Two weeks.
It had been two weeks since Duke Yuma’s party set foot in the Mullen Tribe’s territory.
Yuma found himself with not much to do.
Having come here to work, he felt like he was finally able to relax and clear his head for the first time in ages.
Maybe it was because he had unexpectedly taken a liking to the Melkus fruit, a delicacy of the Mullen Tribe.
Yuma spent most of his days wandering around the island.
The sea was always dotted with the princess of the Mullen Tribe, Tisha, and Cloney practicing magic.
And in the clearing near the back mountain, Bell was constantly training her close combat skills.
The sociable Hestia had quickly become friendly enough with the Mullen Tribe members to share brotherly-sisterly banter.
Yuma could just stand a step away, watching them, feeling the time fly by.
Now, he watched Bell sparring with Tornos, a top warrior of the Mullen Tribe.
Swoosh!
The arms of the two warriors clashed fiercely.
The punch of Tornos, a green-skinned merman, collided with Bell’s fist.
Slam!
The air was shattered.
Shockwaves scattered like confetti.
After one direct hit, their arms crossed many times. The fierce wind whizzed past their faces as the brawl continued.
Bell’s body overflowed with a blue aura.
Tornos, too, glowed with a red aura across his green skin.
It wasn’t the first time they used aura while sparring. In order to keep up with Tornos’s superior physique as a merman, Bell had no choice but to rely on the power of her aura.
This was how Bell quickly learned to deal with mermen.
Next, Yuma headed to Cloney, who was by the sea.
Cloney’s right hand, holding a dark-colored staff, and Tisha’s right hand, with sky-blue skin, both rose simultaneously.
Tisha looked at Cloney.
“Looks like it’s no use after all.”
Tisha had seen Cloney’s magic over the past two weeks and noticed no progress.
Though she couldn’t really say there was no progress at all.
It was, after all, nearly impossible.
Leaving aside the perfectly functioning magic circuit she already had, developing a new one that was usable in a short period was close to impossible.
The way the Mullen Tribe handled mana was simply different from the methods used by human mages.
“It’s designed to fit the merman’s body in the first place.”
The method of mana handling just didn’t align with human bodies.
Even after being told that, Cloney refused to give up on imprinting the unique mana handling method of the Mullen Tribe, [Mullerene], into her body.
Next to the golden mana circuit formed by Cloney’s basic advanced mana cultivation method, [Akarne], a navy-blue mana circuit was steadily being developed.
And she kept polishing it over the past two weeks.
Golden flows of mana coursed through the magical staff that Cloney held.
Tisha gazed at the surface of the sea, half of Cloney submerged within it.
She looked at the surface.
The sea was still calm.
‘Is it another failure this time?’
Tisha gazed at the ocean with a stern face.
A moment passed.
Splash…
Ripples broke the stillness of the sea.
The waves expanded in a circle. It didn’t stop there.
Drip, drop…
Droplets shot up from the sea.
Dozens of droplets.
Cloney’s golden eyes and Tisha’s blue ones all focused on those droplets.
“Wow… it worked!”
Cloney’s blank expression brightened up instantly.
The droplets were soaring.
And those droplets gathered, forming a stream of water.
A stream of water that shimmered with a crystal light.
The spell of [Ripple Spiral] was activated.
The sea began to respond.
Swishhhh—
The water stream formed a circle in front of Cloney.
The spiraled circle created a shield.
The curtain was endlessly thin.
It was a small heatwave, but its shape was unmistakably a ripple spiral.
A clear success.
“Whoa…!”
However, Cloney’s [Mulerne] magic circuit was still too narrow.
Crash—
The spiraling shield that emerged from the sea sank back down.
“I did it!”
Cloney beamed with a bright smile.
Tisha awkwardly smiled back at Cloney’s shining face.
“Congratulations.”
“I guess I should… keep trying.”
Cloney wiped her water-soaked face with her white hands.
Splash—
And she slowly began to lift the water stream again.
Tisha thought Cloney didn’t realize how remarkable what she had done really was.
She had fully constructed the magic circuit of [Mulerne], akin to the unique powers of the Uin tribe.
If the great sorcerer who taught her magic saw this, he would be utterly shocked.
“Well done.”
Cloney turned her head at the familiar voice beside her.
Duke Yuma was standing there.
“Duke Yuma!”
Cloney approached Yuma with a bright smile.
“I just saw. You drew the water up from the sea and made a shield.”
Yuma took Cloney’s hands joyfully and led her out of the sea.
Water rose up to their knees, but she didn’t mind. After all, she was wearing shorts.
Yuma wiped the moisture from Cloney’s head and face with a towel he held, then handed it to her. It meant she should wipe the rest herself.
“Practicing is good, but you should eat while you’re at it.”
Cloney giggled.
“Yes.”
And Yuma accepted the towel offered to him and climbed up the island.
