Chapter 2
Visitors from Across the Sea
The following day, we rented a ship at the harbor and headed out to sea.
It was a single-masted boat with a big square sail. Two ropes were attached to the sail, which could be pulled to steer. All in all, it was a bit of an older model that could reach a decent speed with a tailwind but couldn’t handle a headwind.
“Forget ‘a bit,’ this was ancient even when I was a sailor,” Yarandrala said, adjusting the sail with the ropes.
“Everything else was already rented out. It beats rowing, doesn’t it?”
“Well, of course it does! Older generation ships crawled so that current ships could run. There’s value in understanding older ships before getting to know the top-of-the-line ones.”
The sail swelled as it caught the wind.
Although the plan had come together at the last moment, today was perfect weather for sailing. It was the back half of summer, and our small, worn-out ship sailed beneath the white clouds drifting through the sky. Even Zoltan’s oppressive summer heat felt comfortable out on the sea. Or could it be because of the pleasant atmosphere aboard?
“Red, ten degrees starboard!”
“Aye-aye.”
I used an oar to adjust the ship’s bearing. After all, it didn’t have a rudder. Whatever adjustments couldn’t be done by manipulating the sail were done by rowing.
“The sea…”
“Indeed it is.”
Ruti and Tisse were standing together under a parasol, looking out at the water. Mister Crawly Wawly sat on Tisse’s head and had what looked like small sunglasses resting atop his forehead.
“We’re completely surrounded by water.”
That only made sense, considering we were out at sea. If I looked back, I’d still be able to see Zoltan’s shore, but even that was pretty far in the distance now.
“We’ve been on a lot of adventures, but I think this might be the first time our destination was somewhere out at sea,” I said.
“Yeah. Whenever we’ve been on a boat, it was always to reach land somewhere,” Rit responded.
Who knows? If I had stayed in the Hero’s party longer, maybe I would have found myself journeying to a temple on the bottom of the ocean.
“We went on a quest up in the sky, so it wouldn’t have been the weirdest thing for us to go on one beneath the sea, too.”
“You were flying when you fought Gandor of the Wind, weren’t you, Ruti?”
“Mhm. Gandor’s castle was in the sky, so we had to fly to fight him.”
“We had the help of some lightning dragons,” chimed in Tisse.
“Fighting on dragon-back, huh… The dream of every adventurer.”
Unlike drakes, dragons could speak and were wiser even than humans. Dragons taught people at the Ancient Mineral Dragon University, while at the Lightning Dragon Institute, lightning dragons served as lawyers to mediate international incidents.
Wise as they were, they did not allow humans to ride on their backs.
That said, lightning dragons might make an exception for children. It wasn’t so different from humans; a person might not mind giving a child a ride for fun, but they’d get annoyed if another adult wanted them to carry them around like a horse.
I guess that was one reason why lightning dragons had a reputation for being unnaturally interested in young boys and girls.
For the sake of their honor, I’ll clarify that lightning dragons love people who work hard to improve themselves and grow, which is why many of them are so supportive of youngsters embarking on adventures.
“Riding lightning dragons while assaulting a fortress protected by wyvern knights… It sounds like something an artist might draw in a more peaceful time.”
“But you weren’t there, Big Brother,” Ruti said with disappointment.
I had left the party after we defeated the heavenly king of the earth, the first one the Hero’s party had faced, so I hadn’t been there for the fight against the heavenly king of the wind.
“Any paintings, plays, or poems would be even better with you in them,” she went on. “There’s nothing wrong with embellishing the facts a little.”
“Woah there. You know, Ruti, every once in a while you say something really concerning.”
““Every once in a while?””
Tisse and Rit both cocked their heads.
“While you were all chatting, we’ve almost reached the spot!” Yarandrala called out.
There was no distinguishing feature to the sea spread out before us; the sunken ship wasn’t visible from the surface.
“Are you sure this is the place?”
“Positive.”
As expected of the former captain of an armed merchant fleet who rivaled the legendary Elven Corsairs.
I had a vague feeling that the ship we were looking for was somewhere in this vicinity, but I couldn’t pick out a precise spot in the sea without any landmarks.
“Can you tell where it is, Rit?”
“Nope. I’m from a land-locked country, so I don’t know much at all about the sea,” she said, peering down at the surface.
“I haven’t taken any jobs to assassinate someone at sea, either.”
Tisse and Mister Crawly Wawly also looked down at the water from beside Rit. They were both still wearing their sunglasses, which made it a lot harder to see than it needed to be.
“All right, let’s get ready to dive!”
Yarandrala was the leader of our tour to investigate the sunken ship today, so I followed her instructions and began making the necessary preparations.
“Water Breathing and Gift of Dolphin Power.”
Yarandrala cast two spells on all of us.
“And I cast Extend on the magic too, so the effects will last for three hours and twelve minutes.”
“That’s a crazy amount of time, Yarandrala.”
For an ordinary mage, it would’ve lasted maybe half an hour, meaning that for a normal underwater adventure, they would have to reapply the magic multiple times.
“But there’s no telling what might happen down there, so make sure you have the magic potion and airgrass I gave you ready to take out at a moment’s notice.”
“Roger.”
“The airgrass will only last for about five minutes of continued use, so control your breathing to make it back to the surface. I’m sure it goes without saying, but if you end up in a situation where you find yourself using the airgrass, priority number one is getting back to the surface.”
