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This was the family’s first sea bathing outing since coming to this other world.
They had even made preparations for having a barbeque in the afternoon.
Although the sun had yet to reach its zenith, because he couldn’t predict how things would turn out, Shouzou had no choice but to tell the others to start without him.
After entrusting everything to Emalia, who had come late, Shouzou sped off on the ocean surface, with the sole aim of saving the virtuous magic beast being toyed with due to human greed.
Keeping up with him in midair was his wife, Silvia. Silently keeping an eye on the window displayed before her eyes, she was constantly making sure he was heading in the right direction.
“The dragon has stopped.” Silvia announced as the red dot on her screen had stopped moving.
“Its location is still within the ocean. Maybe it is resting on the ocean floor.” If that was so, then chances of the person controlling the dragon being at its location was low.
Or so they thought, but that proved to be a needless worry. Dead ahead, a medium-sized sailing vessel gradually came into view. Naturally, they had no guarantee yet that the people on that ship were the people they were after, but that could be easily ascertained with but a little bit of investigating.
Shouzou increased his speed, kicked off of the ocean surface, then leaped into the air.
Out of the blue, BAM!, there stood a half-naked giant of a man on the deck. All of the sailors stumbled back in astonishment.
Then beside him, a half-naked lady landed softly. All of the sailors were spellbound at what looked like the descent of a goddess.
Then they came to a start. “Wh-Who are you two?!”
Instead of answering, Shouzou swiveled his head to pan around. On the deck stood five men. It seemed like they had been in the middle of cleaning the deck, as some of them were now holding their mops as spears. All of them had really good physiques. Now, was that because they were sailors, or was that because they were soldiers? Then Shouzou noticed the man in the crow’s nest aiming a bowgun at him.
Eventually losing patience with Shouzou’s silence, one of the sailors shouted at him. “Oi, bastard, did you not hear us? Surely you know that this ship belongs to the esteemed Nemeelaso Giel-sama!” This stereotypical “spiel to say to an invader” was delivered absolutely flawlessly.
“Silvia?”
“Mhmm, on it.” Silvia manifested a window screen, then used communication magic to connect with Emalia back on the beach. Through Emalia, Shouzou asked Marquis Jilk Goldas to confirm what he knew about this “Nemeelaso Giel” character.
“Shouzou, come back right now. Viscount Giel is a special diplomatic envoy dispatched by the Empire of Bardimia. Do not cause any trouble with him!”
An envoy from the empire just happened to be in a ship directly above the position where the water dragon chose to rest?
Although the conclusion was already plain to see, Shouzou asked one more question, just in case. “What business would a special diplomatic envoy have in the middle of the ocean?”
“......The merchant ships of his own country are being attacked. The special envoy has been very eager to help out with our efforts, to the point where he goes out on his own ship every once in a while to conduct his own investigating.”
“Is that something for a special diplomatic envoy to do?”
“We tried to stop him multiple times. However, he has express permission from his home country. Furthermore, he said that even if anything happened to him, he won’t make it into a diplomatic issue. Since he’s already promised to shoulder full responsibility, we have no way of stopping him. In any case, now we know the other party’s identity. Come back first so we can come up with—”
“Like I could go along with such a roundabout way of doing things. If more casualties occur while we do that, then it’d be putting the cart before the horse.” With that, Shouzou nodded at Silvia to cut off the communication.
“Oi! Shouzou! Wai—”
“Well then,” said Shouzou while cracking his neck. “Allow me to meet the person in charge on this ship. I already know that you guys are controlling the water dragon to attack your own country’s merchant ships. You would be wise to give up immediately.”
The men became astir. However, within the whirlpool of bewilderment and perturbation, as well as unease and resignation that could be felt from them, there also was resolve and spirit.
“Invaders! There are intruders onboard!” With that shout, a man brandished his deck mop and rushed toward Shouzou.
Shouzou met it without moving a muscle. The deck mop slammed onto Shouzou’s shoulder... then the handle snapped in two. Shouzou did not move a single muscle through it all.
Men wielding swords and spears emerged from within the ship. However, they did not immediately leap in to attack. The reason being that from the crow’s nest, three men were using their bowguns to unleash a rain of arrows.
With added momentum from the force of gravity, the arrows flew straight at Shouzou’s body and... bounced off. Stopped by a body of steel, the repelled arrows fell to the deck like so many mere twigs.
“Wh-What is with this guy......”
“Is he using strengthening-type magic......?”
“He’s a monster......”
The morale of the sailors shrivelled up at the sight.
Shouzou slowly turned to glare at the man who came to attack him first. “You will guide me now, yes?”
“Y-Yes... sir...... This way please......” With a shaky voice, the man walked ahead to show the way. Shouzou and Silvia followed behind.
Right before stepping into the hull of the ship, Silvia frowned. However, she merely gave Shouzou a look, and did not say anything. There was probably some sort of magic in effect, but the fact that she didn’t say anything meant that it was not much of a problem.
The moment they stepped in, they found a sweet smell hanging thick in the air. “It’s that room,” said their guide while pointing to a certain door. However, he did not walk in any further.
There was no point forcing someone who was unwilling. It might be a trap, but the two had no intention of turning back. They opened the door that was pointed out to them, and smoke billowed into their faces.
Within the dimly lit room, a man was rocking in a rocking chair while puffing away at a tobacco pipe. The man was thin and gaunt. His glassed over eyes added to the impression that he was addicted to some suspicious drug. Seeing them walk in, the man asked warily, “Huh? Who’re you two?”
“So you are Nemeelaso Giel. What is your aim in controlling the water dragon to attack your own country’s ships?”
The ice cold expression and narrowed eyes on Giel’s face eventually gave way, and then he smirked. “Hmph. Well done figuring it out. Or should I say, well done finally figuring that out.” Giel chuckled as if he found something funny. “So you got all the way here unscathed. You must be quite skilled, then. Or, going by your half-naked state, did you perhaps swim to my ship and sneak in by dodging the eyes of the sailors?”
“I am the one doing the asking. Answer my question.”
“Ha ha ha, that’s quite some confidence you have there. So that’s why you two just nonchalantly strolled into my room, without making any preparations whatsoever?” Giel placed the pipe back into his mouth, then breathed out a large cloud of purple smoke. “There are numerous spells cast upon this room. Magic for corroding minds, strong enough to affect even dragons.”
Shouzou felt a sense of wrongness. It was as if his body was bound by thin, invisible spider’s silk from head to toe.