Chapter 173: Things that washed ashore
In the ocean off to the northeast of the Enzo continent, there existed a nameless, small island. Very few people knew about this island. Why? Because the waters surrounding it were teeming with numerous giant sea serpents and other deadly creatures.
Nevertheless, this island had inhabitants as well. Their origin is said to be a family that was oppressed on the Enzo continent. Living a life of wandering, they were favored by a certain god and granted this island as their peaceful abode. Currently, there were around a thousand people residing on this island.
This legend was passed down among the islanders as an oral tradition, so its authenticity remains uncertain. However, the simple islanders believed in this folklore and spent their tranquil days offering prayers to the god they believed had saved them.
“La la la~? I’m a diligent worker~? For my master’s sake~? I’ll give my all~? Today too, I’ll work hard~?”
There was someone who skipped cheerfully while singing his self-made song along the island. The person was walking on a splendid paved road reminiscent of the imperial city’s. It could be said that it was a product of highly advanced technology, which was hard to believe considering this was a small island.
The person had been walking along the road for a while when he heard something unusual happening on the south side of the sea. Wondering what might be going on, he veered away from the paved road and headed towards the sound. The cause of the noise quickly became apparent to him: a massive object had washed ashore on the beach and the islanders were surrounding it.
It appeared to be a long, rugged structure covered in numerous seaweeds, resembling a jagged rock. However, the wide, weakly gaping mouth of this “rock” clearly stated that this was not the case. The presence of a tail fin on the opposite side made it evident that this was not a rock.
“Oh, it’s Lord Eins!”
“At the righto good time you’ve arrived, d’ya reckon what that might be?”
“Yeah, yeah, just hold on a tad.”
The fact that the islanders spoke the Dito language left no doubt about their origin being from the Enzo continent. However, after many years of isolation on the island, their use of Dito developed unique pronunciations and peculiar accents.
Leaving that aside, the person known as Eins approached the huge object and gently touched its surface. After it seemed to stiffen up in that state for a while, the islanders began to gaze at the huge creature in awe.
“Do ya reckon you’ve figured out anything?”
“Yeah, this here’s a Sea Emperor Whale, a kind of whale that resides in the deep sea. You hardly ever lay eyes on ’em due to where they live… but it seems to be in remarkably good condition.”
“Aaah, I’ll be, such critters exist?”
“Lord Eins, you sure do know a lot.”
While the islanders expressed their admiration and praised Eins, the man himself simply smiled wryly. What piqued Eins’s interest, more than anything, was the fact that the Sea Emperor Whale’s carcass had very few external injuries. It wasn’t completely unscathed; there were some traces of it having been nibbled on, but none of the marks appeared to be the cause of death.
Considering its size, it seemed to be an adult, but it didn’t appear to be quite old enough to die of old age yet. If it had been sick, there was a potential danger it could pose to the islanders and, consequently, Eins’s master. Just as Eins was contemplating the need to investigate the exact cause of the monster’s death, the Sea Emperor Whale’s corpse twitched.
“Whaaat?”
“Is it alive?”
The Sea Emperor Whale, previously thought to be dead, stirred, leaving the islanders in shock. Some lost their nerve and even backed away, while a few brave fishermen aimed their harpoons at it.
Eins, who had confirmed the creature was dead, knew that the cause of its movement lay inside the corpse. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that only the belly area was moving. Eins remained vigilant, prepared to react promptly should whatever was causing the movement pose a threat to the islanders.
“Eek!”
“Something’s comin’ out!”
“…Is that an arm?”
Time and time again, the Sea Emperor Whale’s belly appeared to shift, and then something resembling an arm pierced out from within. Contrary to the islanders who were frightened by this, Eins watched the emerging object without letting his guard down.
It seemed to be a human arm encased in some kind of gauntlet. It was difficult to discern its color due to the blood, but its sharp fingertips had evidently pierced through the thick belly of the Sea Emperor Whale. Eins couldn’t help but be impressed by the incredible strength behind it.
As the events unfolded, another arm emerged from the wound where the first arm had appeared. The two arms forcefully widened the wound, as if opening a door. With squelching and vivid sounds, the Sea Emperor Whale’s once pliable belly began to tear apart. The islanders could do nothing but watch in rapt attention.
“””M-monsteeeeer!”””
“He-, wait! Idiots”
What emerged from the Sea Emperor Whale was a mass of filth wrapped in a viscous, reddish-black substance. To be precise, it was a conglomerate of congealed blood, partially dissolved flesh, bones, and other stomach contents that had turned jellylike. Only the arms enclosed in gauntlets protruded from this gruesome sight.
The appearance was gruesome, and the smell was equally terrible. It emitted a noxious medley of odors, from the metallic tang of blood to the putrid stench of decay, mingled with an acrid scent reminiscent of vomit. The Islanders had been convinced that the emergence of the arm would lead to the appearance of some humanoid figure, and they were terrified by the grotesque and utterly unimaginable creature that appeared, causing them to flee in fear.
Eins wanted to caution the others against needlessly provoking the mysterious creature, but his concerns proved to be unfounded. The mysterious being that emerged from the Sea Emperor Whale stood there, seemingly indifferent to the terrified cries of the villagers. After that, the part presumed to be its head, based on the position of its arm, tilted upwards.
“Out…side… I….survi…ved…”
“Hey, hey; can it really talk? And it just collapsed.”
The creature extended both of its hands toward the blazing sun and mumbled something in a raspy voice. Then it slumped forward as if it had lost consciousness.
With a squishy sound, filth was scattered across the sandy beach. Eins was surprised by the creature’s ability to speak, so he cautiously approached it.
