Yuu Tanaka Read online

  could react in an emergency.

  “Another storeroom.”

  It’s a merchant vessel after all.

  “Hmm… smells good.”

  This must be where they keep the foodstuff.

  Below the crew’s quarters were the storerooms, filled with box upon box. They looked

  like they had been forced inside the room with manatech. I certainly couldn’t explain

  the impeccably efficient arrangement. Fran had fun peeking inside. She nodded and

  sometimes tilted her head in confusion at the contents. There were rare foods and

  artistic implements of strange design—more than enough to satisfy her adolescent

  curiosity.

  “On to the next one.”

  Sure.

  We left the storerooms and walked to a room on the other side of the ship.

  “I can see the outside from here. What’s this weird thing?”

  Black steel spheres rested in a room with tall and narrow windows. They were lying

  next to a long cylinder that looked like an instrument of war.

  “What’s this?”

  Fran couldn’t tell. For anyone who hadn’t seen it before, it was difficult to understand.

  I could only figure it out because I had seen something similar in my past life. They

  were a staple in the video games I used to play.

  Cannons, of the manatech variety. You use mana to shoot these cannonballs.

  “Why go to the trouble?”

  Well, I think it’s a matter of mana efficiency. Propelling a cannonball doesn’t take as

  much mana as a full-blown spell. But just because it operates on mana doesn’t mean it

  can run forever.

  The prime advantage was that the cannon could fire mana as well as cannonballs. The

  cannonballs were for enemy ships, while manashot was for whatever monster the

  ocean threw at us. This dual action was probably what contributed to their sheer size.

  The cannons were a lot bigger than the ones on Earth.

  We went down another level and arrived at the ship’s bilge. Half of it was taken up by

  the ballast, while the other housed a gigantic piece of manatech. The large machinery

  whirred and hummed, sending vibrations through the pit of your stomach. Several

  men in overalls tended to the giant manatech—they must’ve been the thing’s

  technicians.

  “Who’s there?”

  “Fran. Adventurer. Guarding the ship. I’m exploring.”

  “Oh, I see. You’ve found the heart of the Algieba. Please don’t come any closer.”

  “Got it.” Fran stopped and observed the machine from afar. “It’s big.”

  This must be the propulsion engine.

  “Hm. Real loud.”

  So water comes out from there… It’s kind of like a giant pump.

  The manatech functioned like a gigantic water jet, moving the ship by forcing water

  out of large tubes. These tubes were installed in several locations over the bilge,

  making it easier to turn tight corners.

  That about covers the entire ship.

  Hm! That was fun!

  We returned to the upper levels. Fran was feeling restless, so she wanted to practice

  her swordsmanship. Can I do it at the top deck?

  Don’t see why not. We’ll find a quiet corner so we don’t bother anyone.

  The ship’s crew was hard at work when we surfaced. Jerome was giving them orders

  to unfurl the sails. “We’re a good distance away from port! Set sail, boys!”

  “Aye!”

  “Look alive, sea dogs! Full speed ahead to the Kraken’s Nest!”

  With the port of Bulbola safely behind us, we accelerated rapidly. Something Jerome

  said had caught my ear, though. What was this about Krakens? Back home, that meant

  a sea creature that looked like a cross between a squid, an octopus, and a jellyfish.

  These sea monsters were famous for dragging ships down into a watery grave.

  Fran approached Jerome to clarify. “What’s the Kraken’s Nest?”

  “Fran. Did you have a good tour of the ship?”

  “Sure did.”

  “Good to hear! The Kraken’s Nest is exactly what you think it is. It’s the dangerous

  spawning grounds of the beast known as the Kraken!”

  “And we’re passing through it?”

  “Pretty much, yeah.”

  I knew the ship had a cloaking system, but wasn’t this asking for trouble?

  The captain assured us that it wasn’t so. “Our route will only take us to the border.”

  The Kraken was the apex predator of the sea. No other monster dared to come close

  to their territory, especially the medium-size monsters that were the bulk of a

  Kraken’s diet.

  “As long as we’re careful, we won’t have to worry about any other monsters attacking

  us.”

  “Okay, but what about the Krakens?”

  A Kraken attack was serious business, but the ship’s cloaking system was designed to

  be especially effective against them. Fran pressed the subject, asking about other large

  monsters. The captain explained that the only large monsters that lived in that part of

  the ocean were the Krakens.

  “Why?”

  “Our course from Jillbird to Chrome mostly passes through shallow waters.

  Comparatively shallow, anyway—it’s still several hundred meters deep.”

  Quite shallow, considering how deep the ocean could be.

  “B-Threats live in deeper waters, not to mention the Whale King Leviathan and Sea

  Dragon Dagon. There’s a lot more food for them to snack on there.”

  The shallows weren’t enough to feed such colossal beasts. That was why Krakens were

  the only large monsters in the waters between Jillbird and Chrome.

