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2019 Halloween Special

 

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Translator: Nat

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A Certain Town Away from the Capital――

We walk along the city street under the setting sun.

Countless lamps on either side illuminate the path lined with street stands and citizens clamor noisily.

「Ah, today is the day of the festival.」

Was it the pumpkin festival or the exorcism festival again?
In the past few years, they’ve been mixing together..

「It looks like this is a festival where people dress up as monsters to combat the overflowing monsters and also eat pumpkins.」

The cute Celia answers.

「Fumu. It’s uncommon for monsters to be overflowing.」

I stretch while giving Celia’s head a pat.

「It’s scary. I suggest peeing and going to bed early.」

Right as I nod, something hits the back of my head.

「You two are also monsters.」

Celia and I exchange looks, confirm each other’s red eyes and fangs, and pound a fist on our hand softly in realization.

「And can’t you stop sleeping at night and waking up in the morning already? It feels like I’m the one living slovenly.」

Lucy brings her extremely beautiful face close to mine, clearly angry.

「It’s hard to break such a human habit.」
「As for me, I don’t know if it’s because my body shrunk, but I get sleepy when I stay up at night.」

Indeed, as Lucy said, Celia and I are not human.
We are vampires, monsters that live in the night.

No matter how much foolishness we engage in and no matter how much we may get swept up by the atmosphere of the festival, we must not forget that.
When we are in a city, we must remain vigilant at all times and not allow our identities to be discovered.

Celia and I take our seats, our red eyes covered by our hoods and our cold hands hidden under our gloves.

「You’re going into a bar right after saying that!? Wah, that was close. This shop has a silver knife hanging there.」

Lucy slumps her shoulders.

「Now now, fortunately we still look like humans, one glass should be fine.」

I smile as I yell out an order of food and drinks to the old man behind the counter.

The old man narrows his eyes and inspects us, muttering a question.

「Are you……vampires?」

Lucy’s face distorts and Celia straightens her back like it was spring-loaded.
He saw through us in an instant.

I reply with my arms folded, trying to avoid eye contact.

「How did you know?」

He did not appear flustered in the face of vampires.

「All three of you are wearing plain black cloaks with hoods, you made a deliberate effort to avoid the monster-repellent at the entrance, and I caught a glimpse of the red eyes and fangs. Anyone could have guessed.」

「I see. So we’re found out.」

I rest my hand on the Dual Crater.

This guy doesn’t look like anything other than a regular old man, but he boldly declared that he knows our true identities as vampires to our faces. He wouldn’t do that unless he had confidence in his skill.

As he turns his back, I consider how I should attack.

「Here.」

The old man turns around again and sets a plate down in front of me.

「How stupid. Vampires are reputed to be handsome men with pale skin like a corpse. You’re muscular and tanned, plus what kind of vampire orders a dish with roast garlic? Hahaha, that’s a bad disguise if you ask me.」

I take my hand off my sword, disgruntled.

「What do you mean bad……I’m the real deal.」

I’m more tanned now than when I was human because I carelessly expose myself to the sun and get burned.

Meanwhile, Celia and Lucy both sigh in relief and remove their hoods.

At that moment, the old man freezes up.
Crap, Lucy completely fits the definition of a vampire.

「S-so pretty……」

Oh, he froze up because of that.

Lucy sits next to me, purposely resting her boobs on the table and drawing attention to them.

「May I have a taste?」

She takes the man’s hand and licks the sauce from his finger.

「U……gh.」

The man leans over, grabbing his crotch, and stops moving.

「Boss, what are you doing at such a busy time?」

Lucy licks her lips seductively as a young employee comes to check on the old man.

「Urk.」

Similarly, the young male grabs his crotch, falls forward and becomes motionless.

Lucy cackles.

「Don’t play with them. Your stunning beauty is abnormal as is. Not to mention how suggestive your clothes are……」

At first glance, Lucy’s all-black attire looks plain and simple, however her clothes are actually tight-fitting, which emphasizes the curves of her perfectly-proportioned body. Furthermore, the fabric around her chest area and ass are thin enough for the smoothness of her skin to be noticeable.
In other words, her clothes are quite lewd.

「But when picking out clothes, it was Aegir who brought these to me. Gosh and because these are a smaller size, I can’t wear any underwear to prevent the fabric from rubbing against my nipples and……ugh, it stinks!」

「That’s enough indecent exposure!」

Celia holds roast garlic in front of Lucy.
She quickly retreats to me, but since I’ve also eaten it, she scrunches her face and slaps me. She’s so unreasonable.

