Volume 2, Chapter 15
Hurriedly, Airen called Daisy back at once.
This was no time to worry about tactics or strategy.
Crraaaash!
With a thunderclap, lightning split out of a clear blue sky.
It hadn’t done much actual damage, but it had certainly succeeded in seizing every Serpent’s attention. While the startled sea serpents jerked their heads at the flash of lightning so close by, Airen landed lightly on the back of one of them. He had left the child safely in the care of the wind spirit.
“Gooooooh.”
The furious Serpent twisted its neck and glared at Airen perched on its back. Its pupils, narrow as a snake’s, burned with savage intensity.
Meeting that stare, Airen grinned.
“Going somewhere?”
He’d burned through too much mental strength in too short a time, and his vision swam. Rather than rely on spirit arts any further, Airen drew one of the daggers he had secured at his thigh and took it in hand. Gold crackled along the blade in sparks of living current.
“I’m the one you’re dealing with.”
Sweat ran down his forehead and stung his eyes, but Airen was so tense he didn’t even dare blink. The sensation of countless sea serpents fixing their gaze on him alone was, quite simply, overwhelming.
So this is where I die.
He felt like a piece of raw fish laid out on a chopping board.
Airen prayed desperately that the ship carrying the others would get far enough away while he held the Serpent pack’s attention.
Just as he was about to drive the dagger in his hand into the Serpent’s nape, a flash of silver feathers skimmed across his field of vision.
Caw! Caw!
“A crow……?”
It wasn’t a bird one usually saw at sea. Airen froze at the sight of a flock of white crows fluttering past, and a languid voice drifted into his ear.
“Put the knife away. Quickly.”
“Priest Seherbian!”
A white priest’s robe whipped violently in the sea wind. Between the flaring folds, a familiar face came briefly into view, as if glimpsed through the beating of wings.
Seherbian was sitting atop the head of another Serpent somewhere nearby, looking at him. Airen couldn’t make sense of any of it—not the Aqua Serpent carrying Seherbian as docilely as a tamed horse, nor the silver dragon’s sunset-colored eyes, calm and unreadable even while riding a sea serpent.
Airen stared up at the Winter Dragon Priest in a daze.
“How did you get here?”
It was the only stupid question he could manage.
But Seherbian didn’t answer. Instead, he cast a bored glance at the dagger in Airen’s hand.
“I told you, Aqua Serpents don’t regard spirit mages as enemies. So put the knife away.”
“W-wait. They were definitely about to eat me!”
“Airen was the one who played with them first.”
Played with them?
Airen looked between Seherbian and the sea serpents surrounding them, baffled.
He was just about to snap back at him when he stopped short. As he searched his memory, one thing came vividly to mind.
Flash!
Right before the Serpents attacked, he had recklessly illuminated the dark water with a burst of lightning because of a vague sense of unease, and the memory now rose in his mind with humiliating clarity.
No way?
What if the Serpents had rushed over because they saw the light?
In other words, these creatures that had been resting peacefully in their own territory had charged toward the glow like squid drawn to a lantern because of the electricity he himself had unleashed.
Realizing the cause had been him all along, Airen fell silent.
“They’re already pretty fond of spirits to begin with. If you flash around so obviously, of course they’ll find it amusing. Absolutely.”
Seherbian, practically draped over the Serpent’s head, rested his chin in one hand and spoke with lazy detachment.
“It’s like waving catnip in front of a dog.”
Airen turned his head with the stiffness of a rusted part and met the gaze of the Serpent still glaring at him. The scarlet pupils, so like those of a snake, remained eerily unsettling, but fortunately the beast showed no sign of lunging at him at once.
“Haa…….”
Airen let out a breath and, with a languid hand, returned the dagger to its place.
“I nearly made a serious mistake. Thank you for the help, Father.”
“I’m glad you grasped the situation quickly.”
“Haha, that’s one of my strengths.”
To Seherbian, being able to laugh in a situation like this was itself one of Airen’s strengths.
Seherbian stroked the nape of the Serpent he was riding, and the creature gave a satisfied gurgling rumble.
“Shall we head back, then?”
Airen nodded with a sigh. The opposite side had shown no intention of attacking, yet he’d worn himself out running this way and that because of a needless misunderstanding.
He was just about to dismiss Daisy, pressing a hand to his head as it rang from the near exhaustion of his mental strength, when—
Thoom!
An explosion shook the surface of the sea and crashed over them.
* * *
An urgent alarm echoed across the vast open water.
Whoooo—
“Warning, warning! Serpent sighting!”
The crew who came rushing out at the alarm all looked up toward the crow’s nest with expressions that said this was exactly what they had feared.
The captain, a man from the Hestallion Empire, calmed the shaken sailors and asked coolly, “Are you certain it’s a Serpent? How many?”
“Yes, sir! Blue scales, and the mane running down its spine—confirmed Serpents. Four have been spotted, and there’s a good chance more are following below the surface. It seems they’ve identified the passengers who fell into the sea.”
“Any sign of aggression?”
“They haven’t attempted contact yet. They’re only maintaining distance!”
The captain’s face hardened grimly.
“……They’re chasing.”
“Is it dangerous?”
Jin Veronica, who had been listening to the report beside him, stepped forward and asked. The captain gave a heavy nod.
