Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase02

Phase 02: Oceavita Water Therapy Institute

Part 1

It was not just night.

It was the middle of the night.

“…”

That creature seemed out of place to Teleria even with her Mermaid side revealed. The pressure coming off that gargantuan winged fish was like a solid wall. That member of the Four Lords of the demons was said to control water in all three forms using her land, sea, and sky forms. Fleurelisia Nereid Aquamarine’s 450-esoule body had not moved for a very long time, but now she was slowly but surely slithering down from the mountain peak.

She spoke in a voice outside the audible range for humans.

She had no hostile intent, but her voice might as well have been a violent impact.

Regardless, Water Lord Fleurelisia spoke words that only her daughter Teleria could perceive.

“My, my, Teleria. I heard you brought a boy back with you and immediately rented out a room. Letting your hormones run wild is one of the best parts of life, but I really wish you had come by to introduce him to me first. I have no intention of opposing your choice; I am simply curious what kind of lovely person you have selected. Now, come tell me what kind of gentleman you snagged on the continent. No, that would take too long. I will come visit you with a homemade apple pie. I have so many questions. Hee hee. Including how the two of you met, of course.”

“Eek.” The short but busty blonde Mermaid’s throat tensed up. “You, um, you mean the Water Lord is moving for the first time in forever for that!?”

“Of course I am. This is a crucial moment in my daughter’s life. Why wouldn’t I cast aside the fate of the world in order to help out?”

Her mother was making a surprise appearance in front of her friends and a 450-esoule creature was slithering destructively down from the mountain. Which of those was a greater crisis for a teenage girl? Now was not the time to be sentimentally complaining about how dense that boy was. If someone was going to give him spoilers, she at least wanted it to be someone other than her colossal mama.

The mountain rumbled violently.

Needless to say, the giant form near the peak was starting to crash against it while slithering down toward the water.

Teleria paled and rushed toward the pier-like walkway.

She first grabbed just the holsters for her twin handguns with longish magazines.

“Hgee!! Why are you so dumb, dumb, dumb!? Get a clue, mother! Aren’t you supposed to be one of the Four Lords that rule the entire world!? Every fortuneteller in the world is going to faint when they hear about this!”

“Now, now, Teleria. Is that any way to speak to your mother? Impoliteness will only drive the gentleman away, so try to work toward your future happiness, okay? Don’t worry. I will help you.”

“I don’t want your help and your standards are too old-fashioned to be of any help anyway!!”

She had to put a stop to this.

She did not think she could defeat her mother, but she had to set up a defensive line in front of the cottage where Ayato and the others were sleeping. Her mother generally slithered along the land, but if she attacked the flying fish wings on either side of that colossal form, could she knock her mother off balance, and bring a stop to that combination of a snake and a seal? She would need to use her opponent’s momentum like a martial artist. She readied her sorcery guns and sweatily prepared to fight back.

“Learn to act your age, mother!!”

“Ho ho ho. Didn’t you know? All mothers have a young and childish side to them☆”

Part 2

The morning sun shined in.

On a tropical beach, the morning was not welcomed by the chirping of sparrows or the crowing of a rooster. Instead, it was the squawking of sea birds that awoke Ayato. The luxurious tropical log cottage had plenty of beds, so he had not needed to use a sofa for once.

However, he also heard an odd sound from below the covers.

Or was that a voice?

“Mgh.”

“Miss Mamilis, I am aware this is rude, but might I ask for as detailed an explanation as possible regarding why you have crawled into my bed?”

He moved his hand a bit to check and felt the contrasting textures of strange leather and a girl’s soft skin.

“To be honest, I underestimated you, Coach,” said the voice from the covers. “I thought I would wake you up this morning, but you pulled me down to roll along the floor with me and finally rolled right on back into the bed.”

The Dark Elf did not sound pleased.

Now, Ayato had not been sleeping. He had just returned from his self-maintenance work that only required shutting one’s eyes and meditating, but it seemed his body had been getting into trouble in the meantime.

He shook his heavy head and climbed out of bed.

He walked to the living room with Mamilis who was wearing her white leather vest and tight pants.

“Hm? Why do you look so exhausted, Miss Teleria? Is the heat getting to you?”

“I-it’sh nuffing. Maybe this bed is just too soft and fluffy.”

Teleria had shown off her cooking skills last night, but with her blonde hair a mess and her uniform disheveled, it was clear they would have to head out for some breakfast. Which was fine since they also had to stop by the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute to ask about the decursing of that attacker. The fact that none of them considered cooking in Teleria’s place showed just how reliant they were on the girl.

When they left the cottage and started strolling along the beach, it was nigh impossible to miss a major change to the scenery.

Namely, Water Lord Fleurelisia.

Her massive form on the peak came into view whether you were paying attention or not.

“Hm? Isn’t she a little further to the right than yesterday?”

“Ha ha ha. You must be imagining things, Ayato. That’s one of the legendary Four Lords, remember?”

“Dangerous individual, did you hear something like gunfire last night?”

“Probably those lightning cloud cannons! Those large sorcery devices are used to clear away thick lightning clouds. They’re all controlled from this island, but they have them set up on a few uninhabited islands to keep the people here safe!”

Small piles of something could be seen here and there, so someone must have created them and left them there during the night. A girl – probably a Scylla – was gathering those up in a large bag she was dragging around. Was she a volunteer gathering the remnants of fireworks? She was also lecturing a Lizardman who had left their shed skin out on the beach.

The morning sea was breathtaking.

There were no surfers or leisure yachts out this early, so the tourists must have all still been asleep. It was too soon to swim or to throw a party, but the true beauty of the tropical ocean may have been more evident now than any other time. The ocean glittered in the rising sun with an innocent shine reminiscent of an unpolished gemstone.

Henrietta looked around while passing by a Cat Sith girl going for an early morning jog in a healthy outfit that showed off her midriff.

“Aren’t we too early? The morning shift maids will only now be getting up, so I doubt any restaurants are open.”

“There’s one thing you can always count on while on the beach. Yup, there it is.”

It would cost a fair amount, but Ayato knew exactly what to go. The cheapest option for eating out now was the food stands lined up along the beach. They were probably meant for the fishermen returning to port at dawn. Most of them set the heat of a grill with a sorcery gun instead of using a portable stove.

Dark Elf Mamilis was fascinated by how the chilly Arai girl worked her double spatulas.

“Wow, what’s this, Coach? They’re serving noodles without any sauce, but it doesn’t look like pasta.”

“Hey, dangerous individual. I thought wheat was scarce here since they have to have it imported. Are these made from potatoes like those dumplings from yesterday?”

“Those are fried noodles, a classic beach food,” said Teleria. “Although people are very opinionated over whether they should be served with salt or with sweet and savory sauce, or if the noodles should be hard or soft.”

“?”

Henrietta gave an odd look to Teleria for knowing so much about this. They ended up getting some of those fried noodles, but the Striker had no problem with the dried and sliced sea cucumber served on top, despite collapsing back in her chair over octopus and squid. She stabbed them with a fork and ate them like normal.

“Hm, they seem to be fried instead of boiled, but the texture of the noodles seems about right. A little softer than I’m used to with the Static Continent’s pasta, though.”

“U-um. Henrietta, those things on the noodles are sea cucumbers.”

“These? They’re fairly chewy, but the more I chew them, the more flavor I get from them. They provide a nice accent to the flavor. So I take it these cucumbers grow near the sea?”

The Striker would not stop grinning. While sliced up and dried out, someone of her privileged background apparently thought they truly were a type of cucumber. If she saw a whole sea cucumber lying in the shallows around here, she would probably foam at the mouth and pass out, so Teleria decided not to elaborate further.

“Take a look at that over there, Miss Henrietta! Yes, that thing that looks like dog poop washed up onto the beach!”

“I just knew you would do this, Ayato! And I’m not letting it happen!!”

The short but busty blonde girl wrapped her arms around him to cover his mouth with her soft hands, but she seemed unaware that qualified as a flirty reward to him. He silently vowed to do this kind of thing more often.

Once they had eaten, they made their way to the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute.

The white sand extended well beyond the beach. The trees growing directly from it must have been a type of mangrove. A Dryad girl stretched her arms up and hummed while leaning up against a thick tree.

“Ah.”

Brown midriff-baring Mamilis cried out and clung to Ayato. She seemed to have tripped over something.

“Hm,” he said with a troubled look.

“Now is not the time to discuss ‘a happy sensation’ or whatever you call it, dangerous individual. We need to find out if that attacker has been decursed and complete our business here. You need to hear what he has to say, don’t you?”

“…”

A cloud fell over fluffy blonde-haired Teleria’s face. She did not want Ayato to continue obsessing over that past incident, but she could not change anything without working up the courage to speak up about it.

They arrived at the white marble building that acted as the general reception area for the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute. It was much cooler inside. This early in the morning, there was no line of other patients and the large lobby felt empty.

The smiling receptionist was like a cross between a maid and a nurse.

“You are #1034, registered under the name of Henrietta, correct?”

“Yes, that’s me,” said Ayato.

“(No, it’s me! Dangerous individual, you can’t just use my name like that.)”

“(Let me borrow your good reputation just this once. I need your noble and respectable name here. A crafty fox like me isn’t enough to pull this one off.)”

“(Hm, is that so? Heh heh heh. So you have finally found some respect for a Striker who fights day and night to preserve order and justice, have you? This is a good sign. I can rehabilitate you yet.)”

While the blonde braid girl started feeling awfully proud of herself, the Sorcery Hacker hid a smile so she would not notice.

She was so easy to manipulate he was a little worried about her future.

Whether the receptionist was aware of that interplay or not, she held a hand over the palm-sized spherical Media Summoner on the counter.

“#1034 is…oh?”

Looks of surprise were unusual in an institute of sorcery medicine. The unexpected could happen anywhere of course, but letting it show could trigger anxiety and fear within the patient or their family. No one wanted to go out of their way to invite customer complaints.

Henrietta quickly grew pale.

“Wait, so was the basic decursing not enough? Are you going to have to try out different springs until one works? How long will I be trapped on this island? Gwohh! But I don’t want to eat bats and octopuses!!”

