Chapter 20

A Woman Who Can't act like a Heroine

"Hmm. I guess it's not something I'm used to doing."

Iselda's plan was easily crushed.

Hornet had a tendency to be liked by women anyway. So, if she reached out to her, she would come to her.

She thought, but it seemed it was not that easy.

Of course, it would be easy to use magic to restrain him without going through the trouble.

However, she wanted to conserve his magic power as much as possible.

If she was out of magic power, this body would collapse. She had to carefully assess when to use magic.

If it was a gift, there was a way to safely restrain her with minimal magic consumption, but the royal woman seemed to have woken up, and the disabling ability was once again in effect.

As for the bugs, they were too far away to be stopped.

If they left as soon as they saw each other, there would be no time for the bugs to wrap around her and get inside.

And she didn't want to damage her body with bugs.

She wanted to get a woman's body in the most natural way possible.

"What the hell, man!"

A group of men came running out of the lounge.

They must have been chasing the girl from earlier.

Iselda easily killed the men with the sword in her hand.

If neither of them could use their gifts, then the rest was a contest of pure skill.

Iselda's body was that of the hero Hornet, and even though his personality was gone, her swordsmanship was ingrained in him. It was no problem for her to take on a pirate with a little bit of skill.

But that was probably her carelessness.

She couldn't dodge the blow of the knight who jumped out of the way, and Iselda's side was slashed.

It was not a fatal wound. But it consumed extra magic power to repair it.

"The fact that you are heroes is factored in. You won't have much of an advantage."

They must have studied the ship's capabilities before the attack.

They were going into this with the odds stacked against them.

"Hmm. I'm not sure if it's the king's sword or the beast's sword. If it was a rank before the inflation of skills began, it could wield its full power in this situation."

There was a rank of swordsmanship with the kensei at the top.

The higher level ones wield immense skills that go beyond swordsmanship, but that was because of their gifts.

In a fight using only a sword, a lower level swordsman may be more proficient.

If she was looking for a way to get through this, she had to use magic.

However, Iselda still had something she wanted to try.

『Hey! Stay where you are! 』

Suddenly, a woman's voice rang through the ship.

The female pirate leader was broadcasting from the wheelhouse.

The knight reacted to the voice and stiffened for a moment.

Iselda took advantage of this and beheaded the knight.

『Damn it! What the hell did you do to me? 』

"I was able to manipulate your body a bit. I'm not lying when I say that I don't manipulate minds."

Of course, the words would never reach the wheelhouse.

Iselda used the bugs in her body to interfere with the nervous system and manipulate the woman's body. It was a delicate and painstaking process, but it only consumed magic power for communication.

"But I never thought I'd have to struggle so much with resource management."

Originally, she hadn't planned on waking up in the body of Hornet, so she wasn't prepared for it.

As Iselda was complaining, five passengers arrived.

They were the distant descendants of Iselda, and were her alter egos. Iselda has been activated, but her self-consciousness has not yet awakened, and she has been collecting magic power according to the instructions from the bugs.

"I thought there would be more."

So, in order to increase the number of minions, she decided to open the gate leading to the underworld

From the gates, the spirits of the dead would flood in, haunt the corpses, and start to move and attack people.

Of course, this alone could attack even the target of the search, but a contract would be made with any dead spirit that passed through the gate. This made it possible to restrict their actions.

They would not attack Iselda and the search targets.

If they found the target, they had to inform Iselda.

That was the only condition that Iselda imposed.

The dead spirits were watching vigilantly for an opportunity to come out into the world.

The rest of the time, they would be killing people and making more friends at their leisure.

With this method, she only need to consume magic power to open the gate. It was an ideal method for Iselda, who wanted to conserve her magic power.

＊＊＊＊＊

Tomochika was sitting on the bottom step of the main staircase and saw Yogiri coming in, looking very unmotivated.

"You're slow! Were you running with that thing?"

Yogiri was out of breath when she saw him.

Tomochika thought that maybe she had done her best in her own way and that she should not be too strong.

"It's a swimsuit… Nice."

"Stop staring and catch your breath!"

Tomochika was accustomed to being watched, but this was in response to the kind of glances that were reserved and peeking.

It was embarrassing for her to be watched so closely and head-on.

"So, what are we going to do? I have no idea what's going on here."

