[T/N: 1.5 x Chapter]
In the moonlit night, next to a campfire.
Jason is leaning on the crouched Pegasus and has closed his eyes to rest while desperately pretending to be asleep.
At the same time, Jason is thinking about how he should deal with this matter, after all, he has already tried, but the eagle isn't responding to his questions.
'Does Zeus want me to remove the curse given by Hera to Lamia, which has turned her from a respected and loved Queen to a half-human and half-snake monster?'
'And since Zeus has brought me here at this time and the eagle still hasn't moved from the branch, it is very likely that tonight is going to be an eventful and sleepless night...'
While thinking this, Jason doesn't even dare to fall asleep.
On one hand, Jason doesn't want to miss whatever is going to happen tonight and consequently increase the time of his stay with Zeus.
And on the other hand, Jason is indeed afraid that Zeus might give a 'gracious gift' to him too, and his current negative impression of Zeus just isn't helping with it.
After all, Jason still hasn't confirmed if this eagle is actually Zeus in person or not.
'Who knows what would happen if I really fell asleep?!'
As for why Jason has even closed his eyes and is trying his best to pretend to be asleep, he is also afraid of the possibility that suddenly a bonfire will appear near him, then the eagle will turn to Zeus and with a kind look on his face, Zeus will hint at him to lie down on his lap.
At this moment, Jason is starting to miss the goddesses quite a bit, hoping that a Goddess can replace the position with Zeus: 'Someone, please come and save me!'
Just when Jason was shouting this in his heart.
Maybe the will of the World was moved by his heartfelt cry, so although it didn't send a Goddess, it did send a half-human half-snake monster.
"Help, help!"
A sudden call for help originating from a distance reached Jason's ears.
So, Jason immediately opened his eyes, then got up and looked in the direction of the group of villagers that is migrating to the Kingdom of Libya.
Therefore, Jason immediately took out his Magic Staff, and after using both the stealth spell and the comprehensive strengthening spell, Jason began running hurriedly towards the group of villagers.
So, just a short while later, Jason saw the villagers fleeing in fear.
Therefore, Jason also noticed the female monster that is half human and half snake under the light torches being carried by villagers, who are being chased by her.
So, Jason immediately concluded that this female monster is the former Queen of Lybia, Lamia, who has been cursed by Hera to turn into a monster.
Then, while relying on stealth magic, Jason soon came to Lamia's side, so under the light of the flaming torches, Jason finally saw her face clearly.
And Jason also noticed that as if to purposefully make everyone aware of the real identity of this child-eating monster, her upper body is still that of a human showing her original appearance.
Which is a noble-looking beautiful blonde woman that even Jason feels is worthy of the reputation her beauty holds.
But at this moment, she is fighting against a few young farmers who have raised their wooden farming forks with trembling hands.
While observing Lamia with his emerald eyes, Jason soon discovered that Lamia's expression is very painful, and she is just screaming threateningly at these people, rather than directly hurting them.
Jason concluded this because he had estimated that otherwise, with the strength of Lamia, just her colorful long snake tail is probably more than enough to easily kill all the villagers fighting against her in just a single swipe.
So, knowing that neither side is going to get hurt anytime soon, Jason began observing the fight.
And soon Jason noticed that Lamia's screams are becoming increasingly harsh, and her attacks are also becoming more savage and fatal.
Finally, Jason felt like Lamia's expression had completely turned to one befitting the word monster, with so much hatred shown in her eyes that it looks like she is already blinded by it.
So, being unable to bear the torture of the curse, Lamia was ready to tear up everyone and everything in front of her.
But just as she roared and swung her colorful slake tail, Jason, who is still hiding using the stealth spell, easily blocked her tail with his Magic Staff.
Rather, because Lamia had used too much strength, the resulting collision of her tail with the strengthened Magic Staff caused her to release a painful groan.
"Eh...wh, what just happened?" The villagers, whom Jason had just rescued, are still panicking and surprised due to surviving a fatal blow.
But on the other side, Lamia, who had become even more irritable because of the pain, waved her slender but sharp claws while letting out a harsh scream.
And Lamia's target is once again the villagers, whom she is staring at with her now significantly more irrational and beastly eyes.
Therefore, seeing this, Jason had to remove the stealth spell and appear between these villagers and Lamia, to make Lamia stop targeting the villagers by becoming her new target.
Then, under the shocked eyes of those behind Jason, who is shining in light blue due to still using the strengthening spell, after easily resisting Lamia's claws with his Magic Staff, Jason said lightly: "Back off."
