Pawahara Seijo no Osananajimi to Zetsuen Shitara, Nanimokamo ga Umaku Iku Yō ni Natte Saikyō no Bōke

[The God of the Sea Is a Monster?]

After dinner, we decided to deliberate over what the woman said, that I knew about the whereabouts of the saintess.

The first possibility we came up with was that it was referring to Elma, who was my childhood friend and the ‘Sword’ Saintess, however, not only I didn’t know where she currently was, I’d never even heard a rumor about her, so we concluded that the possibility was low.

The same was true for Iris and her sisters.

Because they’d always been in the dominion of Berqua, which was inland, so they shouldn’t have any opportunities to come in contact with the mermaids who could only live in the sea.

Rather, if they had, I was sure that they would have tell us.

Hence, it shouldn’t Iris and her sisters, either.

That left us with only one possibility.

It must be a new saintess who we hadn’t met yet.

“The remaining rare skills are 《Emperor Fist》 and 《Treasure Shield》. So it should be the possessor of either of these two skills,” Arca remarked.

“If I remember correctly, 《Emperor Fist》 is a skill that excels in hand-to-hand combat and 《Treasure Shield》 is a skill that is specialized in defense, right? Have you ever heard of something related to them?” Magmell asked me.

“Hmm~…” I pondered, but nothing came to mind.

“Looks like we’ve got no choice but to reverify Exa’s journey and the people he’s been acquainted with along the way from the very beginning, huh…” Arca said.

“Indeed…” agreed Magmell.

Perhaps the atmosphere of this discussion that had made zero progression was getting on her nerves, Ophir scratched her head and said, “Geez, this is just a waste of time! We’ve been gettin’ nowhere, haven’t we!?”

Zana said with a shrug, “Can’t be helped, can it? We practically have no useful information, after all.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to stay in this depressin’ mood forever!?” Having said that, Ophir tried to leave the room.

“Mou! Just why can’t you sit still for a moment, Ophir-san! In the first place, where are you planning on going to!?”

“Ain’t it obvious!? At times like this, ya should go hunt some monsters to relieve yer stress!”

“Hunting monster, you say…”

Haah… Magmell sighed, exasperated, but there I was suddenly reminded of something. “Come to think of it, it is said that a monster has recently started to show up in the adjacent seas. And the catch is decreasing because of it.”

Arca nodded, “Ahh, the proprietress did say something like that. A request has been sent out to the guild, but no one’s been able to subjugate it yet, she said.”

“Mm. Certainly, as Ophir says, we’d be getting nowhere at this rate, and everyone must be getting tired too, so I think doing something else for a change of mood would be a good idea. And hey, we might remember something as we do so,” I suggested.

Ophir smiled happily and said, “Oh, now we’re talkin’! As expected of my man!”

“Haha, but well, we’ll be fighting on the sea, so it’s probably going to be a bit difficult.”

“No need to think too much ‘bout it! Let’s get loose!” Ophir clenched her fist, brimming with motivation, but,

“Hey, hang on a second. We have to make something clear first, Exa is my man,” declared Arca.

“No, he is mine,” rebutted Magmell.

“My, can you all please not claim my man as yours without permission?” countered Zana.

“No, that ain’t important now, is it…” retorted Ophir.

Like that, the girls became lively as usual again.

◇ ◇

The next day, we immediately went to the guild and accept the quest the first thing in the morning.

However, we had to have a fisherman to transport us to the sea, so we then went to the harbor to look for one but,

“—I-I really saw it!? So please don’t kill that monster!?”

“““““?”””””

All of a sudden, we caught sight of several men having a dispute with an old man at one corner of the harbor.

“Shut up! Who cares about that! We’ve already accepted the quest! If you have any complaint, report it to the guild, you stinky geezer!”

――Hit!

“Agh!?” Being punched by the man who seemed to be an adventurer, the old man fell to the ground.

“P-please… That monster is different from what you think…” But the old man didn’t give up and clung to the man’s leg.

Of course, the man became even more pissed off. “I’m telling you, knock it off, geezer!” He raised his fist and tried to release another punch but,

――Bam!

“Obua!?”

“““!?”””

I sent the man flying with the handle of the spear-turned Hinokaguzuchi.

“—Hebu!?”

――SPLASH!

“Crap, he flew farther than I was expecting!?”

Perhaps I made a mistake in adjusting my strength, the man flew quite far away before plunging face first into the sea.

“T-the hell’s your problem!?”

“H-hey, we’ve gotta save him first!?”

“Kh, we’ll make you pay for this!”

Leaving behind such lines, the remaining adventurers also left the place.

Well, uhh.

For now, do your best to rescue your friend.

“A-are you okay, Sir? I’ll cast healing magic on you now.”

“Y-yes, thank you, and I’m sorry for the trouble…”

While Magmell was casting healing magic on the old man, I asked him what was going on.

Then, he said to us with imploring eyes, “I-I saw it… A girl with fins on her ears riding on the back of the sea dragon… That monster isn’t just a monster… That monster must be—‘the god of the sea’…!”

“““““!?”””””

Of course, we all went wide-eyed.