Chapter 308
Chapter 308
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 308
Chapter Title: Monstrous Strength and Mad God #8
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Triton had been sniffing the blood on his fingertip for quite a while.
Before long, he bared his sharp fangs and licked it clean.
To think someone was licking my blood right in front of me. A chill ran down my spine, furrowing my brow instinctively.
Just as I was about to snap at him to stop slurping at his finger, Triton finally spoke up.
"Ah, I get it. You're a descendant of Saturn, just like me. Makes sense—you're strong enough not to get pushed around by me. My pride doesn't sting as much now."
His words brought a momentary silence over the deck. A perfect, suffocating hush where not even the waves could be heard.
Swish.
Even then, Triton met my gaze head-on.
A man nearly as tall as me locking eyes without a hint of hesitation.
His deep, dark blue eyes churned with turmoil, like raging waves trapped within.
This bastard—was he challenging me to a staring contest?
I hated locking eyes, but I was confident in holding out without blinking. We glared at each other for a long stretch until he blinked first.
I won. Hah, nothing special after all.
At that instant, Hippolyte—who had been crouched low, ready to draw her sword at any moment—spoke first.
"...Hassan, a descendant of Saturn? You mean the Titan king Saturn?"
"It's got some weird seal on it, so I'm not sure. A seal even I can't read with my power. Jupiter, maybe? Keeping it secret, huh? Or did you not even realize? Ugh, I broke the rules. I'm gonna get in trouble. Big problem."
Triton waved it off like, "I didn't mean to say it, forgive me," but Hippolyte looked utterly unable to believe what she'd heard.
"Hassan, a descendant of Saturn. A seal from Jupiter...?"
She muttered to herself, but the words made no sense at all.
Saturn?
As far as I knew, Saturn was the king of the Titans who ruled the world before Jupiter.
He was the father of the three major gods—Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto—and the father of the other gods as well.
I didn't know the details beyond that, but one thing was certain: he had nothing to do with me.
"Then—"
Luna piped up from the side.
"Does that mean Hassan's a demigod like you, Hippolyte?"
"No idea. But thinking back, there are a lot of suspicious signs. Indeed, there were too many odd things about him for an ordinary man—"
"Hassan, tell us the truth."
Hippolyte turned to me. Her brow was deeply furrowed, making her look seriously pissed, and I flinched for a second.
"What?"
"I've thought it was strange for a while now. Surpassing my own karma growth rate, and graces rivaling Perseus—"
Her accusatory tone made me suddenly feel like a massive criminal.
Had she figured out I wasn't from this world—that I'd tumbled in from somewhere else?
The thought made the whole situation unbearably awkward. I wanted to jump overboard.
"If he can compare to Perseus, then the answer was obvious all along. Hassan, you're truly Jupiter's bastard child."
"Huh?"
"It's common for Jupiter's illegitimate kids to hide their identity. To escape the jealous torment of Goddess Juno, you know? That's probably why Jupiter sealed your powers."
"Shh! So Hassan really is Jupiter's son! Just like I asked about before! I always thought he was Jupiter's kid!"
"Noxdoti, you suspected it too?"
"Of course! I watched him grow up right beside him every day! I've suspected since the God of Light helped him out!"
Luna bounced around the deck like an itchy kid with ants on her feet. She seemed thrilled by the whole situation.
"And Paranoia follows Hassan so well! Nymphs have always been the gods' errand runners, so it was weird seeing him boss her around!"
"Hmm, yes. As a former priestess, I felt something off about Paranoia sticking to Hassan too. Nymphs don't pledge loyalty to just anyone—"
Swish.
Hippolyte's gaze shifted to Paranoia.
"Ditch Water Nymph Paranoia, it seems you know more than we do."
"I-I don't know anything...! I have no idea what everyone's talking about...! Lord Hassan is just a normal, dumb Samaritan...!"
"You'd better not lie at this point."
Hippolyte grabbed Paranoia's shoulder, and the nymph started shrieking like a Shiba Inu getting smacked by its trainer.
"Eek! Hiiik!"
"You knew everything and looked down on us, laughing, didn't you, Paranoia!"
"L-Let go...! Lord Hassan, this ruthless Amazon's trying to eat me...! I-I can't say anything...!"
It was total chaos.
Then Triton cleared his throat with a hum and spoke up.
"Anyway, that's not important right now. You all wanted to go to the Black Sea, right?"
*
*
*
Swoosh—.
The wooden Gorgor cut through the waves like it had a motor attached, speeding ahead.
The reason? Triton, submerged below, was shoving the ship with all his might toward the forbidden zone called the Black Sea.
After testing our strength, Triton had cheerfully offered to pilot us all the way there.