The potion was a potion of Water Breathing that I had made with Yarandrala last night, and the airgrass was a means of breathing underwater that didn’t rely on magic. There were more than a few monsters capable of negating magic, so we couldn’t go in thinking that we had plenty of time, only to have someone drown because the magic was dispelled. It was hard to imagine anything could negate Yarandrala’s magic, but if any of us died from that one in a million chance, there was no undoing it.
Those sorts of situations were why we had the potions and the airgrass.
“It doesn’t matter how strong we are, we’ll still die if we can’t breathe underwater… Well, except for Ruti with the Hero’s skill, since she doesn’t need to breathe if she uses it.”
“If worse comes to worst, I’ll carry everyone to the surface.”
Ruti patted her chest, letting us know we could trust in her. If she used all of the Hero’s immunities and resistances, she didn’t even need to breathe, but she had mentioned it felt weird not to breathe.
“Even if the blessing makes breathing unnecessary, people’s bodies are built to breathe while they move. It’s different from not needing food or water.”
“True. I focus on breathing while using my sword, too.”
With swordsmanship, it was important to match your timing to your breath. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Every single breath held meaning.
Because of that, even though Ruti could just stop breathing, she had still been given the same Water Breathing enchantment as everyone else.
“I’m using the same sword as you today,” she told me.
“Yeah, your usual sword is a bit too long for underwater combat.”
Hanging from Ruti’s hip was a bronze sword she’d bought from Mogrim’s shop.
When fighting underwater, compact thrusts were more effective than wide swings. In Ruti’s case, I was sure she’d be able to swing a sword just fine even against the water resistance, but it was probably a matter of feel.
“That said, putting a belt and sword on over a swimsuit feels kind of strange.”
“I think it feels pretty good, personally. What do you think, Red?”
Rit did a little spin in front of me. She was wearing a red-and-white striped swimsuit and a belt with a single shotel around her waist. The shotel’s shape wasn’t really suited for fighting underwater, but even with that inconvenience, there was something to be said for picking a weapon you were comfortable with. Still, it seemed like she’d avoided dual wielding for that very reason.
“Mm, that’s not really what I meant,” Rit said, putting her hand on her hip. “It’s the first time I’ve worn an outfit like this, but don’t you think the contrast between swimsuit and sword looks kinda nice?”
“Ah.”
She wasn’t wrong; the blend of the everyday and the unexpected probably felt fresh and new from a fashion perspective. The belt hung slightly above the waist of her swimsuit, and the sword hanging down from it with its glittering handle also worked well to accentuate the outfit. All in all, it suited her—and was really cute.
“What about me?” Ruti leaned forward, then spun around and did a little pose just like Rit had.
What an adorable little sister.
“Maybe I should have gone with a setup like yours,” I told her.
Ruti had two belts around her thigh and her sword stuck inside them. The sheath was made from a supple leather so she could easily draw her sword underwater, and there was a snap fastener to keep it from slipping out.
I was just wearing my usual wide belt over my swimsuit. The only change I’d made was to use a slip sheath, so my sword would be easier to draw underwater.
“I think your belt looks good with the swimsuit,” said Rit.
“Yeah, you look cool,” Ruti agreed.
“If you say so.”
Looking at Rit and Ruti, I felt like I should probably think about my clothes a bit more. The shop was running smoothly, so maybe it was about time I got some new clothes made.
“You look cool too, Mister Crawly Wawly.”
While Rit, Ruti, and I had all been talking, Tisse and Mister Crawly Wawly had likewise been complimenting one another. The spider had little swimming fins attached to his legs. Where did he get those made?
He’d had an abundance of accessories during our trip to the island, too. Lately, Tisse and Mister Crawly Wawly’s connections were getting more and more mysterious.
“Hehe, pretty clothes really do help to get you in the mood for adventure. Everything was always so practical traveling with the Hero’s party, and it always felt a bit like something was missing,” Yarandrala chimed in happily as she watched us.
“You were always careful about how you looked even while adventuring.”
“Yes, taking care of your appearance helps to keep you calm and composed, and that composure can prevent misjudgments. Style and fashion are important in any situation.”
“I see.”
Yarandrala was wearing a different swimsuit from last time. The previous one had been more fashionable, with a ribbon tied in a bow across the chest, but her current swimsuit was far more practical. Despite this, it still felt fashionable on her, perhaps because Yarandrala just had the right body type.
“Oh, are you not going to bring a weapon, Yarandrala?”
“You can’t really utilize the strength of a quarterstaff underwater, so I’ll use my spirit magic and plants instead.”
“It must be nice having so many options.”
With that, everyone was ready.
“Take it away, Yarandrala.”
“All right, everyone, let’s have a fun and enjoyable underseas trip.”
Zoltan’s summer heat didn’t reach below the surface, and the water washed away the sweat on my skin, leaving me to enjoy the pleasant coolness and buoyancy of my body.
A school of colorful southern sea fish swam by.
“Y’know…it’s a little scary seeing it like this.”
I was looking down toward the bottom of the ocean. There was nothing in that direction—just a darkness that seemed to go on forever. Down here, there were no light sources, and not having any solid earth around us filled me with unease. All of these factors just reminded me that humans were creatures of the land.
