It took a month to make the arrangements with the smuggler.
Finding one wasn't that difficult, though.
First, I paid an information broker to introduce me to a middleman.
Then, through the middleman, I contacted the smuggler.
The middleman relayed the smuggler's response.
And so it went, back and forth.
I paid the information broker.
I paid the middleman.
And I paid the smuggler, too.
Before I knew it, more than half my savings had vanished.
My wallet felt light.
I wanted to believe I at least had enough left to stay at an inn across the sea.
Honestly, I had a feeling it would've been cheaper to go straight to the smuggler without an intermediary.
But the smuggler apparently operated as part of an organization, and you couldn't make contact without going through a middleman.
That was their way of avoiding a crackdown, apparently.
I didn't understand the details, but the system seemed to work well enough.
It took a whole month to finalize every last arrangement.
Whether a month was a long time or a short one— Well, it didn't matter either way.
--- The designated day.
Late at night.
No moon.
The meeting point was a pier at the far end of the harbor.
The surroundings were eerily silent, with nothing but the sound of waves.
There, I found a small boat and a figure wearing a suspicious hood pulled low over their face.
The arrangement was that we'd hand over the person to be smuggled.
So we handed
As instructed, Ruijerd had his hands cuffed behind his back.
The cuffs, too, had been specified — I'd purchased them at an item shop.
"…………"
When transporting people, the smuggler treated everyone as slaves.
The fee for smuggling a slave was five green ore coins. Flat rate, no exceptions.
That money had already been paid.
According to the middleman, some people tried to haggle at this point.
No thanks. I'm no cheapskate.
"Well then, thank you for your help."
"…………"
The smuggler didn't say a single word.
They simply nodded quietly, loaded Ruijerd into the small boat, and covered him with a sack.
There was one boatman at the helm.
Several other sack-covered figures were already aboard.
From their sizes, none of them appeared to be children.
Once Ruijerd was on board, the smuggler signaled the boat.
The man seated at the front began chanting a spell.
The boat glided out into the pitch-black sea without a sound.
I couldn't make out the full incantation, but it seemed to be water magic that generated a current to propel them forward.
That was something I could probably do myself.
The small boat headed out to a large merchant vessel anchored offshore.
There, they'd transfer the slaves and set sail at dawn.
Even from inside the boat, Ruijerd kept looking my way.
Even with the sack over his head, he could tell which direction I was in.
I watched them go.
"Dona Dona" played in my head.
No, it didn't play.
I hadn't sold him off.
This was just a brief goodbye.
--- The next day.
I sold the lizard we'd traveled with for a year.
Shipping a lizard on a boat would incur taxes, and on the Millis Continent, you could use horses anyway.
The horses in this world were fast.
There was no longer any need to ride the lizard.
She didn't say anything, but she clearly looked sad.
The lizard had grown attached to Eris, too.
Along the journey, it would often lick all over her head, coating her in saliva.
What an erotic lizard, getting Eris all covered in slime.
I wanted to lick all over her myself.
I still remembered the jealousy I'd felt over that.
Right.
That lizard had been our companion too.
Our "Dead End" companion.
I shouldn't keep calling it "the lizard" forever.
At the very least, I should give it a name.
Alright — from today on, your name is Geha.
A man of the sea who wants many human friends.
"He's awfully well-behaved. You trained him properly during the journey?"
The merchant handling the lizard seemed impressed.
"More or less."
It was Ruijerd who'd trained him.
Though he hadn't done anything special, exactly — there had definitely been a master-servant dynamic between Geha and Ruijerd.
The lizard had probably figured out who the strongest member of the party was.
For the record, the lizard wasn't especially fond of me. It had bitten me more than once.
Yeah, thinking back on it now, I was getting annoyed again.
"Ha ha! As expected of 'Dead End's' keeper."
"With this much, I can get some decent color out of it. Lately, too many people just treat them roughly."
"Re-taming is a real pain."
This merchant was Lugunia.
Lizard-headed.
On the Demon Continent, lizards tamed lizards.
"It's only natural to treat your travel companions with care."
After that exchange, Geha the lizard was formally handed over.
In my hands, I held the money from selling a companion.
When I thought about it that way, it felt like filthy money. Strange.
Maybe I shouldn't have named him after all. I was getting attached.
Farewell, nameless lizard.
I'll never forget the sight of your back.
"Sniffle…"
I heard Eris blow her nose.
--- We boarded the ship the very same day we sold the lizard.
"
"Whoa! It's rocking! What is this?"
The moment Eris got on board, she immediately started frolicking about.
Had she already forgotten about parting with the lizard?
That quick ability to switch gears was one of Eris's good points.
The ship was a wooden sailing vessel.
Apparently, it had just been completed about a month ago — the latest model.
