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Then, when they seemingly had enough of the tour, and the passing scenery lost its novelty, they rested at a corner of the deck to make sure they didn\'t hinder the two captains as the day approached its end. Magic heaters were placed at the center of their little circles.

When it came to the open waters, the wind had nothing to block it, making it strike against the travelers sharply. Coupled with the wintry night, the chill felt like thousands of ice needles pricking their skin. But of course, everyone had prepared themselves to face such hardship back when they were preparing for the trip. They were also handed good-quality blankets made from monsters’ skin.

Well, with the presence of magic guards, an individual\'s resistance to the cold tended to be on the higher side.

However, maybe it was just that chilly, or perhaps they had nothing better to do as the ship sailed through the dark river, they circled around the magic stoves in two groups, casually chatting around.

One reason could be that the cabin of this ship was far from enough to accommodate beds. The front and rear cabins were stuffed with logistic supplies and other daily usage items, while the middle cabin could possibly accommodate the 7 people at least if they lied down, however, no one wanted to rest there yet.

Perhaps, they were trying to be considerate to Allen and the rest, or maybe it was the pressure as someone whose actions would decide the fate of the kingdom in this critical mission, everyone\'s expressions were stiff.

Typically, this would have been the stage for the mood maker Al to step up, but he had been sitting a slight distance away from the stoves, knees drawn to his chest and a brooding expression on his face as he stared at the drifting scenery.

Soon, it would transition into another day. A man in his late 30s, an explorer who came along with Al from the Association, took out a mini bottle of alcohol and muttered to himself while gulping it down.

"The reward was so mouth-watering that I ended up accepting it without a second thought, but... what do we have here? The great knights of the kingdom\'s one and only Knight Order, the vice-chairwoman of the Simplex Institution renowned for her Ice magic — that she was even nicknamed ‘Ice Elf’ — Ruruce Simplex... and I, a mere C-rank adventure among these big names. Aye, maybe I jumped the gun a bit too hastily. Not that I intend to do it, but... will I be executed if I accidentally accelerate their growth if I make a magic blunder, I wonder?"

The soliloquy was obviously heard by the others. Caprine, a member of the Royal Army and the leader of the mage corps in this mission, addressed him in an overly serious manner.

"C-rank explorer Dongo Irish. I have much faith in the assessment of the Exploration Association. If the Association pushed for your inclusion in this mission, then I believe you have what it takes to help us when the time comes. But if you\'re still unsure, would you like to test your strength?"

Caprine stood up and walked towards the cabin, and came back with a cage stuffed with hen\'s eggs — they were a size bigger than what could be found on Earth — and put one of them on the deck.

"Try to freeze this egg with your magic. If possible, try to do it as quickly as you can, and focus only on the eggshell. Let me demonstrate it."

Caprine pointed her baton inlaid with an invigorating green mana stone at the egg after she finished speaking.

Crack!

In just a moment, a fissure ran through the egg. The inside of the egg should have expanded after the water within was frozen. But, because she had done it in a flash and in one fell swoop, not a single drop spilled out.

"Though you’ll lose your share of eggs for tomorrow\'s breakfast if you fail to stop it from spilling out."

Caprine said with a serious expression, and handed one egg to Dongo.

Dongo took another sip of alcohol as he accepted it.

"Hmph! I’m nothing but an uncultured explorer with a meh upbringing. So what if it spills out, I’ll just lick it. This’ll make a good appetizer for my alcohol."

Gondo said while raising a waist-length wand and pointing it toward the egg.

Crack!

A resounding crack echoed from the egg two or three seconds later. A bit of the egg white spilled out, but otherwise the egg maintained its shape.

Caprine took the egg into her hand.

"......Hmm, your control is slightly rough, but this earns you plenty of points. I’ve had the chance to freeze Hellrowcast eggs before— of course it wasn’t the mutated variant. Your output is more than enough to do the job. How\'s your mana capacity?"

"Really?! Hehe. If you say so, I guess I can do it indeed. Maybe this’ll open up the path for me to get to B-rank even though I’ve already given up on it... Oh, my mana reserve is somewhere around 1200 units. It was barely one-third of that before, but my daily training paid off."

