Chapter 406 - Chapter 1: The Sea of Primordia
Flying over the sea on a bowl.
"How is it?"
Eleanor-sama asks.
"There are many small reactions."
When Henry-sama raised a fire arrow, boats with fishermen on board came rowing closer and closer. When we scattered a large amount of bait for fishing from the bowl, the water surface began to ripple with splashes. They surrounded that area with boats and threw nets all at once.
When the men at the gunwales began to pull up the nets, I could see so many fish caught that it looked like the boats might sink. Seeing that, the hunters raised cheers, and the fish that escaped the nets jumped into the void, their silver bellies sparkling brilliantly.
"Yeah. It went well."
"It's a big catch."
The old couple raised laughing voices, and when they waved their hands from the bowl flying above the fleet, the lean, sun-tanned men showed their white teeth while pulling up the nets. Among them is an unusually large hunter. Next to him, for some reason, Beowulf is pulling up a net like a hunter.
The large hunter threw two caught fish toward the bowl. Henry-sama skillfully caught them on the tip of his spear.
"Give them to those guys!"
"Understood. Shall we meet at the beach later?"
The man who waved his right hand greatly instead of a reply returned to the work of pulling up the net as he was.
We land on the water a little away from the circle made by the boats. When we change the bowl into a plate, two seals show their faces from the sea and jump on using the fins of their front legs. Since we were able to accommodate them safely, we rise slowly as we are and begin to fly toward the land.
"The result is excellent."
"Thank you. The fishermen will also be happy."
Sianya is saying her thanks at Eleanor-sama's words.
When Alex translated Eleanor-sama's words and offered a fish to each seal, they immediately bit into them.
"It's a pity that [Sense Living] is a high-level holy magic."
Scrolls of high-level holy magic cannot be easily sold. Since they are generally under the management of the church, they are exorbitantly expensive. There are some circulating in the black market, but they are more expensive than the ones sold at the church. Only the wealthy can buy such things. It's fine for someone like me who can use it myself, but it's a magic whose users are limited to begin with. There are only four in the entire Kingdom of Sertoria. And two of them happen to be church priests. The situation in other countries is even worse, and since they are either priests or employed by the royal family, they probably wouldn't use it for poor hunters like this time.
"We must go to Finis once. If it's this kind of usage, the Priestess will surely approve of putting it into a bead."
The exception is when it's put into a bead, but even then, the taking out of beads containing holy magic is limited. Only Aira, the Sertorian royals, and the members of the Class of 175. Otherwise, we would make an enemy of the church. In the end, we have no choice but to leave it to the discretion of each nation.
When we reached the beach, the people of the village came out to welcome us in a crowd.
Everyone expressed their thanks for the fact that we created the catalyst for the big catch.
"Henry-sama, Eleanor-sama, and Priestess Jeanne, and the two followers as well. Not only did you give us the catalyst to conduct transactions with the spirits of the coast, but you also cooperated in such a big catch today; I don't know how to thank you."
The village head also said his thanks.
"Not at all, don't thank us, thank Edward-dono and Bishop Sianya. Everything was the idea of those two. We are just acting as we were told by those two."
In fact, it was so. Originally, we were called for the Great Shark subjugation. The coastal spirit, who had safely moved back to its original lair, issued information on the appearance of the Great Shark, and as a result, we were called to Primordia. I received a subjugation reward, Alex received alcohol as a translation fee, and Henry-sama's group came for entertainment... no, for friendship with Primordia.
Could we actually supplement the [Sense Living] for the Great Shark in the sea? We were verifying that in the sea of Sertoria, but as a result of having a master of skin-diving dive and confirming whether it could be detected, it turned out that there was no difference between inside and outside the water. What we found out then was that fish in the sea can be detected. In that case, we cooperated with fishermen, had them tell us where fish gather, and detected them, finding out that fish schools can be detected. It was the same whether we were on the bowl or with our hands thrust into the sea.
By the way, we also performed a verification of the effect of [Light] using captured rats. The light reaches to some extent, but it was reconfirmed that the aggressiveness toward monsters is significantly lost. Since it's pitiful to submerge rats in water no matter how you look at it, we tried illuminating with maximum [Light] through a mass of water manipulated by Eleanor-sama and Wilson-san with [Clump Water]. In Engrio they became bald rats, but even through water the width of a thin board, the fur was never peeled off. On the contrary, even with a thickness like thick cloth, it was almost neutralized if three layers were stacked. This was the same for [Holy]. They must have had a hard time with the Sea Snake subjugation.
With those experimental results in hand, we did fish school detection jointly with the coastal spirit immediately after coming to Primordia.
