"What should I do?"
That afternoon, after leaving Hephaestus's temple,
riding the heavenly horse now fitted with silver reins and horseshoes, Jason fell into thought.
Then he took out from the silver pouch at his waist the compass Athena had given him that could locate others.
While Jason hesitated between going straight to Apollo, God of Light,
or first visiting Prometheus, the foreknowing god he had long wanted to meet,
an eagle's cry rang out. Jason instinctively looked up and saw a mighty eagle that had been lying in wait for some time soaring toward him from ahead.
It landed on Jason's instinctively outstretched arm.
An eagle?… Wait, an eagle?!
Eagle!!!
After a brief daze and a short stare into the eagle's golden eyes, Jason's entire body instantly stiffened.
Because he remembered something.
In the current world, the third-generation king of the gods in Greek mythology, the supreme heavenly god who ruled over all things, the chief of the Twelve Olympians—Zeus.
The bull and the eagle were his symbols!
And now, Jason very clearly noticed that this eagle was examining him with an extremely human gaze…
Oh heavens, does this count as dying before victory is achieved!
I was just worrying about Apollo, and now I've run into something even more terrifying!
What do I do, what do I do? Should I pretend not to know, or should I act as if I fully understand and greet him?!
While Jason's heart pounded and his mind raced for a solution, another eagle cry sounded.
The eagle flapped its wings, rose from Jason's arm, turned, and flew off to the right front.
After flying a short distance, it looked back at Jason and let out a sharp cry, clearly telling him to follow.
The heavenly horse turned its head to look at Jason.
'What do we do?'
Jason rolled his eyes. What else could they do?
With helpless resignation, Jason gently patted the heavenly horse and said, "Follow it… It seems to have something to tell us."
At this moment, Jason was already certain in his heart.
Even if this eagle was not Zeus himself transformed, it had definitely been sent by Zeus!
Thus the heavenly horse obediently followed the eagle. After flying over numerous mountains and rivers, the eagle finally led the heavenly horse and Jason to a forest near the kingdom of Libya and landed.
By now dusk was approaching. As they descended, Jason naturally noticed a small to medium-sized village nearby.
The eagle perched on a branch and began preening its feathers.
After dismounting, Jason looked up at the eagle grooming itself. Faintly hearing conversation from the people in the distance,
he thought for a moment before tentatively asking the eagle, "Excuse me, have those people encountered some trouble? Did you bring me here to help them?"
The eagle glanced at Jason, continued grooming its feathers, and ignored him.
Seeing this, Jason hesitated briefly, tidied his clothes, asked the heavenly horse to wait a moment, and walked over.
His sudden appearance naturally aroused considerable wariness among the villagers.
But they saw that Jason was dressed splendidly, handsome, dignified, and wore a precious sword—he was clearly no ordinary person.
Moreover, Jason's smile was friendly and approachable. With the attack of a few gold coins, he quickly obtained the information he wanted.
According to rumor, in the kingdom of Libya there was an extraordinarily beautiful and noble queen whose beauty was said to rival even the goddesses in heaven!
Her name was Lamia.
Because of her surpassing beauty, she had even attracted the attention of a great god from above who bestowed upon her a "blessing."
But good times did not last. Probably because her beauty aroused the jealousy of a passing witch, one day the people of the kingdom suddenly discovered that their breathtakingly beautiful queen had transformed into a monster—upper body a seductive woman, lower body a serpent!
And the transformed Lamia lost all the gentleness she had possessed as queen and became utterly cruel. She even personally killed her own children!
After breaking through the encirclement of the kingdom's warriors, she fled into the ancient forest. Thereafter, whenever the moon was "eaten" and became incomplete,
she would emerge from the forest, search for crying children everywhere, slaughter them, and devour them!
These people were villagers from a settlement close to the ancient forest rumored to be Queen Lamia's lair.
Because more than half of the village's children had been devoured and many young men had died at the hands of the half-woman, half-serpent monster who was once their queen,
with no other choice, they could only abandon their homes and migrate toward the kingdom of Lycia.
Night fell. Having learned the situation, Jason returned to the heavenly horse's side.
After glancing once at the eagle, he immediately looked away… Jason had mostly pieced together what was going on.
Because Jason clearly understood one thing: King of Gods Zeus was truly not that kind-hearted.
More importantly, Lamia was a queen whose beauty was rumored to rival the goddesses.
And now Zeus had brought him here because of this matter…
Therefore, it was obvious that the so-called "blessing" was very likely related to Zeus, and almost certainly a romantic escapade.
As for why she had suddenly become a half-serpent monster, that was almost certainly because Hera had discovered Zeus's affair with Lamia and cursed her in rage.
Great. The matter with Io is not even settled yet, and now there is another Queen Lamia… What should I say? As expected of you, King of Gods Zeus?
Jason's expression was very calm. At this moment, no one knew what he was thinking. The only ones who might have glimpsed a hint were probably Medea, Hecate, and the centaur sage Chiron.
Jason was a little angry right now, even somewhat disdainful… toward King of Gods Zeus.
Originally, after the matter with Persephone, upon learning that Zeus had actually helped behind the scenes, Jason's opinion of him had been neutral… He was unaware that Zeus had schemed against Hades.
And now, his impression of King of Gods Zeus had clearly turned negative.
After all, as a traverser who described himself as a "selfish little man," in the eyes of Hestia, Athena, and the other gods, Jason was still a pure-hearted existence.