Chapter 8: Makoto Takatsuki Searches for the Ghost Ship
“The weather’s great,” I mused, watching the gulls swoop through the blue sky above.
We’d just left port in Cameron on a warship that’d been provided by Estelle. It was a large galleon with a reasonable complement of guns—she definitely hadn’t short-changed us on firepower. With a ship like this, we should be able to clobber a ghost ship or two.
I spent a while staring out at the sea and sky. Sunlight was sparkling off the waves, interrupted every so often by a fish breaking the surface. Things were peaceful.
Then, someone came up behind me.
“So, this is what a ship is like,” Furiae commented. “It’s always swaying... Feels rather strange.” She was holding her hair down to stop it from flying all over the place in the strong ocean breeze.
“You’re not seasick?” I asked.
“It would seem not,” she replied with a cheery smile. But then, her tone turned slightly regretful. “It was a shame the other two could not come...”
Indeed, Lucy and Sasa were sitting this one out—they weren’t on the ship with us. I thought back to our conversation from a couple of days ago.
◇
“A ghost ship?!” exclaimed Lucy and Sasa in unison. Their faces had clouded over at my explanation.
Lucy seemed hesitant about the idea. “If it’s a ghost ship, will it actually be haunted?”
“I mean, probably?” I answered. “Can you not handle ghosts?”
“I’m...not particularly fond of them.”
Oh, so she’s not going then...
“But you’re fine with them, right, Sasa?” I asked. She’d happily powdered the various skeletons and zombies in the underground waterways back in Highland.
“Ghosts are one thing, but I get seasick...” She trailed off.
“Wait? Really?”
“Yeah...” she admitted after a moment.
So she could handle a flying airship but not one actually floating on the sea.
“What about you, Princess?” I asked Furiae
“Me? I’ve never been on a ship, but I’d like to!”
She seemed all for it. However, the strongest fighters in our party were Lucy and Sasa. I wasn’t confident about taking on a ghost ship when it was just Furiae and me, but I didn’t want to force the other girls to come along if they didn’t want to.
Hmm...I’m stuck...
◇
Back on the ship, I heard another voice call out to me. “Takatsuki, let’s get this investigation done. Furiae, you can hide behind Takatsuki or me if things get dicey.”
“Sorry to drag you along when you’re already so busy,” I apologized.
“It’s you asking, so I’ll make time.” My handsome childhood friend grinned with gleaming teeth. The Hero of Light—Sakurai—had temporarily joined our party, and my worries about a lack of firepower had vanished in the blink of an eye. It was truly a relief to have him here.
“You two get along well,” Furiae commented.
“Yes, you do.” Princess Noelle stepped out from behind Sakurai. “Sir Makoto, I really would like to have you join the Soleil Knights.”
For some reason, she’d decided to tag along as well. Was that...going to cause issues? I guess she probably wants to spend time with Sakurai.
“If you weren’t here, it would be even better,” Furiae snapped sourly.
“You probably aren’t used to ships. If you get seasick, you can get off at any time,” Princess Noelle shot back.
The two of them glared at each other.
“Don’t you have work to do at the church?” Furiae asked. “And yet, you’re idling away here.”
“There are no issues on my part. In fact, you have no combat skills, correct? You might get in the way.”
“Don’t be an idiot. I’m the Priestess of the Moon. A necromancer will doubtless be useful against a ghost ship. Ghosts are more likely to appear at night, so your Sun Magic skills will be of little use.”
“I can still use healing and support magic at night!” exclaimed Princess Noelle. “I’ll be more useful than you.”
“Oh, you went there.”
“It is simply the truth.”
“Then, perhaps a wager as to who’ll be more useful?” suggested Furiae.
“Very well.”
Come on, Furiae! She’s the princess of a massive country—what are you thinking? And Princess Noelle, I could do without you picking fights either...
“Noelle, let’s head over there,” Sakurai urged with a reluctant smile, tugging his fiancée away.
“Come on, Furiae,” I said, pulling at her arm and heading in the opposite direction.
The two priestesses hissed at each other like cats.
They really don’t get along... I wish they would, though...
