The Returnee Wants Peace

She looked around at the surrounding activity, but this ‘Incineration Proposal’ quest seemed to have appeared only to her.

No one else was showing any particular reaction.

“Oxygen tanks this way, nets that way!”

“We don’t have time. Move quickly!”

After confirming the soldiers busy with battle preparations, Rosha quickly recalled her memories.

‘This trial is…’

A linked trial where as many as five trials proceed with the same background.

This was the fourth one, so she was joining in the middle, but from what she had heard from Cassis, it wasn’t much different from what she knew.

-So to explain briefly… at the bottom of the lake there are these ‘merpeople’, half human and half freshwater fish.

-…Freshwater fish?

-Yeah. It’s a lake, so they’re freshwater fish, right? I know that much at least.

It wasn’t that, but she was surprised by the creativity of specifically calling mermaids freshwater fish.

Anyway, Cassis continued his explanation.

Even in a lake so clear you could see all the way to the bottom like glass, there was a colony of merpeople settled deep at the bottom not visible from the surface.

In that quiet and peaceful ecosystem, suddenly the merpeople start turning into demonic beasts one by one.

The bodies of the merpeople, said to eat shellfish and seaweed, transform and become very aggressive.

-It turns out that merpeople were originally a carnivorous race, but they had been restraining themselves and not eating fish all this time. They can communicate with fish.

-Ah, this was told by a mermaid named Friel. She says she’s the youngest princess of the mermaid country?

Rosha barely held back her laughter at the mention of a mermaid princess, recalling fairy tales from the previous world.

She remembered someone who had asked Friel if her name was Ariel when they were going through this trial before.

Anyway.

As Cassis said, this linked trial revolves around a mermaid named ‘Friel’.

Friel, whom they met in the twenty-sixth trial, the first stage of the linked trials, was wearing the sacred relic ‘Light of Truth’ around her neck.

The fragile mermaid, chased by demonic beasts, was very confused, saying that her father had given her a teardrop-shaped diamond necklace the night before and suddenly banished her from the palace.

The first task of the linked trial was to protect her and escape from the underwater city teeming with demonic beasts.

‘The next trial was to search the entire city and find the cause of the transformation into demonic beasts.’

Friel was not willing to easily give up on the home she had lived in all her life and her family.

Fortunately, the ‘Light of Truth’ that Friel possessed was a sacred relic that protected its owner while removing all kinds of concealment.

Over the course of the next two trials, the conquest party thoroughly explored the city.

In the process, they encountered and fought Friel’s siblings who had already turned into demonic beasts, but eventually concluded that the cause of the transformation was inside the palace.

-So in this trial, it’s our turn to enter the palace. You can guess what will happen after that… Since I said the content up to now isn’t much different from what you know, it probably won’t be in the future either.

That was right.

As Cassis said, she roughly knew the flow of this trial from experiencing it before.

The ‘Light of Truth’ that Friel possessed works even in the king’s room inside the palace.

‘After defeating the king who has turned into a demon and breaking through the hidden wall, there’s a strange black orb.’

It would be nice if it ended with purifying that, but the moment you touch the orb, the palace suddenly collapses, so you have to escape quickly.

Because the water dragon, which can be considered the boss monster of the thirtieth trial that opens afterwards, wakes up from its sleep.

…But you see.

‘Aren’t we supposed to be on the same side as the merpeople? Why is this quest to incinerate them suddenly appearing?’

She had a very bad feeling about this.

Her expression must have been very serious, as people who knew her were asking if something was wrong.

“It’s nothing. I just have some things to think about.”

Even though they had only met a few times, the professors from the Magic Academy who had come to support looked at her with concern.

It was then.

Ding!

Warning! The twenty-ninth trial is approaching this area.

Less than 10 minutes remain until the twenty-ninth trial. The public countdown will begin.

As a timer appeared in the clear blue sky, people naturally began to get busy.

“Prepare for battle!”

“Hurry and put on the oxygen tanks!”

The conquest party members who were going to enter the lake to back up the infiltration team began to attach small oxygen tanks developed by the Magic Academy to their waists.

The merpeople’s city was so deep that they had to use ‘breath bubbles’ to breathe, but for a time of about 15 minutes, oxygen tanks were sufficient.

Moreover, although the duration was short, they had the advantage of being immediately refilled with oxygen when going out of the water, so there was no reason not to use them.

