Heh heh.
Looking at Amphitrite's clumsy acting, Hera could not help but laugh.
As for the meaning behind this laugh, probably only she herself knew at this moment.
And just then,
"Noble and great Queen of the Sea, Goddess Amphitrite, Jason earnestly prays to you here. Please use your supreme divine power to carry Scylla and me away from the Argo and the Charybdis whirlpool."
Jason's prayer suddenly rang out, causing Amphitrite, upon hearing it, to twitch her eyelids involuntarily.
What are you doing, Jason?
Amphitrite glanced at the expressionless Hera beside her, thinking to herself, "In this situation, how can I possibly help you!"
"...He is calling you."
Hera said without turning her head. "Will you not act, Amphitrite?"
"This..." Amphitrite felt utterly embarrassed and at a loss, so she cast a pleading glance toward Hestia nearby.
Hestia, however, indicated that she was powerless to help; she had no way either.
"That child is calling you, noble Queen of the Sea Amphitrite."
At that moment, a voice that was undoubtedly heavenly music to Amphitrite's ears resounded in her heart.
Under the instinctive gazes of the several gods present, who turned their heads to look.
"Athena!" Amphitrite slightly raised her voice, calling out the other's name.
That was right. Athena, who had been absent for so long, had finally returned at this moment.
Dressed in a sacred gown, with an elegant smile, the pearl of the Olympian divine court, the Goddess of Wisdom Athena stepped out from the clouds and came before them.
Seeing her, Amphitrite could not help but breathe a sigh of relief in her heart.
Because everyone knew that as long as Athena was present, her wisdom would guide Jason.
No matter how great the danger, Athena would find a way out!
"You have finally appeared... I thought you would keep hiding until everything ended, my—good daughter!"
Hera narrowed her eyes, looking at Athena.
And she emphasized the words "good daughter" heavily.
First there was Hephaestus, and now Athena... Indeed, a good daughter!
Although Hera was not Athena's birth mother, she was after all the legitimate wife of the current king of the Olympian divine court, Zeus. Thus, Athena was naturally her daughter as well.
Faced with Hera's pointed questioning, Athena's smile did not change in the slightest.
"Mother Goddess Hera, you misunderstand me. I had no intention of hiding from you."
Athena stated candidly.
Though these words drew a disdainful laugh from Hera, they were not a lie.
Because she had no need to hide from Hera at all. Even if Hera learned the truth, it could not affect Athena much.
What she was hiding from was Jason... In her state of uncertainty and not knowing how to face the current Jason, Athena had instinctively withdrawn.
At the same time, it was because of fear.
Athena feared that in Jason's presence, she would not be able to hold back, revealing her true feelings and allowing Jason to detect even a hint of it.
Then she would never be able to see him again.
Moreover, Athena also feared that she would not be able to hold back.
And act to imprison Jason.
That would mean forever losing the chance to truly obtain him.
For this, she had endured no small amount of mocking ridicule from Medusa.
Ridiculing her, a main god of Olympus, the dazzling Goddess of Wisdom among the gods, for becoming like this now.
Athena, even your divine seat as the Goddess of Wisdom is weeping over this.
However, if she were not the Goddess of Wisdom.
For whom loving another was forbidden fruit, something she absolutely should not touch.
Athena would not have become like this either.
"Goddess Amphitrite, he is seeking your help."
Athena then ignored Hera's reaction and said softly to Amphitrite, "As the most benevolent goddess in the great sea, surely you would not refuse such a small request?"
Amphitrite looked at Athena, then stole a glance at Hera.
After hesitating for a moment, she ultimately invoked her authority.
Thus, an invisible force dragged Jason and the sea monster Scylla out from the great whirlpool, carrying the two all the way to a nearby isolated island.
As Hera watched this scene indifferently.
"I know you wish to know the truth, Mother Goddess Hera, but... explaining it to you is not my task." Athena came to her side.
"That child is waiting for you now... He will tell you everything."
Athena pointed at Jason below, who had climbed to his feet on the small island and was expressing his thanks to Amphitrite, and said to Hera.
"This is all your arrangement, is it not, Athena?" Hera said without turning her head, her tone faint. "Are you truly not afraid that I will simply slap him to death!"
"You will not do that... If you truly wished to slap him to death, no one could stop you, great Mother Goddess Hera."
Athena smiled as she spoke, and when Hera's brows furrowed slightly, she continued. "Moreover, Mother Goddess Hera, I am willing to swear upon the River Styx that this is absolutely not my idea, nor the result of my instigation.
To be precise, from the moment the Argo set sail until the end of this journey, I will not intervene or guide Jason."
"Why?" Hera finally turned her head to look at Athena beside her.
"Because this is my tribute... The tribute that child offers to me."
If it had been in the past, when speaking of tributes, Athena would surely have lifted her head and declared it with a tone of pride and boasting.