「How can you eat garlic like normal when you’re vampires!? Put it back on the table. This is just the right time to give you a lesson on being a vampire!」

Lucy’s voice is loud enough to be heard outside, but none of the people in monster costumes pay any mind.

「A female teacher in tight clothes……uugh!」
「A lady exposing herself……guh!」

The store owner and young employee groan again.
It’s starting to smell fishy, go change your clothes.

***

「Now then.」

Lucy raps the table.
Celia and sit side-by-side opposite to her.

How nostalgic.
My cheeks relax as I am reminded of the time I was taught by her in the forest just like this.

「Don’t open your mouth until the stench disappears.」

A lemon is stuffed in my mouth.

「Let me start with something that you absolutely must know. It’s regarding our weakness.」

Celia takes out a notepad, a lemon similarly stuffed in her mouth.
She’s so serious even after becoming non-human.

「The greatest weakness, which goes without saying, is sunlight. Weak vampires can’t be exposed to the filtering of light through trees and reflected light, let alone direct sunlight, or they’ll be instantly turned into ash. Only the really strong vampires, like us, are able to overcome this weakness. And even so, our strength drops sharply and our reaction speed falls several levels lower under the sun.」

Naturally I’m aware that the sun is our natural enemy.
After all, I’ve burned myself close to the double digits at this point.

「It is not quite in the double digits. It is 18 times……mgah.」

Celia catches the lemon that pops out of her mouth in midair and returns it to her mouth.

「Next is water. To be precise, pure running water. The degree to which vampires are resistant varies depending on the individual’s strength and the amount of water. A bucketful will be effective on a weak vampire. Average vampires can’t withstand a small stream, and stronger vampires like myself and Brynhildr will probably be finished if thrown into a large river.」

Yesterday, I played with Celia in the river, but maybe it’s better if I refrain.

「Next is silver. If you are wounded by silver, you cannot immediately regenerate, so if a large portion of your body is lopped off, you will be rendered unable to fight. The same applies for mithril.」

This one, I don’t have to worry too much about.
I’ll be fine as long as I don’t get cut, which isn’t much different to avoiding a steel sword when I was human.

「What you need to be careful about is getting burned from the slightest touch and the resulting vapor. I was also found out like that, so be wary of expensive tableware.」

Lucy embraces her body with a distant look in her eyes.
I reach out and try to comfort her, but she smacks me away as I still stink. That makes me sad.

「Last is garlic. It won’t kill you or hurt you, however it is something you naturally hate and you’ll feel like puking. Since it has nothing to do with strength, vampires can’t endure it. You can’t enter houses with these things hanging around.」

I wonder if it’s really that bad.

「I mean, I can eat it, no problem. Or rather……」
「I like it, the distinct stimulation is stronger than when I was a human.」

When I tilt my head and look at the garlic in my hand, Lucy stares at me like I just confessed a perverted fetish.

Well, if she dislikes it so much, I’ll stop eating it in front of her.
I’ll do it secretly when she’s asleep.

「By the way, I have a question.」
「Go ahead.」

Lucy happily points at Celia when she raises her hand.

「You keep mentioning strong and weak. What is the standard for determining that?」

Lucy hits the table and rubs Celia’s head.
It looks like she wanted to hear that question.

「A vampire’s strength is their strength as a human multiplied by their parent’s strength multiplied by their age.」

Fumu fumu, so there’s a way to calculate it.

「If the vampire was a highly-trained knight, they would be strong and naturally vampires transformed by a powerful vampire will be strong. Furthermore, the longer a vampire lives, the stronger they become. For example, I was just a regular village girl and my parent was probably an ordinary vampire, but after living for over 500 years, I’ve become quite strong.」

Celia writes down the explanation in her notepad and glances at me.
Then her eyes shift to Lucy.

「Then didn’t you do something horrible?」
「……I wanted to live with him for eternity. Besides, I could care less about the human world.」

Both of them give me weird looks and then strike the table lightly.

「Next is regarding food. The only source of nourishment for a vampire is blood! You two newborns can go a few days without eating, whereas a vampire like me can go up to a year without eating, but the point is that we need blood to survive.」

Vampires are associated with blood-sucking, that’s obvious.

「You are able to eat other foods, however they are not necessary for survival and don’t particularly taste good as it isn’t something your instincts desire.」

「Food doesn’t taste good?」

The rare steak and sweet pumpkin cake I ordered are sitting on the table.

