Book 8 Chapter 10
Episode 184
- Miria, Miria!
An empty space where echoes of the past eerily resound, ah, is this a nightmare?
- From now on, I'm going to revive the Demon Slayer.
- Don't touch those children!
- Please, please don't kill anyone, I'll follow you, I'll follow you.
- You're not my sister. Understand?
The next moment, Miria escaped the nightmare by abruptly sitting up in bed.
‘Again…’
Cold sweat turned into chills all over her body, and the trembling in her breath wouldn't stop.
‘A nightmare that hasn't stopped for 11 years…’
The pre-dawn moonlight falling on her face through the window felt disturbingly heavy.
She weakly gripped the half-broken sword. Her adoptive father's memento, who died on the day of the nightmare.
In a solitude so powerful it was terrifying, amid the metallic scent of the sword, she felt the realization of being alone.
‘But, but why…’
Is it because she feels the warmth of a baby dragon that is no longer in her arms?
And why again, did the vague outline of a boy in a straw hat seem to appear at the edge of the nightmare?
‘But was that kid really that short?’
His hair color seemed a bit different too. No, would there be any meaning in recalling it?
She shook her head, dispelling the lingering thoughts.
She wouldn't be able to meet him again until this matter was over, and this matter seemed like it would never end…
- Awoo!
- What do you mean 'awoo', you prefer women, is that it?
- Aba-at.
Miria, dropping her face into her hugged knees, didn't even realize that a faint smile had formed on her lips.
* * *
[The fleet bound for <Carsico> will depart in half an hour, so please proceed to the ticket check gate with your boarding pass…]
A female voice, materialized by magic, echoed over the harbor of <Terbenopel>.
Most passengers using the linked fleet board at the pier the night before the ships form the fleet.
However, not a few people also board late in the pre-dawn hours, taking city-owned barges.
“Confirmed. Please come aboard.”
Over fifty ships stretched out, forming a ship formation. Chains glowing in teal linked the vessels as if they were one body.
The boarding gate for barge passengers was the gangway of a whaling ship located at the rear of the fleet.
On the waterway bustling with previously arrived barges, Rein briefly looked back.
‘Is this a temporary farewell to the Akrad continent as well?’
Family, school, countless connections…
She would have to move to a world where everything would be severed. Of course, it wouldn't be severed forever, but hadn't she thought the same thing in her previous life?
- If you go to the Adrion continent right now, your life will be in danger.
Karenden's warning struck his mind like a solemn bell.
But where he was going now was not the Adrion continent. It was the Tersh Archipelago, an intermediate port of call between the two continents.
Link, Linkland, Zernix, Slayers, Miria…
As long as his arch-nemesis Zernix was involved, and Miria and Link were intertwined in it, he had to go, no matter where it was.
‘Perhaps yesterday was the last time I sent a letter to my family.’
He had been sending letters every 1-2 weeks, but now that the Republic was divided, it was questionable whether letters sent from the Adrion continent would reach their destination well.
“I will check your boarding pass.”
A voice was heard from above.
When he held up the boarding pass Valentidis had prepared, a magical rune unfolded a string of characters in the air. It was a magic tool.
B3821, B3822.
“Confirmed. Please come up.”
The witch acting as a ticket checker above the gangway lifted Rein and Aki onto the ship with telekinetic magic.
The boarding pass Valentidis had pre-booked was for Ship No. 38, which was a merchant ship located slightly behind the middle of the fleet.
He walked along the long pier connecting the ships front to back, pushing through the line of passengers.
“Ooh…”
Aki's eyes sparkled at the sight of the beautiful water scales spread across the sea surface, rippling with the waves.
Aki, as if enchanted by the charm of the southern sea, gazed blankly at the ocean while held in his arms!
Woooo…
By the time they reached Ship No. 38, a trumpet blast announced the imminent departure.
“Look at that, Aki.”
At that sound, the sight of seabirds flying up in white masses from the coastal watchtowers was spectacular.
“There are lots of birds!”
Something with warm body temperature settled on Aki's head as he stared blankly. It was Pipi.
“Aki, Aki, Aki.”
“It’s Pipi!”
“Long time no see, long time no see, long time no see.”
Pipi hadn't been able to meet Aki for almost a week because she was guarding Kora.
