Chapter 115: The Tin Knight and The Land of Sea Breeze (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 115: The Tin Knight and The Land of Sea Breeze (4)
Even though they had dealt with it swiftly, it was impossible to keep the subjugation of the Sea Serpent a complete secret.
A mere hour later, the lord arrived. For someone so high and mighty, he was remarkably quick to find the party. His demeanor was, to put it nicely, confident; to put it bluntly, petty.
“Are you the travelers who subjugated the Sea Serpent? That was a truly reckless act. It has long been decreed that no one should provoke the Sea Serpent. It’s fortunate you somehow succeeded; had you failed, wouldn't the enraged beast have brought even greater danger upon this city?”
Up to this point, the party simply nodded along.
It was true that they had ignored proper procedures due to their tight schedule, and the risks the lord mentioned were not entirely unfounded.
However, they couldn't help but wear strange expressions at what he said next.
“The city guard insisted on arresting you for disobeying orders, but I believe that even if your methods were wrong, I cannot simply punish those who defeated a vile magic beast. That is why I have come myself. The punishment for disobeying my command and the reward for your deed shall cancel each other out. The Sea Serpent’s corpse will be confiscated by the domain and used to repair the damages it inflicted.”
The justification sounded plausible, but the bottom line was that he intended to snatch the Sea Serpent’s corpse for himself.
After all, how the damages inflicted by the Sea Serpent would be repaired was entirely at the lord’s discretion.
On top of that, his skill at framing it as if he were graciously pardoning a punishable offense—as if he were bestowing a great favor upon them—was simply astounding.
The fact that the party’s strength far exceeded any force the lord could muster was irrelevant at that moment.
What the lord wielded was social authority.
It was similar to how a seasoned martial artist, despite being physically stronger than a politician or a corporate chairman, couldn't just beat them up at will.
This was even more pronounced in a society where a class system was still firmly in place.
It was a ploy that ordinary, or ‘normal,’ people—those who harbored a vague fear and obedience toward the nobility—might have fallen for, left stammering and helpless.
Of course, Dorothea’s party was far from normal.
Dorothea expressed her feelings with a single, simple phrase.
“I refuse.”
The lord’s face contorted amusingly, and the soldiers crowded behind him looked utterly bewildered.
Just as the agitated lord was about to lash out, Franka, who had briefly stepped away on personal business, returned.
She glanced at the standoff between her companions and the lord, her eyes narrowing.
“Baron Monty. Is there something you need?”
The lord turned to Franka, a ‘What now?’ expression on his face, but his eyes immediately began to tremble.
“Ahem, Lady Aglaia. When did you arrive in our domain? Had you sent word ahead, I would have come to greet you personally.”
“I’m just passing through on personal business. I’ll be leaving soon, so there’s no need for concern. But more importantly, I don’t believe you’ve answered my question. Do you have some business with my companions?”
“Ah, um. That is. I, I came to express my gratitude! Are these not the heroes who solved a great problem for our domain? Hahaha!”
It was a complete reversal, as swift as lightning.
From the murderous glares he shot at his subordinates, the party felt they could read his inner thoughts.
‘You bastards told me they were just travelers with no connections!!’
The subordinates sweated profusely and avoided his gaze. A cursory investigation based on appearances was a dangerous thing indeed.
In truth, if they had just paid closer attention to Adel blinking her violet eyes in the back, things wouldn't have escalated this far. But alas, the timeless adage to be wary of the elderly, children, and women had apparently not been passed down here.
Watching the lord get utterly crushed by Franka, Dorothea shook her head.
“First that Maximilian guy, and now this. I don’t get why so many nobles are such scum.”
“Mmm, well, a privileged class that inherits its status by bloodline is bound to be steeped in entitlement.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says a guillotine revolution is needed!]
“H-Hey, everyone? You’re joking, right? Right?”
And so, a small scene unfolded where the witch, the scarecrow, and the Tin Knight bad-mouthed the nobility, while the little lion—the only one in the group with any connection to high society—broke out in a cold sweat. Still, the commotion hadn't been a complete waste of time.
*
The port city where the party was staying was named ‘Rosalia.’
Its name was based on a local legend.
「A long, long time ago—no one knows exactly when—a kind-hearted young lady named Rosalia lived with her fisherman father.
Rosalia served her father with the utmost devotion, and her father, in turn, doted on his daughter.
Then one day, her father’s boat was caught in a storm and never returned.
Rosalia, weeping inconsolably, wandered aimlessly before disappearing into a certain cave.
From the cave, a sorrowful song could be heard without end. By the time the song reached the heavens, the stormy weather had cleared.
Ever since, whenever the weather turned foul, the people would go to the cave and pray to Rosalia. And each time, she would sing her song and make the skies clear again.」
It was unclear how much of the tale of ‘Rosalia's Cave’ was true, but it was an undeniable fact that the cave possessed the power to calm the surrounding weather.
The ability to create clear skies at will was a tremendous advantage for a coastal town, and thanks to the cave’s power, the small fishing village had grown into a massive port city.
Naturally, Rosalia's Cave was placed under the strict management of the lord’s family.
This was partly because it would be a disaster if random people wandering in and out caused problems for the cave, and partly because the ‘power to clear the weather’ was rechargeable; if used indiscriminately, it would be useless when it was truly needed.
Had Dorothea’s party tried to enter the cave through official channels, they would have faced a long and cumbersome process. But with the very lord who granted permission currently bowing and scraping before them, they had no such worries.
“We’re going to go into the cave, alright? I’ll take that as a yes.”
The lord dared not resist Franka's question, for which she had already decided the answer.
Instead, he tried to dissuade her with a worried tone.
