Volume 13 - CH 5

Chapter 5: Children of the Night, People of the Sea

Location: Taiwan Time: 1:04 PM

It was probably around lunchtime when Senior returned to the room.

As soon as he entered the room, he saw the scene of several plates of food piled on the table and some kind of fragrant smell filling the room: “What are you two doing in the room?”

Holding a bowl, the five-colored rooster head sitting opposite of me broke into a wide grin: “Eating! Hurry over and eat, or else there won’t be any left.”

Because it really wasn’t that convenient to eat in the kitchen, after Thomas spent about an hour preparing the dishes, we carried them all back to the room—-the reason why we didn’t eat in the restaurant was out of fear that having people asking around would cause more trouble.

Patting the table, I saw that Senior probably had an inkling of what happened.

Secretly peeking behind him, I didn’t see senior Gasai.

“He went back in the morning.” Senior gave me a glance and said: “It’s always busy during the spring celebration no matter where you are.”

Oh, that’s true.

“Who went back?” The five-colored rooster head, who was currently chewing a piece of meat, curiously looked at Senior.

“It’s nothing.” Going to the fridge and getting a drink on his own before sitting down by the small table, Senior pulled off the drink’s pull-tab: “I passed by downstairs just now. Yuli agreed to let the others head toward the place of rest. It’s just that he wants to stay here himself.” He directed this at me.

“Oh…” Passing over a clean bowl to Senior, I spaced out for a moment.

I wonder if there’s a way to convince Yuli.

Senior knocked on his chopsticks, not saying anything.

I guess Senior must have already known who was in the kitchen. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have just watched on as the five-colored rooster head went there everyday.

The other person shot me a glance, which counts as tacit confirmation.

The food Thomas prepared for us was exceptionally lavish—-a big pot of stewed vegetables with thick meat and chicken steak; there were several side dishes and snacks with a pot of soup, and after those two leaves were ground into powder, they were all scattered on these dishes, so that each dish looked a bit sparkly.

Looks like the kind that would fetch a sky-high price if I was eating them outside.

“Wilerdos are said to be rather difficult to find, especially since the tree only grows one leaf every ten years and even more so since this type of tree grows in the place of interlocking time. For Thomas to find this sort of thing really isn’t an easy thing to do.” Picking up a stewed vegetable and putting it in his bowl, Senior lightly said: “I’ve heard this type of leaf is good for the body.”

Which means that it’s another supplementary ingredient?

Looking at the somewhat shiny dishes, I felt very moved as I thought.

“Hehe, never expected Senior to have such a good eye.” The five-colored rooster head swallowed down a big piece of steak in one gulp, then said.

I’m sorry I’m the only one without a good eye here.

“Are robe levels also grouped by skill types?” Poking the meat in the bowl, I suddenly remembered something they’d talked about earlier. I thought all robe levels were more or less like that.

Senior glanced at me: “They are grouped, for instance, doesn’t the medical team also have groups? Tyre is exclusive treatment, while Julian is an analytical blue robe. Likewise, red robes, black robes, purple robes, and white robes all have groupings too.”

Feels very complicated…?

“Gasai is in between the curse and combat types, while Andy is a technique robe level specializing in incantations.” Briefly splitting it up for me like this, Senior broke down a vegetable roll: “Mikayla specifically handles healing, and every robe level has a general classification. Combat types specialize in combat and so on, and their skill is being good in various areas of all kinds of *atypical combat. It’s probably divided into two categories like this.”

[T/N: 非战斗 it’s either noncombat or atypical combat]

I listened with a bit of confusion. But it means that there are also many professions within robe levels.

Then I’m curious: “Which one is Senior?”

“…” Senior didn’t answer me.

Maybe he’s a combat type? Senior looks like a combat type…but then again, his other skills are very strong too. Could it be that he’s actually a pseudo skill type, combat version?

“I heard my third brother say that he’s a multi-type.” The five-colored rooster head used his chopsticks to point at Senior, wedging in this sentence from the middle.

