great Moon Goddess Artemis, may I ask what this is...?"
Atalanta forced a smile onto her face.
She stared at the noble goddess before her, who was holding Jason's arm and staying by his side.
The Moon Goddess Artemis...
The most favored goddess in the Olympian court.
That was right; after this goddess had accompanied Jason in drawing the bow and shooting the arrow to resolve the enemies, she had not chosen to leave.
Instead, she had lingered.
Thus, at this moment, the scene was extraordinarily quiet.
Many people present had already been unable to recover from that single arrow for a long time.
Now, witnessing the descent of a great goddess here, they were even more dumbfounded!
"Because little Jason just promised me that tonight, he will make me some sweets to eat!"
Under Atalanta's gaze, Artemis replied righteously while hugging Jason even tighter and staring at Atalanta.
Her demeanor seemed as if she feared Atalanta would reach out and snatch Jason from her grasp.
This made Atalanta's expression even stiffer, and she silently shifted her gaze, looking toward Jason with a resentful air.
Seeing this, Jason revealed a bitter smile.
He blinked at Atalanta, signaling to her in secret: "Do not look at me; I do not want this either. I have no choice!"
Seeing this, Atalanta only felt a headache coming on.
But to speak of it, this was not the first time.
Because it had happened too many times, Atalanta had developed a certain resistance to Artemis's willful behavior, especially her willfulness toward Jason.
She had grown numb to it.
Thus, Atalanta did not say much more. She rolled her eyes at Jason in annoyance, her expression carrying a slight hint of reproach, then stepped forward and pulled the Moon Goddess Artemis away from Jason's side.
"Goddess Artemis, come with me. I have something to say to you."
"Eh, wait, little Atalanta. Little Jason, he..."
"Jason still has matters to attend to... Rest assured; he will come over later. He promised you, Goddess Artemis, and he will not go back on his word."
As Atalanta spoke, she led away the reluctant Artemis.
After all, it would not do to let a goddess stay here like this.
After Atalanta took Artemis away, Jason clearly let out a sigh of relief.
Then he noticed that everyone was staring at him with exceptionally strange gazes, silently.
Including his teacher, the wise centaur Chiron.
"Originally, my evaluation of you has always been quite high."
Chiron examined the Jason before him and finally could not help but exclaim in admiration: "But now it seems it was still too conservative.
Child, you truly surprise me too much.
However..."
As he spoke, Chiron's gaze shifted toward the direction of Atalanta and Artemis, then returned, looking at Jason with an odd expression: "Jason, you never told me that your relationship with the great Goddess Artemis is also this close?"
What Chiron implied was, what about Hecate, Hephaestus, Athena, and the others?
When Jason had bitterly complained to Chiron about how heavy the love from these goddesses was, he had not mentioned Artemis at all.
But in truth, it was not just Artemis.
Queen Hera would undoubtedly get involved now.
The hearth goddess Hestia had witnessed Jason grow up and had appeared multiple times to help him, expressing her fondness for him.
The agriculture goddess Demeter was his godmother.
Oh, right, and the agriculture goddess's daughter, Queen Persephone of the underworld, his elder sister.
Only the love goddess Aphrodite might choose to watch from the sidelines.
So Jason, how exactly do you plan to divide that 'golden apple' of yours?
And if one added Typhon, the ancestor of all monsters who stirred up chaos and represented chaos itself, fearing that the world would not be chaotic enough, it would be even more amusing.
How could Jason not understand what Chiron meant by his words.
Thus, his expression stiffened slightly.
But before Jason could complain to Chiron about exposing shortcomings.
Once the figures of Moon Goddess Artemis and Atalanta had completely disappeared, the heroes finally could not hold back any longer and all surrounded Jason one by one.
"Junior Brother Jason, you are too amazing!"
"Junior Brother Jason, so it turns out it was not the great Goddess Artemis who killed the Calydonian Boar back then, but you!"
"Junior Brother Jason, teach me; I want to learn too!"
"Yes, yes, Junior Brother Jason, teach me; I want to learn, I want to learn!"
"Mm... Jason, if you are willing to teach, I would not mind becoming a student once."
