Chapter 115: Chapter 115

“Wait, wait just a moment! You’re telling us to go out to sea in this weather? And to the Witch of the West’s island at that? I can’t do it! Rather, yes, I’ll turn myself in to the guards! I’ll go to prison!”

“To betray where our comrades are, I can’t do that! If the boss finds out, he’ll never let us—“

“Next. You there. Do you have something to say too?”

“No! Just say the word and I’ll follow!”

“I’ll shut up and work!”

“Long live Lady Franka!!”

Negotiations with the pirates went smoothly.

The next problem that arose was dealing with the sea monster—the Sea Serpent

This monster, with the form of a giant sea snake, not only targeted merchant ships setting out to sea but occasionally even rampaged into coastal areas.

Hearing this story, Dorothea raised an obvious question, “Wait, then what is the guard here doing?”

“Well, they already tried to fight it once and were thoroughly beaten.”

Franka’s subordinates treated Dorothea with extremely polite attitudes.

Just seeing her interact with that ill-tempered, or rather somewhat sensitive young lady, it was clear she was no ordinary person—well, just looking at her outfit made it obvious she wasn’t ordinary.

“Unable to bear the monster’s nuisance, the lord mobilized his forces, but it only provoked the creature, resulting in one port being destroyed.”

The Sea Serpent had a body large enough to coil around and crush a single mansion, and scales that could deflect even decent blades without any defense.

Ordinary soldiers had no way to fight it, and it would take several silver-rank or above adventurers or knight-level forces who could handle mana to even attempt subjugation.

“Since it’s a matter that requires not just one or two knights but an entire order to mobilize, neighboring domains are reluctant to offer help. The adventurers’ guild also responds slowly as they have to come all the way from the imperial mainland. Above all, since ships can’t sail due to the weather anyway, even without the Sea Serpent, the lord doesn’t seem inclined to incur large debts by reaching out to others.”

“So in the end, we have to solve this, too.”

Dorothea fell into thought.

In fact, there wasn’t much lacking in terms of combat power.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ pounds his chest, saying to leave it to him!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses his view that a wooden sword would be the best equipment!]

After all, most situations could be resolved by deploying that one madman overflowing with fighting spirit.

But Dorothea couldn’t deploy the tactical Tin Knight for this one instance.

“How are you going to fight in the sea when you can’t even swim, Tin Can.”

The Tin Knight couldn’t swim.

He could temporarily adjust direction or float by expelling mana, but it was an extremely inefficient and unstable method.

If it were a lake, he could at least reach the bottom and walk out to land, but in the sea, if he fell in a bad position, it would be game over forever.

Perhaps not wanting to become a permanent lost child of the seabed, this time the Tin Knight didn’t insist that he could do it.

“Then we should aim for when it approaches the coast, right?”

“It’s much better than fighting on a ship, but doesn’t anyone know when that thing will attack?”

“Then couldn’t we use bait?”

Adelaide, Dorothea, and Sophia spoke in turn.

Franka’s subordinates waved their hands.

“Well, the guard tried similar methods, but they all failed. It doesn’t react at all to cows, pigs, or fish. It seems to be due to the creature’s ‘taste’.”

“People. It attacks merchant ships to eat the people on board. Whether it was originally elsewhere or has recently acquired a taste, we don’t know…”

The party understood immediately.

Franka snorted, “For now, they’re quiet because even if we catch the Sea Serpent, we can’t go to sea due to the weather, but if that monster keeps rampaging even after the weather clears, there might even be talk of offering live sacrifices.”

“Ah, that could be useful.”

At Sophia’s sudden words, the gazes of those around focused on her.

Sophia pointed at herself with her finger and smiled brightly.

“Let’s do it. The live sacrifice strategy.”

“…I hate to say this, but you guys aren’t in your right minds, either.”

At Franka’s incredulous remark, Adelaide could only give an awkward laugh, seemingly at a loss for words.

At the end of their gaze was the figure of Sophia, tightly bound to a rock with sturdy chains.

Of course, these chains were more of a safety measure than for restraint.

Their main purpose was to hold Sophia in place so the Sea Serpent couldn’t just snatch the bait and run away.

Some distance away from Sophia, the group was gathered, and there a huge ballista made of gold was set up.

At a glance, it looked similar to what Franka had shot at the Tin Knight prior, but there were detailed differences.

First, the arrow’s shape was closer to a harpoon, and a long, thick chain was attached to the back of the harpoon, connected to a pulley.

The bite came faster than expected.

It might have just been good luck, or perhaps the blood sprinkled around Sophia had worked as an excellent lure for the Sea Serpent.

Right after feeling something like a black shadow flickering near the water’s surface.