“Well then, let’s git a look at yer true form, shall we?”
Eins turned his palm toward the fallen creature. From his palm, he conjured water through spiritual arts and tried to flush away the filth with a reasonable force.
However, the filth proved stubborn and didn’t wash away easily. Initially, he thought it was due to the stickiness of the filth, but it appeared to be something else entirely. Beneath the filth, there was an unusually thick layer of sand. The sand had absorbed the moisture from the filth, making it clay-like.
As Eins increased the water pressure to clear the filth, he pieced together what the creature had been up to. Most likely, after being swallowed whole by the Sea Emperor Whale, it had enveloped its entire body in sand to avoid being dissolved by the stomach acid. Then it had broken through the belly from the inside.
Eins pondered the circumstances that would lead to being eaten by the Sea Emperor Whale, a creature known to dwell in the deep sea. He wondered how long the creature had endured inside its stomach. Yet, beyond the remarkable durability it displayed by surviving within the belly, he marveled at its unyielding spirit to persevere.
“Well, once I’ve cleaned ya up, I’ll be takin’ ya to master’s place. he’s sure to be mighty interested, I reckon. And we gotta figure out how to haul this here Sea Emperor Whale, too… reckon I should call Sechs and Sieben for that.”
Having decided on his course of action, Eins began to wash away the sand mixed with filth. The first thing that was exposed was the upper body. Its shape resembled that of a typical human, but the creature was lying face down, so Eins couldn’t see its face. From the well-defined muscles with no superfluous fat and numerous scars etched into the skin, it was clear that this was a battle-hardened warrior.
However, Eins didn’t find this reassuring. He had no choice but to take this warrior with him. This was because Eins’s master was incredibly curious, and even if he left the warrior behind, rumors from the islanders would inevitably reach his master’s ears, and he would be ordered to bring the warrior.
But for the sake of his master’s safety, bringing an unknown warrior close was worrisome. Eins didn’t believe his master would let his guard down, but as a loyal servant, he wanted to minimize any potential risks.
While he was pondering the need for some precautionary measures, he came to a surprising realization. What he had initially thought were gauntlets attached to the warrior’s arm were actually the warrior’s forearms.
Furthermore, the lower half of his body, which was exposed after washing away filth, was also very different from that of an ordinary person. From the knees down, it was covered in something resembling armor, just like the forearms, and a scorpion-like tail sprouted from the base of the waist.
“What’s goin’ on here? There’s nothing like this creature in the database. I sure as heck gotta take this man with me.”
Eins then casually hoisted the mysterious warrior… the Hades scorpion demon over his shoulder. And with that, he began walking towards the mansion where his master lived.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
(where…. is here?)
I tried to open my eyes…. but there were no eyelids to open. I felt like I’d been through something like this before. When was it? What were the circumstances? I just couldn’t remember.
In fact, I didn’t even have eyeballs in my current state. Strangely, though, I could somehow perceive my surroundings. I had transformed into a mushroom clinging to the surface of the towering trees that comprised the lush forest.
(No voice, no movement. I have a faint trace of fighting spirit and spiritual power, but any physical action seems impossible.)
I was analyzing my situation rationally, almost as if it were someone else’s problem. Despite the fact that it would be impossible for a fragile lifeform like a mushroom to fulfill its mission of surviving for 100 years, I felt no impatience or despair.
As I contemplated the reason for this, a single raindrop fell onto my umbrella. It appeared that the rain had started. However, this rain quickly escalated, turning into a torrential downpour that seemed as if someone had upended a bucket of water.
The raindrops struck with such force that it felt like they might peel away from the tree’s bark. From the dark clouds that unleashed this torrential downpour, rolls of thunder could be heard. Then, with a deafening roar, a lightning bolt struck a nearby large tree.
Even though it was a magnificent tree, there was no way it could withstand a lightning strike. The impact of the lightning split the tree in two, and it burst into flames, billowing smoke.
At first, I thought that the pouring rain would extinguish the fire. However, it looked like the tree struck by lightning had a high oil content. Rather than diminishing, the fire’s intensity grew with each passing moment, reaching such heights that flames shot up into the sky.
Each time the burning tree erupted, embers danced through the air, carried by the wind and scattered around. The embers and leaves, now alight, ignited the surrounding trees, causing them to billow with smoke and flames.
It seemed that the tree struck by lightning and the surrounding trees were of the same or a closely related species. Before the small embers could burn out, their surfaces ignited intensely, and the forest transformed into a sea of flames in the blink of an eye.
The large tree to which I was attached was no exception. It appeared to be a particularly flammable variety. Tiny embers, no larger than the tip of a needle, served as the ignition point, and the large tree began to blaze furiously.
As a helpless mushroom, I couldn’t escape the flames that would undoubtedly consume me, nor could I endure the heat. I was simply engulfed in flames and died very quickly.
“…it was a dream after all.”
As I, the mushroom version of myself had burned to ashes, I murmured upon waking. The reason I remained calm even when I turned into a mushroom was because, somewhere deep down, I knew it was a dream.
The sense of déjà vu likely stemmed from having had a similar dream before. Did I become a small fish the previous time? Whatever it was, dreaming of my own death was never a pleasant experience.
“Still, where is this…?”
“Hey there, did you wake up?”
“Wha…?!”
I jolted in surprise. I had been lying on a soft bed. Someone spoke to me as I attempted to assess the current situation by surveying my surroundings. Upon seeing their face, my mind went completely blank. The one before me was… Orvo, the man who should have been dead.
**********
TN: Well that a shock!
Btw, that Eins guy said database in English.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆webnovel