Vermillion

The altocumulus clouds in the early summer’s sky were reflected by the clear blue surface of the lake. The sunlight shone from high above, burning their skin.

Though, a refreshing wind blew across the lake, cooling down the merciless heat to an extent. As the water’s surface rippled, the sunlight started to glitter.

And.

Among all that, one boat advanced unsteadily.

“Kei, we’re slightly drifting to the right.”

“Hmm… How about this?”

“No, the other way, the other way! I meant the right side from my perspective!”

On the opposite side of Kei, Aileen pointed towards his left-hand side. Kei put some strength into his left hand, having a tough time using the oars for the first time.

Pushed by his strength, the oar made the water swirl as it created thrust. Along the sound of splashing and burbling, the boat gradually changed its direction.

“…Okay, we’ve straightened up now.”

“Uhh, this is proving to be quite difficult.”

Kei muttered under his breath without stopping to row. The process of rowing itself did not look like anything overly difficult, but it made one use muscles they normally did not use, so the mental fatigue was quite taxing. In addition to that, not being able to see the direction he was going made him more stressed than he had imagined.

“Is it too much?”

“It’s not, but I’m not really used to it.”

He replied immediately to Aileen’s concern. His words showed a little stubbornness since he did not want to look pathetic in her eyes, but he did not really lie. He felt that his muscles were being put to work, but he could keep this up for hours.

Incidentally, normally you would move a rowboat like this not by just using your arms but your entire upper body, utilizing all your body’s strength, but alas, there was no expert around to tell him that.

“Well, we have no need to rush. Let’s enjoy it slowly.”

This doesn’t feel so bad either, Kei’s expression was bright. Aileen who sat at the back of the boat also had a soft smile on her face.

“Yeah! …But I feel a bit peckish.”

Saying so, Aileen started to rummage through their shopping bag. She grabbed a still-warm galette with cheese and munched on it in a showy fashion as Kei was stuck rowing the boat.

“Nhhhg~ Delicious!”

She expressed happily with a hand on her cheek, apparently enjoying it. Kei even felt like he could hear fluffy sound effects coming from her.

“Ahh, you started without me…”

“I’m hungry, I couldn’t help it.”

Since freighters were going back and forth until the half-point of the lake, they planned to start eating once they got close to the temple as it would be dangerous otherwise. However, Aileen seemed to have forgotten all about this arrangement, and started to wolf down the food rather than stopping at a single bite.

“Maybe I should eat as well.”

Kei himself had not eaten anything since waking up either. It was only a matter of time until the feeling of hunger would grow intense.

“Hehehe, unfortunately, we can’t have you do that.”

With a mean-looking smile, Aileen drew the shopping bag towards her.

“You have to keep rowing.”

“Come on…”

“I mean, it’ll be dangerous if we stay around here, right? Look, a freighter’s coming our way while we’re talking.”

She pointed at Kei’s right-hand side with her empty hand. As he glanced there, a large freighter was indeed approaching from the front.

Looking back and forth between the bag and Aileen, Kei put on the expression of a dog that was made to wait as he dejectedly continued to row.

“I’m hungry too…”

Kei endured his hunger in frustration as they passed the freighter. Stuffing the galette into her mouth, Aileen shrugged her shoulders in exasperation.

“You’re hopeless. Alright, you can have some, too.”

She groped around in the bag while chewing. And then, with a “Ta-ta-ta!” hum, she pulled out one more galette and held it out towards Kei’s mouth.

“Here you go.”

“Oh, thanks.”

He bit into the galettebait in front of his eyes without so much as a thought.

“Mmm, tasty!”

“Heheh, I know, right?”

Aileen declared proudly as if it was her own cooking as Kei kept biting pieces off the galette.

But then…

“Wheew! Look at them go!”

“Two lovebirds showing off!”

Such banters made them both freeze up.

Looking back, it came from the freighter they just had passed. People on-board were leaning over and looking at them. As Aileen turned towards them, her beauty made them shift into loud cheers.

“Are you on a date? Oh, what youthfulness!”

“Hey young lady! Why don’t we have some tea later!?”

For an instant the two looked at each other blankly, but in the next moment they realized how they had to appear to others right now, and averted their eyes.

Aileen quickly got back to her back seat, while Kei resumed rowing in silence. Due to the relative velocity, they swiftly left the noisy sailors behind.

“…”

Even as the two refused to meet gazes, they still seemed to be testing the waters with each other in silence.

Kei looked at the transparent water while still keeping Aileen at a corner of his eyes.

“…The water sure is beautiful here.”

He muttered as if speaking to himself.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same.”

Aileen confirmed very naturally. She then slightly leaned over the boat’s side, peering into the endlessly blue lake.

“It feels as if you can look all the way to the bottom…”

As Kei stopped rowing, the ripples on the water ceased, the lake’s surface becoming as still as a mirror, and thus reflecting Aileen’s face. The boat still advanced slowly due to its inertia, causing small ripples at the bow.

“Would you be able to see the bottom with your eyes, Kei?”

Aileen asked innocently as she raised her face.

“I could earlier but I can’t anymore. It’s probably quite deep here.”

“I see. How deep do you think?”

“At a glance, the last time I saw the bottom, it seemed to be around 8 meters deep.”

“Hohh, that’s pretty deep.”

As they talked about such silly things, the boat had drawn close to the islet without them realizing. When they reached a point slightly away from the harbor, from where they could see the white stairs leading to the temple, they spread their food on the bilge and treated themselves to a lavish lunch.

“Which reminds me, Granny Marie talked about it before, didn’t she? The legend of Lake Synapeia.”

Aileen said while cutting a dry-cured ham in thin slices.

“A legend?”

“Yeah, apparently,” she washed down the meat in her mouth with cider and continued, “there seems to be a sunken ship somewhere in this lake. One fully loaded with gold and silver at that.”

