Kraken

Now that I had become a noble, I set out on a surveying journey to understand my territory—Hamada Territory.

After passing through the village of Santanka near Sakura, our base, we continued surveying smoothly for about three days, ate fish we caught in the lake, took a bath, and slept in the container house.

I had been sleeping soundly, reassured by how smoothly the survey was progressing, when Nyamena suddenly woke me.

"Boss! There's something seriously dangerous outside!"

When I looked, Bell's fur was standing on end too. This was no ordinary problem.

As I hurriedly woke everyone, the container house began to move.

It was made of iron and weighed quite a lot. What could possibly be moving it?

As we panicked, the room overturned, and the world spun amid utter chaos.

"What on earth is happening?!"

The container house had fallen ninety degrees onto its side, leaving the window above us.

The room also had an aluminum door, but it opened outward, so opening it upward would be difficult.

When I opened the window and tried to crawl out, something transparent as thick as a human torso clung to the window.

"What the hell is this?!"

When I shone the LED lantern at the window, a round disk was stuck to the glass.

"Fgyah!"

"Boss! What is this thing?! Is it a tentacle?!"

"Huh? Is this a sucker?!"

If it had suckers, was it an octopus or a squid? I vaguely remembered that octopus and squid suckers were somehow different...

I had forgotten. What did you call a monster like this? A kraken? A Tentaclus?

Could there really be a kraken in freshwater? Wasn't that supposed to be a sea monster?

Whatever it was, I had to get outside quickly, or it might drag us into the water while we were still inside.

I opened the window a little, took a gas burner for a cassette canister from my Item Box, and lit it.

I held the blue flame against the tentacle clinging to the window and slowly burned it.

White smoke rose and drifted through the room, carrying the smell of grilled squid tentacles—which meant this thing was probably a squid.

Perhaps the heat had reached the tentacle. A huge white object withdrew from the window.

"All right! Now!"

I had the nimble beastfolk climb out first and pull the others up.

"Is it safe outside?"

"Waaaaah! Boss! There's something out here! There's something here!"

It was unusual to see Nyamena this flustered.

Myaaree, on the other hand, was calm.

"Tiger! Stop being scared and pull them up already!"

After the beastfolk pulled us up, I took an LED light from my Item Box.

In the blue-white light, several enormous tentacles emerged from the black surface of the lake.

Three of them were clinging to the container house, but the main body must have been beneath the black water, because we could not see it.

The beastfolk and I jumped down from the container house and caught Lilith and Anemone.

"Damn it! We have to cut these tentacles loose!"

I summoned a combat mech equipped with the giant sword from my Item Box.

"Kenichi! Bring out the golem core!"

"Got it!"

At Anemone's urging, I threw the golem core onto the beach.

"Mmph!"

Along with Anemone's magic, blue-white light gathered in the darkness, and sand began collecting around the core.

"Lilith, get away from the shore. Myaaree! Guard Lilith!"

"Got it, nya!"

I handed Myaaree the LED light and had her serve as our lighting.

"Kenichi, what will you do?!"

"We'll just have to deal with it somehow."

"Shaaaah!"

Bell was doing her best to threaten it, but against such a gigantic enemy, there was probably nothing she could do either.

We had managed to get outside the container, so we could run away as a last resort—but that was the absolute final option.

I climbed into the heavy machinery and started the engine.

I selected Power Mode from the console to the right of the driver's seat, and the adamantite sword attached to the arm rose high into the air.

"Ko○tsu One-Sword Severing! The divine-iron strike that cleaves the Eternal World and the Hidden World!"

I gripped the lever and brought the giant sword down.

The transparent tentacle in the sword's path was severed without a sound, and a cloud of dust rose from the beach where the blade struck.

The tentacle that had been clinging transparently to the container house instantly turned pure white and began writhing randomly.

"Waaaaah! That's disgusting!"

"Shaaaah!"

Nyamena and Bell saw it and raised their fur in alarm.

We had learned that the monster's enormous tentacles could be severed, but now they came rushing at me and Ko○tsu-san.

"Damn it!"

