Sea Monster Stew Chapter 79

Kisa led Biche to a stretch of beach quite a distance from the village’s commotion. 

 

Scattered seashells all around glittered in the sunlight. 

 

A breeze carrying the briny scent of the sea ruffled Biche’s hair.

“Sit.”

He took off his loosely worn frock coat and spread it on a flat, broad rock. 

 

Biche carefully sat on his coat. Kisa stretched out his legs casually and settled beside her.

Biche lowered her gaze, staring blankly at the rock below. 

 

Waves lapping indifferently against the rock broke into white foam.

 

She could feel Kisa’s gaze glancing at her. But Biche kept a listless expression, staring only at her own toes.

As an awkward silence continued, he cleared his throat loudly. 

 

Then, as if trying to lighten the somber mood, he smiled lightly and spoke.

 

“Are you feeling a bit better?”

 

He faltered, unable to continue, and for a moment hesitated before carefully wrapping his arm around Biche’s waist.

“The shock hasn’t faded yet?”

 

“……”

“It’s taking a while. Even that bastard Moose spent the whole day retching that day…”

Though his warm body heat touched her side, Biche merely gazed at the sea with the same vacant expression. 

 

Memories from the Duke’s castle suddenly surfaced in her mind.

The meat stew the Duke had brought to the tower when informing her of Hildert’s marriage proposal. 

 

That stew and the stew Tusa made were eerily identical in both flavor and the texture of the meat.

 

‘Could it be… was that stew also made from sea creature meat? If not, why would the Duke go to the trouble of coming up to the top floor to watch me eat…’

Every bit of food she had consumed during her confinement in the castle became suspect.

 

Biche feared she might have been the unwitting participant in the Duke’s cruel jest.

Her thoughts sank deeper into a dark pit. 

 

The deeper they went, the more intense her self-loathing became. 

 

Her chest felt heavy, and the waves relentlessly crashed as if mocking her guilt.

A riddle Hildert had once told her suddenly came to mind. 

 

The story of a husband who, after eating stew made from sea creature meat, fell into shock and took his own life.

 

‘Since he filled his belly with such lowly, filthy things, it’s only natural the man couldn’t bear the self-loathing and gave up on life.’

As a chilly sea breeze blew, Hilde’s voice from that time seemed to echo in her ears again.

 

“Once, Hildert… told me a strange riddle.”

At the unexpected mention of Hildert’s name, Kisa’s arm around Biche’s shoulder tensed, as if displeased.

“…What riddle?”

“There’s a married couple crossing a vast ocean. One day, their ship runs completely out of food.”

“Are you talking about the story where the wife eats the sea creature stew her husband made and kills herself?”

“How did you know?”

Biche looked at him with a startled expression.

“But in the riddle Hildert told, the one who ate the stew wasn’t the wife, it was the husband.”

“That’s a famous riddle anyone from this region would know.”

A cold flicker of displeasure passed over Kisa’s face.

“That bastard reversed it. The one who eats the sea creature is the wife, not the husband.”

 

Biche smiled bitterly and hugged her knees tightly. 

 

The reason Hildert had changed the one who ate the sea creature and died to ‘husband’ was clear. 

 

He had likely projected himself onto the husband in the riddle.

Taking a half-breed like Biche was as disgusting as eating a sea creature. 

 

He had merely expressed metaphorically how ashamed he was of himself for desiring her.

That approach was so typical of Hildert. 

 

Kisa wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she gave a weak smile, his expression one of displeasure.

“…It just vaguely came to me, but I think I might have told you that riddle before too.”

 

“Really? When?”

“I don’t remember clearly either… Probably when you were first brought onto the Crocus pirate crew.”

 

His eyes, glancing sideways at Biche, were tinged with unmistakable sadness.

“But that memory must have been erased from your mind by magic too.”

Biche turned his words over in her mind, dazed. She had already heard the same riddle from Kisa…?

It seemed the roles in the riddle Kisa had told were the exact opposite of Hildert’s riddle. 

 

The one shocked by eating the sea creature stew, and thus the one who took their own life, was the wife, not the husband.

Back then, she probably wouldn’t have understood the wife’s feelings in the riddle. But now, the wife’s despair felt vividly clear.

“Kisa. I think I understand now.”

“Understand what?”

“Why the wife in the riddle… killed herself after eating the monster stew.”

Kisa looked at Biche’s expression with a startled face. 

 

Gazing into her dark, sunken eyes, he cautiously spoke.

“There are plenty of bastards who make that dreadful stuff a staple or enjoy it as a tonic. You, who only ate a mouthful, don’t need to torment yourself so much.”

