The Garaon Archipelago
The port in front of Rochest.
"Is this the last of the cargo?"
"Looks like it."
With a hearty heave-ho!, the dockworkers were hauling the harbor's freight aboard the ship. Goods bound from Roke Island to Langoustine piled higher and higher across the deck.
And right beside them, Simon and Erzebet were walking along.
"You think this'll work?"
Simon was draped in nothing more than a plain robe, while Erzebet had transformed. She wore an exquisite tailored suit, sunglasses, and carried a clipboard tucked under her arm.
Only two kinds of people wandered this island dressed like that: Kizen professors, or headquarters staff.
"It's hardly our first time. Just leave it to this maiden."
The moment a woman in a suit appeared at the harbor, the dockworkers went white as sheets.
She stopped at the edge of the pier and stood there quietly with her arms crossed, and before long a bearded man who seemed to be the workers' leader emerged, chuckling nervously.
"W-welcome! For someone so high up from headquarters to visit without so much as a word of notice—what brings you here...?"
Erzebet hadn't said a single word, and already he was groveling.
She elegantly spread her palm open. The bearded man reluctantly handed over his ledger, and she flipped through the pages with a rustle before giving a small nod toward Simon.
Simon climbed aboard the ship and made a show of inspecting the cargo.
"You're overloaded."
Erzebet snapped the ledger shut with a thwack! as she said it.
Like a judge slamming down a gavel, the wails of protest burst out at once.
"My lady! If you nitpick every little thing like this, lowly folk like us will simply starve to death!"
"We're not committing any crime—we only loaded a bit extra for next week's quota! If we're to meet the deadline, this is the only way to—"
Erzebet smiled sweetly.
"Rules are rules."
"..."
Every sailor's gaze converged on her. The bearded man cleared his throat with an exaggerated ahem! and shuffled over. Then he began slipping something that looked very much like a money envelope into her suit pocket.
"W-well, haha! It isn't much, of course."
"Oh my, goodness. What exactly do you take me for?"
"Ahahaha! Life is about getting by together, isn't it? Staying stiff-necked only tires everyone out!"
After a brief tug-of-war, she pretended to relent and accepted the money.
"I suppose I have no choice. Oh, and as it happens, I have business in Langoustine myself..."
"It's a humble vessel, but please, come aboard! We'll get you there in a flash!"
terrified that Erzebet might change her mind, the sailors scrambled up the gangplank like lightning. The captain bellowed that they were departing—departing now!—springing about with remarkable alacrity.
"See? Nailed it."
Once aboard, Erzebet spread her arms wide as if she'd just pulled off a magic trick.
Simon let out a long sigh.
"It's all fine, but why did you actually take the bribe?"
"Because, you see, humans only develop a strong sense of responsibility and secrecy once they've paid a price."
she replied with a mischievous little laugh.
"If you simply board a ship by crushing them with authority, you earn nothing but resentment. But when payment flows back and forth like this, they feel grateful—and having offered their bribe, they reassure themselves that all must be well. Satisfaction, and a sense of security."
"...That's the strangest thing I've heard in ages. And I've heard a lot of strange things lately."
And so the ship carrying Simon and Erzebet cleaved through the waves and set off.
He'd worried about being intercepted along the way, but the vessel had already filed its departure notice with Kizen, so it slipped through the barrier without a hitch and crossed into neutral waters.
"Shall we stop in at Langoustine safely first? Or perhaps..."
"We hurry."
Simon said.
"It's been quite a while since Grayson's bird spotted the Dead Naga. I want to get to the site as fast as possible."
"Understood, my lord."
Erzebet walked over to the captain and told him they would be heading straight for Langoustine, as this pace was too slow.
The captain agreed with a do-as-you-please shrug, practically shoving them along—he was clearly desperate to be rid of the bothersome woman by any means necessary.
Simon had Deimos, his whale-bone undead built for naval warfare, wait just beneath the surface where its form wouldn't be visible, then climbed on with Erzebet and pulled away from the ship.
Once they were far enough that the vessel was out of sight, Simon opened his subspace. Akemus, captain of the Skullwing unit, spread his black wings and soared upward.