But now... Her expression darkened uncontrollably.
And she appeared somewhat forlorn.
Hera looked at such an Athena with puzzlement.
Athena naturally would not explain. She turned and left Hera's side.
Then, after a brief silence, Hera ultimately stepped forward, vanishing from the gazes of the gods present.
Seeing this, the Goddess of the Hearth Hestia could not help but sigh. "It has finally come to this step... Will Athena be all right?"
"Do not worry. There will be no problem." Athena smiled and replied to Hestia with full confidence. "After all, he is Jason!"
That was right, the Jason who had never disappointed them once!
However...
"I am still a bit worried. Is it not... a bit too dangerous to let that child meet Hera alone?" Amphitrite could not help but say. "How about we call Hephaestus over?"
"No, we absolutely cannot call Hephaestus... To be precise, neither Hecate nor Hephaestus can appear at this moment!"
Athena shook her head, her expression turning serious as she said, "Even we ourselves had best not keep watching them.
Although danger does exist, this is also the only opportunity!"
"...So I never agreed with this from the start." Hearing this, Hestia could not help but say. "It is far too risky!
We could have simply kept concealing it, and once that child becomes one of us, Hera would naturally have to accept him."
This had also been Jason's initial plan.
Referencing the future Heracles who became the God of Strength.
When he attained equal standing, Hera, even if unwilling in her heart, could only acknowledge Heracles.
Originally, everyone had planned to reveal the truth to Hera only after Jason ascended to godhood.
Faced with Hestia's complaint, Athena gave no reply.
At the beginning, Athena had indeed planned this way, but her agreement with the second-generation queen of the heavens, Rhea, forced her to abandon that notion.
The reason the Goddess Rhea wanted Jason to confess his identity to Hera and seek her forgiveness before ascending to godhood was simple.
She did not want to see a second Hephaestus appear.
If Jason revealed it to Hera after becoming a god, then their relationship would forever remain superficial.
The greater the danger, the greater the reward.
If Jason could truly obtain Hera's forgiveness at this moment.
Then the love for the White-Clothed Heracles and the hatred for Jason would produce a tremendous chemical reaction.
From that point on, Jason would truly become a being beloved by nearly all the gods of the Olympian divine court!
Precisely because she had considered this, Athena had ultimately agreed to Rhea's request back then.
Giving her favored child a corresponding trial.
And upon the trial's conclusion, granting equivalent recompense.
Athena had never intended to sabotage Jason.
Because from the moment she realized her true feelings, she understood that her gaze could no longer shift from Jason.
Her heart... had long since been claimed.
Moreover, all along, more than one god had seen through this.
When speaking of the matter with Phanes, the Goddess Rhea had told Athena that she had fallen in love with that youth... Athena had simply paid it no mind.
Hephaestus and Hecate had also kept saying that the only goddess they needed to guard against was Athena.
The gods had more than once remarked that Athena's doting on Jason was utterly excessive.
Even the king of the gods, Zeus, at some unknown point, had grown increasingly permissive of Athena's interactions with Jason. To be precise, there was even an element of matchmaking in it...
It was simply that by the time Athena noticed this, it was too late.
And Jason naturally would not notice, after all, who could imagine that the lofty Goddess of Wisdom, the pearl of the Olympian divine court, who had sworn to remain a virgin goddess forever, neither to be loved by any god nor to love any god, Athena.
Would fall in love with him,
This utterly ordinary Jason.
...
At sunset and dusk,
Jason gazed remotely at the sun about to set in the distance.
Lost in thought about who knows what.
Crack...
Accompanied by a soft sound beside his ear, Jason abruptly turned his head and saw the goddess approaching him slowly. She was dressed in dignified attire, with regal beauty.
Queen of the Heavens Hera...
Seeing her arrival... To be precise, that she had finally come.
Jason's eyes widened slightly, his body stiffening for a moment before quickly relaxing.
Jason slowly exhaled, rising to give Hera a respectful bow.
Then neither spoke.
Hera's beautiful golden eyes quietly regarded the youth before her.
After a long while, a trace of complexity that words could not describe flashed in her gaze.
"For this trial... How do you intend to resolve it?"
Finally, Hera spoke. She turned her head to look at Scylla, who had been brought to the island by Amphitrite's divine power and had remained unconscious since.
"And what do you mean by bringing her here, away from the Argo?"
Hera asked Jason.
In fact, she did not care how Jason handled Scylla. She merely wanted to use this as a pretext for one final observation.
Or perhaps it was the last flicker of struggle in her heart.
"Lord Hermes has already told me. Her name is Scylla. She was originally a beautiful nymph, but due to the curse of my senior sister, the Night Witch Circe, she became like this."
Facing Hera's inquiry, Jason replied in a very calm tone. "I feel guilt toward her, as a fellow student of Teacher Hecate.
