Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 195: Information Brought by Tiel

The sea demon Tiel moved into the Cecil feudal lord’s official residence, becoming neighbors with Heidi and Rebecca.

To this Miss Sea Demon who’d always been living in the deep sea, the human world was novel and fascinating —— although sea demons do go ashore occasionally to travel around, that was something that only the exuberant and overly curious among them did. As for Tiel whose favorite hobby in life was to hibernate to her death, she clearly wouldn’t have such thoughts that were an extreme waste of time —— if she hadn’t swum in the wrong direction, she probably wouldn’t have come to his land located on the west of the ocean for her whole life.

But now that she’d already arrived at this place by some strange chance and seen the human world, Tiel suddenly felt that… moving about outside once in a while seemed pretty interesting too!

These houses of humankind built on the dry land, the crops growing between the air and soil, queer culture and traditions — all indeed seemed more interesting than staying at home and sleeping.

And Gawain had arranged for Miss Sea Demon a “bed” that fulfilled her demands.

In a guest room in the residence, Gawain had ordered men to move in a huge wooden box that took up a third of the room and had Heidi further reinforce it using magic. Then, they filled the wooden box with clear water (of course, salt was also added). This naturally couldn’t compare to the actual ocean, but Tiel was already quite pleased with it: as Miss Sea Demon was only obsessed about sleep itself, it worked as long as the place was large enough for her to stay.

“Not too bad. This is enough to sleep in.” Miss Sea Demon stirred the water in the wooden box with satisfaction. “Thank you.”

Gawain surveyed the decor of the room. As such a massive “fish tank” was put inside, the amount of space that could fit furniture had naturally shrunk. Right now, other than a set of table with chairs and a cabinet, there was only a small single bed left. He had specially left this single bed behind. “Actually, you can also try sleeping on the bed —— it will probably be a unique experience.”

“I will, I will.” Tiel waved her hand impatiently and then in front of Gawain, did a backward dive into that big wooden box filled with clear water. Water instantly splashed in all directions in the wooden box. Amidst the splashes, a long tail emerged from beneath the water surface and briefly swayed in the air. “But I still like sleeping in here~”

Gawain was taken aback once he saw the tip of the tail—— That wasn’t the fishtail he’d seen earlier, but was a tail that seemed like a sea snake!

At the side, Amber could not help exclaiming, “Wah—— Why has your tail changed?!”

“Oh ya?” Tiel faltered for a moment; turning to look at the sea-snake tail that was swinging behind her, she was pretty surprised too. “Seems like I got it wrong… Never mind, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have to swim everywhere here anyway. The snake tail is more convenient for moving around.”

“So the tails of you sea demons can be freely changed?!” Gawain felt that he had grasped some unbelievable new knowledge once again (though such knowledge seemed to be absolutely useless). “I’d thought that the upper half of a human and lower half of fish was the standard form of sea demons…”

“The outlook of people on land is really narrow.” Tiel pointed at Gawain using the tip of her snake tail. “That is because your imagination isn’t strong enough—— I can even turn my upper half into a fish and lower half into a human! If you don’t believe it, I’ll do it on the spot for—”

Before she could finish, Gawain had imagined what a sight it would be having a bighead fish with a pair of long fair legs running around. Three layers of goosebumps instantly flooded his skin. “Stop, stop, stop. No need, no need. It’s enough knowing that you sea demons have myriad forms…”

“…So easily frightened.” Tiel flipped her hair and submerged herself into the water, only leaving her head floating above it, while watching Gawain. “Do you have any other questions? If not, I’ll be going to sleep… I swam from the Endless Sea all the way here at one go. I’m dead tired.”

“Last question.” Gawain quickly spoke up before she fell asleep. “About seven hundred years ago… do you know what experiences I had at the sea demons’ sea area at that time?”

“You have to ask me about something you went through yourself?” Miss Sea Demon glanced at Gawain in surprise.

“I slept for a very long time. After waking up, I found that my memories didn’t really match reality,” Gawain explained casually. “Besides, there’s a difference in the world views of humans and sea demons. What I experienced might have another look in your eyes…”

“Seven hundred years ago…” Tiel rolled up her eyes, making it seem like she was in thought, her tail unconsciously dangling lightly on the edge of the wooden box. “To be honest, I’m really not too clear. Although you did go past our sea area, you only had a little contact with us. Besides, I was busy heading home to sleep, so I only took a glance at you on the sea surface from afar, then left. At that time, you were searching for something called ‘revelation articles’, but to the end, you and my sisters didn’t seem to communicate clearly what those so-called ‘revelation articles’ were. Therefore, my sisters brought you to an area wrapped in strong magnetic fields according to your request. As for what exactly you went through at that sea area… I’m not really sure.”

