Chapter 50: Squid Festival and Great Whale
“The Squid Festival to celebrate the subjugation of the Kraken will now begin!”
The host’s voice, spread throughout the surrounding area by wind magic, announced the start of the festival, and the people gathered at the port cheered.
“Thanks to the cooperation of the Shipping Association and the Adventurer’s Guild, the Kraken has been brilliantly defeated! This is also thanks to the brave adventurers and sailors!”
Everyone gathered applauded at the host’s words.
“And look! This is the wretched figure of the Kraken that ravaged our seas!”
With the host’s words, everyone’s gaze gathered at one spot in the port. Normally, shipping cargo and materials would be placed there, but just for today, it was an empty square.
No, just one huge object wrapped in a large cloth sat there. And when the sailors waiting in the square pulled the cloth, a large stake stuck diagonally into the ground appeared. And in the middle of that stake was the miserable figure of the Kraken, pierced right through the center of its body.
“Ooh! Is that the Kraken!”
“It’s big.”
The townspeople voiced their impressions of the Kraken one after another.
“And to celebrate this joyous day, we would like to treat everyone to Kraken cuisine!”
“”””Eeeeh!?””””
“You can eat Kraken!?”
“Is it safe to eat monsters?”
Hearing Kraken cuisine, the townspeople raised voices of agitation. Well, humans are wary of things they’ve never eaten before.
“However, there must be voices of anxiety wondering if you can really eat Kraken meat! To answer such anxieties, the Guild Master of the Adventurer’s Guild, Mr. Ronzen, will personally taste test the Kraken cuisine in front of everyone!”
“””””Ooh!”””””
With the host’s words, Ronzen appeared in front of the Kraken. Then, several mages who appeared released fire magic at the Kraken, grilling its surface. The sauce that had been applied to the Kraken’s surface beforehand was grilled by magic, and a fragrant burnt smell drifted around.
“Ooh, it smells really savory and good.”
“Yeah, this looks delicious.”
The townspeople gulped involuntarily. Then the cooks dismantled the deliciously grilled Kraken. Seeing the large Kraken meat being taken apart in the blink of an eye, the townspeople raised excited cheers.
Well, to reveal the trick, that Kraken meat had cuts made in advance to make dismantling easier, though.
And a table was set up in front of Ronzen, and a plate with Kraken meat was placed on it.
“Now Mr. Ronzen, please eat the Kraken meat!”
Nodding to the host’s voice, Ronzen grabbed the Kraken meat and bit into it wildly.
“……”
The townspeople watched with bated breath as Ronzen continued to chew the Kraken meat in silence. Then Ronzen looked up and announced.
“…Delicious!!”
At Ronzen’s words, the spectators gathered at the port cheered.
“Then, we will now open the Kraken cuisine! Those who want to eat, please line up in front of the staff holding the flag over there!”
“Alright! Let’s challenge the Kraken meat!”
“I’ll go too!”
“How dare you do whatever you wanted in our sea, Kraken! I’ll eat you deliciously!”
The townspeople started lining up for Kraken meat en masse.
“I guess the Kraken disturbance has safely ended with this.”
We muttered while watching the scene of everyone happily lining up for Kraken meat from a place with a good view.
“If I recall correctly, this festival is being held in other towns too, right?”
Liliela, sitting next to me, asked while eating the Kraken cuisine prepared for us in advance. Mmm, it’s a smell that makes me hungry.
“Munch munch munch”
Fluffy also seems engrossed in devouring a chunk of Kraken meat. Both of you, let’s focus a little on the festival.
“Yes, it seems all Krakens were bought by each town’s Adventurer’s Guild and provided to the townspeople as proof that a Kraken was subjugated in each town.”
Having subjugated the Krakens, I was asked by the Guild Masters to sell one whole Kraken to each town. Apparently, it was because they wanted to show the proof of Kraken subjugation to the townspeople, outside merchants, and travelers.