“Um, no, it isn’t that.”

Blue blazer Ayato cocked an eyebrow at that. This was a local network using Media Summoners and the medical records were handled digitally. Why had he not considered the possibility sooner?

“Um, it seems #1034 just finished checking out earlier,” said the receptionist in a very troubled way. “We even have the virtual signature here from a Henrietta Split Destrius.”

“B-but that is my name! I never signed anything!!”

“If you are willing, we could, um, have the signature appraised.”

For those with significant status, fingerprints were not as important as the signature they used on letters and contracts. Enough so that people could make a living appraising signatures or forging them.

Ayato did not need to confirm anything with the Striker blinking in confusion next to him. She could not have split into two and acted independently of him.

He clicked his tongue.

“You’ve been sorcery hacked. Someone’s trying to take him away still encased in ice. The curse doesn’t matter if they only want to silence him!!”

The detailed exams and basic decursings would be performed back beyond the reception desk. The specialized springs were scattered across the island, but they had not reached the point of needing to try those. Black-haired Ayato pulled his Linkage Plug sword from his hip, hopped over the counter, and reached for the knob.

But before he could open it, the thick door was blown away from the other side.

It was a lot like a backdraft from a burning building. The receptionist screamed and crouched down. To make sure he did not hit her, Ayato stabbed his sword into the floor, altering the direction he fell, and he finally stopped after his hip slammed into the counter.

“Ah, ahhh. Ow, what was that?”

The receptionist was too dazed to notice her long skirt had ridden up enough to show off her legs in white tights, but he did not have time to look after her.

“Ayato!!” shouted Teleria.

“Draw your sorcery guns. This is a military-grade sorcery device!”

The sound of creaking metal joints reverberated from beyond the blazing door.

And it was not alone.

The polished white marble floor burst open and more and more giant masses emerged. They must have been hidden below the fine sand to begin with.

Teleria, Mamilis, and Henrietta moved in close together.

“That’s it, Coach,” said the Dark Elf. “The top of those things is what I tripped over in the forest.”

“H-have they been hacked?”

They dragged around armor shaped like spiral shells and the multiple metal legs, pincers, and crystal eyeballs all extended from a single opening, making them look something like car-sized hermit crabs.

Since Mamilis did not give a clear answer, her weapons developer grandma must not have designed these.

A warrior like Henrietta would be the next most familiar with such things.

“Are those Dextral Mk. IIs? I have worked alongside them in joint exercises with the surface city-states. They are unmanned amphibious weapons for landing operations. Stand in their way and you will be blown away by pure firepower!”

“Which means we have a chance if we circle behind them. Their thick armor will create a blind spot. Stay on the move and make sure they don’t surround you!”

With that, Ayato stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the reception desk’s Media Summoner, the auto-watering device for the decorative plants, the air conditioner, and other devices.

The pincers apparently functioned as artillery. Electricity scattered from between the two blades, and…

“!!”

A mass of fire was launched toward Ayato, which he just barely managed to dodge. The blazing heat instead hit the marble, scattering rubble and explosive flames outwards. No, the airborne shards melted into liquid before they could reach the ground.

Ayato instantly analyzed it.

“Plasma fireballs? Was that Tertiary Taboo Gluon!?”

“The wind element? The Dextral Mk. II was designed to use the water element, dangerous individual! These are not the standard presets! Besides, military-grade devices are built for stability, so they would never be set to use taboo magic!!”

Had a Sorcery Hacker changed the settings? Henrietta must have wanted to whittle down their numbers before things grew even more chaotic because she spun around to sneak up next to one of the giant hermit crabs and raised her bolt-action carbine with an axe-like bayonet.

“Buff: Primary Ex Massive!!”

After pulling the trigger, she forcefully swung down the heavy blade. A direct hit from this close-quarters attack could smash the thick outer walls of the tall buildings of her native sky city. Cracks ran through the Dextral Mk. II’s spiral shell armor and a piece broke away.

Her sorcery gun’s faded empty cartridge only then hit the floor.

That was how fast her attack had been.

However.

“Oh, no.”

That frustrated comment came from Henrietta herself.

The Dextral Mk. II’s broken armor was repaired before she could make another attack, so she clicked her tongue.

“Is their armor made from packed sand? We can’t keep up with that. These are for landing operations, remember!? They were designed for use on sandy beaches, so their armor will endlessly regenerate there!!”

Henrietta’s range and accuracy might have been lacking, but she had the greatest destructive power of any of them. Teleria’s twin handguns and Mamilis’s full-auto shotgun could not supply as powerful a blow.

These weapons had the ultra-high firepower of plasma fireballs and this powerful endlessly-regenerating armor. The firepower might not be a threat if you were not directly in front of them, but constantly keeping yourself in their blind spot when more than one were targeting you would wear down your stamina in no time. And falling behind just a little would get you reduced to ashes.

They could not let this battle drag on, so the Sorcery Hacker made a decision.

“Miss Henrietta, can you safely draw their fire? I don’t think I can ask Miss Teleria or Miss Mamilis to do that.”

“Did you think a Striker like me would use others as a shield to protect herself? You have a plan, I assume?”

“I need to be at around Level 15 for this, so I will be borrowing that armor to bring my level up.”

“Hey!”

Henrietta wept as he casually stabbed his sword into her oxidized mana-conducting silver armor.

Electricity once more scattered from the hermit crab pincers.

“Here goes!!” roared Ayato as he leaped toward one Dextral Mk. II.

They aimed the pincers toward him at first, but Henrietta ran in from the other side to draw their attention and the plasma fireballs were launched toward her. Her feet squeaked on the floor as she zigzagged, causing her ponytail braid to flutter in an S-shape behind her.

She dodged the beams of light.

She made it look easy, but that was a testament to her skill. The slightest mistake here would have gotten her utterly vaporized, so it was a truly risky feat.

Meanwhile…

“Got you!!”

Ayato jumped on top of the armor made from sand or whatever. From the overhead blind spot, he stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the opening full of weak points like the eyes, legs, and pincers.

He pulled the trigger to release the blade.

He was borrowing the processing space of the reception desk’s sorcery devices and Henrietta’s armor.

With a low roar, the one Dextral Mk. II began behaving erratically.

“Everyone, get down!!”

Plasma roared more than once.

The boy in the blue blazer that symbolized education had not aimed at one of the other hermit crabs. With equal specs, he could have at most defeated one before their greater numbers tore his one to pieces. So he had instead aimed for the floor below them. The plasma tore through the white marble, burning the fine sand found there.

“Miss Teleria, prepare Secondary Ex Icing!”

“Eh? But that’s recovery magic for cooling sprains.”

“You only need to cool the sand melted by the plasma! Hurry!!”

After some distinctive blue muzzle flashes and suppressed gunshots, the change became visible.

A distorted translucent mass covered the surface, like some melted candy had rehardened after falling to the ground.

When sand was melted, it would turn to glass.

The others launched their plasma fireballs, so black-haired Ayato quickly jumped down from the hacked one.

“The layer of glass will cut off their endless supply of sand from the ground, meaning they can’t regenerate their armor. But that won’t last long since it ends once it breaks. Miss Henrietta, this is in your hands!!”

“!!”

It did not take long then.

Teleria and Mamilis occasionally provided distractions with their magic, but it was generally all up to Henrietta’s great strength. She would circle around to the sides, break open the spiral shell armor, and slam her axe-like bayonet into the Dextral Mk. II’s “guts” to finish it off.

“That should about do it.”

She slammed her gun’s stock against the glass ground and elegantly wiped the sweat from her brow with a handkerchief. She was surrounded by the remains of her foes and her own faded empty cartridges. Not one of the machines was still moving. However, black-haired Ayato did not look pleased.

“A-Ayato?” asked Teleria.

“They could have called in reinforcements if they wanted, so if this is the end of them, they must have played their role. The ice coffin must have been taken away.”

Even if they were up against another Sorcery Hacker here, where had they gotten those Dextral Mk. IIs from? Hackers hijacked control; they did not bring the devices in themselves.

This seemed to suggest a hidden side to the island of Laguntreat, but the Sorcery Hacker who had stolen the ice coffin had to come first.

That had to be their focus.

But Teleria and Mamilis had noticed something else. The receptionist was poking just her head above the crumbling counter and viewing them with undeniable fear.

Specifically, she was looking at the Linkage Plug sword that Ayato held.

That was a symbol of Sorcery Hacking.

It did not matter that they had saved her life. She was viewing them like they were escaped prisoners. That was simply how ordinary people viewed sorcery criminals.

Ayato summed up the situation for them.

He accepted their plight before the woman could let out an ear-splitting scream of rejection.

“We have now revealed ourselves to be an illegal Sorcery Hacking gang. There is but one course of action for us here: run away!!”

Part 3

The luxurious circumstances of the previous day were nowhere to be found. Now that they were on the run, they could not use that fancy cottage.

“Phew.”

Now that they were far enough away from civilization, Mamilis removed her earrings to reveal her long ears. Those signs of her Dark Elfhood twitched from a strange sense of liberation and she seemed happy enough, but Henrietta was a different story.

“Could you not refer to me as part of your ‘gang’!? You are the only illegal Sorcery Hacker here! This is all a misunderstanding! The rest of us have nothing to do with it!!”

“Let’s hope the guard patrol out there agrees with you, Miss Henrietta. Care to return to the crowded beach? Having small children jeer at you while throwing mud and raw eggs at you can be a scarring experience. I am curious to see if a noble knight has what it takes to endure that sort of humiliation.”

The straitlaced Striker groaned and bit her lip. The upper classes were a land of appearances and pride. Those things could be more valuable than money at times. With her values, an experience like that could make her suicidal.

They were in a tropical forest, which none of them were particularly familiar with.

Staying on the walking path would have been suicide. They hid in the bushes while a half-naked Selkie girl passed by with a seal costume pulled down to her waist. She may have been on her way to hang out in the air-conditioned water therapy institute lobby.

They walked a long way through the tropical forest while staying off the walking path.

They saw a bent metal tower sticking up from the colorful trees. That was one of the lightning cloud cannons that Teleria had previously said worked with the others installed on uninhabited islands to blow away dangerous storm clouds. The high-tech device was attractive to the Sorcery Hacker, but for once it was better to hide out in nature. It was best not to approach a sorcery facility that likely had plenty of security installed.