“It was worth bringing you along just to be able to hear you say that.”
Yarandrala sounded like she was in high spirits.
“How come?”
“You never complain, so it’s nice to hear you say you’re scared when you are.”
“Really?”
Rit sidled up and held on to me. “Yarandrala’s right. You’re always acting like you’re totally fine.”
“I try to make a point of not hiding anything from you, though.”
“I think it’s just a habit at this point. Your fighting style is about not showing any weakness and acting like you’re in a superior position to your opponent, right?”
“Ah, yeah, a bit.”
It was a style I had turned to in order to fight powerful enemies despite my blessing not really having any benefits—making them believe I still had a trump card up my sleeve by not using any inherent skills. By always looking calm and acting like I’d expected whatever happened, it lured opponents into thinking that they hadn’t seen my full strength.
While that might work for opponents who were clearly weaker than me, it was a different story with superior enemies like the contract demon, Shisandan, Gajasura, and Hero Van, who always pushed me right to the edge.
That went for my last battle with Eremite, too. I never would have imagined she had a demon beast transformation jewel in her back pocket. It would have been dangerous if I was fighting her one on one.
…As for Demis himself, that was different. That had been so dangerous I hadn’t had any time at all to worry about tricks.
“It’s a wife’s job to support her husband, right?”
“Ngh…”
Surprised by Rit’s words, the only response that escaped my lips was a strange grunt.
But she was right. We were engaged now, so it wouldn’t be that long before she was actually my wife. At that thought, I could almost feel courage flowing into me through her hand on my back.
“…Also, it’s scary for me too, so make sure you support me,” she said.
“You got it. Let’s go down together.”
“Mhm.”
I could tell Rit meant it about being scared; I could feel the tension in her hand.
We had been on all sorts of adventures and seen any number of terrifying sights… I couldn’t believe a new adventure was so close.
“Fascinating.”
The words had left my lips before I realized it, as we descended slowly toward the seabed.
With Yarandrala’s magic, we could move freely underwater and also, apparently, withstand the water pressure. If I was being completely honest, though, I didn’t really know much about the effects of water pressure. I was just relying on Yarandrala for this trip, which was a new experience in its own right.
“Adventuring is all about facing the unknown.”
Rit also seemed to be enjoying the thrill of something unfamiliar.
“Hmph.” Ruti huffed. “I’m not scared… It’s not fair.”
“I guess that makes sense coming from you.”
Ruti was using New Truth to nullify the Hero’s immunity to fear, but for someone like her, who had never experienced fear since the moment she was born, Ruti really couldn’t comprehend what I was feeling right now. She was probably the only person in the world who got upset about not being able to feel fear.
We kept diving, following Yarandrala’s instructions as we talked. Eventually, we got to a point where the light from the surface no longer reached, and a deep, dark blue surrounded us on all sides.
It was an incredible sight.
“Light.”
Yarandrala cast a spell, illuminating the area around us.
“Ah, there it is.”
She pointed beneath us, and we looked down to see a big shadow on the seabed.
“The Veronian galleon!”
We were right on the mark, as expected of Yarandrala.
The shape became more distinct the closer we got, until it resolved itself into a large ship lying sideways on the sandy seabed. It was broken in two a third of the way down from its bow, and the fore and aft sections were lying a little ways apart from each other.
“Ruti just chopped it in half and sent it to the bottom of the ocean, but up close, it’s stunning.”
When the fleet had arrived, the Vendidad was so massive and unlike anything I’d ever seen before that I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off it. But looking at it now, this ship was pretty huge, too.
I took a lightstick out of my belt—a thirty-centimeter-long magic item that looked like a brass rod. It gave off light and burned with a magic fire that didn’t give off heat and couldn’t be put out by water. The materials were cheap, and any magic user could make one, making them an inexpensive tool that even beginner adventurers could afford. I smacked the tip against the hilt of my sword to light it up.
Unlike Yarandrala’s magic, the lightstick wasn’t especially bright underwater. However, there were still traces of the sun’s light at this depth, so it was enough to explore a sunken ship.
“It’s neat. You don’t get too many chances to see the bottom of a ship.”
“Mm. I’ve seen blueprints and ships mid-construction, but this is what it looks like when it’s finished.”
“And the damage is pretty intriguing, too.”
Me and Rit headed to the stern of the ship. Tisse and Ruti were taking a look at the bow, and Yarandrala investigated the masts.
“It’s a complex system that uses square-rigged and lateen fore-and-aft rigged sails of different sizes. With this setup, it can move a huge ship like this no matter what direction the wind is blowing.”
“Ms. Ruti, there are sea anemones clinging to the ship.”
“Cute! They’re so red and jiggly.”
Being able to hear each other from so far away was an effect of the Water Breathing spell. Sound was essentially vibrations in the air, so it should have been dampened by the water. But thanks to the magic, we were breathing water as if it was air, so apparently that meant our vocal cords could also transmit sound directly through the water.
“Everyone, come here a moment!” Yarandrala called us over.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Do you want to check out the inside?” said Yarandrala.
The inside, huh?
“The cabin layout should be different from older models, so it could be useful as a reference.”
“Not to mention there might be some treasure left!” Rit said, sounding excited.