If they see the real thing, the impact of having defeated a Kraken will be engraved in everyone’s minds, so it seems it will be good publicity that navigating the Inner Sea will be safe from now on. They aim to reassure the townspeople, and have merchants and travelers talk about their experience of eating Kraken meat when they go to other towns, thereby advertising that the Kraken problem has been solved.
Well, anyway, most of the Kraken materials are meat and internal organs, so there aren’t many uses other than for food. The only exception is Kraken ink, which makes a very compatible dye when creating water attribute magic circles. I was wondering what they would do with the internal organs, but the Guild Masters said they would make them into salted fish guts to serve as appetizers for alcohol. Apparently, they will provide it to taverns during the night part of the festival. Unexpectedly, this kind of challenging spirit might discover new food ingredients.
“Well, thanks to that, I made quite a profit.”
After all, they even bought the Elder Plant stakes that pierced their bodies as proof of defeating the Krakens.
“But didn’t it become quite an expense for the guild?”
What Liliela probably wants to say is that the total Kraken subjugation reward greatly exceeded the reward originally assumed by each port town.
After all, although every town’s guild knew there were multiple Krakens, the number was 7, which exceeded their assumptions. So there’s no mistake the cost for the 2 extra Krakens over budget was quite a burden.
“But well, according to the Guild Masters, it seems they can get the budget from the country.”
After all, securing sea routes is a lifeline for the operation of a nation facing the sea. As a country, they probably can’t refuse if the budget is for that purpose.
In fact, the Guild Masters even said that if the sea routes become safe now that the Krakens are gone, it’s an amount they can recover in the not-too-distant future.
“Also, it seems they plan to hold a Squid Festival every year as a commemoration of subjugating the Krakens.”
“What’s that?”
“Apparently, they want to make it a new specialty of the town and a festival held in cooperation with each port town.”
“Why cooperate with other towns? They could just do it in their own town.”
It’s no wonder Liliela tilts her head. Certainly, the Kraken extermination itself was a joint request by the Guild Masters of each port town, but there’s no need to do the post-processing together too. But that’s if you think on a town level.
“If anything, I think this is the country’s intention. I think it’s a friendship ritual to share the Inner Sea fairly without violating each other’s territories and sea areas from now on.”
Well, stories like this were common in my previous life too. It’s the pattern of ‘let’s let bygones be bygones since we defeated a common enemy’. They won’t get along perfectly, but overcoming hardships together still creates some sense of solidarity.
“How should I put it, for a festival, it’s quite messy underneath.”
Liliela looked at the festival scene with an amazed face. Surely the festival scene looks different in her eyes.
“Well, but thanks to that we got additional rewards, so isn’t it fine?”
“Additional rewards? What’s that, I didn’t hear about it?”
Yeah, well, this was something I was asked to keep secret since I defeated the Krakens.
“You know how they said at the beginning of the festival earlier that the Kraken was defeated by the cooperation of the Adventurer’s Guild and the Shipping Guild?”
“Yes, they were saying that.”
“That, originally I was supposed to appear there as the person of merit, but I declined because I didn’t want to stand out, and that’s the cause.”
“Eh?”
For some reason, I feel multiple meanings in that “Eh?”, is it just my imagination?
“I was told that even though it’s a festival that also serves as a kind of ceremony, if there’s no person of merit, the festival won’t be exciting, so I proposed making it the achievement of the whole guild. In fact, there were adventurers and fishermen who headed to Kraken extermination until now and protected ships from Krakens, even if only temporarily.”
“So why does that become an additional reward? I think it just means you’re unilaterally losing out, Rex-san.”
“No, about that, I was told that as Guild Masters they couldn’t just take this much credit for free, and they wanted to repay the favor in another form at least, so 1000 gold coins came in as an additional reward from the Guild Masters’ pocket money.”
“Even if divided by 5 people, that’s 200 gold coins huh. Money exists where it exists, I suppose. …Even so, money keeps accumulating, doesn’t it.”
“I did use money to build a house, you know?”