Revelation articles? Sea area wrapped in strong magnetic fields?

Gawain felt very rueful that Miss Tiel was unable to provide enough information, but from her descriptions, even if the sea demons that Gawain Cecil had directly interacted with back then were here, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell anything more: the sea demons had merely showed him the way that time. The truly crucial information were these two key points that Tiel had mentioned!

Was that sea area wrapped in strong magnetic fields the legendary Sea of Eternal Darkness? Then what connections would the revelation articles have with the tall tower under the starlight that reached the sky? Could it be referring to those crystals that could help strengthen the satellite signal? The crystals that Gawain Cecil brought out from the tower were the revelation articles?

“As for that sea area enveloped in strong magnetic fields, are you all familiar with it?” Gawain asked another question, slightly unresigned.

Tiel thought for a while. “It is outside of our sea area. Though not far away, we never go there. —— The strong magnetic fields there are only a small problem. The greatest trouble is that there is some being called the ‘ancient guard’ lingering there. It will randomly attack intruders. Honestly, we’d thought you were mad when you insisted on entering back then. To think you actually came back alive… and you’d even resurrected?”

Now even an ancient guard had come along…

New information that streamed in continuously had Gawain swelling with the urge of heading out to sea immediately, but he knew very well that the productivity and technology of the present could not support him through such an impulsive venture to the deep sea—— Moreover, there also existed an “ancient guard” whose combat ability was extremely strong in the Sea of Eternal Darkness. But he still added, “If we get a chance in the future, I hope that you can bring me to that place again.”

“You humans are really a type of creature that loves taking risks, huh?” Tiel yawned languidly. “But let’s see about it when there’s a chance. ——I don’t plan on returning for the time being. I had a hard time swimming so far to find this place. It’d feel like such a loss to return right away.”

As she spoke, Miss Sea Demon lifted her eyelids and glanced at Gawain. “And swimming is so tiring. I want to rest~”

The unspoken words behind these were that she couldn’t be bothered to continue answering questions.

“Alright, have a rest first. We’ll chat later when there’s time.” Gawain nodded and took half a step back. “Tell Betty if you need anything, or you can come to me directly. I’ve shown you around this place earlier.”

“I got it, I got it.”

Tiel flapped her tail impatiently; then she did a good stretch in the water, straightened her back, flipped her belly up, and closed her eyes to sleep.

Soaked in the water with her belly up, she was sleeping like she’d suddenly passed away. —— It was also fortunate that she now had a snake tail; it would really be rather terrifying if it was a fishtail.

Gawain left Tiel’s room with Amber and the rest. Only when they’d reached the corridor did Heidi break the silence. “Ancestor, what do you think about this… sea demon that suddenly appeared?”

“What do I think?”

“Sea demons are a species of mysterious yet ancient intelligent beings. Although there is no proof, the majority of the legends related to them all contain descriptions of ‘dangerous, peculiar, mysterious’. Do you think this sea demon… can be trusted?”

Gawain rolled his eyes. “Do you think her behavior is associated with the three adjectives above?”

Heidi: “…”

“Of course, I understand your worries too.” Gawain changed the topic. “We cannot judge a person by appearances. The same goes for a fish—— Oh, and also a sea snake. Regardless, this sea demon carries knowledge and information that I urgently need. I have an obsession with the deep sea. It isn’t easy explaining such an obsession to all of you for now, but for that reason, I have to keep Tiel here. In addition, I’ve also studied those legends about sea demons carefully. I found that almost all of them came from the coastal fishermen or sailors of the Typhon Empire and Silver Empire. These two groups… To put it bluntly, even if they’d caught sight of a slightly bigger fish out at sea, they would be able to come up with a heap of tales about gods and ghosts. The legends they left behind contain too much exaggeration and cannot be trusted, not completely.”

“I understand.” Heidi nodded. “Since you’ve thought it through, I no longer have any questions.”

“Mm. But you still have to remember, pay more attention to Tiel’s movements. On the one hand, it’s necessary vigilance and precaution, and on the other, it’s to stop her from doing anything shocking. —— She comes from the deep sea after all. Her worldview is highly likely entirely different from humans’.”

“Yes.”

“Another thing, have the witnesses and soldiers maintaining order at the square today been spoken to?”

“They have.” Heidi nodded. “The explanation to the outside is that an old friend of a different race whom you got acquainted with seven hundred years ago rushed over for a meeting as she’d heard news of your resurrection. This has been told to Miss Tiel too, and she is willing to cooperate.”

“The convenience brought about by the identity of a legendary hero, is it…?” Gawain chuckled. “It feels like no matter how many bizarre and strange incidents occur, as long as it has something to do with me, the laymen would easily believe them.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “You could do something like opening and rising from your coffin after all. What else isn’t possible.”

Gawain: “…”