“You've come. I was just thinking you had left that bird with me and run away.”
As Aki giggled with Pipi, Valentidis approached Rein.
Valentidis was dressed in attire suitable for his disguised identity as a merchant. He had disguised himself as a liquor merchant and shipped the Slime Slayer in a barrel.
No matter how much the pursuers tracked, they wouldn't be able to find which ship Kora had boarded.
“Where’s Kora?”
“She’s in the hold.”
He left Aki with Valentidis and went down to the hold.
The hold, packed tightly with cargo, received no sunlight, so a lantern had to be carried even in broad daylight.
Where barrels were stacked high, one barrel with its own special mark was conspicuously placed alone in front.
He sat on it and asked.
“Isn’t it uncomfortable?”
“Your friend says that if I go outside and get caught for illegal boarding, things will get very troublesome.”
“Still, you’d want to be treated like a person.”
“Anyway, I’m so small that I can rest comfortably inside the barrel.”
That was true.
Kora was the shortest adult woman Rein had ever seen.
“And… it’s been a long time since I slept this comfortably in recent years, it’s not bad.”
She seemed similar to or even smaller than the Ain Frisvia. She herself was proud, saying that being small was good for fighting slimes.
But Link was a truly enormous figure, so how could such a small descendant have been born?
Feeling a strange question, he scratched his forehead.
“You. Do you often act recklessly even usually?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The brand on your neck… you could have died from that. But to immediately trust someone you just met and be ready to die, I couldn't have done that.”
Since the opponent was Zernix, it must have been a situation where he had no choice but to trust him somehow…
“Well, I’m not foolish enough to trust just anyone. That was merely a catalyst.”
“A catalyst?”
“I’ve seen you guys once before. When I was eating with Miria in <Aurelinople>.”
“Ah, so that was… when I passed by then.”
“Yes, it was me. It had been a very long time since I'd seen Miria laugh so joyfully.”
“…?”
“After that incident, Miria’s distrust of humans became extremely severe. Especially towards men. To make someone like that laugh, isn’t it worth trusting and risking your life for?”
Miria’s smile…
Come to think of it, she was indeed a sharp-edged woman when he first met her. Although it felt like they had rapidly become close thanks to Aki.
“You said Miria was in danger, right? It’s about time I heard that story.”
Kora took a deep breath and was about to say something when…
“Abba, witch, witch!”
Aki kept calling out, making it impossible to continue the conversation. He lightly tapped the barrel.
“Let’s continue this later. It’s a route that takes five days to a week to arrive.”
When he went outside, he saw over a dozen witches flying in the sky.
Riding broomsticks, with red robes fluttering, they moved forward. These must be the witches responsible for the safe navigation of this linked fleet.
Aki leaped up and climbed onto his back uninvited, then waved his arms wildly at the witches.
“Hel-lo! Hel-lo! Hel-lo!”
“Hello, hello, hello.”
The witches smiled and waved back. He said to Valentidis.
“They’re all so young.”
“Of course. Most of the executives died in the Red Mountains.”
“Should I help them?”
“Help with what? How? They have to become executives now, so it’s natural that they need time to gain experience.”
Ugh, the conversation ended with an uncomfortable groan.
The witches descended onto the military ship of <Terbenopel>, the largest and sturdiest of the vessels, located in the center of the fleet, which was lined up in 2-3 rows.
This was the ship that would serve as the command center and helm for this voyage.
[We will depart shortly. The ship may sway, so please step away from the ship's rail for safety.]
It was a truly novel sight.
When the witches generated a mighty wind through multi-chanting, the sails of all ships billowed in the wind.
Other witches seemed to be gently calming the ocean currents with magic.
‘As dragons disappear, humanity must be changing to adapt to it.’
A true dragon having to live in such a final era… The hand stroking Aki's head felt slightly heavier than usual.
All ships raised their anchors simultaneously.
The lead ship began to cleave through the waves and move forward, and the other ships followed in its wake, carried by the sea breeze.
“Abba, the sea is moving!”
“It’s not the sea, it’s the ship that’s moving.”
“Nee-gee, Nee-gee, Nee-gee.”
“Gee-nius, Gee-nius, Gee-nius.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Aki clung tightly to the ship's rail for a long time, idly admiring the seascape.
Passing cliffs and capes.