Erzebet and Deimos were sent back into the subspace.
"I shall carry you there safely, young master."
"I'm counting on you."
With a powerful whoosh!, Akemus wrapped Simon in his wings and rocketed into the sky. A black dot cleaved through the azure expanse, pressing onward.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Even at high altitude, the interior of Akemus's feathers was surprisingly cozy.
It felt like floating while burrowed under a blanket, the noise around them muffled to a dull hum.
However.
'Ugh.'
The motion sickness, unfortunately, was brutal.
It was his first time flying such a long distance on Akemus's back, and Simon's condition was deteriorating by the minute. For a moment, he found himself marveling, not for the first time, at the greatness of teleportation magic circles—and briefly entertained the idle thought that someday, when he had the time, he ought to lay a flower on the grave of the archmage who had first developed that spell.
"We've arrived, young master. It's just over there."
Akemus shifted his wings so Simon could see ahead, and Simon poked his head out between them.
Beneath the sweeping vista of open sea, a cluster of islands lay tangled together.
"This is the Garaon Archipelago."
Simon's expression turned grave.
'So the 5th Legion is somewhere down there.'
Truthfully, the odds of Magnus himself being stationed on some remote island like this were slim.
But Magnus was still hunting Simon, and if a man like that intended to interfere with the Group Exam, it would be an extremely serious matter.
He couldn't just stand by and watch others—especially his friends—get dragged into a conflict between Legion Commanders.
"Let's go down right away."
The Garaon Archipelago was one of the candidate sites for this year's 2nd-Year Group Exam.
And as a candidate site, nine times out of ten there would be Kizen personnel—or people hired by them—scouting the islands.
If Akemus, drenched in an enormous outpouring of the Legion's jet-black energy, got close, they might be spotted instantly. So they descended into the middle of the open sea first.
Simon then produced a small boat from his subspace, draped it in Erzebet's spiderwebs to muffle their presence as much as possible, and rowed them toward the island himself.
Shaaaaaaa—
And just like that, they arrived.
It was an island with a beautiful white sand beach. Waves broke against the shore, and newborn sea turtle hatchlings paddled through the current, making for the open ocean.
"So peaceful."
"It looks less remarkable than I expected, my lord."
It was a relief to have arrived without running into the 5th Legion, but the problem was that the island was far larger than they'd anticipated.
Searching the whole island between just the two of them would take more than a weekend, so they started with the area where Grayson's bird had spotted the 'Dead Naga'.
A rocky terrain crowded with jagged outcrops. Waves crashed and surged against the stones.
'This is the place.'
Simon recalled the scene he'd witnessed through Grayson's remnant thought and tapped the fragment of Pier clinging to his clothes, poke poke.
"Pier, do you sense anything?"
"Khehehe! I sense nothing at all. Not so much as a whisper!"
They'd rushed here, even enduring a long-distance flight, but actually trying to find the 5th Legion now that they'd arrived felt hopeless—like hunting for an oasis in the desert.
"I've scattered my children around for now."
Erzebet pointed behind them.
Hundreds of corpse spiders could be seen scuttling off in every direction.
"I've instructed them to report the moment they find anything."
"Good work, Erzebet."
"Then shall the two of us enjoy a cozy little date on the island?"
"...Sorry, but there's no time for that."
Simon shook his head.
"There must be Kizen personnel dispatched to this island. Let's find them and pry some information loose."
"If we must."
Simon and Erzebet moved at once.
The scuttling corpse spiders soon located a dispatch camp where humans were staying—and it was closer than they'd expected.
Ten tents large and small stood pitched across the camp, where people in brown archaeologist-style uniforms passed the time trading lackluster jokes. There were traces of a campfire, and unmistakable yellow stains on the rocks where the latrine business was conducted.
"Here they come, my lord!"
Two of the researchers just happened to be heading their way.
Simon and Erzebet clapped hands over their mouths and pressed their backs against a boulder behind them, suppressing their presence as much as they could.
A moment later, an unapologetically loud shaaaaa— rang out.
"This maiden shall draw their attention."