Dongo said gleefully, his finger scratching the base of his nose.

"I see… I’ll arrange for more eggs when we stop at the next port for training. You\'ll need to minimize your mana usage as much as possible, and since output is enough to freeze a Hellrowcast egg, this should be enough for your training.

The future of the kingdom is in your hands just as much as mine\'s, Dongo-san, so try to freeze as many eggs as you can in a short period of time. I also promise that should you earn sufficient merit in this mission, I, Caprine Yukutsu, will personally write a referral letter to the Association as proof that you are skilled enough to be B-rank."

Dongo\'s expression became joyous as Caprine announced that with her right hand on her chest.

"H-Holy moly, fer real?! I-It would be my honor to receive a referral from a revered knight, more so someone from the Royal Army! Haha, just watch me pile up a heap of frozen eggs on this mission!"

"I-I would like to try out my strength too!"

“Me too!”

Kafia, another C-rank explorer, and Pani, a member of the central army, rose to their feet when they saw that and chimed in excitement.

From their perspective, a member of the Knight Order was an existence more exalted than an A-rank explorer or an army general.

Going on a sudden mission together, they wouldn\'t have been able to think of a way to approach her, and were most likely feeling awkward around her, but with Dongo breaking the ice, and Caprine\'s lack of pompous attitude, the gap shortened enough for them to give it a try.

Maybe the knights really were in need of their help.

Their morale shot up when they felt so from Caprine\'s tone.

"Hey, you. Al, was it? Come here, and give it a try! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! Oh, he\'s already a D-rank explorer at his age, so I’m sure he must have talent, Caprine-san! Perhaps he might even be outstanding enough to join the Knight Order later!"

The easygoing Dongo raised his voice at the pale blue-haired young man Al, who had been glaring at the void with a complex expression. Yet, despite that, the young man didn\'t show any reaction and just continued to glare at the void.

Dongo made a wry smile. He thought that the burden of the mission may have taken quite a toll on the young man, and he had been overwhelmed by the pressure. After all, it wasn’t an ordinary request, and the details were quite grave. The same went for him, after all. He may be a veteran, but even he couldn\'t sleep without the help of alcohol due to this mission.

Reeking of alcohol, Dongo took an egg from the cage, which had been placed beside Caprine\'s feet, and approached Al.

"I won’t say something like ignore the pressure since even I can\'t do it, after all. However, your current task is to loosen yourself as much as possible. Come, try it! Whistle That\'s quite a splendid wand you have there, eh?"

Dongo gave the egg to Al.

Crack!

Al\'s eyes continued to stare at the dark shore, though he froze the egg without using his wand before giving it back to Dongo.

The egg was frozen much like Caprine\'s demonstration. Nothing spilled out despite the crack.

Ruruce Simplex, who had been watching everything with an expression of disinterest so far, grinned as she cleaned her wand inlaid with a spherical, fist-sized mana stone. She was wearing a wide-brim hat, much like the conical hats that witches were often depicted wearing, with a design that screamed \'I\'m a magician!’.

She was a talent herself, acting as the vice-chairwoman of the Simplex Magic Institution — a cram school that boasted an incredible number of students in contrast to the others in the Royal Capital — for over 20 years now.

She took the egg Al had frozen from Dongo, and burst into an odd chuckle like that of a child when they were teasing an insect.

"......You...... Al, was it? I’m intrigued. I wonder if you can tell me your complete name?"

However, Al remained deaf to their words.

"Fufu. Quite a feisty kid, huh? But I don\'t mind that. Let me show that to you. Make sure you take a look, Al. I’m sure this would make you want to talk to me."

Ruruce then held the egg in one hand, the same way Al had done, and froze it before his eyes.

The egg made a cracking sound, freezing instantly, but, like before, not a drop had spilled out.

It was brief, and yet— Al remained quiet as ever. In fact, he hadn\'t even glanced her way.

Sure enough, the senior adventurer Dongo couldn\'t overlook this.

