Chapter 213
Chapter 213
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 213
Chapter Title: Wary Shadows
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"……."
What should I even call this situation?
Let me sort it out. The octopus—or kraken, whatever you want to call it—was clearly attacking the sirens, trying to gobble them up.
We didn't kill the thing that was protecting the sirens.
Even if they're a race hostile to humans, when someone's saved them from a dire crisis like that, the first thing you'd expect is some gratitude.
Yet here were the sirens, famous for being friendly toward humans, staring at us with eyes that made me wonder if I'd cluelessly beaten the guardian octopus to death.
Their gazes were so far beyond anything I'd imagined.
'Ugh!'
As I mulled it over, I felt the air barrier that Aria and Princess Seira had created starting to shrink bit by bit.
The ten minutes were almost up.
The Blizzard Knight Order's barriers were hitting their limits too—one by one, they were pulling out of the water.
I desperately wanted to talk to the sirens and figure out why they were looking at us like that, but there was no time.
I gave Rampang's back a light pat as a signal, and he started moving toward the surface just like the knights.
Faye radiated golden light as she swam toward the benefactor who had slain the kraken, intending to offer greetings on behalf of her clan.
But as the fierce spray and the blood gushing from the kraken's body settled, revealing the savior's true identity, she couldn't help freezing her tail mid-swim.
'Humans...!!'
It wasn't just her. The joy her clan had shown when the kraken fell was gone—every one of them looked more tense than when they'd been fleeing from it.
And who could blame them?
The sirens had lived alongside humans, or at least maintained friendly relations with them.
But over long years, that 'goodwill' had been repaid with a knife in the back, forcing them to abandon their beloved homeland.
So she couldn't approach easily. Especially not these humans, strong enough to dispatch the kraken—a threat to her clan's survival—in an instant.
Depending on their intentions, they could bring an even worse fate than the humans who had driven them from their home.
-Stera, take the clan and fall back far away.
Using the sonic waves unique to sirens underwater, she sent her will to Stera, the clan's elder.
Stera, a siren tending to the wounds of those who'd been captured and released by the kraken, startled at Faye's sudden message.
-What? What are you planning, girl? You aren't thinking something foolish, are you?
Stera saw right through Faye's intentions, as befitted the one who'd lived the longest among them.
-…….
Faye affirmed it with silence.
-Don't be a fool! Humans can't be trusted. We ended up like this because we trusted them—haven't you learned your lesson?
It was true. But grinding her teeth, Faye shot back at Stera's scolding.
-So, is hiding in the North Sea and slowly freezing to death the answer?
-……!!
-There's no future for the clan like this anyway. So let me go alone. If my judgment's wrong, just leave me and go.
Faye knew what worried Stera. The clan was in this mess precisely because they'd trusted humans.
But paradoxically, without human help, there was no way to overcome their current crisis.
Faye's eyes followed the humans surfacing toward the open sea.
-Right now, believing these kraken-slayers are 'good' humans is our only option.
-…….
Unlike before, Stera fell silent at Faye's words.
She knew it too—that it was the best they could do for now.
-Take the clan and pull back for now. If they mean us harm, they'll send pursuers or something.
Faye's proposal made sense. If they got angry about the sirens slipping away, it would prove they were no different from the humans back home.
But that would leave Faye alone, facing far greater danger.
After a long silence, Stera finally spoke with effort.
-...Be careful, then.
Privately, Faye was her beloved granddaughter; publicly, Stera was the clan elder, and Faye the young leader guiding the youth.
Which side to prioritize was painfully obvious.
As her clan slowly retreated, Faye turned and forced a smile at her grandmother's worried eyes.
-Don't worry, Grandma. I survived the kraken's clutches.
Confirming her clan had shrunk to a distant speck, Faye looked up at the ship overhead.
'Alright, humans. Let's see what you're really after.'
Her words were bold, but Faye desperately prayed these humans were good ones.
Her clan couldn't survive the North Sea's freezing waters forever.
"Puha!"
Ravins was the first to break the surface, exhaling roughly.
Then Cherion and the other knights followed, one by one, poking their heads up.
Climbing aboard via the ladders lowered from the deck, their eyes still burned with unspent excitement.
They were veterans who'd handled skirmishes at Ballista Fortress in Banten and countless monsters in the mountains, but actual sea combat was a first for them too.
No amount of training in Dosmari Lake could match the real thing.
They'd been a bit tense thinking about clashing with lifelong sea-dwellers like pirates. Knights or not, if the enemy were weak, the seas wouldn't be one of the continent's forbidden zones.
But no—they'd been strong enough. And their lord was even stronger.
Unlike Beskin, this was the Blizzard Knight Order's first time witnessing Jerome's divine prowess firsthand.
Sure, everyone knew Jerome was clever and handled missions flawlessly, but seeing it with their own eyes was different.
