Chapter 135

Chapter 135:  Buying Time. (4)

Inside the reef zone that could only be reached by sailing out from Mudside for more than twenty minutes.

The currents were fierce, and reefs of every size stretched endlessly. Unless one had a death wish, it was common sense not to come anywhere near this place.

The fishermen of Mudside even called this place the ‘Graveyard of Ships.’

And right in the middle of that reef zone—

“Hold on tight!”

“Uwaaaaah!”

Five ironclads of the Daphne Viscounty were moving in a single-file line like worms, carried by the current through the reef zone.

“Uuurk! Uuurk!”

“Save meee…!”

From knights to conscripts to sailors—

Most of them were pale-faced, clutching the railings while vomiting.

If there was anything fortunate, it was that an ordinary ship would have long been punctured and sunk by the reefs, yet these ironclads were still afloat, and thanks to their massive weight, they were less affected by the currents.

Of course—

Kwakang! Kwakang!

Each time the ship crashed against the reefs…

‘What the hell is this?’

‘Why did we come in here!’

The ones suffering felt like they were about to die.

“Beryl hyung-nim! Do something about this!”

“What the hell can I do with the ship!”

On the foremost vessel, Beryl and the Maw unit members—

“Unit Captain Manton! Save us!”

“Hold on tight! Don’t get distracted!”

On the fourth vessel, Manton and the Jellyfish unit members—

Their faces were pale, or they were vomiting… not a single one of them was in normal condition, as they all tasted this equally fair (?) hell.

And in the middle of this pandemonium, the busiest one was—

“Hey, what are you doing!”

Taaat!

Hardin leapt like lightning onto the vessel where Manton was.

“Y-Young Master…”

Manton and the helmsman, their bodies limp like seaweed, greeted him. Hardin grabbed the back of the helmsman’s neck and pulled him up, shouting.

“The line’s drifted off the current! Hold the rudder properly! Turn the sail east right now!”

“But…”

“Shut up! Unless you want to drown, move quickly!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Perhaps thanks to Hardin’s urging—

The sailors hurried to follow his orders and adjusted the ship.

Then, the ironclad, which had been constantly crashing into the rocky isle, rose back into the current and sailed forward more smoothly.

With the immediate crisis resolved—

“Keep the course steady!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Hardin’s eyes flashed with a blue glare.

Paaak!

He kicked off the deck and soared through the air, gliding like a bird toward the vessel in front.

“Turn the rudder the other way! Rotate the sail in the opposite direction!”

“Uuup! Understood!”

After another round of scolding—

the ship, which had veered off course and was about to be ruined, miraculously recovered and steadied itself on the waterway.

The sailors’ faces lit up in astonishment as they watched.

‘…Young Master, have you handled a ship before?’

‘At this level, isn’t he better than most sailors?’

Anyone who wasn’t blind could tell.

Hardin’s ability to steer the ship and give orders… had far surpassed that of an ordinary sailor.

Even after that, Hardin’s struggle to keep them alive in this hell continued.

“Beryl! Get a grip, you bastard! You’ll sink the ship!”

“B-but… the seasickness…”

“Helmsmaaan!”

Leap! Leap!

He darted endlessly back and forth across the ships, issuing commands, fixing the rudder, and setting the sails.

His drenched body swayed as if he might fall into the sea at any moment, yet not a single mistake was allowed.

Perhaps thanks to that.

Even inside the Graveyard of Ships, the five ironclads endured for hours without sinking.

“Turn the sail to the right!”

“Understood!”

The sailors, now somewhat accustomed to the currents here, began to navigate through them without Hardin’s constant help.

By the time the situation settled a little—

“Phew… I’m gonna die.”

The noon sun was sinking toward the sea, painting the world in shades of orange.

Hardin, drenched in sweat, collapsed onto the deck and caught his breath.

After running back and forth between ships for hours, shouting orders, and putting out emergencies, his stamina was nearly drained.

At that moment—

“Young Master, please have this.”

