Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

"Because they really do regard this place as their nest, and the 'duty' of guarding the nest outweighs the instinct to 'preserve their lives'."

"But in other words, protecting the nest is ultimately for the survival of the species. For them, who have little individual consciousness and only regard the continuation of the species as their primary goal, it is still an act of 'cherishing life', isn't it?"

Both Gretia and Skadi could sense the presence of the Terrorfish, and they made their assessments while closely following Tomat.

“Haha, the bedbug’s den,” Ghost Shark said bluntly.

Ulpian, who was also a deep-sea hunter, did not follow along as usual. Instead, he chose to stop after disembarking, just like the Inquisitor.

"What's causing this feeling of oppression...?"

These words resonated simultaneously in the minds of Ulpian, Saint Carmen, Dario, and Elene.

Whether through pure intuition or by employing certain special investigative methods, all four clearly perceived that the Terrorfish now lurking in the shadow of the Eye of Iberia, in terms of "quality," was completely incomparable to the Terrorfish they had faced in the past.

The dinosaurs that inhabit this area have grown to this size!?

"Ha...this is far more dangerous than any written report."

Saint Carmen's only knowledge of the terror fish near the Eye of Iberia came from the report of the Grand Inquisitor who had managed to escape.

He could feel the despair of the Inquisition soldiers who landed just from the words—but even so, Carmen silently assessed whether it was something he could handle.

"40/60, if it were me."

This was Carmen's initial estimate. After all, he had nearly a hundred years of combat experience, and his opponents had always been these filthy creatures from the deep sea. Based on his own strength and understanding of them, Carmen had considerable confidence.

The Eye of Iberia was far from the city, and the dinosaurs that came ashore had no chance to return to the sea and bring back information to promote evolution. Therefore, they should not have been much more powerful than when the records were made.

But now, the malevolent aura of the dinosaurs, which could make the four of them stand on end even when they were not in sight, overturned his original expectations.

What exactly drove them to undergo such a dramatic evolution?!

Even though the reason is unknown, the phrase "life and death are unpredictable" has been etched into their hearts.

“Elena, you stay here. If things get bad, take this citizen back to Granfalo.”

Dario gave the order in a resolute and icy tone.

Before Eleanor could fully recover from the oppressive atmosphere and listen carefully to Dario's orders, Dario added:

“This is an order from the Grand Inquisitor.”

Carmen remained silent, the elderly saint's pupils reflecting the dark outline of the lighthouse, before she closed her eyes for a moment.

Just as mentioned on the ship, the hunters did not wait for the judges.

He did not expect that people whose goals and interests were not aligned with his side would lend them a helping hand. In other words, going up to confront those terrifying fish would be a near-certain death.

And dying here is not a great sacrifice.

It has no honor to speak of, nor is it necessarily of any value; Iberia will also lose its last saint.

Carmen opened his eyes again, looked ahead, lit the lantern at his waist, and stepped firmly up the stairs. At that moment, the others also focused their attention on Carmen's back.

The light was not particularly bright in the face of darkness, and Carmen's figure was insignificant compared to the enormous lighthouse. The once awe-inspiring name of the saint and the power of the Iberian guardian seemed quite powerless under that oppressive atmosphere.

Even so, Carmen did something that was logically incomprehensible—she kept moving forward and upward.

Neither Ulpian, who was not traveling with Skadi and the others, nor the two judges and Jodi knew what the silent Carmen was thinking when she chose to continue.

Duties stemming from one's position?

Taking a gamble, clinging to the hope that "Tomat and the others will surely come to my aid in this critical moment"?

"teacher!"

Dario hasn't used that term to refer to Carmen in a long time.

In Iberia, they had long since become superior and subordinate, rather than the master and apprentice they once were.

"Iberia cannot afford to lose you!"

Dario called out to Carmen, but Carmen only said as she climbed the steps:

"Whether to pursue value or meaning rationally, weigh everything with numbers and interests, or to choose what you want to do based on your heart and make your own decision, this is the question I once posed to you, and which you also posed to that young judge."

"This problem is not something you solve once and then forget; we may have to face it again at any time."

“I am not pursuing any ‘sacrifice of honor’ through fighting, nor am I imposing on myself the obligation to ‘fight the terror fish to the end’ because of my status.”

"How many more years do you think I have left to live? Five years? Ten years? That's long enough for the Liberians. What will I do during this time? Run around, give orders to the soldiers and judges of the court, and then watch those familiar faces leave one by one before me?"

"...I only feel happy. I chose to move forward simply because I was unwilling to give up this opportunity. At this age, I still have the chance to fight to the death on Iberian soil."

"Is it so hard to understand that a soldier would risk his life for the romance of battle?"

Faced with immense evil, Saint Carmen temporarily detached herself from her identity as a saint.

The person standing here is not one of the "Nine Saints of Iberia".

He was simply "Carmen Iberia," an old man willing to risk his life for the sake of fighting.

But doing so is irresponsible and shows a lack of self-awareness regarding one's identity as a saint!

Dario seemed to want to continue to dissuade her with these words, but then he realized that what Carmen was doing—fighting the Terrorfish in the Eye of Iberia—had never deviated from her duty as a saint.

The foolishness and "madness" of risking one's life will confront the "madness" of the deep sea, which follows the rationality of survival.

[Event] Fool's Tale: Chapter Twenty-Eight - Striving to Grow into an Inedible Shape

Carmen climbed the stone steps at her usual pace, neither quickening her pace out of haste nor slowing her down out of fear.

Roars echoed from the darkness, along with the sounds of metal clashing against rocks; it seemed that Tomat and the others from the vanguard had already begun their battle.

