Clang!... The sound of a cleaver hitting the hard stone-like chopping board. But that cleaver was like a reaper’s scythe. Each time that sound rang, a fish’s head was separated from its body, and the butcher's meaty fingers ripped its guts out.

Carpy recalled those scenes with devout clarity. He wouldn’t allow himself to forget it. His family, friends, and anyone he knew got chopped like that. Everyone except himself, and he didn’t know whether that was divine intervention or just dumb luck.

'One day, you will become a dragon.'

Even as a fish, Carpy had enough common sense to know that wasn’t possible. How could a fish become a dragon? He wanted to ask his master that. But he couldn’t, and maybe even if he could communicate with master, he wouldn’t ask. Deep down, Carpy wanted to believe he was born for something more than being just another fish on the chopping block.

He came to his senses and got closer to the rotting humanoid creature. The thing moved and turned toward him.

Carpy was terrified, and on the edge of his mind, he felt master Kon calling him back.

Right, he had done more than enough already!

But for some reason, his body wouldn't move.

'One day, you will become a dragon.'

Those words wrangled inside his head again.

Would a dragon run from such a lowly creature? A mere undead. Master Kon believed in him, and even though Carpy didn’t believe in himself, he trusted his master’s judgment.

'Sorry, master. But I feel like if I run away now, I will never be able to live up to your expectations!' Carpy pushed forward and swam past the underwater zombie's hand.

While some demons could adapt to the water and breathe in it, Carpy was born in water, molded by it. Unlike this undead demon, who only adapted to the water, every part of Carpy’s body was made for swimming.

So he maneuvered around the zombie and got every angle possible. But suddenly, as he was doing that, his body locked up. The water around him had turned heavier.

'What is this?!' At first, Carpy panicked. But he remembered master Kon's face; he never panicked. He was fearless!

How could he, as a dragon, be fearful?

He wanted to be calm, relaxed, and cool like master Kon!

The water clenched around him released itself, and Carpy had learned his lesson by now. He swam to the surface and got closer to master Kon.

As Carpy swam closer and poked his head out of the water. Kon flickered the fish on the forehead. "Dragons aren't supposed to be stupid. So don't do stupid things. Always act logical in any situation."

'Sorry for disappointing you, master! I didn't mean to!' Carpy cried internally. But he was a fish; he couldn't show emotions like humans.

***

Carpy swam around in circles. He seemed happy.

His actions were reckless, but I couldn't blame him. He probably hadn't even developed essential intelligence.

Also, the close-up of the humanoid demon. I had been able to glimpse what our enemy was. A low-class demon, a Drowner Demon. A demon formed by the hateful thoughts of a corpse that died by drowning.

Since it died by drowning, it will also try to drown other people. Most of the targets of this one were kids. So it either had hate for kids or maybe he died due to a kid? Or there could just be that kids from the village often played by the shores, and they were easy victims.

"Our target is a Drowner Demon," it was a basic demon that we learned from school, so everyone knew what it was. Even its weaknesses were well known.

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"Sorry, but what's a Drowner Demon?" Agon raised his hand.

We all stared at him. For a split second, I had forgotten who I was dealing with.

"You really are dumber than a rock. This was on the second or third lesson we learned in the academy," Gem shook his head in disappointment.

"Shut up, you delinquent bastard!"

"Okay, okay, we should all calm down." Bets easily held Agon back by lifting him like a kid while he and Gem argued.

Bets then explained the basics about Drowner Demons and undead. To make a long explanation short, they were weak during the day and could somewhat manipulate water. But the water they could manipulate was only from the area they died.

That's why Drowner Demons were usually caught. Because they never moved from the area they were formed.

Taking a few sweet fruit snacks out of my pocket, I threw them into the water, and Carpy ate them up.

Gem and Agon argued about some nonsensical stuff. But I was too busy petting Carpy. The little guy seemed to be enjoying himself in the water. It probably hurt him to stay in my backpack for days.

If only I had a different and convenient method of carrying him around.

If it's a drowner, the battle will be a water fight. None of us can fight underwater. He could easily haul and drown us, even if it was just a low-class demon.

Maybe we should call on backup?

No, there aren't a lot of exorcists that were any good in an underwater fight. Well, there was one, but his ability only worked when it rained.

Since this was a small village with low-class demon troubles, exorcists wouldn’t waste their time for such little pay. Also, they had a terrain disadvantage.

If we did receive help, it would be bad for our reputation. In about a year, I needed to become an Elite Exorcist. So a prestige hit would be bad. "Guys, stop fighting. We should go and get some sleep. Tomorrow we will start a more thorough investigation."

Agon and Gem stopped squabbling, but they kept staring daggers at each other.

It seemed like they were about to fight again, but they decided to stop for now.

I picked up Carpy and put him in my backpack, and our team ran outside the village to where we had left our cart and horses.

We set up camp, and I decided to keep the first watch with Agon. I was spending some quality time with the main character.

He was the same guy who I had hypnotized in the past and manipulated. Well, it was all for his own good. I hope he won't miraculously get his memory back one day.

Who am I kidding? He's the main character. Agon will obviously get his memories back one day. When that time came, it would be a pain to deal with. At least he can live a semi-normal life for the next couple of months.

"So, how's your special ability coming along?" I asked him.

"Pretty good," Agon leaned against a tree and stared at the stars. "By the way, I never thanked you for anything. Thanks for helping me that one time to get back to my senses."

Hm? Oh! Right, I had almost forgotten. The time I punched him when he was bummed out after the affinity test. It was a scary time for me too, since I thought I had killed the main character. "Don't worry about it. That's what friends are for."

I put Carpy in a fish bowl and put the thing on my head.

This might look weird and ridiculous to other people. But when Carpy gets human intelligence, he will hopefully remember these moments fondly. When he becomes a dragon, I will have zero control over him. He will be easily able to crush the contract between us by just flexing his power.

Should I have made a special ability that imprisoned him? No, no, he could manifest his own ability as a dragon. Something that would break mine.

Suddenly, as I blinked, I noticed that I was looking from a different viewpoint. Closing my eyes, I saw that I was looking from Carpy's for the second time today. He was looking at a bird on the third tree to my right. There was a crow in a branch there.

Was Carpy trying to tell me something?

Looking closer, the crow was abnormal. It had a third eye!

Shit! We're being spied on!

Okay, okay, okay. I have to stay calm and think of a solution. Fuck!

"Kon, you asleep?" Agon asked out of nowhere.

I opened my eyes. "No, I was just resting my eyes."

Should I try to signal to him that something was wrong? No, I knew he was terrible at keeping secrets. "Anyways, tell me about your ability."

"Oh, well, I can charge it up. Which made it stronger, but I can still only use it three times a day. It consumes way too much Ord." Agon spoke about his ability as if it was everybody's business. He didn't seem bothered at all.

Well, this was better in a way. The observers would be put at ease knowing our abilities. No one sane would talk about their abilities like that if they knew there was even a chance of someone listening in.

…

Even when we changed watch with Gem and Bets, I didn't sleep all night. Sleeping while an enemy was watching was suicide.

Before the time for us to wake up, Bets had a heavy breath as he came into the carriage I was sleeping in. When he opened the entrance flap, the sun hit my eyes.

"Something horrible happened in the village last night!" He said, panic written all over his face.