The Warm Southern Territory - 3
It felt as if the gambling apocalypse of Karl was about to start screening inside Margeta's head. The opening sequence had nearly begun before it just barely ground to a halt.
When I carefully offered my pinky, she seized it with all her strength. She was clearly terrified I might change my mind and pull my finger free again.
Of all the things to get caught for.
The tragic misunderstanding made my heart ache. Was this how those officials had felt—unable even to tell their families they had become secret royal inspectors before racing out of the capital? Telling her the casino's secret would settle everything, but that was something I could never bring myself to say.
If she ever caught me going back to the casino, the betrayal would make her shudder. I might even see Margeta in tears, ready to hack off my hand at the wrist.
"Tanian, don't go anywhere else—stick with us. There seem to be plenty of good places around."
"Of course. I only stopped by the casino for a quick look. It doesn't strike me as somewhere worth visiting twice."
I overheard Luise talking with the culprit himself. Until now I had thought Ryutis was the one with a devil's mouth, but maybe that judgment had been too hasty. Perhaps every single club member was a problem and I simply hadn't observed them closely enough yet.
You never know whether someone has a devil's mouth until you get hit yourself. Like Schrödinger's cat—or the Crown Prince in the rice chest—you can't be sure until you look.
I tried to glance toward Tanian, but Margeta cleared her throat and I snapped my eyes forward again.
"We're planning to go to the beach tomorrow. Will Young Master Karl join us?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. I have business that will take me away starting tomorrow."
The smile that had just begun to bloom on Margeta's face froze solid again. The timing really couldn't have been worse. I should have told her in advance that I'd be gone.
Calming a Margeta who was trembling under the conviction that I was heading straight back to the casino turned out to be far harder than expected.
The next day I finished every last task that needed handling before our open-ended boat ride.
I will pray for your safe return.
I had already told Villar I would be away starting today. I explained it was ordinary work, so he didn't press further. He had bragged even before we came to Boyar that he would keep me from having to lift a finger, so I felt reasonably secure. If there were ten of him, life would be perfect.
I also told the club members that if anything went wrong while I was gone they should report to Villar, so nothing should get tangled up.
It won't, right?
Surely they wouldn't forget or ignore me after I had mentioned him by name. Please just don't wander off somewhere weird without Villar even knowing.
Ryutis, who sat so far above Villar it was dizzying, still worried me, but for now I had no choice except to trust. Relying on pure luck and prayer wasn't my preferred meta, but what else could I do?
"You've arrived."
At the harbor the Mage Corps Commander greeted me warmly. The caravel visible behind him looked like the ship I would be imposing on for a while. A caravel was perfect for filling only the necessary crew and moving fast. And there were even three of them.
"Preparations for departure are complete. You need only board."
"The captain must have started early."
"He said that since the Division Chief himself was boarding, he had to give it his all."
I smiled at the commander's half-joking remark and climbed onto the flagship. A man who usually sailed around in galleons had probably come out early to get ready for a sudden caravel voyage.
"I prepared what you requested."
"Ah, thank you."
"It's nothing. But will that be enough?"
I nodded at his worried tone. Catching a creature that only popped up for a second and vanished again was hard with swords or fists. I had to send it packing the moment it appeared.
"Yes, it's enough."
Once on board I saw three spears leaning against the railing among the mages who had taken their places. Perfect throwing shape—this would do. I had even asked for extras just in case I missed.
"The key will be when we find it."
Whether we could catch it wasn't the question. The question was when we would find it.
"It might even realize someone who can kill it has arrived and hide even deeper."
"Haha, if it's that clever there's nothing we can do."
I laughed and answered the commander's joke. It was his own way of saying let's work well together. And if the thing really did have that much awareness and intelligence, a longer game of hide-and-seek was inevitable.
Come to think of it, the moment its parents became steamed whole squid it had immediately gone into hiding. Whether it had good instincts or not, it definitely had brains.
Don't let the words become seeds.
That would be a real problem.
Apparently there was a place called Emerald Beach. They said the sea glittered like emerald, which was how it got the name—blunt and direct, yet nothing could have suited it better.
A resort staff member had told us that if you came to Boyar it was one of the places you absolutely had to visit, so we decided to go. Originally the princess had wanted to come too, but her older brother was busy… and even Irina had dropped out. Irina had never seen the ocean either, so I had wanted us all to see it together.
"It feels empty without the Advisor."
"I never expected him to work even after coming all this way."
Later muttered and Erich beside him agreed. Honestly, I hadn't imagined that even after traveling all the way to distant Boyar our older brother would still be running around like this. It was a school trip—couldn't he just rest for once?
"Let's think of it as us doing the advance scouting. He said he might finish early, so we can bring him later."
Ryutis's words made me nod without thinking. On past field trips our older brother had always checked the places first, so this time we would do it. Surely he wouldn't just keep wandering outside the whole school-trip period.