I take a big bite of the steak while Celia chomps down on the cake.

「「Delicious!」」

「……」

Lucy seems a bit confused, but clears her throat and continues.

「Anyways, I want to mention that not all blood tastes the same. In my experience, blood of the opposite sex tastes good, with the best tasting blood belonging to virgins. Those especially in the 12 to 15 age range will make your cheeks go……ahem.」

Lucy slaps her face to regain her composure.

「The blood of older virgins has an odd bitter taste, which makes it hit-or-miss compared to normal humans. Also, children who are too young have blood that is watery and no depth of flavor, plus it’s ethically wrong to target them. And those with illnesses give off an offensive smell.」

「Hmm.」
「This is monster talk……」

The taste of blood is pretty deep, huh.

「In the end, it’s a matter of preference. Haven’t you also drained a considerable amount, Aegir?」

Indeed, I’m already a monster.
I’ve sucked the blood of a significant number of females.

「You’re limiting yourself to women, I see.」
「Stubbornly refusing to suck blood of men.」

Of course.
Sucking a man’s foul blood is like sucking waste, I’m not doing that.

「I think I might prefer married women and widows who are older more so than young virgins.」

Certainly, the blood of young virgin girls is tremendously tasty.
The problem is getting to the blood-sucking part.

I have to hold them and sink my fangs into them when I suck their blood, and the girls always scream in terror.
No matter how much of a delicacy their blood is, hearing their cries and seeing their tears makes my mouth taste muddy water.

「Isn’t it the same for married women?」

I shake my head at Lucy.

「Being older and married, they are going to have a high sex drive. When I hug them from behind and let them touch my dick, their resistance weakens drastically.」

「You’re just a molester!」

I ignore Celia’s comment.

「When I rub my erect dick against them as I steal their lips and pleasure their bodies, they don’t resist.」
「……what about blood-sucking?」

I disregard Lucy’s remark.

「Then, all I have to do is push them down and penetrate, and as I’m swinging my hips, I’ll suck their blood in the confusion, and either they don’t notice or they notice and accepts it. The woman whose blood I received yesterday wiped my body afterward and even told me where she lived. She’ll also lower a signal light from her window on the days her husband is away, so I can probably go suck her blood whenever I want.」

「「You’re no more than an adulterer!」」

I take their blood while fulfiling my sexual urges born from the blood-sucking.
Comparing the satisfaction from that makes the differences in the taste blood trivial.

「Aegir-sama is still Aegir-sama even after becoming a vampire……」
「Seriously, this kid……I’ve never heard of a vampire who steals wives.」

It was at that time.

「Have you heard, about Azaze and his gang?」

The conversation of certain men pierces through the noise and reaches my ears.

「Hey hey, don’t get involved with those brutes. It won’t end well.」

「I’ve already cut ties. It’s just that I heard an unusual story……it seems those guys captured two elves in the city.」

My smile stiffens and I unconsciously focus on my sense of hearing.

「Elves in the city? Not in a secluded forest?」

「Apparently they entered his hideout on their own……or something. They were searching for ingredients for a medicine, I think.」

The exchange between the two men continues.

「I don’t get it, but I feel sorry for them. Getting captured by Azaze means they’ll never see the sun again.」

As I feel myself rising out of my seat, I stop half-way, slightly bent over.

「I am no longer a human and I’ve departed from the royal palace. Strictly speaking, it has nothing to do with me anymore.」

「Yes, that’s right.」

Lucy nods with a grin.

「It seems they’ll be loaded onto a boat and shipped out today.」

I pour all the alcohol and food on the table into my belly.

「I haven’t said goodbye to those girls yet. Which means, I’m allowed an extension.」
「True.」

Lucy answers with a wide smile as I take long strides to where the men are sitting.

---

We are at one of the warehouses located near the port.

「This place is crawling with ugly lookouts. I guess this is it.」

I can see clearly because it’s a moonless night.

「Are we rushing in?」

Celia asks, crouched over like a cat.

「No, I want to check just to be sure. If this isn’t the right place, it would eat up precious time.」

I glance at Lucy.

「Fufu, leave it to me.」

Lucy, who isn’t interested in human affairs, is for some reason eager today.

「Come over this way~」

Her eyes glow as she beckons a lookout towards her.

「Sure, I’m coming.」

The man walks unsteadily in her direction.
So that’s her charm at work.