Multi-type?

Something like superglue?

“Sh*t!” A hand smacked the back of my head hard, almost making me spit out the food in my mouth.

“Be good and eat your food! So annoying!”

After I was scolded, we actually did eat very quietly for five minutes or so.

“Oh right, how much longer do we have before we return?” The five-colored rooster head chewed a piece of meat and suddenly raised this sort of question.

“Uh? Till the day after tomorrow, on that night we’ll return to the place where we boarded the ship.” I calculated it. It’s almost time. Besides that time we stopped midway to buy souvenirs, the sea breeze has been blowing for nearly ten days, to the point where I was getting a bit seasick.

“Oho.” Nodding, he didn’t say anything else.

Shooting a weird glance at the five-colored rooster head, I didn’t really understand his behavior. Usually, he would’ve said more; now that his reply was so simple, it made me feel strange instead.

“Ziray.” Probably more or less done with eating, Senior put his bowl down and looked at the five-colored rooster head nearby, who was still clearing his plate: “Go find Thomas later. For the next two nights, we’ll take turns and watch.”

I raised my head, just in time to see the five-colored rooster head nod while biting something.

Take turns to watch what?

For some reason, I suddenly felt like my eyelid had twitched twice, then I thought of the conversation with Senior and senior Gasai in the middle of the night. What could be more important than the matter with Yuli and the others?

“There’s an unusual situation in the seas.” Senior opened his mouth to say this, and then it made me think of the ballfish’s disappearance. That pair of black eyes turned to glance at me: “Something might happen these days…if not, then that’ll be for the best. Hopefully the news Gasai brings back won’t be happening here.”

Senior Gasai’s news?

He seems to bring back quite a lot of news. Who knows what it’s going to be. But is it serious enough for them to take turns standing guard?

“Then Senior, can I…help?” I originally wanted to say that I should be able to do something like standing guard, before I suddenly thought of the moment something actually happens, I probably wouldn’t have any way to deal with it myself.

“Yang~it’s not that big of a deal.” Tossing the last vegetable roll into his mouth, the five-colored rooster head even issued this statement quite clearly: “This uncle doesn’t really want to stand guard. You should know that men at sea have to break through the crisis at the end of the world to be admired by thousands of people!”

I automatically skipped over his nonsense.

“No need, right now we’re still observing. When necessary, I’ll tell you.” Senior straightforwardly told me.

“What would you consider ‘necessary’?” I was very curious about this.

“Yang~you’ve become proactive recently.” Stuffing the last piece into his mouth, the five-colored rooster head burst out this sentence all of a sudden.

I froze for a long while: “N-no way!” I just wanted to know, that’s all; how is that considered proactive?

“Before, you wouldn’t even want to know, and would just run off hugging your head.” Senior doesn’t even know how to be tactful, very sharply and straightforwardly spitting out words that stabbed my heart.

If a normal human sees something weird, running away would be the correct response!

…I suddenly thought of something mournfully: does this mean that I’m also starting to become abnormal!?

“Yeah!” The five-colored rooster head actually even agreed with Senior.

I’m hurt, I’m really hurt.

Is occasionally wanting to know a few things wrong, you guys? Don’t just arbitrarily attack someone!

“If the ship has a problem, we’ll need every random person we can get.” Very seriously answering the question that I asked before, Senior once again stabbed my heart ruthlessly.

Turns out I’m on the same level as a random person.

Senior stood up and cleared away the table full of empty plates slightly. Because they were cleaned up by the five-colored rooster head, there was practically no issue with kitchen waste, “You have to get maximum rest and preparation. We might need you to help when the time comes.”

Eh?

There actually comes a time when I am most needed?

It can’t be that it’s going to depend on my instinct to escape or something, right…

“Yang~if you want to take turns, you can look for this uncle.” The five-colored rooster head rubbed his belly then very generously told me: “This uncle doesn’t mind at all if you come to learn from me. That way I can teach the younger generation at the same time.”

