DAR Vol. 6 Chapter 24 Part 3

“Like eels?”

“Well, something like that. Closer to a moray eel, if anything.”

“Moray eel? Um, anyway, they’re fish, right? Then even if there are a lot of them, if we used poison—”

“Whoa!!”

Kristoff hastily cried out and clapped a hand over Roa’s mouth.

There were a number of things one simply must never do to the sea. They were practically taboos. Scattering poison into it was among the worst of them. It was absolutely forbidden. Even making such a suggestion in front of people who lived by the sea was enough to earn their hostility.

It was reviled as much as Cursed Blood, if not even more.

And sure enough, the moment the word “poison” left Roa’s mouth, Captain Sabas’s and the Sword Saint’s eyes turned razor-sharp.

“Roa! That’s out of the question! It’d wipe out sea life. The currents would carry it everywhere, and it would take an absurdly long time for the environment to recover. Don’t think of it the way you would using poison bait on land!!”

Even Dietrich, still unable to move, raised his voice and scolded Roa.

If poison bait were used on land, it would only harm the animals or magic beasts that ate it. The sea was different. Once it mixed into the water, it spread, affecting every living thing in it.

“Um, what about a paralytic poison? If we just put them to sleep for a while, it’d make things easier since we’d only have to finish them off…”

Roa said that after Kristoff loosened his hand, but everyone around him fell silent in thought.

“I made a really good paralytic poison! It looks weak enough that even small creatures won’t die from it if it works too well, but it still affects large creatures too. I think it could put even Sea Serpents to sleep. It’s a magic potion I made from that frog’s poison, but I never got the chance to use it, and I’ve really wanted to try it! If they have gills, then I wouldn’t even have to make them ingest it. If I just spread it through the water, it’d hit a wide area all at once.”

“The frog from back then” referred to the large frog-like magic beast with bat wings they had fought in the Citadel Dungeon. The poison that frog possessed had been the raw material for the paralytic poison magic potion Roa had made.

“…No good. If dolphins or whales get paralyzed, they’ll drown.”

Captain Sabas, who had been listening to Roa’s rapid explanation with a grim look on his face, spoke in a low growl.

“Huh? Even though they’re fish?”

“Dolphins and whales aren’t fish!”

Exasperated by Roa’s ignorance, Captain Sabas shouted.

Roa had almost no knowledge of the sea. Since he had never even seen it before, that was hardly surprising.

“Roa. No poison. Think of another way.”

“Yes. In that case, I don’t have enough information…”

Warned by Queen Scarlet, Roa answered obediently.

The look on his face had changed from the tense, abashed expression he had worn earlier. His eyes were shining now, his curiosity stirred by things he did not know. Captain Sabas was glaring at him for trying to use poison, but Roa did not seem to notice in the slightest.

“Captain Sabas! Please tell me more about them!”

“O-Oh. I don’t mind, but…”

Roa pressed in on Captain Sabas. His curiosity had taken over to the point that he no longer even seemed aware that the Queen was standing right there.

He was no longer seeing anything around him. His head was full of nothing but learning whatever he could from Captain Sabas, thinking it through, and trying it out on the Sea Serpents. The fact that the members of Nostalgia would inevitably get dragged into that process had completely slipped his mind.

“Uncle Gry, is Roa always like this?”

The Queen looked at Roa, who had begun barreling ahead, with an exasperated gaze.

<Always.>

“Well, then it can’t be helped that that person took a liking to him.”

The Queen’s murmured remark came mixed with a sigh, yet she sounded thoroughly entertained.

And so, the extermination of the Sea Serpents by Roa and the others was decided.

𑁋

Unlike the commotion far out at sea, the harbor was quiet. Only the sound of the waves repeated softly in the stillness.

Cornelia and Emilia had long since grown tired of waiting there.

“Nice wind.”

“Yes, it is.”

The two of them stood side by side, gazing out at the sea. With Cornelia and the masculine-featured Emilia standing together, they looked for all the world like lovers on a date.

In truth, however, they were here under the Queen’s orders to seize a merchant vessel registered to Adad.

That ship had apparently been a sabotage vessel of the Adad Empire disguised as a merchant ship. Its crimes had already been substantiated, and they had been planning to move in and secure the evidence.

