Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

"But why did you want to do this? To spend so much effort turning the dinosaur into something edible for a group of complete strangers, instead of keeping it for yourself. I remember you really like to eat, and you eat a lot."

Tomat was quite surprised by Skadi's curiosity about his purpose.

He chewed on a tarantula's tentacle, offering a response that wasn't exactly a direct answer:

"I've done plenty of things that don't benefit me, so this one won't make a difference. Not everything needs an explanation, so just consider it a whim of mine."

Anita, gulping down her soup, ran over from the group of acquaintances she was in.

Her shell was already empty, but she didn't choose to continue queuing, nor did she try to cut in line through connections.

Anita simply came up to the two of them, grinning with her mouth still wet with soup, and said:

"When I grow up, I want to become a wandering singer, and then write a song for Skadi and Tomato, and sing it everywhere! You split the sea, he distributes food, he's just like the saint in Grandma's stories!"

If watching the residents feast and gradually regain their senses was enough to evoke an indescribable emotion in both of them...

Such direct thanks and praise can catch them off guard.

Neither of them really wanted the so-called "thank you".

A person believes they bring misfortune upon themselves.

A person is aware that they have created misfortune.

Even if you obtain it, you will deny it or find it insignificant compared to everything you've ever had.

But now...

Why bother with these things?

"Come on, you don't sing well at all, it sounds like a screaming terrified fish."

Skadi described the girl's voice without any malice.

Anita, not to be outdone, retorted:

"I can practice too!"

Not one to shy away from stirring things up, Tomat, as if fanning the flames, took Skadi's violin and continued:

"Why don't you sing a song? Don't forget you're the one who's a wandering singer. Isn't this the perfect time to sing?"

[Event] Beneath the Tide, Seafood abounds: Chapter Fifteen, Section D

"That sounds awful."

This assessment was repeatedly uttered by local residents when Skadi first arrived in Saltwind and performed to prove her identity.

Their reaction was beyond what most people would do when they hear bad music.

They would become extremely agitated, even covering their ears tightly and forcing a look of extreme pain with an expression as if they were numb, until Skadi stopped playing.

This is certainly not because Skadi really lacks musical talent, because this abnormal behavior shows that these people have most likely been influenced by Haisi and are reacting abnormally to the music and songs of the Agorians.

Only young Anita and another, even younger child, were not uncomfortable, along with an elderly woman.

But now, when Skadi, at Tomat's urging, played her instrument and began humming a folk song from the Agor region, the residents, who would have covered their ears out of discomfort and annoyance, all stopped eating and turned toward her, listening intently.

"A song? A familiar song..."

"Why don't these sounds make me feel nauseous...?"

"Ah... I remember now, records... old records... those records that can't be played..."

"It's an Iberian song...a song brought by the Agorians..."

Through normal eating and the effects of special ingredients, the residents, having regained their self-awareness, seemed to recall things from even earlier when stimulated by the sounds.

Some people reminisced about their childhood in Saltwind.

Some people reminisce about the time they spent traveling and wandering.

There are beautiful memories, as well as a painful past.

Joy, bitterness, sadness, and sorrow—a variety of emotions suddenly surged into my heart, filling my numb and empty mind.

But they didn't find it strange at all; instead, they accepted these memories without resistance.

Because the things originally belonged to them.

And they finally retrieved it.

This indescribable self-awakening, the realization that "I am who I am," has made their consciousness increasingly clear.

The rekindled memories and emotions are now driving away "other things" that have occupied my body over the years.

"I...I'm not some 'tin can'...!!"

"I'm not called 'Fence,' what the hell is going on?! What the hell was I doing before?!"

"I just remembered that I actually ate a bug yesterday..."

"Counting like an idiot... eating whatever people give you..."

"How could I only think about it now when I watched my mother starve to death right in front of me?"

Apart from Anita and others who were not significantly affected, almost all the residents were experiencing a range of emotions.

Doubt, anger, sadness, remorse... and hatred.

"Damn it!!! That bishop! I remember now, ever since I first ate the meat he gave me on the shore, my mind has been all over the place!"

It is unclear who was the first to roar from the crowd, their anger clearly directed at Bishop Quintus of Saltwind.

