NOVEL NEXT C42
C42: Swimming in Gold (4)
“I’m not a cat! I’m a lioness!”
“No, your hair’s all white.”
On top of the girl’s white short cut, there are cat-ears of the same color. No matter how I looked at her, she looked like a white cat beast.
” Stop telling me what you think! I’m a white lion beastman, you know!”
Then the girl flapped her tail. It was true that the girl’s tail looked like a lion’s tail, with brush-like hairs growing at the end of the thin tail.
“Um, are you sure you’re Nono, the fisherman?”
“Yes. Who are you, Uncle?”
“I’m not old enough to be called Uncle. My name is Kagehiko. I’m an adventurer.”
Kagehiko frowned, this was a disturbing name for a nearly thirty year old man.
“I heard you know a lot about millennial whales. I was wondering if I could talk to you about…”
“What, are you adventurers chasing millennial whales? That’s not the kind of game an adventurer can hunt. You should go home!”
Nono, the lion beastman, said as she twitched her cat ears.
“My family has been chasing the Millennial Whale for generations. But my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother were all swallowed by her!”
“You’ve been chasing whales for four generations! And they’ve been swallowed…….”
“Don’t feel sorry for me, it’s the fate of fishermen. All I can do is carry on the legacy of my foremothers.”
“……You look like a fisherman from ‘Moby Dick’.”
Kagehiko sighed, remembering the famous literature he had read when he was in Japan. The fisherman in that book had had his leg bitten off by a whale and had dedicated his life to avenging it.
(Wasn’t she supposed to be swallowed by a whale and disappear into the sea at the end? I hope that doesn’t happen to this girl.)
“Nono is going out to fish for whales now! Adventurer, go home!”
With that, Nono stepped onto the boat. Kagehiko also stepped into the boat, following behind her.
“Nya?”
“I’ll help you. I know how to handle a ship from traveling with my friends.”
“What are you talking about? It’s dangerous!”
“Don’t say that. Didn’t the rest of the crew get scared and leave the ship anyway?”
“How do you know?”
This boat is not a one-person sailboat by any stretch of the imagination. It is a medium-sized ship that requires at least five or six people to operate it. Most likely, the original crew had fled when they heard that they were going to challenge the millennial whale.
“3rd rank magic [Nenki].”
When Kagehiko activated the magic, the ropes of the ship moved by themselves and the sails were set. Icicles are lifted out of the water and onto the hull of the ship, and the ropes connecting the ship to the harbor are untied.
“Nya, nya, nya, nya? What the hell is this?”
“I told you I know how to handle a ship. Now take the helm, Captain.”
“Mmm, I can’t help it. You’ll regret it!”
Nono said in resignation, and gripped the ship’s helm.
“We’re sailing! Full tiller!”
Thus began the voyage of Kagehiko and Nono. Will they end up in glory or in the stomach of a whale?