“Kekeuk! Ran all the way here? No, you flew here. Kuhahaha! Anyways, good luck! Do your best at fishing! You can befriend the seagulls! Who knows, maybe they will teach you how to fly? Then you can fly to the South and join us! Kuhahaha!”

“…..”

The lead knight of the Pendragon family could not find any words to retort to Karuta’s ridiculous orcish jokes. But soon, Killian’s sad, angry eyes turned towards a certain place.

Shiver.

The former pirates and the Pendragon Duchy’s soldiers trembled at the gaze of the wounded one-egged devil.

“Until now, I had it easy with you punks. It was all just a warm up. Today, we will begin preparing for real battles.”

Killian enunciated in a quiet, but firm voice. The soldiers’ minds went blank.

***

“So what are you going to do?”

“Well… We do need to take the Ocean King’s intentions into account as well…”

“Hmph! Why are you trusting someone who has been holing up on an island for months? They have done nothing so far!”

“Lord Rolta, I think you are being too harsh with your words.”

“What do you mean harsh? The forest south of my estate is crawling with monsters. Crawling! They are daring to come out in the broad daylight to kill several farmers...