Two days later.
Demeter returned to the temple and pushed open the laboratory door.
"Jason, Medea, did you miss Mommy?"
The moment Jason, who was conducting an experiment inside the lab, heard Demeter's voice, he very decisively and skillfully grabbed Medea (who was currently explaining precautions to him) and pushed her straight toward Demeter.
Before Medea could react, she was already enveloped in Demeter's embrace.
Then Demeter rubbed her cheeks hard against Medea's.
"...Is this how you usually treat Medea?" Hecate, who was sitting nearby and had not yet left, looked at Jason with a strange expression.
Jason scratched his head and smiled embarrassedly at Hecate. "Sorry, Teacher. I forgot you were still here. It was just reflex..."
Medea, trapped in Demeter's arms, could neither argue with Jason nor complain to Hecate for the time being.
Although she had grown accustomed to Demeter's enthusiasm over the past few months, this goddess was still, in Medea's heart, the lofty Goddess of Harvest.
So dealing with her remained quite exhausting.
"Hmm? You are..."
While rubbing cheeks with Medea, Demeter naturally noticed Hecate after hearing their conversation. She examined her for a moment, looking puzzled.
Hecate stood up, curtsied elegantly, and smiled. "I am Hecate, daughter of Asteria. It is an honor to meet you, great Goddess Demeter."
"So it's you..." Demeter, still cheek-to-cheek with Medea, gave a slight nod. Her reaction was rather indifferent.
Demeter naturally held no fondness for Hecate. Although Hecate was Persephone's friend and the teacher of both Medea and Jason, she was also the primary culprit who had allowed Persephone to go to the Underworld and leave her side.
Still, what was done was done. Demeter could not exactly say she hated Hecate either.
Soon, Demeter stood up. After Medea finally breathed a sigh of relief and shot Jason a wronged glare, Demeter frowned slightly and said to Hecate, "Since you are here, that means... you were also present when Hermes came a few days ago, correct?"
"Yes." Hecate nodded openly. "I was present... To be precise, I entered your temple without permission because of Hermes. I hope you can forgive my intrusion."
As she answered, Hecate could not help glancing at Jason beside her.
Under normal circumstances, Demeter's first reaction upon seeing her should have been to ask how her daughter Persephone was doing in the Underworld.
After all, she was a total daughter-devotee.
But now...
"So... the reason this child chose you was because you came?"
Demeter's frown deepened.
Seeing this, Jason naturally realized Demeter had misunderstood. Just as he was about to speak up and explain, Hecate stopped him with a gesture.
"You could say that." Hecate smiled and nodded at Demeter. "Although it was not my intention, my arrival here did indeed cause this child to choose me over Hera."
"Do you realize what kind of disaster this will bring upon him?!"
Demeter's face darkened. She was already growing angry.
As her anger rose, the entire temple trembled slightly!
"I can roughly guess, which is why I stayed instead of returning immediately." Hecate replied calmly. "Great Goddess Demeter, may I ask you something?"
"Even if I tell you, what then?"
"If you tell me, I can protect him better, can I not?"
Hearing this, Demeter stared at Hecate for a while before her emotions gradually settled.
"In that case... follow me." With that, Demeter turned and left the room.
Hecate followed, leaving only Medea and Jason in the laboratory.
"Sigh, looks like today's lessons are canceled... By the way, I've always wanted to complain. Isn't potion-making supposed to involve a huge cauldron where you toss in all sorts of things while chanting weird spells?
The more I do it, the more it feels like I'm conducting chemistry experiments."
"Chemistry experiments? Big Brother Jason, what is that?" Medea, finally freed from Demeter's embrace, walked over.
"And brewing potions in a big cauldron... wouldn't that be too wasteful? The higher-grade the potion, the more precise the measurement and control of ingredients must be. One tiny mistake and everything is ruined. Big Brother Jason, you must never experiment recklessly."
"I know, I know. I was just saying."
After speaking, Jason saw Medea looking hesitant and worried. He smiled and said, "What is it? I'm your big brother. If you have something to say, just say it."
"Never mind, no need to ask. I know what you want to know... Since I've already made my choice, that means I'm mentally prepared. I just didn't expect Teacher to..."
At this point, Jason's feelings grew complicated.
The choice he made and the choice Hecate had effectively forced him into were naturally very different.
