After that, even after I met my mother, Lady Selene... Mother, that night, my daily life did not change much. As if that meeting itself had been a lie.
The same bastards kept trying to get close to me, I kept running from them and hiding, and sometimes I avoided them by using the Heracles shield. In between all that, I studied, and Jason kept trying to recruit me as enthusiastically as ever. So Jason, Heracles, and I spent most of our time together.
Well, if anything had changed, it was that after meeting my mother Selene, I learned some new things. One of them was that I had fifty older sisters above me, that I was Mother's only son, and, naturally, that I was a demigod. In other words, like Heracles, I was half divine.
And then, a few years after I met Mother, the moment Heracles turned fourteen, the time for parting came. It really came in an instant.
"It seems there is nothing more I can teach you now, Heracles."
"Teacher..."
Heracles looked flustered, but meetings and partings really do come without warning. Whether in this end-of-days Greece or in the modern world, people meet suddenly and part suddenly.
By then, fourteen-year-old Heracles had mastered everything related to martial skill, and he had grown even bigger than when I first met him. You could tell he had truly received the blessing that came with carrying the blood of Zeus. Well, he was a god's child, after all.
"Thank you for everything, Teacher Chiron."
"The feeling is mutual, Heracles. I consider myself fortunate as well, to have been able to teach someone of your caliber."
Speaking of being a god's child, I had also grown under the blessing of my mother Selene. I was the same age as Heracles, fourteen, but I had developed in a completely different direction from him.
I had heard that the moon was once said to symbolize madness, and my growth really did drive people mad in a certain sense. Not me... the people around me...
"Time really flies. You used to be so small, and now you've passed my height..."
"I'm the one who should be saying that, Iskios. To look like that, with that build, and still be a man... it's honestly astonishing."
"Shut up!!!"
To snap back at Heracles, who had now grown taller than me, I had to tilt my head up and shout at him.
I hated to admit it, but just as Heracles said, I had grown into someone more beautiful than most pretty girls. Thanks to that, some of the looks directed at me lately had become extremely dangerous.
I've said it over and over, but this is end-of-days Greece. A world overflowing with every kind of sexual crime. If I ever stepped outside, I was pretty sure it would look exactly like the apocalypse, just without the mohawks.
After exchanging farewells with Teacher Chiron and talking with me for a bit, Heracles finished packing his things and prepared to leave. The ones who came to see him off were me, Peleus, and Jason. Well, Jason only showed his face at the very end, since he had been hiding behind a tree.
"Heracles. I have something to say to you."
"Something to say?"
"That's right! Wait for me!"
Without any long speech, Jason said exactly what he wanted to say to Heracles. Right, Jason had originally been a prince of a kingdom, but after being driven out by his uncle, he had spent all his time under Teacher Chiron declaring that he would become king.
Asking Heracles to wait for him was probably about reclaiming his throne.
"All right. I will wait for you..."
"Heh, that's what I'd expect from my friend."
Heracles was taciturn, but he answered with a faint smile. And seeing that, Jason looked delighted with the exact kind of face that said, "Heh, that's more like my guest!" straight out of some gag manga series.
After seeing Heracles off like that, I became even more tense while continuing my studies under Teacher Chiron, and I watched my surroundings more carefully than ever. As the years passed and I kept growing, men were practically drooling over me. That meant I wasn't safe even here.
Whether I grew like this or not, the time would come when I had to leave. And so, one year later, after barely managing to protect both my rear and my chastity, I safely completed my course of study.
- One Year Later -
A year after Heracles left, I graduated from under Teacher Chiron and stepped out into the world. There was no point staying there any longer. Even if I didn't see it with my own eyes, it was obvious I'd only become more of a target for the homos.
And... I had learned just about everything there was to learn, mastering all I could manage and all I could understand. I'm not a genius like Heracles, more the type you'd call gifted through effort... so I drew the line there and stepped out into the world for the first time.
As I came out into the world for the first time, the sight of the green fields made my heart feel like it was dancing. A plain overflowing with the blessings of nature, the kind of landscape I had never once seen in my previous life, spread out before my eyes.
"So this is the outside..."
Originally, I had lived only within Teacher Chiron's stable, and as I grew, I had only wandered around the area nearby. That small space had been the whole world I knew. Yes, nothing more than a tiny fragment of the world called end-of-days Greece.
But from now on, I would have to build everything and seize everything with my own strength alone. This wasn't the modern twenty-first century. This was apocalyptic Greece, before Christ. The scenery was beautiful, yes, but I couldn't let my guard down.
Right now, I needed a concrete goal. Having just graduated from Teacher Chiron's stable and taken my first steps outside, I started walking in search of a forest where I could live on my own. My first goal, ever since I had been dropped into this end-of-days Greece, was to find a calm and peaceful daily life...
What happened in the outside world was none of my business. I would live my life quietly. The moment I made that vow, a sharp tingling sensation ran through me, like something was piercing straight through my body, and I immediately scanned my surroundings.
"Who's there...?"
If I was feeling this sensation crawling over my body, that meant someone was watching me. And this particular prickling feeling... without a doubt, it meant someone was targeting me in a sexual sense.
I looked around warily, trying to find whoever was sending me that infuriating gaze and driving my discomfort through the roof. Then I saw someone descending from the sky, and I felt the kind of despair that comes when a family collapses and society collapses right along with it.
The person... no, the god, riding down from above on a cloud was a handsome man with blond hair streaked with white, the kind of flashy good looks you noticed at a glance. But in this world, anyone who suddenly appeared from the sky riding a cloud was obviously not human, and for a moment I wanted to deny reality itself.
"W-Who are you...?"
"Ah, my apologies... it seems I forgot to introduce myself, boy."
But denying reality changed nothing. The blond man, the god, swept back his hair with his right hand as if showing off how stylish he was. ...Which only made me more wary.
"My name is Apollo! The god whom you humans worship as the sun god, and one who loves beauty above all else, along with my younger sister! Are you Iskios?"
"Y-Yes... I'm Iskios..."
Watching this god... Apollo, laugh loudly and praise himself without restraint, I had nothing in particular to say. I was already prepared to run at any moment. Because I knew exactly what kind of gaze that had been just now.
Just as I expected, I was right. Apollo looked at me with a very serious expression and spoke to me directly. Sure, being Apollo, he was undeniably handsome, but to me he was nothing but a nuisance...
"Forgive the suddenness, but... would you become my lover—"
Before Apollo could even finish speaking, I moved my legs and ran. There was no time to think and no reason to stay. I just hated the idea, so I turned tail and fled at full speed. While studying under Teacher Chiron, I had held back and hidden my abilities, but now there was no need to conceal them.
As I grew up, I had known my looks would attract attention in all kinds of ways. But good grief... had this face finally worked even on a god...? Thinking that, I looked back over my shoulder, and—
"Wait! Wait for me, my love!!!"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!!"
Even though I was running as fast as I could, Apollo wasn't riding a cloud anymore. He was chasing me on foot, bare-legged, as if light were shining from his eyes. And on top of that... the distance between us wasn't widening at all...!!!
And so... the nightmare game of tag between Iskios, me, and Apollo began, one that would make us famous all across Greece among humans, spirits, and even the gods themselves.