After the Argonaut Expedition came to an end, what did Alaric do next?
Having long stayed indoors at the Academy of Mystra, after completing the Argonaut Expedition, he continued to travel across Greece in the guise of a wandering mage, accompanied by Circe, Medea, and Atalanta, the three girls, on a journey throughout the land.
Naturally, during this process, they experienced many events.
Among them was, of course, the Calydonian boar hunt.
Everything began when Oeneus, the king of the city-state of Calydon, held a bountiful harvest festival to offer sacrifices to the gods, yet in that ceremony, he alone forgot to make an offering to Artemis.
Although the goddess possessed a pure and innocent temperament, she was by no means a kind-hearted pushover.
In truth, this goddess, childlike as she was, did not care to maintain superficial appearances like the more mature deities.
To her, liking meant liking, and hating meant hating.
Anything she liked, she would pursue with all her effort (such as Alaric), while anything she despised, she would erase entirely.
Such a personality might be adorable, but for mortals, it was also cruel.
This time, the goddess became furious like a child who had not received her share of candy.
As a result, she dispatched one of the most ferocious, massive, and powerful of all her divine beasts, a monstrous boar, to ravage the lands around Calydon.
This boar was taller and more massive than an elephant, its eyes blood-red and glowing with fire. Its neck was covered in stiff bristles, each as sharp as the tip of a spear.
Every roar it released was like spewing scalding foam, which burned its flanks until they turned bright red.
Its tusks were as long as ivory pillars; when it opened its mouth, they flashed with light, and when it exhaled, it scorched the grasslands to ash.
Faced with this terrifying boar, the prince of Calydon, Meleager, one of the surviving Argonaut heroes, had no choice but to call upon his friends and allies, gathering warriors and heroes to hunt this divine beast.
Seemingly feeling some regret over the destruction she had caused, Artemis herself felt a bit embarrassed.
Yet she could not bring herself to personally recall the boar, so the goddess sought out Alaric, hoping that he could bring the beast back.
Thus, Alaric joined the hunt for the Calydonian boar, bringing along the three girls.
In fact, among the heroes who came to participate in the hunt, there were also several familiar faces from the Argonauts.
Perhaps because so few of the Argonaut heroes had survived, after returning to Greece they continued to maintain the friendships forged during the expedition, helping one another whenever trouble arose.
The Argonaut heroes who arrived this time included the future Gemini twins, Castor and Polydeuces.
Jason, whose abilities were not particularly outstanding, also came.
Caeneus, who had become a man after making a wish to Poseidon, arrived to lend a hand as well. In addition, Telamon and others followed suit.
Meleager naturally welcomed the arrival of these old friends, especially Alaric and his companions.
He had already witnessed the magic of the three mages, and as for Atalanta, her feat of single-handedly completing Aeetes' two trials was something he had personally seen during the expedition.
To him, the appearance of Alaric and the others was undoubtedly a tremendous reinforcement.
However, no one had anticipated just how overwhelming these reinforcements would be.
The process of encircling and hunting the Calydonian boar did not go smoothly at first.
The hunting dogs were completely useless against such a powerful magical beast, and were instead slaughtered at will.
The heroes could only take action themselves, hunting with spears and bows.
Yet within the forest, the boar charged wildly, coming and going like the wind. Though its body was enormous, it was far from an easy target to hit.
Echion threw the first spear and missed, leaving only a maple tree lightly wounded.
As for the second spear, if not for excessive force, it seemed it would have struck the boar squarely in the back.
Unfortunately, it flew too far. The one who threw this second spear was none other than Jason.
In the end, it was the huntress Atalanta who took action, suppressing the boar with her precise arrows.
And when Alaric appeared, everything came to an end.
Don't misunderstand, Alaric did not defeat it with some flashy, overbearing magic the moment he acted.
Rather, upon seeing Alaric, the boar immediately lost its previous ferocity and frenzy, standing obediently before him like a tamed puppy.
'As expected, it's that kind of mage magic that can control others. I never thought even a magical beast like this couldn't escape it.'
This was Jason's thought. Clearly, he associated Alaric's actions with how Medea had once controlled Talos and caused him to self-destruct.
In reality, that was not the case.
Alaric merely revealed a hint of his true identity, and the boar recognized him.
As the man pursued by the Moon Goddess, Alaric held an exceptionally high status among Artemis' divine beasts, essentially equivalent to that of their male master.
Moreover, Alaric's "Enlightenment Technique" had helped many magical beasts awaken true intelligence. Under such circumstances, Artemis' beasts naturally harbored deep reverence for him.
In the end, under Alaric's stern rebuke, the boar obediently left Calydon, and the incident finally came to a close.
For a time, the reputations of Alaric and Atalanta spread ever further throughout Greece. Even Circe and Medea benefited from this surge of fame.
Titles such as "The One Who Drove Away the Boar," "The Sage of the Argo," and "Greece's Strongest Mage" turned Alaric into a celebrity across Greece.
As for Circe and Medea, they were naturally labeled witches. In this patriarchal, slave-based society, women who wielded magic generally did not enjoy high prestige among ordinary mortals, though they were respected within the community of mages, after all, even the god of magic was a goddess.
As for Atalanta, her title of "Artemis' Huntress" was also widely recognized.
Because she was a huntress rather than a wielder of incomprehensible magic, Atalanta's reputation sounded far more favorable.
And as her fame spread far and wide, she was recognized by her father, King Iasus of Arcadia.
Upon discovering that his daughter had become such a powerful hero, King Iasus naturally wished to reclaim her.
In the original myths, he succeeded, and later even organized a footrace to determine her marriage.
Unfortunately for him, this time he failed.
The original Atalanta, abandoned at birth and forced to walk alone, desperately yearned for familial affection.
Naturally, she would have gladly accepted her father's attempt at reconciliation.
But now…
Now Atalanta had already received fatherly affection from another, and due to an accident, that bond had gone "a step further."
Double the affection, double the happiness (not really). How could King Iasus possibly replace that?
The notion of winning her hand in marriage through a footrace was even more impossible.
How could Alaric, with his "fatherly love as solid as a mountain," casually marry off his "daughter" to someone else?