I heard that we seem to be the same age!

“No need, thank you.” I’ll only die faster if I’m with you.

“Tsk.” He actually let out a “such a pity” sound.

In the end, I still didn’t know what they were keeping watch over.

The third time I went to the ground floor was under these circumstances.

Senior and the five-colored rooster head didn’t tell me a thing and simply disappeared like a wisp of smoke after dusk. After eating together with my dad, mom and Ming Yue, I passed through the flights of stairs by myself and arrived at the bottom.

Yuli and the others should still be here at this time, right?

At lunch, I heard the message that Senior brought back, causing me to be a bit worried about his situation.

After going downstairs, I walked up to the door of that room. Glancing around, the surroundings were still quiet without anything at all, so quiet that it was somewhat strange.

No one came to open the door, nor did anything else suddenly rush out to scare people.

Could it be that they have already moved out?

After standing in front of the door for a while, there was still no movement, and I couldn’t open the electronic lock at all. I could only let out a sigh and take out that fish scale to look at it.

Just when I was about to leave, the electronic lock suddenly issued a soft “kou” sound and opened on its own.

Appearing behind the door was that green-eyed man. His white hair arranged behind his head looked very neat: “What are you doing here?” Exactly the same as when we first met, his tone was still not that polite, especially when I saw the looming teeth in his mouth; I started to entertain the idea of leaving and pretending I had never been here.

“Aih…Uh, I came to see Buda, to give him desserts.” Fortunately, I already prepared for this beforehand, and took out the dessert box from the kitchen and handed it over.

His green eyes looked at that box somewhat complicatedly for a long while, without reaching out to get it: “They all left at dusk. You just missed them.”

“Eh?” I was completely dumbfounded.

“Buda was even crying about not wanting to go and had to be forcibly sent off by me. Now only Yuli and I are left here. If you want to come in, just come in.” Saying that, he walked back into the room.

Following him in, the room had already changed back to normal size like the way it was when I first saw it.

The surrounding furnishings hasn’t changed, and there was still a large snake tail wrapped around the bed.

For a moment, I suddenly felt that it was so desolate here, as if everything was gone.

“…Is something the matter?” Slowly propping himself up, Yuli pushed aside his long hair and looked at me. His appearance was a bit different from when we first me; he looked very tired: “If it’s because he wanted you to come over to see, you guys can rest assured; the others have already arrived at the place of rest, leaving only me and Yǔ lǐ. Just as we said before, I will continue to stay here until my grievances have been erased.”

I put the dessert box aside, cautiously looking at him: “Um, I actually came on my own, Senior doesn’t know…I heard that the others have all left, so I wanted to see.” The whole room was dark enough to make it feel cold, so I bit the bullet and turned on the light.

After the interior lit up, the room looked especially deserted.

Yuli sat up completely and gave me a glance: “I don’t need any help.”

“Uh, I know…and I don’t think I would be able to help with anything.” This sentence was true. *You want money but you don’t have it; you want to live but you can’t. I really don’t know what he would want me to help with.

[T/N: Think it means that something is impossible regardless of how you feel about it]

“Prince Icy Flame has also noticed it, right.” Suddenly standing beside us, Yǔ lǐ abruptly issued a sentence like this, speaking in a way that I couldn’t make heads or tails of: “It’s why he was anxious to have us send the others off to the place of rest.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Looking at the other two people, I suddenly felt that they knew something.

“Beware of what’s beneath the sea.” Yuli told me all of a sudden. His tone was a bit eerie, making me can’t help but to shiver, “Those age-old inhabitants have already begun to stir, and the things that awaken in the deep sea will bring calamity and truth.”

He spoke as if they were two different things, but it also sounds like they’re the same thing.

I suddenly feel like my heart rate was getting quicker and my throat was dry enough to make swallowing a bit difficult. Everything that Senior and the others didn’t talk about, I could ask them here: “What does the bottom of the sea have?” His tone frightened me.