“Hm?”

Turning toward the voice, Hardin saw Manton standing there, holding out a piece of jerky.

Hardin spat out the seawater lingering in his mouth, took it, and chewed it down.

The jerky, softened by the damp air, slid down his throat in lumps, and his shoulders drooped again.

Then, Manton scratched the bridge of his nose slightly before casually asking,

“Young Master, may I ask… what exactly is going on here?”

“What do you mean?”

Hardin sighed as he replied, and Manton turned his head to look into the distance.

Beyond the reef zone.

The Count of Tread’s warships could be seen faintly, split in two groups, blocking both entrances.

They occasionally fired their cannons, but showed no sign of actually stepping into the reef zone.

Manton looked back at Hardin and asked,

“Young Master, did you come in here knowing the Count of Tread’s fleet would be waiting?”

For Manton—or rather, for everyone aboard this ship—none of this made sense.

Hardin steering the ships into the reef zone was completely against their purpose of buying time against the Count of Tread’s fleet until reinforcements could arrive.

In any normal situation, it wouldn’t have been strange at all to simply bypass the reef zone and land at Mudside… in fact, that would’ve been the natural course of action.

To this, Hardin shrugged his shoulders and replied.

“Of course, I knew.”

“What do you mean?”

“That fellow, the Count Vernian. He became the Lord at a young age, right? They say he’s talented.”

“That’s true, but what does that have to do with the current situation…?”

Hardin closed his eyes for a moment.

— This death… is no different from plucking the wings off a dragonfly. To me, it is nothing but a game, a plaything.

A voice from the past flickered through his mind.

Gloomy, sticky, a voice so vile that merely hearing it made the skin crawl.

Hardin slowly opened his eyes, his voice flat and dry.

“I’ve dealt with people like that enough to know.”

“…You’ve dealt with them?”

“Yeah. From when I was young, those arrogant bastards who thought too highly of themselves…”

Hardin’s brow furrowed as a disgusted expression crossed his face.

“Usually, they don’t just kill their prey. They toy with it slowly… to savor the enjoyment.”

“What does that…”

“Never mind. Forget it. What’s really important is…”

Hardin took a deep breath and rose to his feet.

“That reinforcements will be here soon.”

Flinch!

Manton’s eyes went wide as he quickly asked,

“The Princess’s reinforcements… they’re arriving soon?”

‘Did he pull it off?’

The support of Princess Medeia.

If that really arrived… then this battle could be overturned completely.

As Manton’s face lit up with hope, Hardin shrugged again and replied.

“No? Nothing like that is coming.”

“…What? What do you mean…?”

“There’s no such thing as the Princess’s reinforcements. Why would they come here? They’re too busy looking after themselves.”

“What? But, Young Master, you said—”

Hardin firmly waved his hand, and Manton’s eyes wavered as his body trembled.

‘What’s going on right now?’

Hadn’t everything so far been for that very reason?

If not that, then… what for? Didn’t the Young Master have some other plan? Why?

Questions tangled endlessly in his head.

“I don’t understand, Young Master. If Her Highness isn’t coming… then just now, when you said reinforcements are arriving—what did you mean?”

“Oh, there are reinforcements coming.”

Hardin raised his finger high up toward the sky and said.

“…Up there in the sky.”

“The… sky?”

Kwarururung!

In that instant, thunder suddenly cracked across the heavens.

“Huh?”

“Lightning…?”

Manton, along with the soldiers and sailors on deck, lifted their heads.

The once clear blue sky had already turned gray…

Swaaahhhh!

Sheets of heavy rain poured down like a mad torrent, and the wind began to howl fiercely.

Within mere minutes, the waves swelled violently.

The ships rocked and heaved.

“Uwaaaaah!”

“Wh-why is the weather suddenly like this…?”

At that moment, Manton’s eyes widened.

There was a strange sense of déjà vu in this sudden change of weather.

‘…This is…’

The salty stench in the air.

