novelraw Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Chapter 120
The sight of massive fish, easily three to four meters long, soaring through the sky across the sea, was truly a spectacle.
I wasn’t sure whether those creatures naturally flew like that or if they only took to the air when coming ashore, but one thing was certain — those things weren’t from this world.
After all, I’d never heard of flying fish that literally flew through the sky.
‘A beast… no, perhaps a Demon Fish?’
Since monsters couldn’t be eaten, these must be Demon Fish.
What a world, filled with all sorts of bizarre things.
“Everyone, aim!”
Even as I gawked in disbelief, the residents were already moving quickly.
The first to gather by the shore were the seamen armed with giant harpoons.
Henil’s pride — the Harpoon Corps.
These seamen were the core military force of Henil Territory.
“Fire!!”
At the command of the Lord of Henil, dozens of harpoons pierced through the sky.
Their massive size matched the scale of their weapons — large harpoons flying into enormous flying fish.
The harpooned flying fish fell back into the sea one after another.
– Impressive accuracy. Far beyond your brainless greatsword tosses, Master.
‘Hey, that’s not fair. My greatsword throws are pretty accurate too, you know.’
– Oh, please. You only hit by sheer luck. You were clearly aiming at a different one at the time.
I often used my greatsword as a throwing weapon.
A heavy greatsword made for an efficient greeting, and thanks to Unbreakable’s retrieval ability, it cost me nothing to use.
There was no reason not to use it as an attack method.
As a fellow throwing fighter(?), I could honestly say — that corps’ accuracy was truly remarkable.
Their rapid-fire speed was impressive too. Given the chance, I wouldn’t mind learning a few throwing tips from them.
‘Still, it’s not like every shot hits. They can probably retrieve the ones that hit, but the ones that miss… just say goodbye, right?’
If they kept launching huge steel harpoons like that, it was no wonder they often complained about iron shortages.
No, rather, I gained newfound respect for the Lord of Henil’s ability to maintain his territory safely in such isolation.
If his material management hadn’t been so thorough, this kind of defensive battle would’ve been impossible.
“Ho! Flying fish, is it? The sea really is full of wonders.”
As chaos unfolded along the shore, Leisha stepped forward.
As the Black Lion, whose passive trait was ‘I must join every fight’, she clearly wasn’t about to miss out on this fun event.
– Rroarrr!!!
Though the flying fish had reached the shoreline, their altitude wasn’t all that high.
Meaning, one of Leisha’s super jumps was enough to reach them instantly.
Gathering Aura, she leaped high and started cracking their skulls with thunderous punches.
“Oh, my goodness.”
Just like the Lord of Henil’s exclamation, the scene was utter mayhem.
One flying fish at the front lost its head in an instant. The others followed suit, diving toward Leisha in a frenzy, only to have their heads burst apart, bodies crashing into the ground in every direction.
As several fell, the rest of the school glided down toward her in a wave, trying to surround her with sheer numbers.
‘Alright, guess I’ll join in too.’
It was my first time fighting fish.
Even though the Monster Mountains and the Forest of Illusions were crawling with strange monsters, I had never faced such massive fish before.
Actually, it would’ve been weird if I had.
Those things were just plain absurd.
“Ho, you came, Bear.”
“Yeah, I came.”
“Then watch my back. They may be mere fish, but it’ll be a pain if they get behind me.”
“Okay. Go wild, then.”
It had been a while since I’d synced up with Leisha.
I guarded her back, and she, trusting me completely, went on a rampage.
We coordinated well, leaving no openings at all.
Even surrounded by countless flying fish, we were still completely relaxed.
To begin with, the flying fish weren’t particularly strong enemies.
Their size and numbers made them look threatening, but at the end of the day — they were just fish.
Aside from their sharp front teeth and thick tail fins, they didn’t have any notable means of attack.
Meanwhile, their biggest weakness — their heads — were fully exposed right before us.
‘This won’t take long.’
As Leisha charged into the swarm, the Harpoon Corps held their fire.
At this rate, it seemed there was no need to waste more precious harpoons.
Barely half of the flying fish had made it through the rain of harpoons to reach the shore, and that number wasn’t nearly enough to even touch a single strand of Leisha’s mane.
With me guarding the rear, even several times more of them wouldn’t make a difference — it’d still be an easy victory.
“Good! Everyone, start retrieving the harpoons!”
“Sort out the flying fish — the intact ones go to the warehouse, and the rest, just toss them back into the sea!”
“Don’t forget to set aside some for the Dairy Beasts!”
Once all the flying fish had been dealt with, the residents’ movements became even busier.
All the residents who had evacuated to the castle came out and were busy cleaning up.
“Ugh, that fishy smell.”
“Well, we caught a bunch of fish, so what did you expect?”
“If I’d known it’d be like this, I would’ve just stayed quiet.”
“Yeah, sure you would have.”
Leisha finally seemed to come to her senses and started noticing the stench.
I gave a small laugh at her wrinkled nose, then approached the Lord of Henil.
It was strange to me how such a massive number of flying fish had appeared all at once.
“Truly splendid skill, my lord. It reminded me of the late lord himself. And that beastwoman over there…”
“Haha, nothing much, really.”
I brushed off the Lord of Henil’s sudden praise with an awkward smile, then asked him about the situation.
“Is this how it usually is? That’s quite a lot of them.”
“They’ve definitely increased from before. Seems their breeding rate is tremendous.”
“Hah, that’s going to be tough to handle.”
