Published: September 10, 2025
Satou here. The signs of impending doom are surprisingly numerous. However, many of these signs tend to be overlooked until disaster actually strikes.
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"Dry fish~?"
"Just a bunch of mackerel."
I was visiting one of the larger fishing villages in the Marquisate of Ganika, accompanied by Tama and Pochi.
We had come to this village to look for fish for lunch and potential gifts suitable for when we visited the mountainous country.
The Marquisate of Ganika is a long, east-west territory located midway along the air route connecting the Royal Capital and Duke Ouyugok's territory, with most of its domain facing the sea.
“Merchant-sama, here to buy goods?”
As we walked among racks of drying fish toward a crowded area, a girl with a peculiar speech pattern called out to us.
She was a catperson like Tama. Unlike Tama, her fur and gaze were a bit rough, but she didn’t seem to harbor any ill will toward us.
Correcting her that we were nobles seemed troublesome, so I let her misunderstand and continued the conversation.
“Ah, that helps a lot! For the past half-month or so, the fish catch has been so huge we couldn’t eat it all, so we’ve been making tons of dried fish. But the usual peddlers keep saying ‘all fishing villages in the territory have good catches, so prices are low,’ and are reluctant to buy. It’s been a problem.”
When I asked for the price, dried fish were unusually cheap—about 5% of the Royal Capital’s market price—so I decided to buy a large amount as recommended.
This girl seemed to be the village’s figurehead, and when she gave instructions, sturdy catpeople and gillmen swiftly brought the goods.
“Just dried fish? We also have dried abalone and some beautiful shell crafts, you know?”
The enterprising catperson girl tried to sell us some higher-priced items.
The shell crafts weren’t that great, but since they were handmade by widows and children from poor families, and the price wasn’t much, I bought them all.
I figured we could sell them at the Echigoya Trading Company’s inland branch.
Then, a gillman who looked like a fisherman came to sell fresh bluefish similar to mackerel, so I bought a basketful.
After buying from one, more fishermen rushed over to sell their fish.
The rumors of a huge catch seemed to be true.
“Octopus~?”
“The octopus outside the labyrinth are small.”
Tama and Pochi tilted their heads at an octopus mixed in with the seafood.
Compared to the labyrinth octopus—dungeon octopus—over ten meters long, these were obviously small.
Though even those are small compared to the giant kraken-type octopuses in the open ocean.
As we chatted, Tama and Pochi packed the purchased goods into the magic bags.
“Work~ work~”
“Pochi will work hard too.”
“A magic bag! As expected of the rich lord, it’s different!”
The catpeople watching made a fuss.
Many merchants in the Royal Capital owned magic bags, but among traveling merchants visiting fishing villages, it was rare.
Then an old catperson man in rags appeared.
For some reason, the villagers’ gazes grew sharp.
“Hear me! Everyone! This bountiful catch is a sign that the undersea people are about to attack from the deep sea! We must abandon the shore and flee to the mountains now!”
—Undersea people?
Ignoring the tense atmosphere, the old man glared at the sea and gave a speech.
Just to be sure, I scanned the sea on the map. There was no sign of undersea people, even checking beyond the territory.
There were plenty of monsters, but that was usual, so I ignored them.
“Old man Bemuto, there’s a guest here now. Save your nonsense for your dog back home.”
The catperson girl dismissed him, and the villagers laughed at the old man.
Hmm, I don’t like this kind of atmosphere.
I prompted the catperson girl to finish payments and diverted the villagers’ attention from the old man to me.
“Excuse me, would you like to pay in cash or gems?”
“Of course, cash! It helps if you pay in copper coins so everyone can share.”
Despite buying so much, the total was only 73 copper coins. I’d only been using gold coins recently, so it felt strange.