“Let’s set up our base here for now,” said Ayato after peering inside a cave they found.

But this cave was not an underground labyrinth full of bats and centipedes.

It must have connected to some other exit because the wind blew through it and it was strangely bright inside. A vein of crystal and of water must have reflected the sunlight through the cave, making it sparkle.

Ayato was enveloped by a chilly sensation as soon as he set foot inside.

It was gentler and less harsh than the forced chill of the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute.

Henrietta was a pro, but she was also a city dweller who could not eat bat or octopus, so she hid behind Ayato’s back and trembled while glancing around.

“I-I don’t see any weird animals. But why not? It’s such a nice spot.”

“For humans, yes. I bet it’s too cold for the tropical animals that are used to the heat.”

Meanwhile, Teleria, who could eat those things, seemed concerned by the lack of animals.

Because…

“What are we going to eat?”

“There’s plenty of water on Laguntreat. I’m not familiar with the wildlife here, but gathering some small leafy branches, attaching them to a tree trunk with string, and placing them in a river should be enough to catch some small crayfish. We can eat those, or we can use them as bait to catch something larger. Setting up large traps could help people track us down, though, so we should limit ourselves to that.”

Ayato already had a plan as they left the cave.

It helped to have someone like him who was used to being on the run. Moving from that cottage suite to some hole in the ground was not that much of a shock to him.

Mamilis let out a grunt of effort that sounded too flat to be genuine as she gathered palm leaves longer than she was tall. By tying them together, she soon had something like a large parasol.

“I saw things like this on the beach. A beach chair might be too tricky, though. Still, we can place some of the large leaves on the sand to lie on.”

Gathering up too many plants created a trail for pursuers to follow while on the run and they could not leave too many personal items lying around outside the cave, but Ayato must have decided it was best not to let their frustrations build up by nixing every idea they had.

The straitlaced Striker carefully observed Ayato and the others more than the cave itself.

“A-am I the only one having a hard time adapting to this?”

“Your noble lifestyle in the city left you unprepared for this. Just keep at it.”

The forest seemed to cheer up the Dark Elf and she provided an entirely matter-of-fact assessment of Henrietta.

They had to escape and survive, but if they focused all their efforts on this one place, they would never make any progress. They could not forget they had a goal to pursue.

“It really is hard to get over your first impressions of something. But anyway…”

After being told she would be no help in this survival lifestyle, Henrietta decided to use her city-born skills as a hunter. She placed a hand on her skinny chin.

“I am worried about the survival of that frozen man.”

“Miss Teleria.”

“Um, that magic is forbidden, so I doubt he can be thawed out that easily. It should take around three days to break through it by brute force. He will be safe from the curse until then.”

“Coach, are we going after that ice coffin?”

Mamilis the grandma’s girl kept working on her home crafts and she sounded somewhat disappointed in that idea. Ayato understood why she might be reluctant to go after that thing. It contained some creepy guy who was a crazy mass shooter.

“If only it was a flower goddess sealed for a thousand combo-years. Y’know, she looks young and smells sweet, but she’s actually really old and clever but is also just a little bit sweet when it counts. Oh, but she would also need a nice rack. And she would definitely want to repay you for freeing her, of course.”

“Give up on your disturbingly detailed fantasies, dangerous individual. Anyway, we know a Sorcery Hacker even more dangerous than you is out there. It is my duty to preserve order and justice, so I cannot ignore that. If those Dextral Mk. IIs are released indiscriminately on the beach, we will have a massacre on our hands.”

“But I didn’t see anyone suspicious there, Coach.”

Mamilis seemed more interested now. Although she might roll over and go to sleep if it turned out the mystery Sorcery Hacker was some filthy old man.

Ayato nodded.

“They might think of themselves as a hacker and a sniper. I mean, we’re on the run now because I carelessly revealed what I am. In that sense, they’re better than me. And if they have business with that ice coffin, they must know what’s going on. Because they’re trying to cover up the truth. For now, let’s pursue that unseen Sorcery Hacker. …Which means we need a clue to follow.”

The question was how to lure out the Sorcery Hacker hiding on this island.

“Done. Here are the crayfish traps.”

“Oh, thanks, Miss Teleria.”

“Hee hee. I know it’s wrong to think this way, but this is kind of fun. Camping out together isn’t bad at all.”

“Hmm, if you say so.”

A troubled “wait, um” came from Teleria but from a completely different direction than before. She was addressing the boy who had been too distracted to pay much attention to what he was responding to.

“A-Ayato, that isn’t me.”

“Eh? Then…whoa! Who is this girl!?”

Ayato, an expert in the illegal world, jumped up in surprise and Henrietta, a born warrior, frantically reached for the sorcery gun at her hip a moment later.

Dark Elf Mamilis only tilted her head a bit.

“So who is she?”

“My, my.”

The voice sounded like a gentle young woman, but the small girl clinging to Ayato’s hip was a head shorter than even Teleria. She had short, fluffy blonde hair and wore a loose-fitting white dress. Her silhouette would probably show through with the sun behind her. In what may have been a fashion statement, she wore something like a small wristwatch on her right ankle.

Mamilis’s Dark Elf ears were still out in the open, but she did not sense any real danger. Probably because she had seen humans and Mermaids sharing the same space without issue here on Laguntreat.

Meanwhile, the little girl held a hand to her mouth while giving off an aura that put even cautious Mamilis at ease.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you. I am Fleure-”

“Dabrabchcgwhe!!”

All of a sudden, Teleria had moved behind the girl and covered that small mouth with her hands.

They began whispering to each other at extreme close range.

“(Get a clue, mother! Also, you can’t send your core out, leaving your main body behind! That body doubles as a safety device to keep your Water Lord power from leaking out and losing control, doesn’t it!?)”

“(My, my, but can you really blame me? You were having so much fun here I just had to slip out to join you.)”

“(Are you sure this wasn’t you hearing Ayato talk about wanting to meet a little monster hag and getting all excited about it!? Oh, no! You’re exactly like the flower goddess from his fantasy!! Well, except for the chest.)”

“(I am neither a monster nor a hag! And if you average my chest size between this core and the outer shell, then I have one of the greatest bust sizes in the world☆)”

“(That method would also give you a shockingly large waist measurement!!)”

“Miss Teleria, do you know this girl?”

The blonde girl’s shoulders jumped.

Yes, Fleurelisia was her mother. Not her ancestor, her actual parent. Over the course of her unfathomably long life, that sole female member of the Four Lords would find a new first love (how does that work!?) in each successive era and flirt with them even in that gargantuan body. She was a proactive and carnivorous woman to the core. But for a teenage girl, not much was worse than a mother who would make a move on her crush just because the boy mentioned some silly fantasy! If people found out that was her mother, no one would want anything to do with her anymore!!

“N-not really, ha ha ha. I just happened to meet her while out on a walk last night. Her name is Florence! She lives on this island!!”

“Hm?” Brown Mamilis’s long ears twitched. “But didn’t she say Fleur or Flu or something? …Fleur? That sounds oddly familiar.”

“No, no! Florence is right! The locals just pronounce it a little differently, I guess!!”

The blonde girl was so glad they were on the other side of the island from the beach cottages. The giant form on the mountain slope would have been a dangerous reminder for the Dark Elf.

“This must be a peaceful island indeed if a small child like this is allowed to walk around alone at night. All the more reason to keep any Sorcery Hackers away. And that includes you, dangerous individual!”

“Is that what you think, Miss Henrietta? Well, I know just the thing to clear up all these needless misunderstandings between us: intimacy! And with a justification established, let us strip off these cumbersome clothes and frolic in the water, au naturel!!”

“Why does my criticism only excite you further, dangerous individual!? Innocent girl, this boy is a threat to us all, so keep a safe distance from him! I thought it was odd you could live happily with one of the demonic Four Lords up on your mountain, but do you just not know how to recognize danger?”

Teleria was sweating profusely now. She realized it would be more suspicious if she kept covering the little girl’s mouth, so she let go but kept her hands solidly on those skinny shoulders and spoke with as full a smile as she could manage.

Her squeezing hands were a clear message of “say too much and you’re dead”.

“S-s-so what brings you here, Florence?”

“I am here to give you all some advice, of course.” Florence(?) must have been raised well because her smile seemed too graceful for her young appearance. “I know what happened at the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute as if I had seen it myself. After all, this is a small island and word travels fast. You want to pursue that unseen Sorcery Hacker, but you aren’t sure where to begin, right? But wasn’t there another curious factor about that attack?”

“…”

“Where did the hacked Dextral Mk. IIs come from in the first place?”

Ayato fell silent and Florence raised a small finger.

“You will have a hard time pursuing someone on this island if you do not understand the entire island’s layout. Much like pursuing someone through a maze with no exit without realizing the floor is littered with manholes. At the very least, the Sorcery Hacker you seek understands the island and is using that knowledge against you. You will have a hard time outdoing them if you do not have the same information they do.”

Henrietta in her armor and tight skirt reacted more strongly to this than black-haired Ayato.

“Wh-who is this girl? She’s awfully rational and weirdly knowledgeable.”

“Hee hee. A relaxed island with no locked doors presents some unique opportunities.”

“Then why not try to drive out that member of the Four Lords? That enormous thing is sure to wreak havoc if it starts moving again. Just because it hasn’t moved yet does not mean it won’t move tomorrow.”

The small girl responded to that with no more than a faint smile. Tinged with a hint of sadness.

Just then, a purple light fluttered by in front of Ayato.

It was a night butterfly decorated with bewitching lace and gems. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a beautiful woman in a classic maid uniform.

“This young lady here is more or less correct, Sorcery Hacker. Do you recall that I offered you a further job yesterday?”

“…I do.”

“You are to investigate what is secretly underway on this island and, if necessary, put a stop to it through sabotage. So how about it? You will be rewarded if you accept it as a job. And if you have to do it regardless, I recommend profiting from it as well.”

Ayato clicked his tongue, but not at Micha Angelos.

He was probably picturing the person(?) she served instead.

“I don’t like this. It feels like we were set up from the beginning.”

