Fun Territory Defense of the Easy-Going Lord

Just as I thought I spotted the familiar figure of the Van-brand special prototype ship, it was moving across the sea with violent motions. Rather, it seemed a wonder how such a large ship was bobbing and tossing about like that.

Seeing the ship continue to move at high speed while pitching violently up and down, I realized that this might be a bad situation.

“They might be being chased by a magic beast!”

Saying that, I quickly grabbed Wood Blocks to build a ballista in the center of our boat.

“I’m building a ballista!”

“Y-Yes!”

When I called out, Arte and Till replied and stepped back to give me space. Panamera was at the bow, so she wasn’t in the way. As I was hurriedly constructing the ballista, Till’s scream reached my ears.

“Ah!? The sea surface is……!?”

“Is that…… another magic beast?”

Till’s scream and Panamera’s calm remark. Hearing that, I shifted only my eyes to check, and saw water spraying up as if the sea surface had exploded. Since it was far away, I describe it as a splash, but compared to the size of the large ship, it was equivalent to a waterfall-like pillar of water rising up.

In the gap of that splashing water, I saw a familiar shadow.

“Whoa! It’s the monster whale’s mouth! It tried to swallow the ship from the bottom!”

I shouted, feeling a chill run down my spine. At that, Panamera knitted her brows.

“You mean that large magic beast? Isn’t it bigger than the one we subjugated?”

Saying that, Panamera stood up and began preparing her magic.

“Can we get closer to the ship!?”

I called out to the mermaids, but Rilda, acting as their representative, shook her head from side to side in denial.

“……That area is the most dangerous place. Even we would be eaten if surrounded.”

“Surrounded!? You mean there are multiple of them……!?”

Astonished by Rilda’s words, I looked toward the ship, which was accelerating to escape the monster whale. At that exact moment, a monster whale appeared on the sea surface from behind the ship. It was in a predatory stance. Right after, a small dot leaped up from the back of the ship. Seeing the light reflect off it, I understood that it was Dee holding his greatsword.

Was he planning to launch a surprise attack from above on the monster whale chasing the ship? Just as I thought that, the monster whale quickly twisted its body, aiming its upper half toward the sky as if it had foreseen Dee’s movements. Its massive mouth opened and closed in on Dee.

“W-We won’t make it in time……! Ms. Panamera!?”

The ballista had just been completed, and I was just about to make the bolts. There was absolutely no way I’d make it in time. I looked at Panamera as if in prayer, but her chanting wasn’t finished yet. Her magic wouldn’t make it in time either.

“Ah……!?”

At that moment, Arte cried out in surprise. Hearing her voice, I looked toward Dee, and unbelievably, Dee had struck the monster whale and performed a second jump in mid-air. I didn’t understand what had happened at all, but as a result, the monster whale was falling without having been able to do anything.

“A-As expected of Dee……”

As I breathed a sigh of relief and patted my chest, a shocking sight subsequently unfolded before my eyes, leaving me speechless.

Dee, whom I thought had flown into the air to evade, slashed the back of the monster whale’s head at the exact moment he fell toward the sea surface. He must have cut quite deeply. The monster whale let out a death-agony-like scream and shuddered.

“……What an outrageous gentleman.”

Even Panamera wore an exasperated look.

“……No, really, all I can say is ‘as expected of Dee’……”

As I muttered that with a dry laugh, Till, who had been setting a bolt in the ballista, pointed toward the ship and raised her voice.

“A-Over there! This time the ship is……!”

“Eh!?”

Turning my eyes in surprise, I saw a new monster whale closing in on the ship. I could only see a part of its back, but it was unmistakably a monster whale. It was slightly smaller, but still seemed to be about the same size as the large ship.

“This is bad! They’re totally being targeted!”

In a panic, I readied the ballista and aimed between the ship and the monster whale. Perhaps the ship was in the middle of turning; its movements weren’t as good as before. Meanwhile, the monster whale was rapidly closing in.

They’re going to make contact. The ship probably has no means to counterattack, so I have no choice but to stop it with the ballista.

The moment I thought that, something flew out from the ship. It was small and I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but strangely enough, it looked like Khamsin to me.

A chill ran down my spine, making me unable to breathe. However, my head was calm. Aiming at the figure of the monster whale closing in with its mouth opened wide enough to swallow the ship whole, I fired the ballista. The bolt was sucked in toward the back of the monster whale’s eye, right into the back of its head.

Without even a moment to watch it hit, I fired the next bolt. The recoil of the launch shook the boat, and a violent sound echoed.

The ballista is a twin-shot type. If I fire two shots, it will take time before I can loose the next bolt. I cannot afford to miss. My target is the side of its face. If I hit the top and bottom, if all goes well, I might be able to deflect the monster whale’s face to the side.

I don’t know if I thought it through that clearly, but making that intuitive judgment, I fired the second shot from the rocking boat.

The forcefully launched bolt hit the monster whale’s face, around the base of its lower jaw. My aim might have been slightly off, but even so, it succeeded in making the monster whale turn its face away to the side, just as intended.

“What about Khamsin……!?”

While watching the monster whale splash down and fall upon the sea surface, I searched for the human figure that had flown toward the sea. However, it was too far away, and as expected, I couldn’t find him.