by Aneko Yusagi
Hmm, I guess that meant the old guy had something else in mind.
“It might just be a coincidence that those assassins were using weapons he made. It’s possible we won’t find any clues to his whereabouts in Q’ten Lo,” he continued.
“That’s true,” I said.
It’s not that it would be a problem if he wasn’t in Q’ten Lo. But the old guy still had a lot of respect for his master and felt like he still had more to learn. I figured that’s what he was trying to say.
“Either way, if the master’s weapons are causing you trouble, then I need to look into it. You’re a loyal customer, so that’s my duty as your blacksmith,” he added.
So it was something the old guy felt he needed to do for my sake and ultimately for his master’s sake.
“And that’s not all. If I can follow the trail of the master’s weapons back to him, I might be able to resolve this issue I’ve been stuck on. That’s the feeling I get,” he said.
Oh yeah. I almost forgot I’d asked the old guy to make me a new shield. But the Spirit Tortoise materials were supposedly really difficult to work with and he was having trouble crafting anything worthy of actually being called a shield. Talking it over with Imiya’s uncle had given him some promising ideas, but he still wasn’t happy with the results. Addressing his concerns might mean being able to make me a better shield.
In that case, I should probably do what I could to help out. After all, the old guy was the first person to recognize the truth and offer me a helping hand after I came to this world and was framed.
“Got it. I’ll do my best to help you look for clues,” I said.
“Thanks!”
After we finished talking, I turned and gazed off into the direction of Q’ten Lo.
“Kwaaaa!”
Gaelion was circling around above the boat like a seagull. S’yne and Wyndia wanted to come with us too, but they ended up going to Siltvelt with Rat to investigate things there. S’yne in particular seemed to have picked up the enemy’s scent, so I pretty much left things to her.
Gaelion changed into his baby dragon form and landed on my shoulder.
“Hmm, the breeze feels nice here. But as soon as I leave the ship, the wind suddenly becomes so strong that it feels like I’ll be blown away,” he said.
The adult Gaelion was talking freely since neither Ren nor Wyndia was around.
“Let me know if you sense anything unsettling,” I said.
“I will. But that’s not to say I don’t already sense something out of the ordinary,” he replied.
“Oh really?”
“It’s not something that I can detect clearly. But if I had to say, it certainly seems like the distant presence of a dragon.”
“Is it the water dragon that Sadeena mentioned?”
“Most likely. My senses are telling me that he is busy maintaining the barrier and does not consider us hostiles.”
“I see.”
“But it would probably be wise to remain on constant alert and be ready for anything.”
That went without saying.
“I’ve been informed we’ll be entering Q’ten Lo waters shortly. However, it will still be some time before we arrive, so please remain patient,” Werner said after he came over and bowed to me.
My shield’s jewel suddenly flashed.
“Hm?”
I wasn’t sure what I should expect, but nothing else happened after that. Our voyage continued on without issue.
It was later that evening. We were sailing through a dense fog when the ship suddenly began rocking violently.
“Huh? What was that?” I asked.
We’d been relaxing inside of our cabin. I opened the door to look outside.
“It’s an attack! We’re under attack!” screamed a crew member.
“An attack?”
Well, I did figure this might happen. They never learned.
“The enemy has boarded the ship! We’re currently engaged in battle!” Werner shouted.
He came running over to notify us of the situation.
“Please take refuge in a safe location!” he went on.
“Why the hell would I take refuge from the enemy?” I replied.
“That’s right! We should make them pay with their lives!” Atla exclaimed.
Everything was always so extreme with her.
“Oh my . . .” Sadeena muttered.
“I guess we’re not going to be able to sneak in undetected,” Raphtalia whispered.
It sounded like she was halfway ready to give up even trying.
“What? Whaaat?” Filo asked with a sleepy, confused look on her face.
Gaelion had been lying at her feet snoring before the commotion woke him up. I was starting to think the two of them actually got along surprisingly well.
“Well, they are after Raphtalia, so it’s no surprise we’d be attacked,” I said.
“I’ve been told that the Bow Hero has already engaged the enemy on the deck,” Werner replied.
Itsuki and the others had been resting in a different cabin, but I guess they’d already joined the fight. I wanted to think they’d be able to handle it, but I figured I should go check things out.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“Ugh . . .” Fohl moaned.
He was still suffering from seasickness. I wasn’t sure what to do about him.
“Brother, how long do you plan on letting yourself look so pathetic?” Atla asked.
Pathetic? That sure was a heartless thing to say to her brother when he was trying to deal with excruciating seasickness. He couldn’t help it if he had a predisposition to getting seasick. But as soon as she finished speaking, Fohl sat up abruptly and shook his head.
“I’m coming too, Atla!” he said.
I guess he’d push himself through anything to satisfy his little sister. It was pretty impressive, actually. I guess if he was fine with that, I wasn’t going to complain.
“Alright! Let’s capture the bastards this time and make them talk!” I shouted.
“Understood!” Raphtalia replied.
“That would be nice, but don’t get your hopes up,” Sadeena said.
“I’ll do my best!” Atla exclaimed.
“Me toooo!” cried Filo.
