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Chapter 25
“An uncle… me…?”
The man was genuinely hurt.
This was a long-awaited vacation—what kind of nonsense was this?!
“Honestly, I didn’t even want to come back to my hometown!”
But his parents had threatened that if he didn’t come, they would come find him themselves and kill him, so he had submitted that precious vacation request and returned.
And when they finally saw their son after so long, instead of saying they missed him or asking if he was healthy…
—Go on a blind date. Right now.
—M-Mother!
When the man recoiled in horror, his mother flared up as if she were about to rip every hair from his head.
—You’ve reached this age without even getting married—what have you been doing?! I’m so embarrassed in this town because of you! Do you know what people from other families say about us?!
—Please, just stop!
—Stop what?! If you don’t want to see your mom and dad collapse, go on a blind date right now!
The man was dumbfounded. What was wrong with his age?! Thirty-three wasn’t even that old in the capital!
—Please stop nagging me about marriage! Do you know how many unmarried men and women in their thirties there are these days?!
—Are you “everyone else”?! You’re you! Why are you trying to live like other people?!
The man was speechless. Was that something the person who had just said she was embarrassed to live in the neighborhood could say?
—Are you going to have kids when you’re completely old?! All your child’s friends’ fathers will be young—if you’re the only grandpa, how embarrassing do you think that’ll be for the kid?!
—I don’t even plan on getting married, and even if I did, I might not have kids!
—You’re ruining our family!
In her excitement, the man’s mother finally grabbed his hair and yanked it.
His father and grandfather were already bald, so he’d always been careful about his scalp!
“Honestly, Father was worse than Mother. He knows better than anyone how precious hair is, and yet he didn’t stop her!”
Aaaaah! His anger boiled over!
Jojo glanced at the man, who was dispatching the murderous fish at a terrifying pace, and clicked his tongue.
“Wow… he’s insanely strong, isn’t he?”
Jojo had never seen anyone stronger than himself back in his homeland. Even the grand general who taught him had eventually admitted he couldn’t handle him anymore.
“But compared to that uncle over there, I feel like just an apprentice.”
Jojo’s heart raced. It had been a long time since he’d felt this kind of overwhelming excitement.
The man also stole glances at Jojo from time to time.
“He looks like a kid who just became an adult.”
With an unfinished body, he was cutting down murderous fish with ease.
“Where on earth was a talent like that hiding?”
Compared to Jojo, the southern knights were infuriating just to look at.
“Mom, I’m scared!”
“I want to go home!”
Instead of approaching the murderous fish, they just circled around whining. They were worse than useless.
“But still… they keep coming nonstop, don’t they?”
So many murderous fish surging up the coast like this was extremely unusual.
“This is too much for just him and me. That person really needs to come…”
At that moment, a brilliant holy light poured down behind the man.
Bathed in that rapturous glow that seemed to cover the very end of the sea, the man’s eyes widened—then his lips curved upward.
“So, you’ve arrived.”
Through a gate appeared a knight order dressed in black uniforms.
The knights stood in identical postures, like statues carved from the same mold, their gazes unwavering.
“Attention, all knights!”
Genu, standing at the front, shouted fiercely.
“Teach these insignificant murderous fish exactly what it means that the Grand Duchy of Hespia stands on this land!”
“We obey!”
With a thunderous reply, the knights charged at the murderous fish with terrifying momentum.
Jojo stared, mouth agape at the sight.
“Whoa…”
Just then, one murderous fish opened its mouth toward Jojo, as if intending to swallow him whole.
But Jojo was not bitten.
The man stabbed the creature in the eye.
“Get a grip!”
“Ah—thank you.”
As Jojo offered an awkward thanks, Genu came running over, crying, “Kuaaaang!”
“Waz! Are you okay?! You really went through a lot all by yourself!”
Jojo’s eyes shrank to pinpoints. The man who had been leading the knights so impressively just moments ago was suddenly acting this soft?
“Don’t call me by my name!”
Waz shouted angrily, scowling.
Genu propped his finger under his plump lips and said,
“If I don’t call Waz ‘Waz,’ what am I supposed to call you?”