I frantically worked the lever, trying to knock the tentacles away with the sword attached to the arm, but—

The heavy machinery was not very quick to respond and could not match the speed and agility of a real living creature.

Just as the tentacle was about to coil around Ko○tsu-san's yellow body, a sand wall created by Anemone's golem rose up in its path.

"All right!"

I leveled the giant sword, stepped on the pedal, and spun the vehicle around once on the spot.

"Ko○tsu Grand Spinning Slash! The divine-iron hand blade that cleaves Heaven and Earth!"

The sword swept horizontally through the transparent tentacle and the sand wall created by the golem magic alike.

The golem, cut cleanly in half, collapsed, while the tentacle, now white, thrashed wildly across the beach.

Perhaps because two of its arms had been severed, the other arms clinging to the container house began withdrawing as well.

I climbed down from Ko○tsu-san, took a pressure-cooker bomb from my Item Box, and handed it to Nyamena.

"Nyamena! Throw this toward the water where the tentacles are coming out!"

"Waaaaah!"

She was half panicking, but she still carried out her task.

The silver pot flew in an arc and landed on the black surface of the water.

Our attack was ready.

"Anemone!"

"Mmph! Explosion (Small)!"

"Everyone, get down!"

Along with Anemone's magic, a tremendous roar rang out, and a huge column of water rose from the lake.

When it exploded, the enormous tentacle was dragged into the black water in a motion like a video playing backward.

There was no way to check what had happened to the monster. Even if I wanted to deliver the finishing blow, pursuing it underwater in such darkness was impossible.

The water's surface was empty except for ripples, but white fish soon began floating up.

I was not about to pick up fish in a situation like this.

I stored the two severed monster arms and the container house in my Item Box, then took out the La○kuru instead.

"Everyone, get in! We're leaving this place!"

Everyone hurried into the La○kuru, and I started the engine.

I turned on the headlights and drove along the water's edge.

In the car's headlights, two glowing orbs flickered here and there. They were probably animal eyes.

After driving about five kilometers, we found a place with a wide beach and stopped the car.

I set up the container house away from the water's edge.

When we entered the room, the beds were a complete mess.

Rather than fix everything one thing at a time, it would be quicker to store the beds in my Item Box and set them up again.

After taking the beds back out, I spread the sheets over them again. We sat on the edges and all sighed.

"Pheeeew..."

"Unyaa..."

The beastfolk collapsed onto the beds in relief.

"Kenichi, this place should be safe, right?"

Lilith murmured from atop the bed.

"I don't know, but as long as we're inside this iron box, we probably won't suddenly die."

"That's right, nya. We'd be fine even against a Black Wolf or Fang Bear."

"Our attacks must have hurt that giant thing badly. I doubt it'll come after us again..."

Nyamena's fur was still standing on end, so I hugged her and stroked her.

She had been fine against Amaranthus and even a wyvern. Perhaps this enemy had simply been repulsive on an instinctive level.

Even though it was the middle of the night, I was too agitated to fall asleep.

I was mentally exhausted too, so I decided to have something sweet to drink.

What should I make...? How about hot chocolate milk?

I put chocolate and sugar in a small pot and had Anemone heat it with her magic.

Once the chocolate had melted into a thick paste, I added milk and stirred it, then had Anemone heat it again with her magic.

The room filled with the sweet smell of chocolate.

"Let me taste it—this should do."

I prepared a cup for everyone and poured in the drink.

"Mmm... It's sweet. It tastes like chocolate."

"Delicious."

"Sweet, nya~"

Nyamena was silent, so I gave her some to drink as well.

"Here, Nyamena."

Nyamena had been trembling, but she slowly began drinking the chocolate milk.

Good grief. I never expected a supposedly easy surveying job to involve trouble like this.

The story the people of Santanka had told us about a monster had not been a complete lie after all.

Once my stomach and mind had settled, drowsiness overcame me, so I decided to sleep.

I tried to turn off the lights, but everyone said they were scared, so I bought and turned on a small egg-shaped light.

Since its brightness could be adjusted, I asked everyone what they preferred.

Nyamena still looked anxious, so I decided to sleep beside her.

------◇◇◇------

—Then, the next day passed without incident.

