Chapter 6. Ah, There's Nothing to Eat lol
Srrrk—
“Piiiieet!”
Nyongnyongi flailed her stubby little arms even harder, plainly delighted.
“Hnk… so I've officially graduated from the male club, huh.”
As I clutched the hem of my shirt with trembling hands, Nimo, who'd been watching from the side, carefully spoke up.
“Um… Your Majesty. Why are you suddenly taking off your clothes?”
“Gotta feed her milk…”
“Ah, you mean the milk!”
Nimo tilted her head, as if pondering for a moment.
“Hmm… so human females feed their young that way, I take it.”
Then she looked at the shirt hem in my hands and beamed.
“But I doubt that method will work!”
I mean, fair!
What was supposed to come out of these tiny, perky little things anyway?
So there really was another way!
“Oh. And how does that work?”
“Well, the usual method is to channel your mana into the water!”
Nimo answered confidently, then added with a slightly sheepish look.
“I've never become a mother myself, so I'm hardly an expert… but I can teach you!”
And then she smiled brightly again.
“It's simple!”
After hearing her explanation, I poured a little bottled water into a small cup, dunked one finger in, and closed my eyes.
Here's how Nimo's eye-level method went: Imagine mana starting at your heart and flowing through your blood to every corner of your body. Picture that flow like water, gather it at your fingertips, then release it into the cup. With enough practice, she said, you wouldn't even need to open the skill window—you could pull it out on feel alone.
But still.
'Simple, my ass.'
Right now I looked no different from someone trying to dip their finger into a cup with their eyes shut and lick it.
'Ugh. Focus. Focus.'
My heart.
Feel my heart…
'My blood is water.'
The flow of water…
'Oh. I think I've got something.'
It felt as if something warm was spreading outward from the center of my chest.
The current that began in my chest ran down my arm to my fingertips, passed through my legs all the way to my toes, and even reached the tip of my long, trailing tail.
What had been nothing but a vague hunch at first slowly began to come into focus.
'So this is mana?'
Okay. Now, with the thought of gathering this flow at my fingertips and letting it pour into the water in the cup…
“Oho, you're doing wonderfully! As expected of our Queen!”
Nimo clasped her hands together in admiration.
“A very lovely batch of mother's milk is forming right now!”
'Uhihi.'
Maybe I really am talented? At this rate, will I be casting spells without any skills before long?
…Wait, hold up. Mother's milk?
I slowly opened my eyes.
“…”
The water in the cup had, at some point, turned a pale, creamy yellow.
'That is literally the color, isn't it…'
Anyway.
…Mother's milk—no, milk—was ready.
“Sigh…”
“Piii… smack. Slurp.”
There wasn't a baby bottle in the house for feeding a newborn like Nyongnyongi. So I…
Held up the baby's bottom with one hand and dabbed milk on my fingertip, feeding her a drop at a time. It was a method imbued with the grand meaning of grow into a strong, hardened Leviathan someday.
I'd remembered hearing that feeding a baby too much at once can make them choke, which is why I chose this— the ultimate chad's method. Yeah. Totally that.
“Mmmh… what should I do, Queeny-dearest…?”
“About what?”
Nimo, watching from the side, had her hands clasped tight, unable to contain her emotion. Apparently, the sight of me right now was quite the heartwarming one.
Anyway, by the time the milk was nearly gone—
[As a reward, Nyongnyongi's body will grow to the early stage of infancy!]
Fwaaash—!
In an instant, the Nyongnyongi cradled in my arms floated up into the air.
“…She's flying?!”
“Piiiieet!”
Her cry was far louder than before. She hadn't grown much bigger, but a pair of wings now sprouted from her back.
Her limbs were still stubby, but the fins along her body and her tail had grown far longer and more ornate than before.
“Oho.”
Now she actually looked like a baby sea dragon.
A new skill has been unlocked!
“Whuh.”
A new skill?
Fweeeng—
Princess Nyongnyongi — Passive
“She's a princess…?!”
“Yes, a female!”
“Pieet!”
No, that wasn't the important part right now.
I immediately pulled up the skill's detailed description.
Princess Nyongnyongi — Passive
“Her Majesty's firstborn child, and the first princess destined to command the seas!”
[ View Nyongnyongi's Detailed Stats ▶ ]
• Shares 20% of the child's stats.
• Shares the child's skills.
Hold on. This means I get stronger too, doesn't it?