She draped herself in spiderwebs and strolled over wearing the form of a man dressed exactly like the researchers.
"Hm?"
The researchers, mid-relief, blinked.
"Who are you? You don't look like anyone from our camp, and yet..."
The strength drained from their eyes, their bodies went limp, and they crumpled to the ground. Simon had circled around behind them and hit them with the Sleep curse.
For the sake of these men's dignity, Simon hurriedly pulled their pants back up.
Erzebet then came over, rummaged through the men's belongings, checked their ID, and went through the documents they carried.
"Find anything?"
"As we suspected—hired to survey the island on Kizen's commission. They seem to have been looking for a suitable exam site."
"Any connection to Magnus or the 5th Legion?"
She combed through the papers once more, meticulously. Simon swallowed hard and waited.
"None. They're just ordinary researchers."
Simon sighed.
In the meantime, Erzebet draped the spiderwebs over herself once again—this time taking the form of one of the men sleeping nearby.
"This maiden will go extract the information personally."
Simon's acting was too poor to risk exposure, so it was decided Erzebet would go alone.
She strutted over to the cluster of researchers sitting near the tents and cracked jokes with perfect ease.
When asked why she'd come alone, she grumbled—half of it cursing—that that bastard Bilbo had turned out to be huge instead of small as she'd assumed, and stank so badly she couldn't possibly share a tent with him. The other researchers roared with laughter and traded the banter right back.
The way she wove a stranger's few offhand remarks together with the materials from his belongings and behaved exactly as that man would have was downright chilling. That was Erzebet for you—a true professional at espionage.
"Oh, by the way."
Erzebet casually steered the conversation.
"That coward Bilbo was raving on about seeing some snake-looking monster in the night, the lunatic. Anyone else seen it since?"
"Ah, I was right there when Bilbo saw it."
one man said.
"A whole line of those eel-looking beasts were standing on the far side of the island. Skin all peeled back to bare bone—almost thought they were undead. I kept still so I wouldn't provoke them."
"The far side of the island?"
"Yeah. Geholla Island."
Success.
Having gotten all she needed, Erzebet exchanged a few more comfortable pleasantries, then slipped away under the excuse that nature was calling again.
From then on, Simon and Erzebet ran without hesitation.
"That island right there, my lord!"
Far removed from the rest of the archipelago—Geholla Island, the man had called it.
Simon immediately pulled a boat from his subspace and rowed toward it.
And sure enough—
"I feel it!"
Pier's fragment cried out before they'd even reached the island.
"Faint and washed pale, but it is the presence of an Ancient Undead!"
It was a race against the clock now.
Simon rowed furiously until they reached Geholla Island, and the moment he set foot ashore, he prepared for battle.
"Come here, Prince."
Simon drew out a zombie and summoned Prince, then pulled Akemus and Herseba from his subspace.
Erzebet strung spiderwebs across every corner of the island to raise a barrier and stationed her corpse spiders, while Akemus readied his Skullwings on standby in case an aerial battle broke out.
"Little one. Might this not, in truth, be a trap set by Magnus?"
Herseba, in her staff form, flew over and asked. Simon answered by clenching and unclenching his fist.
"Even so, as long as we're certain the 5th Legion is here, we have no choice but to go in. Pier! What about the Ancient Undead's presence?"
"Still but a single presence, and only one."
Pier replied from within his Bone Armor form. Erzebet flicked her tongue.
"Ufufu! If this ambush lands cleanly, we may just seize a dangerous piece of the 5th Legion's strength right here."
Simon pressed down firmly on Pier's helmet and spoke.
"Get ready."
With the Greatsword of Ruin in one hand and Herseba gripped in the other, Simon strode forward, and behind him followed Erzebet, Prince, and Akemus.
Save for Gyros, who guarded the North, they were committing every ounce of their core strength.
What lay before their eyes was an underwater cavern artfully concealed behind rocks. Erzebet waved quick hand signals, then reported:
"No barrier, my lord."
Simon swallowed dryly.
"We go in."
The 7th Legion and the 5th Legion.
The battle between the two powers was upon them.