For the past several days, Cornelia had been wasting away under the strain of stiff, aristocratic exchanges with her sister, and the thought of finally getting to cut loose again had thrilled her. But when they had actually arrived at the target harbor, the merchant vessel had escaped because of the officials’ bungling, leaving them with nothing to do and a complete sense of anticlimax.

This country, the Kingdom of Nereus, bordered the Adad Empire, and both faced the sea. As a result, they competed in all sorts of ways, and though they were not openly at war, they had long been engaged in repeated skirmishes.

Both nations possessed large commercial ports, and the revenue from those ports made up a major portion of their economies.

Since the two nations sat side by side, their climates and ocean currents were similar. Naturally, there were differences in what each produced, but because they traded with one another, goods from the other country could still be obtained at either port.

In other words, from the perspective of countries outside those two, it made little difference which port they used. Under those circumstances, it was only natural that the two would regard each other as rivals and clash.

Their covert skirmishes had continued for years, using pirate ships to tilt the advantage toward their own ports and launching all manner of petty harassment against one another.

Nereus, owing in part to its origins as a nation founded by pirates, regarded such clashes as little more than playful roughhousing with a rival. If anything, there were times when it almost seemed to enjoy wondering what Adad would try next. It had never taken the matter truly seriously.

The proof was that Nereus pirate ships were under strict orders that even when they attacked vessels, casualties were to be kept to an absolute minimum, and lives were only to be taken when there was no other choice.

Even when they shouted the stereotypical pirate cries of “Take it! Sink it!!” during an attack, they would only seize the cargo and rarely inflict truly fatal damage on the ship itself. Any damage done was normally kept limited enough that the vessel could still return to port.

Adad, however, was serious.

It genuinely wanted to crush the ports of Nereus, which it regarded as a thorn in its side and an intolerable nuisance. To the point that, within its own borders, Nereus had secretly been designated a hypothetical enemy state.

Even so, the reason Nereus merchant vessels and foreign ships using Nereus’s ports had never suffered severe damage was largely thanks to the dolphins that always accompanied Nereus ships in small numbers.

Those dolphins would warn them of suspicious ships in advance, help them evade danger, and even assist them in gaining the upper hand if a fight broke out. They were useful in countless other ways as well.

The people of Nereus called them dolphins, but strictly speaking, they were dolphin-type magic beasts. They were more intelligent than ordinary dolphins as well. They had originally claimed the waters around the island where the royal castle of Nereus stood as their territory, and at some point had begun protecting Nereus’s ships and people as comrades.

The dolphins were not familiars.

They merely maintained an equal, cooperative relationship with the people of Nereus as fellow inhabitants of the same home waters. It was said that the dolphins were servants of the sea dragon, and their exploits had done much to deepen this nation’s sea dragon faith. In truth, though, the claim that they were servants of the sea dragon was nothing more than a human assumption. No one had ever confirmed it, and since no one could communicate with them, there was no way to confirm it even if they had wanted to.

At any rate, the Kingdom of Nereus and the Adad Empire had been locked in such skirmishes for many years.

But over the past few years, Adad’s behavior had begun to change.

It had moved beyond mere skirmishes and started carrying out major acts of sabotage.

It had reached the point where it no longer even bothered concealing that the sabotage was Adad’s doing, acting with such recklessness that full-scale war would not have been surprising. Apparently, that stemmed from the succession struggle among Adad’s three princes.

In other words, each was trying to rack up achievements by fighting Nereus and prove that he was the one most fit to become the next Emperor.

The ship Cornelia and Emilia had been trying to capture was one such vessel sent to carry out sabotage.

Queen Scarlet, who would normally watch such matters with a smile, had issued a direct royal order in this case and mobilized the Royal Guard Knights. She had even assigned Emilia, the vice-captain of the Royal Guard Knights and effectively her right hand, to handle it. That suggested the ship had been meant to trigger an incident on a scale unlike anything before.

And yet the officials, very eager for credit, had ordered an inspection ahead of schedule and tried to search the ship by force, only to let it escape.

Emilia had contacted the Queen at once after finding herself outmaneuvered, but the only order she received in return was to remain on standby.