「I’m here. What would you like me to do next?」

「Tell me about the two captured elves.」

He nods obediently, his face devoid of any emotion.

「She said she wanted to buy ingredients for a medicine, some of which are illegal and rare and can’t be bought in the city. It was to make a revival medicine or something……I don’t really know. The other elf was a pervert.」

It’s confirmed.

I twist the man’s neck around three times and toss him into the river.

「What was that sound? Did something fall?」

I run right through the middle of two lookouts who approach with torches in their hands.

「Hm?」
「What was that?」

There aren’t alerted.
Human eyes cannot see me when I move at such high speeds.

Maintaining full speed, I charge head-first into the wall of the warehouse.

It can’t be considered smashing through.
Rather, I’m simply running into the warehouse so fast that I tear through the paper-thin door.

Roughly twenty men are working inside.
There, I can see suspicious-looking drugs, weapons that could only be obtained through smuggling, and chained-up crying young girls with swollen cheeks.

「What the-?」

The men turn their eyes to the hole in the wall.
Simultaneously, the heads of six men slide off their bodies and fall to the ground.

「Eh?」
「What happened?」

One of the severed heads asks in confusion.
It was so fast that he remained conscious.

No magic was used.
No projectiles were used.

I just rushed in and twisted their heads before they could see anything.

「I see, you are not of human speed.」

I pause and scan my surroundings.
Slaves are present, but I can’t find the elves in question. It’s also unlikely for there to be an underground room in this kind of warehouse.

「What on earth are――?」

Before the man resembling the boss could finish his sentence, I slit his throat.
I’m in no mood for unnecessary talking.

「Where are the elves?」

I inquire, pressing his head down to close his slit throat.
He should be able to talk now, right?

「Hyu……hyu……」

Seeing he can’t, I release him and let his head completely disconnect from his head.

「G-get him!!」

Another man shouts.

「Dogs, sic the dogs on him!」

Chains are unlocked and multiple aggressive-looking guard dogs run at me barking viciously.
I don’t move an inch and fix my eyes on the dogs.

「Bite him to death!」

The lead dog makes eye contact with me about three meters away.

Instantly, the dog plants its feet and freezes.
Then it lets out a whimper louder than its initial bark and curls up.

「Oh, how well-behaved. I didn’t want to kill dogs needlessly, having one myself in the past.」

I give the dog a pat on the head, but it passes out from extreme fear.

「What happened……those dogs were trained to kill humans.」
「How would I know? But they’re useless now! We’ve gotta kill him!」

The men grab weapons and collectively charge at me.

「Compared to the clever dog, you guys are hopeless idiots.」

「Dieeee.」

A large man roars as he swings down his greatsword.

「I already did a while ago.」

I catch the blade with my bare hand, crush his sword and jam the broken iron fragments into the man’s mouth.

「Drop dead!」

A crossbow is fired from ten meters away.

「I’m already dead.」

I catch the bolt in my mouth, close the distance between me and the user in a split second, and stab the man slowly in the right eye with the bolt.

「You monster!」

A chubby man swings his axe at me.

「Oh, so you know.」

I kick him in the stomach from below.
He flies up like he was shot out of a cannon and crashes through the ceiling, his body breaking apart in midair.

「I’ll ask again. Where are the elves?」

I’m not saying I’ll spare them if they answer.
I have no intention of doing so. It’s not good to lie.

「W-we have to do it.」
「Or we’ll be killed……!」

The men still choose to attack me.

「I’ll fight too!」

Celia slides in.

One of the men sees it as a chance to prove himself and changes target to the smaller Celia.
He swings his hammer at Celia, who looks no older than a 13 or 14 year old girl.

「Hmph!」

She blocks the strike with one hand, lifts up the hammer along with the man, and slams both things into the wall.
As a vampire, she is also capable of such inhuman feats, but it really conflicts with her outer appearance.

「T-this is how it feels to fight like Aegir-sama……fufu, fufufu!」

Celia takes out a dagger like usual and throws it.
It zooms through the air, piercing shields and wooden crates before shooting holes into two enemies positioned in a line.

「Fuhahaha, your defenses are useless! Have a taste of my attack!」

She’s drunk on her strength, but it should be fine.
This isn’t a fight anymore. It’s a massacre.

Only an extremely small number of humans exist who can match us in our inhuman states.

「More importantly, don’t kill all of them. We won’t know where the elves are.」

「Fuhahahaha! Surrender to my unbeatable power!」

Can she hear me? Is she okay?