But the Argo, and the companions aboard the Argo, owe her nothing.
Thus, when faced with her attack, I had the companions of the Argo counterstrike. But when she was injured and about to be swallowed by the whirlpool, I left the Argo.
On my own behalf... Not as captain of the Argo, but as the student of Hecate, Jason, I saved her."
Jason looked at Hera and continued. "For this trial, the Argo has already passed, but I have not.
Thus, I briefly left the Argo.
I will lift the curse upon Scylla, then take her to see my teacher and my senior sister, the Night Witch Circe.
And seek her forgiveness.
This... is my answer to this matter!"
Moreover, it was not just that.
What followed was undoubtedly the most dangerous moment, and this was precisely why Jason had chosen to temporarily detach from the Argo, even entrusting Atalanta.
That was the wrath from Queen of the Heavens Hera!
Hera fell silent, listening to Jason's answer.
She looked at the golden-haired, blue-eyed youth before her, who, even under the glow of the setting sun, remained so radiant, comparable to the God of Light Apollo.
Hera's gaze... grew increasingly cold.
"So what?" Hera said coldly. "You prayed to me, praying for me to come here. Do you want me to help you lift the curse upon her?"
"No, that is not it."
Jason shook his head gently and said to Hera, "I already have a way to lift the spell upon the nymph Scylla. For this occasion... I have come to confess something to you, noble Goddess Hera."
"...Confess?"
Hera's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Jason before her.
Her heartbeat... in that instant, suddenly quickened by a beat!
"What do you wish to confess to me?!"
Jason did not answer the beautiful matron's question directly.
He simply reached out and, from the setting sun about to conclude its descent, retrieved an object.
The beautiful seven-stringed lyre...
It was precisely one of the gifts from the God of Light Apollo!
The gift from the God of Light Apollo, the seven-stringed lyre, whose music could dispel all darkness in the world and purify filth... Back then, Io, who had been cursed by Hera and turned into a little cow, had found release under this lyre's melody.
Thus, from the very beginning, Jason had a way to resolve the witchcraft upon Scylla. After all, if it could lift even Queen of the Heavens Hera's curse, how could it possibly fail against Circe's witchcraft?
As long as... he was willing to reveal his other identity!
And the instant Jason produced this lyre, Hera naturally recognized what it was.
After all, it was not her first time seeing it.
At the wedding of the Lord of the Underworld and the Queen of the Underworld back then, Hera had seen this lyre.
Moreover, she naturally knew that this was the gift from the God of Light Apollo to that person, the White-Clothed Heracles!
Boom—!
In that instant, Hera felt as if a thunderbolt exploded in her mind!
Even though, even though she had long harbored suspicions and detections in her heart.
Under the information Jason had deliberately provided, she had gradually discerned the truth.
But...
Hera did not want to believe it.
Hera simply did not want, and refused, to believe this matter!
Yet no matter whether she wished to believe it or not, the fact stood there abruptly and mercilessly before her.
In the next moment, Jason plucked the strings.
The instant he played the melody, light gathered upon his body.
The beautiful music resounded on this isolated island, at the moment the sun was about to set.
The sound from the seven-stringed lyre of the God of Light Apollo, under Jason's playing, became for the surrounding creatures an enjoyment beyond words.
Under this beautiful melody, even ferocious demons and savage beasts would instantly become gentle and docile, bowing their heads in submission.
Then, golden sunlight shone upon this land, and also upon Scylla, who had become a great sea monster.
When the golden sunlight fell upon her, Scylla's originally ferocious expression gradually softened.
At the same time, an indescribable itchiness made Scylla unable to resist scratching with her hands, but the more she scratched, the itchier it became.
Finally, feeling unbearably itchy, Scylla exerted force and, with her pure white hands, tore open her 'outer garment.' She shed from the massive sea monster body with twelve tentacles and emerged from it.
Only then did Scylla feel the itch subside.
Lazily reclining upon her 'enormous' outer garment, listening to the wonderful melody by her ear, she revealed a sweet smile.
Scylla fell into a deep slumber.
Jason rose and slowly approached the nymph Scylla, who had shed her 'outer garment' and now lay with a body pure and flawless.
He removed his black clothes and draped them over Scylla.
At the same time, the sun finally drew its curtain.
The golden seven-stringed lyre in Jason's hand also vanished from it.
When stars emerged in the sky and the bright moon cast its glow in that instant.
Nether butterflies emitting underworld light appeared one by one, circling around Jason and obscuring his figure.
Finally, when the nether butterflies dispersed and moonlight fell upon Jason.
There he stood, clad in that sacred white robe.
And in the reflection of Hera's beautiful golden eyes, amid the cascading moonlight.
In his hand, he held the golden mask forged by the Goddess Hephaestus.
And at this moment, he slowly placed that golden mask upon his face...