“Thank you for coming, great mage Loyd, pride of Minerva!”
I hear a voice I recognize, and when I look up to the ship’s deck, I see the person who put out this quest, Noir.
She’s striking a pose with her arms crossed and a somewhat self-important air to her, but because of how we’re looking up from an angle, we can see her panties.
I’m walking a tightrope here, wondering if I should tell her. She might call me a pervert if I mention it, so I ignore it.
“Noir! We can see your panties from this angle! Loyd is getting an excellent view!”
“Ah!? Hey you! Why didn’t you tell me, you pervert!?”
This world is so unfair.
It’s frustrating, but an adult just has to endure it.
Noir jumps from the ship and lands on the ground. And I hear a strange sound from her leg, before she holds her right knee in agony.
“Fuh, shi, ugugugugigigigi!”
“N-Noir!? If it hurts, don’t force yourself! I’m casting Healing!”
I rush to her side and heal her.
“Be quiet. I will overlook your panty peeking this time.”
Thank you.”
“I’m very thankful to you for accepting my request. A great mage such as yourself is worth a hundred people.”
“Hahaha, I’ll try to live up to that nickname.”
“I’m counting on you.”
“So are we boarding that ship to Tetra today?”
“Of course. We have to cross the sea to reach Tetra. But I won’t stop you if you want to run on the water all the way there, great mage Loyd.”
“I will refrain from doing that. I’m boarding the ship like everyone else.”
I say, and Noir giggles.
“Do your best, but don’t get too worked up out there.”
“Yes.”
“If there’s time on the second day, let’s face off in fishing.”
“Yes, I’ll be waiting.”
Then Lela comes running.
“Ah, Noir. Is Crowley here today?”
“Crowley?”
“Noir’s exclusive mage. He taught me some magic the other day, so I wanted to thank him.”
“Eh, I see. Is he here?”
“Unfortunately, no. Things have been busy in the capital lately, so her majesty called him.”
He must be great if she called him specifically. Maybe he’s even better than I thought.
Come to think of it, Ruby also spoke about a Crowley one time. I can’t imagine it’s the same person, but I’ll keep it in mind anyway.
“I’m assuming you haven’t met Crowley yet, sensei.”
Says Mars, like he wasn’t expecting it.
And I’m assuming they have met him.
“Yes, not yet. What is he like?”
“Handsome like you, sensei.”
“You’re good at complimenting people, Mars…”
“It’s flattery.”
“I know that!”
This elf girl is so rude!
“By the way, Crowley is the same race as me, so you just have to imagine someone as neat and graceful as me.”
“Neat?”
“Graceful? Sorry, speak the Merzelia language instead of that elvish language.”
“Grrrrr!”
Lela bites my arm.
“Ouch! Don’t bite someone’s arm just ’cause you’re angry!”
There goes that graceful attribute.
She’s more like a dangerous wild animal.
“He taught you chantless magic, right?”
Asks Mars, thinking back to it.
“Chantless magic? That’s great.”
He’s so good at it that he can teach it?
He’s definitely better than me. But now that I’m trying to be the best mage in the world, I can’t let him beat me.
I need to up my magic level even more before we actually meet.
“You’re bad at casting magic without a chant, right Loyd?”
“I was, until the other day.”
“Actually, ever since Crowley taught me, my success rate with chantless magic has gone up to eighty percent ☆. I can teach you some things if you want… The other day?”
“After I was promoted to B rank, my success rate with chantless magic went up to a hundred percent.”
I say, and Lela’s shadow grows dimmer, like she’s blending into the background.
Well then, now that we’ve said our hellos, it’s time for Noir to tell us the plans for today.
Like the quest document says, we’ll be mostly taking down monsters today, so we’ll be fighting dangerous monsters that live on the beaches of the Tetra island.
“No way! We can’t just go around taking down innocent monsters!”
Yells one of the adventurers from Minerva.
Hum, I think that’s Becky. I feel like she’s often with Tom.
I guess she fiercely opposes taking down monsters.
I kind of get what she means, but why did she accept the quest then? Did she completely ignore the part about taking down dangerous monsters?
“Then why did you accept the quest?”
Asks Tom, thinking what I’m thinking.
“Because the reward was higher than the others!”
“And did you read the quest document?”
“Don’t take me for an idiot. Of course I didn’t. Tell me what it is, Tom.”
“Die.”
“I’m living!”
“Ah, excuse me. If you could just go ahead and ignore her, that’d be great.”
Says an exasperated Tom.
“It’s hard dealing with an airhead, Mars.”
“The same goes for us.”
“Eh… I get that applies to me, but I’m very capable too.”
“You’re calling yourself capable? Didn’t you just mess up earlier when you were trying to show off?”
“Mars, you bully…”
These two start messing around with each other at the slightest opportunity.
It’s business as usual for them.
And then, Noir loudly clears her throat.
“Ahem. Leaving monster rights and whatever aside, we have to take out all the monsters on the beach for the fishing tournament. You have my permission.”
“How cruel.”
“It’s too early to make the call.”
“That’s perfect for a manager.”
Noir has no sympathy for monsters, and focuses on the fishing tournament.
I don’t think about that sort of thing while I’m working either. In nature, it’s survival of the fittest.
After that, we get on the ship, and sail to Tetra.
But twenty minutes later… There’s trouble.
“This is our territory.”
“Why did you come here without our permission?”
“Good grief, these humans… If you want to get through this territory, you have to defeat us, the Water Seven!”
Three Kaleid mermaids block the path of the ship.
They’re peeking their heads out of the water and glaring at us.
“Are they… The Kaleid mermaids Loyd likes so much!? Look! Those frilly outfits!”
Says Lela with her eyes wide open while pointing.
“Lela! You’re making me sound like a pervert!”
“It’s good to be honest with yourself. Be true to yourself… That’s the answer to life.”
“You’re the one that’s too free.”
“Sensei, trying to respond to Lela seriously is a waste of time. You need to let it wash over you.”
“Oh, that’s right Mars.”
“By the way sensei, it doesn’t look like we can keep going.”
“Hm… Don’t turn to me. They might know Vermeer, so I can’t just shoot a Lightning Storm…”
I say with my arms crossed.
I can’t think of anything, so I turn to the boss.
“Noir, should we turn back for now?”
“Hm, that would be too much of a pain, so full speed ahead ♪.”
She says with a big smile.
“““Fuah!?”””
Everyone’s shocked.
“W-we can’t do that! If we hit them, that’s manslaughter!”
“Hawawa!? Noir, they’re flesh and blood!”
“Hahahahaha! I don’t care! Everyone in the way of my fishing tournament is an enemy!”
“Eeeeeeek!?”””
I rush to stop her suggestion, and thanks to us trying our best to talk her down, we don’t take a hard measure like ramming them.
That was really scary. She looks cute, but she’s terrifying.
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Thank you for the chapter and Merry Christmas Eve!