“There are two main reasons those creatures hunt. One is when they need food, and the other is…….”
He gripped the railing and watched the shadow rippling in the far sea with a sigh.
The enormous serpent shape, spreading blue under the sunlight, was beautiful at first glance. But to a captain who had spent years battling the treacherous western sea, it looked only like the writhing of a nightmare.
“When they decide a group has invaded their territory and mark them as enemies.”
“So that’s the situation we’re in now.”
“Exactly. In cases like this, the first step is to set a hunter on them. We call it chasing.”
“Chasing?”
“At first they follow at a fixed distance, as if merely trailing along. Then, little by little, they increase their numbers and herd the prey toward the direction they want. Just as the serpents following us are growing in number now.”
By then, blue shadows were already slinking along the rear of the ship as well.
And that wasn’t the end of the problem.
Shraaah!
The ship, which had been cleaving through the waves with relentless force, suddenly lurched as a spray of water erupted around it and tilted sharply to one side.
“Those things have a mysterious power to alter the current. No matter how carefully you set a course, once even four Serpents latch on and begin chasing, a small ship has no power to resist.”
Fortunately, the vessel they were on had been specially built by the Empire and reinforced with magic, so it wasn’t in danger of sinking just yet.
But judging by how rapidly the number of Serpents was increasing, even that was only a matter of time.
The captain pointed out exactly that.
“Prepare for battle. If we want to escape safely from here, we must kill the ones who have already approached before the chase fully begins. Especially……”
The captain’s fierce gaze swept over the Varzian knights.
“If you don’t want to lose your commander, who’s lost her mind and jumped into the sea of her own free will, then you’d better hurry as well.”
It was a rude remark, but the fact remained that their commander, Airen, had heard how dangerous the Serpents were and still done something foolish enough to risk everyone just to save a single slave. So no one could really argue.
The sailors, already accustomed to dealing with Serpents, took their positions and opened the gunports along the ship’s sides.
Jin and Cassio also agreed with the captain’s command. They had been thrown off by the sea as a setting and the Serpents as a special species, but the Varzian knights were battle-hardened all the same.
At the deputy commander’s gesture, the unit likewise drew their weapons in unison.
But that’s strange. Before we boarded, Winter Bell clearly said the Serpents wouldn’t regard spirit mages as enemies……
A hint of doubt rose in Jin’s mind, and she glanced toward Seherbian. The brazen Silver Dragon disguised as a priest was, in the middle of all this, nodding off. The reason Jin could stay composed in a situation that otherwise looked perilous was partly because she trusted their commander, Airen, but also because she was aware of Winter Bell, who stood among them under the name of comrade.
No way?
At that very moment, the captain’s order rang out.
“Fire the first flame cannon!”
“Wait……!”
Jin, suddenly sensing that something was wrong, had no time to stop it before the ship shuddered with a deep thud.
A cannonball, wreathed in searing magic to deal heavy damage to the fire-sensitive sea beasts, left the gunport trailing a red afterimage, and the sight struck Jin’s eyes.
Its target was the Serpent leading the pack.
* * *
Sea Serpents.
Their long, sleek bodies could move freely even underwater, and the wide mouths packed with sharp teeth could crush even the hardiest foe in a single bite.
They resembled giant snakes in shape, yet they lived in packs and were the most intelligent of all marine beasts registered by scholars. Above all, because they possessed the ability to control currents, they were such formidable creatures that no rival could stand against them in the sea.
“Goh?”
Swimming through the water while following a familiar scent, the Serpent tilted its head with innocent curiosity even after seeing the burning mass hurtling toward it. It was as if it was utterly certain the other side would never attack it.
Red afterimages bloomed over its small black eyes.
But just before the cannonball wrapped in flame could blow apart the Serpent’s head, something bright yellow flashed in between like a bolt of lightning.
Kwaaaang!
With crackling sparks spreading across the clear sky, the projectile, carrying a fierce wave of heat, exploded in midair.
The Serpent that had watched the cannonball burst before its eyes flinched so hard it sprang from the water with a splash. Ash scattered, and a blaze of heat washed over it, but it suffered no other damage.
Still, the startled Serpent twisted its maw viciously and roared.
Gooooooooh.
Gong, gooooeong.
As one cried out, the others stretched their necks and answered in a chorus of shrill howls.
Crackle!
At that moment, a man with ash-gray hair and a small cat landed lightly before the pack of Serpents. Bright currents sparked over the sea where the cat’s tiny paws touched down. Spirit power wrapped around the man, helping him stand upon the water.
It had been the lightning spirit Daisy who had intercepted the cannonball and shattered it in midair. And Airen, who had arrived with Daisy in tow, looked up at the Serpents with a stiff face.
“Ahem, um…….”
His voice caught in his throat from tension. Clearing his throat with a cough, Airen lifted his empty hand—the one not holding a weapon—and tried to show that he meant no hostility.
“See? I wasn’t trying to attack! Sorry if I startled you! It was a misunderstanding!”
The Serpents were so enormous that it felt as if they wouldn’t hear him unless he shouted. Only after he shouted his explanation with all his might did the Serpents finally register him, and in an instant they surrounded him.
Four great serpent heads surged upward and looked down at Airen and the tiny spirit below.