Black Iron Magician

「Gigi, Gustus-sama, Gustus-sama. Land, I see. Land, I see!」

「Full speed ahead! Everyone, you understand, right? Those who defy us will be put to death, those who flee will be given a battle cry, and those who surrender will be shown mercy! We are the loyal servants of the great king Hund Lind-sama! We will do as our king’s commands!」

「「「Gigi!」」」

We swim through the water freely and move quickly toward the battlefield where the enemies are waiting. We’ve taken our battle formation that we are ready to march forward as soon as we reached the land. The soldiers, mainly mermen, are pushing forward while receiving the support of the magicians behind. It is our belief that our troops, which specialize in water magic, advance with water and destroy the enemies with water. No matter how far we are from the water, we will dominate even the environment.

「I can see them, I can hear them!」

As a Great Merman, my five senses easily surpass the others. Even though I’m swimming, I can see the situation on the land quite clearly. My eyes can see the soldiers of Tazarnia lined up on land, and I can even hear them talking.

The main camp is built further back than yesterday. Did the daily defeats make them into thinking of defending? And at the front, there are the heroes… and some girls I don’t recognize. Are they taking advantage of our rules and use the non-resisting people as shields? No, those heroes are not such villains. Then, what――

「Waalwaal….」

「Advaal!

」

Suddenly, the girls said such words. They seemed to be chanting magic, but there’s still some distance between us. After all, they must be some kind of defense magic. I thought about it as I moved forward at a high speed.

「Gii…? Dark?」

「Night, night?」

「What?」

There was no cloud until a while ago, but the light suddenly disappeared from the clear sky. It was so sudden that we stopped moving forward.

「Up, up!」

「Uoaaah!?」

「――!?」

We held our breath for a moment. There’s a huge whale in the sky. Even, who boasts a huge body, can’t be compared to it, and it looks like an island. Looking closely, I understand that this whale is made of water. And it looks a little muddy…? No, now is not the time for that. If that thing falls, our troops will suffer enormous damage.

「You commander, lead the subordinates and move while diving as deep as possible! Don’t get too close to each other!」

「Gii! What about you, Gustus-sama!?」

「I will reduce the impact.」

「Gigi!? … Good luck!」

I told my subordinates to go ahead without winding about it. I’m sure no one can stop that thing other than me. Then, it’s obvious as to what should I do. Just as I predicted, the whale began to fall. It was huge even from a high place, but now it feels even bigger as it accelerates downward. I hold my beloved spear straight up and resolve myself.

「Nuooooooohhhhhh!」

I used my deadly technique with all my strength, piercing the target while rotating the trident spear at a high speed. The power of the technique that’s directed upward defies gravity and mitigates the impact of the fall even if it doesn’t completely stop it. The problem is that I will get hit since I’m defenselessly standing on the water, but――

「――If it’s this much, there will be no problem, hm…?」

I feel something is off. Does this water whale keep something inside its belly? While the outer skin is relatively clean, the water inside its belly is very muddy. It’s something that I wondered about before. Then, that something scattered from the tornado and touched my cheek.

「Is this mud?」

I wiped the stuff off my cheek and realized that it was mud, a kind that dissolve in the water but still has a muddy texture. It turned out that the mud was coming from the belly of the whale. But, so what?

「Hm…!?」

Then, I felt a burning pain from my cheek and the arm that wiped it. The more I disperse the whale, the more the mud will fly to the surroundings.

「So, it was their aim…!」

The poisonous muddy water was hidden in the huge whale. If the water-dissolved mud falls on this area, we can’t escape from it inside the water even if we escaped being crushed by the whale. The water whale alone is worthy of being called great magic, but they had also set a trap…. You cunning humans! However, I’ve made my subordinates go ahead, so the damage will be kept to a minimum. Also, it’s about time for them to reach the land.

「Ohoho! Ohohoho!」

My ears picked up a strange sound again. It sounded like a woman’s loud laughter that doesn’t fit to be on a battlefield. It was a very noticeable laugh, but there’s no way such a thing could exist in this battlefield――

「Come on, I, Terese Batten, am here desuwa! If you think you’re the strong one, come straight at me! I will stop you head-on!」

「Gigi! She gave her name, how brave!」

「Wait, I, go!」

「No, me!」

――There was. A blonde vertical roll girl is holding a shield on the coast and standing in a position where she can be seen even if we don’t want to. My subordinates, who were struck by her brave spirit, are rushing there one after another in response to her call. No, even so, it’s a strange situation. No matter how she told them to, there’s no way that they could have so easily fallen for the enemy’s plan. Is there a barrier that affects the mind? Damn, I can’t tell from here.

「Gu-gigi…!?」

「I-It hurts!」

While everyone was flocking there, poison was beginning to spread to the back of the line. Also, I guess I’m about to reach my limit of suppressing the whale. With the preparedness to be damaged by the poison, I fled into the water for a moment and went to the front line. Even I can feel pain on my skin. The water is filled with poison after all. Considering the size of that whale, the poison must have spread over a very large area.

「――!?」

As I headed straight for land, I felt a piercing gaze and jumped out to the surface. A girl is standing in my way. Strangely enough, she’s standing on the water, just like me.

「… You are one of the girls who were on the land before, huh.」

「Ah, you were watching? But, I haven’t said my greeting. I’m Katsuragi Haruna. Nice to meet you!」

「You are very polite for a human. My name is Gustus the Great Merman, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Sea Demons.」

「Waah, the Four Heavenly Kings. That’s cool! I admire them!」

I see, she seems to be someone who has good prospects. She has good taste. There’s no lie in her eyes and she purely thinks as she said. Just like the vertical rolls before, she properly gave her name, so I have a good opinion of her. …….But.

「Haruna, was it? You are probably standing there because you want to fight with me. That’s what I want too. But before that, there is something I want to say.」

「What is it?」

「Umu, you see――」

I take a deep breath and fill my lungs with air. Then, I unleash it all at once while putting my thoughts on it.

「――DON’T POLLUTE THE SEA!」