This Is When We're Weakest
"Captain, they say the island is in sight."
At the lookout's report, the warship's captain — who had been scowling in the wheelhouse — answered in his usual stiff voice.
"Any unusual signs in the area?"
"No, sir. Lookouts in all four directions report nothing out of the ordinary."
The same seemed to hold for the rest of the fleet. No signals rose from the ships sailing alongside them. If something had been amiss, they would have flown flags or flashed lights to say so.
Only once the deserted island they had been aiming for drew close enough to see with the naked eye did the captain let out a sigh.
"...So there was no ambush after all."
"We've got five warships, sir. At this scale we could handle a kraken if one popped up, couldn't we?"
"Even so, we're dealing with black mages. This arrival was far too easy."
Granted, mini sea serpents — creatures that would never normally throw themselves at a ship this large, as if something had goaded them into it — had assaulted the fleet. But that was all. No real damage had been done. All the expedition had expended was a handful of cannon shells. Was that truly the best the black mages could muster? The more he turned it over, the more it felt like they were being drawn into something.
"How much longer until we arrive?"
What cut through the captain's thoughts was a girl with sky-blue hair, stepping out from a corner to ask him. She was swallowed by a robe far too large for her frame. He answered her with a respectful tone.
"The island is coming into view, so it won't be long. We should start preparing to land."
"...Then can I go back?"
"Yes. There's nothing unusual, after all."
The girl gave a slight nod and slipped out of the wheelhouse.
He had worried in all sorts of ways about having such a young mage aboard, but unlike the mages he knew, this one showed no particular oddities. The mages the captain had dealt with were the sort who demanded special treatment wherever they went — arrogant types who put their own interests first. The mage who had boarded his ship this time was unusually quiet, as if she had no interest in anything at all.
"...I'm just glad she hasn't been a nuisance. Helmsman, pass the word to prepare for landing."
"Yes, sir!"
Hearing his subordinate's booming reply, the captain headed for his quarters. Before the landing, he needed to receive his final orders from Viscount Karpe.
The deserted island had no harbor, so the warships could not dock directly. They would drop anchor in the surrounding waters, then row the small boats in to a place where they could set foot on land. The warships carried countless small craft for just this purpose, so there was no worry of running short.
"They say each boat can hold up to four people."
"That's just right."
Ain's party traded the information a soldier had just given them. Looking at Ain, who had changed out of the clothes soaked through from falling into the sea, Er spoke.
"Just right? If you count that person from earlier, that's five."
"Nah, she already took off somewhere..."
"Did she?"
While Ain stammered, the woman who had given her name as Mar had long since left. After waking and hearing about the accident Ain and that woman had been through, Er's reaction was simple.
"...It's all strange."
"What is?"
"I don't know that much about marine monsters, but mini sea serpents don't attack ships this large. I heard they mistake them for enormous sea creatures and won't go after them. And..."
"It's also weird that a rookie Iron-rank adventurer is on this expedition."
It was Jina who picked up where Er left off. She had not dropped her suspicions since Mar introduced herself.
"It's not like there aren't any Iron-ranks — there are quite a few, actually — but most of them are still people used to adventurer life. Would the Adventurer Guild really slot an Iron-rank with no party and no experience into a large-scale expedition like this?"
"The capital's Adventurer Guild isn't all that thorough with their management. A beginner or two mixed in wouldn't be that strange, but..."
Still, they couldn't help being suspicious. These were adventurers and soldiers from the capital that Viscount Karpe had carefully selected and requested, after all. Ain had only met him once, but recalling that the viscount hadn't seemed the sloppy type, he said,
"...She's not a spy or something, is she?"
"If she were, she'd have been caught already. How many mages do we have here?"
If she were a black mage or a spy connected to them, the traces of mana left in her body would never have gone unnoticed. Planting spies was exactly what they were most wary of the black mages doing, and every precaution had been taken to prevent it, including mana-detection tools.
"...We'll look into her later. Has Haru still not come back?"
"If she hasn't come back yet, maybe she's planning to ride over with the knights?"
They were talking about Haru, who still hadn't shown herself even though quite some time had passed since the ship stopped, when—
"Me. Here."
"Haru? When did you get here?"
"Just now..."
With a vacant expression, Haru tugged on Ain's sleeve.
"Time to get off."
"Get off?"
"Yeah. Heard the captain give the order."
Haru had been in the wheelhouse with the captain, so it made sense she would have heard. And as if to prove her right, several soldiers entered the waiting room and called out to the adventurers.
"We'll be disembarking shortly!"
"...Do you get seasick on small boats too?"
Er's seasickness had seemed a little better since the ship stopped — but only a little.
"A small boat would rock a lot, wouldn't it? Then the seasickness..."
"If we row fast enough, maybe it won't matter?"
Jina said this while flailing both arms in a rowing motion. Ain, rotating his arms and loosening his shoulders the same way, said,
"It's not that far to shore, so we'll get there soon. Just hang on a little longer."