This voyage was also a maiden voyage of sorts, a test run to Zant Port.
"But it looks a bit different from the one I saw before, doesn't it?"
"Had Eris seen a ship before?"
This was her first time seeing the sea, after all.
"What are you talking about? There was one in your room!"
Come to think of it, I did have a memory of making something like that.
How nostalgic.
I'd started making it as earth-magic training, but then thought, hey, maybe I could make figurines, and began crafting a 1/10-scale
I hadn't made any figurines in quite a while, either.
I didn't know when or how much mana I'd use, so I hadn't been doing mana-exhaustion training, either.
At best, I'd train with Ruijerd and Eris and move my body around.
I'd been slacking off quite a bit lately.
Once things settled down, I might need to start training again.
"I made it from imagination, so it's only natural that the details are different."
Besides, this was supposedly the latest model anyway.
I had no idea what exactly made it the "latest," though.
"This is incredible. Crossing the sea on something this big…"
Eris kept expressing her amazement.
--- Three days after setting out.
I was sitting on deck, thinking.
Ships.
When you thought of ships, they were treasure troves of events.
You couldn't ride a ship without something happening.
You could say that.
You could declare it.
For instance, dolphins leaping outside the ship.
The heroine saying, "Look! That's amazing!"
Me looking and saying, "My nighttime techniques are way more amazing."
The heroine saying, "Wonderful! Hold me!"
Me saying, "Now, now — you naughty little kitten, not in a place like this."
Hmm. Something felt off about that.
And another thing about ships: attacks.
Octopuses, squids, sea serpents, pirates, ghost ships.
You'd get attacked by one of those, sink, drift, and run aground.
The place you washed up on was a deserted island, and a cozy cohabitation with the heroine began.
The heroine who'd hated me at first would gradually warm up after surviving a few events together.
And when a man and woman were alone on a deserted island, there was only one thing to do.
Crossing glances. Burning passion. Young blood.
Glistening sweat. The sound of crashing waves. Dawn coffee.
A two-person paradise.
And speaking of being attacked by an octopus — the heroine's fate was as good as sealed.
She'd be seized by legs that certainly didn't look like they belonged to an octopus and hoisted into the air.
Writhing limbs. Heaving chest. Slithering tentacles.
A pulse-pounding spectacle you couldn't look away from for even a second.
But reality was cruel.
Eris was currently sitting in the cabin in front of a bucket, her face deathly pale.
I'd thought she was excited about riding a ship for the first time, but midway through she'd started complaining of nausea.
She'd been fine on the lizard, so why was a ship so bad?
Having never experienced motion sickness myself, I couldn't understand.
The only thing I could say was that even if the rocking was a bit gentler, it probably didn't make much difference to someone who got seasick.
That had to be it.
--- Day four.
An octopus showed up.
It was probably an octopus — a pale-blue octopus bright enough to wake you up, and it was enormous.
However, the S-rank escort party dispatched it without breaking a sweat.
Wait — there shouldn't have been a request for ship escort…
I asked a nearby merchant about it, and apparently they were a group that specialized in guarding ships.
Their party name was "Aqua Road."
They had an exclusive contract with the shipbuilding guild, apparently.
And because they were who they were, the monsters on this shipping lane were no match for them.
There was no heart-pounding, exciting tentacle event.
Shame.
Still, there was a payoff.
I watched the battle from the sidelines, just in case.
At first, I sniffed with dismissal.
The swordsman fighting on the front lines was strong, but not as strong as Ghislaine.
The warrior who held the enemy's attention and drew its fire was strong, but not as strong as Ruijerd.
The magician in the back who finished the octopus off was probably below my level.
At first, I was disappointed.
So this is what an S-rank party amounts to? I thought.
I'd expected there to be plenty of strong people in this world, but maybe it wasn't all that impressive.
But then I reconsidered.
They were an S-rank party.
What I should have been looking at wasn't individual ability, but teamwork.
Even with relatively low individual abilities, they had taken down that giant octopus.
Even with relatively low individual abilities, they'd risen to S-rank.
That was what mattered.
Each member fulfilled their role, and the group as a whole wielded tremendous power.
That was teamwork.
It was what "Dead End" lacked.
"Dead End" had high individual abilities.
But how were we on teamwork?
Ruijerd was exceptional at it, of course.
His experience in the military showed — he excelled at group combat.
Even when Eris or I made mistakes, he covered for us beautifully.
His aggro management was superb; monsters' eyes were glued to him.
But he was too strong.
Even opponents he could have defeated alone, we forced into team battles.
I wouldn't say that was bad, exactly, but it was undeniably distorted.
I at least knew what team combat was supposed to look like.
But knowing it and being able to execute it were two different things.