The rest of the day was peaceful, and our voyage passed without even a single monster appearing.
Over dinner, the captain gave us an update on our progress: the first day had gone according to plan, and tomorrow we’d be arriving at the area under investigation. The region was apparently a fairly safe stretch of sea that was home to barely any monsters. However, the ghost ship was lurking there now. Shipping routes had needed to be changed, which had, in turn, delayed trade.
This meal is really quiet... I thought. It must have been because the first princess of Highland was present. Even the captain was acting deferential to her title.
The meal ended in a serious atmosphere (just as it had begun), and I returned to my room to get some training in.
I’d been practicing for a while when there was a knock at the door. Furiae entered.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“The swaying is making it difficult to sleep...”
She looked slightly ill, so she was probably seasick.
“You going to be okay? Think you’ll get some rest?”
“I should be fine once I get tired,” she said. “Would you mind talking for a while to take my mind off it?”
“Sure, what about?”
“You’ve got me there...” she mumbled, seeming to be at a loss.
“Well, could we talk about your homeland?” Fujiyan had always said that discussing a person’s homeland was a good topic when you were stuck for conversation, so I put his teachings into practice.
“You want to know about Laphroaig?” she asked. “You certainly are strange...”
She looked dubious, but not against it. Soon, she started talking, and I listened to stories about the place she’d come from. Life in the ruins of the country had not been easy by any means, but it’d been a frugal, peaceful existence. She even said how she worried about her friends who were still there.
“Well, we can all go there at some point if you want,” I offered.
“You’d do that?”
“If we can find time in between all the hero work.”
“I see...” Though she had a conflicted look on her face, her voice sounded happy.
After several moments of quiet, Furiae spoke again. “Now, tell me about your home.”
“Me?” I started. “Well, I already talked about some of it, but...” I told her about my life back in Japan, though with how few friends I’d had, my stories were mostly about games.
“Hm...what else?” I wondered. I’d worried about boring her, but she was nodding along in blatant interest. In particular, she seemed to enjoy the memories I shared of Sasa and Sakurai.
Eventually, she started yawning, and I suggested that she go to sleep.
She looked up at me with drowsy eyes before suddenly smiling. “Going back to my own room is so much effort. Perhaps...I should sleep here.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Come on...”
“That was a joke,” she said. “Rest well, my knight.”
Damn that witch. With the shock of her teasing still flooding my system, any tiredness I’d felt was long gone... My chances of sleeping were now slim to none, so I decided to do some more training.
I grabbed a bottle for a nightcap and then stepped out onto the deck.
Right, let’s find a good spot...
As I weaved my way through the darkness, I heard the faint whooshing sounds of a sharp object slicing through the air. When I activated my Night Vision skill, I could see a swordsman—a familiar swordsman—practicing his swings.
I called out to him, but quietly, since it was so late. “Sakurai.”
“Takatsuki,” he replied, seeming slightly surprised. “What’s up?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” I explained, “so I decided to do some training and maybe a bit of stargazing.”
While the sea around us was pitch black, the sky was speckled with countless stars, and the moon hung among them.
“I’ll join you,” he said, sheathing his sword and sitting down next to me.
“Weren’t you practicing your swings?” I asked.
“I’ve already done over a thousand reps, so figured I should take a break anyway.”
Sakurai sure had passion. I recalled that he used to stay late at school every evening for club stuff too.
I’d brought a glass with me to drink from, and I passed it over to Sakurai. Then, I said, “Water Magic: Ice Creation.” Another glass made of ice manifested in my hand.
Sakurai stared at my handmade glass. “Convenient,” he remarked, a touch of amusement in his voice.
I poured wine for both of us, and we toasted.
Thinking back, I’d done something similar with Fujiyan on the airship. That was a nice memory. I let the sea breeze play over me as I sipped at the wine in the ice glass.
Looking over to Sakurai’s drink, I saw that the liquid in his glass had barely dropped.
Right, he didn’t drink much... Though the look on his face made me feel like there was a reason for that beyond just him being a lightweight on this occasion.
“You seem down, Sakurai.”
“What?” He looked surprised, then laughed slightly. “I’ve been told that...I’m the only one who can defeat the Great Demon Lord... If I fail, that’s the end of everything.”
