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1054: Water Dragon
『You said spirit magic
?』
《
》
I asked Announcer-san, but no reply came back. That was just the automatic announcement feature in action.
『Umm, Fran. What’s going on?』
「Dunno.」
『Uh-huh
』
So what now? Should I reveal myself to Marle and ask what just happened?
Meanwhile, Marle’s appearance had reverted into that of a complete human. Strangely enough, she was able to fly without using magic.
But what happened? After an appraisal, I discovered one remarkable change.
Her race had changed from a Demonoid Ogre to Infant Spirit. It seems my stabilizing her mana caused her to become a spirit somehow. How is that even possible?
In terms of stats, Marle had become incredibly weak. She’d be on the level of a Rank D adventurer with such low mana levels. In a sense, you could say she no longer had enough mana to lose control over.
「Marle?」
「Thank
you.」
「Marle!」
「Take care of my water dragon
 Wishkar
」
Marle’s figure suddenly turned more and more transparent, with her aura rapidly diminishing.
Then, she reached out her hand toward Fran, who was watching silently.
The moment Marle’s fingertips gently touched Fran’s chest
.
「!」
Marle’s body got sucked inside Fran and disappeared. Did she just assimilate into Fran or something? I attempted to search for any traces of Marle within Fran, but failed to find anything. However, one piece of certain evidence quickly revealed itself to us.
《Individual Fran’s Spirit Magic has leveled up.》
Her Spirit Magic leveled up from 1 to 2, maybe due to a spirit blessing or something? Fran put her fist on her chest and closed her eyes.
「Marle’s still here.」
『You can tell?』
「Nn.」
I can’t sense anything at all. However, Fran seemed to be able to clearly feel the power of Marle inside her, perhaps due to the effect of her Spirit Magic.
『So everything seems to be fine?』
「Nn.」
『Do you think you can use spirit magic now?』
「No, that’s not possible. Marle is asleep.」
Sleeping? I tried another search with a variety of skills, but still wasn’t able to find anything. Marle had completely vanished as if she was just an illusion to begin with. However, this was clearly no illusion.
In Fran’s hand was the metal collar that had fallen from Marle’s body when she lost her physical form.
「
Raydoss
」
Fran muttered in her deepest tone. I don’t know if we really managed to save Marle, but one thing was for sure. Fran’s fury toward Raydoss had been engraved deeply into her heart.
She and Marle had fought each other and exchanged only a few words. Despite such a shallow relationship, they felt a connection. Perhaps this was due to a similarity in personality.
As much as I’d like to give Fran some time to think, we can’t rest yet.
『Fran, let’s free the water dragon.』
「Oh right.」
Fran raised her head with a start, before turning back down to look at the water dragon.
In front of us was a water dragon with dark blue scales floating quietly with its head above the surface of the sea. Like Marle said, it showed no signs of violence.
Fran carefully descended to the water dragon’s face. I was bracing myself to dodge in case it attacked, but

「Kuuur
」
The water dragon did not attack at all.
It continued staring at Fran with eyes that seemed to reflect its intelligence.
The dragon’s throat wavered slightly. The voice sounded sad, as if it was crying.
「Is it crying?」
『I don’t see any tears, but
 Maybe it knows what happened to Marle.』
「Nn
」
Fran and the water dragon stared at each other for a brief moment, before the dragon suddenly extended its neck toward us.
I braced myself, but Fran was completely unfazed. I know it’s not showing any hostility, but this is a huge water dragon, you know?
How can anyone be so calm with a mouth big enough to swallow you coming this close? I guess that’s my Fran.
The water dragon seemed interested not in Fran, but the collar in her hand. It repeatedly sniffed the collar with the air flowing in and out of its nostrils.
All that nasal air left some nasty stuff on Fran though!
I cleaned her up real quick before returning to observe the water dragon’s movements. Then, the water dragon dexterously opened its mouth a tiny bit to bite the collar.
