Over a month later, Promise and his companions finally arrived in Medea's homeland...
Colchis, where the legendary Golden Fleece lay.
In fact, originally, this would have been a much longer journey.
Under normal circumstances, it shouldn't have gone by so quickly.
However, after what had happened in Olympus, Poseidon, the god of the sea, gifted Promise a painting, and from that day onward, the sea itself had propelled the Argo forward, quickening their pace tremendously.
Because of this favor, Promise had discussed it with Jason and the others, and they had all agreed that when all of this was over and their mission was complete, they would dedicate the Argo as a tribute to the god of the sea in gratitude.
"Ah, we're finally here,"
A young girl stood at the edge of the ship, gazing into the distance with eyes as beautiful as a rainbow.
She then turned to look at the young witch standing beside her, her lips curving into a teasing smile.
"Oh my, my dear Medea, have you figured out how to explain your true identity to your friends?"
Medea tilted her head to glance at the pink-haired girl and replied, "No need for you to worry. I don't think they'll care about my identity... after all, Promise doesn't mind."
She raised an eyebrow at her and continued, "On the contrary, you, dear aunt? Have you thought about how you'll face my father and deal with the punishment from Teacher Hecate?"
After saying this, Medea gave the witch in front of her, a bright smile.
Medea's aunt, who was also one of the great goddess Hecate's other students, was known as the witch of temptation and corruption, a demigoddess of the moon and love... well, these titles were actually secondary and none of these truly mattered.
What mattered was her more infamous role—the greatest loser in ancient Greece in the age of gods: the mythical loser Circe.
That's right, this was Circe, the witch, who liked turning people into pigs, now standing aboard the Argo, exchanging words with Medea.
Circe's confident smile faltered as she saw the mischievous glint in Medea's eyes.
Feeling a bit flustered, she huffed, "You've really changed—gone is that innocent, sweet little girl!"
"Well... if you'd been left alone by your teacher in the underworld temple for three years, ignored by everyone, then unceremoniously kicked out, only to realize that the thing you desire is so dazzlingly sought after by everyone that it's almost impossible to obtain... trust me, you'd change too."
Medea paused for a moment, then smiled brightly at Circe again, saying, "Oh, I forgot. Aunt, you won't understand. After all, you don't even have the qualifications to compete with others. And when you lost, you just cursed everyone in embarrassment."
"Medea, you—" Circe was so angry that her teeth clenched, but before she could finish,
"What are you two talking about, Medea, Circe?"
Promise suddenly appeared nearby.
When he appeared, Medea turned around, and under Circe's silent gaze, the expression on her face immediately changed, and she suddenly became an innocent and lovely girl.
"Oh, Promise, what brings you here?" Medea asked, blinking innocently at him.
"We were just discussing which one of us should head into Colchis and who should stay behind to guard the Argo... Are you two planning to go ashore?"
As he spoke, Promise glanced at Medea, then at Circe.
By the way, when did the witch Circe board the ship?
That was naturally what happened over the past month.
After dealing with the matter of the goddess Thetis, Promise did not spend the entire month staying on the Argo.
Pegasus had carried him on numerous adventures across the skies of the ancient greece, under the watchful eyes of the gods.
Atalanta and Helen, who were used to his antics, paid it no mind, while Jason and Theseus, who initially want to help, gradually become accustomed to seeing him run around on Pegasus.
It was under such circumstances that Circe was captured by Medea in an incident more than half a month ago.
That incident, though, wasn't anything major.
A fisherman had fallen into the sea and accidentally eaten a mysterious seaweed, which gave him the ability to breathe and move underwater.
Soon after, he fell in love with a nymph who lived in the sea.
The problem was that the fisherman already had a wife and children.
So in order to win the love of the nymph in the sea, the fisherman abandoned his wife and children without a second thought and dove into the sea, never to return.
The goddess of justice, Themis, had appeared before Promise because of this incident and, after claiming her own golden apple "to the fairest" (which had become nearly universal by then), entrusted the matter to Promise.
