The sea breeze is lovely~. Too bad I'm one of the few that thinks that...

We're currently en route to the continent of Luxuria, which houses the country of Wakoku, this world's equivalent to Japan. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited, but even the trip alone is enough to lift my spirit. I must have grown attached to large bodies of water. I did grow up in the Water-Knot, which was a large container for one of the world's largest lakes. 

"Ugh......this is...nothing...*urp*!" - Mira

"Just go down to your cabin already." - Garami

"...Fine..." - Mira

Not that the others are as lucky as me.

As the ship cruised through the waves, surprisingly, more than half of our group from Damavand got hit by nasty seasickness. Mira here, who keeps on putting up a strong front, got hit the lightest of the group, with the others being 100% incapacitated. The only one decently moving around is me, Iron, Alf, and Lily.

Lily has that Voyager skill she got from that whale-heart, so even if she was weak to the sea like the rest, I bet some hidden ability from that thing would help her anyway. Alf grew up in a port town, so no surprise there either. Iron... is kinda a surprise, but considering he's actually an undead, and they can't get sick...

The voyage went on smoothly when we look away from the guys down in their cabins, trying not to swab the floor with... unspeakable stuff. And one more thing...

"Miss Garami, thank you again for accepting this request-" - Kaizo

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." - Garami

Is this some kinda Wakoku-hospitality? Someone's gonna end up in a hospital if that ninja-geezer doesn't stop all that kowtowing. Ugh, all this respect is making me feel weird...

"We're to reach Matata Island in an hour," shouted the helmsman.

Everyone downstairs would be happy to reach our first stop. We need to stop there because we're riding on a special sea current that the local sea monster detests from being in. The current goes all the way from the Invidia continent to Matata Island, which we will dock for a few days until a new current, one that leads from Matata Island to Wakoku, appears. This world's currents are damn fickle, I tell ya.

I looked over the ship, which looks more like a cruise ship from modern time than anything, but with more wooden parts and some strange, magical-glowing equipment here and there. We're not the only ones on the ship, as there are also merchants and other adventurers hoping to get some of the sweet goods from Wakoku.

Only veteran adventurers are on board since Wakoku doesn't have any Adventurers' Union branches, so they have to impress the local lords if they wanna live as an adventurer there. 

I walked over to Iron and Lily, who were busy with some sorta game... Iron lost. Hey, Lily! Didn't I secretly tell everyone not to get Iron deeper in the dumps!? Ah, Iron's so bad with that board game he lost despite you holding back... uh-oh.

This is yet another problem: Iron's mood. He's been so depressed after that episode at the Chaos Forge when lil' Polaris got bear-napped that he's barely holding on. No puns intended. 

We've tried to cheer him up, but his "lack of abilities", as the guy himself calls it, is preventing him from doing so. He's an awesome tank, but he feels that Alf, who can control the crowd with his walls of ice and fight back with his Shadow Familiars, and even Mira, who uses her phantasmal swords to create fences of electricity, are better tanks than him. 

Two words: not true.

As the two "tanks" said themselves, Iron's lack of fear of being damage allows him to hold out to his limits while either Alf or Mira would disengage from the front line to save their own skin, even if it would endanger the rear-guard. Of course, our rear-guards are tough even at close-range, but even so, Iron would keep on withstanding as many hits as he could.

We've been trying to figure out a way to improve Iron's abilities, which again will improve his confidence, but that part isn't so easy. It's not that Iron is talentless, quite the contrary, his talents for defending is overshadowing everything else.

His only real offensive skills are those ghost-knights of his and [Counter], but both are just extensions of his defensive abilities, as they require Iron to withstand attacks to be used. And Iron wanna stop the bad guys from even doing that. 

Since he's bad with magic, and monsters wouldn't likely take the orders of some undead, we decided to provide Iron with something that allows him to trade his defensive powers for something offensive. Like a mode-change from Defense mode to Offense, with the ability to swap back whenever he wants to.

The question is; what is gonna be Iron's Offensive mode? 

"E-excuse me." 

Right when I tried to convince Iron to try to play the board game again against me (I'm planning on letting him win) when someone raised their voice at us...

There ain't anyone here. Weird. Is the sea-breeze getting to my ears?

"Excuse me!"

"Hmm? Who's talking?" - Lily

It wasn't my ears then. Lily's right though, who's talking?

