99 Ares has been fooled

[T/N: 3 x Chapter, and I will compensate for yesterday later on.]

'Offer a tribute to Ares, God of War...'

'By obtaining the golden apple through the way of defeating the guardian of the tree of golden apple, the hundred-headed dragon Ladon?'

When Jason received the Oracle from Hermes, Messenger of Gods, after pondering for a few short moments, he naturally understood why he hadn't received another riddle in this Oracle.

Because, as Athena had guessed, due to being aware of many widely spread legends about Ares, Jason had already concluded that, no matter how strange it might appear, the best tribute to Ares is possibly a head-on hotblooded fight, something that most of the heroes actually offer as a tribute to every god.

And Jason confirmed this guess especially after hearing Athena stating in her Oracle he can't use the silver arrow of Artemis, the golden sword of Apollo, or the help of the gods of the Underworld, which Jason guessed is referring to the spell underworld domain.

So, after being silent for a few moments, Jason said: "...I see, thank you for telling me, God Hermes."

Then, Jason paused for a moment and calmly asked Hermes: "By the way, God Hermes, has God Apollo..."

Hermes naturally guessed what Jason wants to ask, so he replied even before Jason finished the question: "Don't worry, he already knows, I have met him just before arriving here."

"Alright then." Jason nodded.

Then, immediately after Hermes left, Golden Horned Deer looked at silent and visibly deep in thought Jason, then she bleated and rubbed her head against Jason.

Jason returned from being lost in deep thinking, then he smiled and while touching the golden-horned deer, he said: "Don't worry, I'm fine, I'm just thinking about something..."

'Defeat Ladon, the hundred-headed dragon that guards the golden apple...'

'But I am not allowed to use the two divine artifacts I currently have, both the one lent to me and the one completely given to me, and I also can't use the spell underworld domain, even if I forcefully reset its cooldown by asking Teacher Hecate...'

'And looking at all this, even if I somehow managed to temporally get a new divine artifact in this week, I will probably be again told to not use it...'

Jason is thinking like this to make preparations because even if he knows that what Ares may want to see is exactly a hotblooded fight, it is in Jason's nature to be prepared and give his all in matters like this, especially fights.

After all, even if Jason doesn't exactly know just how strong the hundred-headed dragon Ladon is, he does know that since Ladon is tasked with protecting the only tree of Golden Apples in the whole of the Greek Pantheon which is also the wedding gift given by Gaia to King and Queen of Gods, it definitely has the strength to be worthy enough for such a task.

Moreover, Jason also believes that since this is going to be a tribute to Ares, who is openly known as the divine battle-frenzy butcher, Ladon obviously isn't someone he can easily deal with.

'It is very likely that Ladon is not weaker than Argos, the hundred-eyed giant who is guarding Io and the one I will be confronting for offering tribute to Hermes...'

'But Hephaestus had already said that Argos isn't someone I can fight against!'

Therefore, thinking like this, Jason took out his Magic Staff.

But after pondering for a few moments while looking at the Magic Staff in his hand, due to knowing that he is not really good at magic, Jason decided to put it back and decided to meet his other teacher first.

Then, Jason took out the compass given by Athena and after confirming that the compass is still working, Jason relaxed a little, because Jason had even considered the possibility that just to make it more challenging, he might even be forced to find the Garden of Hesperides on his own.

"Sister Deer, can you do me a favor?... Please, can you take me to my teacher Centaur sage Chiron, as fast as possible?"

Golden Horned Deer nodded to Jason and hinted at him to sit firmly, then after Jason grabbed her neck, she began running swiftly.

*****

Jason doesn't know exactly how far he was from the destination, but after only a day and night's journey, he arrived in front of Chiron's school.

And Chiron, who had already felt Jason's aura speedily approaching him, appeared in front of Jason as soon as he arrived.

"Teacher, it's been a while." Jason said softly.

Upon looking at Jason, Chiron immediately noticed the serious expression on Jason's face, and due to already knowing about the Oracle given by Athena for offering tribute to Ares, Chiron also guessed the reason behind it.

"Let's go inside first."

Therefore, Chiron brought Jason to the log cabin.

And after the two entered the cabin, Chiron asked Jason: "What happened?"

"Well..." Jason nodded, then, as already expected by Chiron, Jason explained the Oracle given to him for defeating the hundred-headed dragon Ladon and offer it as a tribute to Ares.

Then, after explaining the Oracle, finally, Jason looked at Chiron and asked him: "Teacher Chiron, can you tell me... who are the parents of the hundred-headed dragon Ladon?"

"Parents of Ladon?"

After being silent for a while, Chiron looked at Jason with a strange expression, and asked: "Why do you want to know this?"