I sputtered in shock. The End?
“Who said that?” I asked.
“It was Estelle...apparently. At least, she spoke to Noelle. But, since Ira can see the future...”
“Don’t you think that’s putting a bit too much pressure on you?”
“Yeah...but there’s no getting around it.” He smiled as he looked my way, like he was trying to make sure I didn’t worry.
“Your friends can help, right? Though, I haven’t seen Yokoyama with you.”
“Yeah, we didn’t expect to fight anything in Cameron, so we only brought the bare minimum number of knights. Saki’s doing other jobs back in Highland.”
“I see.”
Sakurai was one of the most important people in this world, so frankly, I thought they should be taking better care of him.
After that, I changed topics to ease the tension. We just discussed different stuff, like how things were going with Yokoyama as his fiancée, how our other classmates were doing, and so on. Sakurai had always been a good conversationalist, so he happily followed my lead and we kept talking. My friend was able to do just about anything in this world, but that listless look from earlier weighed on my mind.
However, since we had to do the investigation tomorrow, we only spoke for around an hour before heading to bed for the night.
It was the second day of the voyage, and we’d nearly reached our destination. Despite the still-clear skies, the atmosphere was dark—a thick mist curled above the waves, limiting visibility to only a few meters.
“My knight...” Furiae began ominously.
“The mist is like a miasma...” I said. “It’ll overtake us soon.”
“I have a bad feeling. Be careful.”
“Furiae, you should head into the cabin of the ship.”
“No. The mage and warrior need me to look after you.”
Really? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Guess they weren’t very confident in my abilities...
“Noelle, it’s dangerous,” Sakurai warned. “You should head inside.”
“I am the Priestess of the Sun. I can at least protect myself.”
“Right, but...” With everyone choosing to remain on the deck of the ship, Sakurai seemed at a loss, and so did Princess Noelle’s guards.
“I won’t lose, Furiae,” snapped Princess Noelle.
“You should hide if you’re scared,” Furiae countered.
That’s right... They’re still arguing...
Well, they both had magic skills, so they probably could protect themselves.
As that thought flashed through my head, I heard the faint sound of singing. It was a familiar melody, just like I’d heard in Labyrinthos...
“Siren Song!” I yelled.
At once, the sailors all covered their ears.
Siren Song was a Charm skill that captivated those who heard it. Even Sakurai had his ears covered.
“Sakurai, you good?” I asked.
“Y-Yeah... I’m fine.”
He certainly didn’t look fine. If he’d been in sunlight, then this sort of debuff wouldn’t have done anything, but the sun couldn’t penetrate the deep fog.
“Princess!” I cried. “Can you do something for him?”
“Right!” Furiae replied immediately. Charm magic was considered to be a type of curse, so Furiae’s magic could break Siren Song’s hold. She turned her focus to Sakurai.
Moon Magic: Anticurse.
Her spell quickly washed over him, clearing the intoxicating song from his mind.
“Thanks, Furiae,” said Sakurai.
“Get yourself together, Ryousuke,” she replied.
With her skills as the Priestess of the Moon, it had thankfully been an easy fix. Furiae moved to the other crew members and started casting the same magic on them.
As I peered around the deck, I spotted someone else who was suffering.
“Princess Noelle!” I shouted, hurrying over to her.
“Sir Makoto... My apologies, but I am unused to such situations.”
“You shouldn’t push yourself. Please, go inside.”
“No!” she exclaimed. “I can use healing magic. I’ll be useful if anyone gets hurt.” Her eyes trailed Furiae, who was casting Anticurse on each of the sailors.
Yeah...there was no chance that Princess Noelle was going to hide away and do nothing.
Suddenly, Sakurai yelled out, “Takatsuki!” and pointed to the sea.
I could hear creaking wood as rough waves tossed our ship around. The motion made me stumble until I was hanging over the edge of the railing, and Princess Noelle followed right behind me. I had to grab her arm when it looked like she would fall.
“My thanks.”
“I really wish you’d go where it’s safe...” I told her. She just shook her head.