And so, with nothing else to be done, the two of them had been idly waiting at the harbor with the knights who had accompanied them.

“What do you suppose those people from Adad were trying to do…?”

“No idea. But the Queen must know. She would not be directing us otherwise. Whatever it is, it cannot be anything good.”

Emilia answered Cornelia’s offhand murmur.

The two of them were sitting atop wooden crates of cargo that the fleeing merchant ship had left behind, gazing out at the sea. In other countries, knights would probably be expected to remain standing stiffly and dutifully on guard during such waiting periods, but that was not Nereus’s way. Here, the philosophy was to relax where one could.

“We should probably assume it was sabotage on a scale large enough to make the harbor unusable.”

“Whatever it was, we should have stopped it. The sea is still this calm and beautiful. Just like your smile, Coney. Isn’t it?”

“Big Sis…”

Cornelia could only stare at Emilia in exasperation. Emilia was the only person who would speak of beauty to Cornelia, who had lived a life centered almost entirely on martial prowess. It made Cornelia anxious about what exactly her sister was seeing when she looked at her. No matter how she thought about it, Emilia was idealizing her far too much.

Today, Cornelia as well as Emilia was dressed in knightly attire. More than that, she was wearing the same Royal Guard Knights uniform as Emilia.

It had been tailored perfectly to Cornelia’s body, and although she had found herself wondering why such a thing even existed, it had been prepared for her, so she had reluctantly put it on. It was the same design as the male Royal Guard Knights’ uniform, and while the formal knight’s outfit was certainly handsome, it was nowhere near the sort of beauty Emilia kept talking about.

“How much longer are we supposed to wait…?”

“That depends on the Queen. All we can do is remain here until the next order comes. Still, time like this, when I can speak with you, is precious, Coney. I would not mind if no order came for quite a while.”

Saying that, Emilia lightly wrapped an arm around Cornelia’s shoulders and gave her an inviting smile. Cornelia forced a somewhat strained smile in return and sighed inwardly.

Emilia might call their time together precious, but at the marquis’s residence she never left Cornelia’s side for even a moment.

They ate together, bathed together, trained together, and even slept in the same bed. Cornelia understood that it all sprang from familial affection, but it was beginning to feel frightening. Emilia’s love was far too heavy. Cornelia was also growing tired of having to speak politely all the time.

Besides, she had been worried about the other members of Nostalgia.

Ever since they had returned to this country, Nostalgia’s members had been scattered.

Dietrich spent almost all his time with the Sword Saint. Part of that was because the two got along well, but Cornelia suspected Emilia, who was not especially fond of Dietrich, had asked the Sword Saint to keep him separated from her.

Cornelia could more or less guess why Emilia avoided Dietrich so thoroughly.

It was because, as a party member, Dietrich had taken Cornelia out of the country and kept her away from Emilia for a long time. While part of Cornelia was pleased by how cherished she clearly was, Emilia’s attachment to her still frightened her.

Bernhart had likewise been separated from her through Emilia’s maneuvering.

In his case, it was not that Emilia disliked him. More likely, she simply could not monopolize Cornelia if he was around. Ever since Emilia had informed him that an old grimoire had been discovered, he had yet to return.

For all appearances, Bernhart had been granted considerable authority whenever magic was involved. By now, he had probably used that authority to force his way into a research facility and join the investigation into the grimoire.

Kristoff, because of his status, apparently found the marquis’s residence uncomfortable, so he had fled and was spending his time in the detached house where Roa and the others were staying.

That could not really be helped. Someone needed to look after Roa as well. If Roa and his familiars were left unattended, there was every chance they would get up to something outrageous. They were the sort who, the instant one took one’s eyes off them, caused incidents far beyond what anyone could have predicted.

While traveling together, there had been times when Cornelia found them stuffy or irritating, and times when she despaired at Dietrich’s sheer idiocy, but once she was apart from her companions in Nostalgia, she found herself feeling lonely.

They had only been separated for a few days, and already she felt that way.

One day, Nostalgia’s members would all go their separate ways. When that day came, the loneliness she would feel would surely be nothing compared to this.

For now, she had joined the party as Dietrich’s watcher and bodyguard, but one day she would surely be returned to her original duties as a knight. Once that happened, she would no longer be able to remain with Dietrich and the others.

