Chapter 481 – Underwater Tour

“Please take care on your journey.”

“Do come visit us anytime.”

With these farewells from the count’s family on the rooftop, we boarded the ship.

Olympia… seemed reluctant to part with all the friends she’d made, including Marl and the familiars, but eventually she appeared to have sorted out her feelings.

“See you later. Come visit, okay?”

After clinging to Marl for a while, having her hair stroked, and being embraced by the countess who spoke comforting words, she slowly pulled away and spoke. Marl narrowed her eyes and nodded.

“Yes. I’ll come see you again.”

“…Hmm. Perhaps visiting Termwills ourselves might be a good idea as well.”

“That would be once the situation has stabilized. You’d be welcome then.”

When I responded to the count’s words, Olympia also brightened with a smile. The count lifted Olympia up and seated her on his shoulder.

After boarding the ship… we waved from the deck along with Corulis. The count’s family waved back. Slowly, we departed from the lord’s mansion.

The receding figures of the count and his family. Then the lord’s mansion. The harbor and blue sea spreading out below. The white port town – Wisneaire gradually grew more distant.

After leaving Wisneaire… the Sirius advanced across the shining sea.

Merchant ships coming and going along the trade routes, and fishing boats that had ventured out from Wisneaire’s harbor to fish. The seas near Wisneaire were lively.

“The sea’s color… it’s beautiful,” Sigritta murmured while gazing at the monitor, and Marceska nodded.

“What makes the sea’s color different in different places?”

“Ah, that’s because shallow areas are brighter while deeper areas appear darker. Also, the amount of light filtering through the clouds can make the color of shallow areas look different too.”

When Sion asked, I answered like that, and she nodded appreciatively before staring intently at the monitor again.

…Hmm. I’ve thought of something… or rather, there’s something I want to try.

Using Light Magic Life Detection from the pilot seat through the circuits, directing it toward the ship’s lower cameras. Life Detection activated – and on the monitor showing the sea surface, the glowing life reactions of fish schools and other marine life appeared.

Shells, starfish, coral, seaweed, and more on the seafloor… each could be detected as glowing reactions in different colors. Countless life reactions returned their glow from the dark blue depths that would normally be impossible to see through… it looked like a starry sky and was quite beautiful.

“This is—” Duke reacted to the sight.

“I activated Life Detection through the circuits from the pilot seat, directing it toward the monitoring magical creatures. With this… it seems we could see things different from normal vision if we apply it.”

Probably Night Vision Magic that could see through to the seafloor would be effective too. But to do that, we’d have to lower our altitude and sail like a normal ship. The surrounding brightness would interfere with Night Vision Magic.

…Hmm. What to do? Looking down at the sea from the sky is certainly beautiful too.

Marl and others seemed to find looking down at the sea from above novel and were enjoying it.

But looking closely at what’s inside the sea might be interesting too. For now, we’re progressing smoothly according to the sea charts, and our surface navigation speed is incomparable to normal sailing ships.

Slowly lowering altitude, we landed quietly, trying to create as few waves as possible.

Activating Night Vision Magic on all the cameras on the ship’s underside, not just directly below. While watching the amount of light penetrating the sea surface, I fine-tuned the Night Vision Magic separately for areas in the ship’s shadow and those not, adjusting so as many monitors as possible could see deeper.

“Wow…”

“It’s amazing…”

The voices of Oscar and Vanessa. The state of the seafloor could be clearly seen. Given the high transparency to begin with, visibility was quite good.

Swaying seaweed and colorful coral reefs. Small fish gathering around the coral, and larger fish preying on those small fish. Crustaceans and octopus. Sea slugs, sea cucumbers, starfish, and various other marine creatures.

While some areas were lively and colorful worlds, there were also unfathomable places that were deep and impossible to see through to the bottom. Even though we were moving across the water’s surface, it felt like flying over rugged rocky terrain.

“It’s like we’re swimming through the sea,” Marl said, apparently having slightly different impressions. She nodded quietly at the sight.

Unfathomable depths might evoke some primal fear in humans, but to a water spirit, it’s probably nothing special.

“This is… quite magnificent.”

“Even we have never seen such a sight. Most intriguing.”

It seemed to be a novel spectacle for both the Grand Duke and Duke as well. Along with Leslie, they appeared to be enjoying it.

Though it comes from Kagehisa’s memories, this kind of thing is standard at marine tourist spots – ships with transparent acrylic or reinforced glass embedded in the lower hull that allow you to see underwater while moving forward. Glass boats, I think they were called. This is similar to that.