Sakurai clambered over to us with Furiae at his side. “Takatsuki, the ghost ship!”
“That’s it?” I asked.
Slowly, a battered vessel slipped into view, parting the thick mist.
Siren Song still filled the air, growing louder as the ship drew near.
“Strange...” Furiae murmured. “I can’t feel any necromancy.”
“You can’t?” I asked.
“No. It might be called a ghost ship, but there are no undead.”
“That’s odd. Every witness so far has reported it to be haunted,” said Princess Noelle.
We all tilted our heads at the ship.
“So, what do we do about it?” Sakurai asked me.
“I guess we’ll have to board it and take a look.” We had been tasked with investigating, so that was the only thing we could do.
There were over a hundred meters between our ship and the ghost ship. It was definitely not a gap I could clear...
“Sakurai, can you fly?” I asked.
“Yeah. I can carry you.”
“Princess, wait here. And Princess Noelle, look after her, please.”
“Why?! I’ll come too!” Furiae protested, but that wasn’t happening.
“It’s dangerous,” Sakurai told her. “Stay here with Noelle.” He also didn’t seem to have any inclination to take her aboard.
“Be careful,” Princess Noelle said.
“I will,” Sakurai assured her. “Takatsuki, let’s go.”
He grabbed my arm, and his Flight skill made my body float in the air.
“Don’t get hurt, my knight,” Furiae called out to me.
“I won’t.”
Sakurai and I waved to the girls before flying over to the ship.
I peered cautiously around as my feet touched the deck.
“There’s no one here,” Sakurai murmured.
“Scout isn’t picking up anything either.”
The deck beneath our feet was rotten in places, so we needed to be careful. I saw that the door to the ship’s cabin was also broken, so I took a look inside with Night Vision.
Nothing. The interior was a mess, but there was no hint of people or monsters within.
“It looks like a plain old shipwreck,” I said.
“Yeah, but Siren Song means there’re monsters around.”
That much was true—the singing had been coming from somewhere in the fog.
“Where’s the source, though?” I wondered.
“I can’t tell what direction the voices are coming from.”
The song seemed to emanate from several directions at once, so it was impossible to narrow it down.
“Hmm...”
I decided it was time to go big.
“Elementals,” I called out. We were on the ocean, so there were plenty of water elementals around.
“Hiii!”
A huge amount of mana swirled around us, causing the decrepit ship to creak. It would probably break if I went too far.
“Water Magic: Clear, Oh Fog.” At my words, the mist shrouding the ship vanished.
Success!
“Takatsuki, look!” Sakurai yelled, pointing into the sky.
Above us, many female monsters were flapping their wings, and I noticed that their upper halves were covered in scales.
That’s right. Sirens can fly, so the threat isn’t necessarily on the ship.
Then, I saw something even weirder—a creature the size of a small mountain was floating on the water. On top of that, it had more than one head. Each head sat at the end of a long, snake-like neck, and all the necks were writhing around the gigantic, hill-like monstrosity.
“A hydra...” Sakurai muttered.
That made sense. It was a many-headed dragon, so it had to be a hydra. However, I was getting the sense that something about it wasn’t quite right...
“No, wait...” I said, taking a closer look. “It’s...a blight dragon...”
That thing just didn’t look like a normal monster—there were over a hundred heads wriggling around it, almost obscuring the body.
And, somewhat astonishingly, the heads were eating each other.
Those that lost fights against their brethren were bitten off, and the severed heads fell into the sea with huge splashes. The roiling creature was dyed dull red with blood. Even the seawater around it was stagnant and filthy-looking.
“What’s our plan?” Sakurai asked.
“We should return to our own ship first,” I suggested. Sakurai agreed, so we flew back to the galleon.
Furiae and Princess Noelle immediately pounced on us.
“My knight!” Furiae cried. “What is that disgusting thing?!”
“It’s...foul...” Princess Noelle said haltingly.
The two of them scowled.
“Well, it’s a blight dragon,” I told them. “Sakurai and I fought something similar in Labyrinthos.”
“I don’t know what it’s doing here, but we can’t just leave it.” Sakurai seemed ready for a fight.