“Even so, you still have quite a lot left over, right? Enough to live playfully.”
“Ahaha…”
Certainly, as Liliela says, I possess quite a lot of money. But for me, whose purpose is to live as an adventurer, just because I’ve saved money doesn’t give me a reason to retire as an adventurer.
However, it’s also bad to hoard money that an individual doesn’t use much. If I recall correctly, if you hoard money and don’t use it, the economy stagnates. I remember someone saying something like that in my life before last and telling me to use more money.
However, it’s not like I want to do something luxurious, I wonder if there’s any meaningful way to use money.
“Well, I’ll think about how to use the money gradually.”
“Don’t use it for anything too strange, okay?”
I wonder what a strange use would be?
While talking about such things, we watched the scene of the Squid Festival. Before I knew it, various stalls were set up at the port, and stalls with various dishes using Kraken meat were ready.
Ah, those stalls must also be part of the Squid Festival plan.
Contrary to the ground where the Kraken Festival was exciting, a leisurely atmosphere flowed in the place where we were.
It was at that moment. Splash! A very loud sound echoed throughout the town.
“W-What is it!?”
“Don’t tell me another Kraken appeared!?”
The port that was bustling with the Squid Festival was suddenly wrapped in agitation, and everyone’s gaze poured into the Inner Sea.
“Oi, what’s that!?”
When someone pointed to the center of the Inner Sea, the figure of a large and black island that hadn’t existed until now could be seen there.
“Huh? Was there an island like that in the Inner Sea?”
“No, there shouldn’t be…”
Everyone is confused by the black island that suddenly appeared. But no, that’s not an island.
“H-Hey, isn’t that thing moving?”
That’s right, that is not an island. That’s why it moves.
“What is that!?”
Liliela can’t hide her surprise at the sight she’s seeing for the first time. But I was surprised by something else.
“Why is that guy in a place like this…”
“Rex-san, do you know what that is?”
Liliera, hearing my mutter, asks.
“Yes, I know.”
Yes, that is undoubtedly that guy. However, its appearance was too small compared to that guy I know.
“That is the Kraken’s natural enemy, a Megalo Whale!”
As if answering my words, the Megalo Whale spouted water along with a sound like a roar.
“Kyaa!?”
The water spouted by the Megalo Whale falls into the surrounding sea, creating huge water columns.
“A Megalo Whale is a giant whale monster that grows up to 5km in total length.”
“5-5km!? Is that really a living creature!?”
I understand what Liliela wants to say. She probably can’t believe a living creature of such absurd size exists.
“Besides, that… um, Megalo Whale was it? It looks about 100m in size, isn’t its size different from what you said?”
Yes, as Liliera says, that Megalo Whale was too small compared to the Megalo Whale I know. The reason is probably…
“That is likely a newly born fry.”
“That’s a fry!? Even though it’s bigger than an Ancient Plant!?”
“Yes, please look. The fish that were hit by the tide that poured down earlier are floating on the water surface. Megalo Whale’s spout shoots up not only seawater but also bone-like substances generated inside its body. And the seawater and bone stones shot high into the sky fall from above, and it eats the surrounding creatures that float up after being hit by them to grow.”
The Megalo Whale opens its large mouth and begins to swallow the fish that floated up along with the seawater. That sight is as if a black hole opened in the sea.
“Even that is small for a Megalo Whale’s meal amount. Normally, Kraken-class sized monsters are their main meal.”
“Kraken is the main dish?”
Liliera is amazed, but this situation is quite bad.
“There are no Kraken-sized creatures in the Inner Sea. at this rate, the fish in the Inner Sea will be eaten up by the Megalo Whale!”
Yes, Megalo Whales are great monster whales that grow up to 5km in total length, the amount of food to maintain that huge body is considerable. Undoubtedly, the creatures of this Inner Sea will be extinct within a few months.
“Surely the Kraken children fled from the Megalo Whale and came to the Inner Sea. An adult Megalo Whale would get stuck if it entered the Inner Sea, after all.”