“Ancient inhabitants.” Standing nearby, Yǔ lǐ opened his mouth: “They are far older than us, residing beneath the sea and sleeping on the sand. The marine creatures take up shelter and nest on their bodies, coexisting in harmony. However, the changing sea and tremors have started to wake them, and the inhabitants under the sea are beginning to open their eyes.”

“What kind of inhabitants are they?” I suddenly had an uneasy feeling, as if something bad was going to happen right away, relating to what they said.

“Of every kind there is. We can’t tell you how they look like. The sea people come in many different variations. As long as they are awakened, they will come up from the deepest depths of the sea, lifting waves and engulfing the land.” Blinking his green eyes, Yǔ lǐ‘s words were still very vague, but I could somewhat understand his meaning.

So that’s why senior Gasai and Senior said the robe levels were being run ragged for a long time.

“You guys said from the deep sea. Then since it’s currently shallow sea here, right now there won’t be any immediate danger, right?” I guess, the “deep sea” part probably refers to the kind of sea further away from here. Now that we have already entered the offshore of the return trip, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Yuli shook his head: “It doesn’t matter where you are. During ancient times, this world was already inhabited by the sea people since the beginning of its creation, while life on land hadn’t yet emerged. Life on land came later…from out of the sea.”

Meaning that whether it’s shallow sea or deep sea, they will all have that whatchamacallit weird sea people?

I suddenly felt goosebumps all over my skin.

Just when I wanted to continue asking Yuli and them about the sea people, a strange rocking sensation suddenly came from under my feet, numbly as if they were affected by some sort of small tremor. Then less than a few seconds later, the tremor began to gradually expand upwards from beneath the floor. It took less than half a minute for the whole room to start shaking. Some decorations hanging on the wall also swayed from side to side, making several noises.

If it’s not the ship crashing into something, then it must be something boarding the ship!

I immediately realized this. The entire room was already shaking violently, and unable to even stand straight, I fell hard when the next, even more severe tremor came, almost knocking into the corner of a nearby table.

“Lie down and don’t get up!” Yuli shouted, and I, who was originally planning to climb up, immediately lay back down on the ground. Then a big furry thing suddenly pounced on me, and I could even see a pile of white fur rising and falling next to me.

The tremor started to slowly decrease in speed again. It didn’t take long before it once again charged upwards ruthlessly all of a sudden. I could hear the sound of many things crashing down in the room. There was the sound of things shattering, of things falling on the ground and letting out a series of “kou kou kou” rolling sounds.

This strange tremor lasted four, five minutes before stopping.

After it was completely silent, that furry thing on me finally moved away. I propped myself up and saw the foxlike creature from before shaking off the glass fragments that had fallen on its body, with its large five tails also swaying along. What’s different is that when I saw it before, it was small, and now it was a large one, like some kind of weird beast. It wasn’t until the fragments rolled beside my feet that I noticed the whole room had turned dark. The lights on the ceiling had shattered and glass fragments were scattered around the place.

Yuli dusted his shoulders, brushing off some fragments that didn’t do any damage to him at all.

“What’s going on?” This tremor was very similar to the one from the day we ate hot pot.

The one who answered my doubts wasn’t Yuli and the others, but rather a whole-ship broadcast that appeared half a second later–

“Please do not panic. The tremor just now was only a large wave in the sea. This ship is not in any immediate danger. Please do not arbitrarily head to the deck in order to avoid accidents–”

That definitely wasn’t a wave.

This time I clearly felt that the tremor wasn’t caused by a crash; instead it was coming from some sort of thing.

“You guys be careful, I’ll go upstairs to see what’s going on.” After leaving this sentence, I immediately rushed out the door toward the very top.

Even I could so clearly sense that it wasn’t because the waves were too big. I believe the others must have long since realized this as well.

Climbing from the bottom to the top, I breathlessly stepped onto the deck–

The entire deck was wet; the wind was very heavy and strong, hitting my face with dense moisture, so cold that it allowed one to feel a slapping pain.