This ship had been carrying the mercenaries hired by Queen Consort Leonor. Unlike the kingdom’s official army, mercenaries provided their own weapons and gear. Leonor had also put a lot of money into gathering skilled mercenaries, so the gear they had brought along would probably include stuff forged by renowned blacksmiths and magic items found in dungeons.
“There might even be some artifact-tier gear!”
“If we find any, we’ll have a feast to celebrate.”
Dreaming of the unknown treasures you might find on a quest was part of the fun of being an adventurer. It wasn’t that simple to find such incredible magic items, but as long as there was a treasure chest to be opened, there was a chance of uncovering something amazing.
“An adventurer is someone who takes joy in the unknown,” Rit said, and a look of understanding crossed Ruti’s face.
I wasn’t up for any real adventures anymore, but this sort of adventure could still be a bit of fun.
“Big Brother,” Ruti said, drawing her sword. “There are monsters.”
“Ah.”
Rit and I nodded, following suit and readying our weapons.
“Yarandrala, we should let Ruti take the lead here.”
“Got it.”
Yarandrala was planning to fight mainly with her spirit magic, so we dropped her to the back lines and put Ruti out in front. Rit and I moved in behind her, and Tisse and Mister Crawly Wawly protected Yarandrala, ready to move up front if needed.
“I’m opening it.”
Ruti opened the door to the cabin, and from my position behind her, I could also see into the room.
“…!”
Four mercenaries were floating in the water—at least, their bones were. Their flesh had been completely eaten away by underwater creatures. It was gruesome in a different way from the desiccated corpses you might find on land.
I could see huge swarms of tiny crabs in their hollow eye sockets. They weren’t a threat, just normal crabs…but seeing so many of them writhing around inside what used to be a person was still repulsive.
Ruti slowly moved into the room.
“Ruti!” I shouted. “The corpses!”
Suddenly, the skeletons came after her. They didn’t swim like people but wriggled like fish toward Ruti at high speed.
Rit and I were right behind Ruti, but the door stood between us and her, limiting where we could swim. If we rushed in, we’d just be in Ruti’s way.
In this situation, our choices were:
1. Fall back and meet them where we had more space.
2. Stand and fight where we were.
3. Push into the room and attack.
Which option would Ruti want?
“Let’s go, Rit!”
I pushed forward without hesitating, and at the same time, Ruti moved deeper into the room.
If we were on the surface, falling back might have been a solid option, but right now we were underwater. Ruti had been swimming into the room, meaning that she’d lose momentum if she tried to change directions now. So instead she sped up, moving forward to let me and Rit into the room behind her.
She quickly thrust her bronze sword toward the approaching body.
But underwater combat was a tricky thing. On land, three people was about the limit to the number of enemies that could attack from the front at the same time. Here under the water, however, they were free to move up and down as well. Four enemies from both the front and above could attack all at the same time.
The water also limited our ability to swing a sword, so we had to fight primarily using thrusts. Stabbing techniques were powerful, but they left you open to an attack the moment you finished a thrust.
Slashes were what you needed to repel multiple enemies attacking all at once…or, at least, that was the theory.
There was a loud whump as a shockwave passed through the water. It looked instantaneous to my eyes.
Ruti’s thrusts shattered the skulls of the moving corpses, and the crabs hiding inside were propelled through the water. But the enemies were corpses; shattering their skulls was not enough to stop them.
Now, it was time for me and Rit to join the fight.
“I’ll take the right!”
“Got it!”
I approached the corpse on the left, thrusting my sword with my right hand on the haft and left hand holding the blade. I aimed for the skeleton’s hands and spine.
Despite how it seemed, there were certain rules to magic. Even if a corpse’s biological functions were no longer working, it still lost its sense of awareness if its head was crushed, and it wouldn’t be able to move its lower body if its spine was broken. The magic that animated corpses used the memories imbued in the body from when it was still a person.
“This’ll finish it.”
Ruti destroyed the corpses attacking from in front and above her, ending the fight.
“But these aren’t the main body.”
“Yeah, there’s still a monster that was controlling them.”
There were monsters that possessed corpses, but I hadn’t felt a blessing from any of the skeletons we’d just fought. The monster had to have a real body somewhere, and it seemed the type to manipulate others from a distance using magic.
“These sorts of monsters normally have a Necromancer-type blessing, but…”
Unlike people, the vast majority of monsters had only lower-tier blessings, which meant the more likely answer was…
“This is probably a demon,” said Yarandrala.
Demons, by their very definition, were a species that only ever had one type of inherent blessing. The highly intelligent ones following the demon lord’s army were the most well-known of their species; however, there also existed other demons with lower intelligence that lived among monsters.
We kept going further into the ship, investigating the cabin as we went. Our original goal had been to analyze the construction of Veronia’s cutting-edge new ship, but taking care of any threats came first.
“More of them!”
There were several bodies floating in the cabin, and this time, we attacked first. It wasn’t a threat once you knew the trick, but it didn’t exactly leave you with a good taste in your mouth, either.
“…”
“Are you all right, Ruti?”
“Mhm.”
“Maybe I should take the lead,” I offered.
“I’m fine… That isn’t our best formation.”
Ruti was right; underwater, where we couldn’t move like normal, me taking the lead wasn’t optimal. Still, it looked like she was having trouble. The corpses didn’t even have blessings, so it wasn’t that they were scaring her.