Yup, as expected, an adult Megalo Whale can’t pass through that narrow sea route.
“So, what are you going to do about that?”
At Liliela’s words, I also thought a little.
“First, I guess I’ll consult Ronzen-san. We haven’t been requested to subjugate it, and even if we subjugate it now, I don’t think they can prepare money for purchase, let alone a reward.”
“Right, I think that’s good too.”
Honestly speaking, working for free isn’t good. If lives were in danger, I wouldn’t hesitate to help, but Megalo Whales are whale monsters, so it’s safe as long as you’re on land. Since no subjugation request has been issued, there’s no need to subjugate it right now.
Rather, if I act poorly out of good intentions, I’ll get dragged into more and more trouble like in my previous life.
So this is a scene to negotiate with the Guild Masters as a business.
◆
We avoided roads crowded with people and headed to the port along the roofs.
“Ronzen-san!”
When we called out, Ronzen also noticed us.
“Oh, glad you came! Do you know anything about that!?”
As expected of a Guild Master. He started with gathering information first.
“That is called a Megalo Whale, it’s a monster that is a Kraken’s natural enemy.”
“Kraken’s natural enemy!?”
I repeated the explanation I gave to Liliela to Ronzen.
“…So that was the cause of the Krakens escaping here.”
“Yes, however, as long as you are on land, there is no need to worry about danger to life, so I don’t think there’s a need to panic.”
Well, there is a crisis of total annihilation of marine products, though. Ronzen holds his head while looking at the Megalo Whale.
“Even if you say that, if we know it will become something that dangerous in the future, it will be too late if we don’t subjugate it quickly.”
True, if we let it stay in the Inner Sea for too long, this time it won’t be able to get out and will become a threat to the Inner Sea.
“I want to subjugate it, but such big game would undoubtedly be an S-Rank subjugation target… We just applied for an additional budget with Kraken subjugation rewards, so I wonder if the budget will be approved if we request S-Rank rewards here on top of that.”
Guild bigwigs have it tough too. It was at that moment.
“Naval Knight Order, move out! Sortie to subjugate that giant monster!”
A familiar ship left the port and headed towards the Megalo Whale.
“Isn’t that the military’s new ship!?”
The crew members were safe, huh.
“Fuhahahaha! If it’s that thing, it has no tentacles so there’s no worry of the ship being thrown! This time for sure, we’ll show the power of the newest state-of-the-art ship!”
“Umm, what does this mean?”
There hasn’t been any damage to humans yet, so why head out for subjugation so suddenly?
“Ah, probably because they were defeated without being able to do anything in the Kraken extermination, they feel it’s bad if they don’t achieve some merit.”
They challenged it with the newest battleship and lost easily, after all. Well, they wouldn’t be able to make excuses to their superiors if they don’t achieve some merit.
However, even though the opponent isn’t a Kraken, it’s still a 100m class giant creature. In contrast, the battleship, even if it’s the newest type, is about 30m, less than 1/3 the size. The battleship approaches the Megalo Whale while releasing attack magic. In response, the Megalo Whale didn’t react at all.
“Is that effective?”
“Megalo Whales have bodies sturdy enough to ram prey, so I don’t think attack magic of that level of power would even itch.”
Whether for diversion or not, the magic released at the Megalo Whale is all strangely low-power magic. Attacks won’t work unless you increase the power a little more, you know?
Then the Megalo Whale moved. The Megalo Whale carried out a body slam towards the battleship. The battleship hurriedly took evasive action, but it wouldn’t be able to avoid it at this rate.
The mages on board managed to avoid it by bending the ship’s course quite forcefully with wind and water magic, but still couldn’t avoid it completely, and the Megalo Whale’s body collided with the side, causing the hull to shake greatly. And the waves generated by the Megalo Whale slapping the water surface hard with its tail as it passed by shook the warship’s hull even more.
Then the Megalo Whale drew a large arc and turned around once, and carried out a body slam again towards the rear of the battleship which was desperately maintaining its posture.