  “Now, the Enchanted Ocean farther north is where the real monsters are. That’s where

  the S-Threat Leviathan lives.”

  The Leviathan was the world’s largest creature, spanning a thousand meters from

  head to tail. Some attributed tsunamis to the Leviathan turning in its underwater bed.

  Not much was known about it, since sightings were so few. But the story went that a

  coastal kingdom once angered the creature and was wiped off the map overnight. The

  ensuing tsunami was so large that it destroyed all architecture, leaving nothing but an

  empty island.

  The document detailing the attack went on to describe, to everyone’s shock, that the

  main diet of the Leviathan was Midgardsormrs, the A-Threat Sea Worms. Fortunately,

  even one was enough to satisfy the Whale King for a hundred years, which was why

  sightings of it were so rare.

  The Enchanted Ocean was home to many other giant sea monsters, and no ship

  charted its course through there. Anyone headed to Brodin from Jillbird was forced to

  take the western route via Chrome to avoid it. This route was the safest we had. The

  Krakens had made their nest here, but at least we didn’t have to worry about getting

  caught up in a fight between a Sea Dragon and a Sea Worm.

  “Don’t worry. We have ways of dealing with Krakens.”

  “Hm.”

  “You just keep us safe from the shrimp paste and pirates.”

  “Will do.”

  “Counting on you.”

  ***

  A few days after departure, Fran and the other adventurers were living quite

  comfortably. As long as there were no monsters, they ate, slept, and enjoyed the fresh

  ocean wind as they went about their activities. The rooms were cleaned with

  Cleansing Magic and the food was well balanced. Item bags meant we could enjoy fresh

  salad even in the middle of the ocean.

  In any case, we weren’t going to starve to death. Even if the ship were to run out of

  food, we could still fish. Today, the crew was fishing with vast nets, and Fran watched

  curiously as the sailors heaved their catch on board. She even muttered, “Heave!” in

  imitation of their shouts. It must have been her first time seeing such a thing.

  “Ga ha ha! You look like you’ve never gone fishing before.”

  “Hm. Not like this.”

  “You don’t say! Well, take it in. You won’t get a catch this big on any other ship!”

  “Really?”

  “You gotta be on a large vessel. Operating manatech this big takes a lot of manpower.”

  “I see.”

  “You get a bigger catch with the bigger net, but it also means more monsters eager to

  steal it. You better know how to operate your sword when that happens. Monsters

  tend to get caught in these nets, too. One is all you need to wreak havoc.”

  Maybe Fran and the other adventurers would finally see some action.

  “I think our fighters have it covered, but get ready just in case.”

  “Hm.”

  The sailors safely hauled their catch while Fran watched over them. The fish lay on the

  deck like a carpet.

  “Is that a fish?”

  What? Did you spot a monster?

  “That flat one over there.”

  Oh. Yeah, that’s a fish. A monkfish.

  Monkfish did look like monsters if you didn’t know what you were looking at.

  Foreigners were grossed out by octopus, but I still thought that monkfish were mo
re

  terrifying.

  “What’s that?”

  That looks like some kind of hagfish.

  “And that one?”

  Probably a sea cucumber. Huge one, though.

  So far, the fantasy fish looked similar to the ones back on Earth. It made me realize

  how gross sea life could get. In the depths, the line between monster and animal

  became blurred.

  “What’s that?”

  Which one?

  “That.”

  I couldn’t tell which one Fran was pointing at. She reached into the haul and picked up

  the creature of interest.

  “This one.”

  Ew, gross!

  The thing squirming in Fran’s hand, trying to escape was the most grotesque of the

  creatures so far. It was like a lump of pulsing red-and-black flesh, and it looked more

  like stuffed intestines than an actual living thing. On one side of the alien’s body was a

  hole ringed with sharp, rotating teeth. I had never seen a deep-sea creature as strange

  as this… I was amazed Fran could hold it in her arms without so much as a second

  thought.

  I screamed the moment I Identified it—I hadn’t felt that much panic in a long time.

  That thing’s a Midgardsormr!

  “A Midgardsormr? You sure?”

  I-I think it’s still growing.

  “So this is a grub?”

  I could never have imagined the hundred-meter-long Sea Worm started life as this tiny

  monster. Th-there’s another one over there.

  “Where?”

  It’s that long thing.

  “This is one, too?”

  Fran held the long ropelike creature in her free hand. The creature retained the red-

  and-black exterior of its smaller brethren, but it was much longer. The first specimen

  was only as big as the palm of Fran’s hand, while this second was over a meter long.

  “So this turns into this?”

  Probably… Urgh, those ridges are gross.

  The juvenile Sormr wasn’t perfectly smooth. Its tubular body was ridged at regular

  intervals.

  Jerome approached Fran as she inspected the future A-Threat. “That’s a young

  Midgardsormr!”

  “Hm.”

  The captain’s face grew grim. “A few months old by the size of it… Its parent might still

  be around.”

