Chapter Forty-one: A Rebellious Orca
Before me stretches a vast white sandy beach and blue sea… and lying on the shore, a dynamite body with an exquisite figure…
“Um… orca?”
“They’re called offshore dwellers, Lepn Kamui.”
With a streamlined body that stretches about 10 meters, adorned with large dorsal and pectoral fins, its contrasting black and white colors are striking… Yup. No matter how you look at it, it’s an orca. The classic choice for those ride-on inflatable pool floats! It is thrashing around vigorously on the shore, and surrounding it, adventurers are all trying to push and pull together to return it to the sea.
But the cab is… the orca isn’t budging.
Eh, what is this? It’s super surreal!
‘…Daughter… hey daughter… can you hear me…? I’m speaking directly into your mind right now…’
“This thing, directly into my brain!?”
‘I was showing off riding the waves with Johnny and I ended up beached on land…’
“Who’s Johnny!? And you were riding waves!? Were you trying to become an angel or something!?”
“Oh… calm down, Rin… Those offshore dwellers like to use their powerful telepathic abilities to mess with people for fun.”
A strange voice that could be young or old, male or female, spread through my mind. Thinking "What’s going on!?" I looked around, only to notice the orca’s innocent-looking eyes seemed to say "Prank successful!”
On impulse I retorted, and its expression deepened further. Its mouth twisted with its sharp teeth bared—was it possibly… smiling?
Wait, it’s a rather ferocious grin!
As I batted back the words bounced at me, the somewhat exasperated Mr. Ville stepped in between us.
Using telepathy is… a terrifying ability you have!
‘Daughter. If you’ll help me, I’ll reward you.’
“Ah, so that’s why everyone has gathered…”
‘I promised a reward, so they all came!’
"…So that’s the situation. We need a few extra hands right now. Can you help?”
"Understood. I can’t just leave it like this either, I’ll help!”
Looking at my watch, there is still over an hour until high tide. If left stranded on land, before high tide it could die from its lungs being crushed by its own weight, overheating, or exhaustion keeping it from making it back to sea… I briefly considered just leaving it and eating it if it died… but dolphins have a distinct flavor, and if you think about it, meat without being bled properly would be a bit much… it’d probably reek of blood…
Still, using just manpower to return a killer whale that can weigh nearly 10 tons to the sea… how are we supposed to do that…?
Pushing and pulling doesn’t seem to budge it at all, and wrapping Ms. Aria’s net around it would just injure it… is there perhaps some other way…?
But for starters, we need to cool down its body… it seems to have dried out quite a bit…
“Mr. Ed, can you make those water cubes again? If it’s too difficult, we can consider another method, no problem…”
“Water cubes? Yeah, easy. But for what?”
“Maybe we should splash it with water to lower its body temperature periodically.”
‘You made a good point there, daughter! My precious skin was about to get sunburned…!’
“…I was thinking of roasting you up crispy with salt, pepper, and olive oil, you orca…”
Hearing my words, Mr. Ed creates a water cube larger than before and splashes it over the orca. Mr. Ville and Mr. Xenon move the other adventurers away before the water splashes down.
Great teamwork. Like they can read each other’s minds!
The orca let out a pleased voice as its skin regained some of its luster, but… it’s kind of… pissing me off a bit, this orca’s attitude…!
Well, this should help maintain its temperature and prevent dehydration for now, but the issue remains of how to move this massive body…
“But why did this orca get beached in the first place…”
‘I tried a “Beach Crawl Attack” from the ocean to threaten you adventurers, and this is what happened☆.’
“It’s your own damn fault!”
…No good, this orca… We need to do something fast…
And the adventurers who are trying to help the culprit who tried to scare them, even though there’s a reward… they’re kind, or maybe just money-motivated…
Or rather, it might be better for the adventurers if we just got rid of this mischief-maker right here and now…? Allowing someone who pulls off pranks like this to roam free might eventually result in casualties… right?
“Rin… it’s supposedly called the ‘Messenger of Fortune’ though…”
“It likes pranks, but if you encounter it, it may also bless you with prey or rewards.”
“Aah… So like a Trickster kind of deal? Another ambiguous role, huh.”
‘Fufufu… I am a cold and ruthless hunter, as well as a benevolent ruler, daughter.’
Bathed in dazzling sunlight, hogging all eyes on the beach, the orca puffed out its chest proudly while flicking its flippers.
…It’s really pissing me off, this orca! I’m going to grab the big kitchen knife from the Camping Car and make whale tempura out of you!
I really do love orcas lol
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