“Fixed~ It should be fine now.” Asterios stood up, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and let out a breath to steady himself.
He had just finished his daily hunt and was preparing to return to the mountain.
On the way, he encountered travelers with a broken-down carriage and stopped to help them repair it.
Fortunately, their carriage was well-equipped with tools, and Asterios finished the job with just a little effort.
Afterward, Asterios politely accepted the gift they offered in thanks and gave them directions so they could reach the next village before nightfall.
This was to prevent them from camping out at night; there were quite a few bandits in this area, not to mention those crazed Centaurs.
If something were to happen, it would indeed be hard to handle.
Once all this was done, he shouldered his prey again and headed toward the cave.
Everything he did was naturally under Chiron’s observation from above.
Chiron felt much more at ease; the boy’s demeanor was indeed becoming more and more like that of a benevolent hero.
As he aged, his personality gradually became more stable and reserved.
When Asterios walked onto the clearing in front of the cave entrance, Chiron smiled and asked if he had seen the green-haired girl he had been dreaming of today.
Was that girl like a deer in the mountains, making it hard for him to catch her?
“Father, you know.
Even if it were the sacred beasts the gods left in the wild, if I want to catch them, I definitely can.
Even just a first glance is enough.
As for Atalanta…
Heh~” As he finished, Asterios seemed to think of something pleasant; he let out a couple of soft laughs and said no more.
Seeing his son’s lovestruck appearance, Chiron didn’t say much.
Although he was indeed very happy in his heart—the more normally the child behaved, the more delighted Chiron became.
Chiron knew that girl of the forest.
She was the daughter of Iasus, and should have been a princess, but because of her father’s abandonment, she was left in the mountain forests.
It was Artemis passing by who saved her, nursing her with the milk of a mother bear, allowing her to survive until she was discovered by other hunters and grew to adulthood.
Sometimes when he went down the mountain to visit hunters’ homes, he would encounter Atalanta.
Atalanta’s attitude toward him and the older generation of hunters was very good.
However, toward the boys of her age in the villages, Atalanta was completely distant, even quite disgusted.
Therefore, although Asterios appreciated her beauty and loved her agility, he did not take the initiative to approach her.
Besides avoiding being a nuisance, it was also because Asterios saw the coldness in the girl’s eyes.
Actually, Chiron felt that his son and that young girl were quite a good match.
Both had been abandoned and then raised by others, and both were good-looking.
Not to brag, but with Asterios’s looks, if he were thrown into the tribe of the Amazons, he probably wouldn’t be able to come back alive.
Chiron was not the type to favor arranged marriages; he would leave it to Asterios’s own luck in the future.
Anyway, since he hadn’t used force on Atalanta, Chiron believed he would work hard and do things the right way.
Otherwise, with his strength, Atalanta would have been in big trouble the first moment she saw him.
“What task did you arrange for your fellow disciples today?” Chiron asked with a smile, and Asterios simply replied that he just let them each go and complete a hunt independently.
This wasn’t a difficult task; it was even considered a holiday.
Some stayed behind to train in martial arts, some went to complete Asterios’s task, and others studied literature, medicine, sociology, and other knowledge with Chiron.
This had become the daily routine for Chiron’s disciples in Pelion Cave.
It was a very simple assignment.
A portion of the prey the disciples hunted would be kept for them to eat, and another portion would be taken by Chiron and Asterios to nearby villages to exchange for the daily necessities they needed.
Salt, grain, sugar, cloth—in short, they would trade for all sorts of miscellaneous things, considering them as long as there was a need.
This land was truly a fertile land, Asterios had once lamented to Chiron.
As long as people lived earnestly, farmers worked the land well, and herders grazed their livestock properly, it would be impossible for anyone to starve on this vast land.
Of course, that wasn’t to say there were absolutely no things that affected people’s lives.
For example, the magical beasts spawned by Typhon that ravaged some areas, and those tyrants who didn’t treat the people as human and exploited them at will.
However, for now, Asterios hadn’t seen those things.
The land they were in was currently no different from a paradise on earth.
Asterios’s childhood was definitely a happy one.
By this time, other disciples had begun returning one after another, carrying their prey.
Looking at the panting Jason and the light-footed, relaxed Pollux, Asterios couldn’t help but shake his head.
A child of a god is a child of a god; Jason was already very excellent, but such a gap still existed.
Pollux walked up to Asterios and proudly tossed the wild wolf from her shoulder onto the ground.
Asterios nodded slightly, acknowledging her achievement, after all, Jason next to her had only hunted a small wild boar.
But even Asterios couldn’t help but start to admire Jason; where on earth did he catch such a small wild boar?
That was also a kind of talent; Asterios felt that Jason’s talents were always so subtle.
Asterios also happened to ask Pollux why she had caught such a thing and brought it back.
When Pollux said she saw it bothering children and so she took action directly, everyone around knew of the young girl’s kindness.
Suddenly, they heard the neighing of a wild horse.
Asterios looked toward the sound and saw Castor riding a wild horse he had caught, galloping toward them.
With no reins and no saddle, this was Castor truly showing off his horsemanship.
Asterios and the others stood motionless, watching Castor charge right up to them, not worrying at all that Castor might crash into them.
Finally, at a distance of four paces from them, Castor brought the wild horse he had captured to a halt.
For this display of skill, the crowd also applauded him.
Castor flipped down from the horse’s back with style and then began to soothe the horse.
“Not bad, your level is getting higher and higher.
This is something to be proud of,” Chiron spoke words of praise.
Castor lifted his head even higher; who wouldn’t feel happy in their heart after receiving praise from their master?
Everyone had hunted different things; Asterios looked at each one and gave his evaluation.
Although looking at the river fish that had been dissected by Asclepius, he couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth, but so be it, it didn’t matter.
The daily routine of Chiron’s disciples—this was enough.