Regardless.

Rosha became increasingly anxious.

‘The blue window isn’t always on my side. Incinerating the merpeople might not be the right answer. But it’s probably not a lie that if I fail the quest, the difficulty of the trial will increase to ‘Despair’ level…’

Changing the strategy now would only increase confusion.

As she was worrying, unable to do this or that, it was then.

“What’s wrong? You haven’t even gotten your oxygen tank.”

Froy, who was going to carry out the operation with Rosha in this trial, asked as he brought her oxygen tank. When she told him about the quest that had just appeared, his expression became serious too.

But after slightly furrowing his brows, he soon answered like this:

“So it’s a choice between completing the quest to lower the difficulty to ‘Easy’, or ignoring the quest and enduring the ‘Despair’ level difficulty. If it were me, I would ignore it.”

“Why? Is there a separate reason?”

“Have you ever seen the blue window make us do something good? There must be a reason it’s making the difficulty ‘Easy’. Finding out that reason is the only way to approach the clear truth.”

…Indeed.

Froy was right.

‘Right. It was quite tight on time to enter the lake to incinerate in the first place.’

Thinking about it again, there was no need to worry.

Incinerating Friel, who had been struggling to save her home and family, would weigh on her conscience for a long time.

Froy, who noticed her decision, added casually:

“It doesn’t seem necessary to tell others that there was a choice. But since we don’t know what might happen, it would be good to keep people back.”

“Alright.”

The 10-minute preparation time ended not long after the command tower ordered the soldiers to fall back.

And then.

‘Incineration Proposal’ quest failed. Difficulty increases to ‘Despair’.

The twenty-ninth trial begins.

Confirming the blue window saying the trial was starting, her chest trembled finely with tension.

What will happen now?

Rosha quietly watched as the infiltration team, who would enter the lake and join up with Friel, began their diving preparations.

At that moment, the surface of the lake began to shake strangely.

Rather than being shaken by the wind, it was waves that seemed as if something had happened inside.

“…Something’s not right.”

Cassis, feeling something was off, twitched his lips and stepped back.

Lysithea’s brow, assigned to the infiltration team, also narrowed, and Froy carefully observed the lake’s movement.

At that moment.

Splash!

Suddenly, something burst out of the lake, dropping a fierce splash of water around.

Surprisingly, it was a huge water dragon with blue scales.

—Who has invaded my domain without permission! I won’t let this go!

The water around the water dragon rose into the sky like a waterspout. Then it began to curve elegantly like a whip and strike here and there.

“Avoid it!”

“Don’t stay under the tents, go to the open space!”

Humans were helpless in the face of this massive natural disaster.

There didn’t seem to be many casualties, but the loss of tents and supplies was quite significant.

The water dragon, looking at the people as if looking down on foolish things, snorted and went back under the surface.

At the same time, another blue window appeared.

The water dragon sleeping under the lake has awakened for some reason! Sneak into the underwater city avoiding the dragon’s attention and destroy the ‘black orb’.

Time limit: 1 day 23 hours 59 minutes

“…To think the water dragon would wake up already.”

“This is troublesome. Things have become very tricky.”

The enormous amount of mana possessed by the water dragon could be felt even from here.

To break the ‘black orb’ the blue window mentioned, they had to enter the lake, but to do so, they couldn’t avoid an all-out war with it.

‘Moreover, in this situation, I don’t even know if Friel is alive, and the operation with Hajin…’

Everything had become uncertain.

If only they could check the situation below…

It was then.

Splash!

Out of nowhere, several thin streams of water shot out from the lake and began grabbing people and dragging them into the lake.

“Aah!”

“Help me!”

The problem was that it came towards Rosha as well.

Seeing a water stream curving like a snake seemingly aiming for Froy, Rosha pushed him hard. It was an instinctive movement without particularly thinking about the consequences.

‘Made it!’

Rosha sighed in relief as she saw the water stream brush past narrowly.

But was it a mistake that her hand touched the water stream?

Whoosh!

The water stream changed direction strangely at an abnormal angle and grabbed her arm. It was too powerful to resist, not to mention it had no form.

“Hup!”

All the time allowed to her was just enough to take one breath.

Without even time to grimace to say not to worry, Rosha was caught by the water stream and dragged in.

To the deep part below the lake.