Sunlight slanting through the window was dazzling. Being alive was a wonderful thing.

There was a monster like that in this lake too. Once we returned to Sakura, I would have to warn everyone.

I woke everyone else as well. We had stayed up a little later than intended, after all.

They must have been mentally exhausted too.

No one seemed physically injured, but I was worried about Nyamena. She looked as though she had been badly traumatized.

I tried to wake her.

"Hey, Nyamena—"

She sat up sluggishly at the sound of my voice, then clung to me.

"Nyamena, it's all right now."

"Boss... I really embarrassed myself..."

"You were fine against a wyvern, but look at you now. That must have been an especially horrible enemy for you."

"You have no idea—just thinking about it..."

Her fur stood on end again. It was the equivalent of goosebumps in humans.

I stroked her fur.

"You're spoiling her, Kenichi. That's no good, nya."

"Come on, don't say that. She faced a terrifying enemy for us."

"..."

Nyamena remained silent, ears folded back as she clung to me.

Well, none of us felt like cooking outside, so I bought bread from Shangri-La and made do with milk and granola.

This was convenient at times like this. Even if we had no appetite, it was easy to eat and provided nutrition.

Nyamena seemed to have no appetite, so I fed her some jelly-like nutritional food.

Once our stomachs were full, we went outside and stretched.

"Mmm! We sure did a lot of running during yesterday's commotion. We have to go back to yesterday's location and redo the survey."

Since we had dug a hole for the bath, we should be able to find the place easily even after returning.

I took the La○kuru out of my Item Box and loaded everyone inside.

"Nyamena, if you're scared to go back, you can wait here..."

"I don't want to be alone!"

Her tail was drooping, so she still seemed to be in low spirits.

As I drove, I looked at the lake to my left. Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, making yesterday seem like a dream, but...

But that had really happened.

"I've lived near this lake for so long, but I never knew there was a monster like that here."

"I know!"

"Yeah, nya. I never sensed a thing, nya."

"You mean you'd never encountered it before?"

"Apparently there were no such rumors even in Astrantia. The people of Santanka did seem to know there was something here, though..."

There really were missing people, apparently, but we did not know whether that thing had attacked them.

Bell did not seem wary of the lake either, so it probably usually hid deep beneath its surface.

I had absolutely no idea what the bottom of this lake looked like.

Besides, it was an enormous lake.

If its circumference was 150 kilometers, dividing that by pi would give a diameter of more than 47 kilometers.

There probably were not many freshwater lakes this large.

We arrived at the place where we had camped the day before.

When we arrived, the colorful birds and small animals there scattered in every direction.

A large number of fish had washed up along the water's edge, and it seemed the animals had been eating them.

"There are lots of fish, nya."

"They've probably gone bad, so don't eat them."

"What a waste, nya~"

The beach still bore the marks of the hole we had dug for the bath and the trail left by the container being dragged.

I got out of the car and prepared for the survey.

"Lilith and Anemone, you can stay in the car."

"Tiger can stay in too, nya."

"Shut up! I'm fine now!"

Provoked by Myaaree, Nyamena jumped out of the car, but she was still trembling.

I did not want to stay in this place any longer than necessary either, so I decided to finish the survey quickly.

I had the beastfolk run along the water's edge carrying the surveying sign.

While we were ignoring the water's edge, the birds gathered again to peck at the fish that had washed ashore.

Bell, who had gotten out of the car, was watching them.

She lowered her black body until it was almost touching the ground and silently crept toward the water's edge.

The birds noticed her and took flight, and Bell leaped at the same moment.

She caught a large white bird in her mouth.

"Amazing! So that's how you've been catching birds."

Bell proudly carried the bird over to show me, holding it in her mouth.

The bird was still alive and flapping.

Bell disappeared somewhere with it, so perhaps she went off to eat it.

As for the survey, all I had to do was look through the laser rangefinder, take the measurement, and write it on the map.

Simple enough.

I called Bell over, and she immediately got into the car as we headed for the next location.

There was white fur around her mouth, so she had probably already eaten.

We continued on, surveying the place where we had taken refuge the night before, and then a marshland spread out before us.

