3 bar menu

Chapter 63 – Part 2

I had to admit that compared to the rest of the male students, I had a good reputation for not leering at the girls. There had even been ridiculous rumors about me being disinterested in women. Of course, I made sure to nip these rumors in the bud the moment they had started.

「Huh, it’s just that none of the girls at the Magic Academy has caught Dran’s great eyes.」Lenia chimed in, sounding fairly displeased.

As a creation of the goddess Caravis, Lenia seemed unable to tolerate how I was treated as a homosexual. After all, Lenia did hold deep respect for me and regarded me as her father.

「Oh, Lenia. What an adorable swimsuit. Did you choose it yourself?」

「I didn’t. I’m not interested in dressing up, so I let Fatima and Irina decide.」

For a moment, I seemed to have reached a realization about Lenia. It was a well-known fact that Lenia had never been interested in anything other than freeing her soul, at least until she met me. There was no reason for her to be interested in dressing fashionably, and this aspect of her remained unchanging to this day. Despite Irina’s efforts in helping Lenia appear more feminine, it seemed to have little effect on Lenia.

「L-Lenia said that anything was fine and we should hurry up. That was all she told us, so we tried our best.」

「It matches Lenia well, but asking her to appear more feminine seems too brutal of a request.」

「I-I may be unworthy, but if Mr. Dran asks for it, then I’ll get Irina to help me dress in a more feminine manner for your pleasure.」

Lenia’s face revealed not a shred of self-confidence as I observed her. It seemed like she was aware that she was miles away from being considered feminine.

「But even as you are now… Well… It’ll be good if you can be a little more concerned about others, though you don’t have to force yourself to be someone you aren’t.」

「Okay!」

The moment a look of relief washed over Lenia’s face, Irina and I broke out into smiles too. This was probably the first time Irina had seen such a docile Lenia.

I could spend all my time admiring everyone’s swimsuits, but it was rare for us to come to the sea. Hence, it would be too much of a waste if we failed to enjoy our time here.

Knowing that the three aristocratic girls were familiar with coming to the sea, we looked to them eagerly to lead us to have some fun. In the end, we played to our hearts’ content the entire afternoon.

＊

By the time we had exhausted all our energy playing, the spherical sun was setting on the horizon. A satisfying fatigue washed over us and we finally stopped with our fun. Drenched in salt and seawater, we headed back to the house to get ourselves clean.

I had been tanned dark by the sun, though the girls were different. The sunscreen ointment they had applied had kept them from being burnt by the sun’s rays.

Although slightly tanned skin did make one seem healthy, it was hard for me to make an absolute decision on whether fair or tanned skin was better.

After I washed off the dirt and changed my clothes, I was planning on returning to the villa for dinner and a bath before going to bed. However, it struck me how fast time flew by when we were having fun.

As for Christina, she seemed to have taken a liking to the straw hat. Even after changing back to her usual shirt, she continued to have the straw hat on. I watched her as she hummed a little tune, which made me break out into a smile.

After a fairly long walk, the villa slowly came into sight. The setting sun was already halfway hidden under the horizon. The entire area was dyed in a bloody red—an ominous shade of crimson.

It was as though the sunset was a hole in the world, where blood gushed out and beckoned for them to appear.

I had been chatting happily with Christina all this while until a feeling of something rising up the cliff from the sea struck me. Instantly, all joy within me dissipated.

I summoned the longsword I had left at the villa, whereas Lenia, Christina, and Nell immediately went to grab their respective weapons.

The scent of the tides intensified, though it was a rotting stench that came with it. This horrifying odor assaulted our lungs, easily making us feel sick.

It was a familiar stink that spurred me to recall the murders those noble ladies had been talking about.

There was no doubt about my suspicions. These guys were definitely the culprits. I immediately warned everyone else around me about the Ocean Demons’ attack.

「It’s the Ocean Demons. Don’t use any water attacks.」

Since these were monsters and demons that appeared from the sea, it was evident that they would be able to control water or have armaments infused with magical water abilities. I might be worrying unnecessarily, but I genuinely wished my anxieties would not turn into reality.

Fatima, who was not trained to fight, was thrown into panic as she saw us gearing up for an attack. At that very moment, strange figures started appearing from the edge of the cliff.

Hands covered in webbed green scales clung to the edge of the cliff as horrifying beings scampered up. They seemed nothing like humans as they gradually came into sight before us.

The height of each of these fish-like people was twice my height as they padded over on two feet. The scales that covered their whole body were in a myriad of colors of green, blue, and red. Small shells and seaweed clung to them as seawater dripped from their bodies.

They bore sharp fangs and claws, making them different from the usual merfolk or mermaids. They were the lowest-ranked Ocean Demons created by the evil gods determined to destroy all existence birthed by the good gods.

Either we or these Ocean Demon soldiers had to make the first move. In that case, I swung the longsword I had summoned and a burning heat seared my cheeks. It was likely that the skin on my cheeks was scorched by now.

Vaje was glaring daggers at these Ocean Demon soldiers as flames emitted from her body, almost melting the stony pavement under her feet. Her fury right now was almost like that one time I had jokingly prodded her in the cheeks for fun.

「Despicable Ocean Demons! How dare you appear on your own accord and disrupt our fun. I’ll make sure you have a lasting taste of a dragon’s flame as your souls are burnt to crisp!」

It seemed like Vaje had really enjoyed speaking to Fatima and the rest. As a result, these Ocean Demon soldiers who had mindlessly disrupted Vaje’s fun had ended up sparking her anger.