  “I thought you said only Krakens lived here.”

  “For the most part, yeah. We’ve had sightings of Midgardsormr here, too. Only once

  every few years, fortunately.”

  “I fought a Midgardsormr once.”

  “Recently?”

  “Hm. When I was on the boat to Bulbola.”

  “Are you serious? We can’t let our guard down, then…”

  “What do we do in case of an attack?”

  “Midgardsormr are very sensitive to smell. We’ll put out a chum bucket to throw it off

  our scent.”

  The sailors had ways of dealing with Midgardsormr since they were liable to run into

  one on their voyages. Jerome seemed well acquainted with the creatures, so we asked

  for some further clarification.

  “This thing grows up into this thing?”

  “Yeah, though not the way you think. It doesn’t technically get longer by itself.”

  “How do they do it then?”

  “These small ones attach to one another to grow bigger. See these ridges on the bigger

  one?”

  “Yeah. Gross.”

  “That’s where they conjoin. Sormr grubs latch on to the butts of other Sormr and so

  forth. They grow longer and longer until they fuse to become a single Midgardsormr.”

  While strange, this wasn’t completely unheard of on Earth. I thought I’d heard of some

  jellyfish or microbe that grew in a similar fashion… Jerome cleared up the question of

  multiple hearts in one Sormr, though. Although the giant worm looked like a single

  creature, it actually breathed as a colony. No wonder Death Gaze’s Instant Death

  couldn’t kill it.

  “What do I do with this?”

  “We’ll gather up and dispose of these pests. Put them in a separate batch if you happen

  to find any more.”

  “Got it.”

  We proceeded to look for Sea Worms. Since we had Identify and Mana Sense, finding

  Sormrs in a mountain of fish was easy. There weren’t any dangerous monsters among

  the catch, and the sorting went swimmingly. I couldn’t wait to see what the cook had

  in mind.

  The only problem was Fran’s smelly hands. If she didn’t clean them properly, the

  stench would linger. I didn’t mind the smell, but I didn’t know what I would do if people

  started calling her stinky.

  Teacher.

  What’s up?

  I want a bath. Fran sniffed her hands and recoiled. Even she was turned off by the fishy

  smell and the slime.

  I’m not sure if there’s a bath on this ship… but we can make it work.

  We could produce our own hot water with magic. No need to go through the Algieba’s

  reserves.

  But what about the bathtub?

  We couldn’t use Earth Magic, since there wasn’t enough earth to work with. A wooden

  barrel would be the next best thing, but was there anything else we could use? A steel

  barrel immediately came to mind, but I doubted the ship had any that weren’t in use.

  We could use a large cooking pot—Fran was certainly small enough.

  But then we have to think about hygiene…

  Even with Cleansing Magic, the idea of cooking with a pot that had been used as a

  bathtub was off-putting. Was there anything we could do?

  “Hmmm.”

  “What’s on your mind, Fran?”

  We might as well ask Jerome. Maybe there was a big wooden barrel that lay forgotten

  somewhere.

  But the captain told us that the Algieba was already equipped with a bath. I kept

  forgetting that this fantasy world functioned with magic and manatech. What sounded

  like a luxury was actually standard fare, even for medium-size vessels.

  No one had used the tub in the last few days as sailors mostly didn’t go in for bathing.

  It was hard to imagine these rough and rowdy men relaxing in a bathtub, and they also

  had the convenient excuse of wanting to keep costs down. However, in the event of

  long voyages, health and hygiene became priorities, and the men would be forced to

  bathe. So far, they had yet to take their first dip. Jerome told us that we were free to

  use the bath, as long as we brought our own water. We left quickly to find it.

  “It’s big.”

  Big enough to cause a dent in the water bill.

  The baths were large enough for several dozen sailors. There was the bath proper,

  along with several places to wash up. While Fran and I could conjure up hot water with

  little difficulty, the manatech took quite a bit of time and resources to prepare.

  You do the water and I’ll heat it up.

  “Hm!”

  “Woof woof!”

  Okay, Jet, come on out.

  The captain allowed us to wash our direwolf as long as we promised to clean up

  afterward. Fran and Jet monopolized the large bath, feeling like royalty. We returned

  to our room completely relaxed.

  Fran informed Mordred and the first mate that she was done so that they could use

  the bath. The first mate was quite pleased at being allowed to bathe and cheerfully

  asked her to do the same thing again tomorrow. Fran was taken aback at his dripping

  wet figure. Have you ever seen a wet goat? It was just like that.

  We didn’t mind—preparing the bath cost us next to nothing and it meant that Fran

  could bathe daily. The fact that the first mate now owed us was a nice bonus. Of course,

  I drained the tub and replaced the water after Fran. I’d be in the depths of a scrap heap

  before I let some guy use the same water as her!

  THE NEXT DAY.

  Nothing’s biting.

  “Hm.”

  We were fishing from the top deck. Fran sat on the railing, in a good mood despite the