"...Over there." - Iron

Iron pointed at something in the air... wait, a blue light-ball? It blended in with the ocean scenery so well I didn't notice... guess I'm completely in vacation mode, aren't I?

"Oh, right, you wouldn't notice... just a sec." 

The voice did indeed come from the light ball, and it transformed. One flash of light later, and it had taken a human appearance... ah, now I get it.

The girl in front of us has healthy skin, dark-blue hair close to black, sea-green eyes, and she's dressed in a backless, dark-blue dress with a bag filled to the brim with different items strapped over her shoulder. I can guess why she chose that, seeing the six, aqua-blue insect-like wings that are attached to her back. Kinda butterfly-looking ones.

In short, we're looking at someone from the fairy species. That light-blue glowing sphere from before must have been her miniaturized... or maybe she grew in size? In any case, while she's small, she must have emitted some kinda light. If it's either due to a skill or just a fairy trait, I've got no clue, but she doesn't seem hostile.

"Sorry for the inconvenience. Guess I should introduce myself; Ciara Tritonia. A humble painter, at your service." - Ciara

A fairy... painter? That's kinda new. I've met someone from the fairy species before, but this one's a whole new experience for me.

"Ehm, I'm Lily, this bleak one is my boss, Garami, and the gloo... glamorous armor here is Iron." - Lily

While I approve of not calling Iron "gloomy", what is that "bleak"-business, huuuuh? You wanna start something?

"Hmh, I figured. The famous 'Queen General of Velantas' isn't that easy to overlook." - Ciara

Oh, damn it. Now things are gonna turn troublesome... yet agaaaaain!

"I'll cut to the chase... mind if I can draw a picture of you?" - Ciara

......Why?

"Ehm, are you a fan of Garami?" - Lily

"Mhmm... something like that. Or, I enjoy painting any picturesque people I may come across. It brings out the inspiration in me." - Ciara

......That's it? For once, there are no strings attached?

"...Do as you please." - Garami

"Thank you. Was going to do it anyway." - Ciara

Hey! That's one line too much!

"Ah, and can I draw the two of you afterward? A strange beast and a noble knight will create the perfect painting." - Ciara

"Strange beast!?" - Lily

"...Okay." - Iron

Iron seems to have become a little brighter with that. A good trade-off for posing for a painting then. It's not that difficult either. The fairy didn't give me any unreasonable requests and simply asked me to look at the horizon. Not that I have anything against that. The sea here's pretty... huh?

I saw something strange on the horizon. Where are the binoculars...

"Something's up?" - Lily

"Saw something strange..." - Garami

Okay, let's take a look.........?

"What the heck's that?" - Garami

I saw something stupidly strange in the binoculars-

"Garami! Watch-*blub, blub, blub*!" - Lily

Huh-?! A moving pillar of water-*blub, blub, blub*-!?

---

*Gasp*, I thought I was gonna die! Damn, why're the seawater attacking people!? And it's not cool to attack someone while they're flabbergasted!!

"Everyone alright?" I asked as I looked around.

I could see Iron dragging Lily up from the sea, the chimera mumbling something like "the sea's scary", but other than that, she looks fine. The Fengfeng Tyrin jumped out of Lily's pocket as it tried to dry its feathers, but he too looks okay. In the air, I could see the little Phoenix Ember flying around. Hey, you know where the ship is? No? I see, so you don't. Useless...

That painter-fairy's also here, but she's down. Knocked down from the sight of her painting tools being ruined by the seawater. Guess everyone that was on that part of the deck got swept away by that strange pillar of water... I think. Damn, I've gotta get outta vacation-mode, fast!

"What in the world was that thing!?" - Ciara

And the depression got turned into anger.

"Not sure. Maybe some kinda sea-creature?" - Garami

"There are no sea-creatures with tentacles made out of seawater. At most, there are some jellyfish, but that doesn't mean they are 100% made out of it!" - Ciara

Really? Then Glavras was a bigger exception than I thought.

I can't see the ship, and the only flyer here was too occupied for his master's safety to know the way back, but we're on solid ground at least. On a beach, nonetheless. What is this place...

...Ah, so we're ahead of the schedule. There should be some sorta port here, so let's rest up there. Still, what was that thing? Or, those things, if that tentacle and that weird thing I saw are from different sources. The mystery deepens, I guess. Probably gonna find out about it whether I want to or not. Bo-hohoho...

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