Ch.1166Why Don’t You Listen When I Tell You?

After crossing a river glowing with pale green light, climbing over a rocky mountain with short limbs like a turtle, passing through a blazing plain and a vertically split castle ruin, we continued on for three days.

“Ua wesewesen, ekieki pwe ua kuna och mettoch unukun ikei….”

“Esap pwe ka mwäällilo?”

We finally discovered a species that could be called intelligent beings rather than wild beasts.

“What is…?”

Three non-humans conversing in an unintelligible language with only their heads slightly emerging from the river.

We lay flat on the grass at a distance, quietly observing them.

“Could they be… merfolk? I’ve heard they’re occasionally spotted in distant seas, though very rarely….”

Smooth faces with little contour like fish, with protruding eyes. Webbed hind legs and a tail resembling a snakehead fish.

Long dorsal fins sprouted from their hunched spines, and their bodies, except for their faces, were covered in glistening scales coated with some unknown mucus.

Their forelegs… or should I call them arms?

The arms were abnormally swollen, twice as long and thick as their legs, and their blunt hands held spear-swords that emitted an incongruously intense aura.

“They certainly look fish-like.”

Though quite different from what I had imagined, with their humanoid form mixed with several fish-like features, they definitely had an appearance that could only be described as merfolk.

“Merfolk shouldn’t normally have that build or height… Did they adapt to fighting on land? Or perhaps, since they’ve been in a closed environment, maybe this is actually their original form….”

Perhaps intrigued by the discovery of an unfamiliar species, Ophelia muttered to herself with curious tone.

“How different are they from surface species…? Their skeletal structure? Muscle quality? Racial characteristics? Culture? Did they make those weapons themselves?”

The way she slightly wiggled her slender fingertips while wearing a faint smile looked somewhat creepy even to me.

Like a mad scientist desperate to dissect and analyze the specimen right before her eyes.

Having recently developed an interest in strengthening homunculi, she seemed to have decided to make it her specialty.

“……”

Well, the last time I checked, she was creating homunculi like winged lions or hybrids combining Werebeasts and Dragonborn.

Masterpieces that combined only the racial advantages of past enemies, based on data they had provided with their bodies?

If she had killed innocent Werebeasts and Dragonborn to use as materials, I would have strongly advised her against such madness, but fortunately that wasn’t the case, so I let it slide.

They only resembled Werebeasts and Dragonborn in appearance; in reality, they were imitations made by combining commercially available Werebeast leather, Dragonborn scales, and various animal parts.

That was just barely within acceptable limits.

In the past, I might have simply told her to show some restraint even if she killed Werebeasts for materials, but now they are our allies.

Unlike when they were eating humans while crying for homeland restoration and revenge, once they abandoned such malice, our attitude toward them had to change accordingly.

—-

“From the looks of it, they seem to be scouts… I’m not sure if they’re tracking traces we left behind or just on routine patrol.”

Anyway, for such reasons, Ophelia viewed the merfolk as experimental subjects, while in contrast, Jahan observed them strictly from a warrior’s perspective.

“Should we eliminate them? Or let them go quietly and then track them?”

“Hmm….”

Should we quietly dispose of them here and move on as if nothing happened, or should we follow them and eliminate them at the root?

As this was our first encounter with a non-human species since descending underground, we needed to decide carefully.

Both choices carried their own risks.

…If we’re worried about risks, couldn’t we just ignore them and pass by quietly without killing or following them?

Well, that option certainly exists… but it doesn’t feel right. That would be too passive an approach.

We didn’t come here just to sightsee. Having finally encountered a different species after three days, shouldn’t we do something?

For that reason, I never even considered ignoring them and moving on as an option.

So it was a binary choice: kill them and leave, or quietly follow them.

‘So, what should we do….’

If we dealt with them here, we could hide our tracks for now, but we would inevitably be discovered eventually.

Unless their intelligence matched that of fish as well as their appearance, discovery would be inevitable.

When scouts fail to return on time, they would naturally assume something had happened and search the entire area.

If they found any traces we failed to erase, they would use them as clues to pursue us fiercely.

And then… in the worst case, they might catch up to us just as we encountered other hostile species, forcing us to face enemies from both sides.

It would depend on the pursuers’ strength, but the situation could become quite troublesome.

Conversely, if we followed them and eliminated their entire base, we could fundamentally remove the risk of being pursued while securing a useful stronghold, but….

‘…The question is what might be at their base.’