No, what was bothering her was seeing all the people who’d died when she sank this ship.
This world was filled with fighting.
The number of people who’d killed other humans wasn’t insignificant, and a majority of people had had to make the choice to kill or be killed. Just like Ruti, I had lost count of the lives I’d taken. But they had also been trying to kill me, so that was the risk they’d taken.
The mercenaries on this ship had been going to kill the people of Zoltan. Even if Leonor had ordered them to, that had been more than enough of a reason for us to draw our swords. And Ruti had been the Hero.
The Hero, who saved the weak and slayed evil.
She couldn’t hesitate. That was how Demis had made the Hero blessing, and so Ruti had never known fear or guilt.
Even if she had escaped the impulses of her blessing, and as much as she might hate being that person, Ruti had only ever fought as the Hero, so she was used to killing people like that. She wouldn’t hesitate when she had to fight just because she didn’t want to kill, and she wasn’t going to regret her battles afterward. But that didn’t mean she never thought about it.
You can’t afford to hesitate to fight to protect your own life or those of your friends. That was just the world we lived in. But in my opinion, it’s also important not to reach a point where those deaths never cross your mind.
Faced with the corpses attacking us, Ruti was experiencing a whirlwind of emotions. It must have been distressing. But it was proof of her humanity and a display of how much she had changed.
I would always support her, but she’d learned to move forward on her own two feet. If she was insistent about taking the lead, then I should just hang back.
“It’s hard, though.”
Not being able to do anything, even though my sister was hurting…
Yeah, it really is tough.
Once we took out whatever was controlling these bodies, I’d be sure to shower her with praise.
“Big Brother.” Her voice pulled me back to the situation at hand. “There’s something ahead. Other than the bodies.”
“This is the lowest level of the ship’s hold. Do you think it’s the seabed on the other side?” I asked.
“Probably,” replied Yarandrala, touching the wall.
“We’ll have to put a pin in our fact-finding mission. Let’s go.”
“Right.” The high elf nodded.
Ruti glanced at me. She put her hand against the door to the hold, then stopped just as she was about to push.
“It teleported.”
“Agh?! Behind you, Yarandrala!”
A corpse holding a sword appeared behind Yarandrala. Teleporting into the blind spot for a sneak attack was a common tactic in fights against powerful monsters.
“It’s true I don’t have my staff, but this ship is my domain,” Yarandrala said, forming a seal. “Verdant friend, share your dream once more!”
The ship’s side swayed, and a sharp branch skewered the corpse, stopping it in its tracks.
“You grew a tree underwater?!” Rit exclaimed.
Ordinarily, plant manipulation could only work in an environment where the plant could actually grow. Issues of water and fertilizer could be solved by using magic, so Yarandrala could grow a tree with just a single seed and a clump of soil. But this was the sea. Not somewhere trees could normally grow.
“That wasn’t growth, but restoration—an application of a skill to return wood back to the state when it was a tree.”
“You can do that?” Rit asked with surprise.
“I don’t know anyone who can actually do it other than Yarandrala,” I told her.
The surprise attack had failed.
This was probably how Yarandrala had been able to fight as a ship’s captain out at sea, even though that wasn’t exactly an ideal battlefield for a plant user.
“But the real culprit isn’t here.”
All she had skewered was the dead body.
The next instant, the door in front of Ruti burst open, and a rust-colored cloud spilled out from behind it.
“Poison!” Tisse yelled in warning.
If anyone could identify poison on sight, it was her.
Ruti would be fine if she used the immunities given to her by the Hero blessing, and Rit and Yarandrala had blessings with poison resistance. Tisse was an expert at dealing with poisons and probably had a way to counter it…meaning the only one who might have trouble here was me.
This was where the Guide having no inherent skills was really a drawback.
“Leave it to me,” Ruti said.
She whirled her arms around, then thrust her palms forward. A swirling current drew in the spreading poison water and pushed it all deep into the hold.
Precise current manipulation using just her body. It wasn’t even a skill, just her own technique… Man, that was crazy.
“Rit.”
“On it! If it’s all in one spot, then it’s no problem! Spirit of water, purify the corruption!”
Rit’s magic removed the poison from the water, while the monster deeper in the ship’s hold was pinned down from the current Ruti had stirred up.
After confirming that the poison was gone, we charged into the hold.
“An undead mass demon…!”
“Ugh, the nastiest kind.” Rit grimaced when she saw it.
There was a mass of corpses in the bottom of the hold. And beyond them, black eyes restlessly looked around. It was an undead mass demon, low in rank and intelligence.
They lived in the seas and were known to use their corpse manipulation inherent skill to attack ships. As for why they attacked ships…it was to make a husk for themselves out of corpses, similar to hermit crabs. They were physically weak and fought from a distance using corpses under their control. The reason it wasn’t able to fight back against Ruti’s water current was because it couldn’t do anything with its own strength.
“…I don’t know if there’s any point in fighting it,” Ruti said, raising her sword. “But I want those people to be able to rest in peace.”
“Yeah.”
The mass of corpses turned to look at Ruti, who stared straight back at those empty eye sockets and charged in.
“We’ll back you up!”
“Yeah!”
“Roger!”
Me, Rit, and Tisse followed after her.
