Game Opportunities Become Reality Episode 202
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Game Opportunities Become Reality Episode 202
47. The Sea of Rondel (1)
Ibril is presumed to have been kidnapped into the depths of the sea.
It's not as if there are no suspects related to this incident.
Naturally, because during the interrogation of Selin, we confirmed that there was a mermaid deeply connected to the demon worshiper leaders.
'Third Prince of the Mermaid Nation Coralheim, Ieria Nelson.'
To hide the fact that I spared Selin and interrogated her, I packaged it as if the information that Third Prince Ieria was connected to the demon worshipers had been uncovered through the intelligence department, and reported it to the Holy See.
Because of this, the Holy See hurriedly dispatched Holy Knights to arrest Ieria Nelson, but by then he had already disappeared from Coralheim along with his closest retainers.
The fact that investigating an underwater kingdom wasn't easy and thus took considerable time ended up becoming a fatal loophole.
Afterwards, a full investigation of Coralheim was conducted, but aside from the missing 'Ieria Nelson' and his retainers, no one directly connected to the demon worshipers was found.
"Is it the doing of Ieria Nelson?"
"It's not certain, but the possibility isn't low."
I put my head together with Saintess Sylvester and Holy Son Avis to exchange opinions on the underwater search.
Even with my unannounced appearance, the two didn't find it strange.
After all, I was the Sponsor who made Ibril a Saintess, and I was always the one to go out of my way to help her in times of difficulty.
-Grind!
"Ieria Nelson..."
Saintess Sylvester bit her lip.
A trickle of blood flowed from it, but the Saintess's wound, blessed by the goddess with high recovery ability, healed almost immediately.
"The problem is how Ieria Nelson managed to kidnap Ibril the candidate Saintess. Perhaps he has many allies."
"With the Saintess, her Guard, and the church's investigation team all gone, not only the scale but also the combat capability must be formidable."
"Against those who aren't demon worshipers, the Saintess's combat ability drops to the level of an 8th Circle, but even so, there are few who could subdue and kidnap her."
In the course of the investigation, Ieria Nelson was revealed to be a politician trusted by many and an agitator.
It was he who pointed out the church's excessive power among the mermaids and raised it as a problem, and he even went so far as to inject that ideology into the fairy race.
'Respecting the Creator and loving this world He made is only natural for His creations. But is it truly right for the church, which merely believes in and follows that Creator, to interfere excessively in the world?'
This wasn't a way of thinking formed through meeting demon worshipers it was something he had harbored from the very beginning.
That's why the demon worshipers approached him, leaking information related to Earth and even scattering faith in the goddess.
'Earth and Rondel might be integrated. But Earth's seas are extremely polluted, which would be an incomparably fatal poison to the pristine underwater life of Rondel.'
Hearing such words, what mermaid wouldn't be enraged?
So it was perfectly understandable that Ieria Nelson stepped forward to side with the demon worshipers.
In other words, he clearly had a Justification/Cause to kidnap Ibril.
What's puzzling, though, is that publicly, the man himself doesn't have the ability to kidnap Ibril.
Which makes this incident all the more unsettling.
"How in the world are we supposed to search this vast sea?"
"First, we should search the places the mermaids use as bases."
"They're not fools there's no way they'd hide in places we can guess."
"That's true. Moreover, there must be many undiscovered hideouts underwater."
Both the church and I, our main area of activity is the surface.
On land.
Unfortunately, the underwater realm was outside our expertise.
Even a large-scale search through the Black Eagle was impossible, leaving my head spinning.
"Is it impossible for the church to track the Saintess's energy?"
"If she's nearby, we can sense the Saintess's energy. It's just that the range isn't large. At most, around 300 to 500 meters."
At that level, it'd be better to just use clairvoyance to scan around here and there.
"What about the compass? Is there any reaction from the demon-chasing compass?"
So, mulling it over, I wondered if there might be demon worshipers among the enemy, and I asked about the compass.
But the answer that came back was this.
"It does exist, but...."
"Is that so?"
"Unfortunately, it doesn't point to our target."
"What do you mean by that?"
"The Great Hall at the center of the Storm Sea is steeped in demonic energy. It's a trait of Rondel that has nothing to do with the demon race."