After speaking this, Jason used slightly more effort in pushing the Magic Staff that is still resisting Lamia's claws, which caused Lamia to fall back quite a bit.
"Who are you?!"
Lamia's eyes widened and asked while glaring at blond and emerald-eyed Jason in front of her.
"Heracles." Then, under the gaze of Lamia and those villagers who were rescued by him, Jason confidently replied.
'Well, that's right, I am Heracles now.'
'As for Jason?'
'Who is that? Sorry, never heard of it!'
[T/N: For those who might have not known, Heracles literally means 'Hera's pride'.]
"Hera...Hera, Hera, HERA!!!"
Upon hearing the word Hera, Lamia's expression gradually became more angry and violent with her eyes turning more irrational.
Although Jason was a little surprised by Lamia's immediate response, he had also somewhat expected this, due to the reason Lamia soon spoke herself.
"My child, my child is... Hera I hate you, I HATE HERA!"
Finally, even stronger anger rose up in her heart and along with Hera's curse, her eyes finally turned completely irrational
Therefore, immediately, under the light of flames on torches, in the eyes of villagers still hiding behind Jason due to not being fast enough to escape and villagers who had willingly stayed behind to block Lamia and give others a chance of escaping, a scene appeared in front of them that for them, till now, has only existed in the songs of bards.
And later on, when these villagers will be told to describe this scene, they will describe it as: 'We saw a hero, a son of God, who was dressed in snow-white clothes and had blonde hair and emerald eyes, he was glowing even under the night sky, looking as dazzling as the great God of Light Apollo is described.'
'He raised the luminous weapon in his hand and fought against Lamia, who had turned into a monster, to protect the people behind him.'
'And matching his mighty strength, he had an equally mighty name - 'Heracles'!'
*****
Although this battle lasted for half an hour, in fact, Jason could have finished it just a few moments after it began.
After all, how could Lamia, who had been transformed from a queen into a monster and that too not really a strong monster, be current Jason's opponent.
Therefore, Jason believes and had indeed gotten more than one chance to easily kill Lamia.
But Jason naturally knows that he can't kill Lamia, after all, he believes that from not far away, that eagle, and consequently Zeus, must be watching this fight.
And, simultaneously, Jason is quite puzzled by Zeus's relatively indifferent attitude towards this matter.
'After bringing me here, he has been just watching from the side, without clearly mentioning, or even indirectly hinting, whether I should kill or save...'
'So, what should I do now?'
After pondering over this problem while resisting Lamia's attacks, due to not being able to think of an immediate solution in a short time, at first, Jason decided to capture Lamia.
However, pretty soon, Jason discovered that the irrationality in Lamia's eyes, due to the painful influence of the curse and hate towards Hera, is gradually decreasing.
So, after a while, Lamia regained her rationality and stopped her savage attack on Jason.
And after Lamia stopped attacking, she looked at the scene in front of her with a slightly dazed expression.
So, noticing the people looking at her with fear, then looking at the blond youngster in front of her, who she believes is clearly a hero, Lamia quickly realized what was going on, so her expression changed from that of confusion to one of regret and pain.
Still, Lamia gave Jason a grateful glance, before she turned around and quickly disappeared into the forest under the moonlit night.
Because looking at Jason clearly not intending to attack her anymore Lamia guessed that the hero, who had reported his name as Heracles, had purposefully not killed her and stopped her from harming more innocent people till she recovered her rationality.
Jason looked at the leaving figure of Lamia, then after looking at the eagle, who had flown here but is still not hinting at anything and is just watching Lamia leave, Jason turned around and whistled.
Hearing this whistle, Pegasus, who had been already flying in the sky above where Jason was fighting, came down and landed near Jason.
But in the admiring eyes of villagers behind Jason, it looked like the hero has summoned a pure-white mount from the moonlight, then while riding on the winged horse, the hero left to chase in the direction of monster Lamia.
So, these villagers decided to add this line too in the legends of 'Heracles'.
Do you know, in Greek Mythology, although it is mentioned that Cronus, Zeus's father, was a merciless and cruel ruler who was defeated and overthrown by his children, it is also mentioned that after being overthrown, he had reverted back to his good old ways, the very same one due to which he had established the Golden Age of Man.
So, in time, after being released from Tartarus, Cronus was promoted to be the ruler of the Islands of the Blessed, a heaven-like abode in Greek Mythology, where the souls of only the greatest heroes lived after their earthly deaths.