“Seems you’ve been enjoying yourselves…”
After being refreshed from various ways, they returned inside the submarine and were stared at by Shia.
“Ng? You are awake, eh. How’s your condition?”
“Acting as if nothing happened, but I am thankful for the worry. My drowsiness was blown away thanks to the intense shaking, the very entranced voices, and those fresh sounds. My physical condition is excellent from energy converted from emptiness and loneliness. Yeah, with this, I will be attacked, too, or so I thought.”
“I see, then that’s good.”
Hajime was truly glad that Shia recovered, but since he didn’t show any feelings of guilt, it made Shia, “Uu~,” groaned with teary eyes. Her appearance made Hajime thought he ignored her too much. Smiling wryly, he told her to make space and sat beside her.
Waking up without anyone inboard and hearing the sounds of Hajime and Yue making love from the opened hatch, made Shia truly lonely, and thus she hugged Hajime who sat beside her, tightly. Yue also sat by Shia’s side, not Hajime’s, and patted Shia’s head to comfort her.
While the two were comforting Shia, Hajime supplied his magic power to start the submarine, advancing to the east. From time to time, they were attacked by demonic beasts, but were repulsed by Yue’s magic, and they advanced for one full day. Having advanced through under the starry sky, Hajime finally caught the sight of land when the morning sunshine brightened the world.
According to the position of the stars they saw last night, the party was currently located in the north of Elisen. As such, as long as they moved towards the left side over the land, they would surely come to see the harbor along with Elisen and «Guryuu-en Great Desert».
Relieved from seeing land, they advanced south for two days.
When the sun reached the zenith on the second day, the party stopped the submarine to take a break, and had lunch above the submarine while being swayed by the wave. The menu was of course the fishes they caught in the sea. Using “Lightning-clad” to roast the food, made him recalled the time he was in the abyss. The party didn’t have any cooking utensil or any seasoning because the “Treasure Box” was entrusted to Tio.
Even so, the fish the three happily ate while absentmindedly watching the horizon was quite the delish. The location and atmosphere were compensating for the seasoning. Those who lived in the sea, or opened a stall during a festival, all of them were uses this kind of compensation.
And when Shia was enjoying the roasted unknown fish, her rabbit-ears suddenly stood straight then began to move restlessly. Following that, “Nn?,” Hajime also noticed a presence of something. Filling his mouth with a fish of about 60 centimeters in length, he moved his gaze.
Surrounding the submarine, zoom!, several people appeared from inside the sea and thrust their tridents. There were about 20 people. All of them have emerald green hair and ears that looked like fan-shaped fin. By their looks, they were a group of Sea-dweller tribe. Their eyes were overflowed with caution and dangerously narrowed.
Among them, a man faced Hajime with thrust spear and asked him.
“Who are you? Why are you here? And what’s the thing you are riding on?”
Hajime was busy chewing the fish that filled his mouth to the point of his cheeks swelling. He didn’t plan on opposing them, so he wanted to answer quickly, but unfortunately the fish he was currently eating was chewy and large. It took time before he could swallow it.
Hajime took a serious pose, but considering how he calmly ate his meal even though spears were pointed at him while being surrounded, made others see him as nothing but an impudent fellow.
Veins appeared on the forehead of the man who asked him. Anyhow, even if they had their doubts, it was too much for them to be this menacing after finding humans in the sea. Shia thought of breaking the volatile situation by answering in the place of Hajime.
“Ah, umm, please calm down. We are…”
“Silent! A Rabbitman tribe like you should not open your mouth!”
The Rabbitman tribe’s position was low even among Demi-human race outside of the Sea of Trees. How they were strangely agitated and how they stubbornly wanted Hajime, who was looking down on them (from their POV), to answer them might also be a factor. Changing the target of his spear, the man grandly thrust the spear at Shia.
The attack of a Sea-dweller tribe would not pass through Shia’s defense with her strengthened body; the thrust spear would only shallowly cut Shia’s cheek even if she didn’t dodge it. The man probably wanted to slightly hurt her to give Hajime a warning. As expected, the party felt it was abnormal. After all, the Sea-dweller tribe wasn’t this fierce.
However, that was a bad move no matter what their circumstances were. No matter, if it was for a warning, Hajime would not let go those who tried to hurt Shia.
In a moment, huge killing intent and pressure poured down like a huge cataract, spreading on the sea’s surface like a ripple, causing rough waves.