As Yogiri sat down next to her, Tomochika began to talk about the future.

"Well. From what I've heard so far, it seems that there are two things going on. One is the pirates. The other is the boy we met, the one who seems to have been manipulated."

"Hmm. There's no point in taking them seriously. Can't we just get out of here somehow?"

"Hmm. I knew you couldn't act like a heroine. Don't you want to show your benevolence by saying that you want to help all the passengers?"

"What if I start saying that??"

"I'll tell you to stop wasting your time."

"Don't talk to me like that!"

"But running away is not an easy thing to do in this situation. The escape boat had been swept out to sea."

By the time he got there, she checked, but the escape boat was gone.

It was probably the work of pirates.

They wanted to take the passengers hostage, so it was only natural to deprive them of a means of escape.

"What about building a ship out of the tentacles?"

Yogiri said. It was one of the plans he had in advance.

He told her that he could build a ship that could hold about three people.

"The seal was broken for a while just now, but now it's no good."

"There was a seal in King's Landing, but it worked, right?"

"The seal in King's Landing was weak and wide, and that reduced the power of the seal. But the seal used here has a powerful effect within a small area."

?You say it's small, but I think this ship is pretty big."

"Yeah. Then why don't you jump into the sea, swim to get out of the area of effect and then use it?"

"... Are you a good swimmer, Takato? If an amateur jumps into the ocean, he will die."

It was a good thing he was not the only one who couldn't do this.

"It's not impossible to use the Dannoura swimming method to swim while securing one person, but we'll have to throw away Enju. It's quite heavy."

"After all, it would be easier to deal with this situation than to run away, wouldn't it?"

"Hmm. The disabling ability and the Kraken are both pirate-related. It's a good idea to take down the pirate leader."

When he had caught his breath, Yogiri stood up.

"Where do you think the leader is?"

"Let's just grab some pirates and make them talk. Tomochika, you're in charge."

"Why?"

"Because my powers aren't designed for interrogation."

"I'm radio-controlling. It's like playing on an old-school VAIO".

"Why, the ghost of the Heian period knows a lot about games!"

Tomochika also got up and walked away.

"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be in the lead or not!"

Tomochika, Mokomoko, and Yogiri were walking in that order.

It may have been the right place for both men and women, but even so, Tomochika thought it would be nice if they treated her more like a girl.

There was no sign of anyone in the hallway.

The pirates must have been in a confining room somewhere, because they were gathering passengers and placing them under house arrest.

"So we'll just go out there and kill all the pirates!"

"That's desperate."

"You're right! Oh, there they are!"

As I walked down the corridor, a man dressed like a pirate appeared from around the corner.

"Then just throw some random stuff at him. ?

The pirate's head swayed and toppled over. Tomochika was stunned by the sight of what she could only assume was a neck snapped at the right angle.

"Isn't there something wrong with him?"

"Hmm. …Looks like some kind of spirit of death is haunting the corpse."

"What is it? Isn't it Mokomoko-sans colleague?"

"Don't be like that!"

"What does that mean?"

"It's like a zombie."

"So why don't we have someone with a radio control system kill it?"

"If only we had an infinite rocket launcher."

Despite all this talk, the pirate's body didn't come any closer.

It hasn't moved since the moment we found it.

I don't know what's wrong ... with me, but I can't deal with it even if it's sitting there. ...

"It's…"

?Oh my God!"

It murmured in a horrified voice.

And then, as if the slow movements of before were a lie, it suddenly jumped at her.

Tomochika braced herself, but it didn't come at her.

It walked right past Tomochika and attacked Yogiri behind her.

"Die."

The corpse stumbled and fell, and Yogiri easily dodged it.

He was not physically strong, but he was able to move like this with ease.

"It was going for me."

"Yeah. That was unnatural."

"We don't have time for this."

As Yogiri and Mokomoko pondered about the pirates' movements, people were arriving in droves.

In front and back of the corridor.

Pirates, passengers, and sailors were converging here.

All were corpses, all were dead spirits.

All had empty eyes and eerie smiles on their faces.

"We've seen something like this before…"

Tomochika remembered what had happened in the city of Hanabusa.

It was an undead attack by the Immortal Corps.

"Die!"

And the dead spirits were annihilated.

"I've seen this before too!

The result was the same.