We could not drive through the marsh, so we decided to travel along the water's edge in two rubber boats.

A feat like this was only possible for someone like Kenichi, whose Item Box contained all sorts of unbelievable things. If an ordinary noble were put in charge of it, it would be a major undertaking that took several years.

"Before that, we'd all have been wiped out by yesterday's giant wriggly thing..."

"Anemone is right. Even with a knight corps, I cannot imagine anyone defeating that thing."

Well, if it dragged them into the water, no matter how strong the knights or warriors were, they would be unable to fight.

Even if we had a rowboat, it would not be useful in combat.

To fight that thing, we would need a huge warship.

Or perhaps we could have a large group of people pull it ashore and fight it there.

I gave the beastfolk pink paint spray and had them mark the locations where they set up the signs.

I put a sheet of plywood on the rubber boat, set the tripod on top, and looked through the laser rangefinder.

It was extremely unstable, but we managed somehow.

We could not cover much ground at this rate, but after traveling ten kilometers, the marsh finally ended.

It felt like an explorer traversing an unexplored land.

I wondered whether the explorers of my old world, long ago, had explored unknown lands in much the same way.

They must have struggled terribly, but I had my Item Box, so this was easy.

Once the marsh ended and solid ground appeared, we set up the container house and decided to spend the night there.

I lit a fire and grilled dragon meat.

When the meat was nicely browned, I suddenly remembered something.

The monster's leg I had put in my Item Box yesterday.

It had smelled like squid tentacles when I burned it with the burner, so perhaps it was edible.

When I checked the display in my Item Box, it read: Kraken Tentacle.

So it really was a kraken.

I took it out of my Item Box.

"Eeeek!"

Nyamena fled in panic when she saw the enormous white squid tentacle.

"Kenichi, what are you going to do with that?"

"I thought I'd try eating it."

"Aaaaaah! Boss! Stop him!"

I knew I was being insensitive by taking something like this out in front of Nyamena while she was traumatized, but I could not put the brakes on my curiosity.

"Tiger, you're being noisy, nya."

"Come on, I'm just going to try it."

I thinly sliced the white tentacle with a knife and skewered it in a wave pattern on a skewer from my Item Box.

"This should do it."

I poured soy sauce over the white, wavy strip and stuck it beside the campfire.

The fragrant smell of squid and soy sauce browning soon rose through the air. It smelled delicious, at least.

"I wonder if it's done yet?"

I took the squid tentacle off the skewer and tried a bite.

"Eeeek!"

Nyamena's screaming was annoying, but it was surprisingly good! It had no unpleasant bitterness and even had a sweetness to it. It tasted just like fresh squid.

So it really was a squid. The Item Box display called it a kraken, too.

"Urp..."

Watching me eat made Nyamena look as though she was about to throw up before even eating her own meal.

I felt sorry for her, so I put the tentacle back in my Item Box.

I would have to eat it somewhere Nyamena could not see.

"Kenichi, give me some."

Lilith would eat anything.

"We don't know that it's safe yet, so just one bite. Apparently the Blessing means I won't die easily, so I'm not worried."

Lilith opened her mouth and took a bite of the tentacle I held out on the skewer.

"Oh! It is neither fish nor beast meat—truly a delicacy! It resembles whatever was inside that takoyaki we ate before."

Anemone was eating the rest, and she seemed perfectly fine with it.

Apparently, it was delicious.

"Wow, Lilith, you noticed that quickly. But was it known that there was a monster like that here?"

"No, this is the first I have heard of it..."

"I thought creatures like that normally lived in the sea."

"Do you know what it was, Kenichi?"

"That was a kraken."

"A kraken? I believe I read about them as sea monsters in one of the books in the castle library..."

After watching us eat it, Nyamena seemed to have lost her appetite entirely.

I bought liquid food and nutritional supplements from Shangri-La and fed them to her.

She seemed fine with sweet things, so I gave her some chocolate too.

It was better than eating nothing at all.

"I never thought Tiger was this weak, nya."

"Shut up..."

Her retort to Myaaree's taunt lacked its usual bite.

As the surroundings grew dark, the sky changed from purple to deep blue, and the lake became a pitch-black mirror.

