Published: January 17, 2026
At the edge of my vision, I saw Kamushin desperately reaching out toward me. Next to him was Arte, who had floated into the air together with me. And then, there were Panamera and Til, both kicking off from the deck and flying...
Huh? Kicking off the deck?
At least they should be holding onto a rope or something; otherwise, they’d fall into the sea. Besides, can those two even swim?
Caught in this slow-motion scene, I couldn’t help but shout out in disbelief. Meanwhile, the bow of the ship, which had been lifted up, began to tilt downward. Behind us, the stern, from which Arte and I had been flung, and Til and Panamera, who had kicked off the deck, was rising like a wall as the ship’s stern, which had almost sunk, lifted back up.
This is bad. No matter how I think about it, we’re going to fall into the sea. And in the water lurks that enormous demonic beast. We’re in a desperate situation.
Water. Seawater. No good. I can’t gather hydrogen and have Panamera ignite it here. No, there’s no time to even give such an order. At the very least, I have to get the three who fell after me back onto the ship.
In the moment when the ship tilted and threw us out, I searched my mind for any way to save us, processing thoughts faster than I believed possible. Still, no answer came.
The moment my body touched the water’s surface, time seemed to speed up drastically. I realized I was caught in a violent current, spinning as if trapped in a whirlpool. There was no chance to swim. The rushing water was brutal, allowing no resistance.
After spinning twice or thrice underwater, and feeling the light dim faintly, I sensed something at my right wrist. Opening my eyes underwater, I saw a fluttering white cloth swaying in my blurry vision.
And then, the sight of a massive black shadow approaching...
The wind brushed against my cheek. My fingers felt the touch of water. The back of my hand was rough to the touch.
The sound of waves. My fuzzy mind registered this and I slowly opened my eyes.
I saw the blue sky. Large white clouds drifting slowly. I turned my neck to look around and found Til lying beside me. She was a bit distant, lying on her side with her eyes closed. Though part of her maid outfit was torn, she was still dressed in it.
Although waves lapped against her from the waist down, she didn’t wake up.
Is she alright? Worried, I lifted my upper body and tried calling her name. Then I noticed Arte and Mr. Panamera lying behind Til. The four of us were lying evenly spaced along the shoreline.
My legs refused to cooperate, but I slammed my fists into them and forced myself to stand, then walked toward the three.
"…Til? Arte, Mr. Panamera..."
I tapped each on the shoulder and called their names, confirming they were breathing. Thank goodness. Miraculously, everyone was safe. Though some of their clothes were torn or dirty, there didn’t seem to be any serious injuries.
"How did we survive that...?"
The huge demonic beast’s underwater attack. Or maybe it simply struck the ship’s bottom with its massive body. The bow had been flung upward, and the ship was almost sinking from that single blow. The stern had dropped close to the waterline, and the rebound threw us into the sea. Unprotected and underwater — surely, the enormous demonic beast had been heading toward us...
No way we could have fought back. We must have just been about to be eaten. What could possibly have happened for us to survive that?
"…No way Dee jumped into the sea and defeated the demonic beast, right?"
I muttered jokingly, but saying it out loud made it feel like the most likely possibility — and that terrified me. Dee was the kind who might do something like that.
But if that were true, this situation still didn’t make sense. We were on a sandy beach, but from the beaches of Tribute, you could usually see the town from anywhere. Yet there was no town in sight. Instead, I saw unfamiliar jagged mountains and a spread of green trees.
Had we been carried by the ocean current and drifted somewhere? Even so, we’d fallen into the sea wearing clothes, without any flotation material. Normally, even if carried ashore, we’d have drowned.