As expected, it couldn’t avoid the second charge, and the battleship pitifully capsized. That ship really has no good points. However, as expected, I can’t leave it alone any longer. I have to go rescue them.
“By the way, can you defeat that?”
Ronzen asked if I could subjugate the Megalo Whale that repelled the warship.
“Yes, that’s still a fry, so subjugation isn’t that difficult.”
If the opponent was an adult, it would be a bit tough, but the opponent is still a child, after all.
“That’s right, that’s a child, huh.”
Moreover, it’s a genuine child that hasn’t been born for long.
“Ah, can’t be helped!”
Ronzen shouted while scratching his head.
“I’ll manage to prepare the money by persuading the guys from other guilds! Can I ask you to subjugate the Megalo Whale!?”
“…Understood. Leave it to me.”
Alright, if it’s a formal request, it becomes a reason to subjugate the Megalo Whale!
“Then, I guess I’ll defeat it quickly and save the people from the capsized battleship!”
I pulled out the Elder Plant stake that had been piercing the Kraken until just now, and jumped up high into the sky with all my might.
“A, a tree flew in the sky!?”
The surrounding spectators were surprised that the Elder Plant stake flew up.
“Aim carefuuully… there!”
I threw the Elder Plant stake at the Megalo Whale. The target is the blowhole sprouting water!
“Boeeeeeeee!?”
The stake pierced the Megalo Whale’s blowhole, and the Megalo Whale screamed at the sudden pain. Alright, I succeeded in sealing the spout attack by plugging the hole. It would be terrible if the sailors thrown into the sea got injured by the spout attack.
“Since the sailors are nearby, lightning attribute and ice attribute attack magic are strictly prohibited.”
I’ll defeat it obediently with normal attacks here. I flew towards the Megalo Whale with flight magic.
And pierced the water surface with the sword made from a Mutant’s blade. As if chasing me moving at high speed, the torn water surface blew up like a tail.
I changed course and went around to the rear of the Megalo Whale.
“Sonic Saber!”
Activating a wind magic sword, I flew through while piercing the Megalo Whale’s epidermis with the sword. The Mutant sword is a sword only about 1m long, same as a normal sword. With this sword, no matter how sharp it is, it can’t possibly cut through the Megalo Whale’s huge body. However, the wind blade generated by the Sonic Saber magic pseudo-extended its blade while maintaining the same sharpness as the Mutant sword, penetrating the Megalo Whale’s body, reaching the sea surface directly below it, and the blade ran from tail to forehead.
And the swung wind blade continued to cut the water surface even further beyond, splitting the water surface for several hundred meters. At the same time as the water surface torn by the wind blade returned over several seconds, the Megalo Whale’s body shifted from the center, and split right in two.
“””””T-The huge monster suddenly spliiiit!?”””””
The spectators watching from land were in a storm of confusion because they didn’t know what was happening.
And because the split body of the Megalo Whale slammed onto the sea surface, the sea surface undulated greatly.
“Uwaaa!?”
Screams of sailors thrown onto the sea surface rose.
“Oops, gotta be careful, Life Sphere!”
I cast wind rescue magic on the sailors I spotted to rescue them. The sailors cast with magic were wrapped in spherical wind and drifted on the water surface. This magic protects those requiring rescue with a wind barrier, so it also becomes a boat that temporarily protects people who met with water accidents.
“Now, I have to save the people who sank into the sea too.”
Using detection magic to search for human reactions, I rescued those requiring rescue. While doing so, ships also came from the port town and rescue of the sailors began. And an hour later, all the sailors were safely rescued.
“Good grief, no matter what amazing monster appears, when it comes to you, Rex-san, you treat them all like puppies.”
Liliela said in an amazed tone, but that’s not true. Strong monsters really are strong. It’s just that the monsters we happened to meet until now were all unimpressive fellows.
As a side note, the newest warship was a little damaged but safe. Hmm, it’s sturdy.