"Do you think that giant thing will come back, nya?"

Nyamena flinched at Myaaree's words.

"We cut off two of its arms and threatened it with Explosion. It won't come back for a while, right?"

"I am a little afraid that those tentacles might return..."

"Creatures like that are highly intelligent. It will probably be all right."

There had even been television programs claiming that octopuses and squid would dominate the world after humanity went extinct.

That was how intelligent they were.

While we were all eating meat, Bell, who had been eating cat food, stood up.

"Hmm? Mother, what is it?"

Bell was staring intently toward the forest.

"Did something come?"

"Something's here, nya."

I took the car out of my Item Box and pushed Lilith inside.

Seriously? It was too dark to tell what was happening. I searched Shangri-La and bought a night-vision device for about ¥40,000.

"Here we go."

A dark-green machine resembling binoculars dropped down.

I switched it on and looked through it. In the green-tinted view, I could see many pairs of glowing white eyes moving around.

Four-legged creatures with black fur—Black Wolves.

"Black Wolves again?"

"Kenichi, let me see!"

Anemone wanted to look, so I let her use the night-vision device.

"Amazing! You can see even in the dark! Can I cast magic?"

"Huh? Well, it would probably be better to drive them off now..."

"Mmph! Explosion!"

Anemone cast her spell while still looking through the night-vision device. I worried about whether she could judge the distance properly, but she had used magic while looking through a scope before, so it was probably fine.

Blue light gathered in the darkness of the forest, and the yellow flash transformed into red flames.

A powerful blast of wind struck us and swept across the lake, knocking the trees in the forest down one after another.

The wolves could not possibly survive taking a hit like that.

I took the beastfolk's equipment from my Item Box.

"Myaaree, go finish off anything still alive. Collect anything that looks edible too."

The beastfolk had naturally good night vision, so darkness was no problem for them.

"Leave it to me, nya!"

"Boss, I'll go!"

Nyamena stood up with a sword in hand.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine!"

"You don't have to force yourself, nya."

"Shut up!"

Myaaree quickly hid behind me.

"Hey, Myaaree! Stop taunting her."

Then I decided to have Nyamena do it as well.

If they were wolves, she would probably be fine.

I thought it would be easy—but a large number of surviving Black Wolves had slipped through our attack.

"There are still some of them!"

Normally, wolves would tuck their tails and run after taking that much punishment, but this time seemed different.

I bought about six cheap LED lanterns from Shangri-La, turned them on, and tossed them around the area.

The blue-white LED light revealed about ten black-furred creatures.

"All right! Container house summon! Ko○tsu-san summon!"

At my shout, the container house and heavy machinery dropped onto the Black Wolves.

"Yelp!" "Yipe!!"

One beast after another was crushed beneath the iron masses, but Bell's fur was still standing on end.

There must still be something else here.

"There's still one more!"

What emerged from deeper in the forest was a particularly large bear-like beast, but it was definitely a wolf.

"Boss, I'll charge in!"

"Are you sure?!"

"Leave it to me! Raaaaah!"

Nyamena charged with her sword held low, its tip nearly scraping the ground. She dodged the Black Wolf's bite and slashed upward from below.

She put some distance between them, then jumped while dodging the Black Wolf's fangs with quick feints to either side.

She brought the sword she had raised high down onto the black-furred creature's forehead.

While Nyamena attacked, I climbed into the heavy machinery and started the engine.

When Nyamena heard Ko○tsu-san's engine start, she instantly spun around and retreated with a series of rapid back handsprings.

"Boss!"

"All right! The black guillotine descending from the brink of death!"

The adamantite blade came down on the sluggish giant Black Wolf's head, splitting both the ground and its head cleanly in two.

That settled the fight.

"We did it, nya! Tiger's pretty good too, nya!"

"You did it!"

Nyamena looked a little embarrassed at Anemone's cheers.

Bell went over to the boss wolf and sniffed it repeatedly.

"Quite a fighter!"

Lilith got out of the car too.

After Nyamena finished off the remaining Black Wolves, the beastfolk collected the corpses.

My Item Box now held about twenty-five Black Wolves and one enormous black-furred wolf.