It wasn’t raining, but the waves were pushed up by the wind and continuously splashed up on the deck.

Not a single tourist was above. The chairs and whatnot were made spotlessly clean, and the storefronts on the deck were all closed, as if they had all noticed that some things would happen.

“Chu, find something to hold on to!” Sure enough, standing on the railing surrounding the deck was Senior. He wore a large coat with a hood, and his hair was gathered into his hood. Then he shouted at me: “Did you have nothing better to do than to come up here!?”

Blown around by the wind until I was sliding a bit toward the edge, I quickly grabbed onto something nearby. At the same time, I also realized that it was completely slippery beneath my feet. The waves kept surging up so the deck was wet and difficult to walk on: “The tremor just now…” Wasn’t from being hit by waves at all!

Senior frowned. Without saying anything, he walked over to me as if he was walking on flat ground. With a palm, he directly grabbed my collar and dragged me to the side, walking up to the lookout and letting me grab onto the sides before finally releasing his hand: “Another thing woke up. Each one that wakes up will cause fluctuations in the sea.”

“Is it the sea people?” I spat out the seawater that was sprayed into my mouth, then freed up my hand to tighten my coat.

“Who did you hear this from?” Not answering and instead directly asking, Senior’s expression didn’t look so good.

“That…Yuli and them.” At a time like this, it’s best not to speak nonsense, especially since Senior also knows what I’m thinking about. Lying is useless.

Coldly snorting, Senior stared outward from the ship, then pointed to a place some distance away from here.

In a spot far away on the black sea was a faint thing that seemed to be below the sea. Very dim, a weak glow that would be missed if you didn’t pay attention.

That light lasted for a long time before slowly disappearing.

Then, I saw a huge black shadow appearing under the sea. In a flash, it instantly passed, so quickly that it was like I’d simply seen it wrong.

“Another woke up. Thankfully, this one wasn’t some target that needed to be dealt with.” Staring over there for a long time, Senior let out a sigh, before wiping off the seawater on his face.

“Are the sea people very dangerous?” Seeing Senior’s slightly cautious and vigilant appearance, I puzzledly asked.

Who knows when that pair of eyes had turned red, and some silver strands came loose from the hair gathered into his hood and stuck to his neck: “Most of the sea people are very dangerous. When you’re lucky, the sea people who have just woken up will immediately understand that the world has already changed and will turn toward the place of rest. When you’re unlucky, the awakened sea people will immediately attack things that aren’t a part of the creatures in the sea.” Using my foot to tap the ground, I understood at once that the one we’re currently waiting for isn’t a part of the creatures in the sea.

“Uh…Then since he just left, does that mean we’re now safe?” Staring at the sea that seems to be gradually returning to calm, I then noticed that at some point my clothes had become pretty much drenched. My entire shoes were cold and seemed to have water in them.

Red eyes gave me a glance: “Usually when one of the sea people in a region wakes up and appears, it means that there will be a large number of sea people waking up in that area next. The shortest time is three days and the longest it will take is half a month. It could happen at any time like that situation just now. There are light ones and severe ones. The kind of impact they cause depends on what type the awakened sea person is.”

In other words, this place will soon be a dangerous zone?

I suddenly became very afraid.

I’m not scared because of getting entangled, it’s because the people around me are all on this ship. Dad, Mom and also my sister who’s usually very fierce but always brings desserts for me, they’re all on this ship.

My chest seemed to tighten all of a sudden, and I was a bit unable to breathe.

The day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow we’ll be able to get home.

“Don’t worry, there won’t be any problems.”

Just when it seemed like I was going to start shaking, beside me came this sentence. Although the wind was still very strong, I heard it clearly, without missing a single word: “The Guild’s robe levels exist for these matters.”

I turned my head to look at Senior. He wasn’t looking at me and was just looking out at that black big ocean.

Strangely enough, I felt relieved.

Even though I subconsciously knew vaguely what was going to happen, my mind was still slightly put at ease.

No matter what happens…there should be a way to solve it.