The Holy See had already finished experiments using the demon-chasing compass underwater.
As a result, they discovered that once submerged, the compass pointed to only one place.
That place was the Storm Sea, and beneath it, the trench of unfathomable depth called the 'Great Hall.'
When I first heard that demonic energy leaked from the Great Hall, I raised questions, but even the Holy Son and the Saintess didn't know the exact reason.
"We'll try surveying with the compass for now, but it's best not to expect much. The demonic energy emanating from the Great Hall is so strong that the compass can't function properly."
"I see."
My mouth tasted bitter.
It felt like facing a math problem that refused to be solved.
At this rate, it seemed we'd be blindly rummaging through the sea.
No matter how much we put our heads together, no real solution came to mind.
"For now, even if it's crude, we'll have to organize search parties and comb the sea. Perhaps Reserve Saintess Ibril may have dropped or might be dropping hints for the search."
"That seems necessary."
And so, the Saintess and the Holy Son decided to deploy priests and Holy Knights for the search, while I, along with providing troop support, would craft and supply artifacts for swimming through the sea.
"We are always grateful, Your Highness the King, Grand Duke Lawrence."
"Surely the great Mother must be looking down upon Your Highness the King with a smile as well."
Even though the situation hardly called for laughter, the Holy Son and Saintess forced smiles toward me.
From their perspective, I was a steadfast ally, so it was a natural reaction.
But at the remark that the goddess might be looking upon me favorably, I had to keep an ambiguous expression.
'Would the goddess truly view me kindly?'
* * *
"Where is this?"
A vast cavern, open on all sides.
At its center, a patch of ground about twenty to thirty meters wide floated like an island, surrounded entirely by rippling water.
Coming to her senses in this strangely unsettling space, Ibril stared blankly around for a long while, then, recalling what had happened, shot up from her seat.
"Ah! I was definitely "
And then she examined her body from head to toe.
All her artifacts, including her communication equipment and subspace, had been removed, and her clothes were torn in places, with scabs caked on her hands and knees.
Washing her hands and knees with the surrounding water, her skin revealed itself clean beneath.
The wounds had healed on their own through the goddess's blessing.
'A battle broke out during the investigation, I lost, and I was kidnapped.'
She understood the situation she was in now.
But why was there no sign of her captor?
Ibril searched the area, filled with questions.
Yet nowhere inside the cavern was there any exit leading outside.
Just in case, she created a sphere of light and dropped it into the water, revealing a massive hole of unknowable depth.
'Could there be an exit connecting to the outside somewhere down there?'
She had been leaning her face close to the water when a fishy scent hit her nose; she darted her tongue out to taste it, then recoiled at the intense saltiness, spitting and flailing her tongue.
"It must be a space underwater."
When you flip a bowl and push it into water, an air pocket forms inside the bowl.
She thought perhaps this place had a similar structure.
Her captor must have left her alone here because escaping was so difficult.
Ibril judged that she had to do something before the culprit returned.
This was her second time being kidnapped, but she was a completely different person now than she was then.
"Should I try punching a hole through?"
If she made a hole in the ceiling, this place would flood if she failed to escape, it would end in the worst possible outcome.
So if she was going to make a hole, she had to target the submerged part.
Ibril boldly threw herself into the trench of unknown depth.
Then, spreading a barrier beneath her feet to create a floor, she condensed intense Divine power into her small fist.
What followed was a straight thrust.
A powerful force bearing pure white light shot forward in a fierce, straight line.
-Kuuung!
The force seemed capable of piercing even meter-thick steel, but unfortunately, only a large crater formed in the wall no hole was punched through.
Even from that single strike, she could tell.
This wall was not of a thickness that could be easily breached.
Worse, her strike traveled through the wall as vibration, echoing far into the water.
That was practically a signal to the enemy that she was awake.
Still in the water, she felt an intense presence surge up from beneath her feet.
At the same time, a pair of blue-glowing eyes, like a cat's reflecting light in the darkness, came into view.
Startled, she hurriedly swam to escape the water, but...
-Kwajik!
"Kkeuk!"
