We’re Causing An Incident! (2)

I woke at dawn to a rather indecent smell, but Matilda had already disappeared from the bedroom.

It seemed she had slipped out quietly in the morning, and of all days, Seria and Ariana were on inner keep duty starting today, so I couldn’t help thinking I was leaving them something awkward to clean up.

Feeling apologetic and a little sheepish, I headed to the bath to wash up, then put on the clothes prepared as my morning formalwear and left the castle with a slightly tired feeling.

“Experienced hands really are something…”

I recalled my night with Matilda and let out a small chuckle. Honestly, that wasn’t why I had hired her, but somehow things had ended up like that.

I had no idea what kind of rumors would spread about me, but well—if I proved my ability, even being called a lecherous lord might be acceptable.

And for now, I thought I was doing reasonably well.

Just as I passed beyond the outer wall of the lord’s castle, Demina was, as always, right there following me. But her expression was strange.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Did you enjoy it?”

She was obviously asking about Matilda. I thought she really had some nerve.

“Would I have disliked it?”

“And with me?”

“Of course it was good.”

“Then that’s enough.”

“Huh…?”

It was a bafflingly short exchange, but since Demina didn’t ask anything further, my thoughts grew tangled. Was she giving me some kind of signal…? Or maybe not—no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t be sure. She was hard to deal with.

“But aren’t you stopping by the lord’s residence first today?”

“Ah, no—I’m planning to borrow Debik and a few others.”

“Why Debik?”

“I’m thinking of checking the border of the Forest of the Demon Dragon. You know—the cliffside coast.”

“Ah, then I could carry you.”

“…I’d rather not.”

Being carried by a woman while running didn’t sit well with me. Honestly, being carried by anyone felt awkward—but Debik was different. Riding him felt like mounting a wild beast, strangely stable and easier to accept.

And he was incredibly fast, so if we ran for two or three hours, we’d definitely reach our destination.

I went straight to find Debik, but this bear of a man didn’t wake up no matter how much I called him.

“Hirna, is Debik always such a heavy sleeper?”

“Our people sometimes fall into a very deep sleep like this, especially in winter…”

She told me to wait and clenched her fist. A bad feeling came over me, and as I watched, it looked like she was about to punch her sleeping husband.

“Wait!!”

“Yes?”

“Let’s… not do that?”

“If I don’t, he won’t wake up.”

“Still, do that when it’s just the two of you later. I’ll just go today…”

“Why? I can wake him right now.”

What was Hirna even thinking, planning to do that to Debik… ah, poor bowed-headed man…

In the end, I left Debik behind and went outside, which resulted in me riding on Demina’s back after she transformed into her beastkin form, running for several hours.

And what I realized was that it was far more stable than expected.

Demina’s beast form was quite large and supple, with excellent shock absorption. Even at tremendous speed, the strain on my waist was minimal. Despite being a lioness, she had a suitable mane, and holding onto it while riding was fairly comfortable.

“We’re almost there.”

I wondered where we were when she said that, and when I lifted my head slightly, I couldn’t help but marvel as the coastline came into view in the distance.

“That’s incredible…”

It was the second sea I’d seen since coming to this world, but the first had been the eastern sea.

How should I put it?

If that one had felt like Earth’s West Sea, this one was a sea soaked in a piercingly blue hue that made my chest feel wide open.

When we stopped before the cliff, Demina lowered herself so I could get down easily, then returned to her human form. Seeing her hurriedly put on her clothes made me chuckle.

“It must be a hassle every time. Female beastkin…”

“Don’t look. It’s embarrassing.”

She said that as she quickly dressed, but contrary to her wishes, my gaze had already been stolen by the sea.

“It’s beautiful…”

A sheer, towering cliff. If used well, this place would make it easier to interact with the faintly visible continent far away.

In blunt terms, we might not even need to force a road through the Forest of the Demon Dragon—but considering the money that would bleed away as fees, I thought building a route through the forest was something we absolutely had to do anyway.

“Demina, shall we go down?”

“…You’re not asking me to carry you down, are you?”

She made a motion as if to take off her clothes again. Only then did I remember how she had tried to undress earlier to transform, and I laughed as I said,

“You don’t need to undress. Just come.”

With that, I stood at the cliff and tried using Construction, imagining a long railing and a path down near the sea.

I envisioned a sloped, stair-like structure about two meters wide.

Perhaps because I had grown accustomed to using magic power,

I was able to place stairs all the way down to the shoreline in one go, and after confirming it, I immediately used Construction to bring them into being.

