"...Evelyn-sama, what are you doing?!" Eve asks while I have several lines between my fingers, lines I’m using to run a test. I’ve been flying on my dragon for several hours now, following the ships. This will undoubtedly be a long journey.

"I’m just thinking about a few things, Eve." Now that I’m on this journey, I’ve thought about several things. One of them was about my "son." I felt him after some time, even though he died.

So I really was pregnant. But I don’t understand how that’s possible. Can puppets get pregnant? I have everything functional down there, but I’m still a puppet, so it’s strange to think about.

And if I did get pregnant, what was being born from me? A hybrid of ghoul and dragon? A ghoul? A dragon? I have no way of knowing. But beyond that, I also thought about my power.

With my lines, I wanted to run two tests. First, a range test. In the past, my lines could reach pretty far, but with an obvious limit of no more than about five hundred meters. But now? I managed to create and attach lines to every single ship on the sea simultaneously.

Covering an area of kilometers, considering the space and distance between each ship and the fact that I’m in the sky, it’s easily over twenty kilometers of lines. Beyond that, I also managed to attach those lines to the bodies of soldiers and forcibly started controlling them like puppets.

Trapped by the lines, they began to move according to the movements of my fingers, like toys attached to a string controlled by someone much larger. The soldier I did this to looked utterly desperate, not understanding what was happening, since he couldn’t even see the lines.

’That’s a terrifying power...’ Anyone weak could be controlled by my lines, but someone strong wouldn’t be controlled and could break free. That will certainly be very useful in the war.

I can control enemy soldiers. Now I’m curious where the limit is, and how large something has to be for my lines to be unable to control its movements. So I’m paying close attention to the monsters inside the sea.

I’ve seen several already, but they’re avoiding the vessels. Maybe because of the magic being released, or possibly because of me. The disturbance my presence causes in magic makes monsters uncomfortable.

’There’s just one problem...’ The Oceanid is still awake. The last sighting of this nymph was by humans one month ago. She’s still out there in the ocean, awake and waiting.

Maybe she’s still curious about the ships, or maybe she got bored with them and left. But the fact is, if she shows up, I won’t know what to do. I don’t have enough power to drive away a being that controls the entire ocean.

’Hey, Arial. You can sense the Oceanid nymph’s presence, can’t you? Could you tell me if she appears? You don’t need to answer now... but it would be great if you warned me.’ I hope I’m not caught off guard.

"Evelyn-sama, the more dangerous monsters seem to have started appearing," Eve says, looking down from the dragon. I look too, seeing several monsters very close to the ships, circling them. Some are so brazenly active that they’re appearing slightly above the water’s surface.

’For now, they seem to be assessing...’ Probably because these things don’t smell, breathe, or emit magic like a living creature. To the monsters, the ships are like moving scenery objects.

’But soon they should smell the soldiers and the food on board.’ I keep looking down, attentive to when they’ll attack. The ships’ defense system was designed to react only in case of an attack, to avoid wasting magic unnecessarily.

So for now, everything is calm, with the ships not attacking. But at this rate, in a few minutes, the conflict will begin. I just hope few ships get damaged. We don’t have time to lose vessels to monsters.

"Hmm... Eve, please keep an eye on the horizon to see if any ship is being attacked," I ask her while using lines to attach to one of the monsters down below.

I trap its body against the lines and start connecting them to the movement points, connecting all twenty-nine lines into five that come to my fingers. I start moving my fingers and manage to control the monster.

I make the monster bite another, starting a fight among the monsters themselves. Then I make the controlled monster charge and flee, biting one and then another as it runs. Several start chasing it as I keep this up.

The smell of blood and the chaos in the water turns everything into a massive brawl, which makes them ignore the ships. The bubbles and blood attract even more. The ships just continue on their routes, showing that each vessel’s pilot is doing a good job ignoring the water.

"Evelyn-sama, some areas are experiencing light attacks, but the ships are defending themselves perfectly well, without any problem," Eve says to me. I stand up and walk across the dragon.