“Wait! At least take some...” Princess Noelle trailed off, looking around, but all the sailors had sunk to the ship’s deck. “Wh-What...?”
“People can lose their will to fight just by seeing a blight monster,” I explained.
Of course, our ship had originally been sent out to investigate, so there weren’t many accomplished fighters aboard. Some of the sailors had even fainted. Things weren’t looking good—we wouldn’t even be able to sail at this rate.
“My knight, if Fear is the only thing stopping them from moving, then I should be able to help,” Furiae said.
“Thanks. Please help them,” Sakurai told her. “Takatsuki, let’s go.”
“Got it. I’ll back you up.”
“W-Wait,” interrupted Princess Noelle. “That beast was originally a hydra, no? It should have potent poison.”
Hydras were famous for their poison. I took a closer look at the reddish-black water around it.
Is that its poison? I didn’t want to get anywhere near it...
“Ryousuke, Sir Makoto, this will help.” Princess Noelle clasped her hands together and started to chant.
A spell? Before long, there was a faint light surrounding Sakurai and me.
“This is Barrier of Light,” explained Princess Noelle, “It should defend against poison and magic attacks for a while.”
That Sun Magic spell was saint rank!
“Thanks, Noelle.”
“Thank you, Princess Noelle.”
With that spell covering us, Sakurai and I went once more toward the blight dragon. Sakurai was flying through the air while I skimmed along the sea. Sakurai had offered to carry me, but I’d had a different idea.
“We should split up,” I suggested. “I’ll draw its attention and you take it down.”
“Doesn’t that put you in a fair bit of danger?”
“I’m not an easy target on the water. Remember Labyrinthos?” I smiled, hoping to assuage his worry.
He nodded then flew higher, heading around the back of the beast.
I couldn’t tell whether it had even noticed us—those heads just kept tearing into each other.
I should open up with something big.
“×××××× (Elementals, help me!)”
“Sure!” came a chorus of responses, and I felt the surge of mana welling up from them.
I love being out on the sea... There are water elementals everywhere...
Water Magic: Yamata no Orochi.
It was the same king rank spell I’d used in Labyrinthos. I figured I’d try it since it’d worked against a blight dragon once before.
As I cast my spell, a huge, eight-headed serpent rose from the water, hissing. The hydra might be the size of a hill, but my Yamata no Orochi was no smaller, and it swiftly attacked the blight dragon.
The cacophony of hundreds of screeching heads filled the air, and the noise was horrible enough to sap one’s sanity.
Is Sakurai coping?
My Yamata no Orochi and the blight dragon smashed into each other, whipping the sea into massive crests as they fought.
That should at least get its attention. Now...
My Listen skill soon picked up on the sound of Sakurai’s attack.
Flash, Sword of Light!
He slashed his blade, and a crest of light lit up like a flashbulb, tearing right through the blight dragon. Its harrowing screeching continued, but the noise took on an edge of pain.
I was sure we’d gotten it. There were over a hundred heads, but almost all of them had dropped to the ocean as its body split in two.
Nothing could survive that. We had to be done.
But then, I heard the singing. A voice, deeply unsettling.
Suddenly, the blighted screeching started back up again. The hydra’s body began to foam, and its heads sprouted up once more. These new heads had no eyes—they were just bone covered in rotten skin.
The blight dragon had regenerated, albeit in a way that was sacrilege to anything living.
“Takatsuki!” Sakurai called as he flew over. “The song is healing it! We need to take the sirens out first.”
“Sure, but there’re so many of them. It’s not going to be easy.” I spied many bat-like sirens whirling around the blight dragon. “Think you can pull that off again?” I asked.
“If I had sunlight, yeah, but with this fog...”
Though I’d cleared it away, it had deepened once again, blocking out the sunlight.
Well then, first things first—clear out the mist again.
As I made that decision, the sirens’ voices came together in a haunting chorus, and the wind billowed, darkening the sky further.
“Clouds...?” Sakurai murmured. Suddenly, it began to rain.
“They’re controlling the weather,” I said. Apparently, the sirens had realized that they were facing off against the Hero of Light.