"Hey, boy! You don\'t have to suck up to the big names, but the least you can do is reply!"

"Fufu. It\'s alright, Donji. I\'m sure his mind is preoccupied by something, an obsession that a normal person might never understand. Obsession over something is one of the fundamental qualities of a researcher, after all."

"Who the hell are you calling Donji?! I\'m Dongo, note it down! And no, it\'s my role as a fellow explorer to guide the newbies! In the world of explorers, a life can be lost at the drop of a hat if you\'re working with someone you can’t trust! Talent or strength can never replace the minimum manners required when interacting with people!"

Dongo pushed for his reasoning and grabbed Al\'s shoulder, forcing him to look his way while murmuring \'I’ll first have you face me!\'

Meanwhile, Al had been faithfully following Schord\'s teachings — turning the heart and mind to nihility — all this while, but the drifting smell of alcohol from Dongo finally brought him back to his senses.

He stood up with staggering steps, and lowered his head before—

"Urghhg Grororror!!!... Haa… Haa... I was caught up in seasickness......"

He vomited on his hand. But that said, not a single bit of his vomit spilled on the deck. He had instantly frozen his vomit the moment he spit it out. It landed on his hand, making a clink-clink sound.

He threw the ice vomit lump into the river, and used the water from his magic to clean his hands and mouth.

"Kahahaha! I must say, even I am thoroughly astonished by that unique way of conversion. I’ve never seen someone freeze their vomit to stop it from spilling! You think I can do it if I practice it too? If so, I would like to give it a try! Anyway, so what\'s your name?"

"Aldooooo grgh-gargle!"

Clink-Clink!

"Pff-hahaha! Oh, my word, this is truly astounding!"

Caprine sighed as she looked at Ruruce who was clapping in amusement, and chimed in from the sideline.

"He\'s the D-rank explorer Al— never mind, he\'s Aldol Engraver, a freshman and student of that Class A in the Royal Academy. He\'s also the president of the Emission Magic Research Club."

She said, skipping to his actual information to avoid the hassle of explaining it again while picking up the egg Al had frozen earlier—

??

But she suddenly tilted her head midway.

"......It\'s quite cold... much colder than it should be... And this is just with a direct touch instead of using a wand, huh? It shouldn\'t be possible without special training. Can you tell me what kind of training you did, and for what?"

"Oh-ho, so you\'re the president of that magic club that our chairman grumbled about, huh? You know, we’ve received far less talent this year from the Royal Academy compared to the past all thanks to your club. Oh well, not that I care. Anyway, tell me about your training."

The two pushed Dongo aside and crept up on Al.

"Huff... Huff... Gurg. Never had I thought my training to shoot ice beams out of my mouth would turn out to be useful in such a situation...... M-My apologies, but can you give me some space since… you know? Glurgh."

Caprine gazed at the pale-faced Al, his eyes bloodshot, and shook her head. \'You need care,\' she murmured. She took out her handkerchief, soaked it in water with her magic, muttered \'excuse me’, and placed it on his neck while rubbing his back.

"It\'s said that cooling the neck and head is effective in treating seasickness. Feel better now?"

Al nodded, his face still pale.

"Y-Yes. Thank you very much."

"It\'s not good to keep your clothes so tight in such a situation. Wait, I’ll loosen your belt a bit."

Ruruce moved to loosen Al\'s belt— or she was when the ship suddenly took a turn, and she instead ended up hugging him as she staggered.

"I-I\'m sorry!"

"Haha, it\'s fine. I would rather have you get better quickly. I have a lot to discuss with you."

Ruruce said as she rubbed Al\'s back while still locked in an embrace with him.

Meanwhile, the ship continued to navigate through the Rune River without any hiccups— or perhaps not. For some incomprehensible reason, the air in the ship suddenly took a dreadful turn.

T/N - Lol, I had thought it was gonna be something serious, and maybe Al might talk back against Dongo. Who would have thought it would turn suddenly harem-y. I haven’t checked the next chapter to see whom those sharp gaze (s) belonged to in the end, but I am sure who it is.