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I woke up the next morning, rocked by the swaying of the boat on the water. Deirdre is still asleep in the bed above mine. I can't see her, but I can tell since Azur is curled up in her arms.

If I stay here, I will surely wake her by mistake. For that reason, so as not to wake the little sleepyhead, I leave the room as quietly as I can.

As I go upstairs, I see that the sun is just appearing on the horizon, and I feel the morning wind on my face.

'Indeed, it is very early... but I am used to waking up early.'

I don't know if having Azur as a companion has anything to do with it since he never sleeps, but I have no one to ask either.

I turn around to head to the bow of the ship, to watch as the hull of the boat cuts through the waters, and I see that there is already someone doing just that.

I only see her back, but it is a very distinctive back. There is only one person on this boat whose skin is green, and that is Charity.

"Hi, are you admiring the view?" I ask her as I approach.

"Huh?" she asks with a lost expression, "Ahh, yeah, I guess.... I was just thinking about how this whole 'liberation' expedition thing has unfolded..."

"Isn't this what you were looking for?" I ask quizzically. "You seem discouraged."

"Yes, it was... But it's all been more complicated than we initially thought," she says, sighing "I suppose Deirdre will have told you about it, so I won't bore you with things you already know"

"No. We don't usually talk much about personal stuff when we're in the labyrinth. So, please tell me about it," I say.

As we stand with our backs to the edge of the ship's deck to watch the sun rise in the firmament, Charity tells me that, indeed, this expedition was the goal of the refugees. But then, when finally the rulers of the 4 races of our continent decided that they would go to the new continent, the nobles argued among themselves about the matter without consulting her or her people in the least.

Which had the refugees very worried, as they did not know if, having sought help on this continent, they would not have found a cure that was worse than the disease represented by the oppression of the orc empire.

And even when they had tried to change this, they had only been faced with a wall of bureaucracy that they could not overcome. Every time they attempted to speak with the queen or any of the nobility, the guards refused to let them pass and told them to return the next day. But, when they did return, they were told to come back at a later date....

So, talking to Joaquin and Lilian about it during the tournament was a big help in bringing their situation to the attention of Lilian's grandmother, which instantly changed the situation.

"Apparently, Carolina had paid the guards to keep us out." She says with a look full of hatred, "I already knew she could be someone nasty from how she treated us the first time we met her, merely like animals, but I didn't imagine she could go to such extremes."

"Who?" I ask, puzzled by the unfamiliar name.

"Carolina, Lilian's mother..." says Charity quizzically. "I thought you would know her name since, according to Deirdre, she and you are close friends."

"We are... acquaintances, yes. But I didn't know her mother's name," I say, clearing up the misunderstanding. Come to think of it, it's weird that I didn't know her mother when I went to Lilian's.... Although I guess that's a normal thing in such a big house.

"Ahh. Anyway, when this information came out, Carolina excused herself by saying it wasn't true. So it was the guards' word against hers, but her mother already has her pegged..." Charity says, and a smile appears slightly on her face "The guards were sanctioned, but Lilian saw to it that it wasn't anything really severe, as they never had any choice. The thing is... What was that noise?"

"What noise?" I ask, puzzled.

"I heard something like wood being splintered… Which, being on a ship, is quite disturbing..." she says, looking up at the deck of the ship in concern "Anyway, it must have been my imagination. As I was saying, the thing is that it's all been a lot more complicated.... Can't you hear it?"

Knowing what kind of sound I need to pay attention to, I concentrate on trying to hear what Charity is mentioning. And, within a few seconds, I too hear the crack of wood being splintered.

"I hear it too... Although I couldn't tell where it's coming from with all this wind," I say, concerned, "do you think..."

"Shh, I think it's coming from somewhere near us..." she says, covering my mouth with one hand and looking around worriedly. "is it.... Behind us?" Charity turns and looks around the edge of the deck and says, "Shit! What the hell are those things?"

I mimic the orc girl and see that underneath the boat there are what appear to be star-shaped pieces of flesh the size of a person stuck to the mascaron of the boat. As we watch, we see how one of the six monsters moves one of its limbs and peels it off the wood of the boat to reattach it a little higher. The extremities of the beings seem to have barbs with which they cling to the wood of the boat, producing the sound we heard.

"They're going to destroy our ship! We should call for help, but I think we can take care of them," she says, pulling out a large bow and a handful of arrows from one of the pouches at her waist.

"Good" I say, readying some mana bullets and firing them at the nearest creature. But, as soon as my projectiles touched the being's body, my mana bullets were absorbed by the fleshy body, which shuddered slightly and began to glow with a faint bluish light. "Magic's no good! Do you have another bow?"

"No. Go call for help; it's going to take me quite a while to take them out, and the longer it takes, the more damage they'll do to the ship." she says, firing arrow after arrow at the bodies of the beings, but even when they seemed to take damage from the physical attacks, they didn't back down in the slightest. To make matters worse, since I fired the mana bullets, they seem to be much more desperate to get on deck, moving faster and faster, thus increasing the damage they cause to the hull of the ship "What freaky monsters. Never in my 23 years of life have I ever seen anything like this."

'23 years old? But she looks at least 30!' I think in astonishment as I run to get down inside the ship to get help, but then I remember Deirdre's comments about the orcs developing much faster.

I need to go below as there are only a few people on deck, who have no fighting ability as they are the ones in charge of running the ship.

As soon as I get down a few rungs of the ladder, Azur appears, flying up the hallway and out into the open as he begins to change size.

I guess he'll be more than enough to take care of those 'things'.

I relay to Azur through the link not to attack them with magic while I look for Lilian's room to warn her of the problem, as we should alert the rest of the ships to be on alert.

...

As I had imagined, Azur was more than enough to eliminate the threat. And, as soon as I alerted Lilian, she took it upon herself to communicate, through her ring, to the other ships the message that they should be alert.

Now Charity, Azur, and I stand at the edge of the deck watching the water being cut by the hull of the ship, which has a few scratches, as we hear the shouts of Lilian, who is reprimanding the few who were on deck for not noticing the problem.

"It's weird... When we came here, we didn't encounter this type of creature. But, based on what I saw when you shot them with your magic, I guess they were attracted to the mana on the ships. That would explain why we didn't have that problem. Since in the group we came to your continent, there are only a few shamans, and they're not very good at handling mana either..." says Charity, looking tired. "Anyway, I'm going to bed.... I want to get some sleep."

'Shamans? That's the first time I've heard someone refer to the classes that appear in my interface.... But it must be a coincidence...'