The rough wind whipping through his hair, the surging swells of the sea.

He had experienced this kind of weather many times back in Mudside.

And whenever the weather was like this—

‘It always came.’

The very calamity that had crushed and swept away the half-built Mudside countless times.

‘Looks like he’s noticed it too.’

Hardin smirked, the corner of his lips curling upward.

Thanks to dragging things out and buying time, the “reinforcements” were now just about to arrive.

But he had no intention of simply sitting and waiting.

If he wanted to sweep away those Tread bastards blocking the front—

‘I’ve still got a little work left to do.’

Kwaaak.

Hardin gripped the sword in his hand tightly.

Then he drew in mana, channeling it into the blade.

“Khrrrrr!”

His body trembled violently as he stared up into the sky.

The raging mana flowing through the sword suddenly converged at a single point on the edge of the blade.

“Huuaaaahhh!”

Hardin swung the sword upward with all his might.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

A massive blue wave of energy shot skyward.

“A… Shockwave?”

“It’s huge!”

Everyone aboard the ironclads gaped in shock.

And outside the reef zone—

“My Lord!”

“What is that?”

Count Vernian and Commander Pattinson of the knights, who had been holding position, also saw it clearly, both of them frowning as they looked up.

The blue shockwave flew high into the sky…

Puuuuuuum! Puuuum!

And then exploded, scattering outward in all directions.

It looked almost exactly like the firework magic sometimes used by the mages of the Free City during the Harvest Festival.

The sparks burst in the rain, reflecting here and there… creating a strange sight as if a meteor shower were falling.

Everyone aboard the ships stared blankly, as though bewitched by the spectacle.

Then, standing by Hardin’s side, Manton furrowed his brows and spoke.

“What does this mean, Young Master?”

“I just lent our reinforcements a little strength.”

“…What?”

And at that moment—

Kwoooooooong!

A deafening roar echoed from behind, and everyone turned their heads in that direction.

“Th-that island over there, isn’t it?”

“That’s right, that’s it. The place where we trained…”

It was the rocky isle where the Kreveion had been subjugated, the same isle where the knights of Daphne had recently trained.

And on one side of that isle, the tall stone tower—

“It’s collapsing!”

“What the—why all of a sudden?”

Kwaaarururururung!

With a violent explosion, the tower crumbled apart, and hundreds of boulders tumbled into the sea.

Beryl’s eyes widened.

“That’s…!”

Wasn’t that the tower I built?

He immediately realized that the collapsing structure was the very stone tower he had painstakingly erected, losing sleep alongside the Cockatrice.

‘What’s going on? How the hell is this happening?’

‘Fireworks?’

‘And the stone tower, why…?’

The people of Daphne, as well as those of the Count of Tread, all wore expressions of confusion and bewilderment.

None of them could make sense of the chain of events unfolding before their eyes.

At that moment, Hardin clenched his fist tight, the corners of his lips curling into a sharp grin.

“They’re coming.”

“……”

How long did they wait in silence?

Swaaaahhhhhh!

A sound, distant yet rising, began to reach their ears.

And then—

“Uh… doesn’t it look like the coastline’s gotten higher?”

“Coastline?”

The sailors in the watchtower narrowed their eyes and murmured.

It felt strangely as though the surface of the sea itself had risen.

As time passed, their mouths slowly fell open—until at some point, they gaped so wide it looked as if their jaws might tear apart.

The reason was—

“A… a tidal wave!”

“A tidal wave’s coming straight at us!”

Only then did they realize what was bearing down on them.

And worse—

Swaaaaaahhhhhh!

The tidal wave rushing their way was several times larger than the ones that had already swallowed the trade port construction site multiple times in the past.

The sentries’ shouts spread across the fleet.

“A… tidal wave?”

“Holy shiiiit!”

Everyone cried out in panic and disbelief.

And at that very moment—

“Then let’s give them a taste of our reinforcements.”

The battle… was only just beginning.

With a chilling smile, Hardin licked his lips lightly.

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