Sea Monster Stew Chapter 28

When she gently opened her eyes, Biche’s blurred vision was filled with pitch-black darkness.

She blinked slowly in the utter blackness, groping around her.

Soon, she remembered the cold, pouring rain and the empty streets where not even an ant was visible.

And the rugged-faced man who had scooped her up…

“…Kisa!”

“What! Why?”

She felt a rustling movement as someone quickly sat up behind her. 

 

The deep voice asking what was wrong felt strangely familiar.

“Kisa…?”

Feeling an eerie dread, Biche turned to look back. 

 

Though it was pitch black, she could just make out the silhouette of a massive figure looking around.

The man who looked so much smaller compared to the giant Kisa was none other than Muir, his long ash-grey hair disheveled.

“Muir…?”

Biche narrowed her eyes. 

 

As she grew accustomed to the dark, she could see the shoulders of the man, who had been staring blankly into space with a tousled look, twitch.

The sleepy voice she had just heard clearly belonged to Admiral Kisa, but the person before her eyes was Muir.

No, had the voice she just heard been Muir’s? She began to feel confused, the owner of that deep bass tone becoming distant and mixed up. 

 

Kisa’s not-unfamiliar tone had resembled Muir’s voice in some way.

 

“Are you finally awake?”

Muir yawned lazily and rubbed his shoulder.

“You. You’ve been lying down for three whole days since you collapsed in the rain. You’ve been burning up with fever all this time.”

He wiped his face as if washing and pushed aside the bed curtains. 

 

As the blackout-like curtains were drawn aside, bright moonlight streamed calmly onto the bed.

As Muir’s amber pupils moved slowly to face Biche, she could no longer sustain her complicated thoughts.

She had so many questions, but any and all doubts lost their priority in front of Muir.

 

“Muir!”

“Oof.”

“You’re alive!”

Choking up, she threw her arms around his thick neck. 

 

A strangely familiar scent tickled her sense of smell, and his ash-grey hair, tangled here and there, brushed against her cheek.

“Where have you been all this time…? I thought… you’d been captured by pirates…”

His hand, which had been silently patting her back, suddenly stopped.

“What do you take me for? There’s no way I’d get captured.”

“But, you weren’t there the day I was brought here…”

Biche’s voice caught, and she couldn’t continue. He quietly stroked her back.

“I was… detained in another room. That’s why I couldn’t come to you for a while.”

It sounded like an excuse blurted out without thinking. 

 

His voice brushing her ear was lower than usual and felt uneasy in some way.

Biche rubbed her face against his heated neck, then lowered her head as it bumped against something hard on his knee.

Black leather armor, heavy iron pauldrons on his shoulders, and even an expensive-looking cloak flowing down his back. 

 

It was an outfit that looked nothing like a pirate government’s attire.

The aura he emitted, the sense of intimidation, was different from his usual self, who, even if he went around bare-chested, always wore an assistant’s trousers.

 

“Muir, your clothes…”

Her questioning words remained unfinished. 

 

He softly pressed his lips to hers and quietly reached out to pull the bed curtains shut again.

 

 

* * *

 

 

‘Damn! I should have taken off the iron armor before sleeping after all…!’

Kisa carefully licked Biche’s chapped lips while scolding himself.

To Biche, he was Admiral Moose’s assistant.

A man of lowly status who didn’t match the splendid armor he now wore, the false shell that was Muir.

That man was Kisa himself.

 

“Mmm, Muir…”

A moan escaped from between Biche’s lips as she weakly pushed him away. Pretending not to hear her call, he licked her lips, and a rough texture touched his tongue.

A sweet, rich scent of her skin, Kisa’s sense of smell, and a cute little tongue greeted him from between her softly parted lips.

Their tongues and fluids entwined generously. 

 

Kisa gently bit Biche’s lower lip, brushed back her sweaty forehead, and whispered in a hushed voice.

“Your fever’s gone down.”

“…Muir. Where are we…?”

She scanned Kisa’s face slowly with half-closed eyes.

Seemingly because the surroundings were obscured by thick curtains, she didn’t yet seem to realize it was the top of the castle from which she had broken a window and escaped.

“…If this is Admiral Kisa’s castle…”

“Aren’t you thirsty? Should we have some water first? Hmm?”

“Huh? Water…? Ah… I am thirsty though…”

He let her limp body lean comfortably against the pile of cushions and reached a hand outside the curtains. 

 

The movable tray he had placed nearby the bed came into his grasp.

Just as he was picking up the water cup from the cold, chilled tin tray, Biche, who had been lying there with a dazed expression, suddenly sat bolt upright.

“Kisa!”

“Huh?”

 

Answering without thinking, he finally felt a dizzying shock. 

 

Belatedly biting his lip, he held out the water cup to her, forcing a calm expression.

“Why Admiral Kisa?”

“Admiral Kisa? Why ‘Admiral Kisa, sir’?!”

Biche pushed the water cup away and suddenly raised her voice.

“What’s wrong? The Admiral hid us in this castle to avoid the other pirates’ eyes… He seems like a pretty good person, doesn’t he?”

Her vehement reaction slightly dampened his confidence, but as planned, he subtly defended Live-Skinner Kisa.

His plan was to slowly gain her favor while in the guise of the giant hide, then carefully reveal his identity and ask for forgiveness.

Biche had wanted freedom, and Kisa had intended to let her go outside of Karabas. 

 

But Biche, unable to let go of Muir, had returned to hell.

So Kisa decided to place his hope in her, who had chosen Muir even at the risk of death. 

 

Perhaps, even if she found out Muir was Kisa, she might not leave him.