In the former case, Hera would only hold a grudge against him alone. Now, because of Hecate's actions, Hera would hate both of them.
And most of the hatred would probably be redirected onto Hecate!
This also gave Jason room to maneuver.
The "ordinary" path had originally been completely severed, but Hecate had reconnected it, once again giving Jason the possibility of choosing an ordinary life.
"With this... wicked disciple, it seems I have no choice but to accept the role."
Not long after, Hecate returned. She had obtained the answers from Demeter.
It was more or less what both she and Jason had expected.
Although this choice had thoroughly enraged Hera, Jason did not need to worry too much in the short term.
Just the prophecy from the three Fates was enough for Zeus to prevent Hera from openly attacking Jason.
Thus, Jason's current situation was somewhat similar to Heracles'.
What he needed to be wary of was attacks from the shadows.
After clarifying what she wanted to know, Hecate soon departed. She knew Demeter was not fond of her presence.
And Jason, who never sat idly by when trouble arose, naturally began thinking about how to deal with the problem of Queen Hera!
That very night, after secretly slipping a sleeping potion into the apple he gave Medea so she would fall asleep early, Jason sat alone by the window with pen and paper, beginning to plan.
After a very long period of contemplation, Jason ultimately decided to temporarily set the matter aside.
Because unlike the situation with Demeter, this was not easy to resolve.
The feasible solutions were essentially those three paths.
First: leave Hecate again and go to Hera.
Although Hera would still be dissatisfied, having regained face, she might not continue targeting Jason.
Second: build good relations with Apollo, Athena, and especially Zeus and Hestia, then have them pressure Hera.
Third: if he truly could not escape, find a way to solve the problem permanently!
The first was the simplest, but Jason had already made his choice.
The second carried too many unknowns. Gods were trouble. It might not solve the Hera problem and could instead invite even greater trouble.
As for the third, under the current circumstances, Jason could hardly imagine any chance of success.
He lacked the power to kill Hera, and even if he did, he had no way to survive Zeus and the others afterward.
Through this line of thinking, Jason grasped a crucial point.
"In the end... it all comes down to my own lack of strength!"
"Although my soul has reached a pseudo-immortal state and almost no one except Zeus's divine thunder can kill me, imprisoning me is ridiculously easy. That is exactly why I am so passive."
"Therefore, my primary goal right now is not to choose a future path, but to increase my own power!"
"After all, Teacher Hecate did say those three paths are all 'miracles.' The path I am most likely to walk right now is still the original Jason's old path."
Jason fell silent and quietly burned the paper in his hand with inextinguishable flames until nothing remained.
"My mindset needs to change... It seems the truth Teacher Hecate showed me really rattled me and almost threw me off balance!"
"For now, I can only set Hera aside. She cannot touch me openly in the short term. Continuing to study magic under Teacher Hecate remains the top priority.
Moreover, through this period of study, I have realized that my talent truly does not lie in magic. I will not give up, but regarding Teacher Chiron... I probably need to discuss it with Teacher Hecate."
"There are still two months until the half-year agreement. During these two months, I can no longer keep rejecting Demeter. As the Goddess of Harvest, with her around, obtaining any divine materials will be relatively easy."
"However... now that I have offended Hera, how can I most effectively ensure I can obtain divine fire in the future?"
Jason fell into hesitation once more.
On a fresh sheet of paper, he wrote down the names of many gods, then crossed them out one by one as he thought.
In the end, only three names remained.
Zeus, Hestia, and Athena.
After further consideration, Jason crossed out Zeus. Unless absolutely necessary, he wanted as little contact with him as possible.
Then, after lingering between Hestia and Athena for a long time, Jason finally... crossed out Hestia.
"It seems in the future we will have much to do with each other... Goddess Athena."
In the blink of an eye, the final two-plus months passed.
The time had come. Persephone, filled with apprehension, rode the golden-horned deer borrowed from Artemis and returned to Demeter's temple.
As she wondered how she should face her mother...
"Go back!"
"...Huh?"
Inside the temple, Persephone stared blankly at Demeter, who showed her no pleasant expression and was hugging Medea with one arm and Jason with the other.
Her own mother, refusing to let the two leave.
"Go back. You go back to your Underworld! Medea, Jason, don't leave. Please don't leave Mommy, okay..."