“Huh… Did it get into an accident or something?”

“No, it was apparently the Spirit of Water that sank it.”

In the distant past, people living near the lake’s shore had acted like they owned the place, using the lake water, throwing garbage into it, and even polluting it with sewage.

But one day, the Spirit of Water could no longer endure the lake’s contamination, and caused a whirlpool in a fit of rage.

Every single ship and boat on the lake was swallowed, dragging them all the way down to the bottom of the lake.

In addition, the reverse currents flowing through the irrigation channels laid waste to the fields, ruining all the crops.

“Having their crops destroyed and thus being on the verge of starvation, the inhabitants swore to never pollute the lake ever again. And to appease the Spirit, they built the temple on the islet at the center, revering it — or so the story goes.”

“And among those ships, there was one loaded with treasures?”

“Sounds like it. According to granny, it had happened 200 years ago, and has even been recorded in history books. However, there are no records about a ship full of treasures.”

“Well, that’s how legends usually go.”

Shrugging a bit, he reached out to the cider next to Aileen and chugged it down.

“Still, it sure stirrs one’s adventurous spirit, doesn’t it? I don’t really care about the riches…but Treasure Hunting really has a nice ring to it.”

“I’m with you on that.”

The two exchanged nods with folded arms.

From the very start, Kei and Aileen had loved these kinds of dreamy tales. It was normal for them to rush over whenever they heard interesting rumors about a place in the game. Naturally, they had gone through painful experiences because of that, but it still suited their style to enjoy things, even if they were a little risky.

“Can’t you do anything about it with Kerstin’s magic?”

“I was just thinking about that too. If I let her【Inspect】the lake’s bottom, she should easily find some ship remains – theoretically.”

Kerstin was a Shadow Spirit. If she portrayed the underwater area with【Inspect】they could grasp the bottom’s topography at a level of detail rivalling the latest sonar scans.

“The problem would be the amount of catalysts, and what we could do about it, even if we find it.”

“Hmm. for crystals, around 5 kg should be enough for a lake of this size.”

Aileen looked over the lake while plucking off a cherry.

“But even if we do find it, how are we going to pull up the wreckage?”

“We would’ve dived in without any questions asked if this was still a game… No wait, can’t we do it here as well?”

Kei muttered while peering at the lake bottom. He said so considering his body strengthened by『Crests』, but he also felt reserved since he was not used to swimming. However, Aileen immediately rejected his suggestion.

“The bottom areas of lakes are usually extremely cold. I’ve heard about getting hypothermia from cold currents and dying after swimming deep down in lakes. Let’s not do that stuff in real life, okay?”

“I see… Yeah, we don’t even know how deep it really is. There are no industrial machines around, so diving suits are out of question too…”

“If there was a water magician around, it would be a different story, but…”

Their eyes were naturally pulled towards the『Water Spirit Temple』.

“…I wonder if that place has one.”

“Hmm. But listening to that Legend, the Spirit here seems to be a high-ranking one. I can’t imagine anyone forming a contract with it…”

“Right…”

They pouted in unison.

In【DEMONDAL】Spirits were roughly divided into three tiers, but High-Ranking Spirits were practically close to NPCs, appearing in set locations but in exchange, making unreasonable demands for forming contracts. Generally, players could only form contracts with mid-ranking Spirits and below, so the contract requirements of high-ranking Spirits were already harsh by game standards — things like gathering ten Wyvern eyeballs — and could be regarded as impossible for this world’s residents.

Incidentally, Kei’s contracted spirit, Siv was mid-rank, while Aileen’s Kelstein was low-rank.

“Well, if there had been a water magician around, they’d have pulled it up long ago.”

“True. Besides, we don’t even know if we can find it even if I use【Inspect】.”

“It’d be quite a bummer if it turns out there was no treasure on it too… I guess, it’s better for legends to remain legends.”

“Yeah. Guess we should give up.”

While they talked, all their food vanished in the blink of an eye. And as they rubbed their full belies, they relaxed their seating postures, making it more comfortable on their stomachs.

“Ugh… I’m full… Can’t eat another bite…”

“We sure ate a lot. But, it was delicious.”

Kei nodded, filled with all kinds of emotions.

It had been a meal while chatting. Unlike with the lonely dinner last night, he had focused much more on the conversation than the food’s taste, but his heart was still filled with a sense of happiness, screaming delicious.

This is how a meal should be — he thought while sipping on the remaining cider as a finisher.

“I’m sleepy…” With an elegant yawn, Aileen laid down on the bilge.

“Yawning is really contagious.”

Stifling down the sleepiness assaulting him, Kei stretched his back and looked up.

“It sure is a nice day.”

“Yeah… Hey, Kei, can you see the stars during daytime?”

“Yeah, I can.”

“Seriously? That’s so nice~ What do they look like?”

“What, you ask… They just look like white dots. It’s not that beautiful, and I can’t see all the smaller stars as I can during the night.”

“Ohh~『Enhanced Vision』definitely is amazing…”

Aileen raised her hand above her head as she was lying and staring at the blue sky. She continued gazing at the invisible stars for a while, but her eyelids gradually closed, until eventually…

“….Nnn.”

She started to snore lightly.

Kei gazed at her while resting his chin on his hand for some time, but then reconsidered that staying here for too long would not be smart — though that would be quite romantic in its own way — and lightly shook the boat.

“Huh… Did I fall asleep!?”

Aileen jerked up, her eyes wide open.

“You’ve nodded off for a few minutes… Should I have not woken you up?”

“No, it’s okay. Thanks. I almost completely fell asleep there.”

She stretched like a cat and looked towards the temple.

“…Should we get going then?”

“Aye.”

Nodding, Kei grabbed the oars.