Chapter 249: The Butler Is Dunk Again

Seth’s hope of surviving his encounter with the Kraken was essentially nonexistent…hell, he had even devised a kamikaze plan.

Yet, here he was, in the Sea Guardian, very much alive thanks to the butler currently floating in the foggy skies above them.

He watched as his men, the remaining ones anyway, were pulled out of the water by almost invisible strings.

The human-looking clone was handling the rescuing whilst the butler handled the Kraken.

Seth looked at the butler again….Not only was he not struggling against the beast, but he seemed to be… smiling?

Adrian lifted his hand, and black flames immediately wrapped around the Kraken’s tentacles that were trying to reach him.

“This is quite fun,” he muttered with a grin.

[You seem to be enjoying yourself,] Renelle’s voice was immediately heard in his head, causing him to ignore the Kraken and turn fully to her.

“Quite a bit,” he answered with a smile as he looked down at her before waving.

“Look out!” Seth let out a gasp as he noticed one of the giant tentacles reaching Adrian.

“Hmm?” The butler let out a gasp as he turned around, but

BANG!

The tentacle slammed into him, launching him towards the water.

Seth watched with wide eyes, but just before the butler could hit the surface, he suddenly disappeared, replaced by a dark silhouette.

The next second, the tentacle that had previously attacked the butler was suddenly enveloped in black flames, causing the Kraken to let out a screech of pain.

Adrian was about to go ahead and burn off another tentacle, but a voice suddenly called out in his head, «Adrian.»

“Right,” he muttered, hearing Noctis’ voice, “we’re on a timer.”

He then extended his hand forward as the Kraken launched multiple tentacles towards him.

The creature was furious.

Just a few seconds ago, it had been effortlessly swatting these pests aside, yet now, it found itself on the receiving end.

Unfortunately, the tentacles didn’t get the chance to reach Adrian when the same black flames suddenly clung to them.

But this time, they spread along the tentacles and all the way to the creature’s main body.

It tried struggling, but it was all for naught; after all, those flames would not be extinguished until Adrian decided otherwise.

“Don’t let it go underwater,” Alvíss ordered as he saw what the creature tried doing in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

Of course, the ocean’s water would do nothing to the void flames, but it would be a pain to retrieve the beast’s core inside the ocean

Adrian would definitely not venture into the water just to retrieve the core; after all, he still couldn’t swim.

Anyway, the clone possessing Marion’s body suddenly formed a net, trapping the struggling creature within and reinforcing said net as it snapped them.

It didn’t take long for the void flames to eat through the creature’s entire body, again, leaving behind only its core.

Adrian caught it with a shadow tendril before it could sink and dropped it onto the Sea Guardian’s deck.

Adrian then slowly landed on deck with a grin still on his face. He immediately walked to his lady, leaned down a bit and asked, “How did I do?”

Renelle looked at him for a while, chuckling as she realized that he was completely drunk on mana again.

“You did well,” she answered, placing a hand on his cheek.

“Then I would like to request a reward,” Adrian said with a smile, but before Renelle could respond,

“Erm.”

With a blank expression, the butler turned towards the person who just let out a sound.

It was Seth, and from his expression, it seemed he had something to say.

“I’d like to thank you for saving us,” he said with a polite bow, “I didn’t think we’d survive against that creature.”

In response to his gratitude, Adrian simply gave him an annoyed stare; after all, Seth had interrupted his time with his lady.

Renelle flicked his forehead as she noticed his expression, before chuckling and whispering, “I’ll fulfill any request you have when we get out of here, so be nice.”

Hearing that, Adrian finally stood up straight and put a smile on his face as he said, “I only did it to entertain my lady, nothing more.”

Seth stood up straight and then nodded; the answer wasn’t exactly unexpected, after all, he had seen how the butler behaved during the tournament.

“Either way,” Zephir spoke up from beside his son, his eyes moving between Adrian and Renelle, “you have our gratitude.”

Adrian simply nodded before turning back to Renelle with a look that very clearly communicated that he hadn’t forgotten what she’d promised and had absolutely no intention of doing so.

Renelle simply turned away, but Adrian noticed her red ears, causing him to smile.

“Now then,” Alvíss spoke up as he sent the Kraken’s core into his inventory magic tool where the rest were, “we have a second ship to find.”

The captain looked down at the compass in his hands and noticed that the needle was quickly spinning before resting to the East.

He immediately sailed towards the direction the compass was pointing, but everyone was certain that if those on the other ship encountered a beast as dangerous as the Hydra and Kraken the two other ships had encountered so far, then their chances of survival were low.

Still, the Sea Guardian made its way towards the direction it was pointing to; after all, even if the chance was minuscule, as long as there was still a chance that someone might be alive.

And that was enough.

The Sea Guardian continued through the fog with most on board being completely silent, especially the few survivors that were on Seth’s ship.

They had watched their friends die, and they were also just moments away from meeting the same fate.

They turned towards Adrian, who stuck by Renelle’s side with a single thought in all their minds.

They were only alive because of this butler….a butler that wouldn’t have made a move if he wasn’t interested in entertaining Lady Renelle.

Which meant they indirectly owed their lives to Lady Renelle.

Again, Renelle’s influence on people seemed to grow even more thanks to the actions of her butler.

Adrian, completely unaware of the thoughts going through the survivors’ minds, or perhaps simply unconcerned by them, stood beside his lady and kept his [Mana Sense] spread as far as the fog would allow.

Which still wasn’t far enough.

“Anything?” Renelle asked quietly.

“Not yet,” he shook his head in response.

The fog was still interfering with his senses, which meant that he was completely blind past a few meters away from the ship.

***

The ship encountered a couple more beasts, but most were only at A rank and were promptly handled by the spirit mages who were feeling useless up to this point.

It gave them something to do, which was probably good for morale.

Adrian continued monitoring with his [Mana Sense], trying his hardest to ‘see’ through the fog.

The clone suddenly grew wings out of its back and took off into the air.

The next second, Adrian’s vision changed to a bird’s-eye view-like one as his clone continued floating through the fog.

A couple of minutes later, he said, “There it is.”

Through the clone’s vision, he could see the third ship floating on the surface of the water, or rather, what remained of it.

It wasn’t much.

“Survivors?” Zephir asked, his expression completely controlled.

Adrian directed the clone lower, scanning the debris field carefully.

“Two,” he said after a moment, “they’re clinging to a large piece of the hull.”

The relief on Zephir’s face was subtle but visible. Even so, it still hurt the Grand Duke to learn that he had just lost over a hundred men.

Seth shared the same guilt as he watched the ship go towards the direction of the wreckage.

***

Meanwhile, below deck, a group of spirit mages responsible for the cannons silently looked at each other.

Well, a couple of them looked at each other, exchanging some sort of understanding look.

The rest, oblivious to this, continued gazing outside and through the fog.

Unfortunately for them, the few that had exchanged the looks suddenly summoned the spirits and the next second, they grabbed the creatures, fed them some sort of orb before tossing the entire spirit into their mouths.

The other spirit mages finally realized something was wrong when they simultaneously fell to the floor.

“Are you okay?” One of them approached, but all that looked back at him was a pair of red irises and completely black pupils.

“H-hel—”

Before the spirit mage had the chance to say anything, the man that had now become a corrupted human suddenly lunged at him.

And after that, chaos ensued.