That disgusting blight dragon was coming toward us...along with the sirens swirling around it. Our ship (along with Furiae and Noelle) was behind us, so we couldn’t let the monsters get any closer.
With my low rank magic, I had no real offensive capabilities. Sakurai’s magic blade was our best chance for defeating them, but weather magic was currently blocking the sun.
“I’ll have to—” Sakurai began.
“Wait, wait,” I interrupted, stopping him before he rushed in without a plan. Things would be much easier if I could clear the skies again, but a huge number of sirens were still controlling their spell.
At this point, a direct contest would be risky.
“Let’s get the priestesses to help,” I suggested.
“Noelle and Furiae?!” Sakurai exclaimed. “It’s too dangerous for girls!”
Sakurai seemed against it. But my whole party (besides me) was made up of girls, so it wasn’t something that I considered.
“It’s fine. Lucy, Sasa, and even Princess Sophia have helped me out in the past. Sakurai, you should rely more on the people around you.”
“I...suppose?”
He seemed to have a bad habit of trying to do everything on his own. By contrast, I couldn’t do anything on my own, so I had no real issues asking for help.
With that decided, we returned to our ship. There, we were greeted by two worried priestesses.
I headed over to Furiae.
“What is it, my knight?”
“Princess, help me out.” I grabbed her hand and leaped from the ship.
“What? Ahhhh?!” she screamed. “Th-That was abrupt.”
“We’re in a bit of a pickle here.”
She frowned. “You are? That’s not like you.”
“I need to buy time. The combination of the blight dragon and sirens is an issue.”
I pulled her along using both Walk on Water and Flow until we were almost skiing along the sea.
The blight dragon took a long, sweeping turn as it approached. Above it, the sirens noticed us coming, and then those rancid hydra heads began snapping in our direction.
“That singing is a Necromancy skill,” stated Furiae. “It’s crudely done, though.”
“You can tell?”
“Of course. I’m the Priestess of the Moon, after all. Hmph.” She grinned wickedly. “I’ll just interfere with it a little.”
I didn’t even have time to ask what her plan was; Furiae suddenly began to sing. Her voice was almost angelic, and it made the sirens singing—which had been fairly pleasant until then—sound like nothing more than noise.
Even as I rocketed across the water to avoid the attacks, I couldn’t help but be entranced by Furiae’s song.
“You’re quite the singer, Princess.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere. Look over there.” She pointed at the blight dragon. Several of its heads were screeching and falling apart.
“That was you?!”
“It was. My song interfered with theirs,” she explained, straightening proudly.
“Think you can do anything about the sirens?” I asked.
“Listen here...” she chided. “You know I don’t do well with outright offensive spells. Can’t you do anything?”
“Water is the weakest of the seven elements...” I muttered.
“That’s quite the problem.”
We looked at each other. Furiae’s song had slowed down the blight dragon, but the sirens still needed to be dealt with...
“It’s so cold here,” Furiae complained, hugging her shoulders. “Roses was much warmer in comparison.”
“Hmmm.”
Suddenly, an idea struck. It was chilly here—we were practically as north as we could go on the western continent, which meant that the temperature was much lower.
“Got it! Sorry, Princess, but it’s about to get even colder.”
“What?!” she demanded, looking aghast.
The sirens had summoned thick clouds which were covering the sky, but we could use them too.
“×××, ×××? (Hey, Elementals?)”
“What?”
Water Magic: Snowfall.
“Wh-What did you do?!” Furiae yelled.
Well, I kinda expected that response—after all, I had just conjured a bout of heavy snow.
“Made it snow,” I answered simply.
“And why would you do that when it’s already so cold?!” she demanded. She pulled me into a tense arm lock. Owww...
“Stop, stop, Princess! Look, they can’t fly properly anymore, can they?” I pointed up to the sirens, who were now reeling through the air. Their wings and bodies were catching the snow and making it harder to fly, so they couldn’t spare the effort to sing.
Ga ha ha, sirens! It’s your fault for changing the weather like this!
“That’s all well and good,” Furiae said, “but how are you going to finish them off?! Snow isn’t going to kill that dragon!”
She...was right.
“Don’t worry about it. We’re just buying time. Our hero’s going to bring it down.”