Ravins still shivered from the terrifying golden aura swirling around Jerome's hand.
"Vice-captain. Aren't you pumped for life in Olivia?"
Ravins glanced down at Cherion's voice from below, catching the knight's thrilled expression.
His own face probably looked the same.
"Yeah, I'm so excited I could die."
Ravins grinned, along with the rest of the Blizzard Knight Order. The sirens were already forgotten from their minds.
They were just replaying their first battle.
"The knights' skills were more impressive than I expected."
I followed the knights out of the water and shared my honest thoughts with Beskin.
"Haha, you're too kind. It was just that your opening strike with Rampang was so overwhelming."
Beskin downplayed it, but his expression betrayed his pride in his men.
"No, really—it was amazing. I was shocked."
This wasn't flattery. Water was a far stranger, more dangerous environment than land. You couldn't move freely like on solid ground, and breathing was limited.
Even with air barriers, they hadn't just floated there—they'd fought fiercely in that chaos.
It's no wonder drowning and burning are called humanity's most agonizing deaths.
Despite the primal fear of water and facing massive sea monsters they'd never seen in Banten, the Blizzard Knight Order had performed flawlessly.
And those skewers.
Knights typically stuck to longswords, lances, maces—the classics. They rarely touched anything else, seeing it as a point of pride.
So seeing them wield assassin-like skewers without hesitation shocked me in turn.
It wasn't makeshift. The way they'd pierced the kraken's head was too practiced.
They'd clearly trained long and hard with them.
'I wasn't the only one putting in the effort.'
Mastering joint locks, shipboard grappling, and after agonizing over buoyancy for naval combat, they'd chosen skewers.
I reflected on my subconscious view that I had to 'lead' the Blizzard Knight Order.
They were already excellent comrades who could pull their weight—partners to walk alongside.
Just like Saladin or Princess Seira.
"Puha!"
As I had my belated epiphany(?), Rampang finally surfaced last.
"Rampang, you were pretty late."
"Ah, sorry, sorry. I figured that octopus head might have an inner core or something."
So that's why he'd dropped me off and dived back down.
"Find anything in its guts?"
Rampang grimaced and smacked his lips at my question.
"Nada. Unlike dragons, it was just a dumb brute with size going for it. No signs of 'realm' accumulation."
"Yeah, figures."
No expectations, no disappointment. Inner cores weren't something every monster had.
"Oh, right—the sirens all just swam off."
Rampang added, having lingered longer inspecting the corpse and watching underwater.
"Their eyes weren't exactly friendly..."
This time, I was the one smacking my lips, unlike Rampang.
Seeing their wariness, I'd hoped they might just leave peacefully—but vanishing without a word?
Given siren legends and tales, it was hard to swallow.
"Did we waste our energy for nothing? Come on, how do they just bail like that without even a thanks?"
Rampang fumed instead.
He'd even unleashed the Beast King's power to earn his keep, but got no core or gratitude—naturally grumpy.
His senior sister was rock-solid in battle but childish like this sometimes.
"What, should I chase 'em down and demand a proper greeting?"
Pfft.
I couldn't hold back the laugh.
"What's so funny? Kinda pissing me off."
"Come on, Rampang. What good's a kowtow? It'll just breed more resentment."
"Still."
His face was still flushed with anger.
"It's fine, really. Escaping to this far-off land means they've got their reasons. They must be desperate. Besides..."
I soothed Rampang while eyeing the knights on deck.
"We've gained plenty from this fight already."
The confidence gleaming in the knights' eyes—that alone made the battle worthwhile.
'Wh-what? They're just... leaving like this?'
From depths beyond human sight, Faye watched the ship intently but couldn't hide her bewilderment.
The humans' vessel, after slaying the kraken and surfacing, was heading in the exact opposite direction from her retreating clan.
As if they couldn't care less about the wary sirens slipping away.
They were a type of human Faye had never encountered.
No human had ever seen a siren and just passed by.
Whether approaching with goodwill and curiosity, or like 'those' ones hiding greedy desire—
They always felt something. Yet these treated them like inanimate objects and sailed off.
That unfamiliar reaction sparked fierce curiosity in Faye toward these humans.
'No, I can't judge yet.'
Humans can't be trusted. Who said this wasn't calculated? Her clan's fate hung on her call—better to prepare for everything.
'I need to observe more closely before deciding... Huh?'
Realizing the ship was pulling away while she hesitated, Faye snapped to and hurriedly followed.
'Let's confirm what kind of humans they are.'
Maybe they were cunning enough to have anticipated even her actions.
But if—
If, by some miracle, they were truly noble humans who helped out of pure goodwill, asked for nothing, and left without lingering...
They might just save her crisis-stricken clan.
Clutching that slim hope, Faye circled the Cimaria.
And so, an unexpected guest began tailing the Cimaria bound for Olivia.