Fishing boats pulling up nets.
Dolphins frolicking above the water.
Aki's eyes sparkled, and he sometimes shouted greetings to fishermen, or asked for the word for dolphins.
“What does 'dol-gorae' taste like?”
Whether they heard it or it was a coincidence, the pod of dolphins dived deep into the sea the next moment and did not reappear.
“Aki is hungry.”
The meal was fish stew cooked with butter and hard biscuits, but Aki ate it deliciously.
After chattering for a long time again, he started yawning around noon when the fleet reached the open sea.
With the sky and sea simply blue, there was nothing particular to see, so it was a natural thing.
“Abba, I’m slee-py.”
“I’m a bit tired too.”
“Tired, tired, tired.”
It had been rare for him to get proper sleep during these past five days. He had to guard Aki during the day and Kora at night.
“Let’s rest a bit and see each other later. I’ll meet Kora and talk then too.”
“As you wish. I’ll guard the hold.”
The cabin was a four-person room.
Although it was a four-person room, it was as cramped as a two-person room, dark without sunlight, and stank of stale alcohol and vomit.
Nevertheless, as he lay down on the hammocks hung above and below, his body swayed with the rocking of the sea, and pleasant sleep washed over him.
“Aki, wake me if you get seasick. You mustn’t throw up.”
“Not seasick!”
“Alright, come here.”
As he lay sideways on the hammock, Aki curled up beside him.
He wrapped Seresia around them like a blanket, and held Aki tightly so he wouldn't fall down.
A Red Dragon, fire in flesh… his consciousness scattered amidst that warm body temperature and the quiet scent of winter firewood.
- We'll have to make a frontal breakthrough, Link will have to step up here.
- Link, Link, Link.
- Until the Slayers take over our island…
- Link, Link, Link.
- I'm just doing this for money. That's all.
Voices from the past mingled chaotically at the bottom of his consciousness.
Link, Linkland, Miria, Kora.
Meanwhile, twilight fell over the sea, and the darkness of the new moon night blurred the horizon's edge.
As the sea was enveloped in the deep darkness of midnight, the fleet began to violently shake.
[Pirates have appeared; non-combat personnel please go down to the cabins.]
Witches who had been checking the fleet's status with clairvoyance magic moved busily.
The witches who controlled the wind used barrier magic instead of wind, and the witches who calmed the ocean currents created fireballs through incantation.
Those fireballs directly hit the pirate ships that were approaching silently!
“Ack!”
“Ugh-aah!”
Two lead pirate ships were engulfed in flames, eerily illuminating the night sea. Burning pirates writhed and threw themselves into the sea.
“Hey, you guys use some fire too! Are you just going to keep getting hit by the witches?!”
Among the pirates were mages who couldn't become witches due to gender issues, or magicians who came down from the empire to live comfortably through thuggery.
Or those who were self-taught.
Anyway, as the abilities ignited by those ruffians on the pirate ships struck the barrier, cracks slowly began to appear on the barrier's surface.
“Close-quarters combat on deck expected, all soldiers move to the deck of the right column of ships.”
As the barrier had to cover the entire fleet, it expanded widely and lengthwise, and naturally, its durability thinned in inverse proportion.
As it continued to be attacked, one side of the barrier was bound to break eventually.
Furthermore, many skilled witches had died in the Red Mountains in such situations, so there were many shortcomings in the response.
“Prepare to fire! Nock, draw, hold, shoot!”
The arrows of the territorial archers easily passed through the barrier and rained down on the pirate ships.
The pirates raised their shields to block them, but screams, big and small, erupted from all directions.
“Load! Fire!”
And from the catapults and ballistas deployed on the command ship, huge stones and arrows shot forth in succession.
When the boulders and arrows struck the water's surface, spray rose; when they struck the pirate ships, planks shattered and pirates were torn into chunks of flesh.
Sinking pirate ships and intact pirate ships tangled together, shattering and being destroyed.
“Kuh-aaaaah!”
“Ho-ho-hot!”
The chaos of the battle also reached Valentidis, who was leaning against numerous barrels in the hold.
“Ah, my head hurts.”
Kora poked her head out of the barrel and felt her bruised head.
Kora had a thick, green hair color, like that of a slime. As if it had been dyed with that as a pigment.
