Chapter 73

Chapter 73 – Underwater (3)

The Road of Mermaids were hidden deep within the ocean.  It was something that normal monsters would have a hard time finding.

Of course, Merfolk infected by the curse congregated near the road, but the combined number of curses present wouldn’t even be considered a meal for Roa.  Roa did a forced cleansing, and the freed mermen joined their party as they entered into the road.

“Look over there, Artpe. Is this all made out of magic?”

“This is amazing.  There really is a road within the ocean.”

When they entered the Road of Mermaids, the eyes of Maetel and Sienna turned round.  In a good way, it felt as if they’ve been hit in the back of the head.  They were filled with wonder.

First, the road was very large, and the demarcation between the road and the ocean was clear.   Even if a normal sea monster was able to enter into the road, an environment had been created where these monsters wouldn’t be able to do much within this road.

“Magic······ Yes, this is our race specific magic.  It is a contract that binds the whole race from the olden days.  All mermen that makes use of this road has to fortify and maintain this road.”

Artpe knew about the Road of Mermaids, but this was the first time he had seen it.  When faced with the real thing, he couldn’t hide his surprise.  Unlike his surprised party members, he could accurately assess what had been done to create road using his Read All Creation ability.  This was why his surprise ran much deeper.

[Road of Mermaids]

[The mermen used their power over water to create a form of pocket dimension.  All beings aside from the mermen will suffer reduction in power, and this loss of power in turn strengthens the road.]

[The Anaid Kingdom’s road is unlike the other merfolk kingdoms spread across this world.  It boast a degree of standard that is unmatched by the other roads, master.]

Her master possessed amazing abilities, yet he had been surprised by the road.  Sherryl felt tremendous pride at this sight.  By the time they reached the road, about 1,000 merfolk had been freed from the curse, and they had joined Artpe’s party.  Sherryl’s mind and body had reached an equilibrium by this point in time..

[You should be proud of it.]

[It is an honor, master.]

She couldn’t hide the delight she felt at Artpe’s praise as she answered him.  Currently, she was in her human form.  Basically, it meant the Road of Mermaids was a passageway with no water.  They had used their mastery over water to separate this space from the ocean.

“By constructing it like this, you made sure the other underwater monsters couldn’t make use of your road.  This was well thought out.”

“All mermen are able to breath through either their gills or their lungs…….”

“Gills?  Lungs?”

Sienna spoke in awe.  Maetel, who heard her words, tilted her head in confusion.  Sienna also grew up in a mountain village, so he had no idea why Maetel didn’t know this information like Sienna.  Artpe let out a quiet sigh, and he just stroked her head.  Maetel’s eyes narrowed in pleasure.  When her eyes opened once again, she had completely forgotten about her question about the gills.

While the party admired the road, the mermen recovered their thoughts and strength.  They started becoming argumentative with Sherryl.

[Princess, how dare you obey the orders of such a young human?]

[If it is princess, you easily possess the qualification to represent our kingdom.  Yet you lower yourself to a mere human…..]

[He will become the savior of our kingdom, so hold your tongue.  He is above all of us even if we weigh our entire kingdom against him.  ….you’ll all realize this fact soon.]

[Koohk.  If the princess says so……]

[I do not doubt princess’ eyes.  I’ll trust and follow you.]

Artpe had been a bit worried.  He wondered if the merfolk would rebel.  However, Sherryl was able to take control of the situation.

Since she was the 37th princess, he had wondered if she had any real authority.  It seemed her authority was stronger than he had expected.  Somehow, he knew this would cause more complications later on, and the inside of his head became more complicated.

[Nyaa.  Nyaahh.]

“······are you still hungry?”

[Nyaa.]

Roa kept tapping on Artpe’s hand as she let out a cry.  Until now, she had absorbed the curses within a thousand merfolk.  However, when she felt more curse energy in the distance, she wanted to immediately dash out.

“Ah, all right.  You can go on ahead and eat first.”

[Nyaaaaaaa-ohhhhh!]

When Artpe gave his consent, she turned into fog as she raced down the road.  The merfolk, who had their curses absorbed by her, shrank back.  Artpe ignored them as he started walking.

“Shall we go too?”

[I will guide you.  ….no, they’ll probably search us out first.]

[No, that’ll be impossible for them to do.]

Artpe’s purple eyes flashed.  Against the Kraken, he had been unable to gather all the information at once, because the Kraken had been too large.  That wasn’t the case anymore.

[I’ll be the one to find them first, and I’ll kill them all.]

The ocean was deep and large.  The road was long out of necessity.  Thankfully, the road was being treated as a form of pocket dimension that was cut off from the outside world.  Basically, one was able to travel at an overwhelming speed on the road compared to traveling outside.  Artpe’s party was able to sense the reality of this fact when they saw the landscape of the ocean change.

“Wow.  A shark just passed by us, Artpe!”

“I’m glad you know what a shark is.”

“I heard sharks are delicious.”

“······.”

“Artpehhhh~.”

He couldn’t stand Maetel’s pleading eyes, so Artpe used his magic to catch the shark swimming outside of the road.  He recovered it, and he placed the shark inside his Dimensional Pouch. Maetel was full of glee as she clung to Artpe’s arm.  Sherryl was next to him, and she was shocked by what he had done.

[You manifested your magic outside of the Road of Mermaids, and you were able to teleport an item outside to recover the shark….]

[I Reinforced my boots once more.  That is why I can use Blink on small items under my possession.  It isn’t too big of a deal.]

The merfolk had created this pocket dimension, but Artpe was able to discern the structure of the pocket dimension using his Read All Creation ability.  The act of manifesting magic outside the pocket dimension had been easy, and the recovery of the shark’s corpse was easier than his prior task.