“Fish…” Sheila, watching the monitor, seemed to have her appetite stimulated somewhat. Irmhild, seeing Sheila, chuckled softly and began playing her lute.

A relaxed, mystical melody. Combined with the scenery displayed on the monitors, it gave the impression of advancing through the sea.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it, Lady Marie?”

“Yes. And… interesting. I thought I knew from books, but seeing the real thing is different.”

When Grace spoke to her, Rosemary also nodded from behind her feather fan.

Well, whether shallow or deep areas, they’re rich in variety and certainly don’t get boring to watch. The monitor images can be enlarged too, so we can examine anything that catches our interest in detail.

Princess Stephania, along with Princess Adriana and Princess Elham, were operating the monitors, looking at various things and enjoying themselves.

Similarly, Marlene operated a monitor, pointed, and exchanged smiles with Ashley and Claudia beside her.

What was enlarged was… a seahorse. Indeed, unless you live in the sea, it’s a rare creature you seldom get to examine closely.

It’s good that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Then let’s continue on to our destination this way.

Not only on the island that serves as Duke Driscoll’s base, but also on the outlying islands there are port towns, and Moon Temples exist there as well.

We’ve made plans to visit the Moon Temples, survey the uninhabited islands, and then deliver the family to the Duke’s base.

Transforming Caduceus, I had it three-dimensionally reproduce the sea charts we received from Duke Driscoll. Then I had it create a model of the Sirius to show our progress.

By calculating the Sirius’s exact coordinates from movement speed and direction, and the shapes and positional relationships of surrounding islands, there’s no chance of getting lost. For now, we’re progressing according to the sea charts.

The sea charts provided by Duke Driscoll also note areas where caution should be exercised regarding reefs, but the Sirius won’t be damaged by running aground on reefs, and most importantly, we can ignore reef areas entirely by flying. It’s best to continue using Caduceus’s navigation like this.

“Theodore-sama.”

After continuing on for a while like this, Ashley called out to me.

“Hm? What is it?”

“No. Could you look at this? There’s a strange reaction.”

The monitor Ashley pointed to was a downward-facing monitor above the sea surface. Life Detection was being used to see through to underwater areas in the distance from higher up.

Peering at the monitor Ashley indicated… there was some kind of strange glow displayed there.

An exceptionally strong glow. Meaning it had strong vitality. But both its color and shape suggested it was quite a formidable creature.

Judging from the overall silhouette discernible from the life reaction – it resembled a crocodile?

It had some parts like limbs that were close to humanoid… but surely this couldn’t be Fishfolk. If something like this had been sighted, rumors would have spread throughout the duchy long ago.

The tip of its tail spread out like a shark’s tail fin, well-suited for pushing through water. To describe it – it was like mixing shark, crocodile, and demi-human and dividing by three.

I looked toward the Duke, and as expected, he slowly shook his head. In that case…

“Perhaps a Lesser Dragon Species. There are various subspecies…”

Wild marine monsters are relatively rare. Even in BFO, player bases tend to be more land-based, and depending on habitat, there are aspects that can’t be fully grasped.

That creature seemed to be heading somewhere straight… with purpose. Looking more closely at its destination on the monitor.

“A mermaid and… a person?”

Sheila noticed it and tilted her head.

Yes. The glowing silhouette swimming while holding the mermaid’s hand was more slender and closer to humanoid than the silhouette we saw earlier.

It had limbs and certainly resembled a human – but it held something in its hand… a weapon like a trident. Within the glow, a weapon-like shadow without life reaction flickered. It seemed to have webbing between its fingers too.

“This one is undoubtedly a mermaid and Fishfolk,” said the Duke.

That Fishfolk was swimming as if pulling the mermaid along. But neither of them appeared to be swimming freely.

Meaning… they’re either fleeing from the shadow pursuing from behind, or the Fishfolk is abducting the mermaid. From silhouettes alone, it’s impossible to judge the situation.

“We’ll rush from the air and intervene directly from above.”

When I said that, everyone looked at me and nodded.

Protecting friendly monsters is Verdgar’s policy and also the work of the Otherworld Ambassador.

We don’t know what the other creature is, and the circumstances are unclear, but at least the mermaids are trading partners for the Duke too.

If danger is imminent, that’s more than enough reason to intervene and help, and we intended to hear their story from the beginning anyway.

“I might… be able to help a little too. At least enough to eliminate disadvantages in underwater combat,” Marl said with a serious expression.