One minute he's attacking us, the next whipping up a tidal wave to capsize the ship, and suddenly he's pushing our vessel?
The guy was so erratic, it was hard to get a read on him. Even Luna wasn't this fickle.
According to Hippolyte, though, Neptune's kin—including himself—tended to be capricious and willful.
The sea could look calm, then storm and typhoon hit, only to calm again—all because Neptune's erratic clan ruled the oceans.
"Hassan, if we make land, I'd love to hear about your family."
"Uh, well..."
"Or maybe you truly didn't know."
I was sweating bullets thanks to the misunderstandings this Triton punk had spread.
But whenever I tried to explain, Hippolyte or Luna wouldn't even listen.
They'd just say, "This isn't the place for that talk. It might be contagious—let's save it for later."
The mood kept getting weirder, so to change the subject, I asked Luna,
"So, is Elfriede still out of it?"
"Yeah, she really hates water, huh? More importantly, Hassan, you're really Jupiter's son, right?"
"No, if I were, I wouldn't be messing around here like th—"
"I told you! Hassan's gonna be a big shot! Living in a palace stacked with treasures! See, I was right!"
Luna was convinced I was Saturn's descendant—basically Jupiter's bastard.
Seeing her so happy thinking I was someone important made me dread how disappointed she'd be when the truth came out.
Damn you, Triton.
Why stir up all this confusion?
What's your angle?
As those thoughts swirled, the world gradually darkened, and a damp fog enveloped us.
As I said, it was fog. Thick fog blanketing the sea—it was downright eerie. With visibility zero and the ship pressing on blindly.
"Sea fog! It's a sea mist!"
Was that what they called it—haemoo? Just then, Captain Gorgor—who had come to after blacking out and was slumped in a daze—spoke up in a trembling voice.
"Th-This ain't normal sea fog. Gods, the rumors were true. Look—the fog, it's getting blacker! We gotta get outta here!"
Captain Gorgor was half-mad.
He frothed at the mouth, insisting we flee, as if the black fog swirling around was a harbinger of doom.
Thud—.
Right then, our ship bumped into something. Looking up, an enormous mass blocked our path—dwarfing our vessel.
A reef?
No, not quite.
It was another ship.
One so massive and grand that our Gorgor looked like a dinghy.
The odd part? It was half-torn apart and shattered, like it'd been ripped by something. What do you call that—a wreck?
Yes.
The sea around us was littered with shipwrecks.
"The Velophori! Th-That's the merchant ship Velophori! Sank in the Devil's Strait two years ago! And not just that! Over there, the Radomus, next to it..."
Captain Gorgor gawked at the scattered debris in horror. He looked ready to break down sobbing any second.
"G-Get a grip, calm down."
So I pressed the newspaper acupoint near his thumb. A notification rang: panic dispelled, karma points +10.
"Better now?"
"Hoo, gods, I don't even know what I'm doing here. This is the strait forbidden to sailors, even among sailors..."
Even calmed, the terror lingered in his eyes. And honestly, I got it.
The black fog with its eerie glow. Piles of wrecked ships surrounding it.
Anything could pop out here, no surprise. Sensing that, Hippolyte and Luna scanned the murky fog intently, on high alert.
Wouldn't be shocked if mystery monsters ambushed us out of nowhere.
"Three years ago, this place turned into a death zone. Everyone said not to come here...! Cough, cough—."
The captain trailed off, hacking from the ominous, acrid scent the black fog carried—attacking his airways.
"Cough—Bl-Blood! It's blood!"
He stared aghast at the blood coating his palm. Suddenly coughing up blood? Not normal.
Swish—.
Hippolyte covered her mouth with a handkerchief.
"Poison fog. So this is the Black Strait. No wonder it's so ominous. Prolonged exposure might wreck the lungs entirely."
Splash—.
Something burst from the sea and climbed back aboard—Neptune's heir, Triton, who'd been pushing us.
"Too many wrecks ahead; can't sail through. Better to get off and walk."
He was right.
So we disembarked onto the deck of a nearby wreck.
Stepping onto the rotting, seawater-soaked planks was creepy, but it felt oddly stable—like a bizarre floating island.
Triton explained.
"Ships blind in the toxic fog crash into reefs and beach here, piling up like this. Makes a handy island to tread on. And—"
He swished his palm through the air.
The swirling black fog around us receded a bit.
Revealed were even more colossal wreckages and debris than before.
They say somewhere in the Pacific there's a garbage island seven times Korea's size. This felt just like that.
As we all fell silent, awestruck by the overwhelming floating mass, Triton finished.
"It's also great for hiding. Be careful from here on. Even I can't let my guard down—powerful foes lurk in the gaps of these shattered hulks."