Sometimes I got so focused on dealing with enemies rushing toward me that I lost track of the bigger picture.
When there were many enemies, I relied on Ruijerd heavily.
Eris was hopeless.
She'd follow instructions faithfully.
But she couldn't coordinate with the people around her with that unspoken synergy in the heat of battle.
She'd get tunnel vision on the enemy right in front of her and overextend.
You could call it fighting freely, and it sounded nice enough, but she had never once fallen back to cover me or Ruijerd.
Then again, neither Ruijerd nor I really needed her cover.
But if, for whatever reason, we parted ways with Ruijerd down the road— I wasn't confident I could shield Eris properly.
I'd obtained the Magic Eye, but I still only had two hands.
One hand to protect myself, one hand to protect Eris.
There was only so much you could guard with one hand.
It was worrisome.
Once we got there, the very first thing I'd do was go pick up Ruijerd.
"Rudeus…"
Eris emerged onto the deck, her face still deathly pale.
She stumbled to the ship's railing and leaned over, letting out a retch into the open air.
She looked like there was nothing left to throw up but stomach acid.
"H-How… can you just… stand around… like this… when I'm suffering…"
"Sorry. The ocean was just so beautiful…"
"You're terrible… ugh…"
Eris's eyes glistening with tears, she threw herself into my arms.
Her seasickness was severe.
--- On the fifth day, Eris was still down for the count in the cabin.
And I was stuck at her side the entire time.
"Nnnn… my head hurts… Heal me…"
"Alright, alright."
I'd asked a crew member, and apparently healing magic helped a little with seasickness.
When I tried it, I confirmed that it did improve Eris's condition somewhat.
Seasickness was caused by a disruption of the autonomic nervous system.
Applying healing to the head temporarily calmed it.
That was all there was to it.
But it wasn't a lasting remedy — the queasiness didn't just vanish.
"Hey… am I… going to die…"
"Dying of seasickness would be pretty pathetic."
"It's not funny…"
The cabin was empty.
Partly because the ship itself was so large, and partly because few people crossed from the Demon Continent to the Millis Continent.
Was it because passage fees were higher for demonfolk than for humans, or because the Demon Continent was simply more comfortable for them?
I wasn't sure.
It was just the two of us — Eris and me.
In a quiet, dim room, Eris had lost all strength to resist.
And for five straight days, I'd been the only one tending to her weakened state.
At first, that had been fine.
But the healing was a problem.
To perform healing, I had to touch Eris's head.
To do it regularly, I'd been having her rest her head on my lap while I cradled it in my arms.
And that's when strange feelings started creeping in.
"Strange" wasn't quite the right word.
Let me be blunt.
It was getting erotic.
Think about it.
In the cabin, Eris — who was always so fierce — Her eyes glistening, breathing heavy, her voice weak and small, "Please… please… (heal me)…"
Begging me like that.
In my mind, I'd turned down the "heal me" part to the lowest possible volume.
She looked like she was coming onto me.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
Eris was just suffering.
I'd never had seasickness myself, but I could at least understand how miserable it was.
Touching someone.
That wasn't an erotic act.
But.
Stroking a young girl's head, feeling her warmth.
That was stimulating.
Even if you weren't touching an erogenous zone, the sensation was there.
Low stimulation, but sustained long enough, and it became dangerous.
Touching meant contact.
Contact meant proximity.
Proximity meant that Eris's dewy forehead, her neck, her chest— All of it came into view.
And on top of that, the person before me was a weakened, listless Eris.
Normally, if you touched her carelessly, she'd punch you.
But now, she was a carp on a cutting board.
Wasn't she basically mine now?
Wasn't it perfectly fine to do whatever I wanted?
Those feelings began to sprout.
Surely, if I stripped off her clothes right now, bared my desires, and threw myself on her, Eris wouldn't resist.
No — she wouldn't be able to.
Wearing a feeble expression, eyes resigned, a single tear trailing down her cheek — she'd have no choice but to accept me.
Just picturing that scene was enough to bring my own Excalibur to the brink of Arthur.
And inside my head, Arthur was screaming his objection.
He was screaming that Eris couldn't resist right now.
He was screaming that a chance like this would never come again.
He was screaming that now was the moment to cast that thing away.
But the Merlin inside me screamed back: endure.
You'd made a promise.
The promise not until you turned fifteen.
The promise to hold back until this journey was over.
I sided with Merlin.
But I was reaching the limits of endurance.
For instance, what if I just tried touching her chest?
It would certainly be soft.
And not just soft.
Right — a chest wasn't just soft.
Inside the softness, there was something firm.
The Holy Grail.
That was the Holy Grail my Arthur sought.
And what if my hand found the Holy Grail?
It would be the Battle of Camlann.
Ah, of course, it wasn't just about the Holy Grail.