Whatever surged from below bit into her lower body faster than she could move.
The surrounding seawater turned red with blood.
Moreover, the thing that bit her slammed her against the walls here and there before finally hurling her roughly out of the water.
"Keoheok! Heok! Heal, heal..."
Gasping for breath, Ibril instinctively cast a healing spell as she saw her skin torn to shreds from her belly down to her legs.
The wounds closed quickly, but the pain did not vanish so soon, forcing her to crawl along the ground and steady her breathing.
[No matter how high the Saintess's durability, a bare body cannot withstand my fangs.]
At the voice echoing through the cavern, she snapped her head around with venomous eyes.
There, emerging from the seawater, a serpentine silhouette revealed itself.
[Be grateful I did not use poison.]
It was a "Sea Serpent."
Among dragon-kind, along with the Hydra, Basilisk, and Drake, it was known as a high-ranking dragon-kind; a monster famous for being impossible to so much as scratch without an Aura Blade or high-level magic.
But a Sea Serpent speaking...
That was proof that this was no ordinary Sea Serpent, but a Named monster with a name of its own.
"There's no way a mere monster planned a Saintess's abduction... Who put you up to this?"
[Haha, a bold Saintess indeed. Do you not yet understand your position?]
And what followed made Ibril's spine run cold.
-Kukukukuku! Kung!
A giant octopus covered in saw-toothed suckers, the "Kraken," radiating an aura equal to or greater than the Sea Serpent before her, and a semi-dragon of no lesser caliber, the "Leviathan," revealed themselves as if surrounding the island she stood on.
[In the deep sea, it is best not to apply the common sense of the surface world.]
[Compared to the ocean, the land humans tread upon is but a handful of dirt.]
[So do not act rashly. Unless you wish to die.]
That such beings would band together like this was hard for Ibril to accept, but the threat to her life loomed far larger.
The killing intent radiating from the monsters before her was real.
If she died here, what would remain?
She scratched her head roughly and plopped herself down on the spot.
"What do you want from me?"
[You are a hostage to guarantee the autonomous activities of our alliance. We will see to your comfort so that you lack nothing. The Saintess need only stay still.]
"And if I try to escape, I die?"
[Yes. We will kill you as a warning to the surface world. To prove our words are not empty.]
Wherever this place was, it was clearly somewhere the Holy See would not easily find.
Moreover, if she emitted Divine power or revealed her energy externally, they would surely sense it and attack.
No viable path presented itself.
"You call your group an alliance? What is this alliance working toward?"
She clicked her tongue briefly and asked the intelligent, extraordinary monsters, as if to say she might as well hear just how grand their undertaking was.
[The enlightenment of the masses who are deceived by the goddess, and propaganda activities to that end.]
"What?"
Their answer was beyond common sense.
Deceived by the goddess? Who?
"As a Saintess, that sounds like nothing but blasphemy."
[Your feelings are of no concern to us.]
What returned to Ibril's cold interrogation was the monsters' mockery.
"Do not be so harsh, everyone. Ignorance may be a sin, but she is a victim being deceived as well."
And then.
Someone emerged from the water, stepping between them.
Blue hair and black eyes with large pupils.
He was a man with the typical traits of the merfolk.
Unlike the Sea Serpent, Kraken, and Leviathan, merfolk are members of a surface civilization like humans.
That was why Ibril could immediately realize that the man now appearing was the one most deeply involved in her abduction.
"And you are?"
"A pleasure, Your Holiness the Saintess. I am Ieria Nelson, third prince of Coralheim."
He was the sponsor of the demon worshiper who had a warrant out from the Holy See, a merfolk prince.
"With Your Holiness Saintess Ibril's disappearance, the Holy See has been turned upside down. And Grand Duke Lawrence seems to be scrambling as well, stirring things up everywhere as if his feet were on fire."
"...."
Ibril, who had kept her composure at the mention of the Holy See, had her pupils trembling ceaselessly at the name of Grand Duke Lawrence.
Catching her reaction quickly, Prince Ieria approached her with an exceedingly deep smile.
"Let me reveal the whole truth to you. Then, no matter how the highest authority in the Holy See Your Holiness may be, you will come to understand our wishes."