"Well, it's just, I am seriously thinking about how to defeat it." While seriously looking at Chiron, Jason said calmly: "And teacher, if I haven't guessed wrong...Ladon should be the child of Typhon and Echidna, right?"

"...Yes." Chiron thought of Athena's message to him, but then thinking that this isn't even much of help, he still nodded to Jason: "Just like the three-headed hell dog Cerberus, Ladon is indeed the child of Typhon, the ancestor of all demons!"

"So, I have guessed right." Jason nodded, but after a short pause, he asked again: "Then teacher, is there anything you can help me with in defeating it?"

Actually, Athena had already told Chiron to not help Jason in the fight against Ladon, but Chiron still pondered for a long time and decided to answer honestly, although, his final answer would have been basically the same in both cases: "...In the time of less than even one week, it's almost impossible."

"Is that so..."

After Jason nodded, he noticed Chiron looking at him while frowning and worry in his eyes, so Jason removed the serious expression, then smiled slightly and said: "Don't worry, teacher, I'm fine...moreover, don't you already know, if I find that I have no chance of winning, I won't fight Ladon."

Chiron was slightly stunned upon hearing this, but then looking at Jason in front of him and remembering the efforts he had spent in changing Jason's character, Chiron smiled with a slightly helpless expression on his face.

"By the way, Teacher Chiron... Where's Asclepius now?" While being indeed curious about it, Jason asked this to change the topic.

[T/N: For those who might not remember, Asclepius is Apollo's son whose mother was personally killed by Apollo.]

"He had also left the mountain." After saying this, Chiron paused for a moment then said: "And, before he left, he had mentioned to me that his medicine is almost completed."

"Really?" Jason was a little surprised upon hearing this: "The medicine that can bring one back to life is about to be completed?"

"Yeah." Chiron nodded and said with a smile: "If he can really do it...then his medical skills will become far superior to mine."

"Teacher Chiron, what you are saying is sounding like Asclepius's medical skills hadn't already surpassed yours long ago." Immediately after Jason subconsciously finished speaking these words, he noticed Chiron's eyes looking at him with a slightly unkind gaze.

"Cough, then teacher Chiron, I still have a few things I need to do... moreover, since I was out for so long, teacher Hecate should already be missing me, so I should be going back to meet her too!"

Immediately, Jason got up while saying this and was prepared to run.

"You kid...Jason, wait a moment, I still have something I want to ask you."

"Recently, I have heard, bards are singing about a blond and emerald-eyed 'Heracles' dressed in white and riding a white Pegasus, who had slain Chimera, defeated Antaeus, and taken the half-serpent Lamia to Underworld... all these had been done by you, right? "

"Hey, teacher, what are you talking about?"

'Even if the answer is already clear, there is no way I will be admitting it, otherwise...'

So, thinking like this and fearing that Chiron is also going to assign him a 'heroic' task for the future, Jason blinked while looking at Chiron with a blank face and continued while still cleverly hiding lies behind words: "I don't understand how can you conclude that I will possibly ever take the initiative to do these things and since bards are talking about Heracles, that it must be 'Heracles'!"

Then, Jason noticed that Chiron is about to speak again, he hurridly said: "...Anyway! Let's not talk about these irrelevant things, I don't have much time left so I'm in a hurry! "

After speaking this, Jason ignored Chiron, who has a helpless expression on his face but is still laughing happily, and immediately ran out.

But after Jason left, Chiron thought in his heart: 'This kid... it will be hard to believe for anyone else that I once used to ask my other students to supervise him...'

'However, even I hadn't expected that even after growing a few years older, he is still the same as when he was a child, he has always disliked going out, but almost every time he had gone out, he had caused a lot of trouble.'

'Looking' at the figure of Jason leaving the mountain, Chiron had obviously guessed that Jason has ran so fast due to fearing that he will be assigned one more task.

Therefore, in the log cabin, Chiron couldn't help shaking his head with a smile while thinking: 'This child should now be going to Goddess Hecate...'

'And looking at the current situation, it was indeed a wise decision to interfere in this kid's choice of becoming the believer of Goddess Hecate without informing him about the fact that he was already a believer of Queen of Gods Hera!'

While thinking this, Chiron nodded.

After all, even if Jason was initially unaware of the fact that Hera has marked him as her believer due to Hera disguising herself, there is no way Chiron could also be unaware of this fact.

Because it was Hera herself who had guided Jason to Chiron and had initially tasked Chiron with training Jason to become a hero.

However, as Chiron had once said to Jason, Chiron really does regard himself as a teacher, so he tries his best to teach and guide his students but he doesn't forcefully interfere in the choice of the path made by his students.

Although, also because of being a teacher, Chiron does feel proud and glad whenever his students achieve something great and he also feels sad when one of his students falls on the path chosen by them.

