Chapter 193 - Lost in... the Deep Sea?
In front of Gawain was the newest batch of investigation data about the remnants in the mountains delivered by the messenger soldiers. This file contained a detailed description of what Sir Byron had seen and heard in the remnants with a relatively thorough map and handwritten descriptions of some unfamiliar objects attached.
After winter set in, Sir Byron’s mission of exploring the remnants in the mountain still hadn’t ended. He continued to spend half of his time every month wandering in the especially large-scale facility in the mountains, searching for more corridors, hidden passages, and rooms, and drawing a map on the way. Every three days or so, he would dispatch a soldier to send the newly collected data to the territory.
At present, these were all conventional information; there were no new discoveries of research facilities related to the gods’ secrets. However, the map itself that was being continuously expanded was already enough to amaze Gawain considerably —— the actual scale of these ruins had challenged his expectations time and time again. The scale of those corridors and halls had reached the extent of a small-sized city. Even after exploring for such a long time, Sir Byron had yet to cover the main level he was on. And not too long ago, Byron and the exploration team had even found two big staircases leading to upper and lower levels. More and more clues proved that there were still whole new large areas in the ruin waiting to be discovered.
Gawain could understand having an upper level —— perhaps it led to a certain observation deck or lookout structure on top of the Dark Range, but what would the lower level lead to? The middle level of the ruin had nearly emptied out the entire body of the mountain, could the lower level actually be extending underground?
Even as an ancient facility researching the mysteries of the gods, this scale was really a little too big.
But regardless of how big its entire scale was, complete exploration and mapping of fairly large areas in its middle level had been done. Byron confirmed the safety and sturdiness of those places. The next step in Gawain’s plan was to shift a part of the things in the territory into the ruin in the mountain.
Those spacious ancient halls could not be wasted; their sturdiness and covertness were of great value. They planned to shift the newly assembled heat-ray-gun production line, press-molded-armor production line, and rune-base-plate productions in there. In addition, other objects that needed to be kept secret or that would endanger the environment or were slightly noisier could also be shifted into the mountains. It was a research facility of the ancient Gondor Empire, there existed advanced protective structures and sound-proofing effects, definitely much better than the brick factories that the territory could build at present.
Gawain picked up the dip pen at the side, preparing to leave some notes on one of the files. But just then, hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.
Knocks sounded. After getting Gawain’s response, Betty pushed open the door and walked in.
“Lord!” The little maidservant pattered to the desk and bowed with her signature pose that looked like she was about to flip herself over and then said in a clear and sharp voice, “Someone caught a big fish at the public square on Knight Street!”
“Big fish?” Gawain was taken aback at once. He didn’t expect that this young lady had come running so urgently to report such a baffling matter. “Is there a need to report the catching of a big fish—— send it directly to the kitchen.”
Betty straightened up and thought blankly for a moment before shaking her head hard. “Too big. It can’t fit in one pot!”
“Did you people catch a shark?” Gawain broke into laughter. “A fish from the White River had probably gotten into the well at Knight Street through the water diverting channel..”
“It doesn’t seem like those in the White River, because half of it looks like a human..”
“..What?!”
Gawain dashed over to the Knight Street’s public square, and this area had long been cordoned off by the patrolling soldiers who reacted in time. A young Knight-in-training wearing a commander’s armor was maintaining order at the scene, while those residents kept outside of the cordon were curiously looking on at the happening from the corners of the streets and lanes.
Gawain recognized that young commander because he had personally awarded this soldier a medal. ——During the first Cecil Defense Battle, this young soldier called Krim had been especially courageous and thus gained recognition. Not only did he receive a promotion in his military rank, he also accepted Byron’s guidance as a Knight-in-training.
“Lord!” Krim immediately went forward with a bow when he saw Gawain. “The situation is already under control. That.. creature is still beside the well.”
“What exactly happened?” Gawain frowned. “I heard you people caught a half-human, half-fish.. female?”
Krim shook his head. “It wasn’t caught. Miss Pea found it when she was fetching water. —— At that time, that half-human half-fish creature seemed to be hiding under the well and was subsequently pulled up under the joint effort of carpenters and apprentices who were passing by.”
The “book”[1] — cough, cough — Knight biography about himself that he had read a few days back suddenly appeared in Gawain’s mind, and he was reminded of those “sea demons” mentioned in the book.. biography.
Could things be so coincidental?
He was expectant yet could not believe that he would be this lucky. However, his feet were already striding out; he led Betty past the cordon of the soldiers and saw several people surrounding the well in the small square that was temporarily enclosed using wooden fences.
Pittman, Rebecca, Amber, Heidi.. almost all the well-informed ones were here. Three craftsmen being questioned by the soldiers also stood at the side, along with a young girl holding an empty pail; that was Pea.
