After Athena finished conversing with Demeter, she did not linger long and left very decisively.
Jason had originally thought she would seize him and demand answers about various things.
For example, why he had stood her up again... though Jason would never admit to that, and truthfully neither incident had been his fault.
Or what exactly was going on between him and Demeter.
But Athena did none of that.
Because Athena could tell that staying any longer would be pointless. Jason no longer needed her right now.
Although Athena hated to admit it, as the Goddess of Wisdom who had secretly guided countless heroes to greatness, she had once again been completely outmaneuvered by Jason!
Yet Athena was not in a hurry. Though she felt a little unwilling, wanted to stomp her feet, wanted to grab Jason's cheeks and squeeze them to vent her frustration, she was the elegant and wise Goddess of Wisdom Athena. How could she possibly do something like that?
So Athena decided to wait. She knew she would have plenty of opportunities in the future!
Just the matter of that kingship alone meant Jason would eventually have to deal with it. After all, he was the one occupying Jason's body.
After Athena departed and Medea arrived, Jason's days in Demeter's temple gradually settled into peace.
Having been constantly on the move for nearly half a year, Jason finally enjoyed some rare tranquility.
He would wake up in the morning to feed Pegasus, then study potion-making with Medea. In the afternoon he tended the special herb garden Demeter had opened for them. In the evening he prepared and took the medicine Hecate had instructed him to ingest, then continued learning potion-making with Medea.
In the blink of an eye, a month passed.
One-sixth of the half-year agreement was already gone.
Jason was very satisfied with this kind of life.
Even though he still had two sources of trouble: Demeter and Medea.
Demeter was actually manageable. She was merely redirecting the maternal affection she could no longer lavish on the absent Persephone onto the two of them.
And Jason had successfully deflected most of it onto Medea as a shield.
But Medea...
That night, inside the potion-making room.
"Big Brother Jason, can I sleep with you tonight?" Jason looked with a headache at Medea, who was staring at him with hopeful eyes.
He wanted to refuse, but over the past month of spending every day together, Medea had grown clever.
Now, if he did not satisfy her requests, she simply refused to teach!
"Fine, but only on the condition that tonight you cooperate and help me successfully brew an intermediate transformation potion!"
"No problem!"
Jason helplessly watched Medea agree instantly, her face blooming with a dazzling smile. He could only feel that his life was truly too difficult.
This Medea was becoming more and more clingy...
Truthfully, as a man, being so closely adored by a girl, and such a cute little loli at that, Jason would be lying if he said he was completely unhappy about it.
But the moment he remembered her name was Medea... all happiness vanished!
His feelings were truly tangled.
And the pit of sleeping together had been dug by Jason himself; he had no one else to blame.
In the spirit of "training" her, while teaching Medea concepts like "an elder brother is like a father" and "an elder brother must not be bullied," Medea ignored everything else but firmly remembered the offhand remark Jason made that there was nothing wrong with sleeping together because they were siblings.
As for Jason's repeated emphasis that siblings could absolutely never marry...
"I know, I know, Big Brother Jason... Don't worry, Big Brother Jason, you'll definitely master it tonight. The potion you brewed yesterday was actually very close."
"...Listen here, my dear little sister, you wouldn't happen to be deliberately hiding some techniques from me, right? I only needed three days to learn the beginner transformation potion, yet I've been working on the intermediate one for almost a month!"
"Because I saw how much you wanted to learn... cough, no, I mean intermediate potions are inherently very difficult."
Jason stared with a dark expression at Medea, who averted her eyes and refused to meet his gaze.
He felt utterly helpless inside.
Where had the obedient little angel from a month ago gone? The one who listened to everything he said and never talked back?
How had she become harder and harder to fool lately?
Thus, more than two hours later, under Medea's nearly hand-holding guidance, Jason finally succeeded in brewing an intermediate transformation potion.
Learning and successfully brewing an intermediate transformation potion in just one month was actually incredibly fast.
Of course, ordinary scholars would not have access to Demeter's nearly limitless supply of ingredients, nor would they have a genius like Medea teaching them step by step.
Medea was a true genius in this field. Everything Hecate taught her, she grasped instantly and could even extrapolate further.
That was why Hecate's daily routine for Medea consisted only of assigning homework.
Jason genuinely had no talent in this area. His own gifts lay elsewhere: combat and leadership.
"Intermediate transformation potions already use materials at their limit. If you want to brew an advanced one, Brother, you'll need to learn the corresponding magic and obtain blood from specific magical beasts. However, as a substitute, the highest-grade transformation potion cannot be undone for life unless the corresponding antidote is used."
