Alex’s sword shot forward sharply and buried itself in the Siren’s collarbone.
If she had still looked like the beautiful girl he had first seen, he might have hesitated.
But now the Siren’s appearance had twisted into the unmistakably hideous form of a Magical Beast.
This was the Siren’s true form, revealed only when she was driven far enough to recognize that her own life was in danger.
“Stab her!”
Even with Alex’s sword buried in her body, the Siren did not so much as flinch.
Alex tightened his grip and twisted the embedded blade as he shouted.
Everyone surrounding the Siren thrust their weapons into her simultaneously.
Seven spears and two swords pierced the Siren’s small body.
Under normal circumstances, even a Siren would have died by this point, but Alex did not let his guard down.
This time won’t end easily either.
“Watch….”
Just as he tried to warn everyone around him.
The Siren’s cloudy eyes, pale like those of a rotting fish, met Alex’s.
“….”
Alex froze in place, tightening his grip on his sword.
The Siren gave him a grotesque smile.
For some reason, he could not tear his gaze away from her eyes, as though seized by fear.
The moment he realized his body would not move as he wanted, a thought occurred to him.
What if the Siren possessed another mental attack besides her song…?
“Watch out!”
Aroha, who had been watching from a distance, shouted the warning in Alex’s place while he was trapped by the Siren’s gaze.
The Siren cleverly twisted her body and thrashed while beating her single remaining wing.
Fortunately, at least one rule had not been broken.
She could still only use one attack at a time.
“Damn it!”
Once the Siren moved and freed Alex from that horrible gaze, he immediately tried to slash her open.
But the strength required to fly with wings covered in steel feathers was not something to underestimate.
Alex hurriedly retreated to avoid being caught in the Siren’s violent thrashing.
“Guh…!”
Alex wanted to praise himself just for managing to pull out his sword without losing it.
But the only person who had reflexively activated Sanctuary and escaped the attack was Alex.
Elizabeth, tough as she was, seemed to have somehow avoided being sent tumbling, but the Dark Elves….
“….”
Alex had expected all of them to have been knocked down.
Instead, he was inwardly surprised to see that one of them was still standing.
The man stood out because of his silver-gray ponytail, and blood was running from the corner of his mouth, suggesting that he had taken quite a hit.
Even so, he was the only Dark Elf who had neither dropped his spear nor been sent flying.
Feeling rather impressed, Alex adjusted his grip on his sword once more.
Aaaaaaaaah-!
The Siren flailed on the ground with her one remaining wing and raised her voice.
It was no longer the mysteriously beautiful song she had sung before.
It was nothing more than a wild, shrieking howl.
Six spears were still embedded in her body, and black blood poured from the places where the other three weapons had been pulled free.
The Siren looked as though she would die even if they simply left her alone, but Alex preferred certainty in everything.
“Shut up already.”
Blue divine power once again rippled across Alex’s sword as he muttered under his breath.
The silver-haired Dark Elf hurled his spear to help him, and it pierced the Siren’s flailing wing.
Pinned to the ground by the spear like an insect specimen, the Siren desperately thrashed her limbs in an attempt to escape from Alex.
The movements were violent enough that a single accidental hit from one of those limbs could easily break a bone.
“Fall back!”
Aroha, watching the scene, shouted again.
She drew upon all her remaining strength and summoned a massive bolt of lightning.
CRASH—!
The lightning slammed down with a tremendous roar, powerful enough that even Alex, who had taken half a step back, felt electricity tingle through him.
Alex did not miss the opening.
He immediately severed the Siren’s neck while her body remained rigid from the shock.
His sword, glowing with blue divine power, sliced sharply across the Magical Beast, whose body was drenched in ink-black blood.
[Hidden Enemy : Siren Slain]
[Hidden Reward : 150 Coins awarded.]
The Siren’s completely severed head rolled across the shattered paving stones of the plaza.
More system windows appeared above it.
[Old Quarter Liberation increased by 15%.]
[Port Liberation increased by 15%.]
“…We did it.”
