Chapter 579: Strange Occurrence in the Lake

Young miss, thanks for saving us

I cant believe that Modoki would even go to this area

Aah, our cargo is

The five crew members who had been rescued by Fran were grimacing on the sh.o.r.e. Some of them had drunk a lot of water, but their lives shouldnt be in danger.

The old man, who seemed to be the captain, lamented as he stared at the sinking s.h.i.+p.

Is your cargo is something that shouldnt get wet?

We have no choice but to let go of the grains we brought. But we have to recover the Scarlet Waterweed medicine back somehow. Theres a shortage of it after all. Its stored in a st.u.r.dy crate, and Im sure some bottles are safe

Scarlet Waterweed medicine?

Yeah. Its the recently developed medicine made from Scarlet Waterweed. It works the same as the conventional pills against the endemic diseases, but Ive heard that its efficacy is enhanced by being made into a potion

And he told us that that s.h.i.+p was loaded with that new medicine.

I guess well have to ask the adventurers to pull up the medicine later I hope this is a place with few magic beasts though

I wonder about that. Right now, thanks to the Modoki, the other magic beast seemed to have escaped, and there was no sign of them. But Im sure they would come back after a little while.

(Master)

You want to help them?

(Nn)

Well, we can go get it now though.

Where did you store that medicine?

Eh? Its in a storage room on the port side. Right around where that d.a.m.ned Modoki pierced our s.h.i.+p

The captain pointed to a large hole on the port side of the s.h.i.+p, which was sinking with the starboard side facing down.

(Note: port, nautical terms for s.h.i.+ps left side, starboard > right side)

It wouldnt be a problem for us if it was there. Rather, that big hole would make it easy for us to get into. Well, that hole was half of the reason the s.h.i.+p was sinking though. The other half was the cracks that had formed all over the hull. It was because of the Modokis tentacles.

Ill be right back

Y-young miss!?

Waving lightly at the surprised captain, Fran jumped out again.

Lets retrieve the medicine

Wait, lets see if I can store the hull itself first

Aah, I see

That would be the fastest way to do this. However, I failed to store the whole hull. Maybe there were living beings inside the s.h.i.+p. It didnt have to be human beings, just a fish or a rat, and it wouldnt be able to be stored in the dimensional storage.

It wont be stored

We dont have any choice. Ill take care of the air for you to breath, Fran, use your water magic to move

(Okay)

If we were going to explore the small s.h.i.+p, it would be safer for Fran to move around on her own.

Fran then jumped into the s.h.i.+p through the hole made by the Modoki. The inside was already filled with water and half of it was submerged.

Fran landed on a half-flooded crate and looked around the storage room.

Where it is?

Hmm

The captain had told us before that it was a magic potion, so I tried to use my magic detection to find it, but I got no response here.

But I could feel a small hint of magic power in the entire water in this room. Perhaps the bottle of the scarlet potion had been broken and the contents had dissolved into the water.

Its just that theres something weird about it

We had no other choice, well have to check the label on each crate

Nn

I checked the crates that had not yet been submerged in water, but there was no Scarlet Waterweed medicine. No, at this point it would be better to stow all the crates away and check them later.

Lets just store it all away for now

Okay

Then I started to store the crates in my dimensional storage, Fran, who had gone underwater, quickly swam out of the water.

It was not that she looked like she was in a hurry, but she seemed to be a little surprised.

Whats wrong?

I felt strange when I used some magic

Strange?

Somehow It feels like my magic worked a little too well

What do you mean?

When I listened to the details, it seemed that the output of the magic she used was higher than she had imagined. It was just a small difference, when she manipulated the water to move about 10 centimeters, she went a few millimeters further than she had estimated.

Normally, this wouldnt bother her, but Fran, who had gained a high level of magic control through her training, seemed to feel a slight discomfort.

There might be something other than the Scarlet Waterweed potion leaking here then

Its probably not poisonous, as my crisis perception wasnt triggered, but it was a little creepy. Lets get it over with and get out of here.

I went into the water, leaving Fran behind, and quickly stowed the cargo.

I also tried to use water magic, but it definitely felt strange. It seemed that there was a problem with the water itself, rather than something being wrong with the water magic that I had activated. There was a high possibility that some kind of magic potion was dissolving in the water.

Or was it the effect of the Modoki that had dissolved in the water? That sounds possible too.

Anyway, lets get out of here quickly

Nn

By using Teleport, we returned to the sh.o.r.e at once. And at the same time when the captain saw us, he rushed over to us with an expression of relief.

Are you safe!? We can get the medicine pulled up later, you know! Dont be so reckless!

Im fine. More importantly, I brought it with me

What? No, since she used teleport before Could it be that you can use s.p.a.ce-time magic?

Nn. Should I bring it out here?

A-Aah, yes please

They had already selected the most well-rested crew members and sent them back to Sheftent. He said that help would be coming soon.

But as Fran stacked the crates, the captains face was changing rapidly. First joy, then confusion, then a look of impatience, and finally, astonishment.

s.p.a.ce-time magic was very weak at a lower level. It wouldnt be strange if its capacity was only the size of a small crate.

The captain must have thought that she only managed to retrieve a crate of Scarlet Waterweed potion. But weve retrieved the entire cargo instead.

With nearly 30 crates piled in front of him, he was beyond happy.

Is this fine?

A-ah, yes T-thanks

He seemed to be troubled. But still, he didnt forget to say thanks, so he must be quite a nice person.

However, we cant help them any further. Were in the middle of escorting the students. Since it was an emergency, we had to leave to save them, but we need to get back to the students as soon as possible.

We could help them carry the cargo back to the Sheftent, but that would have disqualified us as an escort.

Oh, before we went back, we asked him about something that had been bothering me. It was about our discomfort when using the water magic before. However, the captain didnt seem to understand it either. He said that they didnt have any magic potions other than the Scarlet Waterweed potion on board.

Then, was my theory about the Modokis dissolved body was right? Well, it was also possible that the Scarlet Waterweed potion itself was the cause though.

But since they were in shortage of this medicine, I cant ask them to share it with me for experiments.

Well have to ask someone who seemed to know more about this laterlike Grandma Jill.