Chapter 522 – #110_The Deep Sea Witch (2)
#522
1.
The fight was over.
No, L’Riel hadn’t even registered it as a fight.
Even though she hadn’t completely finished the ‘trial’ to use the brand, her opponent was just a half-baked witch pretending to be one.
No matter how fancy the armor, or how many strange ribbons she pulled out, the difference between them was clear.
The tidal wave that L’Riel unleashed was a shield, a bludgeon, and an overwhelming disaster that swept away all petty tricks.
It took only 30 seconds to subdue her.
“Foreign Minister Kraken Kraken…”
L’Riel walked to where Kraken had disappeared and swept her hand across the ground.
The huge body had crumbled, but some thick, gooey substance remained.
Leaving behind this sticky, unpleasant fluid, Kraken Kraken had truly died.
She felt depressed.
She felt angry.
Honestly, unlike Levina Ringbakur, Kraken Kraken wasn’t a familiar that L’Riel had particularly liked due to his ugly appearance.
The reason she had given Kraken Kraken’s fishbowl to the True Ancestor Witch, who demanded the fulfillment of her oath, was for the same reason.
However, he was a Kraken who had faithfully served Nukelavi for over a thousand years.
Because she had carelessly handed over his fishbowl, he had lost his life to some ignorant rabble.
A few of L’Riel’s memories with Kraken Kraken flashed through her mind.
The time he made his body into a slide for the crew to go sledding.
The time she released him into the sea for a while, and he rushed to Akula to greet her, causing the port side to collapse and the torpedo room to flood.
The time he devastated L’Riel’s beloved whale graveyard.
And….
“……”
There weren’t that many memories, but that wasn’t the point.
“I will hold a grand state funeral to comfort your soul, and I will erect a tombstone in the deepest sea, inscribed with your heroic deeds. I will create a military song commemorating your brave last battle for the crew to sing.”
L’Riel, with tears welling up in her eyes, mourned Kraken and then stood up abruptly.
Anger took precedence over guilt.
Not only had they dared to brutally murder the Foreign Minister of the great Akula Kingdom, but one of the culprits had escaped.
-Splash!
L’Riel grabbed the man’s pants that were floating at her feet and pulled him up.
The weak man had been knocked unconscious by a single wave.
“What a degenerate age. A male witch.”
When she had only heard about it, she thought it was just another con artist, but he was actually quite skilled.
Especially when she saw him teleport the woman in an instant, she was so surprised that she had stared blankly.
“…Hmm…”
L’Riel examined the man’s face, which was limp and waterlogged like seaweed.
“He’s quite handsome.”
In fact, the only men L’Riel had ever seen were the actors in old black and white movies.
This was the first time she had seen a man this close, excluding her crew.
Even her crew were neutered familiars, merfolk.
L’Riel pondered for a long time whether to cut off his air supply or not.
Still, he was quite a rare being.
If she used him well, he seemed like he could be useful.
L’Riel gathered the man and returned to Akula.
2.
“Ugh…”
A headache that felt like her skull was splitting.
She opened her eyes, feeling a throbbing headache due to abnormally high intraocular pressure.
“Ugh…!”
When she coughed, a handful of salty seawater that had flowed back into her nostrils came out.
The continuous coughing caused a sharp pain throughout her body, as if she had been bruised all over.
She waited for the pain to subside and looked around.
There was one thing she was sure of.
She was currently hanging upside down, like a fish being dried.
No wonder her head hurt so much.
“Where am I now…”
It was difficult to identify her surroundings due to the inverted view and the darkness, but as she adjusted, she could slowly examine the interior.
A dark, cramped room of about 5 pyeong.
Due to the old pipes protruding from every corner and the rotary valves embedded everywhere, the actual usable space seemed very small.
Next to the old steel door with a small glass window, a rickety three-story bed was barely squeezed in, and a half-open cabinet revealed its desolate interior.
There was nothing else to see, but Siwoo naturally thought of the word barracks.
To make a slightly more exaggerated guess, it looked like a cabin for sailors on a ship.
And a pretty old one at that.
“……”
Let’s examine the current situation.
She started by trying to remember why she had come here.
She had fought with Deneb in the fishbowl and defeated the Kraken.
After that, she had faced the enraged Deep Sea Witch.
Siwoo, having prioritized Deneb’s escape, had fought the witch and been utterly defeated.
Her last memory was of a house-sized wave pounding her whole body without any chance to avoid it.
So, she must have been captured and imprisoned.
She didn’t know what kind of witch the Deep Sea Witch was.
All she knew was that Paola Sochitl had caused a ruckus in the middle of Seoul with her relic, the ‘Flute of Dagon.’
“…They haven’t done anything.”
She soon realized that there were no restrictions on her body.
Only a flimsy chain was attached to her ankle.
Although she had only a tiny bit of magic left, it was clearly moving according to her will.
Judging from the flow of magic visible in her left eye, the entire building was under a strengthening magic.
She had naturally assumed that some kind of measure would have been taken against her, so she was rather taken aback.
It was as if they had seen her use magic and yet had used such a sloppy method of confinement.
-Clang!
She created a dagger with her shadow and cut the thick iron chain, then landed lightly using a fall-breaking technique.
Her joints were still a bit sore, but this wasn’t the time to be picky.
She stuck to the door and looked outside through the narrow window frame.