The strong smell of blood overpowered the scent of the tide, and these sensory stimuli grew stronger as he drew closer.

Carmen now feels like a fishing boat equipped only with a harpoon, recklessly navigating into a war zone where the warships of two countries are clashing.

No matter how compelling the reasons for living may be, some people will gladly die for what their hearts desire.

This is something that the dinosaur, which sees "survival" as its ultimate goal, may never understand or learn.

This kind of useless sentiment and individualistic thinking will only waste the population's numbers.

"Unfortunately, I haven't asked 'her' any questions this year."

Carmen sighed, then a relieved smile appeared on his aged face. He finally arrived at the platform where he was to go up, raised the lantern in his hand to dispel the darkness in front of him, and placed his other hand on the hand cannon.

"However, it's not so bad to die as a fool who only has a superficial understanding of the world."

The Inquisitor's hand cannon, unlike the Sakota's guns, has a power that depends on a range of highly subjective factors.

—For example, beliefs.

"Come on, use your bodies to prove just how far my conviction, Carmen's, truly goes!!!"

The light dispelled the darkness, and Carmen aimed her hand cannon straight ahead, at the place where the smell of blood and the sounds of the tarantulas had come from.

"Are you kidding me?!!!!!"

But as he illuminated a field of vision with his lantern, an angry roar suddenly reached Carmen's ears from directly in front of him.

Under the light, the carcasses of the terror fish were piled up like mountains, emitting a murky aura. Each one was a horrifying skeletal shape, and most of them were even close to the outline of a human.

Carmen knew that the higher the level of the Terrorfish, the more human-like its appearance would be. Some could even easily mimic humans and speak with clear logic, and their combat abilities far surpassed those of ordinary Terrorfish.

Judging from the height, there must be at least a thousand of these dinosaur carcasses piled together.

Even when they are no longer active, they still exude an oppressive aura that is hard to shake off, as if even a casual touch on a corpse would kill you with the residual nerve reflexes.

"What's going on? Why is it the same here too?!"

Carmen, still in shock, heard the voice again. He raised his lamp and shone it toward the source of the sound, only to find that Tommat was standing at the highest point of the mountain of corpses, holding the head of a monstrous fish, staring angrily into its empty eyes.

"So I'll have to use you guys to make broth... But looking like this, even if I take you back, the food service staff might not even want to use you..."

"It sounds incredible, but is it possible?"

While Tomat was still agonizing over these tasteless but wasteful terrorfish, Gretia's voice rang out. Carmen looked in the direction the voice came from, used her lamp to search for it, and found the other three deep-sea hunters sitting on nearby rocks.

"Some creatures, in order to avoid becoming prey for other creatures, choose to evolve their bodies to have bright colors, or even possess a certain degree of toxicity. Or rather, individuals with toxins in their bodies are more likely to survive. Under natural selection, the entire population becomes toxic. Obviously, the dinosaur is the kind that can change on its own, and not as slowly as in nature..."

Goredia slowly revealed her conjecture.

"You mean, in order to prevent me from becoming interested in them and eating them, they forcibly changed their bodies into their current form?"

Goredia nodded. In fact, she had this idea when she first heard about the recent changes in the dinosaurs in the region while she was still in Granfalo.

At the time, however, she still felt that this was a bit too far-fetched.

Is it necessary to be this afraid of Tomat?

After all, the only risk is being eaten to extinction or even being captured and domesticated.

—Okay, it seems that it is indeed necessary.

"Speaking of which, not only in terms of danger perception, the dinosaurs also seem to have unique strengths in mental abilities. They can communicate with each other in special ways or perceive various thoughts in the outside world. If they can sense the thought 'you want to have a big meal' from afar, it is not surprising that they would have such a change."

Skadi also shared her judgment based on her own experience.

"Although all of this is based on your strength, if it were an ordinary person, even if they had this idea of ​​'wanting to eat the Terror Fish', and the Terror Fish sensed it, they wouldn't take it seriously."

Ghost Shark added, "Ah, it seems there is such a thing? When Amaya was doing experiments before, there seemed to be a similar topic, something about 'how to use Haisi's collective thinking to induce deep subconsciousness' or something like that."

"I see. They foresaw the impending danger and tried their best to make themselves look unpalatable. Their intuition is quite accurate, almost like predicting the future."

Thomas crossed his arms and nodded knowingly.

Back in Saltwind City, he didn't consider the Terrorfish worth eating. He was somewhat skeptical when he tasted them, but then he was surprised to find it was a pleasant surprise. He then regarded them as "food worth eating," so the Terrorfish were still quite plump at that time.

But after having that thought, this perception that "fear fish are food" actually affected the evolutionary direction of their entire population?

Is it that my appetite is just too strong, or that my fear of fish is too acute and my reaction is too quick—or that my survival instinct is too strong?

In a sense, isn't the species *Dinopsis* a bit too idealistic?

"—So what am I here for?"

Seeing the resentful look on Tomat's face, Ghost Shark suggested, "Instructor, you can try thinking to yourself, 'I love eating skeletons,' and maybe the Terrorfish will become plump again."

“Ah, good idea! I’ll give it a try, but I don’t know if I can fool them with a lie.” As he spoke, Tomat noticed Carmen, who had a complicated expression but remained silent, and greeted her, “Oh, old man, you’re here? You’ve just finished cleaning up. It’s true what you said before, ‘We won’t help you when you fight the Terrorfish.’”

Indeed, if there was no need to fight the Terrorfish, Tomat and his companions would have no way of helping the Inquisitors.

It took about ten seconds to walk up the stairs after them.