And besides, Cornelia had reached an age where she had to start thinking about marriage.

In truth, she was already engaged.

It was a political engagement, but she did not have a bad relationship with her fiancé. She had no objection to marrying him.

To begin with, this country was home to many people whose lives revolved around the sea, and because of that it had adopted a marriage system unlike any other on the continent: polygamy for both men and women.

In simple terms, it was a system under which both men and women were permitted to have multiple spouses.

Thanks to this system, people did not have to despair over loveless political marriages. Even if no affection bloomed in a marriage arranged for the sake of the family, one could simply marry someone else at the same time.

This practice had originally been legalized out of consideration for the lifestyles of sailors of old and their families.

Sailors on long-distance voyages often had spouses in every port. Likewise, the spouses of sailors who would not return for years at a time, fearing hardship and poverty, secured multiple partners who would look after them. The system had gradually come to be accepted in recognition of that reality.

The Sword Saint, who had spent his youth traveling endlessly, had wives all over the place, and in this country there were many people like him.

As a result, the people of this country had developed rather unusual views on romance.

If one wished, even same-sex marriage was possible.

The crews of merchant vessels were often made up entirely of men. And when that happened… well, such things did occur. Even in this country, it was rare for same-sex relationships to go as far as marriage, but they were not condemned.

“…Come to think of it, how is my brother-in-law doing?”

Thinking idly of marriage, Cornelia’s thoughts turned to her sister’s spouse. She had seen him a little while ago, but there had not been enough time then for a proper greeting.

“He ought to be getting worked half to death by Father in the domain. That marriage was arranged so he could manage the territory, after all, so he had better do his best. I imagine he is scurrying around like a puppy while Father scolds him.”

Emilia’s marriage, too, had been political, and apparently the two of them were not the sort of couple who saw each other often. At this rate, they might well end up without children, but in this country, where adoption was commonplace, that was hardly considered a problem.

“Getting drilled by the Marquis, is he? I’m sure he’s buried in studies. If it were me, I’d run away after a single day.”

“So would I. I gave up on studying accounting after one day.”

The two sisters laughed together.

These sisters were, at heart, hopeless muscle-brains built for physical action. They were geniuses when it came to anything athletic, but dreadful at studying.

“When I met him the other day, I had no time and behaved terribly rudely, so I’d like to go offer a proper greeting at leisure.”

“…Ah, back when those sisters were there. I haven’t met them myself yet, but it seems the two of them have become surprisingly useful to the territory.”

Those sisters referred to Count’s daughter Eileen of the Nemophila Knights, and the knight Evelyn, who had stirred up no end of trouble during the Citadel Dungeon affair.

As the price for saving Eileen’s life, the two of them had both abandoned their status and names, assumed the identity of sisters, and taken refuge in the marquis family’s territory.

The one who had escorted them there had been Cornelia.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“What’s this? For someone who went to the trouble of taking them all the way to the territory, that’s a rather cool response. You don’t seem very concerned about them…”

“That’s not true.”

In truth, Cornelia did not have a particularly favorable impression of those two. Uncle Gry had ordered her to make arrangements for them to live in the marquis family’s territory, and she had done so out of sheer necessity, but inwardly she still harbored unresolved resentment.

They had caused Dietrich to suffer grave injuries, and in order to save Eileen, they had forced Roa to use up precious medicinal herbs. Under the circumstances, a chilly attitude on Cornelia’s part was hardly unreasonable.

As long as she heard they were alive and well, she had no reason to concern herself further.

“It seems the older sister is trusted enough that there’s even talk of stationing her at the manor in the royal capital… ah, it seems an order has arrived from the Queen!”

Abruptly, Emilia looked up toward the sky, then sprang to her feet with a sharp motion.

In the direction of her gaze was a silhouette unlike that of a seabird. It was a small bird trained for messages. Though small, it too was a kind of magic beast, intelligent enough to distinguish between people and deliver a letter to the designated recipient.

The bird came swooping straight toward Emilia.

“It’s an emergency, Coney!”

Emilia read the letter the little bird had brought and cried out. The soft smile from moments before vanished, and she turned a grave look upon Cornelia.