With a tremendous spray of water, a blue-green sea snake revealed itself from the sea.

The monster, looking like a mix of snake, seahorse, and a dragon, thrust its mouth towards the rock where Sophia was tied.

Perhaps hindered by the chains tightly binding Sophia, the Sea Serpent buried its head in the rock and wriggled, shaking its maw left and right.

Seeing red blood splashing up several times, Adelaide unconsciously closed her eyes.

Dorothea didn’t close her eyes, but she couldn’t help her gaze becoming fierce.

And then, Franka initiated action.

The ballista, set up just for this moment, aimed at the target and fired with full force.

The harpoon, imbued with plenty of the alchemist’s mana, mercilessly pierced through the Sea Serpent’s body.

Dorothea shouted, “Adel! Get it together!”

After reflexively answering, Adelaide grasped one of the handles set up next to the pulley.

The Tin Knight had long since taken his position at the opposite handle.

As the teacher and pupil pushed the handles with all their might, the pulley began to rotate, winding up the chain.

The Sea Serpent tried to resist being dragged away by thrashing about, but the pulley, which had roots planted deep into the ground in preparation for this, didn’t budge.

There was a risk that the harpoon would dislodge due to the excessively rough movements, but there was already a countermeasure for this, too.

A white light spread from inside the Sea Serpent.

Light imbued with holiness enveloped the Sea Serpent, healing its wounds.

The problem was that the harpoon was already stuck in the Sea Serpent’s body.

As regeneration was promoted with the weapon embedded in the affected area, the Sea Serpent’s flesh and the chain became tightly entangled as if fusing.

As the Tin Knight and Adelaide wound the pulley, the Sea Serpent’s massive body was dragged from the sea onto land.

By the time its body was fully revealed on land, the Sea Serpent glared at the group with eyes full of rage.

Perhaps realizing it couldn’t escape the fate of being dragged away even if it resisted , it instead lunged toward the ballista.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to leave the rest to him!]

Towards the Sea Serpent crawling on the ground with terrifying momentum, the Tin Knight dashed forward.

The Sea Serpent tried to swat the Tin Knight away with a swing of its tail, but he leapt atop its back and began to ascend.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the Tin Knight if he just climbed up obediently.

The Tin Knight’s sword pierced the Sea Serpent’s back.

The blue-green scales surprisingly tried to resist the sword energy, but while they might have blocked ordinary sword energy, their defense was insufficient to stop the Tin Knight’s attack.

As the Tin Knight rampaged, tearing up its back, the Sea Serpent raised its head to glare at the Tin Knight.

In front of the Sea Serpent’s wide-open maw, terrifying water mana began to gather.

At that moment, Adelaide’s eyes shone.

Judging that pulling the monster further with the pulley was meaningless, she let go of the handle and directly grasped the chain.

The Belt of Amaryllis emitted mana like a faint flame.

This sacred treasure, said to enhance the user’s physical abilities, had an effect closer to multiplication than addition.

In other words, rather than raising physical abilities by a fixed amount, it had a function where the output increased proportionally the higher the user’s basic abilities were.

Unfortunately, this meant Adelaide couldn’t yet demonstrate monstrous strength like Kalidahs.

This was also why they had to rely on devices like pulleys instead of pulling the chain immediately after embedding the harpoon.

However, temporarily interfering with the opponent—that was something the current Adelaide could sufficiently do.

As Adelaide grasped the chain and pulled with all her might, the Sea Serpent’s head, which had been glaring at the Tin Knight, was forcibly tilted back.

The terrifying water-type breath spewed from its mouth, instead of engulfing the Tin Knight, shot up into the air and scattered meaninglessly.

The Sea Serpent tried to engage in a test of strength with Adelaide in anger, but this time, the Tin Knight didn’t let that happen.

As the Tin Knight’s sword energy slashed its body, the Sea Serpent let out another pain-filled scream.

When it tried to focus on the Tin Knight, Adelaide would yank the chain stuck in its neck, making it lose balance, and when it tried to focus on Adelaide, the Tin Knight would fillet it like a fish as if saying, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Franka made a pale expression.

…I’m not sure which one is the real monster here.

She had been thinking of supporting with additional ballistas if necessary, but looking at the situation, it didn’t seem necessary.

Dorothea also relaxed her shoulders.

It seemed the opportunity to showcase the new functions of her staff would be a bit later.

About ten minutes later, the Sea Serpent’s head flew off, and Sophia emerged from its belly—split left and right.

Hostages captured by pirates (1/1)

Rampaging Sea Serpent (1/1)

Ceremony to calm the weather (0/1)

Second mission. Resolved.

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