Biche had thought the wife in the riddle might also be a half-breed like herself, but Kisa seemed to have firmly misunderstood her meaning.

“When I was young, I was too immature. I used to tell that weird riddle to anyone without a second thought.”

He muttered, pulling her waist tightly against him.

“Thinking about it now, it’s an absolutely bizarre story. It’s true that eating monster meat is unpleasant and horrifying… but it’s not something so shocking you’d kill yourself over it, right?”

His matter-of-fact words pierced Biche’s heart with a chill. 

 

She clenched her mouth shut, repeating a despairing whisper in her mind.

 

‘For me, it’s torment enough to make me want to die…’

‘That I am a being who carries monster blood.  That I am no different from the monster Kisa so detests.’

 

‘And the fact that I put such a monster in my mouth was utterly unbearable.’

Sunlight shimmered on the distant blue horizon, but her vacant eyes couldn’t hold that light. 

 

Biche stared blankly at the approaching white waves and finally spoke.

 

“…Kisa.”

“Yes?”

“If the roles of the husband and wife in the riddle you told were reversed… and if you were the husband in the riddle, what would you do?”

The thick arm wrapped around her waist slid away. Kisa shifted slightly away from her, frowning.

“You mean, if I ate stew made from sea creature meat without knowing, what would I do then?”

Biche nodded silently. 

 

For a moment, Kisa pulled her close again and seemed lost in thought. 

 

Then he clicked his tongue briefly as if the mere thought was horrifying.

“I wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill myself… but I’d probably feel disgusted and full of self-loathing enough to wish for death.”

Kisa’s answer laid bare his visceral disgust toward sea creatures.

 

It wasn’t mere distaste but an instinctive rejection and hatred. 

 

Biche’s heart felt torn to shreds before his cruel sincerity.

‘Since you hate monsters and this blood flows in my veins, we ultimately can’t be together.’

Biche feared the moment Kisa would learn the whole truth. 

 

The moment he would see her as no different from the monster meat in the stew.

 

“You’d never forgive yourself for having taken such a detested sea creature, let alone me.”

“No, Kisa would…”

“Kisa, do you really think that man would want you even if he knew your true nature?”

Hildert’s cruel whisper seemed to reach her from somewhere. 

 

Biche turned her head to look at the blue sea.

Beyond the horizon stretched a world to which she could never belong. 

 

In that vastness, Biche felt herself to be an incredibly small, incredibly isolated being.

“…Arco.”

Kisa, who had been stroking Biche’s thin shoulders, cautiously spoke up.

“I have to set sail soon.”

“Set sail? When?”

“As early as this evening.”

“Why…? What’s the sudden matter?”

“It’s because of Hildert.”

Kisa let out a deep sigh and pressed his chin firmly against the top of her head.

 

“The islands under the Godfather’s protection are being attacked by Hildert’s subordinate pirates. If we don’t step in, the territory will collapse before they can even defend themselves.”

His resolute voice carried a profound weariness. Biche looked at Kisa’s calm eyes, speechless.

“You’re going to wage war against Hildert…?”

“It won’t be a battle grand enough to be called a ‘war.’ Most of the ones stirring up trouble in the Godfather’s territory are small fries.”

“But Hildert won’t just stand by and watch his men get attacked.”

“No. He doesn’t care about his subordinate pirates.”

 

Kisa shook his head, pressing his chin firmly against her head again.

“You stay here. The witches of Whecoca will protect you from Hildert.”

At his words, Biche couldn’t hide her momentary panic. A tangle of complex emotions welled up in her chest.

The mention of Hildert’s name brought ominous memories flashing through her mind.

‘Remember. Ten days. If you don’t return within ten days, I will kill Calante and Fui and tell Kisa your true identity.’

The deadline Hildert had given now had less than four days left. Her fingers tingled and trembled.

‘Hildert’s subordinate pirates…’

 

If she made contact with them, wouldn’t she be able to meet Hildert? That was the only way to meet Hildert within the deadline. 

 

Biche hesitated for a moment before cautiously speaking.

“…Can’t I come along?”

“No. It’s too dangerous.”

“Hildert might send spies here.”

“No, he won’t dare come near Whecoca. He avoids causing friction with his mother more than anything.”

 

Biche pushed against Kisa’s shoulder without a word. 

 

He slowly removed his chin from pressing against her head.

Seeing the resolve hardened in his eyes, urgency and guilt pressed down on her chest even more heavily.

If Kisa hurriedly set sail this evening with the crew… The time after he left would be her only chance.

The faces of Calante and Fui flickered before her eyes. 

 

She had to save them from Hildert’s grasp.

A time of choice awaited Biche. And that choice would utterly change her destiny.