Ch.108Special Side Story – To Another Continent (1)

Whenever I lose consciousness, bubbles rise from beneath the surface.

Inside these transparent bubbles are moments I can’t forget, so I carefully observe what’s inside them.

Memories that no one else in the world knows about, shared only between us. Days that connect us together.

Experiences from another world that make her and me special amid our repetitive daily lives.

This is a story from when I was still called Nepy, and Irefi had white hair that reached down to her waist.

◇

Clouds drifting in the deep blue sky cast shadows over the mansion. As the scorching sunlight was blocked, a cool shade spread widely. Only then did the gardener tending to the landscaping outside catch his breath.

Summer had arrived, bringing beads of sweat to people of all ages and genders.

Of course, I easily sidestep the laws of the four seasons. My Netionpiece body, which had undergone all sorts of modifications, had already reached the level of being impervious to heat and cold. Minor temperature fluctuations were meaningless to a body that had twisted the laws of nature through human will.

But that was one thing, and this was another.

The monster who had twisted the laws of nature from birth was combing her hair on the other side. The woman whose unique beauty was detached from natural law remained the same even after all these years. Despite the long time I’d spent by her side, she was still a young beauty.

But even for someone like her, the way she hummed an off-key tune loud enough to make my ears hurt shattered the atmosphere.

Unable to bear it any longer, I quietly approached the monster from behind and caressed her lips.

“Irefi. We…”

“Just a moment, Nepy. Before that.”

“Hmm?”

Irefi cut me off before I could even start speaking. Then she gently removed my finger from her lips.

Somehow emanating a chilling aura, Irefi gave an icy sneer.

“Would you mind not covering my mouth while pretending to be subtly affectionate?”

“When did I ever!”

“Just now. I wonder when Nepy developed dementia? Since your body is over 500 years old, it wouldn’t be strange… but I’ll believe that’s not the case, okay?”

As expected, the world’s strongest knight demonstrates extraordinary abilities beyond expectation. I was reminded once again that a deadly blade can hide behind a smiling face.

“You do believe me, right? Right?”

All I could do was sweat profusely while feigning innocence.

“I should just chop off that mouth that only tells lies whenever it opens…!”

Of course, it was a stupid act that had no effect whatsoever.

I quickly pivot to perform a familiar routine.

“I love you so much, Irefi.”

“Yes, I feel the same.”

“You know I love you more, right?”

“Is that so? I never knew Nepy loved me so fervently that you’d want to imprison me.”

“What?”

I froze at the chill that ran down my spine.

Irefi’s eyes, like blue lakes, were clouded as if dipped in jealousy.

“It wouldn’t be bad. Being imprisoned by Nepy might be nice. A few days would be too trivial—how about a whole season?”

“No, no, no, no, no. Excuse me, Ms. Irefi? I’m about to experience psychological trauma here.”

Holy Memory chains…

Irefi swayed by Malice…

Ugh, my head…

“Is there any reason to refuse?”

“There are mountains of them.”

“Hmm.”

At my scathing retort, Irefi’s grip tightened.

The fingers that had been prevented from touching her lips were now being squeezed painfully tight.

“So that means Nepy doesn’t love me that much? You lied again.”

“Nggghh…! Irefi! Wait, wait! Time out!”

“No use arguing.”

“My-lovely-companion-Ms.-Irefi, please-listen-to-my-reasonable-explanation.”

I rattled off words almost like machine gun fire.

After a moment of careful consideration, the strength left her grip.

My half-broken fingers returned to normal thanks to the immortal’s unique regenerative reaction.

“Whew… whew… whew… How long are you going to remain this strong…?”

“Never mind that, Nepy. Since I’ve let you off, I’d like to hear a convincing reason.”

“Oh, that.”

Actually, I had just blurted out whatever came to mind because I was half out of my wits.

In this situation, I had no choice but to appeal to Irefi’s human side.

“I need to have the confidence to report to Miren.”

“Ngh…!”

“Think about it. Do you think I could ever tell Miren that I’m in the middle of an imprisonment play with her sister if she comes looking for you?”

“T-that’s… uh…”

“The rumors would spread throughout society, and they’d even make plays about it. His Majesty would probably write the script while holding his stomach in laughter.”

“…Nepy’s explanation makes sense.”

Irefi quietly admitted.

Only after overcoming this crisis could I finally release the air that had been swirling in my lungs.

“Ah, what a shame. I was curious about what Nepy would do when imprisoning his wife.”

“Sometimes I’m genuinely afraid of you…”

I can’t even imagine the scenario of imprisoning Irefi in the first place.

The only foreseeable ending would be me getting imprisoned instead after saying one wrong word.

“Besides, the slave collar doesn’t even work on you, yet you still imagine such things.”

