Volume 10, Chapter 42 – Adonis’s Great Crisis?

Boom!

A massive explosion caught Yisi’s attention. She instinctively stopped slaughtering the Hydras and looked in the direction of the sound.

“That’s on par with a fifth-tier spell, but if it’s Carl, he should be fine.”

While fighting the Hydras, she had noticed a pinpoint of light several kilometers away. However, on that ship, aside from Carl, everyone else was a demon, so there was nothing to worry about. The reason Carl hadn’t returned to Adonis’s side was precisely because he was tied up by those demons. Although none of their levels exceeded Carl’s, if he were to return to Adonis, he would undoubtedly lead the demons over as well, making the situation even more chaotic. Carl probably intended to finish off those demons first before rejoining Adonis.

“But demons aren’t such easy opponents.”

The explosion was likely caused by the demons using a magic crystal or, perhaps, a spell beyond their level. In any case, after the explosion, all the light dots on that ship vanished, and the sole survivor, Carl, was sent flying by the shockwave.

“But a tidal wave of this magnitude… this is too much…”

It was definitely taller than the four-story Cornelia’s Mansion.

She had to hurry and collect the Hydra heads that had fallen into the sea. The reason she had been continuously cutting off their heads and letting them heal was to make the Hydras produce more monster meat. This meat could, on one hand, be used as food for the Cerberuses, the Charleses, and on the other, be processed into high-quality feed for the rubber slimes. If she let all those Hydra heads get swept away by the sea, it would be too much of a waste.

Without hesitation, Yisi, who had already cast [Water Repelling Blessing] on herself, plunged into the water.—Besides allowing non-swimmers to move freely in the water, [Water Repelling Blessing] also prevented water from entering the nose and ears and kept clothes from getting soaked. Yisi collected the Hydra heads that were sinking toward the seabed one by one into her storage. Although the sight of countless heads sinking into the dark depths was terrifying, as the perpetrator, it was best not to dwell on it. To avoid scaring Fran, Shinku, and the others, she decided that after returning to the mansion, she would summon the Charleses and have them separate the heads from the necks. She would only give the neck portions to Fran.

Thump.

A sound of something colliding came from above the sea. Immediately after, a series of ominous kaka sounds drilled into her ears through the water.

“Hm?”

As she let out a questioning sound, the kaka noises grew more and more urgent, until finally, like a wooden plank bent to its limit, they gave way to a crisp cracking sound.

Although she could hear the crew’s abnormally loud shouts, she couldn’t make out what they were saying, as she was underwater. Yisi, who was diving, couldn’t help but turn around.

Her pupils shrank slightly.

The wooden ship Adonis was on had been snapped in two by the wave and was slowly sinking. Some of the crew members had been thrown overboard by the violent motion.

“Tsk.”

Bayldes probably couldn’t handle this. Magic casters couldn’t use every type of magic, and Bayldes was a combat-oriented one. In this situation, his usefulness was extremely limited. Clicking her tongue, Yisi used [Invisible Hand] to grab all the Hydra heads falling into the sea, pulling them in front of her and storing them. Then, she used [Teleportation] to appear at the spot where the ship had broken.

“Whew, good thing it didn’t snap completely.”

Some parts were still connected, and the widest part of the gap was no more than two meters. Rescuing it wouldn’t be difficult.

Reaԁ оո КatRеaⅾinɡCаfе

“Protect His Majest— Glug glug .”

Shouting with your mouth open when you know a wave is coming… it’d be weird if you didn’t get a mouthful of water.

Scolding them internally, Yisi controlled [Invisible Hand] to forcibly piece the broken ship back together. She used [Solidify] on the cracks as an adhesive, temporarily making the ship whole again. Although [Solidify] had a time limit and the ship would just break in two again in less than half a day, that was enough time for it to get back to port. Besides, her patch-up job wasn’t perfect; the break was clearly uneven, and some parts were even misaligned. In any case, this ship would be impossible to use a second time.

Of course, this was the result of her best efforts. Not only was the ship constantly rocking from the waves, but [Invisible Hand] itself was extremely difficult to control. One small slip, and she could have crushed the wooden ship. If she hadn’t gained some experience using [Invisible Hand] to save the crashing magic airships a while back, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to piece the ship together while being battered by waves.

“But if I’ve pieced the ship together, why is it still sinking…”

Yisi, swimming below the surface, frowned. Logically, even if her patch-up job wasn’t great, the ship shouldn’t continue to sink.

Her gaze inadvertently fell on a spot where, due to her misalignment, a small stream of seawater was pouring into the hull.

A lightbulb went off over her head.

“I see.”