Eris's body was growing day by day.
She was in her growth spurt.
Partly due to genetics, certain parts were rapidly approaching her mother's.
She would surely grow into a strikingly beautiful woman.
And she would draw the gazes of every man around her.
Among them, there'd be guys who said, "Heh, I like 'em smaller."
People's tastes varied, after all.
I wanted to tell those guys: I know exactly what "just the right size" looks like.
Do you understand?
Right now, in this very moment— I could have Eris's past.
"Hah… hah…"
My breathing grew heavy.
"R-Rudeus…?"
Eris looked at me with an anxious expression.
"A-Are you okay…?"
Her voice struck my ears.
Usually, it was too high-pitched, too loud — almost unpleasantly so.
But at just the right pitch now, it sent electricity through my brain.
"Hah… hah… I'm fine.
Please don't worry. I made a promise, after all…"
"…If it's too hard, you don't have to force yourself, you know?"
"!"
She said I didn't have to force myself.
Did that mean I didn't have to hold back?
Did that mean anything went?
…!
Just kidding.
I knew what she meant.
She was asking whether my mana would hold up if I kept healing her.
I knew that full well.
She trusted me.
She trusted that I would never make a move on her at a moment like this.
And I would not betray that trust.
Rudeus Greyrat did not betray trust.
That's what it meant to honor someone's trust.
Right. I'd become a machine.
I'd become a healing machine.
A robot with no blood, no tears, no feelings.
I would see nothing.
If I looked at Eris's face, I'd go berserk.
So I shut my eyes.
I would hear nothing.
If I heard Eris's voice, I'd go berserk.
So I covered my ears.
I was an innocent, sexless bumpkin.
I had no desires, so I wouldn't go berserk.
So I closed off my heart.
But then — the warmth and scent of Eris's head.
Those two things alone were enough to annihilate my resolve in an instant.
My mind was about to short-circuit.
Ah, that was it. I'd hit my limit.
"Eris, I'm going to the restroom for a bit."
"Oh… you'd been holding it in all this time… go ahead…"
Eris accepted that with a trusting smile, and I slipped out of the cabin.
I moved quickly.
A spot with no one around — I found one immediately.
And then, a moment of supreme bliss.
"Phew…"
And that was how I became a sage.
Shut my eyes a little further and I'd transform into a saint.
"I'm back."
"Mm, welcome back…"
I returned to the cabin with the serene face of a bodhisattva and became the healing machine once more.
"…Hmm? Rudeus, did you eat something?"
"Huh?"
"*Sniff sniff* …You smell weird…"
I'd forgotten to wash my hands.
Hehe.
--- Once we disembarked, Eris recovered immediately.
"I never want to ride a ship again!"
"Well, we'll need to take one again from the Millis Continent to the Central Continent."
Hearing that, Eris's face went visibly sour.
Then she remembered what had happened on the ship and looked anxious.
"Hey… when that time comes, you'll heal me again, right?"
"Sure, but this time I might do something perverted."
I said it with a deadpan face.
I was dead serious.
Being kept on the edge like that was torture.
"Wh-Why would you say something so mean?!"
It wasn't mean.
It was genuinely agonizing.
I knew exactly how a dog felt — a feast laid out before it, told to wait.
Its stomach was empty, and the feast was saying, "Come eat me."
Drinking a mountain of water to temporarily fill the stomach didn't help.
The feast didn't disappear, and the stomach would be empty again in no time.
"Because Eris is so cute, I'm desperately holding back too."
"…F-Fine.
Next time, I guess it's okay if you touch me a little."
Eris's face was bright red.
That was truly adorable.
But her "a little" and my desires were worlds apart.
"Unfortunately, 'a little' isn't going to cut it.
When you're ready for me to go at you like a wrecking ball, let me know."
Eris was left speechless.
I wished she wouldn't give me hope like that.
I wanted her to let me keep my promise.
If I broke it and made a move, we'd both feel terrible about it afterward.
"Well, let's get going."
"Y-Yeah. Okay."
Eris bounced back quickly, and off she strode toward town.
Spread out before us was a townscape strikingly reminiscent of Wrenchport.
This was Zant Port.
The town at the northern tip of the Millis Continent.
The Millis Continent.
We'd finally made it here.
And the road ahead was still long.
"Rudeus? What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing."
I'd forget about how long the road ahead was.
What mattered now was heading to the next town.
"Right, then."
The handoff for the smuggled goods was at night.
I'd already exchanged my currency on the Demon Continent.
No need to visit the adventurer's guild.
First, I'd find an inn.
There, I'd rest my body, worn out from the sea voyage.
And then — I'd go pick up Ruijerd at a leisurely pace.
--- And so, we made our move to the Millis Continent.