BOOOOM!!!
With his eyes opened wide, the man who was staring at Hajime’s sudden change was, blown away from his spot, accompanied by a loud sound. He bounced several times on the surface of the sea, flew while spinning, and finally sank into the sea.
With dumbfounded expressions, the remaining Sea-dweller tribe’s members moved their gaze from the blown man to Hajime who somehow was gripping the tail of a large, roasted fish with a pose of someone having done a full golf’s swing.
The splashing sea water was sparkling as it reflected the sunlight. Even the eyes of the dead fish were somehow shining.
“Wh-, wh-.”
The Sea-dweller tribe’s members were flustered.
Shouldering the somewhat eaten fish, Hajime glared at the man beside the blown away man. Needless to say, having received a pressure he never felt before, the man of Sea-dweller tribe thrust his spear while shouting as he panicked from being glared by Hajime.
“ZeeAAh!!”
Even in all of the man’s life until now, it was an attack that satisfied him the most. Having premonition of death, he instinctively did a sure-kill attack. However, the sure-kill attack pierced into the mouth of the white eyed fish and was easily stopped.
“Eh? What? H-How…”
When Hajime swung the fish, the man was dumbfounded after seeing the unbelievable spectacle, and thus the spear was easily snatched. The swinging momentum made the spear fly out from the fish’s mouth, directly hitting the face of another person of Sea-dweller tribe. Leering at the person from Sea-dweller tribe who groaned as the blood gushed out from his bleeding nose, Hajime once again swung fish.
The man whose spear was taken and thrown away had cramped cheeks because of the nonsensical scene of the white-eyed fish approaching his face with its opened mouth and somehow shining in bright red.
Then,
BAM!!!
“Hmmm?!”
He was blown away just like the man earlier.
“Munch, munch… gulp… Now then, I actually don’t want to fight against the Sea-dweller tribe. As such, why don’t we calm down and have a talk here? However, indeed I can’t stay silent if someone tries to hurt my companion… Ah, the people blown away wouldn’t die because I held back, okay?”
With the limp fish in one hand, which lost its shine, Hajime proposed after deactivating his “Pressure.” Hajime himself didn’t really want to fight the Sea-dweller tribe’s people who were of the same tribe as Myuu. Although the other side tried to kill him, he actually didn’t even see them as a neighbourhood uncle (totally ignoring them).
However, the Sea-dweller tribe didn’t seem to accept his proposal. It was because their pride seemed to have been damaged by Hajime who looked down at them expressing “you are not even my match” even though humans were at a disadvantageous position in the sea, and he had blown away their comrades even though he said they didn’t die.
Moreover, because of their abnormally high alert against the human race, they could not trust Hajime’s words at all. We must not let our guards down! They took distance from Hajime’s party, and took a stance ready to throw the short harpoons on their backs.
“I see. It’s not enough to kidnapping that child, huh? That’s why you come here again to kidnap other children of ours?”
“We won’t give you the time to cast any magic! The sea is our territory, don’t think you can return unhurt!”
“We will make you spit that child’s location even if we need to chop your limbs!”
“Don’t worry. We will keep you alive until we hand you over to the Kingdom. Your safety isn’t guaranteed though.”
It seemed to be an abnormal situation. Rather than being cautious, strong grudge could be seen lodged in their eyes. Hajime somehow understood the cause of their agitation from the words “kidnap other children.” These people were likely to have misunderstood him as the one who kidnapped Myuu. Riding on unknown transportation and taking along a slave from Rabbitman tribe while wandering around the territory of Sea-dweller tribe… It wasn’t so strange for a human like him to be misunderstood.
The Demi-human race held a very strong unity and affection towards their race. It was certainly so for their own race, but it was even stronger among their own tribe. Haulia tribe went out of the Sea of Trees just for Shia, while the Bearman tribe ignored the decision of the Chiefs’ conference to take revenge on the one who injured their chief. Even the Sea-dweller tribe wasn’t any different. Any children of their tribe are important, even they weren’t their own.
Secretly, Hajime was sulking a little as he complained, “Even if she doesn’t go her way to treat me as her father, she has these people treat her like their daughter, eh.” The mutter mixed with a wry smile was aimed at Myuu who wasn’t here. Following that, Hajime tried to say Myuu’s name to solve the misunders