“We’re storing the edible parts and tossing out the rest. Quite a lot of it goes to the Dairy Beasts too.”
“Do you end up throwing away much?”
“Yes, quite a bit. And it’ll only increase from now on.”
He said that since there were so many flying fish, the amount discarded was considerable.
Indeed, judging by how huge the swarms were, there was no way they could handle all of them here.
‘Maybe I should expand a few big warehouses and try selling them? They were actually pretty tasty.’
– Would that even work? You’re already stretching things too far. Think about it — the people here are already tending the salt furnaces, making cheese, and cultivating seaweed.
‘You’re right about that.’
As wasteful as it felt, flying fish weren’t more important than cheese, natural seasoning, or salt.
Processing, storing, and transporting those fish were all labor-heavy tasks — and Henil was already short on manpower.
This wasn’t a world where one could focus solely on production.
Even if the Dairy Beasts provided protection, we still had to prepare for monster attacks.
Especially now that I’d asked them to increase salt production several times over.
‘Well, can’t be helped.’
I decided I’d tell the merchants of the Fox Tribe to bring some frozen flying fish on their next trip.
At least they could prepare enough for our own consumption.
Now that I’d learned how good they were — giving up on fish as good as tuna would be a real waste.
The next day, after experiencing the flying fish assault—
the salt furnaces were finally completed.
Four new furnaces had been added, and together with the existing ones, they could now roughly supply enough salt for the beastmen of the North.
“Continue with salt production.”
“Yes, my lord. I heard you plan to send salt to the North.”
“The warehouses might get a bit crowded, though…”
“We’ll construct a few additional ones. There’ll be a lot of goods coming in from the main territory too, so that seems best.”
“Good. Let’s do that.”
I explained the situation to the Lord of Henil and asked him to keep expanding salt production.
Henil Territory was also expecting plenty of supplies from the North, so he had no objection.
If we were just stockpiling salt endlessly, it’d be a problem — but we already had sure customers waiting to take it.
‘That’s one thing off the list.’
After reinforcing the salt furnaces and the heating magic circles beneath them, everything we’d planned was finally done.
“Alright, load everything up neatly.”
On the day we departed for the territory again,
the wagons that had carried our iron ingots were now filled with Henil’s specialties — dried seaweed and fish as basics, natural seasonings ground from seaweed, and plenty of cheese.
The only regret was that our wagons weren’t refrigerated, so we couldn’t take any flying fish with us.
Flying fish spoiled much faster than expected, so even freshly caught ones couldn’t survive the trip to our territory.
“Are you seriously trying to pack that too? Bear, get a grip. If you want something dried, just chew on some horned rabbit jerky.”
“Come on, that’s not fair. If we’re loading something, I’d rather bring more cheese.”
And another small regret — we couldn’t bring dried squid or octopus either.
When I tried to pack some, they flat-out refused, saying we should use the space for cheese instead.
They argued that chewing on horned rabbit jerky was both tastier and easier on the eyes, and honestly, I couldn’t argue with that.
No matter how much I tried to defend the unique flavor, they wouldn’t listen.
‘Still, there’s hope.’
At least the Lord of Henil, who’d been quietly observing, nodded and gave a positive reply.
Once the next merchant group arrived in Henil, he’d send some along for us.
We only had one wagon now, but for the next trade caravan, we planned to send plenty more.
“Do we have enough mana crystals?”
“Yeah, enough to last until the next caravan. And by the time we send the next one, the new alchemists should be able to make some on their own.”
“You’re planning to send back those who want to return first, right?”
“Yeah. The rest will learn the potion-making formulas before we send them down.”
“Good. Take care of them till the end. Once we return, we’ll start recruiting more from our own territory too.”
“Perfect. We’ve been short on alchemists anyway.”
We had also brought along several aspiring alchemists.
Two were in their early teens, and six were in their late teens to early twenties.
The most talented ones were the two younger ones — they planned to study alchemy in our territory for quite some time.
The two in their early twenties would return once they learned how to extract mana crystals.
Since we’d taken them on according to a clear plan, Peter should be able to manage them well enough.
‘We’ll have to see how Peter’s dream of multiplying the number of alchemists in the territory goes.’
– That male seemed awfully picky about who he chose. Do you really think he can gather that many?
‘Honestly, I don’t think so either.’
Even if we recruited from the newly arrived residents, how many could we really find?
There were only around two thousand newcomers, and most capable ones already had their own work.
The only real potential lay with the children — but that remained to be seen.
‘Would it be too much to teach alchemy to the beastmen?’
– Impossible for lions. Maybe foxes or rabbits, but don’t the foxes already have their own operations?
‘What about the Rabbit Tribe?’
– They’re not exactly the brainy type either.
‘So the Fox Tribe’s probably our best bet — they seem naturally good at intellectual work.’
I’d have to ask Yuria once we returned.
If there were foxes interested in studying alchemy, there was no reason to rely solely on humans.
“It’s time we headed back.”
“Yes, my lord. Have a safe trip.”
“I’ll come visit again when I get the chance.”
“Haha, you’re always welcome. I’ll continue protecting Henil Castle and its people.”
We exchanged farewells with the Lord of Henil.
Parting cleanly, with the promise to meet again someday.
In the old days, when we had nothing, it might have been different — but now, we both had plenty to give and to receive.
So there was no reason for our relationship with Henil to ever sour.
The brief display of Leisha’s and my prowess in the flying fish skirmish would also help maintain good relations.
If I were the Lord of Henil, I wouldn’t want to face a crazed lioness like Leisha on the battlefield either.