Alex heard the silver-haired warrior mutter as he staggered closer.
“I thought it would be difficult without Makui….”
Makui certainly would have been helpful.
He possessed tremendous power, enough to stand against the Kraken.
‘But if he’d been here, this whole plaza would’ve been destroyed….’
Besides, Makui currently had to stabilize the chaotic atmosphere within his tribe.
In the end, the entire purpose of clearing away these damned Magical Beasts was the restoration of the Domain.
There was no reason to unnecessarily destroy the Old Quarter when they could solve the problem like this.
The Dark Elves who had been struck by the Siren’s wing and left dazed were only now managing to get back on their feet.
“Ah, I thought I was going to suffocate…. It’s over now, right?”
Elizabeth asked while putting away her sword and peeling the thick wax from her ears.
Aroha, who had been watching from farther away, was also hurrying toward them.
Alex swept his gaze around the area one last time, checking for any remaining dangers, before suddenly stopping.
“…?”
Something strange caught his eye in a crack between the broken paving stones where the Siren’s head had rolled.
“Why? Wh-What is it? Lord, when you act like that, it makes me nervous.”
Alex snorted at Elizabeth’s words as she continued removing the wax from her ears, but he cautiously walked closer.
Whenever something caught his attention, it was always better to investigate immediately.
If he dismissed it as his imagination, he would inevitably end up regretting it later.
“Is there something there?”
Aroha seemed curious as well and approached.
Alex roughly kicked the grotesque Siren’s head out of the way.
That fully revealed the gap between the shattered paving stones beneath the half-collapsed fountain.
“…A nest?”
Fragments of broken stone had been arranged in a circle like a small nest.
And in the center rested a mysterious egg.
“An egg?”
“What kind of egg is that?”
While Elizabeth and Aroha peered curiously at it, Alex picked it up.
The egg was strangely warm, and he could sense an extremely faint trace of divine power from it.
“Well, I don’t know exactly what it is, but….”
He did have an idea.
A Familiar that could be encountered in random locations at an extremely low probability.
In particular, judging by the divine power he could sense from it, there was a high chance it was a Divine Beast-type Familiar.
“I don’t think it’s anything bad.”
Still, he could hardly pretend to know exactly what this was.
Alex answered vaguely and took the egg with him.
He had collected all kinds of Familiars in the game, but this was his first time seeing one still in the form of an egg, so it was not exactly a lie.
“So there are things even you don’t know.”
“Looks like you’ve made quite the impression already, Lord.”
Elizabeth chuckled at Aroha’s casual remark.
But since Alex was actually pretending not to know something he partially understood, he simply changed the subject.
“Looks like no one’s seriously injured. Elizabeth, carry Aroha back.”
If anything, the Dark Elf warriors sprawled across the ground looked worse at a glance.
At Alex’s words, Elizabeth gave Aroha a puzzled once-over.
‘She looks fine to me.’
In contrast to Elizabeth’s expression, Aroha sighed with a stiff face.
“Was it that obvious?”
Alex gave her an incredulous look.
Aroha certainly did a good job pretending to be fine, but it had only been three days since that chaos with the Kraken.
How could the ankle she injured then possibly have healed completely already?
Even with the Dark Elves’ rapid recovery, that was impossible.
“…See? I told you it feels like there’s nothing you don’t know.”
“No, but why do I have to carry her?”
Setting aside Aroha’s embarrassment, Elizabeth protested as though the request were absurd.
The two women still seemed awkward around outsiders, exchanging stiff glances, and Alex merely shrugged.
“Do they look like they’re in any condition to carry her?”
By “they,” Alex meant the Dark Elf warriors, and admittedly, they looked terrible.
Six had only just managed to get back on their feet, while the last still had blood streaming from his mouth….
After taking another look at them, Elizabeth finally turned her back toward Aroha without another complaint.
“…Get on.”
Alex watched with satisfaction as the two awkwardly managed the process of one carrying the other, then turned away from the plaza.
If these two women, both of whom possessed considerable influence among their respective factions, became closer through this opportunity, it would not be bad politically either.