“Attempting to understand His Excellency’s carefully laid-out plans with your puny brain is foolish in the extreme, so you should give up immediately. Unless you would like to waste your life on the fool’s errand, of course. So lay aside this absurd paranoia.” Her words were like a slap to the hand of a child reaching into the cookie jar. “I will take this to mean you accept the job. Because revealing the secret of Laguntreat is the only option remaining to you regardless. Work yourself to the bone for His Excellency and the Static Continent, Sorcery Hacker. I will see you again once that is done.”

“Oh? What is this about?”

Florence tilted her head and looked up at the tall woman.

Micha did not bat an eye in her classic maid uniform.

“As I have no authority to command those from outside the continent, I will merely provide some advice: The best way to achieve the result you desire is to let these workaholics do their thing. Tying them down will only make things worse.”

“I will keep that in mind☆”

Whether or not Micha Angelos had seen through to the girl’s true nature, she exhaled through her perfect nose and then flew off as a night butterfly not found in nature.

Mamilis and Henrietta were lost in watching her go, but…

“Huh? Coach, where did that girl go? Um, Florence, was it?”

“Wh-wh-who knows!? She’s one of the islanders, so it’s not like she had to stay with us! Besides, her parents were probably worried about her!”

The girl in the white dress had vanished at some point.

She may have been obeying Micha’s advice.

Part 4

No matter how pressing the situation, the basic necessities were still, obviously, necessary.

“Okay, that should about do it.”

“Coach, what are you doing?”

Mamilis bent over and tilted her head in a curious way.

“Making a water filter. You’re used to filtered city water, right?”

“Yeah, but is it really necessary here? I mean, we’re on a tropical island where the spring water is used by doctors.”

“That’s true, but still.”

The water in the streams may have been potable on Laguntreat since it had so many purifying springs, but better safe than sorry. He had created a simple filter by packing gravel, sand, and sponge-like palm fiber into a container. Use that while also boiling the water before use and they would have plenty of potable water.

The container he had found in the forest. In case of hurricanes, there were small huts scattered through the forest and they were filled with waterproof bags for making sandbags.

“That solves the water problem. How is the crayfish catching going, Miss Mamilis?”

“We’re about to get started, but we’re not sure what to do.”

She sniffed her shapely nose in a way that made her seem even fuller of life than in the sky city. Perhaps a Dark Elf really was meant for life in the great outdoors.

Teleria and Henrietta dragged in the trap they had made.

A few leafy branches had been bound together with string. It looked something like a poorly-made broom, but it was supposed to look that way. By letting that float in the river, the small crayfish would mistake it for a new home and gather inside.

Teleria wiped sweat from her brow with her empty hand.

“Ayato, where should we put this?”

“A short distance from the cave. You saw those disaster huts, right? Set it up near there and anyone who finds it won’t suspect the cave right away.”

“Knowledge of these criminal methods will come in handy when I have to pursue people like you in the future.”

“Ha ha ha. That’s the same excuse all the dirty cops make. Anyway, let’s go find a good river for this.”

With that, Ayato took the crayfish trap from the girls.

Partially out of a spirit of lady’s first, but also because dragging that across the sand was not the best idea for people on the run. He wanted to avoid leaving a trail for any pursuers.

Mamilis liked doing things for herself, so she puffed her cheeks out like a child.

“No fair, Coach. You don’t let us do anything.”

“Then I will leave you in charge next time.”

Laguntreat was blessed with over a hundred springs, so it also had plenty of rivers running in every direction from the large mountain the water came from. The countless streams were almost like a spider web or veins.

Ayato pointed toward one of those.

“That should do nicely.”

He had chosen a small and clear stream less than 5 esoule wide. The riverbed was clearly visible through the water. Small freshwater crabs were scurrying about down there and it appeared to be only about knee height.

Also, tropical trees leaned out over the water from the bank there.

“The weaker the creature, the more they worry about being seen. Both by other water creatures and by birds soaring through the sky. That is why they will gather in places like this. They might think of it as a smart move, but if you understand how the cowardly forest creatures think, catching them is a simple task.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Oh?”

“Miss Mamilis, why are you glaring at me like that?”

Their group also wanted to hide their trap from view, so the obstructing trees were useful in that sense too.

“We don’t want the current carrying it away, so we should probably tie it to a tree with rope. Okay, Henrietta?”

“Why do you just assume that is my job?”

Teleria answered the straitlaced Striker’s question by grabbing her skirt and waving it a bit. She was indicating the black tights that covered her legs.

“As you can see, I am, um, not suited for the water. I do apologize, but this seems like a job for you since you can take off your boots and wade in barefoot.”

“Dammit, why do you always get the short end of the stick when you dress practically?”

“I will cook for you, do your laundry, and do any other housework you want, okay?”

Henrietta apparently could not say no when the girl clasped her hands in front of her large chest. She was a knight duty-bound to protect the common folk, so she had a tendency to act on reflex when she saw people in need. …And Ayato already knew how destructive a cocktail it was when Teleria gave you the puppy dog eyes, clasped her hands together, and begged you. That she was unaware what she was doing added the finest spice to the mix, taking it to a truly devilish territory.

“Nhh, mhh?”

Meanwhile, Dark Elf Mamilis was pouting her lips like a child. As the outdoorsy type, she must have wanted to try setting up the crayfish trap herself, but the tight leather pants covering her long legs made that difficult. And with such a tight fit, it was unlikely she could roll up the legs to wade in.

Teleria decided to give her some advice.

“Mamilis, you probably shouldn’t do that. The water might be clean, but leather takes a lot of upkeep, right? You don’t want any weird stains or discolorations, do you?”

“Curse my practical outfit!!”

Henrietta shouted in desperation as she entered the river, but she seemed in a better mood than her lament let on. This was a tropical island and she had been in her armor this whole time, so the cool water on her feet must have felt nice.

“That’s it.” Mamilis put her hands on her hips. “I’m taking off my pants.”

“Bff!?” spat Teleria with her large chest jiggling.

Then the blonde girl heard the quiet sound of a zipper being undone. The tall and slender grandma’s girl was gathering strength in her thumbs after giving in to the allure of playing in the water, so Teleria had to quickly stop her.

“You…you all-around idiot!! A-A-Aya-Aya-Ayato is right here!”

“Coach.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll look the other way.”

“See? Nothing to worry about. Coach is a perv, but he is true to his word.”

Ayato kept his back turned.

He did, however, have a few crystal tarot cards floating in the air.

“I rarely use this feature, so let’s see if I remember how. Hm, was this how you record a video?”

“See!? Everything to worry about! Sorcery Hackers live through deception, so their promises don’t mean squat!!”

Powerful Henrietta punched the wanted criminal once before tying his hands behind his back. The Striker was thankful to have had rope ready for tying the trap in place. And Teleria was assigned to watch over the idiot.

He could hear splashing sounds behind him for a while after that.

“Does it go like this? Hey, Henrietta, is the trap supposed to float up at the surface like this? Or is it supposed to sink to the bottom?”

“Do we even need the trap? I bet I could reach down and grab those small crabs.”

“Hmm. Well, when you don’t know, it’s best to ask Coach about it.”

“Have you no self-preservation instincts at all!? Why would you give that moron an excuse to turn around right now!?”

“Wait, Henrie- wah!”

“Why are you falling on your rear, Dark Elf!? What happened to being outdoorsy!?”

“Ugh, my underwear is all wet.”

There was nothing but girliness there.

It did not matter that they were isolated and on the run from the entire island; the world was still packed full of happiness. Sorcery Hacker Ayato could not stop smiling even with his back turned.

“Yes, this is giving my imagination a workout. Life is just one lesson after another. This is a joy I could never experience with access to a Media Summoner that lets me look up any information I want at any time. For example, I just realized my bound hands do nothing to prevent me from rolling onto my side to get a view. Having to discover the answers for yourself is so much more fulfilling.”

“Do I need to pistol whip you this time? So which will it be: from the right or left?”

While he was curious about the color of Mamilis’s wet underwear (confirmed wet by the Dark Elf herself), that threat convinced him to leave it up to his imagination. If they would grant him this wonderful experience if he simply sat here, then sit here was what he would do. After all, Teleria’s choice was not a game of roulette since both options were essentially the same.

“By the way, Miss Teleria.”

“What is it, Mr. Pervert?”

“I quite like the sound of that name and request you call me that from now on. Anyway, we are downstream of Miss Mamilis and Miss Henrietta, are we not?”

“What does that matter?”

“I would like to do some research to ensure this will not push me beyond even the category of pervert, so answer me this: would drinking the water flowing toward me be completely over the line?”

“Yes, it would be, you used-bath-loving ultra pervert!!!!!!”

Part 5

With a delighted shout, a ball about the size of Ayato’s head flew through the air.

A cloth bag had apparently been inflated with air and then covered with a palm leaf to shape it.

In lieu of a net, a makeshift line was made by drawing a rope taut between two palm trees. Teleria and Mamilis were pursuing the handmade ball on either side of that. Instead of a real game of one-on-one beach volleyball, they were simply having fun by keeping a rally going.

The shape of Mamilis’s butt showed through the skintight leather and she remained expressionless as she pursued the ball.

“It feels weird not having any underwear on. The leather sticks to my skin.”

“Let’s focus on the game right now, okay!?”

Playing around might seem negligent given their situation, but it was actually important.

When forced to wait because the ball was in the other side’s court, the trick was finding a way to reduce stress. It was a sniper’s mindset. Forcing themselves to move around could help a lot.

The islander girl named Florence had disappeared, but they had several escape routes through the forest and cave in case she had contacted the adults and the adults came to surround them. They did not need to pack up and move elsewhere right away. Sensing anyone’s approach and choosing an escape route were simple enough tasks for Mamilis since she had an affinity for the great outdoors and was timid by nature. If the Dark Elf tried to escape from them, it was possible the city-dwellers like Ayato and Henrietta would be unable to track her down.

However, the Sorcery Hacker did not enjoy leaving things in the hands of an enemy for too long.

It was about time to go on the attack.

(Now, then. I can leave the girls with Miss Mamilis.)

“Hey, dangerous individual.”

When he slipped away from the girls without saying a word, Henrietta called out to him from behind. He shrugged.

“You aren’t going to join them, Miss Henrietta?”

“ ‘Play’ is not something I know how to do. People in the sky city always told me I was bad at taking vacations.”

She was straitlaced and a hard worker.

Her defenses looked impregnable, but people like that tended to collapse from stress fairly quickly.

“For that matter, what are you doing?”

“I have some minor business to attend to.”

“Planning to go fishing with that full set of Sorcery Hacking tools?”

Ayato pointed forward as he continued to walk.

“Sorcery Hacking is a lot like stage magic. You can’t steal data and hijack control of sorcery devices without setting the stage for yourself first.”

“And?”

“And investigations require advance preparations too. To be clear, you won’t find anything of interest if you follow me. Watching my preparations will be like sitting next to a fisherman without a rod of your own.”

“I am not following you to amuse myself. You must be monitored, so I will accompany you if you are going anywhere.”

“Don’t complain to me when you’re bored out of your mind.”

He sounded exasperated.

And he was telling the truth.

He did not sneak into any special facilities and he did not attack anyone from behind. He stayed within the tropical forest covered in white sand and he hid behind the trees when a winged Harpy girl and Siren girl flew by overhead squabbling over something, maybe a territorial dispute. He would occasionally check on the direction and his current location while paying especial attention to the ground. Finally, he stopped at a certain point, crouched down, and dug into the ground where he stabbed his Linkage Plug sword as if laying the blade down.

“What are you doing?”

“Like I said, boring stuff.”

He pulled the trigger to separate the blade, covered it up with sand, and brushed the sand from his hands.

“I’ll be going around the full perimeter doing this, just so you know. I doubt anyone will find us, but do keep your head low just in case. Your blonde hair will stand out in the forest.”

“I have no intention of stopping you, but a full perimeter of what?”

“Of the target I’m surrounding.”

“?”

He did not attack anyone or destroy anything. Henrietta had probably accompanied him in the hopes of catching him red handed in some kind of undeniable crime, so she must have been disappointed. She seemed fed up with it all by the time they had walked three or four times around the same course through the forest.

“Hey, can you at least tell me what you’re doing?”

“You’ll see tomorrow at around this time.”

“You’re going to keep this up until tomorrow!?”

“Of course not. Once the perimeter is established, I’m leaving. Good things come to those who wait. Once things are set up, the information will be gathered automatically.”

He continued working with such enthusiasm that he had to make a conscious effort not to hum cheerfully. But this was not an innocent act. He had the look of someone who enjoyed setting people up for failure.

“Miss Henrietta.”

“What is it, dangerous individual?”

“You should be used to the outside world by now, so how has it been so far?”

“…”

He likely did not just mean the world outside of the sky city.

Striker Henrietta crossed her arms and breathed from her nose.

“Were you hoping I would say it is more virtuous than I expected?”

“The thing is, I just know you would make an excellent Forward if you could find a way to compromise with yourself.”

“Me? A bounty hunter? Hmph. I will never become your vanguard for a handful of gold. For one thing, it is wrong for vigilantes without royal authorization to wield weapons and pursue criminals.”

“Even if you see someone in need?”

“Gh.”

“There will not always be a knight or other authorized peacekeeper available to come running. Miss Henrietta, remember that statue in the main square of that regional city that made your jaw drop? The one of the queen who became a protector of pub strippers.”

“Surprise is the normal response to learning that the queen ruling over an entire region was promoting sex work. Worse, everyone was praying to her and throwing money into the fountain like it was normal. None of them questioned it just because she was a queen.”

“You misunderstand.” Ayato smiled a little while toying with the grip of the sword at his hip. “If no one reaches out a helping hand for the strippers, they have no choice but to rely on criminal organizations to survive. So the kingdom supports them to ensure that does not happen. By accepting occupations you personally might find unsavory, you eliminate an opening for actual dangerous criminals to establish themselves.”

“…”

“Someone considered what could realistically be done to protect the rights of people who work those jobs. Instead of pushing them away out of moral outrage, that queen worked to actually help them. Which is why that openminded queen is so popular with the commoners. In fact, they’re told not to throw money in that fountain, but they do it anyway.”

Ayato explained it all while continuing with his work.

And then he returned to their initial topic.

“So what about you, Miss Henrietta? If you see some people in trouble but you do not agree with some of their life choices, what will you do? That is what I am talking about.”

“Hmph,” snorted Henrietta. She fell silent for a moment but then continued. “Be that as it may, I am a Striker. I will not do the work of a Forward.”

“Is that so?”

“I will not do things in an underhanded way. I will march in through the front entrance and save them with my head held high. I will always be able to do that as long as I never feel guilty about my actions. I will make the world a better place as a Striker. They might be a stripper or they might be cheating on their spouse, but I still want to be the first person that comes to mind when they need help. If I can do that, then there will be no work left for people like you who insist on working outside the law.”

“…”

“What is that smile for? I rejected your offer. I am saying I won’t join you.”

He chose not to answer that one.

Henrietta was hardheaded and uncompromising, but she showed great promise. At the very least, she would not become the kind of government official that divided people into categories to decide who deserved help and who did not.

Were they virtuous or sinful?

Were they human or demon?

The kind of person who limited salvation based on those questions could not be called straitlaced. Her path might never cross with Ayato’s, but they had the same destination in mind.

“Last one. I’m done now.”

“I still have no idea what you were doing.”

“You will see tomorrow. But not if we’re caught here, so let’s make ourselves scarce.”

“Tomorrow again?”

Ayato pressed a finger to his lips and started on the path back.

Henrietta turned to the side just once. Ayato had said he was establishing a perimeter, so she only had to look to the center to get a vague idea of what his target was.

Once back at their cave hideout while making sure not to leave any kind of trail behind, they found some furniture that had not been there when they left. A hammock woven from thin rope was hanging between two trees and swaying in the tropical breeze and a simple stove had been built by placing two parallel sticks over the firewood so a small pot could be set down on it.

However…

“Where did Teleria and Mamilis go?” asked Henrietta.

Yes, the pair who had been playing with the ball were nowhere to be seen. Their makeshift parasol and beach towel made of palm leaves were just sitting out.

And something was fluttering in the wind.

A blue blazer and faded leather pants were draped over the rope they had been using for their volleyball game.

They could also hear voices.

And splashing.

“Oh, c’mon. Did we really need to wash everything?”

“We didn’t have time to return for the rest of our clothes when we escaped out here. And with the tropical sun beating down on us, we need to wash everything thoroughly or it will smell. Besides, Teleria, you were the one who said leather takes a lot of upkeep, remember?”

“But like you just said, we have no change of clothes! What do we do until these dry!?”

“This is leather, so it needs to dry in the shade.”

“That’s not the point!!”

“We had to make use of this opportunity, though, don’t you think?”

“Um…”

“We have to do this now while Coach is gone. You know better than me this would never end well otherwise. I can already hear you screaming and calling him a pervert.”

Ayato Criminaltrophy nodded.

He had but one task remaining: find a good excuse for the straitlaced Striker who was silently drawing her bolt-action carbine from her hip.

They were a long way away from that amicable conversation just a few minutes earlier.

The boy had only one thing on his mind.

(How could I be so careless!? If I hadn’t so casually allowed her to accompany me, Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis would have gotten Miss Henrietta to remove her armor and all three of them would be by the river and entirely defenseless! Life is so tricky. A single mistaken choice ruins everything!!)

And what had happened to the Dark Elf being a wild girl of the forest?

If that islander girl had called for the adults and those adults had showed up now, those two would have been helplessly surrounded (sans clothing). Clearly the only option was for Ayato to supervise. As a Sorcery Hacker, it was his job to take over their lax security job!!

So Ayato Criminaltrophy made a suggestion with a meaningful expression on his face.

“Listen, Miss Henrietta. I had nothing to do with this one. There is no conspiracy here. They did this on their own, knowing full well it could end badly, and I just so happened to return before they were done. My arrival falls within their reasonable expectations upon making the choice, so I more or less have their consent here.”

“Wait, dangerous individual.”

“I have won the right to hide in these bushes and watch! So unless you are looking for unnecessary conflict, leave me be!!”

“I will count to five. Either take back that absurd argument, or I will bludgeon you to death.”

Part 6

Oceavita Water Therapy Institute < Internal Local Network < Reception Desk Media Summoner

Sorcery Encryption Method < Sulfur Fire

Result < This network is safe

“The Dextral Mk. IIs? Why would they be attacking us!? Those are our devices for construction and security!”

“That is under investigation.”

“And you say a Sorcery Hacker was involved? Is it possible he set it all up himself? In the hopes that we would make a mistake?”

“Hard to say. It looks more like there are two or more groups at odds here, but either one could be after our information.”

“I will send people after them through the official channels.”

“I doubt that will accomplish much. The guards here are only meant to sit around on a peaceful island, so they’re useless. But don’t blame them because we were the ones that defanged them. That’s how we managed to plant our roots so deep here.”

“So should we head out to find them ourselves?”

“That is part of what we are discussing at the moment. If we make too much of a scene, it could reveal the island’s underground, which would ruin all our plans.”

“Indeed.”

“Instead of acting on our own, we need to bolster our mutual surveillance. The biggest threat here is internal paranoia, not an external enemy. I want to avoid having any of our own people making a critical mistake for no reason.”

“Hm, I see.”

The next day, Ayato snuck up as close to the half-destroyed marble building as he could get and adjusted the position of the crystal tarot cards floating around him. The vibration of the thin cards produced voices.

“That receptionist sounds like far more than a simple receptionist to me.”

The water therapy institute’s network was air-gapped to preserve their patients’ privacy, but since that meant it had to reject all connections with the natural manaflows found almost everywhere, he only had to locate the isolation devices buried in the white sand around the building like the numbers on a clock face and stab his Linkage Plug sword into those to hack them.

Meanwhile, the grandma’s girl was fidgeting her butt below the white leather.

“Ohh, it is so much more reassuring to have underwear on.”

“How did you manage to find such a simple phrase capable of entirely ruining the mood Ayato was so smugly setting there!?”

Dark Elf Mamilis did not seem bothered by Teleria’s tremor of fear.

