The Crazy Killer Whale’s Favourite Penguin

Episode 62: Death Mark (V)

As if recognizing me at once, one of them backed away and pointed at me.

“You, you…!”

“Do you want to die? Are you pointing your finger at me?”

While I drew attention, Hanu quickly subdued the two men.

“Hey, let go of me!”

“I-I have nothing to do with this guy!”

They protested and screamed loudly, but both fell to their knees at Hanu’s touch.

“I don’t think this is a minor offense that can be passed over.”

Hanu, who had always been docile, raised his eyes resolutely.

I stepped on the thigh of the man who boasted loudly that he had handed Jerome over to a stowaway ship.

Then I lifted his chin slowly with my index finger.

“So, who did you sell? And to where?”

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Jerome banged his head on the wooden vessel.

If he didn’t do this, he thought he would go crazy from resentment. Of himself.

After being used under Mama all his life, having never felt free… Was this the end?

Not just Mama. None of the other shark demibeasts were going to worry about him.

Rather, they might click their tongues saying that he was pathetic for being caught.

Even when he was beaten by other shark demibeasts, he had never shed a single tear, but the sadness he had endured so far came flooding in at once.

Taktak.

In the end, tears rolled down Jerome’s cheeks.

Because he was born a shark. For being born weak.

Could he really not live a normal life?

If there was even one person who was worried about him, he wouldn’t be so miserable.

It was when he was letting out his sorrowful heart.

Urgent footsteps and raucous voices could be heard from the deck.

“Captain! There, there seems to be intruders!”

“What? Damn it, didn’t you check properly before leaving?!”

“I-I’ve definitely checked carefully, but…”

“Then did they drop from the sky?! What, ugh, what are you doing, not grabbing them quickly!”

Hearing that, Jerome laughed like he was going crazy rather than trembling for fear of harm to himself.

‘Intruders. Well, since it’s a stowaway ship, there must be a lot to steal.’

Even the box next to him was full of expensive goods that could only be obtained in the Weil family territory.

If it was a novel, a savior would have appeared in front of his poor self by now.

Miracles like that wouldn’t happen.

Thud.

“Is Jerome there?”

Out of nowhere, a door opened and a familiar voice called his name.

Jerome hurriedly raised his head and looked toward the door of the cargo hold.

It was a woman, the one who looked exactly like a killer whale demibeast but insisted that she was a penguin demibeast.

She had behaved casually yesterday, calling him her subordinate.

Water was dripping from her body as if she had just been in and out of the sea.

Jerome looked at Lia with blank eyes.

“How can you…”

She walked straight to him, not paying attention to her wet clothes.

Then, when she was about to reach his nose, she bent forward and tilted her head.

“Oh, are you crying?”

“Who, who cried!”

“Sir Hanu. You can rest easy. Seeing him open his mouth, he must be fine.”

“…Lady Lia, where did you learn to say that?”

“Here and there.”

Behind her, who turned around quickly, stood the escort who had been with her yesterday.

‘No way.’

‘Really… To save me…?’

‘Didn’t we just meet for the first time yesterday?’

‘I’m not only a shark demibeast, which is a killer whale’s nemesis, but I even stole her money bag after she helped me?’

Lia straightened her head and grinned at Jerome.

“I heard you were going to be exhibited in a rich man’s fish tank?”

“…What?”

“You’re my subordinate, I’m not so kind as to give you to someone else.”

—Let’s go.

Lia, who had untied all the ropes, held out her hand as if telling him to stand up.

It was like a dream. Jerome couldn’t bear to hold her hand.

‘I’m afraid that if I catch it, it will disappear like a mirage.’

“If you don’t want to hold it, then don’t.”

Lia waited a few seconds before she withdrew her hand.

Jerome, on the contrary, registered the motion and realized that it was real.

Although he hasn’t completely escaped yet, a feeling of relief filled his chest.

Whether or not he knew Jerome’s heart, Hanu frowned with a distant expression.

“Lia, it still feels like a dream to me to be on a smuggling ship… I wish it was just a dream.”

Hanu let out a small sigh as if lamenting his situation, then asked anxiously.

“Lady Lia, everything is fine, but how do we escape now? Do you have any plans?”

“I have a good method.”

“…Is it a gentle way?”

A brief silence passed between the two.

…It definitely wasn’t a moderate way.

Lia quickly changed her stance and said,

“Plan? That’s what weak people build.”

“Is that how it works…”

“There is a saying that if the body is not good, the head suffers. I’m going head-to-head.”

Lia slammed the cargo hold door open, then she shouted.

“Hey! Do you all pay customs for this cargo?”

“There she is!”

“Catch her!”

They rushed to Lia like a swarm of mosquitoes in midsummer.

Hah.

Hanu facepalmed like he had expected this would happen.

Even so, he steadily raised his sword and stood by Lia.

Lia laughed, teasing the people running to catch her.

“Oh my God. You don’t pay that important tariff? Well, then how do you keep your tax obligations with the buying and selling?”

While Lia was giggling like a villain, Hanu carefully grabbed her by the sleeve.

“That… Lady Lia.”

“Huh. Why did you call me, Sir Hanu?”

“You just looked like a thug.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“It wasn’t a compliment…”

Hanu continued to mutter, but Lia raised her magic wand regardless.

At that, he did not hide his expression which was akin to dying of anxiety.

“Are you going to use magic?”

“Mhm.”

“Can’t you leave it to me? I heard that the magnitude of magic is incredible…”

“Wouldn’t it be more convenient to just sweep it all at once? It will show the overwhelming power gap.”

As if asking her to think carefully, Hanu calmly uttered,

“Lady Lia. Earlier, when it hadn’t been long since the boat departed, the wind was not strong, so the speed of the boat was slow.”

“So what do you want to say?”

“We were able to swim all the way here, but now that we are far from the land, it’s difficult to swim again.”

“All right, okay.”

To reassure Hanu, Lia gave him an ‘okay’ sign with her finger, then concentrated intently and raised her mana.

A little.

This time she was putting as little mana as possible into her wand.

“Mini ice balls!”

Quqwagwagwagwagwagwang-!

“…Laaaady Liaaaaaaa!!!”

At the same time as a giant ice ball was launched, Hanu’s screams echoed across the deck.

“Putting the word ‘mini’ in front of it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be small, right?”

Due to misdirection, the ship was hit by the ice ball, which led to it being torn in half.

The ship was rocking and the water was rising at a frightening speed.

Lia gazed at it in a carefree manner. No, she admired it.

“Wow.”

Lia also didn’t expect the ice ball to be this big, but what about it.

There was no leniency to be given to criminals anyway, so she was relaxed.

“…Aren’t you scared? Lia?”

“When I was a penguin, I sometimes went out to the sea to swim, so no, I’m not scared. In case you forgot, penguins like water.”

Lia calmly turned back and pointed at Jerome, whose mouth was wide open.

“Now it’s your turn, Jerome!”

“What, what?”

“You are a shark demibeast, so take responsibility and bring me and Sir Hanu to the land!”

“Huh?! Why me? I don’t know about that escort, but you’re a penguin!”

When Jerome shouted incredulously, Lia calmly pretended to clear her ears.

“I didn’t tell you? I don’t know how to animalize.”

“What? What kind of demibeast can’t turn into an animal?”

“Oh, that’s too much, I mean I might not be able to do that.”

Hruk.

Before Jerome knew it, his stomach tilted to such an extent that he could hardly stand without holding on to something.

Lia smiled brightly, incongruous with the situation.

“Then I’ll assume you understand, and I’ll ask you a favor!”