“You mean Ryousuke? Can he manage it in this weather?” she asked, looking up into the sky. The only things visible were the clouds—now even thicker than before—and the heavy snow.
It was the worst kind of weather for the Hero of Light since sunlight was literally the source of his power.
Just then, I saw a flash, like something off in the distance was reflecting light. It came from the same direction as our ship.
“Princess Noelle will manage something,” I assured Furiae. “She’s the Priestess of the Sun for a reason.”
“Hmm, I suppose,” she mumbled unhappily. “It is absolutely freezing, though. Warm me up.” She put her arms around me, and her softness pressed into my back.
“P-Princess?! I’m making sure the snow doesn’t hit us, so—” I was going to say that she didn’t need to hold onto me like that, but she quickly interrupted me.
“Shut up,” she snapped. “That doesn’t make it any less cold, so you need to warm me up.” She clung to me tighter.
A-Ack. RPG Player stops Charm, but plain old temptation still works on me... Uh...uh... Right! Elementals, help me!
Water Magic: Blizzard.
The heavy snow around us got even thicker, and the cold froze the sea beneath our feet. The ocean had become a vast, snowy plain. To shield us from the weather, I created a dome that was large enough for Furiae and me to huddle beneath.
“What is this?” Furiae asked in wonder, gently touching the wall of the dome.
“I guess it’s...an igloo?”
“An igloo?”
That was a word from my old world, so naturally, she hadn’t heard it before.
“People in snowy countries build them as a shelter for dealing with the cold. It’s warm, right?”
“Well, that’s not quiiite what I meant...” She crossed her arms in slight disagreement, but then admitted, “It is rather warm, though.”
“Right? Also, look at the sirens.”
I pointed to the monsters—one by one, they were gradually tumbling to the iced-over ocean.
“Ugh...gross...” she muttered, pulling back.
“It turned out all right in the end. At least we took the sirens down.”
“W-Well, I suppose so...”
Just then, I felt a massive wave of mana rippling out from our ship.
“Looks like Sakurai’s ready,” I said.
A blinding burst of light shone forth, so bright that it hurt my eyes and pierced through the blizzard.
Now that the monsters were weaker, it was time to end this.
“××××! ××××! (Elementals! Time to finish it!)”
“We’re tired, though...”
Crap, they’d had enough. What now? I didn’t have the time to persuade them.
I know! Drawing my dagger from its sheath, I summoned the elementals to merge with the blade. This was the skill Prince Leonardo had taught me.
Before my eyes, the dagger began to glow blue, and it chimed like a bell. I pointed my blade to the sky, then let loose a massive blue crescent, which shot off into the clouds.
“My knight!” exclaimed Furiae. “The dragon is that way!”
Despite her panic, I smiled back at her. “It’ll all come together.”
“What are you...oh.”
Halfway through her question, my slash tore through the clouds, and sunlight shone through the gap. In the distance, the silhouette of a single, tiny figure was bathed in the sun’s rays.
It was the Hero of Light, his body shining in a rainbow of sunbeams.
“Sword of Light: Prismatic Flash!” he bellowed, swinging his illuminated blade down into the blight monster.
This spell’s power exceeded even his previous attack—the dense blade of mana poured down onto the blight dragon.
It screeched, falling to pieces as it let out a last breath. The few surviving sirens didn’t stand a chance—they were obliterated as well.
In the aftermath, only six pillars of light stretched up into the sky, leaving nothing else behind.
“Great, we did it,” I said, feeling relieved.
“It was...rather anticlimactic,” Furiae commented.
The two of us crossed the frozen sea and climbed aboard our ship. Sakurai had already flown back.
“Nice one, Sakurai,” I told him.
“Thanks, Takatsuki.”
We high-fived.
“How’d you do that without the sun?” I asked.
“Noelle gave me the mana,” he explained. “It acts the same way as the sunlight does...or maybe even better.”
“Huh.”
Princess Noelle wasn’t normally around during dangerous situations, so he hadn’t gotten many chances to fight alongside her. It was a good thing she’d been here this time.
Sakurai turned to the priestesses. “You were both so close to that thing! Wasn’t it dangerous for you two?!”