「Up we go……wah, there are spikes everywhere. If I’m not careful, my clothes will get caught on them and get torn.」

Lucy leisurely walks through the hole in the wall.
The eyes of the men glimmer, seeing their final hope.

「Take her as a hostage!」
「Don’t move, miss. I’m sure you don’t want to get hurt!」

The remaining men run over to Lucy.

「Keep me out of it. You guys can go at each other.」

Two men unnaturally stop moving and without hesitation start clashing.

「We’re going to fight!」
「I know! We’re going to fight each other!」

A third man forcefully pulls the two men apart.

「What are you idiots doing!? This is no time to be fighting each other! The three of us will――」

Lucy grins broadly as she whispers something.

「「「We’ll die.」」」

The trio aim their respective weapons at their throats and stab themselves.

「Aegir, by now the ship has already left the port. It seems like they were in a hurry though.」

I peer outside through the hole in the wall.

「Take care of this place.」

「’Kay.」

I jump out into the dark night.

I see the ship, but it’s far away.
It’s 300 meters from the quay, which is too much of a distance for me to jump even with a vampire’s leaping ability.

「Diving into the river is probably a bad idea.」

I’m not stupid enough that I would forget the lecture I received from Lucy.

That means I’ll have to find a ship……no, I won’t make it in time.
They are heading downstream. I won’t be able to catch up if they ride the current.

Then I catch a glimpse of a small boat next to the port.

「A boat for night fishing? If I use it as a platform to jump off……no, that’s still not good enough.」

One more. If only there was one more ship.

That’s when I spotted something.

Suddenly, an object surfaces above the water.
Is that a log?

「In any case……its position is perfect.」

I mutter, running out at the same time.

My legs carry me faster than the wind all the way to the edge of the quay, where I leap as far as I can.
I travel 80 meters in the air and land on the small fishing boat.

「Gyaa! What the-!?」

I gather and push off from the boat, leaping another 80 meters, the force temporarily sinking the boat. It’s an emergency, so please forgive me.

I land on the object that floated up.
What I thought to be a log is actually strangely bouncy and larger than I expected.

The part resembling a face which emerges from the water is five meters wide while the part under the water’s surface is 20 meters wide and over 100 meters long.

It’s out of my control at this point, so I simply bend my legs and jump off the object.

I was planning to use willpower to swim the rest of the way if I fell short, however the final foothold was more stable than anticipated and I was able to cover the entire distance.

I land directly onto the deck with a loud boom.
Oh, is the rumbling of the port city my imagination?

「Who the hell are you!?」

I smirk and set down the Dual Crater.

「I have no name. I’m merely a wicked monster.」

I say before my eyes glow red.
Please, I hope it isn’t as bright as a lighthouse. Just glow moderately……alright, that’s good.

「This guy’s eyes! He’s not human!」

The men who gathered back away from me.
Although they don’t have night vision, I’m sure they can see the festival going on in the port city.

「Today is a day when monsters are abundant. It’s just one of those nights.」

I bare my fangs at the men and pounce.

I rampage as a monster instead of wielding the Dual Crater.

My bare hands rip their bodies apart through the armor.

I grab one man’s shoulder and cleave his torso, dismantling him.

「Right, we have the smuggled cannons! Let’s use them!」

I sense a cannon being aimed at me.
But at the moment right before it was fired, I close the distance faster than the human eye can follow, lop the head of the shooter and cram it into the barrel of the cannon.
A terrifying scene ensued when the cannon fired.

The rampage lasted only a few minutes, and nobody else wanted to attack me.

「It’s finally halfway through the night.」

I gaze up at the sky with a smile.
Their numbers are also reduced to half.

「Come morning, the nightmare will end. If you can survive until then, you’ll be spared.」

Despair clouds all of their faces.
Half of the remaining men abandon ship by jumping in the river, the other half drop their weapons and fall to their knees.

***

I enter the ship’s interior without bothering to bind them with rope.
It doesn’t matter if they try to block my path or target me from behind.
The gap in strength between us is so great that they can’t do anything.

Soon, I find a room which had been converted into a sort of prison possibly in order to transport slaves.

「Urk……I knew not to get close to those kind of people too.」

「You became so agitated that you made an error in judgement. What a disgrace.」

Contained in the prison are two familiar elves, stark naked.
Both are hiding their privates with their hands and their ears are flapping about, making me smile even in such a dire situation.

