Sea Monster Stew Chapter 42

Passing through the cluttered kitchen lined with cooking utensils, a huge pot boiling vigorously over the hearth came into view. 

 

The cook was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a grumbling sound came from further inside.

“Ugh, damn them. Are the workers and the eaters separate groups or what…?”

 

This was followed by the sound of something being chopped with heavy thuds. 

 

*Chop, chop.*

 

The sound of bloody meat being cut continued. 

 

It seemed the cook was chopping a piece of meat with a cleaver.

Holding his breath, Kisa approached the large pot hanging over the hearth. 

 

Thick stew was bubbling vigorously inside. 

 

There was more meat than carrots, potatoes, or onions.

He stared blankly at the large chunks of meat, then turned away. 

 

He walked past the counters piled high with empty bowls, heading towards the source of the cook’s voice.

 

Beyond a narrow passage, a space darker than the kitchen appeared. 

 

It was a butcher-shop-like space cast in eerie shadows. A sinister light flickered from a lone oil lamp hanging on the inner wall.

 

Kisa stepped across the damp stone floor, his eyes wide. 

 

The cook stood with his back to him, facing a broad counter.

Various monster-type sea creatures hung limply from hooks around the cook, dangling precariously. They were all already dead.

“Got a mountain of work to do, eh? Am I the only one working here?” the cook grumbled as he grabbed one of the sea creatures and heaved it onto the counter. 

 

It was a monster-type sea creature that looked like a mix between a large seahorse and an eel.

The dark blue slime smeared on its scales reflected the lamplight. 

 

The monster-type sea creature stared vacantly at Kisa with its head-sized, hollow eyes.

Without hesitation, the cook swung a large cleaver and severed the creature’s head. 

 

The head fell with a thud into an oak barrel placed beside the counter.

 

“Damn this thing, why are the tendons so tough? Hell,” the cook cursed, bringing the cleaver down with heavy chops.

 

Kisa stared blankly at the cook, then, as if mesmerized, slowly turned his head. 

 

Another oak barrel stood beside a different counter littered with bloody entrails.

He slowly moved, approaching the oak barrel. 

 

The pale face of a young man was visible. A handsome man was curled up inside the barrel, dead.

No, looking closer, it wasn’t a human. 

 

The man’s unclothed upper body was smooth like a human’s, but his lower body was a fish’s tail. Half of the tail, covered in silver scales, was submerged in bloody water.

Kisa closed his eyes tightly, looking at the dead male-type sea creature, and swallowed hard. 

 

The moment he flinched and stepped back, the cook heard him and whipped his head around.

“Hey, if you’re here, help move the stew. Don’t just stand there gaw— Yikes!”

The cook shrieked upon spotting Kisa standing there. He pointed the blood-soaked cleaver towards Kisa.

“W-who are you? You don’t seem to be from our village.”

 

“Why are you eating monsters?”

“Huh? W-we should be grateful even for this. The land here is too barren; it’s hard to find even a squirrel.”

The cook tilted his head and cautiously set the cleaver down. 

 

He still seemed wary, but had at least given up the idea of defending himself with the cleaver.

“The sea is full of monster meat; of course we eat it.”

“Don’t tell me you eat the humanoid ones too?”

 

Kisa pointed to the oak barrel where the male-type sea creature lay dead. The cook scratched his head and muttered cautiously.

“The humanoid ones have especially tender meat, perfect for stew… I hear it’s considered a delicacy among the highborn lords in the northern seas too?”

Suppressing the urge to vomit, Kisa turned away. He strode urgently back towards the kitchen.

“Wait a moment!”

 

The cook, scrambling after him into the kitchen, hastily filled a wooden bowl with meat stew.

“We can’t just let a guest who’s come all the way to our village leave empty-handed. We must offer you some warm meat stew at lea—”

“Cut it out.”

Kisa spat the words coldly and moved as if fleeing the building. 

 

Stepping on a pile of firewood stacked like a mountain, he leaped lightly onto the roof. 