It seemed that her guess that she was on a ship was correct.
It was very similar to the corridor of the container ship she had walked through when she fought Bianca.
After observing the situation for a while, Siwoo carefully opened the door.
She had been prepared to unlock the door using her shadow, but the door wasn’t even locked.
“……”
Such a sloppy defense that she could believe they were trying to induce her escape.
Her heart was pounding as she suddenly found herself on a stealth mission.
Dry saliva went down her throat, which had become parched from the seawater.
It might not mean much, but she quietly stepped out into the corridor.
The overall view, which she hadn’t seen through the narrow window, came into view.
To describe the interior, one word was enough.
A submarine corridor.
To make the most of the narrow space, unknown mechanical devices protruded from the ceiling and even the passageways, making it feel cramped.
The corridor was very long, but it was narrow and the ceiling was low, giving it a claustrophobic feeling.
Bundles of tentacles extending to each part of the engine were supplying magic, and the sounds of hissing steam and bubbling gas were constantly heard.
“A submarine out of nowhere…”
She now understood why the defense was so sloppy.
If this was really a submarine, it would be the most difficult prison in the world to escape from.
“Bloom.”
She used magic amplification, even though it would put some strain on her body.
She covered her whole body with armor.
-Whoosh
As soon as she put on the armor, the corridor began to move.
It wasn’t a physical movement.
Instead, like a digestive organ secreting gastric acid after receiving food, the pipes in the corridor began to draw in magic.
The shadow that had been woven into the form of armor was vaporized by the magic and sucked in.
The armor was torn off in an instant.
The pipes, which had greedily plundered the magic, were now running quietly again, as if nothing had happened.
Siwoo looked around, sweating.
“There’s no way they wouldn’t have any countermeasures…”
It seemed that they were overlooking the self-magnetized magic within her body or a small knife, but if the scale of the magic grew even a little, it would be ‘digested’ without fail.
Even if Siwoo could amplify her magic repeatedly, it would be impossible to maintain her armor under these conditions.
“Hoo…”
She wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
By now, they must have noticed all her movements, right?
It didn’t seem like an ordinary submarine.
Anyway, just staying in that room wouldn’t solve anything.
Judging from the fact that they hadn’t taken her life or just thrown her in there, they probably didn’t intend to harm her right away.
She had to gather as much information as possible while she could move freely.
She explored the corridor, following the dimly lit lights.
Most of them were cabins similar to the one Siwoo had been in, and there were quite a few of them.
In the middle of the corridor, there was a hatch and a ladder leading down, and there were also rooms packed with equipment that she couldn’t even guess what they were.
After climbing up the two-turn steel stairs, the atmosphere changed drastically from the bleak space filled with steel plates, valves, pipes, lights, and machines.
A wide-open hall, soft carpets, and reddish-orange halogen lights welcomed her.
There was even a chandelier, although it didn’t really fit.
If she didn’t know better, she would have thought this was a luxury liner from an old movie, not a submarine.
-…… …… ……
The hall that welcomed Siwoo and the spaces divided by antique wooden walls.
Among them, there was a place where she could hear a murmuring sound.
She quickly held her breath and stuck to the wall.
She could see the interior through the slightly open door.
In what looked like the lounge of an old hotel, the Deep Sea Witch and about 30 half-human, half-fish monsters were wearing military uniforms.
Even though Siwoo didn’t have much knowledge of military matters, she could tell that they were Soviet military uniforms.
“Today, we have lost our most loyal minister, Kraken Kraken. He was more honorable than anyone else, and he served the kingdom without neglecting his duties.”
“Ugh…ugh… sob…”
“Sob sob sob…”
“Fo…Foreign…Minister…”
Kraken Kraken?
Was Kraken’s name Kraken Kraken?
She was dumbfounded by the ridiculous naming sense.
So, it seemed like what was going on inside was a funeral.
“……”
To be honest, she couldn’t be sure just by looking at that scene.
What was a foreign minister anyway?
“To commemorate his dedication and sacrifice, we will place a tombstone inscribed with his achievements in the deepest trench.”
“Ah…mer…merciful…L’Riel…Your Majesty…Hooray…!”
“Also, we will create a march that will remind us of his bravery.”
“Oh, even…your…heart…is…so…beautiful…L’Riel…Your Majesty…Hooray…!”
“And we will fire a salute.”
“……”
“Didn’t you hear? We will also fire a salute.”
“……”
A cold silence fell over the ceremony hall, where a solemn atmosphere had been flowing, at the word ‘salute.’
After that, the merfolk became flustered.
Seeing them scrambling, the Deep Sea Witch raised her voice and rebuked them.
“We must fire a salute! Do you dare defy my orders, which are like the sea!”
“Plea…please…have…mercy…on…us…”
“A…a nuclear…missile…is…not…a…salute…”
“Th…there…are…still…heavy…torpedoes…left…”
“Pl…please…remember…the…late…king’s…request…”
“Shut up! Then when am I supposed to fire an SLBM!”
“Please…kill…us…”
The merfolk collectively prostrated themselves and begged the Deep Sea Witch.
“Oh?”
“Ah…”
As the heads of the merfolk, which had been blocking her view, lowered, Siwoo, who had been watching the farce, and the Deep Sea Witch’s eyes met exactly.
Considering the situation, she should have felt a chill down her spine, but…
Somehow, she was just sweating profusely.