The undead mass demon undid the mess of intertwined limbs that made up its shell, trying to overwhelm us with sheer numbers. There was a limit to how many zombies could be manipulated at the same time with magic, but the reason it could control this many was due to its demonic blessing’s inherent skill.
It was difficult to deal with sheer numbers when fighting underwater…but the people here were members of the former Hero’s Party. And Ruti was invincible when she found a reason to defeat her enemy.
We calmly took down the corpses as they approached us from amid the swarm of zombies, creating a path for Ruti.
A screeching sound suddenly reverberated through the water. It came from the demon’s crustacean-like mouth.
“Lightning Bolt?!”
It was so hard to predict what magic a non-human creature would use! And we weren’t used to fighting against magic underwater.
Many spells had different effects when cast in the water. Fire magic turned into a steam that boiled the enemy, ice magic left chunks that got in the way, and electric magic turned into an attack that spread out in all directions and was impossible to escape from.
“Gah!”
“Aaah!”
Me and Rit stiffened as the electricity ran through us. The charge wasn’t as strong as if we’d been on dry land, but it was still an annoying obstruction.
However…
“Magic doesn’t work on me.”
“?!”
Ruti was unaffected.
It wasn’t like before, when she’d just been able to resist it; the magic itself was unable to reach her.
It was Ruti’s new skill. Ruler’s Garb unilaterally nullified all magic.
“Sacred Shield!”
With the Hero’s inherent magic, Ruti created a powerful defensive shield. But she manifested it behind her, instead of using it to protect herself.
“Haaaah!”
Kicking off the sacred shield, she accelerated through the water. Her outstretched sword stabbed straight toward the undead mass demon.
It was a thrust so sharp it was hard to believe it was underwater. The corpses that moved to try to protect the demon were knocked aside as Ruti ran the undead mass demon straight through.
The dead bodies stopped moving, like puppets whose strings had been cut.
They had been freed.
“Phaa!”
Rit let out a big breath when she broke the surface of the water. We had been able to breathe underwater using magic, but even so, it had felt sort of suffocating. Air just felt so much better to breathe.
“Hooo, it’s pretty exhausting swimming around on the bottom of the sea.” Rit grabbed the edge of the ship. I had already climbed back aboard, so I helped her up by the arm. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
Our inspection of the Veronian galleon was pretty much done. We had memorized the general layout of the ship, so next would be a meeting with Yarandrala when we got back to Zoltan to talk about what we’d learned.
“There was a pretty good haul of loot, too.”
Yarandrala was wearing a circlet made of gold. It was a magic item that reflected spells and skills that affected a person mentally. These sorts of items tended not to block any powerful magic, but they could still defend against most wide-ranging spells. It was a common tactic on battlefields with a mage squad to cast Fear to lower morale, and this was a way to protect yourself from such tactics.
There had been several other magic items, including magic swords, as well as gold, silver, and jewels that were easy to carry around.
As expected of elite Veronian mercenaries.
“I already figured as much, but we made way more today than a year of sales at the shop.”
“That’s what comes from really taking a risk when you go adventuring. The enemy this time might have wiped out a party of C-rank adventurers.”
“True. I knew there were strong monsters in the southern seas, but to think there was a demon like that lurking beneath the waters so close to us. The sea is terrifying.”
Fishermen really put their lives on the line each and every day.
“Good work, Ruti.”
I used a towel to dry Ruti’s hair after giving it a rinse with fresh water; it was bad for your hair not to rinse out the salt water first. If she used the skills from the Hero’s blessing, then not even a strand of her hair would be hurt, but Ruti had been trying to rely as little as possible on those resistances and immunities so she could live more like a normal person.
“Thank you, Big Brother.” Ruti smiled happily.
“Mister Crawly Wawly, Tisse, you both did well out there, too.”
Tisse had been last to come to the surface, and I helped her onto the boat as well. For some reason, she had a big flounder on her back.
“I’m going to have this made into chikuwa when we get back.”
“R-really?”
Mister Crawly Wawly was hopping up and down proudly. He must have been the one to catch it. I’d thought he wouldn’t be able to use his threads underwater, but apparently not…
“It is true he can’t freely control them underwater, but he can still do enough to make a fishing line.”
“That’s amazing…”
Maybe I should ask for a detailed explanation of everything Mister Crawly Wawly can do. Or maybe that would take the fun out of these little moments.
The situation now was different from my days adventuring, when I had to know exactly what my comrades were capable of so that I could always be thinking about what our best course of action was.
Being surprised by this little spider’s abilities was just one of the joys of our mini adventures.
“All right, everyone’s back. Ready to go?”
“I’d love to have lunch here and do a little fishing…”
“We’ve done a lot of fishing lately.”
I loved to fish, but I was more than satisfied with our tour of the sunken ship. And I hadn’t even brought any rods.
“We can come again whenever you want. I’m sure I’ll be back to investigate the sunken ship a bunch more.”
“Yeah, why don’t we leave that for next time?”
Tisse gave up and tied up the flounder she’d brought back from the dive. Was the reason she always tried to catch the biggest fish because she could use it to make the most chikuwa?
Just as that idle thought crossed my mind, Yarandrala finished getting the ship ready to sail.
“Shall we?”
But just before we started moving…
“Wait,” Ruti said, pointing out toward the sea. “There’s a ship.”
“Hm? Ah, out in the distance.”