“If I had known this would happen, perhaps I should have been born a little weaker.”

“To be honest, I can’t really tell how impressive this slave collar is supposed to be.”

I’ve heard it’s a divine item that can subdue even dragons. But seeing Irefi overcome a Netionpiece body while wearing the slave collar makes that claim less convincing.

Maybe Irefi explained it wrong?

“As the user, I think the technology is quite impressive.”

“The fact that you only rate it as ‘quite impressive’ is telling. Are dragons weaker than I thought?”

“Hmm, would you like to see for yourself?”

“What did you just say?”

“I asked if you’d like to see for yourself.”

For a moment, I felt like a blank white sheet had seeped into my brain.

Her calm tone suggested there was some kind of zoo where dragons were kept.

“Is that possible?”

“Rather, I’d like to ask why it wouldn’t be possible.”

“W-what…!”

I sparkled at Irefi’s confident assertion.

I had only heard that dragons existed, but they were creatures I had never once seen in this fantastic world.

I pressed close to Irefi and urged her.

“How can we see one?”

“It’s simple.”

True to her bold claim, she offered a simple solution.

“Let’s go on a trip.”

◇

Irefi’s driving force was more impressive than several fine horses combined.

Since Miren had already succeeded as the head of the Justitia Marquess family, there was no external reason for her to hesitate.

Even so, I thought we would depart after thorough preparations, but she packed only some spare clothes and travel money before announcing the start of our journey.

No noble in the world would embark on such a modest journey.

‘Irefi… you’ve become even more minimalist since becoming unemployed.’

She could probably adapt quite well to becoming a commoner. That’s why we were able to reach the port town so quickly and board a ship.

Our destination was another continent far from the Eld Empire.

It was a travel destination we had chosen after searching for a village where dragons had most recently been sighted.

I’m quite the fool myself, going to meet a dragon—called a living calamity—for tourism purposes.

It must be Irefi’s influence. She has contributed to the fate that turned me from an ordinary person into an idiot.

“Somehow I feel like I’ve become the subject of a very unpleasant rationalization.”

“Isn’t that intuition a bit too specific…?”

I’ve thought this for a while, but Irefi’s sixth sense is almost at the level of prophecy.

Surely her sensitive perception must be a remnant of her status as the strongest in the world.

“But the sea breeze feels so good that it offsets that feeling.”

“Come to think of it, I’m curious. Irefi, have you ever seen the ocean before?”

“My answer would be twofold. Based on the present, ‘no,’ but based on the future, ‘yes.'”

“Ah…”

The future Irefi refers to must mean her activities as the Destroyer.

It’s a plausible story for Irefi, who gained notoriety by devastating the entire continent.

“Well, even in the future, I never experienced riding a ship like this.”

“Irefi…”

“Yes, that’s right. Going to another continent by ship—it was something impossible.”

Irefi looked at the distant mountains with a bitter smile. After being lost in thought for a while, she collected herself with a slight delay.

Irefi, now fully conscious. She turned toward me.

“This is all an opportunity that Nepy has provided for me.”

“You’re making me uncomfortable with such praise…”

“Hehe, I’ll definitely collect payment for the praise I’ve given you.”

“Oh? Is this the timing where I need to give something?”

“I wonder? What do you think?”

“What I can give is quite modest.”

I took Irefi’s right hand. And with my other arm, I wrapped around her waist, layering our body heat together. As the distance between us thinned infinitely, our heartbeats transmitted to each other.

The arm resting on her waist tickled her snow-white hair.

Her eyes, which seemed to contain the vast ocean we were floating on, rippled.

A faint blush that gently rose made my heart yearn.

The salty sea scent brushing our noses seemed to demand the next action.

As if agreeing, Irefi’s eyes slowly closed like they were sending a signal. Additionally, the strength in her back gave way, entrusting her light weight to me. Our desires connected in a straight line, regardless of the gazes of those around us.

I approached very slowly.

I was captivated by her lips, which were as beautifully colored as if they had been mixed with cherry blossoms.

We were intoxicated by the dreamy atmosphere, as if the surroundings had been separated into a two-dimensional space.

Like interlocking gears. Just as our lips were about to meet, the ship shook violently.

Boom! Splash!

The sound of the ship tilting slightly coincided with a fierce wave crashing against it.

The distance between our lips was narrower than a fingernail’s crescent. With this unexpected accident, what would happen was obvious.

SMACK-!

“Mmph…”

“Kuhak…! Irefi, even your head is hard… I mean, what’s wrong with my mouth.”

My clueless mouth is trying to kill me. Fortunately, Irefi seemed to have missed hearing it.

I thanked whatever deity might exist, though their existence was uncertain.