Christina had long since drawn her beloved sword. As for Nell and Sierra, they had finished with their spell chants and seemed to be waiting for a chance to strike. However, Vaje’s furious outburst had stopped them in their tracks.

Amongst the few of them, Christina seemed to be the most stunned by the raging Vaje. After all, Christina was in a lineage of dragon hunters. When faced with an angry dragon right now, it was understandable how her body had frozen reflexively.

Vaje’s red lotus flames, burning fury, and murderous spirit rolled off her, causing the Ocean Demons charging at us to stiffen and stop.

It was at this moment that we realized Vaje was regarding these Ocean Demons differently than the prey she fed on.

「I’ll burn the souls of all you rotting seawater trash till there’s nothing left of you!」

Vaje bared her fangs as she breathed fire and muttered these grim words in a quiet voice. Just by hearing her single utterance, it was clear that she was burning with agitation.

At this moment, I could sense that Vaje was genuinely pissed off.

The human skin from Vaje’s shoulders to her elbows instantly morphed into dragon scales. Meanwhile, her fingers grew plumper and sharper as she transformed her dragonian form into a state more suited for combat.

The Ocean Demons bellowed with a horrifying “Guagh!” and charged at us.

The air resounded loudly with the sound of these Ocean Demons clambering onto the cliff as they encircled us. With each passing moment, they encroached closer and closer.

Christina made an attempt to swing her sword to her right, though the Ocean Demons had already been consumed swiftly by Vaje’s flames.

Fire was supposed to have little effect on the Ocean Demons who were water types. However, the flames of an elite dragon like Vaje easily defeated these lowly ranked Ocean Demons.

Just as Vaje had proclaimed earlier, the colorful scales of these Ocean Demons were burned to ashes and not a single piece of them was left.

In the meantime, Lenia seemed to be glaring disdainfully at Vaje’s flames. She then shifted her gaze to look at the ashes of those Ocean Demons. Her eyes were overflowing with an intense contempt I had never witnessed before.

「Father… Ahem, Mr. Dran, she’s only showing off her abilities because you’re here. Am I supposed to praise her for keeping our hands clean?」

「Lenia, don’t say that. Vaje will get angry!」

Upon witnessing Vaje’s extraordinary combat abilities, Irina glanced over at Lenia with teary eyes. Yet, Lenia did not even seem to notice.

It seemed like the relationship between these two girls would continue being like this for the rest of their lives.

「I’m terrified of the wrath of crimson dragons. Just acknowledge this fact!」

「Sob, but it’s dangerous. If you’re injured, I-I’ll cry!」

「Mm.」

Fumu?

I noticed that Lenia had swallowed her retort. Instead, she had accepted the weeping Irina’s heartfelt cry.

For a moment, I was entertained by how Lenia was especially kind to Irina, despite her own lack of self-awareness. It was likely that Lenia would become more human if she continued interacting with Irina.

The air continued to be prickly with anger from Vaje’s displeasure. For some reason, she seemed dissatisfied even after burning all the Ocean Demons to ashes.

If anyone were to touch Vaje right now, their fingers would definitely turn into ashes and crumble away.

「You guys, quickly bring Fatima back to the villa. It’s not completely safe there, but it’s still better than staying here.」

Vaje’s utterance was focused solely on Fatima’s safety. From her words, I could tell how Vaje had truly grown fond of Fatima, especially after their special training together and the short afternoon at the beach today.

The spectacled butler was gripping a sterling silver dagger with each of his hands as he turned to Vaje and popped a question.

「What do you mean?」

「Tch. What a dull guy. If you’re like Sebastian, you would’ve understood right away. The air is filled with the smell of blood. These filthy Ocean Demons aren’t only appearing over here.」

Smoke could be seen rising from the coast of Gorneb and panicked cries were amplifying by the second.

It was likely that a large number of Ocean Demons were attacking Gorneb. However, I was puzzled as to their true purpose in attacking the city.

「I’ll stay here and turn these pieces of trash into ashes. You guys, hurry up and get back to the villa.」

「Fumu, I’ll stay with you, Vaje. Fatima, return to the villa with Selina, Sierra, and Nell. After that, I want you and the villa’s guards to protect anyone who comes looking for shelter. Fatima, you can decide who to let in.」

Fatima, who had been stupefied silly by the Ocean Demons’ attack, snapped to attention when I called her name. Knowing what she could do to help now, she immediately gathered her wits.

「O-Okay, got it. I’ll get the patrol guards to look out for those fleeing!」

As expected, even someone like Fatima had turned completely serious in a crisis like this. Her usual relaxed tone of speaking had vanished.

Nell was also burning with eagerness to exterminate these Ocean Demons with us. However, her expression quickly colored over with worry for her best friend beside her.

「Yeah, we’ll protect you and the people coming to take shelter. I’ll do my part in this Ocean Demon bloodbath!」

「Leave it to me. I’ll raise hell.」

Naturally, Selina was as pumped up as I was as she stood beside me. As for Christina, she, too, offered to come with us. It was truly a blessing that she had brought Elsparda along with her.

「In that case, I’ll go with Dran and Vaje too. It’s my first time fighting these fish monsters, but there’s nothing I can’t do!」

「Hurry up. I’m dying to turn these Ocean Demons to ashes!」

A burst of flames erupted from Vaje, indicating her annoyance at the slightest matter. Despite Vaje’s worse-than-usual temper, I found her irritable nature understandable in this situation.