 

A giant bird descended slowly from the sky towards him.

“A bird! Look over there! A huge bird is flying this way!”

A shriek came from the direction of the village square, but Kisa didn’t look back as he mounted the bird. 

 

He and the bird soared into the dark blue sky.

“Ugh…”

As soon as the village receded into the distance, he bent over deeply and retched. 

 

Only after spitting up hot stomach acid did the nausea stop. 

 

He rubbed his trembling lips roughly with the back of his hand and muttered.

 

“Disgusting creatures…”

How could anyone, as a human, put such filthy things in their mouth? The sea creature meat he had seen with his own eyes was more repulsive than he had imagined.

He felt pathetic remembering his younger self, who used to spout riddles about monster meat.

The highborn lords of the northern seas consider that a delicacy? They were surely referring to the nobles of the Helio Empire. 

 

Did that mean Biche would one day also have to put those filthy creatures in her mouth?

Kisa fervently prayed that she would never have to eat such disgusting food, and began dry-heaving again from an unbearable feeling of revulsion. 

 

The characteristic salty sea smell and the stench of blood still seemed to sting his nose.

He might be tormented by nightmares again for some time.

 

* * *

 

Crossing the sea held tightly in Calante’s arms as he swam at full speed was an ordeal. 

 

First, the seasickness was severe, and the fierce water current felt like it was tearing her skin.

 

Unlike the pure-blooded Calante, Biche’s body wasn’t that strong.

“You’re only managing to hold on because our kin’s blood flows in your veins,” Calante said, wringing the water from his curly, seaweed-like hair.

“An ordinary human would have had their bones crushed in my embrace.”

 

“My stomach… feels queasy…”

 

Biche retched, clinging to the hull of the small boat. 

 

Calante pulled out an oar attached to the bottom of the boat and snorted.

“You must be the only mermaid in the world who gets seasick on a boat.”

 

“It’s not seasickness, Calante, you’re just too…”

She swallowed the words ‘swimming too fast’ and quickly covered her mouth. 

 

Every time she spoke, her stomach churned violently.

Biche suffered from severe nausea the entire time she was carried across the vast ocean in Calante’s arms. 

 

Finally, only after Biche lost consciousness did Calante slow his swimming.

He finally surfaced. 

 

Then he placed Biche on an old, small boat that Fui had procured from somewhere.

When Biche opened her eyes again, she was lying alone inside the moss-covered small boat. 

 

At first, she thought she had had a long dream.

 

The nightmare-like life on the Karabas pirate island, leaping from the huge ship into the stormy sea… She thought it was all a dream. 

 

Staring blankly at the clear sky before her, she thought, ‘So I had a long nightmare.’

 

At that moment, Fui had climbed onto the boat with a flapping, live fish in his mouth. 

 

Only then did Biche realize it hadn’t been a dream.

Then, when Calante, transformed into a human form, climbed onto the boat naked, she was so shocked she fainted again. 

 

Fortunately, when she awoke again, he was wearing clothes he had somehow obtained.

 

Calante’s transformed human form was as beautiful as a noble youth. 

 

His pupils, which had been like those of a menacing shark, were now round, and his ears, which had been pointed like fins, were now rounded like a human’s.

 

His lower body, which had been a shark’s tail fin, had transformed into a human’s two legs clad in leather trousers. 

 

His torso, which had shimmered as if covered in transparent scales, was now covered by a white linen shirt.

 

Biche had also transformed into an ordinary human form. 

 

As the seawater soaking her body slowly dried under the blazing sun, her gills, fins, webbing, and scales all vanished without a trace.

‘Master. This is exactly how Arcobiche looked when I first met her,’ Fui said, resting his front paws on the stern. 

 

Calante nodded, staring at Biche with a newfound look.

“How on earth did you manage to hide your identity within the Crocus pirate crew?”

 

“My body only changes when it touches seawater,” she replied.

He pulled his dark brown boots up to just below his knees and chuckled.

“Heaven helped you, it seems. To survive unharmed amidst those sharp-eyed pirates.”