★
“Please keep such dangerous training beyond the sight of the children, all right honey?” Upon being chastised by his wife, a new idea occurred to Shouzou.
“Let’s change the way we think about this.”
“Change the way...... we think about this......?”
“Indeed. You get seasick because you’re riding a ship. Then the answer is simple: just don’t ride a ship.”
“I see...... eh, you mean for me to continue swimming the entire time?”
“There’s no need to swim either.”
Sidorias tilted his head in puzzlement. Right then, Hina’s laughter from on high caused him to look up, which turned out to be the exact moment when the blue dragon and Hina passed by right above his head.
“I have no experience riding on a flying-type magic beast either, just saying.”
“What are you saying? There’s no need to ride anything either. You will challenge the dragon with but your body.”
“How, if I’m not swimming?”
“Just run.”
“What......” On Sidorias’s face was sheer disbelief. That was just too tall an order.
“The method is simple. First you put one foot onto the water surface. Then before that foot sinks, take a step with the other foot. Then before that foot sinks, kick the water with the first foot and move forward. Then just rinse and repeat.”
“Oh sure, you make it sound easy!” But it was impossible to actually put that into practice.
“Papa, you’re talking about the ninja walk, right?” Having escaped from Yuna’s scolding, Kana’s head popped up all of a sudden.
“Kana, can you do it?”
“Hehe, well just watch.” Kana got down into a crouching start on the sand, then shot forward like a rocket.
“UryaaaAAAAA—” Her feet moved with incredible speed as she cut through the approaching and receding waves...... until the water got to around her waist, at which point she gave up and simply began swimming.
“Pfft, you didn’t actually do it.”
“Ahaha, yeah it’s not possible.” Kana scratched her head sheepishly while bobbing in the water.
Just then, Hina and Puru alighted.
“Kana-onee-sama, let’s play together~”
“Good idea! And let’s call Yuna-nee too! It’s about high time the two of you learned how to swim. I’ll teach!”
“Ya~ay~!” Just as Hina was hopping up and down on Puru’s back from excitement—
“Kueh!” Abruptly, Puru raised its voice and turned to glare toward the open sea.
“Oh?” It was Kana who first noticed that something was up. She felt the water pulling out toward the sea.
The next instant, a gigantic magic beast burst out from the far off ocean surface.
At first glance, the thing that had caused such an eruption of water seemed like a moray eel. Its long body was vertically thin, and sunlight reflected off of its crystal-like scales in rainbow-colored rays. The sharp horn protruding from its upper jaw gave its head the impression of a swordfish.
Despite the distance, it was all too easy to see that it was no normal size.
It was perhaps as long as two copies of the dark dragon that Shouzou had previously faced off against lining up side by side with wings outstretched.
“The rumored water dragon......” murmured Shouzou.
“I find it hard to believe that there are two of them in these waters, so most likely, yes it is,” replied Sidorias bitterly.
It was quite far away.
As water dragons usually didn’t have a habit of getting close to land, the possibility of them being attacked was low.
However, when considering how hard it normally would be to locate it, Shouzou wanted to settle this matter right then and there.
But that said, it was forbidden for a staff member of an adventurer’s guild to do anything that could constitute as contribution toward the completion of a quest.
“So then, what should I do...... hm?” With a shudder, all his hair stood on end.
The magic beast had the front half of its body exposed above the ocean and was swaying back and forth. With its horn pointed straight into the sky, it opened its mouth and roared.
The soundwave exploded like a thunderous clap.
After a slight delay, an enormous wave began rushing out from the magic beast’s location.
At five meters tall, the approaching wave almost seemed like an encroaching castle wall.
Kana managed to hop onto Puru’s back and escape into the air, but at this rate, the other children playing by the waterside would be swallowed up when the wave crashed.
Shouzou clenched his fists—
“URARARARARARARA!!”
—and unleashed a barrage of straight punches. It was effectively a carpet bombing of missiles generated by the shockwaves of his punches. The tall wave was quickly broken down, at which point the water reversed direction and rushed back into the sea.
The waves approached and receded as a part of the natural process.
Therefore, Shouzou broke down each approaching wave, taking a brief break each time the ocean pulled back. He made sure to gradually adjust the power of his punches to match the decreasing strength of each successive wave. By the time he lowered his fists, the ocean had reverted to its usual calm self.
“Fuu......” Seeing that everyone else had safely evacuated, Shouzou let out a sigh of relief. But then a diabolical smile came over his face.
“For the water dragon to hand me justification on a platter......” They had just received what could clearly be construed as an attack, and his family had indeed been exposed to danger.
This was more than enough justification to offset the rules that forbade him from fighting. So Shouzou sped forward in a straight line, right toward the water dragon.
“HE’S ACTUALLY RUNNING ON TOP OF THE WATER?!”
Seawater is, of course, liquid. However, in the case of an impact with something at a high enough velocity, it behaves like a solid. But that said, this was not a feat that just anyone could pull off.
But true to his own words, Shouzou was simply taking the next step before his other foot sank, and in this way running steadily over the ocean surface.
“DooryaaAAAHH!” He jumped.
From his position directly beside the water dragon’s maw, he tightened his body to unleash an incredible blow.
But at that exact moment, a wind rushed by from behind him.
Another dragon shot past Shouzou in the air. Then a tiny silhouette jumped off from its back.
“Otoo-sama, bullying is bad~!” As if in an effort to protect the water dragon, Hina spread out both her hands as she got in Shouzou’s way.
But with that said, she did just throw herself off into empty space, so that was immediately followed up by a “I’m~ fal~ling~” as she succumbed to the laws of gravity.
Shouzou used the momentum originally intended for the punch to grab his daughter just as their trajectories crossed, then jumped at the swordfish-like part protruding from the water dragon’s upper jaw.
“Hina, why did you stop me?”
“This dragon is asking for help~”
“I see. So it is asking for help. Does that mean you can understand what this magic beast is saying?”
“I don’t know~” Shouzou found it hard to keep a stern face before Hina’s full-faced beam.
“Then how do you know that it is asking for help?”
“Puru-sama told me~ Hina-sama can sort of understand what Puru-sama is saying~”
This water dragon looked like a snake or a moray eel. But in spite of their wildly different appearances, the two were still of the same species. Perhaps as a blue dragon, Puru could feel something from it.
As for Puru, it circled around the water dragon’s head several times, then came to position itself right next to Shouzou and Hina.
The whole time, the water dragon obediently kept its head directed toward the sky. Its googling pupil rotated over. Within its depths, there seemed to be sadness and pain that threatened to spill out as tears.
Shouzou carefully placed his beloved daughter back onto Puru’s back.
“I want to have a conversation with this magic beast. Can you help me do that, Hina?”
“Puru-sama, can you help us do talking~?” Hina banged on Puru’s neck with her soft hands.
“Kueh!”
“Puru-sama said ‘Super duper easy for me, give me a reward later!’”
(Did that single utterance just now include so much cheekiness?)
But it occurred to Shouzou that there might be a telepathic component to the communication between Hina and Puru, so he chose not to dwell on it for now.
“First we need to verify, so please ask ‘Are you the water dragon that has been attacking ships around this area?’”
Hina banged on Puru’s neck again while asking, “Are you the bad boy breaking ships around here~?”
“Kue—” Puru cried out once, after which the water dragon answered with a roar that sounded like an earthquake.
“Kueh”
“It said ‘I couldn’t help it’~” The whole translating a translation thing gave Shouzou a slight sense of unease, but so far it appeared that some degree of communication was indeed possible.
“Why did you attack the ships?”