Chapter 429: Treasure From a Stomach?
Whistle. Whistle. Whistle.
The Captain leaned his body side-to-side as he kept a steady hold on the wheel of his stern, whistling as his black coat fluttered behind him.
His ship rode calmly over the small tides, carried by the winds that seemed to push his boat further than it should.
As his sails, which seemed to be stitched and put together by a variety of different kinds of cloth, fluttered, the distance to their destination only became shorter.
While this was happening, Lillian was lying on top of what any regular person would describe as an overly large treasure chest—this was the thing she had retrieved from inside the stomach of the Leviathan.
When she had brought it back to the ship, she had to fend off the Captain from prying its lid open, while also denying any form of questions about it.
If she was so adamant about not letting people open it, why didn’t she just store it inside one of the spatial rings she had?
’Any time now...’
She held a hand over her mouth and yawned, staring down at the screen of her phone as she took a look at the time, trying to calculate their current distance from their destination.
Unlike on her old Earth, this Earth had a much larger landmass in relation to the ocean. By how much? Lillian wasn’t too sure, considering that she wasn’t that curious in her past life to research these details.
All she knew was that...
’In a couple of days, we will arrive...’
Lillian continued to look at her phone before swiping to her message app. She looked through the chat with a certain lovable Assassin and couldn’t help but turn and lie on her side.
She felt a sense of melancholy and gloominess hang over her as she whispered into her mind:
’I miss her...’
She missed being around Marionette, the feeling of being inside her arms, and also the amount of affection given to her. It was extremely comforting to be around someone you know who was incredibly competent.
Lillian’s face slowly turned pinkish as she pouted slightly, grumbling before becoming startled at the sight of Viesta’s face hidden behind her phone—
"W-WOAH—!?" Lillian, now seated upright, looked down at the crouching Cowgirl before quickly asking, "H-how long were you staring at me for?!"
Viesta stood up and brushed her hands against her thighs. "Not that long, maybe just a minute or so."
She then went on to sit beside Lillian on the ancient treasure chest, before asking the girl with a teasing look in her eyes, "Quite the blush ya got. Missing someone?"
"H-huh?" Startled by the question, Lillian blanked for a moment before pressing her lips tightly together.
"W-well..." Lillian quickly twisted her face to the side and tried to hide it behind several locks of her hair, "Of course, I am... It’s been almost a couple of weeks since I last saw her..."
Viesta, watching as the girl became incredibly bashful, laughed loudly while slapping her right thigh repeatedly, "Hahaha! You really are hilarious, Lillian! One moment you’re badass and deadly, and in the next moment you’re as bashful as a maiden in love!"
Lillian gave an exasperated sigh at the woman’s teasing, unable to feel any motivation to refute any of her claims. So what if she was feeling bashful about her girlfriend? It’s completely normal!
After that, the two talked a bit with one another.
"Ya wanna know something, Lillian?" Viesta asked with a smile as she looked at the common birds flying above them.
Lillian, who was ripping open a protein bar, looked at the woman with a curious look, "Sure."
"When I first met the Student Council president, she told me that she was part of a small percentage of people in the world—a percentage of people who knew how to fight from the get-go... What do you think about that?"
Lillian stared at the woman’s dazed eyes for a moment before thinking deeply.
Beatrice’s statement about the small percentage of people was definitely true. That was because the concept of Talent was a thing—a major thing.
"She’s right... There is definitely a percentage of people in the world like that. After all, you have your average hardworker, who swings a sword day and night to learn how to wield it, while you have your average prodigy, who could learn how to wield a sword with just a few swings..."
Lillian paused for a moment and sighed with a shrug. Such was the reality of things.
And...
Beatrice was definitely one of those talents.
From an early age, she was able to achieve high mastery in every known martial art she came across—her skills rapidly improving once she emerged from her first trial, the one she fell into with Lillian.
She then went on to win multiple tournaments on her own at the ripe age of 13 years old, only losing to a few contestants, who were of a higher Tier than her.
’But regardless... I remember Beatrice was able to contend with a C-ranked monster all on her own—granted, only up to the stage of Wretch.’
That was still a notable feat, especially when Beatrice was only in her First Tier.
If Lillian remembered correctly, the reason why the woman hadn’t ascended up a tier was because she wanted to "max out" her skills and the available experience she could gain first.
That was the equivalent of an MMORPG player finishing all of her side quests and returning to the main mission over-levelled.
’I guess that’s what solidified her role as the Student Council President... I wish I had that much talent like her...’
And now that she thought about it, wasn’t that what Marionette had intended to do beforehand...?
’I remembered her saying she wanted to find a Trial, where it was most likely to have the attributes related to the Element of Darkness.’
Lillian felt slightly bad, but then remembered that because of that experience, both she and the Assassin were able to grow extremely close to one another.
’Also! Surely, she had gotten something related to darkness. That Catacomb had a True Darkness sitting inside it, after all!’
As Lillian monologued, she was woken from her thoughts with a shake on her shoulder. Finding Viesta staring down at her with a worried gaze, Lillian smiled and shook her head.
Since the loss of a partial bit of her memories, Viesta had been worried whether or not Lillian’s mental state or personality had been affected by the sudden phenomenon.
From what Lillian could tell, she felt fine. Rather... She felt calmer, as though a weight had slightly been lifted from her shoulders.
She also felt...
’... More confident in my strength...’
Lillian clutched her hand into a tight fist. She didn’t know what she said or did exactly, but she knew that her body at least remembered what she did—and it was telling her that she had absolutely gotten stronger.
"I’m fine, don’t worry, Viesta." Lillian giggled, but then froze as a thought shot through her mind.
Viesta nodded, still slightly worried, and watched as Lillian wrapped an arm around her neck and leaned in.
She then heard the girl speak:
"Oh, yeah! Since you keep asking me about my love life..."
Feeling Lillian move closer to her ear, she heard the girl whisper in a playful tone:
"What are your thoughts on Beatrice~?"