Straining my eyes, I could see a shadow that looked almost like a ship. It would have been clearer if it wasn’t summer, but I couldn’t tell what sort of vessel it was.
“What a strange design.” Apparently, Ruti could make it out clearly. “And it’s in bad shape.”
“It is?!”
“It’s probably drifting aimlessly.”
“What?!” Yarandrala immediately changed the direction of the sail. “It’s okay to go check it out, right?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
It was going to take time to get there, but we couldn’t just ignore the other ship. Had it been attacked by monsters or caught up in a storm…? Either way, I hoped the crew was all right.
About an hour later, we finally reached the floating ship.
“It’s bigger than I thought,” Rit said. “But you’re right, Ruti. I’ve never seen a ship like this.”
It was a…box-shaped galley? The deck was covered in planks, and there was what looked like a big box on top of it. It had a single mast, which was broken, and was of medium size for a ship, but it didn’t have a keel and seemed to have a shallow draft.
While it didn’t look like a ship meant for sailing the open seas, it also appeared to have been made in a country that used different shipbuilding technologies. Maybe it had been built to weather storms, and I just didn’t understand how it worked.
“Either way, if it’s this damaged, it can’t do much of anything.”
It wasn’t just the mast; the oars were broken too, and a number of holes studded the hull. It was a miracle it hadn’t sunk yet.
“Are those arrows?”
There were quite a few of them sticking out of the wood; they weren’t the sort of thing sea monsters tended to use. Had it been attacked by pirates?
“Mister Crawly Wawly.”
He nodded at Tisse’s request and used his thread to connect our ship to the one drifting across the water.
“Shall we? Rit, can you stay on our ship as backup, just in case?”
“Sure. I imagine it’ll be fine, but be careful.”
“I will.”
The rest of us crossed over to the drifting ship.
The boards covering the ship had probably been meant as a sort of shield. There wasn’t a roof on top, so climbing up the boards we could see the state of the deck. There was one small cabin and two holes leading down into the ship’s hold.
“There’s…no monsters.”
“Still, this is…,” Tisse trailed off sadly.
Death was strewn all across the deck. A dozen or so armored warriors lay where they had fallen, none of them showing any signs of life.
“Resist Disease.”
Yarandrala’s magic enveloped us—a ward to protect against the spread of sickness.
“It looks like there was a battle, but seeing as this ship probably came from quite a long way away, it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”
“Thanks.”
We climbed down to the deck.
“It has a shallow draft, so there’s probably only food and water in the hold below.”
“Right, and I think those are sleeping bags on the deck.”
The deck and cabin were the first priorities in our investigation.
“How awful,” Tisse said as she examined a corpse sitting slumped against the mast. “This is Jade Kingdom armor, isn’t it?”
The fallen warriors’ gear was all very distinctive: katanas and naginatas, asymmetrical longbows, and armor made from iron scales layered atop cloth.
They were the weapons and armor of the Jade Kingdom.
“Yeah… Did this ship drift all the way here from the Far East?”
“That’s hard to believe. I can’t imagine this ship being capable of something like that.”
The Jade Kingdom was a country in the East, beyond the Wall at the End of the World. To reach it, you had to either go by sea around the north of the continent, or by land using the pass discovered through the Wall that just barely kept a trickle of trade flowing.
Theoretically, you could reach it if you sailed due east from Zoltan, but there weren’t any merchant ships that took the southern route–it had no ports to resupply during a long voyage, ferocious southern sea monsters, and fickle storms. If you gathered a fleet of a dozen large ships and even one managed to make it through, the voyage would be considered a success. That was the level of risk we were talking about.
If a southern route to the East was established, Zoltan would prosper as a resupply point. However, even with the most generous outlook, that was not likely to happen in our lifetimes.
Right now, people had their hands full with the demon lord’s armies.
“Were they carrying some sort of powerful artifact or something?”
The moment Tisse looked away from the corpse in front of her…
“?!”
…it grabbed her arm?!
“What?!”
“Th-the princess…!”
As pale and bloodless as the man’s face was, his eyes were bright red.
He shouldn’t have been breathing…!
“The princess?” Tisse asked despite her surprise.
The man pointed toward the cabin.
“Our hope…to save…the world…!”
“What do you mean?”
But the man’s final words disappeared in a bloody burble, and his arm fell limp.
“Healing Hands.” Ruti immediately tried to heal him, but…
“He’s dead. Your Healing Hands can’t reach him.”
Ruti looked bewildered. “Is this some sort of skill that lets a person move even after they’ve died? Or just tenacity?”
I hadn’t been able to tell what his blessing was just from that, but I had a feeling it wasn’t the strength of a blessing. It felt more like the strength that came from that powerful, human determination that surpassed blessings.
“There’s something he wanted to protect, even at the cost of his own life, in that cabin.”
“But…look at this place,” Yarandrala murmured softly.
There was no one alive on the deck; everyone had died in combat. Considering that fact, it was hard to imagine that the cabin would somehow be safe.
“Let’s at least check.”
I opened the door to the cabin.
“Mrgh?!”
Something leapt out at me from behind the door, and I quickly drew my sword and cut it down. It was a small cross-shaped blade… A shuriken?
“Big Brother!”
Ah, so the shuriken had just been a distraction to hide the assailant’s true goal—a direct attack with a sword.