Thanks to the painting gifted by Poseidon, the god of the sea, Promise was able to travel freely within the sea god's domain, and he soon reached the fisherman in question.
Upon arrival, he encountered the cursed sea nymph, Scylla.
However, what surprised Promise, the most was that the one in front of him was not a monstrous creature but as a beautiful and gentle woman.
It turned out that after Scylla's curse, the matter had reached the ears of Poseidon's one true wife, Queen Amphitrite.
In the ocean, Amphitrite, the goddess, held a status akin to Hera's among the Olympians.
Moved by Scylla's plight, she bestowed a blessing upon her, allowing Scylla to return to her original form in the ocean each night under the moonlight.
Looking from her to the fisherman who stared at Scylla with a dazed look on his face, Promise understood what was happening in an instant.
The embarrassed and helpless Scylla later told the story that was not much different from what Promise had guessed.
To put it simply, she had inadvertently rescued the fisherman from drowning, and, predictably, he had fallen in love with her again.
However, unlike before, this time the fisherman hadn't actually been drowning; he had only been diving to catch fish.
When Promise heard this, he was extremely speechless and when he asked about the whereabouts of the witch Circe, Scylla explained that, she was worried about a repeat of past events, so, she had driven her away.
By the way, she also complained that Circe was of no help at all, not to mention her bad temper and her habit of turning people into pigs whenever they annoyed her.
So Promise took matters into his own hands and it was actually really simple.
He directly asked the sea god for help to strip the fisherman of his ability to breathe into the sea and gave a substantial sum of money to his estranged wife and children, who were heartbroken over his actions.
As for why Promise removed the fisherman's ability to dive, it was because he secretly discovered that Scylla might actually have some feelings for him, so he wanted to see whether this man would still jump into the sea to find Scylla even if he was in danger of drowning.
Well... he didn't.
The fisherman turned around and ran away.
He went back back to look for his wife and children, hoping to reconcile, but they, feeling utterly betrayed, wanted nothing to do with him.
Faced with such situation, Scylla broke down in tears, heartbroken, and as she left, she even cried out in despair, vowing never to believe in love again.
After wrapping up this matter, Promise returned to the Argo and explained the situation to Medea and the goddess Thetis.
Goddess Thetis sighed sympathetically upon hearing it, baffled by why her friend always seemed to meet such men.
As for Medea, that same night, she was brought to tears when she finally saw Hecate, who had previously kicked her out of the Underworld temple.
After venting her frustrations, she asked Promise the next day to help her capture Circe and bring her aboard the Argo to put her to work.
As a side note, after the incident with Thetis, Promise had sincerely tried to give a golden apple to Hecate in recognition of her beauty, but he didn't expect her to refuse so decisively, saying she didn't want anything, and when forced into a corner, she even made an action as if jumping into the abyss and never coming out again.
Alas, it was obvious that this time Promise was truly offering with sincerity, and not out of revenge.
How did the trust between man and God evolve into this?
In any case, that's pretty much the whole thing.
So at this moment, standing aboard the Argo, Medea nodded in response to Promise's question, saying, "Of course. After all, I've always missed my father and mother."
Circe curled her lips and said, "It's not like I want to go... but do I have a choice?"
The thought of setting foot on the island, only to face her brother's scolding and then report to Goddess Hecate's temple to confront her teacher, made her head ache.
"Auntie, what are you saying? I'm sure my father and mother must be looking forward to meeting you." Medea smiled sweetly and held Circe firmly, preventing any chance of her trying to escape.
"...Promise, look at what you've done!" Circe pointed at the scheming Medea and glared at Promise with grief and anger,
The latter merely shrugged in innocence.
Could he really be blamed for Medea's scheming nature?
To be fair, he considered himself something of a victim here, too.
At first, he'd genuinely thought that his memory was wrong and Medea was an innocent, pure-hearted girl but as he spent more time with her, he found out that her innocence was just a well-crafted act.