She instead got back on topic while munching on a toxically red fruit cooled in the spring water. It may have functioned like a water bottle.

“Coach, what made you suspicious of Oceavita?”

“Nothing really. I just have a bad habit of assuming there’s a dark underside to everything that looks pure and innocent.”

“…”

The brown cutie’s mouth formed a small triangle.

Ayato did not seem to care as he munched on a breakfast similar to a rice cracker. They had gathered up the small crayfish they caught and fried them in the plant oil they acquired by squeezing out the giant brooch-like seeds found in a tropical fruit.

“There doesn’t seem to be any other powerful force on Laguntreat, so if there’s a Sorcery Hacker on the island, Oceavita would have to be either the culprit or the victim. It wasn’t hard to figure out I’d find something by investigating them.”

The straitlaced Striker had accompanied him when he set this up, but when she heard that short exceprt from a day’s worth of recorded conversations, Henrietta gave the crystal tarot cards a look of disgust.

“I-I had never really given it much thought, but I need to focus more on sorcery security from now on.”

“An excellent idea. It’s never too late to take security seriously. I could teach you if you like.”

“Hm. Y-you would do that for me? Ah!! Wait, no, I can’t get help from a Sorcery Hacker!! Who knows what kind of backdoors you would have me install!!”

Their intention here was to gather enough information to figure out their next step, not to make an attack on the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute. With that goal complete, it was time to return to the tropical forest.

They had already learned something concerning.

“Coach, they said the Dextral Mk. IIs belonged to Oceavita, didn’t they?” said Mamilis.

“And they seem to be hiding something about the island’s underground,” added Henrietta. “Which may be related to why they need the Dextral Mk. IIs for ‘construction and security’.”

“Does that mean this goes beyond Oceavita?” asked Teleria. “Are they expanding throughout the entire island’s underground to do something?”

Ayato considered their opinions and connected them all together. Wine and cheese were about the only delightful things people stored underground. If this was true, some sinister plan was probably underway.

Ayato hid behind the trees while a human couple with large baskets on their backs walked by, presumably to gather some mountain plants.

“Those are some interesting ideas. Are you suggesting we would arrive at their secret if we began digging anywhere on the island? If so, we should be able to have some fun just by hacking a random construction device.”

(The Sorcery Hacker who stole the ice coffin must be abusing this island’s hidden system since they already used those Dextral Mk. IIs as a diversion. To dig deeper into this, we need to know how the entire system works first.)

Seeing Ayato lost in thought must have reminded Teleria of something from the past because she began to panic. She really was a wonderful girl who could pick up on his feelings without him needing to say anything. He would absolutely love to have her as his wife.

“Um, uh, we don’t know how deep it is. And even if it does cover the entire island’s underground, it might have just the one entrance.”

“I was never hoping to dig our way in.” The Sorcery Hacker in a blue blazer pointed toward their feet. “It does not matter if that method would reach their underground secret. If we start digging with some construction equipment, someone is sure to show up to stop it. Then we just have to follow them.”

Part 7

Boom boom boom boom! Clang clang clang clang!!

The machinery was probably meant to dig wells. A triangular pyramid was formed from three pillars and a heavy blade was repeatedly dropped from the peak to dig into the sand. Excavation machinery like that could be found anywhere on Laguntreat since it was known for its many springs.

“Bingo. Here they come.”

The effect was even greater than expected.

But it was not people who showed up. Several of those giant hermit crab Dextral Mk. IIs rushed over and knocked down the hacked excavation equipment.

“Looks like they really are sensitive when it comes to the underground,” said Mamilis while watching from behind cover.

“Indeed it does, Miss Mamilis. And as expected, they do not seem to be using those forbidden plasma fireballs while their owner has control of them. That must have been unique to the Sorcery Hacker.”

However, the Dextral Mk. IIs could move freely through the sand. They dug into the fine sand and buried themselves while Ayato’s group watched. This was no real surprise since the enemy never could have planted their roots across the entire island if their plan would fail the instant anything at all went awry or their soldiers were spotted. They would have made a critical mistake earlier than this in that case.

Henrietta must have finally been feeling the effects of wearing armor in the tropical heat because she had started fanning some of her softer parts to maintain the bare minimum of comfort as a girl.

“We can’t pursue them if they do that, dangerous individual.”

“Are you sure about that?”

They repeated similar experiments a few times, changing location each time.

This did tell them one thing.

“The island’s underground is more complicated than I thought,” summarized the skinny boy. “There’s the secret hidden below the entire island, there’s the passageways for the Dextral Mk. IIs to move through, and there’s the water veins descending from the mountain to provide a source for the springs. They appear to be complexly intertwined on multiple levels.”

“But you don’t know exactly where each of them are, do you?”

“I do, though.”

Henrietta’s eyes widened at Ayato’s response.

He winked and raised a finger.

“There is a way of mapping the underground by sending out a vibration and detecting the amplitude that returns to you. It’s generally used to check for veins of water and ores or to check for a solid foundation on which to build a house.”

That much was common knowledge in the Academy Towers.

“But to get back on topic, those three complexly-intertwined subterranean worlds can’t accidentally dig a hole in between each other. If the first and second worlds were linked, the Dextral Mk. IIs meant to keep the secret hidden would in fact guide outsiders to that secret. And a connection to the third world would flood the other two.”

“What is your point, dangerous individual?”

“I believe I already mentioned what method would cause them the most trouble.”

Blonde braid Henrietta blinked for a moment, but then she paled.

“You mean…” muttered the straitlaced Striker.

“Miss Henrietta, use your monstrous strength to attack the ground at the point I give you. That will be where I suspect all three routes line up vertically. If the impact causes a crack, it will flood their secret base. Panicked people will in turn flood from their secret door, wherever it is hidden. There will be so many of them it will be unavoidably conspicuous.”

“I am not creating a catastrophe like that!!”

As a rational and sensible person, Henrietta was apparently opposed to acting like a cruel child pouring a watering can over an anthill.

However.

“Then I will have Miss Teleria use her water magic to directly rupture the water vein. Or I could have Miss Mamilis use her fire magic to attack a weak point in the ground. I am counting on you two.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Leave it to me, Coach. Keep the jobs coming.”

“Hgee! Wait, you two! Don’t just do what he says!! C-can I not stop this on my own? W-wait, okay! I’ll do it!! So please let those two preserve their innocence!!”

A large empty cartridge was ejected and lost its golden color before hitting the sand.

With a muffled sound, the river flowing nearby grew the color of sand. The large bubbles rising to the surface meant a ton of water was pouring into a vast space directly below.

“Now to continue watching.”

“What you’re doing here is no better than that Demon Lord.”

They walked all over the island. Sending out some unmanned weapons and calling it a day was apparently not enough this time. When they looked out from the forest to the beach, they saw a door fly open on a small hut that looked something like a fisherman’s hut but had no apparent purpose there. People rushed out, but in far too great a number to have actually fit in that small structure. The puppy-like Mermaid must have been taking a break from working at the cottages because she was lying on a sheet laid out on the white sand, but she jumped up in surprise when this crowd rushed out.

Ayato spoke as casually as if he were writing an X on a map.

“And we’ve found the secret underground entrance. I just hope the ice coffin is down there.”

“Ah, ahhh…”

Henrietta (who was directly responsible) had her mouth hanging open and Dark Elf Mamilis used her hands to hide her ears.

“But, Coach, there’s a ton of people here. Won’t they see us if we go in through there?”

“Miss Teleria, select a nonlethal attack magic. They ran full-speed up the stairs from deep, deep underground without pacing themselves, so they will be exhausted and they will be feeling relief at having escaped to safety. …Even that Florence from yesterday could defeat them now. I am counting on you – fire.”

“Y-you monster!”

Henrietta’s shouted insult was of no consequence. The blonde girl used the support of her dot sight and laser to fire pressurized water that mercilessly knocked out the people collapsed on the beach gasping for breath. She then used a mass of water to push back at the group still trying to escape to the surface. Her guns produced blue muzzle flashes and several empty cartridges fell while fading like a withering flower. The job was especially simple when they ran across someone climbing the stairs within the small hut. With so many people packed into such a limited space, they had no way of avoiding Teleria’s magic.

“All done.”

“Wh-why did I even bother doing the dirty work earlier?”

“(But, um, if I didn’t do this, Ayato would have started suggesting all sorts of nasty alternatives.)”

After seeing the men and women collapsed everywhere, Dark Elf Mamilis decided not to attach her Mimic Option earrings. But not because they were all unconscious.

“Look, Coach. They have Mimic Options.” The brown girl pointed at the people(?) one by one. “This one is a Lorelei, this one is a Sea Bishop, and I think she’s a Scylla. They’re all demons with a part of their body hidden.”

“Hey, dangerous individual. Isn’t this underground area connected to the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute?”

“Then that receptionist might be a demon too. She’s cleverly hidden it, though.” Black-haired Ayato sighed. “Listen, Miss Henrietta. Demons are no different from us humans. Oppressing them for no reason is of course out of the question, but weirdly glorifying them is also wrong.”

There were cases, like with Elves and Pixies, where human advocates had spread impossibly idealistic ideas about their beauty, such as that they only consumed flower nectar and thus never needed to use the bathroom. When the actual Elves and Pixies could not live up to those ideals, humans would sometimes feel tricked and even attack them. That could lead to humans wielding weapons and persecuting them as a group, all while insisting they themselves were the victims. The behavior was not that far off from jumping in front of a car to extort the driver for insurance money.

“It might sound weird because of the word we humans have chosen to describe them, but there are good demons and there are bad demons. We still do not know which category these belong to.”

“Yet you still had someone shoot them. That puts you squarely in the ‘bad’ category, dangerous individual.”

“Oh? Are you trying to claim good people never hurt others? Miss Henrietta, remind me of your occupation which leads you to keep a large sorcery gun on the edge of the tub while stretching your legs in the bath???”

“Why in the world do you know I do that?”

“Hm, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that. Miss Teleria, how I wish you would let your defenses down as much as her.”

The stairs leading underground had grown silent. Mamilis and Henrietta were aiming their guns at the collapsed demons to ensure it was safe while Ayato stepped over an unconscious demon to slowly descend further.

