DAR Vol. 6 Chapter 23 Part 4

“What… what the hell was that?!”

Captain Sabas bellowed from atop the ship.

The rocking had subsided considerably by now, and the sailors were checking the damage caused by the lurching. The trading ship’s attacks had ceased as well after the twins leapt aboard, and both sides had reached a point where neither could launch an attack on the other.

Thanks to the twins’ antics, the battlefield had been thrown into complete chaos.

“Oh, for crying out loud. The most troublesome ones just had to make their move…”

Kristoff facepalmed while clinging to a nearby post.

Most people, Roa included, seemed to think of the twin magic wolves, Roo and Phi, as obedient, innocent children. Kristoff, however, judged them differently.

The twins were simply shrewd.

They merely took advantage of the fact that they were children and acted in whatever way would benefit them most. At their core, they were not all that different from Uncle Gry.

Unlike Uncle Gry, who acted impulsively and on a whim, the twins actually thought things through beforehand, laid the groundwork, and only then made their move.

Even this time, they had secured Captain Sabas’s permission through Dietrich first, so Roa would not scold them afterward. Even their sudden dash outward felt calculated, as though they had judged that this much would be forgiven as childish recklessness.

Frankly speaking, the fact that they at least pretended to be mindful of those around them made them even worse than Uncle Gry.

The only saving grace was that if Roa sat them down and talked to them, they would listen obediently.

Beside Kristoff, who stood there facepalming, Dietrich tracked the twins’ whereabouts with tearful eyes.

It seemed being told “I hate you” by the twins had hit him surprisingly hard.

“What the hell was that?!”

Captain Sabas was still shouting, apparently unable to accept what he had just seen. He was clearly bewildered, yet the fact that he was still barking orders to his crew between outbursts spoke volumes about the man.

The Sword Saint stood where he would not get in the sailors’ way, staring grimly at the trading ship. The fact that he remained standing without grabbing onto anything on the still-rocking deck was, indeed, worthy of the Sword Saint. He too was probably keeping silent as he tried to grasp the situation.

“Roa, can you explain what the twins just did?”

Since Captain Sabas was making such a racket, Kristoff turned to Roa for an explanation.

If anyone understood the nature of that incomprehensible explosion, it would be either Roa or Uncle Gry. And since there was no chance Uncle Gry would explain it honestly, Roa was the only option.

“A steam explosion.”

Roa answered without even looking at Kristoff, one hand at his mouth as he sank into thought. Uncle Gry was keeping his body floating slightly with wind magic, so the motion of the rocking ship was not affecting him.

“Steam…?”

“Oh, right, I need to apologize first! I’m terribly sorry!!”

As if only just remembering, Roa suddenly looked around and bowed his head. At the same time, he pressed down on Uncle Gry’s head and forced him to bow too.

“Huh? What’s this all of a sudden?”

“I’m sorry Roo and Phi caused trouble! I’ll make both of them apologize later too, so please forgive them!”

The twins were Roa’s familiars. Feeling responsible for their behavior, Roa lowered his head. And making Uncle Gry bow as well was probably his idea of shared responsibility.

“…No, well, the leader and the captain did give them permission. Right, Captain?”

“Eh?! What? You mean the magic wolves that jumped over there? Forget that for a second, what was that?! What’s exploding out there?!”

When Kristoff appealed to him, Captain Sabas glanced at Roa, who was still bowing, and awkwardly averted his gaze.

Then, as if changing the subject, he hurled the question that had been on his mind this whole time back at Roa.

The awkwardness came from the fact that he knew he had been too careless and had given permission too easily. He was very aware that the twins had jumped out there because of his approval.

And yet Roa was the one bowing and taking responsibility for it, which only made it more uncomfortable.

“It was a steam explosion. Water that gets heated extremely rapidly turns into steam all at once and explodes. The same thing happens if you pour water into molten iron. Bruno… um, I mean, the master blacksmith, used to tell me over and over never to bring water anywhere near a casting site.”

“Water? …You’re telling me water can do something like that?”

Captain Sabas tilted his head, still unconvinced.

“In a place like the ocean, a little heat would never make that happen. But Roo and Phi are both really dexterous…”

<It is that brat’s fault, you know. When he was boiling water, he had Roo help him, did he not? That was when Roo learned that adding heat to water can make it explode.>

Uncle Gry, still being forced to keep his head lowered, cut in.

A little while back, when the twins had begged to help, Roa had asked them to boil water for cooking.

At the time, the red magic wolf, Roo, had decided it would be better to make it boil faster and tried to bring the water in the pot to a boil instantly.