“Rafuuu!”
“Kwaaaa!”
We all headed up to the deck. I looked around. A group of several killer whale therianthropes who looked like Sadeena clones had gathered on the deck. Down in the water, I spotted some enemies that looked like merfolk and a few with turtle-like features that made them look like kappa. There were also several therianthropes that resembled albino snakes and then some goblins with bird beaks. There was actually quite a bit of variation.
The enemies were firing off magic at the ship from down in the currents and the Siltvelt mages were firing back at them.
“Kappas, huh?” I said.
“Fehhhh,” Rishia whined.
She’d been with me when I fought some kappas back in Kizuna’s world. That must have been why she was eying them so warily.
“Are kappas considered monsters in this world? Or would they be therianthropes?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” said Sadeena.
“It’s just that they were monsters in Kizuna’s world,” I explained.
I guess now wasn’t the time for a casual chat, though. I prepared to engage the killer whale therianthropes and kappas.
“Shooting Star Shield!”
I activated my Shooting Star Shield to protect any nearby party members.
“Drifa Chain Lightning!”
Sadeena cast her magic, shooting bolts of lightning at the enemies on the deck.
“Ugh . . .”
They must have been seasoned fighters, because they used their harpoons as lightning rods to divert Sadeena’s magical lightning attack.
“Don’t underestimate Siltveltians!” a member of the crew cried out.
Werner and the crew members were all on the deck fighting t
oo. They seemed to be a pretty even match for the enemy.
“Shooting Star Bow!”
Itsuki synchronized his movements with Rishia and fired off an attack at the approaching enemies.
“Let’s do this, Brother!” Atla exclaimed.
“Okay!” Fohl shouted.
Upon Atla’s command, Fohl rushed forward and delivered a powerful kick to one of the enemies. The enemy must have been pretty tough, because it still wasn’t quite enough to incapacitate them. But Fohl seemed to have the advantage from a physical strength perspective. He was driving the enemy into a corner, if not winning.
“Stardust Blade!”
Raphtalia drew her katana and used a skill. The results of her recent training showed. Her katana moved with fluidity and grace, and she landed a direct hit.
“Gahhh!”
She cut cleanly through the therianthrope charging at her. The enemy fell flat onto the ground.
“You’ve gotten pretty good with that katana, little Raphtalia,” said Sadeena.
“Not good enough. I still need to learn how to use it better,” Raphtalia replied.
“There can be only one Heavenly Emperor! Die!” shouted an assassin while swinging a sword.
Umm, the assassin seemed to be confused as far as I could tell. What was she thinking, turning her back to Raphtalia and attacking the air?
“Rafuuu!”
Raph-chan squeaked and hopped up and down on the ground directly below where the enemy had attacked. Ah, so she had shown the assassin a hallucination.
“Either way . . .” I began.
The assassins all started to focus their attacks on Raphtalia. I glared at them and activated Air Strike Shield and my other skills to impede their movements.
“Their guard is airtight, so I’ll create an opening! You finish them off!” I told Raphtalia and the others.
“Understood!” Raphtalia replied.
“Here I go!” Atla exclaimed.
She charged at one of the assassins and delivered a sharp jab with her hand.
“Guh!”
That was all it took to make the assassin crumple forward onto the ground. Filo followed with a flying kick.
“Yaaaah!” she cried as she flew through the air.
She landed the kick on one of the killer whale therianthropes, who then went flying off the deck. Filo started to chase after the killer whale to deliver a follow-up attack.
“Filo! Don’t go after her! They have the advantage in the water!” I shouted.
“Okaaaay!”
“Kwaaa!”
Gaelion was fighting the crow-billed goblins in the air, but it seemed like they were both getting tossed about by the strong winds. The goblins clearly knew how to move, but Gaelion was breathing fire all over the place and quite a few scorched goblins had fallen out of the sky.
“Take this!” shouted a therianthrope assassin.
“Not so quick!” the old guy retorted.
The therianthrope had swung one of those fishy katanas at me, but the old guy jumped in and blocked the attack. They locked blades and began to struggle, but the old guy seemed to have a slight advantage.
“How did you get your hands on that katana? I’d appreciate it if you told me,” he said.
“Hmph! I have no intention of telling the enemy anything!” the assassin shouted.
“In that case, I’ll just have to force it out of you!”
The old guy gripped his sword tightly and thrust the enemy away. He then spun his blade around and drove it back up under the enemy’s katana. The katana went flying out of the enemy’s hands.
“Huh? Grrr!”
“You’re full of openings!” the old guy taunted.
With a loud thud, the katana landed blade-first and lodged itself deeply into the deck. The old guy pulled out a medium-sized war hammer and thrust it into the torso of the now-unarmed therianthrope. The powerful impact traveled through the enemy’s armor and into his body.
“Oof! Grrr . . . I won’t let you make a spectacle of me!” the therianthrope shouted.
Just before the enemy collapsed, he somehow managed to self-destruct and his body burst into smithereens.
“Jeez, he didn’t have to die . . .” the old guy mumbled.
“My thoughts exactly,” I agreed.