In the end, even the wise centaur Chiron joined the crowd in teasing and laughing.
Looking at this lively scene before him.
The goddess of fate Clotho looked at Medea beside her, who was silently watching this from afar, and could not help but say softly: "What is wrong, Medea? Why do you not go over to congratulate your elder brother?"
"No." Medea shook her head lightly and said: "Elder brother does not like this... He actually does not like others praising or extolling his name."
"Oh?" Clotho blinked lightly.
"Elder brother is actually a bit similar to Teacher Hecate; neither of them cares for empty fame... In fact, elder brother does not even want to become a hero."
At this point, Medea paused slightly, then looked toward the direction where Atalanta had left, and said: "That is why I envy that girl so much... She knows more sides of elder brother that I do not.
Just like today, elder brother's incredibly handsome side!"
"Handsome." Clotho said softly, recalling what she had seen and witnessed today, as well as yesterday.
She could not help but sigh once more: "Ah, Goddess Hecate, she truly... has such good fortune!"
It was not just Clotho who thought this way.
The gods hiding among the stars naturally felt the same.
Gazing below at Jason, who remained the most radiant among the many heroes, for a long while...
"Damnable Hecate!"
In unison, the most venomous words!
Athena, Hera, Hestia, and the others had not rehearsed this at all.
Under this scene before their eyes, they all gritted their teeth and whispered their heartfelt thoughts.
Their expressions were ones of pure envy, jealousy, and hatred...
Even at this moment, the war god Ares nodded in agreement from the side, and even Queen Persephone of the underworld, who had sneaked out, felt the same.
After all, although Jason had a good relationship with Persephone, he ultimately belonged to Hecate; he was Hecate's child.
Ah, what an ugly scene, ugly jealousy, ugly possessiveness.
The only clear-headed messenger of the gods, Hermes, watched them with a stance of everyone drunk but him sober.
In his heart, pah, pah, pah.
And he even wanted to grab a melon to eat and quench his thirst.
As for Hecate at this moment...
"Ah... Ah-choo!"
In her temple, Hecate, who had just sneezed heavily, was a bit dazed.
"What is going on!" Not understanding the situation, Hecate said in astonishment: "I have already sealed off my perceptions, so why can it still reach me?
Who is it? What grudge is this big!
Who have I offended!"
After speaking, Hecate pinched her fingers to calculate... She unsealed her perceptions to check who was calling her name.
Soon, Hecate fell silent.
Then she silently sealed it again.
At the same time, she added several layers of magical seals... Feeling it was not secure enough, she added dozens more.
Hey, anyway, she had not seen it, had not heard it!
Then Hecate originally wanted to end it like this, pretending nothing had happened.
But she paced back and forth.
Thinking, and thinking again...
The more she thought, the angrier she got!
Thus, she revoked all the seals again.
Then, aiming at Athena, she called out: "If it is damnable, then so be it; he is my child, he belongs to me. You were just one step late; you will never have him!"
After speaking, before the stunned Athena could react.
Hecate sealed off the gods' perceptions once more and added layer upon layer of locks.
Mm, that felt good.
Time to do experiments, do experiments.
Leaving behind Athena, whose expression had completely darkened, eyes wide, teeth gritted, yet utterly helpless...
Athena truly had no way to deal with Hecate now.
Because Hecate had dirt on her.
It was the matter from yesterday's three minutes, where she had pressed Hecate in battle and injured her.
Hecate had recorded all of it.
And if Jason were to see that...
"Damnable, too damnable!
Hateful, too hateful!"
Athena stamped her feet in hatred, then said fiercely: "Hecate, remember this; we will see!"
As for all this aftermath, Jason was naturally completely unaware.
He had no idea that the situation he worried about most was still about to form and gradually become reality.
As time passed, the gods, especially those few goddesses, found their jealousy and possessiveness increasingly hard to suppress and conceal.
And all of this would eventually have a day when it could no longer be suppressed and would erupt...
However, even without erupting now, it was enough to give Jason a headache.
After all, Artemis was different from Athena and the others; she did not understand at all what restraint was, what patience or self-control meant.