Especially if they returned to the settlement like this.
Everyone would see them, after all.
***
“Whew. Feels like we’ve finally wrapped things up.”
“Everyone has worked hard. I had the servants prepare your accommodations so you can rest.”
Hamilton appeared with clean towels and two newly hired servants, immediately assigning them to Alex.
Alex drank the water brought by one of the new employees as he entered the office, then nodded and asked,
“Hamilton, anything else unusual happen?”
“Yes, Lord. In addition… Jack just returned.”
Even after returning to the Domain, Alex had not been given a moment to rest.
While he had been away, Jack had returned from the trading caravan he had taken to the nearby Domain of Haides.
Haides lay across the river from Hari.
It was relatively friendly toward Carcosa, making it an ideal place for their first trade.
“What? Why’d he come back so fast? Tell him to come back in two hours.”
Unable even to wash, Alex grumbled as he barely managed to wipe the dirt and dust from himself with a damp towel.
The timing was almost cruel in how completely it denied him even the slightest rest.
“If that is truly what you want, I can wait outside for two hours before coming back.”
Jack, who had just been about to enter the office, stopped with a remark that was half joke and half sincerity.
The office was, quite literally, a mess.
Elizabeth, covered in dirt and dust, had only just set Aroha down from her back.
Alex had roughly wiped himself off with a towel, but he was still filthy with black blood and dust.
“…It honestly does look as though I should come back later.”
“Too late. I want to know what happened. Hurry up and sit down.”
Jack, who had been seriously assessing the atmosphere, hesitated at Alex’s words before taking a seat.
At a glance, he could already tell that Alex had successfully won over the Barbarians—no, according to what Hamilton had told him, the Dark Elf tribe.
Several unfamiliar people with distinctly different appearances were already walking around the lord’s castle.
Aroha in particular was obviously of another race at a glance.
And judging by the fact that the Lord himself looked equally battered….
“Did you go and solve everything personally again?”
At Jack’s words, Aroha looked at Alex once more.
The word “again” meant that Alex must have made a habit of behaving this way.
Even Makui tried to avoid placing himself too far at the front whenever possible.
Compared to him, Alex showed remarkably little concern for his own safety for someone who ruled such a vast territory.
Of course, because that was not something easily done, it also made a stronger impression.
“If I don’t do it, who will? I’m curious, so hurry up and give your report.”
But Alex himself did not seem to regard it as anything particularly serious.
And as he said, it would almost be a waste for someone capable of devising strategies like his not to go into the field himself.
“No one here has ever been outside Carcosa.”
Alex tossed some of the towels the servants had brought to Aroha and Elizabeth as well.
Meanwhile, Hamilton filled the glasses before everyone with wine so those seated could catch their breath.
The main reason none of them went off to rest despite their exhaustion was that they were curious about the outside world.
“Even if you exaggerate your heroic exploits, I’ll account for that when I listen, so tell the story properly.”
Alex looked around at Aroha, Elizabeth, and Hamilton, all of whom seemed strangely expectant.
Jack cleared his throat with a somewhat burdened expression.
Somehow, the atmosphere had turned less into a meeting and more into a gathering waiting for a storyteller’s tale.
“…I merely visited the neighboring Domain.”
Alex shrugged as he took a sip of wine.
“That’s my point. No one here has been beyond Carcosa.”
To anyone else listening, Alex was referring to everyone except himself.
But in truth, Alex was included in that statement.
Alex, possessed by Hyomin, had never personally traveled beyond Carcosa either.
He had occasionally seen other regions through cutscenes and the like, but he had never personally done anything outside Carcosa.
Even if he sent Jack or other merchant NPCs elsewhere, all he ever received were the stories and goods they brought back.
He could learn nothing beyond that.
“So, how did it go? Is everyone’s perception of Carcosa still the same?”
That was why Alex himself was filled with curiosity at this moment.
Watching him, Jack finally began to speak.
“Yes. For now, it was not significantly different, but… I will explain everything in order.”