6

“What? Can’t you tell by looking? I’m eating, you idiot.”

“This isn’t the time to be saying that! Magical beasts have appeared!”

Through the man’s back at the entrance to the restaurant, people in the city could be seen running away from something.

Only then did most of the customers finally realize that this was no ordinary matter.

“M-Magical beasts? Where would something like that come from?”

“The sea! Magical beasts are pouring out in droves, and even the guardian of the sea has shown its face!”

“No way… The sea of Elias is famous for being calm, isn’t it? Why would something like that…?”

The peaceful atmosphere that had been flowing through the restaurant had already vanished, and fear gradually began to rule the interior.

The commotion outside the restaurant was unlike its usual noise and had turned into screams. Those screams from outside reached the now-silent restaurant.

Ains, unable to understand the situation, looked around restlessly with a fork in one hand.

One of the customers dropped the knife he was holding onto the floor.

Even the restaurant staff, who had been moving busily, stopped in their tracks, and the sound rang out strangely loudly in the restaurant where no one opened their mouths.

Immediately afterward, all the customers except Ains and the others stood up at once and rushed toward the exit, each trying to be the first out.

They knocked over tables, the dishes placed on them overturned onto the floor, and the customers ran through the restaurant while trampling over the food without caring.

“Move!”

“You’re in the way! Hurry up and get out!”

“You’re too fat! I can’t get out with you blocking the way!”

In stark contrast to when everyone had been enjoying their meals, rough words and curses flew back and forth.

Customers crowded near the exit, and the worst possible situation was created, with people falling over and others having their clothes grabbed and torn.

“W-Wait! What about my food!?”

Ains called for a waiter heading toward the exit to flee to stop.

“This isn’t the time for that! You should hurry up and run too, sir!”

“Huh…?”

Ains, who had unexpectedly had his food taken away from him right before he could eat, dropped his shoulders dejectedly.

As if he could not afford to worry about Ains, the waiter immediately ran off.

“What shall we do, Lord Ains? I do think we should leave as well.”

“Even if you say that, with the entrance like that, we can’t get out even if we want to.”

Talidge was leisurely drinking water beside Ains, whose shoulders were slumped.

“…It can’t be helped. Let’s stay until the exit calms down. I’ll at least enjoy the smell…”

“We can come again, Lord Ains!”

Sophia comforted him while pouring water into Ains’s glass. But Ains merely sighed.

It would take a little more time before the three, who were showing a calmness entirely out of place, could go outside.

“What is this?”

That was Ains’s first remark after going outside.

A considerable number of fish-men were prowling through the city.

The residents and tourists of Elias were fleeing in panic. Many injured people could be seen as well.

“Where did they come from… Well, of course it would be the sea.”

“I had heard that the sea of Elias was calm, but this does not look favorable.”

“These things are the reason my food…”

Sophia and Talidge drew their swords.

They easily cut down the fish-men that approached the three of them. At the death cries of their comrades, the other fish-men swarmed toward Ains and the others.

“Hey, Ains, what are we gonna do? We’re not gonna get killed, but this is too much of a pain.”

In front of Ains, who was standing still, Sophia and Talidge swung their swords, and the sliced-apart fish-men fell to the ground.

“Let’s head toward the sea for now. They were saying something about the ‘guardian of the sea.’”

Ains made his artificial leg ring once.

In an instant, the surrounding fish-men were frozen solid and shattered.

“Magic really is convenient. It makes swinging a sword around feel stupid.”

“Lord Ains’s magic is a feat someone whose brain is all muscle like Talidge could never perform.”

“Hah. It ain’t like you can use magic either.”

The two returned their swords to their sheaths once. They lined up behind Ains, who had begun walking, and followed him.

While looking at the houses and warehouses damaged by the fish-men’s attack, Ains swept aside the fish-men they encountered along the way.

Once they drew close to a certain extent, the fish-men turned into ice statues on their own and shattered. Before Ains’s magic, neither Sophia nor Talidge drew their swords.

The residents who had failed to escape in time also seemed unable to understand what had happened as the fish-men that had been attacking them shattered apart.

Even so, they understood only that they had been saved and immediately left the area.

When Ains and the others approached the harbor where many ships were docked, they saw many knights there wearing armor and resisting the fish-men while thrusting out long spears.

Even so, they did not have the level of skill Sophia or Talidge had, and it seemed to be taking them time to repel the enemy.

“There are a lot of knights. Something really must have happened at sea.”

Ains spotted a woman with splendid attire among the knights.

The woman, who looked like a noble, was also repelling the fish-men at the front line with a sword in one hand.

“Considering that she has knights with her, could she be the lord of Elias?”

“Probably. If she were a noble here for sightseeing, she’d ignore this and be the first to run.”

As they drew closer to them, they began to hear the lord’s shouted orders.

“Hurry! The enemy is not only here. They have even invaded the city!”

The female lord wore a bitter expression at the current situation, in which the residents were suffering harm.

“B-But! There are too many of them, and our hands are full as things stand!”

Ains, whose meal had been interrupted, approached the female lord and the others, wanting to understand the current situation for the time being.

“Um, excuse me, but what exactly is going on right now?”

The female lord turned around in surprise at Ains’s suddenly appearing, strangely carefree voice. Even while her face was turned toward Ains, the fish-men’s attacks did not stop.

“There is no time to explain that right now. You should evacuate from here at once too!”

After brushing Ains aside, the female lord immediately turned her eyes back to the enemy and readied her sword.

Ains brought a hand to his chin and nodded in understanding.

Certainly, in this situation, he could hardly imagine that she would be able to calmly explain things to him. In that case, the first priority was to prepare an environment where she and the others could calm down.

Ains made his artificial leg ring.

Just as before, all the fish-men in the area were instantly turned into ice statues and shattered. The knights remained with their spears readied, and with only cold air left behind, there were no enemies still moving.

“Will you explain things calmly now?”

“What in the world are you…?”

The female lord’s eyes widened at the sight before her.