“Crown Prince… Crab.”
“Mother Crab.”
“I’m sorry… Crab. It wasn’t supposed to be that clam… Crab…”
“Don’t say that, Crab. Everything will be alright, Crab.”
How did it come to this?
The now-named Crown Prince Crabnius couldn’t hide the despair he felt as he watched his sick mother.
Her once-mighty shell was becoming soft, and her sharp claws were dulling.
The healthy mother started showing signs of illness right after being invited to a feast at Crabcrows’ palace.
When Crabnius went to ask Crabcrows directly about her worsening condition, his once-feisty younger brother merely laughed and feigned ignorance.
Even the empire’s finest practitioners couldn’t easily cure this illness.
How could this be just a simple ailment?
Especially one that appeared the very next day after visiting Crabcrows’ palace.
Ta-gak.
Crabnius’s large claws clashed together.
“Rest, Crab.”
“Mother doesn’t need to worry, Crab… I’ll speak well to the Emperor, Crab.”
“…Rest, Crab.”
Kuwung.
“Ugh… this is driving me crazy, Crab.”
It’s frustrating.
I want to pour out these feelings, but there are few trustworthy people here.
Perhaps some… no, most in this palace are likely that damned guy’s subordinates.
I don’t push them away just to avoid provoking anything unnecessarily.
I have to show that I’m still under my younger brother’s grasp to have even a chance of counterattacking.
“Crown Prince Crab.”
“Deputy Captain Crab. It seems the outer beach reconnaissance has been completed, Crab.”
Still, the only group he could trust in this unbelievable palace was the Claw Knight Order.
The pride of the Empire, whom he had protected long before he became Crown Prince.
He instructed them to inform him immediately if anything unusual occurred outside his territory.
It may be a task meant for mere soldiers, but the loyal Claw Knights gladly accepted their orders.
“Anything unusual happening, Crab?”
Perhaps some nefarious forces are on the move?
At Crabnius’s question, the Deputy Captain of the Claw Knights replied in a rather serious tone.
“I actually have something to report about that, Crab.”
“…Did that guy make a move, Crab?”
“Not quite, Crab. It would be better to see it for yourself, Crab.”
■
“…What is this, Crab?”
The knight lying in the hospital room with one arm missing, while practitioners conducted adhesive procedures.
Around them, other knights were talking in shock about the severed arm.
Lyn saw knights conversing with a look of astonishment over the oddity of the situation.
“You have arrived, Crab!”
“Lord Crabnius, Crab!”
“What in the world is this, Crab?”
“Oh, it seems a mermaid race came saying they wanted to be a knight of the Empire, Crab.”
“Was it a mermaid race, Crab?”
“Looks like it, Crab?”
“No, it wasn’t a mermaid, Crab.”
The opinions among the knights were wildly divided.
Unable to stand by any longer, Crabnius raised his claw, finally silencing everyone in the medical room.
“Deputy Captain Crab. You speak, Crab.”
“Yes. While I was scouting the outskirts of the beach with two knights, I encountered someone who resembled a mermaid. The female, who introduced herself as an outsider, said she wanted to become a knight of the Empire and took the commander’s test, Crab.”
“…is this the result, Crab?”
“That’s right, Crab.”
Hmm…
He lifted the neatly severed arm with his claw.
Impressively cleanly severed arms.
“What was the content of the test, Crab?”
“Right from the start, the outsider used a spear to swiftly cut off Crabpf’s claw, and within one second, she sliced off the remaining claw and six arms, Crab.”
“…that’s insane, Crab.”
“I think so too, Crab.”
Immaculate.
If this wasn’t sharper than that wretched little brother’s secret weapon from the palace, I don’t know what is.
‘No, perhaps it could be even better…’
“Where is the outsider, Crab?”
“After receiving the title of knight, she is resting in her room and currently went out for a brief viewing, Crab.”
“I must meet her, Crab.”
This might be a chance to strike back at that wretched little brother.
“Can we trust her, Crab?”
“I’m not sure, but at least she didn’t seem like an enemy, Crab.”
If this is even a ploy by my little brother, there wouldn’t be a sliver of hope…
‘I don’t think the first emperor would abandon me that much, Crab.’
“We have no choice but to trust her, Crab.”
■
“Wow. This is amazing.”
[LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL]
[Is this a joke?]
[What a sight]
[Look at that, insane]
[This is crazy, LOL]
[I’m coming to the Crab Empire from today]
[It’s basically a treasure trove, LOL]
[This is insane, just look at that]
[It’s going to melt in my mouth]
An empty stretch of beach where no one comes.
There, clad in anti-recognition magic, I’m cooking crab.
I had a few cooking tools I got from Yena last time tucked in my inventory, and my magic was enough to start a fire.