It exploded.

Fortunately, Uncle Gry had been watching and defended them with magic, so it had not become a disaster. But had things gone even slightly differently, Roa might have been badly burned by the scalding water and steam.

Afterward, Roa had explained the danger of heating water too suddenly, and it seemed Roo had remembered the lesson.

<It is that brat’s fault, then! Had he not made them help, had he not taught them that it explodes, none of this would have happened! Mm. Yes, clearly this is that brat’s fault!!>

As if determined to avenge the indignity of being forced to bow, Uncle Gry pressed his case mercilessly.

Roa wanted to object, but in front of Captain Sabas, he kept his mouth shut after saying Uncle Gry’s name.

He could not let Captain Sabas realize that he was able to hear Uncle Gry’s voice.

“…More importantly… after they fell off the ice, I couldn’t figure out how Roo and Phi started getting launched upward by something…”

Deciding to ignore Uncle Gry, Roa continued.

He had recognized the steam explosion right away, but what happened after the twins made their ice foothold was still unclear to him. The twins should not have been capable of launching themselves upward from the water on their own.

“That was the dolphins.”

Unexpectedly, it was Captain Sabas who solved the mystery.

“They’re cooperative little fellows. If somebody falls from a ship into the sea, they always help. They wouldn’t help humans that roughly, though.”

“…Dolphins? Are they familiars?”

“Nope. We’re just on good terms, that’s all. They’ll even scout for us in exchange for food. Apparently they originally lived around the island where the royal castle stands, so they’ve been allies of our country since way back.”

“I see…”

At Captain Sabas’s answer, Roa nodded as though satisfied.

“If you’re all that close with them, has there ever been anyone who could hear the dolphins’ voices…?”

That answer only gave rise to a new question in Roa’s mind.

If they had maintained a relationship close and deep enough for Captain Sabas to casually call them allies, then perhaps somewhere along the way, someone had formed a true familiar bond with them.

A familiar contract.

Among ancient magic beasts, it was spoken of as things like the remnants of the gods, or the curse of a great mage, a mysterious spell of unknown origin. It affected every human and every magic beast in the world, and anyone could use it.

When a human and a magic beast mutually opened their hearts to one another, and one side wished for a familiar contract, if the human then gave the beast a name, a Mana Conduit was formed and the two could share mana.

At the same time, the human would become able to understand the contracted beast’s words.

That magic was the reason Roa could converse with Uncle Gry and the twins.

He found himself wondering whether, even by sheer accident, some human might once have formed such a familiar contract with dolphins. Humans had lost the knowledge of familiar contracts, but according to Uncle Gry, among intelligent magic beasts it was relatively common knowledge.

If that was true, then dolphins, intelligent enough to rescue people, might very well know of it and have formed a contract.

“Dolphins’ voices? Oh… you mean their cries? They go things like kekeke and kukuku and kyui kyui, you know.”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“Roa.”

Kristoff grabbed Roa by the shoulder, stopping him from pressing Captain Sabas any further.

“Not now. Things are only at a standstill because of the twins, but we’re technically still in combat. Besides, I’ve lived in this country all my life, and I’ve never once heard anything about voices.”

“I see…”

Roa sometimes ran wild when his thirst for knowledge took over, but he was easy enough to rein in.

The moment Kristoff stopped him, he withdrew with no more than a slightly disappointed look.

“By the way, Captain.”

“What?”

Kristoff called out to Captain Sabas.

“I think it’s probably already over.”

“What is?”

“The fighting aboard the trading ship.”

“Huh?”

Captain Sabas’s eye went wide at Kristoff’s words.

“Those magic wolves, Roo and Phi, made it aboard. They’ve already wiped them out.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

<Indeed. They knocked every last one of them unconscious and finished the job. There is not even a scratch on them. Roo and Phi have grown more efficient! Clearly, that is thanks to my instruction!!>

Even while praising the twins, Uncle Gry made sure to claim credit for himself as well.

𑁋

They kept up their vigilance for a while longer, and only after confirming that there was no suspicious movement aboard the trading ship did Captain Sabas bring the pirate ship alongside.

They had already received word from the lookout that every person visible on the trading ship’s deck had been taken down. But since they could not confirm what was happening inside the vessel, they waited before approaching.

The moment they drew near, they quickly spotted the twin magic wolves, Roo and Phi. Each had one forepaw hooked over the trading ship’s rail, and they were looking back this way, happily wagging their tails and waving the other forepaw.