"...Okay."
As Er nodded reluctantly, Ain took her hand and let Divine Power flow into her.
The boat was just large enough for four people with a little room to spare. It had been decided that the adventurers would land on the island first, while the soldiers and knights stood by on the warships' decks and in boats on the water to cover them. Among those adventurers, Ain's party was near the front of the order — the idea being to get Haru, their mage, onto solid ground quickly so she would be in a position to perform if anything happened.
"Ain, doesn't this feel like a fun little boat ride?"
"Sure, if you ignore the part where I'm dying from all this rowing!"
That was entirely because Ain had lost a bet.
"Er's dying of seasickness, so she's out. Haru has no muscle, so she's out. We could've split it between the two of us, but you're the one who said to dump it all on one person."
"How about... we call it a draw?"
"Nope. Don't wanna."
"Damn it all."
Even as he grumbled, Ain didn't quit. Jina snorted a laugh at the sight and glanced to the side.
"Er, how's the seasickness?"
"A little... I can manage..."
Er's face had gone deathly pale as she said it, and she did not look like she could manage at all. Unlike her, Haru was swaying loosely with the boat's motion. Gazing out at the rippling sea, she said,
"...Too quiet."
"What do you mean?"
"Black mages. Like flies. They come buzzing at you anytime, anywhere, with no sense of their place..."
"Even black mages would have a hard time attacking a force this size, wouldn't they?"
"No. Most of the adventurers and soldiers right now are land-based."
Every adventurer currently heading for the island by boat had come from the capital, where their main field of activity was on land. Just like those adventurers, the knights and soldiers had also built their experience in ground combat in the capital and Karpe. Which meant—
The instant a gleam entered Haru's sky-blue eyes as she said this—
KRAAAAAANG!!!!
"Aaaagh!!"
"An explosion?!"
The small boat they were riding rocked violently as a blast erupted. The source of the explosion was the space between the second and third ships. Something enormous was there — a thick, pillar-like shape, its form hidden by the smoke from the blast. It had smashed into the third ship's cargo hold, detonating the cannon shells stored inside, and smoke was now billowing from the vessel.
"What the hell is that?!"
"I can't see it through the smoke!"
Ain's party weren't the only ones startled by the sudden blast. The other adventurers who had set out with them were murmuring, unable to hide their agitation.
"What is that?"
"An attack?"
"Figures... those bastards were never going to just let us through."
As someone ground their teeth saying this, a blue light burst from the stern of the stricken third ship. Immediately after, a wind blew strong enough to be felt even by Ain's party, who were quite far away. The wind was enough to blow away all the black smoke rising from the ship's stern — and long, thick tentacles beginning to wrap around the third ship's hull came into their view.
"Kraken!!"
"What kind of insane—?! Why would a kraken show up in water this shallow?!"
Krakens were marine monsters that looked like giant squids, strong enough to snap a whale's bones with their thick tentacles — but they only lived in waters deep enough to conceal their entire bodies. The waters they were in now, so close to the island, were not particularly deep. A kraken shouldn't have been able to appear at this depth.
What resolved their shocked cries was the form of the monster as it rose above the surface. Its body was long, like a snake. Every scale gleaming in the sunlight was as sharp as a well-honed blade, and its gaping maw was packed with countless thick, pointed teeth.
A sea serpent. A dragon of the sea, incomparable to the water snakes they had faced before. Its eyes stained red, it was attacking the warships, wildly thrashing the thick tentacles sprouting from its body.
"What the hell kind of monster is that?!"
"What else? It's a chimera!!"
They could shout in horror, but there was nothing they could do. Confined to the small boats, they could only stamp their feet as they watched the ships under attack, powerless to help.
The mages and soldiers of the second and third ships were fighting back, pouring out magic and arrows, but the sea serpent's scales deflected them with ease as it thrashed. From the third ship, now wrapped in the tentacles sprouting from its body, an ominous sound began to emerge. Crrrack. The sound of wood splintering and metal bending rang out in succession as the third ship's hull crumpled.
The other warships, unable to stand by and watch, opened fire with their cannons, attacking the sea serpent. In an instant the shoreline became a scene of utter chaos, and before they even had time to process their shock—
"On the shore, that's...!"
"Those are mermen?"
The ground where the first adventurers were supposed to land was being held by fish-headed monsters gripping rusty tridents and coral blades.
"They're not just on land — they're in the water too!"
Hearing someone shout this, Ain instinctively looked down into the water, and in that instant—
"Ain!"
A spear grazed past Ain's cheek. If Er, sensing something wrong, hadn't yanked him back by the nape of his neck, tonight's merman dinner would have been Ain's head on a skewer.
"Th-this is insane... at this rate..."
The small boat floating on the sea had nowhere left to go. Behind them, the sea serpent. In the water ahead and on the land they needed to reach, the mermen.
They were in crisis.