My claws were twice the size of my arms, allowing me to cook a small seafood stew with seasonings purchased from stores within the Empire, along with steaming and grilling.
I was able to cook a small seafood stew with the seasoning I gathered from the mountain.
I dipped my spoon into the bubbling seafood stew and took a sip.
“Wow. Wow.”
This is happiness.
[Ah, I’m suddenly hungry]
[The seafood stew looks delicious too]
[But won’t it be a disaster if the crabs find out?]
[For real, lol]
[Crabs, haha]
[If they find out, we’ll have to kill them all and turn them into food]
[Lolololololololol]
[But first, let’s eat, haha]
[Lily looks happy, so I’m glad too]
It just melts in my mouth.
I’ve eaten big crabs before in the past, but none were as delicious as this.
Plus, there weren’t any seasonings that had this spicy aroma and flavor.
At most, it was just salt.
“It’s a shame there’s no rice.”
[For real]
[It’s a rice thief, but there’s no rice, lol]
[I should have brought the shell instead of the claw]
[What a pity]
There’s still plenty to eat since it’s so big, but if I take too long, I might raise suspicions.
“Ahem. I guess I should start cleaning up.”
[Throwing it away?]
[Isn’t it a bit early for that?]
[Can’t I just store it in my inventory?]
[Are there not plenty of crabs around anyway?]
[If I’m hungry, I can just catch one. It seems like one missing won’t be noticed, haha]
[Crab, haha]
I used the fire to burn all the leftover food.
The food burned brightly.
It’s really, really a shame, but it can’t be helped.
After using that draft to disperse the smell, I dispelled the detection magic around and returned to the Empire in my usual form.
A servant who was loitering near my room hurried over.
“Ah! Crab! Where have you been, Crab!”
“I just had a quick meal.”
“What? If you had said something, I would have prepared a feast for you, Crab.”
“It’s alright. It’s the first day; I can’t impose.”
I had already enjoyed a feast.
[Crab cuisine isn’t coming out, right? haha]
[Ah, haha. A crab dish is a feast?]
[But isn’t it chilling how a different race is acting as a knight guarding the empire while eating their own kind?]
[OMG!]
[Whoa!]
[Is Lily a scoundrel?]
“That’s not the important point, Crab! The Crown Prince! The Crown Prince personally visited the room of Knight Lily, Crab!”
“…Crabnius, you mean?”
“Yes~! Crab!”
[Oh]
[I like the fast pace]
[Nothing has changed in the routes, right?]
[Please don’t tell me they found out about the crab eating, right? haha]
“Didn’t I get caught or something? Haha!”
“Surely not.”
“The scale is so massive that I braced myself for a few days of this, but I faced it way faster than I thought.”
When the servant relayed the news that I had returned through the door, it opened naturally.
There stood the vice commander I recognized, along with Crabnius, adorned with some rather imposing decorations on his shell.
He was smaller than the Commander of Knights, but his strength was definitely not lacking.
“You must be the new Outsider of the Claw Knight Order, Crab.”
“I am the Knight, Lily. It’s an honor to meet you, Crabnius of the great Crab Empire.”
I gathered my hands over my chest and respectfully nodded towards Crabnius.
It was much like how a crab would clap its claws together.
The servant and the vice commander flinched slightly, looking somewhat surprised.
Crabnius looked at me with a shocked expression as well.
“…How did you know the Empire’s greeting, Crab?”
“I picked it up while walking through the Empire’s streets for a bit. I’m worried I might have botched it since I’m still not used to it.”
“…No, Crab. Your greeting was more perfect than that of the ancient royal nobility, Crab.”
“Oh?”
“Is my favorability increasing? But when did I learn the greeting? Did I just guess?”
That’s right.
Clapping one’s hands together is something crabs do all the time, and to crabs, the claw has symbolic meaning.
‘Greetings aren’t all that different anyway.’
In fact, I’ve learned the greetings of most nobility ages ago, so a decent mix would yield a passable greeting.
“I’ve heard impressive things about your achievements, Crab. They say you overpowered the knight in mere seconds, Crab.”
“I just didn’t hold back.”
“Even if you were to use all your strength, your skill remains remarkable, Crab. So, what is your race, Crab?”
“…Are you asking about my race?”
“Yeah, Crab. I suspect you’re a mermaid, but since you said otherwise, you must belong to another race, Crab.”
Race…
My race.
“……”
[Human, you say?]
[Do they know that humans exist?]
[Time to go alien mode!]
[They seem to only be looking for mermaids and are avoiding mention of humans.]
[Isn’t a mermaid basically a fish-human hybrid?]
[I could totally pass for an angel, lol.]
[Let’s just randomly say I’m from an ocean race.]
“…I’m human.”
My race is human.
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