“But, Lady Aglaia, a troublesome creature called a kraken has attached itself to the cave. It’s a beast that appears once every few years, so I know its habits. If left alone, it will simply drain the mana gathered in the cave and leave. But if you provoke it, you could invite great disaster.”
“If this has happened several times before, why are there no rumors… Ah, never mind.”
Franka waved her hand dismissively, as if she understood everything.
A powerful monster that only appeared once every few years and would leave on its own if left alone.
Which was more cost-effective: raising and maintaining an army to defeat it, or simply letting it feed on mana that would replenish over time?
The answer was obvious. As for the loss of prestige and face, that could be managed by simply keeping quiet.
Even now, if he hadn't been speaking to Franka, he wouldn't have breathed a word of it.
In any case, permission was granted. Now it was time not for authority, but for force; not for Franka, but for Dorothea.
She stood before the corpse of the Sea Serpent—now legally hers—and gathered her mana.
“Arise.”
The neck, which had been cleanly severed, reattached itself to the body.
Shredded pieces of flesh, torn apart by the Tin Knight’s sword, pieced themselves back together. In place of blood, black mana flowed through its veins.
《────■■■■!!》
Perhaps because it was a fresh corpse, a roar echoed out, hardly different from when it was alive.
It was a majestic sight, but Dorothea scowled.
Even though she had cleared the area, roaring so openly created the risk of being overheard.
“Will you be quiet?”
With a whimper, the undead Sea Serpent looked dejected.
The city guards who had been so miserably defeated by this creature would have rubbed their eyes in disbelief at the sight.
Its combat prowess, however, was in no way inferior to when it was alive.
And the first to experience that combat prowess was the kraken, which had been enjoying a leisurely, parasitic life attached to the cave.
Though she might look like a general in a demon lord’s army, Dorothea didn’t share their peculiar aesthetic of sending in forces piecemeal. Instead of a clumsy, staggered attack, she ordered a finishing move right from the start.
And from the mouth of the undead Sea Serpent, an opening breath attack erupted.
Writhe.
The kraken, struck by the sudden breath attack while it was resting, emerged from the cave in a rage.
A large hole was bored through its body, the area around the wound turning black as it rotted in real time.
Had the Sea Serpent’s breath been its original water-type, the kraken wouldn't have sustained such heavy damage. But the breath of the serpent, resurrected through necromancy, was imbued with curses and malice.
Even the kraken, resistant to fresh and salt water, was helpless against the necromancer-polluted water.
Moreover, emerging from the cave turned out to be a fatal misstep.
The kraken had only revealed itself to confront its attacker, but from Dorothea’s perspective, the target had conveniently come out into the open just as she was hesitating to fire again for fear of damaging the cave.
“One more!”
Dorothea commanded from atop the Sea Serpent’s head.
To be precise, the Tin Knight had his sword plunged into the Sea Serpent’s head and was holding Dorothea by the waist with his other arm.
This wasn't for show; it was purely for supplying mana.
Unlike controlling moderately sized creatures like the magic beasts from ‘The Garden,’ manipulating a colossal being like the Sea Serpent required her to be in direct contact to continuously pump mana into it—especially if it needed to fire its breath.
Thanks to this arrangement, the most excited one of all was the Tin Knight.
He had been sullen when she first announced she would use the Sea Serpent to fight the kraken instead of him, but watching the kaiju battle from atop the serpent’s head was more than enough to blow away his complaints.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ rejoices, saying this is thrilling in its own way!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he wants to try fighting while riding something like a wyvern someday!]
“I get it, so just keep your balance! Stop taking your hand off the sword to cheer! Hey, you tin can! Hey!!”
Despite the minor issue of Dorothea screaming her head off, the kraken subjugation went smoothly.
If they had tried to defeat it by physically hacking and bludgeoning it, the kraken’s unique regenerative abilities and flexible body would have cornered the party. But against the Sea Serpent, which kept its distance while blasting away with a composite breath of water, poison, and soul attributes, even the kraken was helpless.
The Sea Serpent wasn't originally a creature that could fire its breath so relentlessly, but with Dorothea’s immense mana supply backing it, its firepower was far greater than when it was alive.
In the end, the kraken met its demise, its body riddled with holes and rotting away.
With the pest eliminated, it was time to perform the ceremony.
Stepping into the cave, Dorothea and Franka immediately realized something.
“This is a magic circle. Was that Rosalia person a mage, perhaps?”
“The cave itself is like a single magic tool. Though its functions are limited.”
A magic tool that naturally absorbed and stored mana from the environment, then reacted to a specific trigger—like an incantation recited during a ritual—to clear the surrounding weather. That was the truth hidden within Rosalia's Cave.
The cave’s mana had been significantly depleted by the kraken, but the party wasn't concerned.
If it was short on mana, Dorothea just had to fill it back up.
At first, when Dorothea released her dark, murky mana, the cave seemed to stutter, as if being forced to swallow something indigestible. But once she had expelled the remnants of necromancy and her own pure, obsidian-like mana began to flow, the cave began to absorb it voraciously.
A short while later, once the mana was fully charged, the party recited the prayer they had received from the lord.
“—Good Rosalia, pitiful Rosalia. So that countless fishermen may return to their daughters’ sides, we ask for your help.”
The cave trembled as if waking from a deep slumber.
Then, a gentle breeze began to blow inside the cave.
The sound of the wind whistling through the rocks sounded just like someone singing.
For once, the Tin Knight didn't chatter away, but listened quietly to the song.
He had no sense of touch, smell, or taste. But sight and hearing still remained to him.
Dorothea watched him quietly.
After the song ended, the party stepped out of the cave.
The sky, which had been battered by wind and rain, had cleared up before they knew it.
Hostages captured by pirates (1/1)
Rampaging Sea Serpent (1/1)
Ceremony to calm the weather (1/1)
Third mission. Complete.