“Miss Mamilis, make sure to pace yourself. You already saw what happened to them after they ran full-speed up the stairs.”

“Coach, why did you only caution me? Because I’m a rookie?”

“Because you are cute. Obviously.”

His joke earned him an expressionless glare and a full-auto shotgun aimed his way. Now was apparently not the time.

“How troubling. Could it be that time of the month?”

“Do you want all three of us to shoot you, Coach?”

The stairs were entirely made of cold white marble.

The stairs continued on and on, turning back at landing after landing. The air also grew chillier. Enough so to forget this was a tropical island.

And finally…

“Wow.”

Mamilis spoke up in pure surprise.

They found an enormous limestone cavern. It was 4 or 5 stories deep to the bottom and too far across to see its full scope. The very bottom formed an underground lake and there was no land in evidence. After descending from a large hole in the ceiling, Ayato’s group found themselves standing on something like construction scaffolding made from palm wood columns and boards.

But that was not the main attraction.

“Hold on,” said Ayato. “What did we just find?”

“It certainly doesn’t appear to be that ice coffin the Sorcery Hacker stole, Coach.”

It was a ship.

A massive warship.

“It’s never anything but trouble with you, dangerous individual.”

It seemed too big to be a boat. It had to be at least 950 esoule long. Also, it was equipped with a ton of gray cannons forged from mana-conducting silver with a special chloride treatment to protect against the sea breeze.

Overall, it appeared to be a hybrid between a high-speed sailing ship and a steamship. In addition to a row of large sails, it had a waterwheel-like paddlewheel propulsion device on either side.

Scarily enough, despite the great size of the ship, its surface looked cramped. That showed just how many cannons it had onboard. The three-barrel main cannons were loaded on the bow and stern, but it also had side decks built up in a stepped fashion and they were lined with machineguns and antiaircraft guns that aimed upwards like fishing rods.

With the bridge, the smokestacks/masts, and the countless guns of various sizes, it looked something like a pincushion. It resembled a menacing mountain when compared to a flat cargo ship and there seemed barely enough room to stand on the deck.

“What in the world?”

Henrietta looked puzzled as she viewed the warship from the scaffolding above. Her blonde ponytail braid swayed as she tilted her head.

“Is this the secret the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute was trying to hide? But how is this at all related to decursing and sorcery medicine?”

“Are they planning to hurt people to drive up business, Coach?”

“Ugh, that adorable grandma’s girl has started to think like Ayato does,” lamented Teleria. “What a sad day.”

“…”

Ayato tapped his sword’s hilt in thought.

And then he spoke.

“It must not be complete yet.”

“How can you tell?”

“If it could float, they could have boarded the ship when water started flowing into the cave. But whether those were workers or ship’s crew, they did not do that. Yet a ship of that size should have been able to hold all of them.”

Plus, they were underground here. Even if they built their ship in secret, they could not sail it away without lifting it up to the ocean. If it could float, the easiest method would be to raise the water level below it like some special canals did. That must not have been functioning yet.

The unseen Sorcery Hacker must have used this and the rest of the island’s secrets to steal that ice coffin. It felt like they had a new hint, but they had not caught up yet. They would never reach the Sorcery Hacker making use of this unless they figured out what was going on here.

“Oh, look, Coach. There are bags attached to the side of the ship like floats.”

“But, dangerous individual, does that mean the ship’s basic structure is still incomplete? Even though the armor and weaponry appear to have already been attached?”

“It’s possible everything is built, but the ship ended up tilting because it’s poorly balanced. I remember my grandma saying that could be really tricky with her models.”

Which was more difficult: building something up from scratch, or taking a completed product and removing parts to fix it? The engineers and craftsmen may have been working at a truly unsolvable puzzle here. They might think it would be faster to destroy the whole thing and try again from the ground up, but they could not bring themselves to throw out what they had already done. Hence the dilemma.

“Everyone here was a demon hiding their distinctive traits with a Mimic Option.”

“Wh-what about it?” nervously asked fluffy blonde Teleria while fidgeting her legs in their black tights.

Ayato was too lost in thought to notice, though.

“This resort is a rare location where humans and mermaids – and demons as a whole – can coexist and the decursing and medical therapies using the springs provide a stable income. There is no friction with other kingdoms and there is no rampant poverty and hunger on the island. I can’t think of any pressing reason for them to start a war. In fact, a superweapon would only hurt their image with the tourists they rely on.”

Ayato was not speaking to anyone in particular. He was simply thinking aloud.

Then he scratched at his chin.

“No, wait.”

“Coach?”

“Miss Teleria, you were always a good student. Do you remember in our Academy Towers classes when we learned about a theory that the Four Lords hold positions at the four ends of the world?”

“Wh-what!? Th-th-the Four Lords!?”

“?”

Ayato gave a curious look to the girl in the same blue blazer uniform as him.

“But where are the ‘four ends of the world’ located? I doubt this small island just barely away from the Static Continent qualifies. The world is a truly large place. The ocean railroad leads to another continent even further out, after all.”

“Hm? What does that matter, dangerous individual? Remember the Fire Lord…Blasthogg, was it? He left his post to attack our sky city.”

“Yes, but there must be people who don’t like that.”

Black-haired Ayato casually climbed over the scaffolding’s railing and hopped down to the next level.

Blonde Teleria followed in a rushed but nervous way.

“W-wait.”

“Miss Teleria – and the others too – you can take it slow if you like.”

“If we let you go ahead of us, you’re bound to peek up our skirts.”

“!?”

Henrietta quickly held down her tight skirt. Meanwhile, Ayato climbed down the scaffolding level by level until he arrived on the warship’s deck.

It really was cramped with all the weaponry installed there.

Plans for the entire ship and for each piece of equipment and rigging were scattered about and looked trampled on.

(Ainber Mincis, Leonardo Halleys, Bryan Nongar…hm? Those sound familiar.)

He focused on the names visible on the plans while picking up one for the main cannons. He formed an L-shape with the thumb and forefingers of his hands to create a rectangular frame he used to look all around the ship.

Henrietta shouted down from the scaffolding above while blushing and holding her legs close together.

“D-dangerous individual! What do you think you’re looking at!?”

“Worry not, Miss Henrietta. I have serious work to do. I may have caught a glimpse of a black garment that was surprisingly risqué for such a straitlaced individual, but that is what we call force majeure.”

“So you did look!!”

“Can we focus on what matters, Miss Lacy Thong? Hm, so these 0.5 esoule cannons have three barrels each and there are three sets in the front and two in the back.”

The cannon barrels were as wide around as a beer barrel.

Thin Ayato could have climbed right on into one of them.

The units were not the most intuitive in the world, but for comparison, Teleria’s handguns were only 0.75 sub-esoule. Also, it was wrong to assume that twice the diameter meant twice the power.

Henrietta grew pale when she heard that.

“Y-you must be kidding, dangerous individual! The sky city’s fortress artillery only went up to 0.25 esoule. That’s way too much for a ship’s gun! A high-angle volley from those could bring an entire city to its knees!!”

“That is all I needed to know. Miss Teleria must have been the type to nap through class because she is not much help in this field. I hate to ask it of you, Miss Henrietta, but can you assist me with the calculations?”

“How? I know nothing about specialized sorcery research.”

“Stop thinking about magic for the time being; this is about war. So a question: if you used these 0.5 esoule ship’s guns to fire masses of lead and explosives, could they pierce a 450 esoule mass of muscle and bone?”

“Four hundred and fifty…wait just a second.”

“These main cannons are meant to kill Water Lord Fleurelisia from the sea while she rests atop that mountain.”

Part 8

Teleria Nereid Aquamarine gasped.

The words she was hearing were utterly baffling to her.

“W-wait, wait, wait! How does that make any sense?”

She did not want to smile, but funnily enough, she found something akin to a smile plastered to her face.

“I mean Laguntreat is known for the decursing and medical therapy it provides with the spring water, right!? I thought humans and Mermaids could coexist here because human society couldn’t give up the blessings that provides. Wouldn’t they lose all that if they got rid of the Four Lord on the mountain!?”

“She’s right, Coach. This secret facility belongs to Oceavita and they gain more from that Four Lord’s power than anyone. If the source of the water is gone, their business no longer functions.”

“Exactly,” cut in Ayato. “That’s why they hate the fact that they’re so reliant on that water source.”

“Eh?”

The girls’ eyes all said “Isn’t that backwards?”

The boy in the blue blazer slowly sighed.

“Listen, everyone. Water Lord Fleurelisia is supposed to live at the southernmost end of the world. You can check any number of history books and still be unsure how long she’s been staying on this island, but it’s still only a temporary stay. Just like the Fire Lord so readily left the sky city. No one can predict when she will return to the sea on a whim and the humans and demons on the island can’t stop her once she decides to do so. Because she’s too damn big.”

“I see. And the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute has earned a vast fortune and a solid position in society using the springs, so they can’t have their water source moving elsewhere.”

“On the continents, I have heard of desert cities dying out when an oasis moves. Fleurelisia might see it as no more than returning home after a brief vacation, but the other demons won’t survive traveling all the way to the end of the world. It would be like a death march for them.”

“And if they stay on the island, they lose the privilege that was supported by the Four Lord’s presence. Don’t they, Coach?”

A cloud fell over Dark Elf Mamilis’s face. The vague anxiety and fear of persecution from humans may have faded out here, but it had not disappeared altogether.

Without the Four Lord’s backing, the Mermaids and other demons on the island were done for.

And they had already come out as demons, so a Mimic Option would not be enough to hide their identity.

“Th-then that warship is only a threat meant to keep mom- I mean, keep the Water Lord here and not actually meant to attack her?”

“Mom?”

“Y-you know how you sometimes call your teacher that by mistake!?”

Teleria forced a smile and Ayato gave her a somewhat skeptical look.

“Anyway, I do hope it remains no more than a threat, but that won’t rid them of their anxieties. Their best bet is to find a way to run the Oceavita Water Therapy Institute without relying on Fleurelisia.”

“Coach, that makes no sense.”

“No, it doesn’t. Which is why they would resort to some desperate measures to overcome that. Enough so that our client would feel the need to act.”