Medea took the potion Jason handed her, inspected it, confirmed it was fine, then returned it to him while explaining.
"Beginner transformation potions only work on ordinary humans and ordinary beasts, which means... intermediate potions should affect magical beasts and heroes, right?"
Jason held the potion, thought for a while, then looked Medea up and down thoughtfully. "If I used this on you, how long do you think it would last?"
"Hmm... probably about a week before it wears off on its own. I regularly take special potions that give me a lot of resistance. Under normal circumstances, it would last at least a month, maybe longer."
Medea thought for a moment and answered honestly.
"I see... Then tomorrow we should start learning how to brew the antidote. Medea, how about showing me a few samples of the antidote?"
Upon hearing this, Medea immediately produced several antidote samples and even gave Jason a few extra transformation potions.
Jason held the intermediate transformation potion and the antidotes, looked at Medea before him, and revealed a meaningful smile.
And so, that very night...
"Meow...? Meow, meow meow!"
"Heh, it actually works."
Jason reached out and poked at the little black cat on the bed. Medea, transformed by the potion, was panicking wildly.
"Looks like this potion would work on most heroes too... Not a bad life-saving skill. Hey, stop scratching, stop scratching! Don't worry, I'll turn you back tomorrow. See, the antidote is right here!
But speaking of which... a cat, huh."
While stroking the head of the little black cat Medea to comfort her, the image of another girl, a wild and untamed one, suddenly popped into Jason's mind.
"For some reason it feels even more fitting for her... I also heard that rumor about me apparently started with her, didn't it?
Fine. If I get the chance to meet her again, I absolutely have to teach her a lesson!"
"Hiss... Don't bite! Don't bite! I was wrong, I was wrong, okay?! Alright, alright, I'll stop messing around. But... if you stay as a little cat, I'll make an exception tonight and let you sleep right next to me. Are you sure you want to change back?"
Medea froze at those words, then struggled internally for a while.
In the end, she surrendered.
"So easy to handle... Ahem, then let's begin."
Begin? Begin what?
Medea looked puzzled for a moment, but when she saw Jason's expression turn serious, as if he had remembered something, her face changed!
"Did you think I used the transformation potion on you for no reason? Did you really believe I didn't notice you secretly using silencing magic to block your hearing all this time?
Listen well. Since I am your big brother, it's fine for you to be close to me, but everything has its limits.
As the saying goes, an elder brother is like a father; an elder brother must not be bullied. An elder brother is someone a little sister must respect and love..."
This behavior could be summed up in two words: chanting sutras, brainwashing!
Did you think Jason was joking when he said "training"? When he decided to train someone, he was a man of action.
After all, his little life was on the line!
Jason firmly believed that with enough persistence, dripping water could wear through stone, and even an iron rod could be ground into a needle.
He would train Medea into a good little sister who only respected and adored him, not a bad little sister who wanted to marry him!
"Meow, meow meow!"
Medea bounced around, indicating she was not sleeping anymore, she did not want to sleep together anymore, and begging Jason to give her the antidote. But Jason naturally ignored her.
Opportunities like this were rare. If he did not seize the moment to properly train her now, when would he ever get another chance?
So Medea tried to run away and escape the room.
But she was, after all, just a cat now. The moment she turned, Jason caught her and brought her back.
In the end, after much struggling, Medea accepted her fate and listened to Jason lecture for more than five full hours.
By the end, her eyes looked as dead as a fish's...
The effect was actually quite good. The next day she avoided Jason constantly, and for half a month she did not dare mention sleeping together again.
That very night, terrified that Jason would come looking for her, she unprecedentedly ran off to sleep with Demeter, which delighted Demeter to no end.
The side effects were considerable, though. From then on, Medea kept looking for chances to turn Jason into an animal too, but Jason naturally never gave her the opportunity.
The potion only worked if the gas was inhaled, so in the end Jason even made himself a special mask...
As the saying goes, those who play with vermilion get stained red; those who touch ink get stained black.
After two months passed, regardless of anything else, Medea's innocence visibly faded day by day under Jason's influence...
One could only wonder whether, if Hecate ever found out, she would feel the urge to drag her wicked disciple back and give him a thorough "training" of her own.
In the blink of an eye, three months had gone by.
Jason had originally believed that under Demeter's protection, the remaining half-year would pass peacefully.
Yet he never expected that during this time, Queen Hera, through her own channels, would finally learn that Jason was no longer in the Underworld.
He was here, with Demeter.