Swish—
Cloney disappeared up above.
With no reason to stay in the sea, Tisha slowly walked out, brushing away the water, and stepped onto the sandy beach.
Tisha’s footprints left marks on the sand.
“Your Excellency Yuma.”
Tisha’s mysterious voice seeped into Yuma’s ear.
“Were you sure about it? That Cloney would develop the unique magical circuit of the Mullen Tribe?”
Yuma tilted his head.
“Why do you think so?”
“Two weeks ago. When Cloney first tried, you seemed to believe in her.”
“I had a gut feeling she’d make it.”
He had thought she would succeed one day, though he didn’t expect it to be in less than a month.
Just after Yuma answered, Tisha seemed about to ask something more, but she couldn’t finish because a large man came charging in.
“Your Excellency Yuma! Tisha!”
Tisha squinted at the man of the Water Tribe, who was sweating profusely as he ran.
“What’s the matter, Korger?”
“Those bastards. They’ve started invading the shores of the Mullen Tribe!”
The minions of the Evil God.
After three weeks, the ones referred to as such by the warriors and mages of the Mullen Tribe finally showed up.
Yuma and Tisha followed Korger to the great plaza of the Mullen Tribe.
A meeting about the battlefield was taking place around Yeerkur, the king of the Mullen Tribe.
Yeerkur’s yellow eyes fixated on Yuma.
“You have arrived, Duke Yuma.”
Yuma nodded.
“If the enemy has appeared, shouldn’t we set off right now?”
Yuma’s long black coat flailed fiercely in the sea breeze.
At Yuma’s words, the gazes of around fifty muscular Mullen Tribe warriors all focused on him at once.
Yeerkur twisted his mouth into a grin as he looked at Yuma.
“Surely, the God of War. As I heard, you have no fear of the battlefield.”
Yeerkur rose his gigantic body.
“You are not frightened at all, knowing this battle is not on land but at sea, and that we must fight on the sea. Quite impressive.”
Yuma thought with a blank expression.
‘That’s not it, though.’
He was actually rather troubled by having to fight at sea.
It was just that sitting around doing desk talk seemed useless.
“Indeed, as the God of War Yuma says. The enemy has shown up, so we just need to fight. That’s all. Right, warriors of the sea?”
The Mullen Tribe warriors slammed their weapons into the ground, shouting.
Thud— Thud—!
The spears brutally pounded the sand.
“That’s right! Your Majesty!”
The blue-bodied ones raised their weapons high.
The warriors raised their weapons high.
A fierce wind spread through the Mullen Tribe.
“Prepare Silviria!”
“Everyone to the battlefield!”
With a thunderous cheer, the warriors and mages of the Mullen Tribe scattered.
To head for the battlefield.
*
Duke Yuma’s party was also preparing to head out to sea.
Of course, most of the preparations were being done by Tisha.
“You need to ride Silviria to the sea. You’ve been practicing for three days, so you can do it, right?”
Tisha patted the back of a creature.
It was a gigantic white seahorse.
Kii-rook-kii-rook-
Silviria made a cute sound.
It was greeting Tisha happily.
Overall, Silviria looked just like modern-day seahorses.
However, since its size was comparable to that of a land horse, it couldn’t be called the same just based on size.
And its white body was hard like a turtle’s shell.
Silviria.
The Mullen Tribe’s means of transport and a dear friend.
Yuma sat in Silviria’s saddle, gripping the reins tightly.
He hadn’t felt much difficulty last time riding a black warhorse during the war with Pineon, nor when he first rode Silviria three days ago.
Kii-rook-
Silviria let out a steady sound as Yuma mounted.
Thanks to his cool personality traits and the Trait [Noble Dignity], taming the mount was going smoothly.
Cloney, who had spent most of the past two weeks at sea, had effectively already bonded with her Silviria for a week.
In contrast, Bell and Hestia were quite flustered.
“Are you, um, nice?”
Bell laughed and patted the seahorse’s smooth head.
But Silviria shook its head slowly with a blue-greenish hue and a long snout.
Bell concluded that she needed a deeper bond with Silviria.
And beside Bell was Hestia.
“Let’s go!”
She believed that once they dived into the real action, the bonding would happen automatically.
Hestia gently tapped Silviria’s body with her right foot.
A signal to start.
And following that signal, Hestia mounted Silviria, which began to move.
Whooooosh!!
But the speed was much faster than expected.
Silviria fiercely charged ahead, cutting through the water.
“Whoaahhh!”
Hestia grabbed the reins and barely managed to stick her body back to Silviria.
Her bright red ears, which always perked up in surprise, drooped in confusion.
“Eeehh… Hah.”
Tisha chuckled.
“Shall we all set off now?”
Everyone in Yuma’s party nodded.
A multitude of Mullen warriors were already well ahead.
Five people marched on behind them.
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