There was no sign of any of the enemy sailors other than the ones already sprawled on the deck. The trading ship was so quiet it felt as though no one remained aboard but the twins. The ship itself bore no damage anywhere. There was nothing to suggest that a fight had even taken place.

“So they really did finish everything off.”

A signal came down from the lookout atop the mast confirming that the situation was safe. Seeing it, Captain Sabas muttered those words under his breath with a deep sigh. He had clearly been looking forward to a fight. Many of the battle-crazed sailors drooped their shoulders in disappointment as well.

The Sword Saint actually sat down on the spot, as though everything had suddenly become too much trouble to bother with.

“Doesn’t smell like blood.”

Dietrich muttered that as he waved back at the twins, who were still waving their forepaws.

<That is because Roo and Phi did not wound them. There was no need for anything so crude against mere humans.> 

“I wasn’t doubting that…”

Dietrich sniffed at the air with little snorts, testing the scent around them.

<Most likely some of them injured themselves in their panic at the sight of Roo and Phi. Do not fret over such trifles, mongrel.>

“Who’re you calling a mongrel?!”

While they were trading words, the distance between the two ships closed enough for them to come flush together.

“All right, bring her alongside! Once you board, spread out and bind every last crew member! Watch out for anyone still capable of moving! Some of them may be pretending to be unconscious! Don’t let your guard down!! After that, search the ship! Find proof of criminal activity and make the officials owe us big!!”

The sailors threw out ropes fitted with hook-claws and caught them on the trading ship, then hauled it in. Once the two ships were fully pressed together, they linked them with gangplanks.

<Roa! Phi won the contest!>

<I lost! But I took down loads of them! I made sure not to kill anybody!>

When Roa boarded the trading ship after Captain Sabas and the others, the twins ran up to him.

At the mention of a contest, Roa tilted his head, but one glance at the scene around him told him what they had been competing over. They had been counting how many people each one had taken down.

That was how many bodies littered the trading ship’s deck. They all appeared to be alive, but it was still a scene of utter collapse. Not one of them bore a single wound, and there was no blood anywhere.

“Honestly! You two can’t just run off on your own! Apologize to everyone!!”

<I’m sorry!>

<I’m sorry!!>

Told to do so by Roa, the twins obediently lowered their heads.

Unlike Uncle Gry, the twins were capable of apologizing, and they even lowered their tails in a properly chastened show of remorse. They offered no excuses. The slight tilt of their heads made it all look a little too calculated, but it was probably their most sincere apology.

The trouble was, Captain Sabas and the other sailors were too busy staring in speechless disbelief at the sheer number of uninjured people lying unconscious on the deck, binding them one after another with ropes, to notice the twins at all. Even as the twins kept bowing their heads, not a single person looked their way.

At a loss, Roa glanced around awkwardly, unsure what to do.

“Kristoff. What do you think this is about?”

“Barrels, right? Were they gathering them to use as obstacles if a fight broke out?”

“No, those barrels are too small for that to make sense.”

Dietrich and Kristoff were not looking at Roa either. It seemed they had not noticed the apology in the slightest. Since both of them knew how capable the twins were, perhaps this outcome had been entirely predictable to them. They did not even spare a glance for the huge number of people dropped by the twins.

Instead, their attention had been caught by the large quantity of barrels stacked across the deck, and they were discussing those.

<They were throwing them into the sea!>

<Yeah, they threw out loads of them.>

The twins’ voices were bright.

As far as they were concerned, the apology was already finished. They had bowed properly once, so that was that.

Since nobody seemed to notice and nobody seemed to care, Roa reluctantly gave up on the apology as well and straightened up.

“Into the sea?”

At the twins’ words, Dietrich leaned over the rail and looked down at the water.

“What the hell is that?”

The sight made him blurt it out.

What he saw was a huge number of barrels floating among the waves.

They were bobbing in the patch of sea hidden from the pirate ship by the trading vessel’s shadow, each one about the size an adult could carry in their arms. It looked like quite a few had been thrown overboard. The current had already drawn them out into a long band stretching toward the open sea.

“Smuggled goods or something? They tried to dump the evidence overboard, but since they were in barrels they floated and gave themselves away?”

“What kind of idiot would do that?”

Kristoff shot down Dietrich’s theory at once. Dietrich had not really believed it himself, but in the midst of combat he could not think of any other reason someone would be throwing barrels into the sea.

“We can recover them later and check what’s inside.”

“Yeah. Could be something valuable too. We should tell the captain and have them hauled in.”

It was a strange sight, but for the moment what mattered more was the inside of the trading ship. Besides, recovering them would mean lowering a small boat, which would take time. So they decided to leave it for later.