Just as we’re reaching the stairs that take us from the sand to the promenade, another strange thing happens.
A giant water dragon emerges from the water about two kilometers away from the beach.
“Is that… An askar!?”
It might be what the mermaids were talking about earlier today.
It’s tens of times bigger than the one I fought two years ago, to the point where it could compete in size with Levithesis.
It’s huge…
“Eh? Eeh!? T-that’s an askar? It’s a lot bigger than I heard. It’s about as big as the Kokkoro mountain in Minerva!”
That’s one of the mountains in the Minerva mountain range. It’s the same area where I met the demon king.
“No, this one is too big. They would normally be about a hundred meters tall.”
“That’s big too! A-are you going to fight that!?”
I didn’t say anything about that, but she’s talking like I said I would.
Well, I guess we can’t just leave it, but what do these people think I am? I’m human just like you, Noir…
It shouldn’t have the same resistance to magic as Levithesis, so I think I can beat it.
But what magic should I use… It’s a water element monster, so I guess Lightning Storm?
As I think that, the askar howls towards the sky, and it twists as it swims, creating waves of various sizes.
This causes huge waves to make their way to the beach.
“This isn’t good. A tsunami is going to crash here, if this keeps going!”
“D-do something, Loyd!”
Says Noir with a panicked tone.
“Leave it to me! Ice knight, manifest here! Ice Valkyrie!”
I cast the highest rank spell Ice Valkyrie, and a ten meter tall ice statue appears from the ground up with an ice tornado.
This Ice Valkyrie is the highest rank of the incarnation magic family!
It unleashes a cold wave that freezes everything as it majestically appears before us!
It has a full ice heavy armor and it’s holding a silk ice spear with both hands.
Ice Valkyrie are a couple of words that relate to female warriors, so this knight has a blank expression, but it clearly has female features.
“Ice Valkyrie, blow away that wave!”
“Ha!”
Ice Valkyrie puts out its spear with a robotic voice, and the big wave coming towards us is blown away. Then, Ice Valkyrie uses that momentum to go after the askar.
As it moves like it’s gliding on the water, the surface of the water audibly freezes. It quickly reaches the askar, and executes the second attack.
A thundering roar that feels like it will pierce the earth itself echoes, ice magic energy spreads like a shock wave, and my vision is painted with a cold white air.
Once the smoke clears, I see the Ice Valkyrie and the completely frozen askar.
This Ice Valkyrie is a different family of magic compared to Water Daedalus and Lightning Storm, but it has the power of highest rank magic.
Once the battle is over, I turn over to Noir. She’s sitting on the ground with a dumbfounded expression.
“A-Arata, you really are an incredible mage. Can I start treating you as sir from now on?”
“Just be as frank as you’ve been until now.”
Just thinking about it makes me smile awkwardly.
I reach out to her, and help her up.
“Ouch. You’re really unlucky. I can’t believe you have all this power and no one in the capital recognized it.”
“Don’t worry about it. Now I have nice people like Isolte who do.”
“So optimistic. I get the feeling that Isolte thinks nicely of you.”
She says with a soft expression, and her hand on her waist.
I turn back to that red light. I don’t know if taking out the askar did it, but the red light is getting weaker, until it completely disappears.
“What was that…”
“There’s no point in thinking about it when we have no idea, Loyd. It’s gone now, so let’s forget about it.”
“…Yes. We have to wake up early tomorrow.”
But what caused it? I don’t think it was just a natural phenomenon, but I’m also completely clueless otherwise.
I still have questions, but Noir isn’t hurt either, so I don’t mention it again, and we decide to go back to the hotel.
But then, a bunch of adventurers come out of the hotel, and head this way.
“Loyd! What did you do now!?”
“Did you make that red light, sensei!?”
I point at the frozen askar.
“W-what’s that huge dragon!?”
“H-hold on, now I understand it even less.”
Mars and Lela look baffled, and the other adventurers behind them are speechless as they look at the frozen askar.
“So basically..”
Noir gives them a simple explanation of what just happened.
“Woooooooooooooooooow!”
“I knew you were incredible, but you are a great mage beyond my wildest dreams.”
“Loyd! You saved us from a tsunami!”
“““““Loyd banzai! Loyd banzai!”””””
Loyd! Loyd! I keep hearing my name being yelled with respect.
And then other people show up to sing my praises.
“Hawawawawa!? Is that askar frozen!?”
“Who took down this monstrosity?”
“We need to report to Queen Undine.”
The three mermaids from earlier are near the askar.
I assume they hear everyone’s voices here, because they then turn this way.
“Ah, look! It’s Mister Loyd!”
“Yes!”
“Kyaaaaah! Cool!”
The mermaids yell with joy as they swim over here.
“Mister Loyd Mister Loyd! Did you take that thing down!?”
“Don’t be silly Chloe, of course he did!”
“He fought on equal footing with Levithesis!”
There’s such enthusiasm around me, that I can’t just go back to the hotel.
Geez, we all need to get up early tomorrow, but everyone’s full of energy.
Ah, I know.
The mermaids are here, so let’s ask them about Vermeer.
I tell them she’s in Minerva, and…
“Eh!? She’s over there!?”
“No wonder we couldn’t find her..”
“But why is she on land? Not being able to swim is so inconvenient…”
Apparently they didn’t even know Vermeer quit. I feel like she left very suddenly.
And they look pretty confused.
“I didn’t ask a lot either, but it seemed she had a lot on her mind.”
“I see… But I’m still worried. She’s our proud big sister, but is she going to be well on land?”
I feel like mermaids have a bad impression of life on land.
Vermeer is my friend, so I have to help her out if she needs it.
“I get how you feel. It must have been fate that led me to ask that here. I’ll look after Vermeer.”
“Really!?”
“Thank you! Please do!”
“W-wait, you two. I feel like I just noticed something incredible.”
Yells one of the mermaids.
“Incredible?”
“Yes! Surely she quit because she wants to marry Mister Loyd!”
“Correeeeeeeeect!”
Yells Lela all of a sudden.
“The popular best seller Legend of the Kaleid Mermaid 2 has a main character called Kirschiel, and the story starts with her losing her voice to marry a handsome prince. She lost her ability to speak because she broke the laws of the world underwater, but her beauty and kindness led to the prince falling for her, and every day was full of love for them.
But then, the bad Kaleid mermaid Evilzeroth entered the scene. He schemed to tear the prince and the main character apart, and drive the world into chaos.
I felt depressed here because I was reading it super seriously, but in the end, the power of love overcame that barrier, and Evilzeroth was beaten to a pulp. That was really cathartic, so I could read it a million more times.
In the end, Kirschiel regained her voice, told the prince she loved him, and it had a very happy ending. That’s my short review of this masterpiece.”
What’s she on about?
“Kyaaaaaaah! Lovely wonderful fantastic!”
“Our big sister and Mister Loyd! They’d make a great couple!”
“Is anyone here a writer? Can we get Legend of the Kaleid Mermaid 3 into production!?”
Ah, this has gone off the rails.
Chaos met chaos, and this won’t die down any time soon.
It’s only an hour later that I make it to the hotel.
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