“It’s not much of a surprise attack when you’re swaying around like that.”
I grabbed the outthrust arm and twisted it.
“Ah, ungh…”
My attacker was a young girl.
She was holding a short sword, smaller than the ones the fallen warriors on the deck had, and wore light armor that only protected her vital areas; she must have been a light warrior similar to Tisse.
Is she a ninja from the Jade Kingdom?
“So there was a survivor… Yarandrala, can you heal her?”
“Sure.”
Ruti’s Healing Hands was a skill only the Hero could use. Given we didn’t know anything about the people on this ship, hiding Ruti’s identity was paramount.
“I shall not let you approach the princess…!”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t try a shoddy sneak attack right now.”
“Huh…?”
Even as she continued trying to resist, I started talking to her.
“The situation on this ship is hopeless. It doesn’t matter who’s come on board, you have to use them in order to get out alive. Yet instead, you attacked us, provoking hostility without even bothering to gather any information. I wouldn’t have done that if I were you.”
“…”
“The way you chose to do it was clumsy, too. Even if you’d managed to succeed, all you would have done was kill me, leaving yourself completely exposed and defenseless to my remaining comrades. That’s not wise either.”
“…Unh.”
She stopped struggling.
Understanding that I was not her enemy, the fire in her heart died down, and I left her in Yarandrala’s care.
“She’s weakened, but it’s not too serious yet.”
“That’s good.”
From the condition of the warriors outside, it looked like the ship had been low on water and food, but this girl was only malnourished—not yet fully starving. She had just barely managed to take in enough food.
But a ninja… I had seen someone with a Ninja blessing before, but this was my first time seeing one from the Jade Kingdom itself.
“Big Brother,” Ruti called out from further inside the cabin.
It sounded serious.
Was she behind the screen in the middle of the room? Tisse and I headed deeper.
“This is awful…!”
I wasn’t sure.
There was a woman lying on a blanket, her body unnaturally wasted away. Her skin was pulled tight around her bones, and her breathing shallow… How was she still alive?
“Yarandrala! She’s in terrible shape!” I quickly called the high elf over.
“…Ah.”
There was a sound.
A second person was moving when she shouldn’t have been able to.
“Stay still. My friend is on her way. She can use healing magic.”
“Wh-who are you…?”
Her voice was clear. I couldn’t believe her strength of will to still be alive in such a terrible state.
“I’m an apothecary from a country called Zoltan.”
“Zoltan…!” Her sunken eyes gleamed for a moment. “I…made it…”
“Oh no!”
Whatever was keeping her alive was fading away.
“Great current, spirit of life drawn from the wellspring, preserve this fading life…!” Yarandrala cast her magic the instant she laid eyes on the woman.
But there was no change.
“This is too much for spirit magic!”
“It’s not working…?!”
“Don’t worry, I’m also an expert at healing in a different way from Esta.”
Yarandrala formed another seal.
“Corpse Rose!”
The woman’s body became shrouded in poisonous-looking red roses.
It was a plant I’d never seen before.
“This is a type of rose that lives symbiotically with humans. Normally, it survives by borrowing a little of the life force of its host, but when that host is on the verge of death, it has the ability to expend its vitality to resuscitate them. A body bound by roses can’t move, and the thorns damage the skin, but it can heal deeper wounds even than healing magic.”
“That’s incredible.”
Spells that came from cleric-related blessings was commonly considered to be the best when it came to healing magic; however, Yarandrala’s Singer of the Trees allowed her to use her knowledge of plants to recreate things that could only be done with other blessings. It was a strength that couldn’t be gained simply by raising one’s blessing level, and it was a perfect fit for Yarandrala.
“There’s a limit to the roses’ vitality, but I can provide it with mana to make sure it doesn’t run out. It’s even more effective than Regenerate. Only Healing Hands is more efficient in turning magic power into healing.”
That’s Yarandrala for you.
With this, we should be able to save her…
“Huh?”
But it was not to be.
Yarandrala’s roses withered before our eyes.
“What’s going on?!” Flustered, Yarandrala quickly changed the roses back into seeds. “Is a skill activating to prevent the corpse roses from taking root?”
“The plants are parasitizing a host, so maybe they’re getting caught by some sort of resistance?!”
This wasn’t good.
It would take a while for us to get back to Zoltan on our boat, but the woman lying feebly before us didn’t look like she could last the trip.
There was only one form of healing better than Yarandrala’s…
“I’ll do it.”
“Ruti…”
The only person whose healing power surpassed Yarandrala’s was Ruti.
Only the Hero’s power had a chance.
“I can’t just leave her like this.”
Ruti’s body shone.
She was releasing the full power of the Hero from the constraints of New Truth.
“Healing Hands!”
The light shrouding Ruti poured into the woman.
The ashen skin clinging to her bones took on a ruddy hue, and the flesh that had withered to keep her alive regenerated.
I put my fingers to her wrist, checking her pulse. “She’s out of any immediate danger.”
She was still terribly malnourished, and her body looked emaciated, but she wasn’t on death’s door anymore.
“We can just take her to a clinic in Zoltan, and she should recover with some rest and recuperation.”
“Big Brother… I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. If you thought it was right to use your power, then that’s enough. After all, it is yours to use.”
“Yeah… Thanks.”
I put my hand on Ruti’s head, and she smiled happily back at me.
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