So we set our regrets aside and headed for Emerald Beach. Right—if it turned out to be nothing special we would only waste our older brother's precious time. We would examine it thoroughly first and only bring him if it was worth it. That would be better for him too.
"It's beautiful. Like a gift from the heavens."
"Yeah… it's so pretty…"
And when we arrived at the beach, a vista beautiful enough to draw a quiet gasp even from the usually reserved Tanian spread out before us. Before coming I had simply imagined green water, but seeing it in person was something else entirely. It was definitely green, yet more than that.
Even the three ships passing far away blended into this masterpiece of a landscape and shone. It really was gorgeous…
I desperately wanted to show our older brother too. He would definitely like it. He had enjoyed the cherry-blossom viewing with us, so he would enjoy looking at a sea like this as well. Next time Irina and the princess should all come together.
This fucking green-tide sea. Staring at it any longer was going to drive me insane.
We had left port at lunch and spent the time combing the Kraken's usual hunting grounds, but so far there was nothing to show for it. Of course I hadn't expected to find it on the first day, yet just sitting blankly on the ocean waiting was no kind of work either.
The Mage Corps Commander, who had been living at sea long before I ever came to Boyar, already looked exhausted and was sprawled out on the deck resting. Was it rest? At a glance he looked more like he had simply fainted.
"Is anything troubling you, sir?"
"Ah, Captain."
While I was staring at the commander who looked like a genuine corpse, the captain approached and asked after me. The navigator and helmsman would handle the sailing, so he had probably slipped out for a moment. I hadn't even greeted him yet and it had been bothering me—perfect timing.
"What could possibly be wrong? I've been too busy looking at the scenery to notice anything else."
"Is that so? Glad to hear it. The commander always ends up like that the moment he boards a ship, so I was starting to worry my sailing skills had slipped badly."
"It's hard for a mage to adapt to a line of sea dogs."
"Hahaha! That's true enough!"
The captain nodded with clear satisfaction at what amounted to "they're just fragile." He prided himself on being the best driver around, yet his passengers always looked like that, so it must have been quietly eating at him. Having me confirm the problem wasn't his must have felt good.
As payment for soothing a sea dog's pride, my favorability seemed to have ticked up a fraction; the captain came over to where I leaned on the railing and gazed out at the green sea with me.
"This is Boyar's pride. Plenty of Boyar folk would gladly give their lives for this sea."
"Is that so? It is certainly beautiful, but…"
Giving their lives for it? Maybe inland sensibilities just worked differently.
"It's not merely beautiful. To put it bluntly, the catch is quite good. That's why from ancient times many people have set out onto this sea in nothing but dugout canoes."
Ah, then I could accept it. For coastal folk, a fishing ground that guaranteed a harvest was worth calling life itself. Modern Boyar no longer lived on fishing alone, of course.
I glanced at the captain and found him staring at the sea with distant eyes. The days when Boyar's people devoted themselves to fishing were long past, yet he clearly had an ancestor who had given his life in that era.
"And what took those people's lives was neither sky nor sea. It was the Kraken."
So that was the buildup.
"In those days the Kraken was a disaster no one could resist."
"I've heard. There was even a time it was worshipped as a sea god, wasn't there?"
"Haha, 'god of disaster' fits better than 'sea god,' though."
After a short silence the captain turned his gaze toward the distant shoreline.
"These days the Kraken is just a nuisance of a monster. But for ordinary residents it is still a disaster that can smash everyday life to pieces."
"His Grace the Golden Duke also seemed deeply worried that the people's daily lives might be broken."
"Yes, he is an excellent man. He even frets over the lives of those at the very bottom."
Something like recollection passed through the captain's eyes, and before I knew it the distant look had mixed with emptiness and anger. Apparently the one who had given his life to the sea wasn't a distant ancestor but a much closer blood relative—and not by choice.
"And when I heard that you, Division Chief, had accepted His Grace's request, I was honestly happy."
"Think nothing of it. There is proper compensation involved."
At that the captain snorted a quiet laugh and shook his head, as if that were a trivial detail.
"From the position of someone whose daily life is being protected, things like that don't matter. The result does."
"I only hope many residents get to enjoy that result."
"An easy wish to grant."
Then the captain pointed a finger at the shoreline he had been watching. A black shadow appeared on the emerald sea and began to thicken.
Oh. It was already here.
"Besides, there is someone who needs you right now."
At his words I peered more carefully at the shore and saw a tiny speck that looked like a person sitting on the sand. Of all times.
No— the thing only came out if magic was flung at the water, so maybe that person had actually served as bait?
I clicked my tongue softly and the captain handed me one of the spears leaning against the railing.
"We'll be counting on you."
"Of course."
If someone got hurt over something this minor, I wouldn't feel good about it either.