As the path suddenly grew out of the cliff the moment Construction activated, Demina stared at me in disbelief and asked,

“My lord, is there anything you can’t do?”

“Plenty. I’m not omnipotent.”

“For someone who says that, you do far too much.”

“Even if it looks like I can do everything, I’m ordinary. I’m just a bit lucky.”

“If only you wouldn’t say things like that…”

“I’d be less irritating?”

“…Let’s go.”

I started down the stairs, with Demina following behind me. At the end of the steps, she perched precariously and looked down below.

I clung close to the inner side, thinking I’d be too scared to do something like that.

When we reached near the sea, I saw some curious beings.

“Are those… monsters?”

I pointed at figures peeking their heads above the water, but Demina stepped in front of me and said,

“They’re not monsters, but they’re quite rough.”

“Rough? Are they beastkin?”

“Yes. Whale beastkin.”

“Ah… ah… ah…?”

I couldn’t imagine it. The whales I knew were all cute creatures—not smooth-headed beings glinting in the light and glaring at me like these.

They also looked huge.

“Are they dangerous?”

“Since they don’t seem hostile—”

That was when it happened. A massive beastkin suddenly emerged right in front of us—at least three meters tall. It hauled itself onto the steps, dropped to one knee before me, and bowed its head.

“So the rumors of the divine messenger were true… Is it real? Have you finally come to us as well?!”

It was completely unexpected. Demina let out a deep sigh and stepped back behind me, looking as if she’d guarded me for nothing. I thought this was getting troublesome.

After all, there were far too many heads rising above the sea.

At least several hundred, and judging by how they kept emerging from somewhere, it felt like their numbers were still growing.

I was at a loss for words when an elderly whale beastkin climbed up the steps, kicked the one who had come up first back into the sea, took his place, and spoke.

“This foolish young one acted rudely in the vigor of youth.”

“Ah… um, it’s not really rudeness, but are there still more coming?”

I asked because the numbers felt like they were approaching a thousand. The elderly whale beastkin sprang up, looked around, and shouted,

“The divine messenger feels burdened! Tell them no more are to come!!”

His booming voice struck the cliff and echoed far away. Even farther voices answered back, spreading like a stereo mix—it was absurd.

“Just how many whale beastkin are there?”

“You mean us? Well, if you count those spread across the world… I’d say roughly a hundred thousand…”

I decided to stop thinking about it and asked instead,

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing. We merely heard that the divine messenger had descended into the world, and we were all discussing how to climb the shore…”

At that moment, Demina leaned in and whispered to me,

“When they hold a meeting, they’re so talkative it takes at least a year to reach a conclusion.”

I understood roughly. It had been, at most, half a year since I’d settled in the Ingrad Domain—so they were probably still in the middle of discussions.

Wondering what to do with these slowpokes, I asked casually,

“Besides whale beastkin, are there many other sea-dwelling beastkin?”

“Well, there are some slow ones, and also merfolk.”

So they weren’t merfolk—whales weren’t fish, after all. Understanding that, I asked the three-meter-tall beastkin before me,

“What should I call you?”

At that moment, a high-pitched language I couldn’t understand came out in short bursts.

“That is my name.”

“…I don’t understand it.”

Even with Linguistics, was this beyond me?

As I thought that, the whale beastkin gave his name again. This time, hearing it twice, I felt I might understand a little.

It was a strange experience, and I immediately asked back,

“Would ‘Ulde’ be the correct pronunciation?”

“Ooooooh!!!!”

The sudden shout made me hastily duck behind Demina, but the whale beastkin spoke with a deeply moved expression,

“We never imagined the divine messenger could hear our language!! Please forgive us for testing you!!”

Then Ulde slammed his head against the ground.

I thought it was an excessive overreaction.

But Demina spoke to me as if this were familiar,

“Whale beastkin are always exaggerated and large in their actions. Even light movements injure many of them. They’re strong and rough, and even when they fight among themselves, their vitality is so tenacious that unless you tear off their heads completely, they recover. That’s why their numbers never decrease—they just keep growing. A ridiculous beastkin race.”

Demina sounded displeased.

If the kings of the land were the Sain Tribe, then the royalty of the sea were the whale beastkin…?

They were a race that stirred all sorts of thoughts.

In the end, I felt like I’d lost the purpose of coming here. I’d only been captivated by the beauty of the sea and thought I might dip my feet in a little, which was why I’d made the path—but now I wondered if even involving the Lilith Trading Company would cause problems.

It felt like a situation that would require some decisive measure.