That choice wasn’t purely beneficial either.

While we could easily dispose of these two merfolk like wringing a child’s neck, we couldn’t judge the capabilities of the entire underground merfolk species based on just them.

If they were a species properly established in this underground world, there was a high possibility that they had powerful individuals protecting the entire species.

If such powerful beings existed, no matter how carefully we followed them, the probability of being detected would skyrocket as we approached their main base.

Blindly following them might force us to face a demigod-level enemy fully prepared in their own territory.

Hence my dilemma.

If we knew more detailed information about them—such as their ecology, military strength, or weaknesses—it might be different, but we didn’t have that at the moment.

“Ophelia, can you translate what they’re saying?”

“Unfortunately, that would be difficult. That magic presupposes that the target’s language system and communication method are similar to ours.”

If translation magic worked, we could capture and interrogate them for information, but that seemed impossible.

“They’re different?”

“How would I know? What’s certain is that blindly casting it on unsuitable subjects would only damage your brain.”

Translation magic was designed on the premise that understanding vocabulary would enable communication, making it difficult to use on unknown beings like these.

“Can’t you modify it somehow?”

“To modify the spell, I’d need to analyze their language centers and incorporate that… it’s difficult right now.”

“Is it that hard…?”

I thought a magician of Ophelia’s caliber might be able to create an entirely new translation spell or modify one on the spot to solve this problem.

“Even for me, two specimens aren’t enough. I’d need to dissect at least ten individuals for an answer. Maybe even more.”

“Uh, well….”

…You’re not just saying that because you want to dissect a bunch of them, are you? I’ll believe you’re not.

—-

Kill them or follow them—a binary choice.

To reveal my conclusion in advance, I rejected both options and instead chose a compromise between them.

– Crack!

“ouskosuka…! aramas?! ifa usun…!”

“Itá mi fen track!”

A spear-sword that had been circling in the air like a bird of prey came crashing down onto the water’s surface with a glinting tip, while a golden great sword flickered with flames, blooming a haze mixed with fresh blood.

“Capture them alive if possible! Even if you kill them, preserve the heads!”

“So cut off their heads? Easy!”

“No, I said try to capture them alive first!”

The Mist of Hallucination disrupted the merfolk’s senses and broke their coordination, and every time the slender longsword flashed through the mist, merfolk with severed tendons rolled helplessly on the ground.

“Kopwe ereni pwe epwe sinei…!”

“Water manipulation… how unfortunate. If this were the sea rather than a river, they might have been somewhat threatening.”

“Hard scales, sharp spear-swords… but that’s all. Their movements are slow!”

The merfolk resisted with what appeared to be a racial ability—controlling water like magic—but this was merely a futile struggle.

With one of Ophelia’s brain shocks, more than half of the merfolk lurking in the river were swept away, and when Nigel’s holy spear unleashed lightning again, the remaining half rolled their eyes back and floated unconscious on the water’s surface.

“I don’t even need to step in. This is easier than I thought.”

These creatures were strong enough that even three mere scouts could give a Master a hard time, but that meant they were still below Master level.

There was an overwhelming difference in skill between them and us, with even Leonore, our weakest combatant, nearly crossing that threshold.

That’s why, despite having more than twenty gathered in one place, they were completely annihilated in the blink of an eye.

“That makes twenty-seven… this should be enough to complete the translation magic.”

“Indeed. For just an hour of tracking, the results are quite satisfactory. This should be sufficient.”

Quietly following the merfolk scouts and then attacking when more than ten gathered, disposing of them and using them as research materials to improve translation magic on the spot—that was the compromise I chose.

Thinking about it, if they were a species powerful enough to have demigods as their backing, their military scale would be considerable, so there was no way they would have only two scouts.

So I judged that if we quietly followed them, they would eventually meet up with other patrol groups.

Sure enough, after just an hour, we encountered a platoon of more than twenty, and in the ensuing battle, we successfully captured twelve merfolk alive.

…Let me clarify that we didn’t attack them without provocation.

Even if they looked like monsters, they were still intelligent beings. Who knows, they might have been a kind and peace-loving species despite their appearance.

So, I initially tried to communicate by raising both arms, smiling, and slowly approaching with a non-threatening demeanor.

But they immediately threw spears at Lena. Like predators targeting the youngest prey first.

So, what could we do? If they didn’t want peaceful communication, we had to respect their wishes.

Thus, the fate of any merfolk who encountered us was determined to be not a happy ending, but a dissection ending.