Ayato doubted they would find anything else of use on the deck, so he opened a watertight door and slipped inside the ship.

The interior was made of wood. Instead of a ship built of steel and mana-conducting silver, it appeared to be a wooden ship with armor panels attached on the outside.

He saw some odd things here and there inside.

Baby bottles, rattles, and cylindrical glass incubators. None of that would be out of place in an ordinary clinic, but this was a threatening warship. And there were a lot of them.

Some large cabins were packed full of cribs, like cabbages in a field. One of them would have been a happy sign, but with this many, it looked more bizarre.

“Hey, what is this, dangerous individual?”

“There’s a document on the wall.”

It looked a bit like a tournament diagram, but not quite.

“Miss Teleria, do you remember the medical experiments using pigs and cows back at the Academy Towers? After selectively breeding them so they would produce blood identical to a human’s, they began to carry organs identical to human ones in their guts.”

“Y-yes. It was honestly not a pleasant thought.”

“They are trying to do the same thing with humans and demons.”

Ayato was abnormally calm at times like this.

However, that did not mean there was no anger in his soul.

“They are crossbreeding humans with demons like Mermaids, Elves, Valkyries, Muses, and Apsaras to create something similar. This is a body part factory where they can produce the exact blood type requested of them and, once they have the type of being they need, they can freely cut and paste the necessary parts.”

“Urp!”

Dark Elf Mamilis brought a hand to her mouth and fought the nausea rising within her. Henrietta held her slender shoulders from behind to support her.

What looked like a tournament diagram was the guidelines for what males and females would be bred together. By filling in the blanks with humans, demons, half-demons, quarter-demons, and so on, they tried to create the ideal blood type they wanted.

“Miss Mamilis, if this is too much for you, you can leave the room.”

“No, please continue, Coach.”

Was she trying to teach herself when to withdraw and when to push on as a Forward? Ayato decided to respect her decision here.

“This would let them continue their work without using the springs created by Water Lord Fleurelisia’s power. Although that would require something as absurd as entire purifying pool of blood made to cure the type of curse or illness the person had. That way the formless curse that had worked its way deep inside the patient’s body could be safely removed by transferring to an external decoy.”

“We can discuss the details of the process later.” Henrietta clenched her teeth. “For now, I have to know: is this place up and running yet or not!?”

“Probably not. The incubators and cribs all look pristine and without any wear and tear. The extremely friendly Mermaids sunbathing in their swimsuits may have been a honey trap meant to lure in the ‘materials’ they need for this project.”

Henrietta breathed a sigh of relief, but for some reason, fluffy blonde Teleria looked close to fainting.

“But the Mermaids…this island is the home of all Mermaids and their life here is supported by the Four Lord.”

“They are at a crossroads that could lead to their doom. Every demon we have met in our journeys has been faced with similar troubles. I will admit the answer they arrived at here is perhaps the worst I have seen, but still.”

Ayato was as dry as ever.

That may have been why he was so needed yet also feared.

“Your disease or curse is removed from you by forcing it into an outside container. If this purifying blood pool method is established, Fleurelisia will become no more than a nuisance to the demons living on Laguntreat. Two standards would bring chaos to the island’s power balance and a business rival could be established if Fleurelisia moved to another island where a decursing facility was set up. The demons on this island are allowed their exceptional lifestyle here because there are curses that can only be broken here. If the same thing can be achieved elsewhere and without any risk, they lose that value. Then extinction at the hands of the humans is almost guaranteed for them.”

They were driven by fear.

And of course they were afraid.

The most frightening move that Water Lord Fleurelisia could take was not to exact revenge or to purge them. If those smaller demons took the threat seriously, they could negotiate or threaten her.

But what if she got bored?

And yawned?

If she left the island, all life on Laguntreat would dry up. That was up to her whims and could not be controlled. It did not matter whether or not she had any intention of heading home. The fact that the possibility existed was enough to burn at their hearts.

Pleasure and fear.

Superiority and inferiority.

Gluttony and starvation.

Which side of the coin would soul-bearing beings to take the most extreme and horrific actions?

“Isn’t this Laguntreat?” asked Henrietta with an exasperated hand on her forehead.

“It is. What about it?”

“This resort has the special favor of the Combined Royal Family’s Fifth Prince. It gives me a headache to think all this is going on underground here.”

Fleurelisia’s long stay on the mountain was probably driven by the fact that she could easily put off until tomorrow what she could do today. That might have continued forever. But the less powerful could not understand that relaxed attitude, so they grew anxious, burned with impatience, and gave in to their fear.

Just then, a deep rumble ran through the gray warship Ayato’s group stood inside.

“Wah!”

“H-hey. Did the ship just start to move!?”

Long silver-haired Mamilis and blonde braid ponytail Henrietta were from the sky city, so they were not used to earthquakes and tremors. However, Ayato could not focus on them at the moment. He heard some disconcerting static as the clear spherical Media Summoners installed around the ship activated a voice chat function.

There was no way this would be from someone not connected to all this.

“I am impressed you worked your way all the way in here.”

“Fear not. We still have not seen who you are.”

The speaker sounded like an elderly man, but a Media Summoner could be used to alter one’s voice. And if this was a demon, their apparent age would not mean much.

“That is fortunate, but I am still going to get rid of you here. Tradition and precedent are crucial in all things, so I would have loved to stick with Laguntreat if possible, but we are willing to move to another island if need be. What matters is developing the purifying blood pools to a functional level while continuing to hold the top spot as a decursing and medical therapy institute. If it is not too far away, swimming to another island and starting fresh there can work.”

Henrietta’s eyes widened at that. The villain was not compromising in the slightest on that bloody methodology.

Ayato sighed.

“That won’t work. Your plan would require getting rid of Fleurelisia since she acts as a pillar of the old, safer method. Your method would never work if the competition is effective, risk free, and a lot less gross.”

No one would want to enter a purifying blood pool.

But they might do it anyway if it was the only way to break a curse. For themselves or for someone even more important to them. But what if a spring of pure water could break the curse just as well? With the exact same effect, who would ever choose the grosser method?

“That is why we are preparing to slay the Water Lord. The Annihilator-class Predator Island can be controlled remotely, just like the Dextral Mk. IIs. It requires more personnel to pull off, however.”

“You call this ship the Annihilator-class Predator Island? That’s an impressive name, but it isn’t complete yet, is it? I doubt you could defeat Fleurelisia if you used it now.”

“Don’t be so sure,” said whoever this was. “Now, did you think your provocation would anger me and get me to start some grand speech about my plans? Did you think I would say this was all to give the island’s demons a future and that I would fight back tears to slay the very Four Lord that supported our island and brought peace and tranquility back to our lives? Did you think I would tell you all about my background and brag about the detailed specs of the Predator Island I spent so long to build? In front of a Sorcery Hacker who values information above all else? Ridiculous. I am not some regional king or powerful merchant showing off his evil plans in a theatre production.”

“So you actually understand that speech is silver and silence is golden, huh?”

“Flattery will not get me to speak either.”

None of Ayato’s attempts bore fruit.

Trying to rattle this man psychologically was not going to work, so Ayato finally clicked his tongue. This person seemed to have learned the bare minimum of courtesy as a villain. A single careless statement made to praise himself or disparage someone else could have been used to reveal his identity, but Ayato could not shake a single hint out of him.

When you knew who your enemy was, they were no more than a target.

It did not matter how powerful they were – even a wicked Demon Lord or a tyrannical emperor. The person standing at the top of the pyramid to stand out as much as possible was the perfect target for a hacker or a sniper. Their definition of a formidable foe differed from that of a hero or a knight.

They feared a unilateral attack coming from an unseen location.

The absolute worst-case scenario would be to have their party members being picked off one by one by an unidentified curse.

There was no way to reach the attacker then.

The unseen and unnamed villain’s words rang through the shuddering ship.

“It is true we would not stand much of a chance against Fleurelisia with the ship supported by floats and unable to remain afloat on its own. As I am sure you can tell, our great fear of the Water Lord led us to add on so much weaponry and armor that the ship has grown tragically top heavy. But what if that ship carried something she cared about more than her own life?”

“…!?”

Someone crouched down in fear behind Ayato.

It was Teleria Nereid Aquamarine.

The fluffy blonde girl shook her head as if trying to shake free of something.

“Y-you can’t. You couldn’t possibly!!”

“Miss Teleria?”

“I-I mean the Four Lords provide an elemental color to the colorless mana floating in the atmosphere. Humans or demons use that power for their magic, so they can’t possibly defeat one of the Four Lords who give that power its color.”

“With pure magic, that would be true. However, the magic is only used to supply an explosive force within the cannon and that is used to launch an ordinary shell of lead and explosives. And those cannons are more than large enough to fatally wound Fleurelisia.”

He was not shaken at all.

He continued in the worst possible way.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It may be even more valuable than the 0.5 esoule cannons. This is well worth forcibly deploying an unfinished weapon. She cannot sink our ship now. No matter what. Now, my friends, it is time to set out on a hunt that will go down in history. This voyage shall end the life of Water Lord Fleurelisia.”

Option 02: From a Conversation Between a Queen and Princess

“Teleria.”

“…”

“Teleria, are you angry again?”

“Of course I am.”

“You gave me this tail as part of my identity as a Mermaid, mother. It pains me to use a human tool to hide it.”

“Pride will get you nowhere.”

“But.”

“Humans rule this world. Ever since Demon Lord Nirvelphany was badly wounded in a battle with a human and chose eternal sleep. We supported her, placed her on her throne, and prospered under the long peace provided by her protection, so we have no right to resent her decision. Or are you going to prove your claim by rallying the others and eradicating the humans?”

“Well…”

“If you cannot immediately agree, then you will be fine. You can keep going like this, Teleria. So get along with the humans in their world.”

“Everything will work out in the end.”

“How so, mother?”

“One day, you will meet someone who you can be completely open with. The world is a large place, Teleria. Far, far larger than you think. So it won’t hurt to keep your hopes up.”

“And until you find that wonderful person, I will make sure to protect you.

“…”

“No matter what.”

Back to Phase 01

Return to Main Page

Forward to Phase 03