「Nothing can be done if there isn’t a corpse. In the first place, the existence of a revival medicine is a dream within a dream. However, if I don’t do something, if I don’t run, I’ll be crushed by the sadness.」

「You fell in love with a human despite being an elf……seriously, you are so unsightly.」

Contrary to what was being said, it didn’t sound like insults.

「I am grateful to you. I was prepared to be violated and have my virginity stolen, but because you caused a fuss, you took the brunt of it all……thank you.」

「What are you saying? I just opposed those lowly scum as the proud elf I am. Ah, and yet those vulgar and dirty men took turns……how humiliating!!」

「Geez, I already thanked you, but why do you look so happy after what happened!?」

I can’t stifle my laughter any longer.

Their conversation stops abruptly and the air becomes strained with murderous intent and a sense of tension.

「So you’ve come again, savage human scum! Your foul stench makes it hard to even breath! I bet you want to stick your dirty thing in my――」

I give them clothes and bend the bars of the cage.

Both of them are speechless.

And, with the Dual Crater in hand, I deliver my farewell message.

One of them ignores the clothes and hangs onto my arm, pleading me not to leave.
I respond with the shake of my head.

The other resolves herself and inhales deeply.

「I love――」

I simply smile and let the words go in one ear and out the other.
I don’t accept her declaration.

Nevertheless, she doesn’t give up.

「I’m a elf. Even if hundreds of years pass, one day……I will surely-!」

I leave with a mixed expression on my face.

The men who surrendered still remain seated on the deck when I emerge from within the ship.

I set my Dual Crater on the floor.

「W-we won’t resist anymore. Please spare us.」

「Return the ship to the port. I don’t know how to operate it.」

The men desperately take the helm and row the oars.

I can’t let the ones who stripped and violated the two elves escape free.
But I can’t tie them up one by one and hand them over to the authorities either.

「I’ll nail them down along with the guys in the warehouse.」

I nod to myself after coming to a conclusion.

---

The Next Morning.

I peek through a crack in the window of an inn and check the situation on the port.
No longer am I dumb enough to swing it wide open and burn myself.

Outside, I see the guards of the naval patrol puke.

Seasick?
Pathetic for officers of the navy.

「I don’t think so.」
「It’s probably because they’re disgusted by that.」

Really now?
Letting them go was out of the question, and I didn’t want to make an effort to tie each of them, so I thought it would be good enough to pin all of them to the outside of the ship with a thick nail for boats.

「Oh, you actually came. I was getting uneasy because you’ve been skipping work lately.」

The person I wanted showed up.

「Ivanna. Being demoted to naval patrol captain…… is because of your drinking.」

Ivanna wobbles with a bottle of alcohol in her hand and walks unsteadily into the boat with people nailed on all sides of it.

Shortly after, she bursts out of the ship like a different person.

「Did you do something?」

I wrote a little message inside.

「With blood and guts?」

Take it easy on me.
I’m not human.

Ivanna scans the city from the port and coincidentally shouts in the exact direction of the inn I’m staying at.

70 percent of what she yelled were insults, 20 percent was to say farewell, and the last 10 percent was an expression of love.

「By the way Aegir-sama, that rumbling yesterday was incredible.」

Celia comments.

「Rumbling……oh, I think I saw that or maybe not. I can’t tell, since I was on the water.」

I am instantly reminded of the Dard mountain, but this area is nowhere close so it shouldn’t be an issue.

「The old man in the inn was frightened. Apparently, there is a local legend of a water creature in the river.」

A legendary water creature?
I know this is coming from a non-human, but it sounds fishy.

「From what I hear, this creature is called the god of the river and appears once every few decades, and is pleased if you offer food and drinks, but can wreck all the cities along the river in a fit of anger if you manage to disrespect it. It seems the shaking is an omen of that.」

Fumu, I see.

「Do you think it’s considered disrespectful to step on its face really hard?」

Lucy and Celia nod.

I hear screams and shouts outside mixed with the sound of boats capsizing.

「……I was trying to end things cleanly, why does it always turn out this way?」

「The greatest enemy of eternity is boredom. A few incidents here and there can spice things up once in a while, don’t you think?」

Lucy glances out the window and gasps.
Crap, I think a house was just destroyed.

「If only it was once in a while……ah, cannons are being fired now.」

I have to fight with some unknown monster under the sun.
What should I do?

「This life is truly one that is never boring.」

Smiling, I descend the stairs of the inn.

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