But before his anger could stir up any further waves in the crowd, the resident stumbled forward a few steps, fell to his knees, and clutched his throat.

—The throat was abnormally swollen and throbbing, as if something was about to burst out of it.

"I...I...Ugh!!!!"

The resident lay on the ground, vomiting painfully.

And some enormous, unusually large objects kept flowing out of his throat as he moved.

To be precise, it voluntarily crawled out from inside.

It was a large, dark blue lump of meat, maintaining an irregular shape and trembling constantly.

At this moment, the others also reacted, vomiting one after another. Some lay directly on the ground, while others leaned against the wall, constantly vomiting similar substances from their stomachs.

"What's going on?! Did I not handle it well enough?"

Seeing these people vomiting chunks of flesh resembling unformed dinosaurs, Tomat was somewhat alarmed. He then looked at Anita, who was not reacting much at the moment, and finally looked at Skadi, seeking her opinion.

"No... what they vomited up wasn't the terror fish you brought; those were sea creatures, sea creatures that possessed their bodies and influenced their thoughts and consciousness..."

Skadi made this judgment by looking at the objects that twitched a few times and then stopped reacting.

"The Terrorfish is a kind of inferior sea creature, a product of imitating its surrounding environment, and what's inside them is probably something produced from feeding on the bodies of the sea creatures given to them by the bishop."

This happened unexpectedly for both of them.

Tomat was only trying to feed these people.

Skadi only sang to appease Tomat and Anita, whose eyes were full of expectation.

However, the combination of the two things led to a situation that no one had ever imagined.

—Tomat's breath entered the residents' bodies through ingestion, driving away Haisi, while Skadi awakened the wandering souls with her song.

"Putting fragments of those creatures inside the body and causing a physical transformation is very similar to the Ursus Guard."

After receiving Skadi's explanation, Tomat breathed a sigh of relief, and this incident also reminded Tomat of the Ursus people he had encountered before.

"Well... of course, they weren't the only ones doing this. But according to Grace, the bishop only wanted to become a Sea Heir and maintain his self-awareness, and he was just using them for conversion experiments, not to create a powerful army."

Although she was responding to Tomat's words, Skadi was actually looking at Anita, who looked confused because she didn't understand the topic.

She didn't know why everyone, who was usually expressionless, was crying and laughing tonight.

They were also startled by the sudden vomiting of these people.

However, seeing that Skadi and Tomat did not make any major moves, and that nothing too serious had happened to him or his acquaintances, he chose to trust them without any basis.

Some people vomit a lot, while others vomit very little.

The first to recover looked at the disgusting vomit they had vomited...

"This is... oh... right!!!"

—They remembered! They remembered!

No matter how much time has passed, they all remember that on the beach, they and a group of people ate what the bishop called "a gift from the sea," which was part of these things, with a mixture of belief and doubt.

And afterwards, the evil creatures that appeared countless times in my dreams, constantly devouring my body but unable to move!

[Event] Beneath the Tide, Seafood abounds: Chapter Sixteen - Salt-Baked Bishop Quintus

"What's wrong, Bishop? You seem quite anxious."

"Shut up... I have things to do. Stay here and prepare for tomorrow."

In the underwater cave, the bishop, his face pale and bluish, covered his body with the dark robes of the deep-sea church.

This was to conceal that unusual body, which even an Agorian would not possess.

Even someone who spouts righteousness and morality needs at least an intimidating appearance.

However, he had no intention of using the refined tone he usually used with others when speaking to Greta, and instead revealed the anxiety she had described.

He looked around, as if searching for something.

The fact that his body swayed slightly with a helpless sigh indicated that no matter what he had been searching for, he had not found anything that satisfied him.

The bishop left the underground cavern and steadily walked up the spiral staircase to the top of the secret passage leading directly to the Church of Saltwind.

The interior of a church that is not cleaned is neither neat nor necessary to be cleaned.

Because no one would come here, his daily preaching was conducted from a high vantage point, standing on the cliff where the church was located, using a loud voice to speak to the ignorant masses below who only cared about when they could eat, saying things they didn't care about.

These people have long lost the awareness of prayer, leaving only the instinct to listen.

Of course, Quintus's visit to the church, where no one would ever come, on this moonless night was not specifically to preach to the people below at this time.