She said her hair had gradually been dyed that way from a certain point, as slime mucus kept splashing on it.
“What’s happening?”
“It seems pirates have appeared.”
“Pirates?”
“Is there a problem?”
“This sea is the Slayers’ territory for trade, and pirates rarely raid the linked fleet out of deference to them…”
Even if they did raid, it would be impossible for any random pirates to break through the witches' magic…
Valentidis’s eyes narrowed.
Raiding such a linked fleet would require two certainties as a foundation.
“That they don’t need to care about the Slayers, and that they are confident they can defeat the witches.”
These two premises implied only one thing: that the Slayers were involved in this attack.
“It seems things never go easy from the start.”
Valentidis sighed briefly, then pulled out a barrel and opened its lid.
A short sword, daggers, and old light armor for fighting in confined spaces eerily reflected the hold's lantern light.
“Here’s your gear.”
Kora tried to stand up her small body but fell sideways with the barrel.
“Ugh.”
Her injured body was still not fully recovered. Valentidis caught her with telekinesis before she could fall.
“I need to go help the witches. Prepare to defend yourself in case of an emergency.”
At the same time, one ship from the disorganized pirate fleet advanced at furious speed.
Fireballs surged several times to stop it… but didn't those fireballs suddenly disappear at the ramming prow?
The rain of arrows pouring onto it was completely blocked by a giant man wielding a house-sized shield.
“Wha, what is it?”
“What on earth is going on?”
Perplexed by the incomprehensible strange phenomenon, the archers seemed to have even forgotten to nock new arrows.
As if answering that question, the boy standing on the pirate ship's ramming prow twirled a strange sword half a turn and then performed a courtly bow.
Beneath his black hair, fluttering wildly in the sea breeze, a playful smile formed on his noble, sculpted features.
“Dur-Morris, the Mage Slayer. Death to all mages.”
And the three-meter tall giant standing behind him also clasped his hands together, clanging the huge shields on both wrists.
“Dul-Mos! Giant Slayer randoris! Burus to all giants.”
It was a grotesque way of speaking, mixing the ancient language of the old giants with the common tongue. The Mage Slayer amplified his voice with magic and said.
“Everyone, relax! We’re pirates! Nothing to worry about! We’ll just find that runaway woman, kill everyone, take everything, and leave! Ahahaha!”
The next moment, the boy’s eyes blazed blood-red, and a pure white flower bloomed, unfolding four petals.
That was… Bell Sidious?!
The vision, opened in crimson, interpreted the barrier as a sequence of numbers, finding twisted structures or weak seams.
“So, you’re weak here, aren’t you?”
The boy wore a somewhat lewd smile.
And as he smoothly drew his crescent-shaped scimitar like flowing water, purplish psychic energy wriggled along its trajectory.
“Cry, Manabane (Mana Burst).”
The power of the cursed blade Manabane manifested.
And at the very moment the ramming prow was about to crash into the barrier, the power forming the barrier lost its source and scattered into mist, as the structure of the power was severed.
“Alright, let’s play! I’ll give 30% of today’s plunder to whoever finds that woman!”
“Yesssssssss!”
The next moment, the ramming prow slammed into the ship's bottom, and a deafening roar of wood splintering erupted.
The impact was so strong that over a dozen archers on the ship's rail fell into the sea. Some of the remaining ones seemed to have bitten their tongues, gushing blood.
The ship lurched and tilted…
While the Giant Slayer grabbed the ship's rail and climbed onto the deck, the ship tilted almost to the point of capsizing.
“A g-giant…”
“Weren’t giants supposed to be extinct…?”
Overwhelmed by the giant’s imposing presence, the territorial soldiers seemed to have lost even their will to fight, paralyzed by fear.
Blood spurted from the necks of soldiers who either stumbled backward or knelt in despair, caught by the Mage Slayer's blade which weaved through them in an instant.
Just then, a dozen blades of wind pressure surged towards the Mage Slayer.
“Oh?”
The boy spun and leaped, deftly dodging the attack that had mercilessly shattered the deck.
The owner of that attack, the man who appeared on the mast over there, was none other than Valentidis.
Aaron Ludwig looked up at Valentidis and lasciviously licked the blood from his blade.
“Such sexy magic… I wonder what a hot taste that blood will have!”