That said, the sea is wide. No matter how much we detect toward the sea, we won't find the Great Shark so easily. The cooperation of the coastal spirit is necessary.
While having a strategy meeting during a banquet with the people of the fishing village led by the large hunter, Edward-sama...
"He apparently attacks the seal packs from deep places."
Alex, the translator, listens to the information from the coastal spirit who has taken human form.
I believe he said so before. In that way, he patrols several packs, eats seals, and gradually grows larger. Naturally, the larger he gets, the more of a glutton he becomes. At first, he's about the size of a small boat. Apparently, if you go to the far northern sea, there are shark relatives larger than that. However, there are none around this island. It's unknown where they originate. However, once they appear, if you don't defeat them as soon as you find them, they'll keep growing and become a giant shark like the one from before.
"Can we use decoys?"
Decoys in this case are dolls in the shape of seals. It didn't work on the Sea Snake, but it might work on the Great Shark.
"It'll probably work, but we need numbers. We need forty or fifty. Until now, the male coastal spirit apparently acted as a decoy together with the seals to fight. However, it's not that easy, and if he gets too large, it becomes too dangerous to do. It's fine for now. Naturally, if we can get dolls that can be used as decoys, there's no problem."
"Then it's simple. The royal family will provide the materials, so let's have the villagers help."
When Edward-sama called the village head and explained this and that, the village head, who was in a good mood from the big catch, said, "We'll gladly cooperate." In return, we decided to do fish school detection one more time. The mothers of the village who heard that became suddenly motivated. After all, the icehouse Eleanor-sama made is full of fish. The village's dried fish factory is a big help.
We decided to make stuffed animals. Fortunately, we have experience making wild boar costumes and stuffed animals. At that time, Matilda did the fine details. In a hurry, Matilda was picked up by an ultra-high-speed bowl, and the dried fish factory became a temporary stuffed animal factory.
Miana is also participating this time.
When I said we were going for the Great Shark subjugation, she said she'd go too. If Miana moves, Beowulf also follows. It seems something was discussed between Sianya and Miana. While waiting for Matilda to arrive on the ultra-high-speed bowl, there was a proposal from Miana.
"Since we're at it, why don't we also make small stuffed animals for children to play with? In Sertoria, we make stuffed animals of forest animals like wild boars and deer. Baby seals are cute, aren't they? It might even be interesting to make shark stuffed animals."
As expected. We don't make stuffed animals of sea creatures in Sertoria. Immediately, when we inquired with Magdalena-sama via the teleportation magic circle for letters and obtained her approval, it was decided to consider it as a new project for the needy in Primordia. As a result of consulting with Sianya, who was overjoyed, we decided to make four types of prototypes: seal parent and child, shark, and starfish. In Sertoria, we make a forest animal series with the royal crest. In contrast, in Primordia, it's a sea creature series. Since the types don't overlap, it'll be just right.
The next day, Matilda arrived.
However, when it actually comes to making stuffed animals, first we have to get fur. That said, hunting seals is putting the cart before the horse.
"Can't we just make wooden molds, wrap cloth around them, and shape them? That's cheaper. If that doesn't work, we'll think of something else."
The making of stuffed animals for decoys began at the hands of the mothers, following Matilda's proposal.
"This is fine. After that, let's wrap cloth around and shape them."
Matilda is pointing at a pile of cut-off branches. They are the ones piled in a corner of the village's lumberyard. They are too thin to be used as lumber. They are the ones that could only be cut short and used as kindling. Moreover, since they aren't straight, there was probably no use for them. She forcibly bundled several of them together to make them a decent thickness.
While wrapping the provided cloth scraps around and tying them with string, they started to look like seals. She used the bent parts to look like necks. Seals are living things. They aren't always stretched out straight. As a result of bundling the wood to take advantage of the bent parts, the shape gained a sense of truth.
"Then, we'll put a bag dyed in seal color over it while stuffing sawdust into the gaps. Then, it'll have a soft feel, right? And then, if we sew on fins made by covering boards with cloth... how is it? Doesn't it look like one?"
"Ooooh—," voices rose from everyone. They don't have eyes or noses, but from a distance, they are seals.
"For the small ones for sale, we can make them with rabbit fur. The ones for decoys will be used many times, right? It's rough, but it's easier to make them appropriately like this."
At the word "appropriately," the mothers are looking at each other. They don't think these were made appropriately at all.
They became a bit discouraged, but they'll probably understand as they do it. Anyway, it was decided to bundle the wood to an appropriate length and wrap cloth as if shaping them.