An unknown female sat languidly on the edge of the well. She had a head of beautiful sea-blue colored long hair, wearing a blue “jacket” of a strange style made of a material that resembled leather on her upper half. Scale-like structures could be seen on her cheeks and exposed parts of her arms, while her lower body.. just as Betty and Krim had described, was a gorgeous fishtail of faint gold color and blue patterns.
Gawain’s heart jolted, and he quickly went forward on quick steps.
Rebecca and others were surrounding this unknown female in curiosity. Heidi was analyzing those beautiful patterns on her tail that resembled magical runes with a solemn look, while Amber was inquiring about her origins and purpose for visiting this place. However, the half-human half-fish female maintained a languid manner, with no reaction to the majority of the questions.
“What kind of situation is this?” Gawain asked out loud, and only until he spoke up beside them did those few people inextricably immersed in the seafood finally notice his existence. Rebecca was the first to leap out. “Lord Ancestor! This mishmash of human and fish seems to be the type of ‘sea demon’ you went around asking about previously!”
Look at her—— using “mishmash”! This instantly summarized the fusion of two creatures..
Pittman also turned his head over; there was a rare soberness on the old Druid’s face. “Lord, I’m afraid this really is a sea demon—— but we don’t know how she came here. Earlier, she showed extreme vigilance and hostility when she saw us, but after we expressed that we mean no harm, she then became.. rather inactive.”
It really was a sea demon?!
Gawain controlled his agitated feelings and looked curiously towards the “Miss Mermaid” seated on the edge of the well. Then the latter also lifted her eyelids to survey him curiously. The two stared at each other for some time. Miss Mermaid’s tail suddenly slapped the edge of the well, and she then let out a pleasant but lazy voice. “I seem to have seen you somewhere?”
Gawain faltered; then he was overjoyed, to the extent of feeling tempted to do an ecstatic dance.historical
Had this sea demon been thrown from the sky by the Goddess of Luck, specially for him to solve the mystery?!
“You’re a sea demon?” Gawain only calmed down after taking in two breaths. Following that, he immediately burst out eagerly with his question. “If you are, perhaps we’ve really met before. —— My name is Gawain Cecil. Did we meet seven hundred years ago?!”
“Gawain Cecil? Ahhhhhh..” Miss Mermaid let out a big yawn and rubbed her eyes. “Seven hundred years ago.. I think I have some impression of it. Such a human did seem to have appeared at that time, but I didn’t really make contact with that human. You’re saying that was you? Can you humans live seven hundred years?”
Gawain was at a loss of how to explain it for a moment. “Uh.. I came back to life only recently.”
Miss Mermaid batted her eyes. “You people developed a new function?”
“..Not quite.”
“Never mind, I don’t know you well anyway.” Miss Mermaid swayed her head, her sea-blue long hair shining with an intriguing luster under the sunlight. “I’m so sleepy. I was woken up by a hit from a pail when I was sleeping earlier. Say, who was it who threw the pail?”
Gawain awkwardly darted a look at Pea who wasn’t far away at once but quickly reacted. “Of course you’d get hit when you were sleeping in our well.. What’s your name?”
“Tiel,” Miss Mermaid mumbled her reply. “So the place where I was earlier was a well?”
It could be seen that she really wasn’t too keen on speaking to people yet was a little interested in Gawain, so the two were considered to have reached an exchange, and this bit of interaction was enough to have the others around marveling. Rebecca watched with a look of almost worship as her ancestor reached an understanding with a fish. She couldn’t help but blurt, “Lord Ancestor, you’d even done fishing back in those days?”
He had absolutely no idea how she came to that.
Gawain found it both funny yet annoying as he glanced at Rebecca; then he looked at the sea demon calling herself “Tiel”, unable to restrain his curiosity. “Where did you come from? Why did you come here? Do you need our help with anything?”
“Me? I came from the deep sea.” Tiel swayed her body lightly on the edge of the well. “How would I know why I came to humankind’s land..? I was still battling another group of humans in the sea a few days ago. ——Then I got separated from the main unit. I swam towards home by myself but somehow ended up in this place. The moment I opened my eyes, I saw humans all around. I thought I’d fallen into the enemy’s lair. Gave me a big scare.”
“Battling another group of humans in the sea?” Gawain sharply caught the main point of her sentence and then was quickly aware of another. “You mean you wandered here when you were swimming back to the sea demons’ territory?”
Tiel nodded. “Yeah.”
If the legends and elven records were correct, sea demons were a kind of intelligent beings who lived in the open sea in the west of the continent..
Gawain’s expression became odd. “Miss Tiel, if I have not guessed wrongly, you.. probably swam the wrong way, the opposite in fact..”
“Huh?”
[1] The term used here translates to ‘book’ but usually refers to pornographic works in ACGN (animation, comic, games, short novels)