Because the ship had broken in the middle, a large amount of seawater had flooded the hull. So, even if she put the two halves back together, the ship continued to sink.

“Well, that’s a small problem.”

Using [Teleportation] again, she appeared at the bottom of the flooded hull. Yisi opened her storage to collect the seawater. Like a-broken barrel finding a release, the water instantly formed a whirlpool inside the hull, and the water level dropped rapidly.

“A-A whirlpool?”

“What’s happening? Why is the water just disappearing on its own!”

“It must be the Sea God!”

“The Sea God is saving his people!”

The crew members, holding rescue tools, stared in shock at the bottom of the hull. They had come here resigned to sacrificing themselves, but now the water in the hull was vanishing on its own, without them needing to do a thing.

The Sea God? That’s a good excuse. If we attribute the ship’s self-repair to a god, few people will investigate any further, Yisi mused, hiding in the murky depths. But this is quite rude to the actual Sea God. They should probably stop calling me that.

Once the water level had dropped to a certain point, Yisi stopped collecting it and teleported to the sky nearby. There wasn’t much water left in the hull, and the ship’s cracks weren’t too large. The crew could handle the rest. Unfortunately, because of the sudden explosion, she hadn’t managed to kill all the Hydras, and some had escaped.

“No, I shouldn’t say they ‘escaped.’ I should say they’re being ‘saved for later use’.” Yisi, slowly descending to the ship’s deck, began to look for Adonis. “By the way, that Adonis is way too unlucky. He just arrived in Wilfred and was attacked by rebels, and now he’s ganged up on by Hydras and demons. It hasn’t even been a week.”

Rеαd οո ΚatRеαdiոgСаfе

Although Adonis hadn’t actively provoked any of this, Yisi couldn’t help but feel that being famous was truly a chore. If one didn’t have immense strength to back it up, their lifespan would definitely be much shorter than a normal person’s.

“Y-Your Excellency Yisi Enya, did you happen to see where His Majesty went?”

Before she even landed on the deck, a pale-faced Bayldes rushed forward. Despite him being an individual who surpassed the heroic domain, Yisi caught the fear and anxiety in his eyes, reminding her of a child who had just broken something valuable.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just now, our ship was lifted by the wave and slammed back onto the sea. It was right when His Majesty’s magic was failing to sustain the [Citadel Ring]. After the ship broke, I realized His Majesty was gone! If you saw His Majesty, please, you must tell me where he went!”

“Is that so…” The [Omniscient Map] showed Adonis’s light dot overlapping with a Hydra’s, speeding toward a nearby island. Yisi put her thumb to her chin and thought for a moment. The [Omniscient Map] was a pretty overpowered and perverted skill; she didn’t want to reveal it to outsiders. “Could he have been washed away by the wave? You stay here, Bayldes, I’ll go search the nearby area.”

“No, I must search with you.”

This guy can’t calm down at all.

Bayldes’s frantic look made Yisi shake her head inwardly.

“Then I’ll take the southern sea, and you go north, Bayldes. Remember to tell the crew where you’re going. It’ll be bad if Carl comes back and can’t find either you or Adonis.”

“R-Right!”

Bayldes nearly tripped on the waterlogged deck. He scrambled toward the ship’s cabin, looking nothing like someone who had surpassed the heroic domain.

“Now then, time to find Adonis.”

Adonis was in the southern sea, the area she was “in charge” of. No matter how strong Bayldes was, he could never beat her in search efficiency or speed.

“This way, if Adonis dares to mistreat Camilla, I’ll just have to toss her into the sea to feed the fish.”

Letting out a soft breath, Yisi shot straight south.

She quickly caught up to Adonis. The Hydra’s swimming speed was almost on par with a flying bird. By the time Yisi found it, the Hydra had already reached the nearest island. Fortunately, although Adonis was soaked and her hair was a tangled mess, she had deployed a small-scale [Citadel Ring], so the Hydra hadn’t been able to harm her at all, carrying her in its mouth the whole way.

It was worth noting that this Hydra had exhausted its magic power and couldn’t even muster the strength to regenerate its other two heads. Its two necks ended in two bare, severed stumps.

It doesn’t forget to snatch a human even when it’s badly injured? What a thoroughly heretical creature. Well, I’d better end this quickly.

The spherical barrier enveloping Adonis was flickering dimly, as if it could fail at any second. Wasting no time, Yisi took out her lightsaber and infused it with magic. However, as if sensing the danger, the Hydra, which had its back to Yisi, suddenly whipped its head around. Then, as if it had seen a ghost or a demon, the Hydra’s entire body trembled. A wail came from its throat. Ignoring Adonis, who was still in its mouth, it spat her out. Thrashing its turtle-like limbs, it dove headfirst into the sea.