I thought back to the moment I'd been surrounded by the Leviathan horde on Floor 1.
Massive bodies packed tight on all sides. The ferocious pressure they radiated, as if they'd tear us limb from limb at any moment.
…Granted, Nimo had filleted the whole situation before I got to show off anything proper.
Still, one thing was crystal clear: by my standards, Leviathans were a seriously powerful race.
And Nyongnyongi was—
'A way better specimen than any of those guys, right?'
Then my path forward was obvious. Raise this baby into a nation-power-grade Nyongnyongi! And I'd get insanely stronger right along with her.
“I have no idea what you're thinking about, Your Majesty… but you're smiling, so I'm happy too!”
Apparently I'd been grinning ear to ear without realizing it.
“Ahem.”
I coughed for no reason and asked Nimo.
“Nimo! What do I need to do to raise Nyongnyongi strong?”
“Strong, you say?”
“Yeah. We've probably already missed the deadline for the first-birthday grabbing ceremony…”
I stared gravely at Nyongnyongi flitting through the air.
“Should I send her off to Daechi-dong even now and put her through the elite Leviathan prep course?”
That would only be possible if there were hunter academies that took monsters in. And honestly, I couldn't afford to get her to Daechi-dong anyway…
“I'm not sure what Daechi-dong or grabbing ceremonies are…”
Nimo thought for a moment, then continued in earnest.
“I believe varied experiences and feeding activities are most important during the growth stage!”
“Oh, experience! …Feeding activities?”
So she meant: throw her straight into live combat.
“Yes. She must hunt prey with her own claws, face enemies in battle, and come to understand her own strength!”
“I see…”
But could my baby, who'd been in this world for all of twelve minutes, really handle that…?
“Hmm, I suspect that is much the same reason Leviathans climb onto land.”
Nimo gazed at Nyongnyongi flitting through the air like she was swimming and explained.
“Leviathans are a race that endlessly seeks to prove their strength. When young ones are lucky enough to slip out of the Tower and head for land, it is so they can sate their hunger while gaining real combat experience against suitable prey—and thereby grow into alphas.”
Then she added, perfectly matter-of-fact:
“It is an instinct commonly seen in weaker races.”
“…So the reason Jeju Islanders die and get hurt every year was just… to get stronger, and to fill their bellies?”
“Yes. Because Leviathans possess intelligence, they do not touch the deep-sea factions stronger than themselves.”
“Instead they target defenseless humans?”
“Precisely.”
“Then do those deep-sea factions come up onto land too?”
Nimo shook her head.
“Most of them aren't even interested. Neither the land nor humanity holds much fascination for them.”
“…”
…Which might mean that Tower and the sons of bitches inside it—
Could well be the ones who made 'that day' happen.
I couldn't say for sure. I never actually saw what unfolded beyond that sealed door.
But—
If Nimo was telling the truth, then one thing was certain: those things had killed my neighbors, hurt the friends I grew up with, and blown every last facility to pieces.
To them, it might have been just another meal. But to someone, those were family members who would never, ever come back.
…In that case,
those bastards needed a taste of it themselves.
I'm no sage or anything, but hey, I'm a prospective hunter now, aren't I?
Pay them back for everything they did to us. Grab magic stones, score relics, rip items off their corpses.
Basically? Suck them bone-dry down to the marrow.
It would be the first stepping stone on my path to becoming a hunter, and—
the revenge of humanity.
…Okay, that last part was way too grandiose.
“Hmm…”
I mulled it over for a moment, then nodded.
'The cheerful uprising of the Jeju Islanders.'
That was the one.
“It seems you bear quite a grudge against them.”
Nimo asked carefully.
“Shall we begin the conquest?”
“Yeah.”
I clapped my hands together and held my palm out flat. Nyongnyongi landed lightly on it, as if she'd been waiting.
“Pieet?”
Nyongnyongi. I'm sorry, but…
“You're going to have to become a traitor to the Leviathan clan from here on out!”
“Pieet!”
The party concerned gave her blessing, so we were good!
Okay. But just as I was pondering what to actually do first—
one thing suddenly came to mind.
“Nimo, hey.”
“Yes?”
“That coral reef, you know—”
I pointed at the Tower visible far beyond the window.
“Could you just spread it out across the waters in front of that Tower?”
“Of course!”
“How far are we talking?”
“If Her Majesty so desires—”
“We could ring the entirety of Jeju Island in it!”