*****

Actually, Chiron purposefully hadn't told Jason about Athena telling other Gods to not help this time.

Because Chiron thinks that if Jason really does learn about this, it is very likely that he won't ask Hecate to help him and will try to make preparation on his own.

And Chiron also believes that, even if Athena had said the same thing to Hecate, Hecate won't change her decision of helping Jason just because of Athena's words.

Also, due to being aware of Hecate's attitude toward Jason, Chiron feels that he is pretty sure that once Jason asks Hecate, she will definitely help Jason without caring much caring about whatever Athena might have told Hecate.

Therefore, just like Chiron had once hidden the fact that Hera had marked Jason as her believer, this time he hid what Athena had told him.

However, as a matter of fact, although Athena hadn't guessed that Chiron will make such a choice, she had still guessed from the few interactions with Hecate that, if the situation calls for it, Hecate will definitely help Jason.

And it is because of this reason Athena had felt relieved in telling Jason to fight Ladon and she believes that with Hecate watching over Jason's battle against the hundred-headed dragon Ladon, it would be hard for Jason to die.

Because Athena thinks that as long as Jason doesn't die, she can always find a new opportunity for Jason to offer tribute to Ares.

After all, as a matter of fact, Athena really doesn't care about the penalty of losing the bet against Ares.

Because Athena had designed the bet in such a way that Ares had been fooled to believe that there is actually a possibility of him gaining something from this, but, as a matter of fact, it is impossible for Ares to gain anything from this bet.

After all, the conditions Athena had said is that if Ares wins, she will declare to every god that she is incapable of defeating Ares, and if not necessary, she will never again appear in front of Ares.

However, in fact, every god knows that Athena and Ares had fought quite a few times, but each and every time Ares's face had been rubbed on the ground, sometimes quite literally.

Moreover, for the bet not seeing Ares again unless necessary, Athena herself could not wait for such a good thing to become true

Furthermore, although Athena had put the condition that if she wins, Ares won't tell Hera anything about Jason from then on, Athena had also not agreed that if she loses the bet, she will allow Ares to tell anything about Jason to Hera.

Because Athena believes that she only needs to defeat Ares once more, then through a 'reasonable' discussion she will again be able to fool Ares.

Moreover, even with such conditions, Ares had bet to give his belt of God of War to Jason, if Jason succeeds in offering the tribute.

However, even if Jason successfully offers the tribute, Athena doesn't think that Ares can actually gain anything.

Because even if Jason successfully defeats Ladon, Ares will only get to appreciate a fight and in return, he will be paying his belt of God of War.

However, even this fight isn't something that Ares can monopolize, because almost every God who had interacted with Jason, except Hera, is waiting to watch such an interesting battle.

Therefore, even if Ares, who had been miserably duped, thinks such a bet makes sense, Athena had obviously fooled him.

As for the reason why Athena had tricked Ares with such brutality... because Athena really does dislike Ares and, at the end of the day, Athena is also a Greek Goddess, who can bear a grudge even for minor things and make sure to take revenge for it.

Because in Athena's thought: 'Ares absolutely deserves this for making fun of the constant pain in my heart, because sooner or later, Jason is going to be mine...'

*****

After leaving Mount Pelion, with the help of Ghost Butterflies, Jason teleported to Underworld.

But after Jason reached the Gate of Underworld, upon looking at the scene in front of him, Jason couldn't help but feel slightly surprised.

Because at this moment, it is not only the three-headed hell-dog Cerberus who is guarding the Gate of Underworld, there is one more hell-dog doing the same job.

"Jason, you're here again... and Orthrus, pay attention to your behavior, don't growl at Jason, he is Goddess Hecate's student, and he is also the younger brother of King Hades and Queen Persephone, you can't fight against him!"

After greeting Jason, Cerberus noticed Orthrus's hostility and glared at Orthrus, the two-headed hell-dog sitting beside Cerberus, while telling Orthrus to not growl at Jason.

Indeed, Orthrus, the two-headed hell-dog that used to guard the herd of red-brown cattle but had been thrown to the underworld by Jason, had now apparently received the task of guarding the Gate of Underworld like Cerberus.

Upon hearing Cerberus's words, Orthrus once again glared at Jason in front, then angrily turned the two heads and closed all eyes.

"Well... great Orthrus, sorry..."

"Don't call me great, I don't deserve it!"

After Otter Hughes finished speaking, Jason vaguely heard Orthrus whining in a low voice...

So, due to feeling a little embarrassed, Jason awkwardly greeted them once and hurriedly left: "Cough, well, that... I have a few urgent things to do, I'll talk to you two next time!"

After a while, walking on a familiar path, Jason arrived in front of the gate of the Temple of Hecate.

Then, Jason began knocking loudly on the door of the temple.