Sea Monster Stew – Chapter 84

Author: Dakku-san

Several crewmen nodded urgently.

“That’s right. Even with scales covering her face, I recognized her at a gla—”

“Stop this nonsense!” Kisa reflexively grabbed one crewman by the collar and shouted sharply.

“You’re saying Arco, who should be in Whecoca, was on the ship? And in a monster’s form?”

“S-sorry, sir!”

The crewmen flinched and bowed their heads deeply.

The crewman whose collar was grabbed by Kisa also shook his head urgently.

“Sorry, sir. We must have seen wrong.”

“Right! We must have been mistaken. Of course, the young lady must be in Whecoca!”

Only after they retracted their words did Kisa calm his agitation and release the crewman’s collar.

Another crewman stepped forward and rambled on, adding more.

“It seems the Ritcher pirate crew’s target was that female creature from the start. As soon as Valen dragged that creature out of the ship, their pirate ship retreated immediately.”

“…Perhaps it was a crew member of the Ritcher pirate crew who was captured in Whecoca.”

Kisa nodded and muttered lowly.

“Maybe they barely escaped the village and snuck onto this ship… And if the Ritcher crew, noticing that, chased and attacked us, it explains the reason for the ambush.”

“I’ve heard Captain Valen doesn’t accept females as crew. Maybe she wasn’t an ordinary crew member but Valen’s lover.”

The moment one crewman’s assertion cut through the air, Kisa’s face noticeably hardened.

Displeasure was clearly visible on his furrowed brows.

It felt like a cold, sharp needle had pierced his chest.

For an unknown reason, the phrase ‘Valen’s lover’ swirled in his mind, persistently bothering him.

Kisa rubbed his unsettlingly churning chest and abruptly turned around.

“Enough idle chatter. Return to your posts.”

“Yes, sir!”

He turned on his heel and headed back into the ship. With each step, his heart grew heavier.

A fierce storm still raged within his chest.

White clothes, long blonde hair. Kisa blankly repeated the two words, recalling Biche waving from the harbor.

Her golden hair fluttering in the sea breeze, and the white hem of her skirt swaying softly like waves…

* * *

Biche slowly opened her eyes, feeling faint sunlight piercing through her eyelids.

A vast deck, spread with a white sea mist like a curtain, unfolded before her.

Sea creatures of all kinds were gathered around, staring intently down at Biche.

As sharp, eerie gazes pierced her body all at once, Biche flinched in surprise and instinctively stepped back.

Her last memory ended in pitch-black night, but now a hazy dawn light veiled in mist enveloped her.

In the dim dawn light, the faces of the sea creatures she encountered looked even more bizarre.

Some had half their heads covered with transparent tentacles, beyond which the shape of a writhing brain was clearly visible.

Another creature had sharp spines covering its back like a sea urchin.

There were those clicking and moving pincers, and others creeping slowly across the deck on octopus-like tentacles.

Surprisingly, among the sea creatures, human men were also mixed in.

They were sitting on the deck railings, observing Biche with curious eyes.

‘So, the Ritcher pirate crew wasn’t composed solely of sea creatures?’

Biche tilted her head and made eye contact with the men.

“Here, dry yourself off first.”

A sea creature approached and handed Biche a thick towel.

Biche muttered her thanks and carefully accepted the towel.

At that moment, a metallic clanking sound came from below her knees.

Glancing down, she saw a grayish shackle clamped around one ankle.

It was a shackle with a chain, at the end of which hung an iron lump the size of a human head.

A chill seeped into her bones, rising from her toes.

Biche started in shock and stepped back.

But the chain connecting the iron lump and the shackle pulled taut, preventing further movement.

The creatures shook their heads, looking at her panicked state.

‘You only just noticed the shackle? How dull.’

“Wh-what is the meaning of this?!”

Biche pulled at the chain and demanded roughly, but the creatures only glanced at her face and whispered among themselves.

‘So? In the bright light, doesn’t she look even more alike?’

‘Hmm… Alike? I can’t really tell.’

She couldn’t follow the conversation at all.

Biche felt fear tightening her chest.

Kisa’s tender smile suddenly brushed across her heart.

It was a shameless thought, but a desperate yearning to return to him, even now, arose.

At that moment, with a strange cry, the sea began to churn.

The pirate ship, pushed by fierce waves, tilted and rocked.

From the deep sea, a massive shadow tore through the mist and surged upward.

Soon, a sea serpent, as large as the pirate ship, slowly revealed itself beyond the deck.

It was the same sea serpent that had kidnapped Biche.

The serpent’s form, faced in the bright light, was even more imposing and colossal.

Each dark blue scale was as large as a person.

Every time its yellow eyes flashed, Biche instinctively hunched her shoulders.

It felt exactly like encountering a mythical monster.

The sea serpent’s gaze, scanning the deck, landed on Biche.

A suffocating sense of oppression washed over her again.

Just as Biche hid her trembling hands behind her back, the massive sea serpent’s form began to crumble within the mist.

Amidst a bizarre sound like breaking bones, the serpent’s dark blue scales twisted and tangled.

The serpent’s size gradually shrank, and soon a strange man landed lightly on the deck.

He was a tall man with an imposing build.

The man’s pale skin was entirely covered in dark blue scales, and his yellow eyes had sharp pupils, just like the serpent’s.

Sharply pointed ear cartilage and webbed hands seemed to teeter precariously on the boundary between human and monster.

Yet, his face, covered in dark blue scales, also held an alien beauty.

As he pushed through the sea creatures and slowly approached Biche, the crewmen all stopped whispering and bowed their heads toward him.

“Captain Valen.”

Instantly, Biche felt goosebumps rise all over her body.

The strange man pushing through the creatures and approaching was the captain of this pirate crew, Valen—the sea serpent transformed into human form.

Biche steadied her breath and looked directly at Valen.

A behemoth-type sea creature, once as large as a pirate ship, could change form into a humanoid? She had never seen such a sight before, nor had she ever heard this was possible.

“Can behemoth-type sea creatures… also change form into humanoids?”

At Biche’s question, Valen tilted his head for a moment, then oddly lifted one corner of his mouth.

“Human… So, anyone who walks on two legs and has limbs is a ‘humanoid’? A very human-centric perspective.”

Biche felt her face grow hot.

The man’s remark was casual, but it contained a taunt, asking if she was anxious not to show she was raised among humans.

Then, an ominous assumption flashed through Biche’s mind.

That meat stew she ate on her first day arriving in Whecoca… Could the sea creature that became that stew’s ingredient also have been a being capable of transforming like Valen?

Her stomach churned violently, and nausea surged.

The guilt and self-loathing she had tried to suppress assaulted her again.

‘No. I mustn’t show weakness…’

Biche gritted her teeth and forced her expression to remain composed.

Pretending nonchalance, she wrapped herself in the large towel and slowly stood up, looking straight at Valen.

“Who are you people, and why have you brought me here?”

Despite her sharp question, Valen only stared piercingly at Biche.

As if searching for something within her, he kept his gaze fixed on her trembling eyes for a long time.

‘…Captain.’

It was only after a behemoth-type sea creature approached that he finally averted his gaze from her eyes.

“Tell Akis. We’ve found the target.”

‘Understood.’