The magic soldier cuts the wood, which was twisted as if it were stubborn, with [Wind Cutter]. As lumber it's uselessly bent, but in this case, that's good. There is a use for it anyway.
They cut the branches as Matilda instructed.
While teaching the mothers how to bundle and wrap cloth, ten seals were completed from one piece of wood. If we repeat that five times, a pack of fifty will be completed. It took half a day, and I had to frequently recover the mothers' hands with [Heal], but they were successfully completed.
Immediately, we go to the sea for an experiment.
As a result of repeated trial and error, a method to reproduce the way a pack of seals swims was devised.
The bowl has long poles placed in parallel, and ten ropes are hung from those poles. The ends of the ropes are connected to the seals. One bowl pulls ten seals. Several with weights in them are appropriately submerged. Since the ropes are of various lengths, it doesn't become a swimming line in a single row. When we send wind with [Favorable Wind] and reproduce the splashes when swimming, it looked like a pack of seals was swimming.
Success.
Since there are four bowl users in Primordia, a pack of forty can be reproduced. Since there are ten spares, replacements are possible.
In the end, the Great Shark was brilliantly caught by the pack of seals made under Matilda's guidance.
We predicted the appearance area based on the eyewitness information from the coastal spirit. Since he attacks the packs in order, the next place he'll come can be predicted. He's a shark in that regard. He probably doesn't even think that humans and spirits are cooperating to wait in ambush.
While flying above the pack while detecting with [Sense Living], there was a reaction. Large. However, it's not giant. In a sense, it's also the expected size.
"Discovered. It is likely the Great Shark."
When Henry-sama shook the pole with the small flag he used as a mark, the four in front shook back. Surely, the magic soldiers must be preparing to release magic while staring at the sea surface.
"He's approaching. He's directly below the large stuffed animal at the very rear."
He attacks the pack from behind. It's just as I heard.
The small flag sways up and down.
"He's coming! ...He's here!"
With a splash!, a huge mouth jumps out from the sea. In the mouth, it's holding the decoy seal without missing its aim.
We are all hiding our presence. He shouldn't be able to detect magic.
In addition, with the cooperation of the coastal spirit, we were given the blood of quite a few seals.
We cut them a little with [Wind Cutter]. Naturally, we recovered them with [Heal] after getting the blood. The decoy pack was advancing while scattering the scent of real seal blood.
With the decoy in its mouth lined with teeth like rows of fangs, it jumped out onto the sea. It's not the giant one I saw before. However, it's three times the length of a normal shark.
The Great Shark flew through the air with the momentum of jumping out, and as it was, it entered a posture to attack the pack from above this time. It must have intended to target two at once, but it's too naive. Lightning magic was fired all at once. Miana is also releasing [Wind Cutter]. Sianya's extremely thick [Holy] must have been especially effective.
Whether it was paralyzed in the air, it fell into the sea with a splash, and as it was, it floated in the sea and twitched. We released magic as if this were the chance, and finally delivered the finishing blow.
"How is it? Do you think you can do it even without Jeanne's [Sense Living]?"
We successfully subjugated the Great Shark, put a rope on the floating one, and carried it to the land.
While having a banquet after toasting together, Eleanor-sama is asking Edward-sama. There was one challenge when deploying the decoy operation this time. Whether they can do it without me in the future.
"It's difficult. After all, it was only on the third day of setting the decoy, after a total of six times, that he finally got caught. It would be hard for the soldiers to just wait single-mindedly for something that they don't know when it will jump out."
It's not that easy. The sea is wide.
In the end, the necessary magic wasn't [Light]. Since the swimming speed is fast, unlike the one that grew giant, the approach cannot be predicted. Without [Sense Living], the timing of the attack is unknown. Moreover, if the decoy is discovered once, there's a possibility he'll never be caught again. It's a one-shot deal, and he must be absolutely finished off.
"So, Jeanne, please continue to cooperate in the Great Shark subjugation. Necessary expenses will be provided, and the subjugation reward and proceeds will also come in. Please do your best."
The one who nodded greatly at Eleanor-sama's words was the village head. It must be because if I come, there will be a big catch.
Well, for me, it's a way to earn, and since I can release magic on-site for the scrolls to be handed over to the Western Church, the burden of internal work decreases. I can be welcomed together with the spirits at the luxurious mansion used for the meetings of the ancient people by the members of the Western Church. It's also a homecoming for Keira.
It's not bad. Besides, it's the only monster subjugation that Miana, who usually works at Shop No. 4, is showing interest in. The opponent is strong and it's good magic practice. Though Miana's aim is likely about Edward-sama and Beowulf.