The Ultimate Sage Who Faked Incompetence and Was Disinherited Just Wants to Enjoy His New Life! - Episode 102: The Final Battleground

Episode 102: The Final Battleground

From the dungeon along the coast, we headed toward Port Town Suiren. We passed through Kikyo Town. If we went by shared carriage, it would take more than two days. We didn’t know how much time was left before the Water Spirit appeared. The sooner, the better.

“Elise, are you okay?”

“It’s getting a bit tough, as expected.”

She was breathing heavily through her shoulders. No surprise—she had run almost nonstop to get here. For now, we let Elise rest and the rest of the members prepared the camp. We made a simple stone house as our base. Even with just that, the defense was sufficient.

“We’ll take care of the night watch, so make sure to get some good rest, Elise.”

“Thank you. I’ll do that.”

“If it’s too much, I can carry you myself, you know?”

“I’m fine. No problem.”

Elise said that with a stiff face. From that expression, it seemed being carried by Jill was her last resort. The rest of the members didn’t show any signs of fatigue. Everyone was tough.

Lilia and Pii-chan were riding on my shoulders. So they didn’t seem to be tired either.

“Hey, tomorrow I’ll secretly use stamina recovery magic and enhancement magic too.”

“As long as no one finds out.”

That was my reply to Lilia, who whispered sneakily in my ear. We wanted to keep the fact that we could use healing magic a secret as much as possible. Otherwise, we might end up stealing Elise’s place.

While eating the meal Ardan had prepared, we went over our plan for tomorrow.

“We’ll probably arrive at Port Town Suiren tomorrow. First, we need to contact whoever governs Suiren.”

“We also have to warn the ships anchored at the port.”

“That’s right. The ship we came on, Eleonora, is at the port too. If it sinks, who knows when we’ll be able to go back.”

The question was how seriously they would take us. On this continent, hardly anyone would know who we are. That makes us basically ordinary civilians. I was starting to feel more and more anxious.

“What if they won’t listen to us?”

“In that case, we’ll have no choice but to fight in a way that minimizes the damage.”

I groaned, deep in thought. Even so, the coastline was mostly docks, if I remembered right. Not exactly a place fit for battle.

“The location’s bad.”

“Exactly…”

Jill must’ve been thinking the same thing—he silently poked at his food.

“If it were just about defeating it, we could do it like with the Water Dragon. But this time, we have to rescue the Water Spirit too.”

As we struggled with that dilemma, Lilia gave us the answer. She floated to the center of the table, crossed her arms, and puffed out her chest.

“We just have to *make* a final battle field!”

“A final battle field?”

Everyone’s voices overlapped. What in the world was she planning? Without minding our confusion, Lilia began to explain her clever idea.

“We’ll create a place above the sea where we can fight!”

“That idea makes sense, but… how?”

Ardan folded his arms and thought. Just as Lilia said, if we had such a place over the sea, we could fight regardless of the port’s condition. Plus, damage to the town could be minimized. Depending on the situation, we could even use powerful magic without worrying about the aftermath.

“Of course, we’ll use magic to make it.”

“I see. If we create a platform with ice magic, we could fight on top of it.”

“But if we do that, it’ll be slippery and hard to fight, won’t it?”

In response to Jill’s and my thoughts, Lilia shook her finger with a “tsk tsk tsk.”

“We’ll make the platform out of wood. If we use wood that floats well, it should be sturdy enough.”

“Oh, that works! But… can you really spread out that much wood over a wide area?”

“Well, that’s where we just need a generous supply of magic from Fel, right?”

Lilia’s sultry voice drew everyone’s attention to me. Giving Lilia a generous supply of magic…….. If it’s like that time, maybe it means putting skin against skin? I feel like we can manage it somehow.

“…Think you can do it, Fel?”

“I won’t peek into your room.”

“Then we’ll need to book separate rooms.”

“I’ll return to that other space for the time being.”

Everyone’s weird consideration is painful. Just what do they think Lilia and I are going to do? I want them to think carefully about the difference in our body sizes. We can’t even kiss properly, so what exactly are they imagining we’ll do?

“You don’t need to be that considerate. Alright then, once we arrive at Suiren, we’ll immediately create the final battleground over the sea. If it ends up being useless, we can just destroy it.”

“That’s true. It sounds way better than ending up fighting in the middle of the town.”

The plan was decided. All that was left was to wait for the Water Spirit to show up. The issue was where to make the location. If it’s too close to land, it’ll interfere with ship traffic. And if it’s too far, we’ll need a way to get there.

“Either way, we’ve got to reach Port Town Suiren quickly. Let’s get to bed early and depart first thing in the morning. Wouldn’t it be faster if we just carried Elise?”

“That’s the last resort. At least if we knew roughly where the Water Spirit was…”

“Right, if we move along the coastline, maybe it’ll be easier to find clues than if we just kept traveling inland?”

Once dinner ended, a map of the surrounding area was spread across the table in place of the food. We began discussing whether we should continue as we were. The other option might be to head toward the coast first and then aim for Port Town Suiren from there.

“If we head straight for Suiren, we’ll probably arrive around early afternoon tomorrow.”

“If we go toward the coastline first, we’ll probably get there at night.”

“The earlier we arrive, the sooner we can make preparations.”

“But if we move along the coastline, we might be able to figure out the Water Spirit’s movements.”

Which one was the right answer? Sooner preparations would be better. But the Water Spirit’s movements were also important. And if we could check the sea’s condition, we’d be able to find out how far that stormy sea extended.

“I think it’s better to head for the coastline. Shouldn’t we know what the sea’s condition is like? If it’s already rough, building a platform won’t be easy. If that’s the case, we might need to consider another method. Plus, we need to alert Mizuna about the emergency too.”

“You’re right. We need to inform Mizuna as well. If we arrive in Suiren by early afternoon, we may be able to warn the citizens. But it’s uncertain how many of them will actually listen to us.”

“So even if we rush back to Suiren, it might be for nothing. But at the very least, the people aboard the Eleonora will probably listen, won’t they?”

“That’s true too.”

This is a problem. It’s hard to decide which would be better. At that moment, Pii-chan descended from my shoulder onto the map.

“How about we split into two groups? Aniki, Boss lady, and I will aim for the coastline. After all, we can fly in the sky.”

“I see, that’s an option. It’s not like we all have to move together.”

Ardan placed a hand on his chin and nodded deeply. Since we’d been moving together for a long time, we’d completely forgotten that. With this, we wouldn’t need to hold back on using enhancement magic because of Elise either.

“That’s good. Let’s do that! That way, Elise won’t have to be carried by Jill.”

“Right!”

“…………..…Is it really *that* unpleasant?”

Ah—Jill is feeling down. What am I supposed to say to cheer him up at a time like this? In trouble, I looked to Ardan and Pii-chan. Ardan blatantly looked away. I guess that meant he had no solution. Pii-chan, on the other hand…

“That’s not true at all. Elise-neesan was just hiding her embarrassment!”

“T-That’s not it!”

Elise hurriedly denied it. Seeing her in such a panic, Lilia had a mischievous look on her face.

“Oh my, I see. Then I’ve done something terrible. From now on, I’ll just pretend I didn’t see anything. So it’s perfectly fine if Jill carries you like a princess, alright?”

“That’s not it!”

Elise’s firm denial made Jill look completely dejected. I feel like we’ve done something bad to him. I’ll have to give Lilia a proper talk later to make sure she doesn’t tease those two again.