 

“A good person? Did you just say a good person?”

But at Biche’s cold voice, that hope grew cold, as if doused with icy water.

“…Why? Don’t you think he’s a good person?”

“A good person who treats monsters so cruelly…”

“What? Monsters?”

“…No. Forget it.”

Biche shook her head and swiftly threw back the bed curtains. 

 

Bright moonlight streamed onto the bed once more.

She fell into deep thought as she quietly looked around the room she had once escaped from.

 

Kisa, who had frozen momentarily at Biche’s sharp reaction, began cautiously removing his armor while watching her expression.

He took off the heavy pauldrons and chest plate one by one, and when he tossed aside the iron armor that would require two strong men to carry, Biche slowly turned to look at him.

“Muir.”

“Hmm?”

“Kisa, that damn old man, did he also spout hypocrisy to you, saying he’d hide us?”

“Hy…pocrisy?”

“If it’s not hypocrisy, then what is it? A terrible pirate who skins monsters alive, why is he suddenly pretending to be nice and trying to help us?!”

Kisa looked at her, pouring out her resentment, with a complicated expression.

He couldn’t understand why she was suddenly bringing up monsters. What did it matter if he killed a few damned monsters?

But looking at her holding back tears, any rebuttal or excuse felt powerless.

 

“Yeah, you’re right.”

He stroked her back gently and whispered in a tender voice.

“No matter how much a dirty pirate now steps forward to help you, he’d just look like a disgusting hypocrite. Admiral Kisa must be spouting hypocrisy.”

“……”

“Now that you understand, stop being angry and get under the covers. You’re still shivering, aren’t you? Right?”

“…Yeah.”

Biche avoided his gaze and nodded slightly. 

 

Rubbing her eyes and sniffling, she looked just like a spoiled child, making Kisa chuckle involuntarily.

“Are you very cold?”

“Yeah…”

“It seems you’re not fully recovered yet. How about taking some medicine first and getting more sleep?”

“…I slept for three days straight, and you want me to sleep more?”

As he pulled her slightly trembling body under the covers, Biche pouted and shot him a look.

“If I sleep more, my face will swell up like a toad.”

“It’s plenty swollen enough already. So, what do you want to do instead of sleeping?”

“I want to get off this island. We need to escape quickly before Admiral Kisa returns… Eek!”

 

A shriek escaped her lips before she could even finish her sentence. 

 

Kisa had scooped her up, blankets and all.

“Mu-Muir?”

Biche tapped his chest with a flustered expression. 

 

Kisa wordlessly got out of bed and strode purposefully across the room.

“Before we escape, how about we plunder some of Admiral Kisa’s treasure?”

Kisa raised an eyebrow slightly and laughed lowly. 

 

Biche instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her head.

“Treasure…?”

“The treasures I gave you. You lost them all at Mint Beach, right? Thanks to that, we’re penniless now. Going out to sea without a single coin, we’d be perfect candidates to starve to death.”

“Ah…”

Biche rolled her eyes and avoided Kisa’s gaze.

As if remembering the travel bag she had thrown away on Mint Beach, her previously stubborn attitude softened a little.

“That bag, probably someone from the beach village has already picked it up.”

“Sorry. I was out of my mind then, thinking you’d been captured by pirates…”

Looking down at her making excuses with a troubled expression, Kisa smiled faintly.

Losing those trinkets was no problem at all. He just needed to divert Biche’s attention elsewhere.

 

“So, let’s search this castle and try to find the treasure vault or something. If we mess up Admiral Kisa’s treasure vault, you’ll feel a bit better, right?”

“Okay!”

As if imagining Kisa fuming over his stolen treasure, the corners of her mouth curled up sharply.

“Let’s find the treasure vault and steal all the treasure. Let him despair over his empty treasure vault, that damn Kisa!”

 

‘…Stealing it all between the two of us might be a bit much though…’

 

Kisa recalled the castle’s treasure vault, piled high with gold, silver, and jewels up to the ceiling.

After being appointed lord of Ire Island and gaining his own castle, he had often volunteered for expeditions because he wanted to fill his treasure vault with rare items.

Losing interest in plundering treasure was a relatively recent thing. 

 

At some point, his enthusiasm for expeditions waned, and his hobby of collecting treasures began to feel tedious.

A part of his chest felt empty, and no amount of treasure could fill the void.

“Muir?”

It was after he met the woman who looked up at him quietly with her pale face. No rare treasure could quench his thirst or hunger.

 

“Aren’t we going?”

“…We’re going.”

“But the door to this room is locked from the outside, how are we going to get out, hmm? What the… It’s open…”

As he swung the firmly shut door wide open, Biche whispered as if it was absurd. Her shoulders slumped as if the tension had drained from her body.

“When it was just me locked in, he bolted it shut tight…”

“Maybe he trusts that you won’t run away now. Or maybe he thinks you’re still sick and in no condition to escape.”

“Hmph, I’ll give that damn Admiral Kisa a proper blow to the back of his head!”

She fidgeted under the blankets wrapped around her, chattering away. 

 

She seemed far too lively for a sick person. 

 

Apart from an occasional light cough, she showed no signs of illness now.

 

‘And I haven’t even given her the wonder drug yet… To be this lively already.’

 

Holding her in his arms, Kisa trudged towards the dark corridor.

The castle was dark and quiet. Cradled in his arms, Biche whispered in a small voice.

“It’s dark…”

“Dawn hasn’t broken yet.”

He let out a shallow sigh, hidden from Biche. 

 

Thanks to the lies that flew out of his mouth without any plan, he was now roaming the castle in the late hours of the night.