「Kuuuur
」
「
Sorry.」
「Kur.」
The water dragon seemed to shake its head lightly in response to Fran’s apology. Dragons are intelligent by nature, and this water dragon has lived for over a millennia. It might even be smarter than Fran

A-Anyways, let’s make good on our promise to Marle.
『Fran, the chain.』
「Nn. I’ll set you free.」
「Kur.」
Despite Fran raising my blade, the water dragon showed no sign of alarm. Like I thought, it seemed to understand human language.
「Ha!」
Fran’s aimed at the metal harness attached to the water dragon’s body. The harness was chained to the ship, and probably difficult for the dragon to remove itself.
Our slash cut through the harness perfectly without harming the water dragon’s body. I could see the water dragon a bit surprised.
Even those incapable of wielding a sword must understand how impressive this was.
The face of the water dragon approached us again, with glowing mana concentrated on its forehead. Then, a soft light radiated from its forehead to cover Fran. I didn’t sense any kind of attack, so what could this be?
I watched the situation anxiously, and the light got absorbed into Fran’s chest. It looked very similar to when Marle assimilated herself into Fran.
「
Water dragon, thank you.」
「Kur!」
Fran thanked the dragon for some reason, who then turned its body and dove into the sea. I sensed its presence getting further and further away.
『Fran, what happened?』
「The water dragon gave Marle power. I can sense Marle more strongly than before.」
Eh? I still can’t tell either way. I guess it’s fine as long as it’s not anything bad.
Fran murmured sadly while seeing off the water dragon.
「It left.」
『Yeah.』
However, our job wasn’t done just yet.
『There’s still some enemy ships. Urushi has their attention, but the battle isn’t over.』
「
Nn!」
『You can take out your emotions on them.』
「Got it.」
The surviving vessels of the Raydoss fleet will serve as Fran’s stress relief.
「Let’s go!」
The now fired up Fran threw a spell at a ship flying the Raydoss flag.
I thought the ward might block us since the ship half of the Water Dragon Battleship was still intact, but
 Her thunder spell simply landed a direct hit without any interruption, causing the ship to burst into flames.
No clue how their warding system was built, but it seems to require the water dragon. No water dragon means no wards. The damage transfer phenomenon, which had disappeared a while back, never showed up again either.
All the ships were just sitting ducks to us. Some of them did launch counterattacks, but they were sporadic at best due to all the chaos.
「Master, turn big!」
『Roger!』
「Teyaaaaah!」
Fran sliced a battleship in half with my giant blade before smashing it to pieces with thunder magic. Some soldiers managed to escape into the water, but they were met with a legion of dark wolves created by Urushi’s magic, staining the sea red with their blood.
Furthermore, Fran went directly onboard the Water Dragon Battleship, targeting the Raydoss commander who was likely inside.
Sure enough, we found a pompous man dressed in an extravagant admiral uniform. His huge, orc-like body trembled as he glared at Fran landing on the deck. Next to him was a mage and a knight.
「W-Who are you, scoundrel?!」
「An adventurer.」
「Krh! There’s no way lowly adventurer scum can be this powerful! Hurry up and lower your head! All adventurers must kneel before us!」
Whoa, been a while since we’ve heard that kind of adventurer discrimination. Looks like a stereotypical Raydoss guy who is blind to the situation in front of him.
「That damn alchemist, bragging about how his creation would lose to no one! Where did the little girl even go!?」
He must not have seen Marle disappearing. Maybe he only took a look outside after Fran started her rampage?
Unlike the screeching admiral, the knight and mage next to him seemed to have a better sense of judgment.
「Kuh
 Such power
」
「S-She is that strong?」
「We would not stand a chance even with a hundred of me.」
「T-To that extent
?」
「This girl must be the one responsible for all these casualties
」
The knight and mage were whispering to each other about something. Also, the knight appeared to be capable of recognizing Fran’s strength.
「
If only we had taken the Chancellor’s intel more seriously
」
「Staging a bridgehead is the least of our concerns. At this rate, we’ll be wiped out for sure
」
Negotiations may be faster with the knight and mage who can tell what’s going on, rather than a pig-headed admiral who can’t.