Maetel couldn’t comprehend his explanation, so she covered her ears as her head started to spin.

The landscape wasn’t the only thing that changed.  As they traveled further down the road, they kept running into groups of dozen or several dozen merfolk.  More merfolk kept joining their group.

[Koohk.  What the hell were we doing…..]

[Aht, princess!  It’s princes Sherryl!]

Roa had already sucked out all the curse.  She had eaten the curses to it roots.  The merfolk were in a state of confusion as they regained their sanity.  However, Sherryl was able to calm them down.  The process of the merfolk joining their group was smooth.  They followed Sherryl.

[You are now in the 2nd battalion.  Go join them.]

[Thanks to princess Sherryl we were able to regain our sanity.  Princess is our only hope.]

[We will regain what is precious to us from the ruffians who invaded our kingdom.  Hurry!  Let us march!]

As they progressed further down the road, the probability of encountering merfolk increased.

Since they were deployed for the Lunatic wave, these merfolk were combat troops.  Even if they were combat troops, it was rare to find mermen or mermaids over level 100.  They couldn’t even put up a decent fight before their curse was sucked out by Roa.

[You are in the 3rd battalion!  And you will in the 4th battalion!]

[How long has it been since we were all gathered in one place like this?]

[This isn’t a good thing.  The place we were supposed to defend with our life lies defenseless.  If I try to think about what is going on inside our kingdom, a sigh automatically escapes my lips.]

[Do not worry.  We march with our savior.]

[Savior….  I wonder how skilled this so called Savior is….  That’s the question I want answered.]

[The princess said to trust in him.  That is enough for me to put my trust in him.]

If one heard their conversation, one would realize that they were no different from the residents of the human nations.  They possessed intelligence, culture and structure on par with humans…..

Would Maetel really be able to kill them on sight just because they were monsters?

Suddenly, Artpe was worried, so he turned to look at Maetel.  However, she was smiling as she walked arm-in-arm with Artpe.  Artpe decided not to worry about it right now.

“Yes, I think I’m expecting too much.”

“I think Artpe just had a discourteous thought about me.”

“You are the discourteous one.  My worry for you is turning into a discourteous thoughts in real time.”

“Ah.”

When she heard his words, Maetel’s eyes shook severely.  She stuck closer to Artpe than before, and there was a bright light in her eyes.

“Artpe, did you perhap worry about me…..?”

“······I’m curious.  What do I have to do to be hated by you?”

“You should give up on such thoughts.”

“You are so assertive!?”

One thousand, one thousand two hundred, one thousand five hundred, two thousand….  The number of purified mer-soldiers rose exponentially.  There was so many of them filling the road that they had to march in single columns.  The line was endless.  Artpe started to get worried as he looked at them.

[They won’t starve to death?]

[If we have Mana and water, we can maintain our body’s vital activities, master.  Merfolk are capable of consuming food, but not everyone is allowed to do so, master.  Food is only given as a method to replenish stamina and mana to the fighting force and the ruling class.]

Mmm.  This part really made them seem like monsters.  Artpe let out a bitter laugh as he nodded his head.  It wasn’t as if they didn’t have a sense of taste, but it seemed the lack of food didn’t affect their ability to live.  The rest of the monsters were like them.  They only repeatedly killed humans and other living beings, because the act allowed them to acquire Mana and Records.  It allowed them to grow.  Moreover, it wasn’t as if humans were free from these constraints either.

[Nyaa!? Nyaa-ah!  Nyaa-ahhhhhhhh!  Nyaa nyaa!  Nyaa-nyaa-nyaa-ah!]

They were quickly marching down the road when they suddenly heard a cry.   Roa’s voice was loud.  Everyone on the Road of Mermaids could hear the cry.  It was akin to an exultant cry let out by a pirate captain when a treasure island was found.

[T…this sound….  It is the sound of the magical beast!]

[P…princess!  Get behind me!  I’ll protect you!]

[No, you don’t have to be on your guard.  You’ve already experienced it, so you should know this by now.  The magical beast is under the control of my master.]

[He controls that horrific magical beast!?]

The trauma caused by Roa couldn’t be washed away.  All the merfolk backed away in shock.  Artpe was the only one puzzled by what had just happened.

Why was she so happy?  Roa was born recently, and the way she expressed her emotion was very simple.   What could cause her to be so happy……

[Nyaa-ah!  Nyaa-nyaa-nyaa-nyaa-nyaa-nyaa-ahhhhhhhhhhh!]

“It seemes she found the source of the curse.”

“Artpe, I’m starting to get a little bit worried.”

“It’s all right.  This is business as usual.”

After 30 minutes, Roa came back with a bloated belly.  She had an extremely satisfied expression on her face, and she promptly fell asleep in Artpe’s arms.  She had an extremely satisfied smile on her face, and she even talked in her sleep.

[Nyaa-ah-ah, Nyaa-ooh-ah······.]

“You little rascal·····.”

She had fallen asleep before Artpe could tell her to rest.  Was it a form of declaration saying she could no longer eat any more curse?  He wondered if he should retrain her from the bottom up.  However, if results were any indication, it seemed he wouldn’t need to retrain her.  The appalled voices that rang out in the distance was a proof of this.

[Koo-ahhhhhhhhhhh!  That was the Artifact bestowed to us by the Demon King!]

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[What happened!  Why did you blow up the entire laboratory, Demon!]

[You did this, human!]

“Artpe, they are too noisy.”

“······yes.  I somewhat expected this to happen, but……”

It seemed Roa had already consumed all forms of negative energy existing within the kingdom.