To be precise, if it weren't for what Hecate did, which caused Medea's defense to be broken and revealed, Promise estimated that he might still be kept in the dark..
So under such circumstances, a small team of about ten people disembarked from the Argo and made their way into Colchis.
In addition to Medea and Circe, Jason, Theseus and Atalanta also traveled together.
Surprisingly, Helen was left behind although she'd insisted on going along.
The main reason was simply because, since the Argo set sail about six months ago, Helen had grown in both maturity and beauty, reaching a level of allure that had even the strongest heroes struggling to keep their composure.
Eventually, the goddess of love, Aphrodite, paid her a visit and gifted her a special veil to cover her beauty.
So, in order to avoid any unnecessary troubles, it was unanimously agreed that Helen, "the most beautiful woman in the world," would stay on the ship.
The goddess Thetis stayed behind with her as well… partly to keep Helen company, but also because that girl was becoming more and more beautiful so much so that if she didn't have her by her side, Promise was really worried that, she might one day wake up to find the figure of the king of gods, Zeus himself aboard the Argo.
So, leaved her on the Argo got off.
But, after they had barely left the shore, Promise and his companions encountered the welcoming party waiting for them—and one familiar face among them.
"I told you," Heracles looked at Promise, who had a look of surprise in his eyes, and said with a big laugh. "When you and your team reached this place, Promise, I'd be here waiting. After all, I wouldn't miss witnessing your most glorious moment!"
"Don't talk about witnessing; you're one of us," Promise said, stepping forward to greet Hercules warmly.
In addition to Hercules, an elderly prophet and several guards of the kingdom of Colchis were also there, having waited some time for Promise and the others.
"Welcome, honored guests from the distant kingdom of Iolcos, heroes of the Argo blessed under the gaze of the gods. Your great deeds and journey have reached us; the sun god Helios himself has told us of all you've accomplished."
The elderly prophet approached, seeming to perceive that Promise was the true leader of this group...
Even though Jason, the captain, expressed helplessness about it. The prophet addressed Promise as such.
The king of Colchis , who was also Medea's father, was named Aeetes, the son of the sun god Helios.
Thus, in a gesture of peace, Promise held an olive branch, the ancient Greek symbol of peace, and set aside all his weapons.
Guided by the prophet and others, the group made their way into the kingdom of Colchis.
As they neared the city, they hadn't had the time to go to the palace when they saw an extraordinarily beautiful woman waiting for them on the path ahead for a long time.
And the moment the beautiful woman saw Medea, she could no longer suppress her excitement and ran towards Medea, and Medea went forward and hugged her with tears in her eyes..
"Um, what's going on?" Jason, who was looking at this scene from the side, murmured in confusion.
Heracles couldn't help but laugh.
After all, he had arrived earlier and was already acquainted with this woman and aware of Medea's background.
The woman's name was Idyia/Eidyia, and with her long purple hair like Medea's, she was indeed Medea's mother.
"Promise, did you know?" Hercules then asked.
Promise, already knowing what he was referring to, nodded. "Yes, I've always known that Medea is the princess of Colchis... I realized it the first time I met her."
Now that things had come to this, there was no need to hide it anymore.
Upon hearing the news, Jason and others, even Atalanta, looked at Medea with some surprise.
What made Circe feel bored was that, just as Medea said at the beginning, no one cared about her hidden identity and her concealment.
Instead, they were genuinely happy to see mother and daughter reunited and offered them blessings.
After all, they had already accepted Medea during this long journey.
After saying hello to Idyia, Circe left dejectedly and went to the temple of the goddess Hecate here, ready to face the punishment from her teacher
Idyia, however, continued on with the heroes toward the heart of the kingdom.
And so, with the olive branch in hand, their long journey finally came to an end, and they arrived at the final destination of the Golden Fleece quest.
In the royal palace, they were received by the burly King Aeetes of Colchis.