Apparently the girls’ proximity to the blight monster had worried him.
“That was how we got rid of Siren Song—Furiae was also the one who realized they were using Necromancy.”
“Hmmm, still...” Sakurai seemed unconvinced. “Bringing them onto the front lines feels...”
Well, he and I seemed to disagree on that point at least.
“Noelle,” Furiae said haughtily. “We defeated the blight dragon thanks to me.”
“What are you talking about?” argued Princess Noelle. “The mana came from me.”
“Hmph, while you shivered away on the ship?”
“Was it not Sir Makoto’s spell that took the sirens down? You were shivering in the snow, weren’t you?”
“Well, I was more of a help than you.”
“I don’t know where you got that idea—I won.”
They were glaring at each other once again.
“Those two—” I began.
“—are never going to get along,” Sakurai finished.
He and I moved to hold them back before the situation broke out into a real fight.
“Still, you were a help,” conceded Furiae. “After all, my knight has no way of attacking...”
“And you did buy time for me to give mana to Ryousuke...” Princess Noelle admitted. “If you hadn’t, I’m not sure what we would have done.”
The two of them fell silent and started to...look more relaxed?!
“It’s cold out here. Let’s go and have some tea to warm up,” Princess Noelle suggested. She took Furiae’s hand.
“As long as it’s not poisoned.” Despite the barb, Furiae didn’t shake off Princess Noelle, and she actually followed along.
Oh! They were getting along! That was fantastic. Sakurai and I exchanged looks and shared a laugh.
I was exhausted as well, so some warm soup sounded perfect.
However, before I even took a step, someone spoke to me. “Uh...Hero of Roses?”
I turned around and locked eyes with a sailor. “Yes, what is it?” I asked.
“We’re extremely grateful to you for defeating the blight dragon. We understand that there was no other choice...but we have a problem.”
I looked at him questioningly, and he quickly clarified, “Your spell froze the sea, so we cannot move the ship... Could you melt the water?”
“Ah.” Looking around us, I realized that the sea was still covered in ice as far as I could see.
I went too far! I need to get it back to normal. H-Hey, elementaaaals...
They didn’t answer.
S-Seriously?
Well, they were whimsical. Sometimes they’d happily help you, only to ignore you soon after. They’d already helped me so much today, so I’d figured that they might still be around...
I...was going to have to melt the sea on my own, wasn’t I?
There were no other mages on board with a Water Magic skill, so I was left with the sorry task of fixing it. Though, it was me that froze the ocean to begin with... Oh well.
I sighed.
Hours later, I was still melting ice, but there was so much left.
Sakurai had offered to help, but I’d told him to rest since he was probably tired from defeating the blight dragon.
I might end up spending all night on this...
Just as that thought crossed my mind, someone came up behind me. I turned around and saw Furiae bundled up in a thick coat.
“What’s with the jacket, Princess?” I asked.
“I borrowed it from Noelle since it’s so cold.”
Those two...were friendly enough to borrow and lend clothes?
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s going to take a while.”
“That’s fine. I came outside because I didn’t want you to have to do it all on your own. Plus, I didn’t want to get in the way of Noelle and Ryousuke.”
I was slightly surprised to hear that. I was sure that Furiae had feelings for Sakurai and wanted nothing more than to get in the way of their romance.
That thought must have shown on my face.
“My knight.”
“Hm?”
“You are mistaken,” she stated. “I don’t want to take Ryousuke from Noelle. I’m just grateful that he was my ally—my only ally—when I was captured by Highland.”
“Really?”
“I have you, the mage, and the warrior now. All of you are my allies as well, so...I’m fine.”
She stared out at the icy sea with an enigmatic expression, and I couldn’t really tell what she was thinking.
“Let’s head back to Cameron as soon as possible,” I suggested. “Lucy and Sasa are waiting for us.”
“Let’s. Shall I help you?” asked Furiae.
“Hm, but you can’t use Water Magic skills, so...”
Several bouts of trial and error later, we managed to use Synchro and Charm to get the water elementals back to normal. After about an hour, all the ice was melted, and we could head safely back to the capital.
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