It wasn’t like we were going to eat them alive if they lost. We’d just torture them a bit to make them talk is all. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to feed them to Filo, though.
“I have a feeling Mr. Naofumi is imagining something even worse than death,” Raphtalia said.
“You think so?” I asked.
The enemy numbers had dwindled quite a bit. We did have some fierce warriors from Siltvelt on board, not to mention the all-star lineup I’d brought with me. There wasn’t a group of assassins we wouldn’t be able to deal with. The enemy must have realized that too, because I heard some kind of loud signal and they all started leaping off the ship into the water and fleeing.
“Wait!” called out a crew member.
“I wouldn’t recommend going after them,” Sadeena said.
Her warning made the crew hesitate to chase after the enemy. I seemed to recall someone mentioning that even the hakuko, who were unrivaled on land, were no match for those killer whale therianthropes—orcas, I think they were called—in the water.
“They might try attacking again later. All hands remain on full alert!”
“Aye!”
And just like that, the trusty Siltvelt crew members went back to business as usual. The old guy plucked the katana out of the ship’s deck and inspected the blade.
“This one was made . . . more recently than the last,” he said.
“Oh really?” I asked.
“Yeah. I thought it might have just been a coincidence that they were using one of the master’s pieces, but that doesn’t seem very likely now,” he replied.
“Hmm . . .”
Itsuki and Rishia came over to join us after making sure there were no enemies left.
“The enemies have all fled for now. Should we prepare the ballista in case they attack again?” Itsuki asked.
I’d almost forgotten that he could use the ballista. Now that he’d implemented the power-up methods, his attacks using the ballista would be on a whole different level than what Raphtalia had managed before, although the enemy was apparently using equipment specifically designed to counter the heroes.
“It’s incredible to think they would attack us in the middle of all these whirlpools. They were swimming around down there in the currents like it was completely normal,” Rishia said.
“Maybe they had some kind of special protection,” I suggested.
“It’s possible they were carrying equipment imbued with a blessing by the water dragon himself,” Sadeena whispered with a hint of concern in her voice.
“That just shows how much they don’t want us to make it to Q’ten Lo,” I said.
Making trouble for the enemy was one of the basics of war. Things were going smoothly, in other words.
“We did it!” Atla exclaimed.
“We wooon!” Filo squawked.
“I guess you’re right. Maybe I’m just being overly—”
But before Sadeena could finish speaking . . .
“Kwa?!”
Gaelion was the first to react. He turned toward us, and then it happened!
Fwoooosh!
Something shot down toward me and Raphtalia. It managed to avoid hitting anyone standing in the area and bored right through the deck of the ship, disappearing down into the water below. Immediately after, the whirlpool below us shot up like a tornado and sucked up a section of the deck that had been cut away.
“Whoa!”
Raphtalia and I quickly tried to move away, but I could feel the tornado pulling us in. I tried to cast my Air Strike Shield to give us something to stand on, but I didn’t make it in time.
“Little Naofumi! Little Raphtalia!” Sadeena cried out.
“Kwaaaaa!�
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Sadeena and Gaelion leapt toward me and Raphtalia. Several seconds later, Atla came running after us too.
“Mr. Naofumi!” she screamed.
“Atla!” Fohl shouted.
“Brother?!”
He grabbed her hand immediately and held her back.
“Master?!”
“Fehhhh!”
“Naofumi!”
“Kid!”
Filo, Rishia, Itsuki, and the old guy all called out to us, but none of them could make it in time. They all went plunging down into the whirlpool below, and the tornado swallowed me and Raphtalia up. It tossed us around violently, and everything went spinning by at breakneck speeds.
“R-Raphtalia!”
“Mr. Naofumi!”
I instantly reached out and grasped Raphtalia’s hand tightly so that we wouldn’t get separated. It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
“Little Naofumi! Little Raphtalia!”
Sadeena had leapt into the tornado in an attempt to protect me and Raphtalia. She was doing everything she could to swim through the swirling waters. It looked like Gaelion was clinging on to her back.
“Use . . . your portal . . .”
It took everything I had to focus my attention and call out the name of the skill.
“Portal . . . Shield!”
Teleporting back would mean having to retrace our steps, but oh well. I called out the name of the skill and a message popped up on my screen: “Unable to teleport.” The thing never worked when I needed it most! We went spinning around inside of the tornado, and I felt my consciousness begin to drift away.
Chapter Twelve: A Little Help from the Water Dragon
“Ugh . . .”
A drop of water splashed on my cheek and woke me from my half-conscious daze. I opened my eyes and realized someone had laid me on my back. I looked to my right and saw Raphtalia laid out next to me in the same fashion. I must have been holding on to her hand the whole time.
“Oh? Did you finally wake up?” Sadeena asked.
I sat up and shook my head. Sadeena stood there peering down at me and Raphtalia.
“Kwa!”
Gaelion was perched on Sadeena’s shoulder. He sounded like he’d been worried about us.
“Where are we?” I asked.
I looked around. The walls seemed to be made of rock and had a faint green glow. We must have been in a cave. I could see water flowing into the cave not far from where we were. It smelled like seawater. To the rear, there appeared to be some kind of altar and a path leading deeper into the cave.