"That’s expected. Most of the ships will endure without issues. Probably by the time we reach the Angelic Continent, we’ll have lost about five to ten percent of the ships. That’s relatively little, considering the danger of the ocean." I make the dragon slow down so I can observe the rear of the ship formation.

’Most of them don’t even know I’m here...’ I guess I expected more, but the plans were so well made that all I’m doing is merely observing the plan being executed.

’[She is watching.]’ I hear Arial’s voice in my head. A single sentence. I look around and notice a giant eye beneath the water. It’s watching specifically me.

"..." I look at the eye. It stares back as if it knows I noticed. Since it’s a nymph, its body is probably made of water. And because its body is water and inside the ocean, I can’t see it.

’Just her eye is larger than a medium-sized ship...’ Just from that, I know she’s at least three hundred meters long. Maybe more, maybe less. She’s a nymph; her body can change size depending on what she represents.

"...Hey, Eve. Jump onto one of those ships and stay there. Don’t look for me. I’m going to leave and I’ll be back soon." Eve stares at me, seeming to notice something, and then obeys, even though she didn’t spot the nymph. She jumps from the dragon onto one of the ships. I’m sending Eve away because the nymph is clearly focused on me.

"Hey, Arial. Why is she staring at me?"

’[Magic.]’ Arial doesn’t explain much, but if it’s about magic, it’s probably the aura I have. From what I read in the reports, this nymph fled from the Demon King. That means she knew she couldn’t beat my father, so she simply retreated.

"Calyo, let’s move away from the ships. If I fall or get caught, you must go after Eve and help her." When I give the order, Calyo turns and accelerates in the opposite direction of the ship formation.

"..."

’She’s definitely following me.’ The eye doesn’t seem to move, but considering Calyo’s speed, it means the eye is moving at the same velocity with a stability that borders on terrifying.

"Hmmm..." I take a deep breath. I’m not going to die. Thanks to what I gained as the Demon King, now even destroying my soul isn’t enough to kill me. Nymphs don’t scare me because even if they have soul attacks, those aren’t effective against me anymore.

’This nymph has no way to kill me. It’s safer this way.’ This nymph could undoubtedly destroy Eve permanently, which is why I sent Eve away from me. But what bothers me is the fact that in just a few hours, this thing appeared.

"Calyo, reduce altitude." We move completely away from the ships as Calyo flies very close to the water. The eye at the bottom of the sea still follows us, which makes me calmer.

The ships were built to withstand monster attacks, not to withstand attacks from a nymph capable of turning a continent into a brand new ocean.

"You seem curious about me? And you caused a lot of damage during the ships’ testing phase," I speak to the water, certain she can hear everything.

"..." But only an unsettling silence remains. Until I tell Calyo to stop. When he stops abruptly, the eye ends up passing slightly ahead of me, then moves back behind.

’That’s a little disturbing.’ The eye is almost the same color as the sea, so it’s nearly imperceptible. Besides that, I can’t sense its Hikishin.

"You’re not going to say anything? Nymphs are usually very curious and talkative, so it’s strange if you don’t say anything." I smell something. Kind of sweet, but mixed with something salty and pungent.

It’s an unpleasant smell, almost feral. Like something rotten mixed with blood. A smell I never imagined coming from a nymph—beings that base their hunting on seduction. This smell only makes me want to leave.

"...?" A strange sound begins as the water bubbles over an immense area. I tell Calyo to rise immediately. But when he tries, he starts being pulled downward. A gigantic whirlpool forms in the water, creating a kind of massive conical hole.

Calyo beats his wings with all his strength, but the suction force that emerges is so immense that I’m forced to tie the indestructible lines to Calyo so I won’t be pulled in.

The wind distorts, being sucked downward. The suction is so great that even the clouds in the sky begin to be pulled down. All that remains is that strange sound of water and bubbles.

’W-What the fuck!?’ I try to think of what to do, but Calyo gets closer and closer to the water, while the hole begins to look increasingly larger and more menacing.

"W-Wait!! W-What do you think you’re doing!! L-Let’s talk!! Wait— Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!" With the force of the suction, we are pulled down into the sea as the water closes, sealing the hole and sinking us beneath the waves.