“What a shake…”

“I don’t know either.”

We exchanged a word each while checking on each other. Our eyes meeting was inevitable. Our faces rapidly heated up at the disaster that had occurred without warning.

“Ugh… this doesn’t count… you know that…!”

“Aha…”

Irefi was showing signs of embarrassment for the first time in a very long while. After our marriage had continued for quite some time, she had been trending toward increasing composure. The unexpected accident brought out the Irefi of the past, giving me a refreshingly novel feeling.

“That was quite an ominous shake. We need to find out why.”

“We should ask the crew.”

“That would be best.”

“Let’s go inside the ship first…”

Just as I was about to turn around.

Bubble, bubble…

Below the ship. More precisely, something was boiling in the sea we were floating on. Narrowing my brow and staring straight ahead, I could see bubbles rapidly rising from the sea in front of the ship.

“That’s…”

My vigilance swelled at this sudden strange phenomenon. Naturally, the Malice I had kept locked away began to seep out.

The identity of this unnatural natural phenomenon soon became clear.

SWOOSH!

Suddenly, a massive pillar rose up. It was a pillar large enough to instantly cast the huge ship into shadow.

After being momentarily dumbfounded, I quickly corrected my misconception.

‘No! This isn’t a pillar…!’

It was a creature with glistening scales. Adding to its monstrosity were its breath comparable to a strong wind and wings that seemed unnaturally evolved.

I got the impression that it regarded humans not as equal intelligent beings but as meals to satisfy its hunger.

The silence that fell over everyone at this suddenly approaching surreal sight lasted only a moment.

[KIEEEEEEEEEK!]

After the monster’s roar, unimaginable panic swept across the deck.

“M-monster! We have to r-run…”

“Impossible… I heard they were extinct?”

“They’ve never appeared until now… Aah…!”

Amid the various reactions, I was busy having my consciousness stolen for a different reason.

“I-is that a serpent? No? Could it be a dragon? Irefi! Is that a dragon? Huh? Irefi!”

I kept calling out to her, but the only response was silence.

Irefi’s silence gradually expanded the volume of anxiety, and I slowly rolled my eyes sideways.

“I-Irefi…?”

“…”

“Ah… um…”

I had boldly tried to grab her, but as soon as I witnessed Irefi’s state, my mouth shut.

Irefi’s neat straight hair had already lost its shape, clumped together by salt water.

Moreover, the clothes she had carefully put on were now soaked with seawater, wrinkled unsightly.

Additionally, her makeup was smudged, seemingly stimulating her sense of shame.

“Ha… haha… haah…”

“Irefi?”

“Dra… dragon, you ask? Ha, that mere thing? That’s just a snake.”

“Th-these days snakes are quite big, huh?”

“Yes, since the sea is bigger than land, it’s only natural, right?”

“Does it… work that way…?”

As someone naturally inclined toward the humanities, this is knowledge I cannot reach.

Judging by Irefi’s mental health, I vaguely guessed it was a theory bordering on forced reasoning. I decided to reserve judgment.

While I was watching Irefi closely and reading her mood, her lips quietly pronounced a sentence.

“Holy Memory.”

Zing─.

A translucent blue cube imprisoned the monster.

The creature, seemingly confused, went berserk inside the cube, but not even a crack formed on the paper-thin cube.

Then Irefi dropped her palm downward. In sync with her movement, the Holy Memory cube also sank below the surface.

At the point when the monster’s appearance was completely hidden beneath the sea.

“Close.”

Irefi, who had spread her palm wide, clenched her fist with a crack.

That was all.

The surface of the sea visible to us began to turn red. Like pouring red ink into clear stagnant water, the red area expanded.

‘What did I… just see?’

I glance sideways at Irefi with anxious eyes.

Then, with an uncanny sense, Irefi met my gaze and casually sought agreement.

“Fish these days seem to play a lot of pranks. Don’t you think so, Nepy?”

“…That was a fish? I’d believe you if you said it was a Chainlich monster.”

“…”

“…”

Irefi smiled gently.

From her tightly closed lips, I read an incomprehensible logic.

There was only one possible answer.

“Mmm… that was quite a lively fish.”

“That’s good. Since we didn’t see even a trace of a dragon, we’ll have to continue our journey, right?”

“W-wow! I’m so excited, Irefi.”

“Huhuhu, I’m looking forward to it too, Nepy.”

She let out a chillingly cold laugh.

I silently held her hand tightly. In response, she slipped her soft fingers between the gaps of our joined hands.

‘Ha… ahaha, ahahahaha.’

The cosmic horror emanating from Irefi forced me to focus my efforts on manipulating my memories.

I was, of course, endlessly grateful for the existence of shepherd’s purse.