Rеad οո KаtRеaⅾiոɡСαfе

Giving the Hydra no chance to escape, Yisi extended her lightsaber to ten meters and split it in two with one stroke.

If this were a harmless monster, she could have pretended not to see it and let it escape. But Hydras were inherently evil, human-eating-existences. Not to mention, they took orders from demons. She had no reason to let it go.

“Your Majesty Adonis, are you alright?”

Deactivating [Wings of Hermes], Yisi landed and extended a hand to the bedraggled Adonis, who was struggling to her feet.

“Cough, cough, I-I’m fine.”

Hm? Is there something wrong with my ears?

Yisi tilted her head, confused. She really thought she had just heard a woman’s voice.

Yisi, Yisi, when did you become the kind of person who assumes someone’s a woman just because they have long hair?

Pushing the voice from her mind, Yisi pulled Adonis up from her half-crouching position.

“Do you want to rest a bit before we go back?”

Adonis’s face was obscured by her long, golden hair, and Adonis herself was busy trying to fix it, so Yisi couldn’t see her face. But one thing was for sure: if Adonis appeared before her subjects looking like this, her grand image as Emperor would take a massive hit.

Adonis swept her golden hair back, her palm facing Yisi, her expression full of composure.

“No, I must return now—?”

“Eh…?”

Halfway through the sentence, Adonis’s voice suddenly changed, rising in pitch. Yisi, finally seeing Adonis’s face, also froze for a moment.

The female voice she’d heard earlier hadn’t been a hallucination. The source of that voice was standing right in front of her.

Although Adonis’s face was streaked with water, her facial features were unmistakably feminine. Adding in the sopping wet golden hair and the distinct outline of her chest, which was visible because her clothes were plastered to her skin… only someone in a movie or an anime would fail to realize Adonis was a woman in disguise.

An awkward silence fell over the scene, broken only by the sound of waves crashing on the reef and the cry of seagulls.

“Er… well…” Not knowing what to say, Yisi awkwardly looked away, scratching her cheek with her right hand. “I accidentally saw something I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry…”

Her ears caught Adonis’s frantic muttering. “What do I do,” “Damn it,” “How do I explain this,” and “This ruins my chances.” Although Yisi didn’t know what Adonis meant by “chances,” she could guess she was panicking about her identity being exposed.

Rеaⅾ oո ΚαtReαdіոɡСafе

“…I won’t tell anyone this secret. So you—no, I should say, Your Majesty Adonis, so you don’t need to worry. I’ll forget this ever happened.”

As if I could forget.

Yisi secretly stuck out her tongue.

The Emperor ruling the Norta Empire was actually a woman. No one in the world could forget a secret like that.

As for why Adonis’s female identity was suddenly revealed, judging from her own panicked expression, it was probably an accident. Yisi herself possessed the [See Through] innate magic; all illusions revealed their true form before her. So, Adonis definitely wasn’t using illusion magic to hide her appearance. It was either a magic item that changed her voice and facial structure, or she was using some kind of special makeup. The former must have run out of magic power, revealing her true form, or the latter had washed off in the water.

Of course, none of that was the important part. The important part was what to do next. Yisi just had to keep the secret. But for Adonis, she was probably too embarrassed to speak. To be honest, Yisi herself was a little embarrassed and at a loss. If she had known, she would have let Bayldes come find Adonis. As one of the empire’s only three individuals who surpassed the heroic domain, Bayldes probably already knew Adonis’s identity.

Thinking about it, that punch I threw back at the palace when I was rescuing Red and Purple… I actually hit a beautiful girl…

I’m so sorry.

She had only hit her that hard because she thought Adonis was a man.

Yisi felt the urge to press a hand to her forehead.

After a full minute, Adonis finally snapped out of her dazed muttering.

“Cardinal Yisi… I take back what I said. Please give me some time.”

“Um… ah, no problem… But about your gender…”

“Please, keep it a secret for me. I… I’m not thinking clearly right now. I need to go back and calm down…”

It’s a big deal, sure, but is it that big of a deal? You don’t need to go all the way home to calm down, do you?

But the truth was, although Adonis’s words were normal, her expression and the way she was hugging her chest all revealed she was not calm. If her willpower wasn’t so strong, Yisi had the strange feeling Adonis might start rolling around on the beach.

After I get back, it’s probably going to be a long, restless time.

Well, from a certain angle, this is a good thing. The Emperor is a beautiful girl. That means the rule about royal intermarriage is just a piece of scrap paper. Adonis herself must understand this. Camilla is safe.

Haah, I just didn’t expect all three of the empire’s royals to be women.

Sighing, Yisi shook her head, as if looking at a hopeless child.