“Just call me ‘Knight Commander’!”
“But I’m a knight commander too. If I have to say it properly, I’d need to call you ‘Second Knight Commander,’ and that’s long, isn’t it?”
Waz clenched his teeth.
Waz had just been appointed the newly formed Second Knight Commander. Genu, on the other hand, was the First Knight Commander—the main body of the Hespia Knights, boasting history and tradition.
They were the same age and became knight commanders at the same time, yet one was treated as the youngest genius commander in history, while the other felt like he’d just lucked into the position because a new order had been created.
How was that fair? Waz had earned his position through skill too!
“And why does that guy’s name have to be Genu?!”
The First and Second Knight Orders weren’t in a strict superior-subordinate relationship. But numbers still had an order.
So whenever Chris gave them orders and then confirmed them, he always said:
—You understood, right? Genu, Waz.
He was just calling the First and Second Commanders in order.
But when you said their names together, it sounded like “genoise”—the sponge cake used for baking.
“I don’t want to be called something like that!”
To avoid hearing people say, “Those two together are genoise,” Waz had gone out of his way to avoid Genu.
“And this bastard keeps acting familiar every chance he gets!”
Even today, Waz wished that while the guy slept peacefully, the clock hanging on the wall would fall right onto his face.
“Though he’s sturdy enough that it probably wouldn’t seriously hurt him.”
With a deep sigh, Waz asked,
“Then why are you commanding the Second Knight Order?”
“They said they wanted to check the Second Order’s abilities. And you were on vacation, so I came instead.”
Genu shrugged as if it couldn’t be helped.
“Tch.”
Waz clicked his tongue and looked over the knights.
This was the Second Knight Order’s first official subjugation since its formation. With performance like this, even Chris wouldn’t say it was bad.
“This is basically their test anyway. Let’s bow out. Good work.”
Genu patted Waz’s shoulder cheerfully.
Waz scowled and shoved his arm away.
And then—
Splash!
Along with the roar of a massive wave, darkness fell over the shore.
Jojo craned his neck and asked,
“What’s that?”
Genu and Waz also looked up at the gigantic life-form rising from the sea.
A mountain-like size, a round, smooth body, a harmless face, and a huge yet cute cry:
“Kyuu.”
Genu swallowed hard and said,
“Whoa… that’s a Sea Beast, right?”
Monsters had ranks—and the Sea Beast was known as a “legendary monster.”
“I don’t think anyone’s claimed to have seen one in the last 150 years.”
Because of that, some even said previous sightings were just distortions of rumor.
“So it really exists. Hey! This is amazing.”
When Genu said that with an innocent smile, Waz shuddered.
“Is this really the time to smile?!”
“Uncle! Uncle! Is that thing dangerous?!”
When Jojo asked urgently, Waz flushed and snapped as if it were obvious.
“Of course it’s dangerous! Just look at the murderous fish!”
Ignoring Waz’s shout of “And I’m not an uncle!”, Jojo watched the murderous fish flee screaming as if they’d seen a ghost.
They moved slowly, but looked utterly desperate.
“Did they run here to escape that thing?”
At Jojo’s murmur, Waz gritted his teeth.
“If what’s written in the bestiary is true, that Sea Beast eats everything.”
No sooner had Waz finished speaking than the Sea Beast grabbed the murderous fish like loaches and stuffed them straight into its mouth.
“Gasp!”
Like a child satisfied with a mouthful of chocolate, the Sea Beast chewed contentedly.
With every crunching sound, the screams of the murderous fish rang out.
“Kyaaah!”
Whether they screamed or not, the Sea Beast happily chewed them up and swallowed.
“Kyung!”
Jojo let out a hollow laugh.
“Uncle… please tell me it only eats murderous fish.”
Waz gripped his sword tightly.
“If that were the case, do you think I’d say it was dangerous? I’d say it was helpful instead. And stop calling me ‘unc—’”
Before Waz could finish, Jojo said urgently,
“Then please tell me… that we can take it down.”
Waz pressed his lips together.
It wasn’t that he was ignoring him out of annoyance.
Depending on whether that person was included in “we,” the answer would be different.
