I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature-Chapter 25

Chapter 25. Lucian
After finishing discussions on several detailed trade arrangements—such as assisting Kingdom of Frangia ships in friendly ways beyond simple exchanges—Yul headed north.
The next destination was the Kingdom of Britain.
If one sailed quite a distance north from the Kingdom of Frangia and then westward, there was an island with a lighthouse.
That was where Ian lived. Now, Yul could finally meet Ian again. Excited at the thought of seeing his friend after so long, Yul’s spirits lifted slightly.
How had he been, he wondered?
* * *
There was something Yul had misunderstood about the Mantra of Communication.
To use it properly, the other side also had to be using the Mantra of Communication. Otherwise, it would become one-way only.
He had used the mantra to send a message to Ian, but since there was no reply, he learned this later on.
Anyway, about a month ago, when Yul was transferring ships under the Kingdom of Frangia’s flag, he had sent word to Ian that he would be heading to the lighthouse.
If nothing had happened to Ian, he should have returned to the lighthouse as promised.
Using the Horn of the Sea King, Yul faced less resistance underwater, allowing him to move at a steady speed comparable to that of a great fast sailship from the Age of Discovery.
So the trip didn’t take long. Besides, the Kingdom of Frangia and the Kingdom of Britain were separated only by a narrow strait.
Crossing the strait, he arrived at the western edge of Britain.
That lighthouse—Ian had called it Skilg Brig Island.
‘Hm? There’s something I haven’t seen before.’
The island had nothing but the lighthouse and what looked like a small dock.
However, near the shore, several houses had been built. It seemed some people now lived there.
Still, the bell that Ian had installed long ago was still there.
‘Wow, I’m glad to see this again. It’s been a while.’
Back in his jelly octopus days, Yul used to pull that rope to summon Ian.
He went closer to try pulling the bell rope.
‘Huh? The rope’s too short.’
Back then, when he was a jelly octopus, the rope had been more than enough—but now it was too short. The rope hadn’t shrunk; Yul’s body had simply grown too large to reach it easily.
If he got any closer, he would probably destroy the makeshift dock the bell was hanging from.
Oh well. Just as he was about to swing his tail around and strike the bell to make it ring, Yul spotted Ian waving from afar.
-Excuse me, honored sea creature! Are you Yul?
-Oh, Ian! You’re here! It’s me, it’s me! Yul! This is what I look like now.
As the Transmission of Thoughts reached him, Yul shook his head joyfully.
“Yul? What in the world is that form……?”
-I’ve turned into an orca, somehow.
Ian had known that Yul wasn’t an ordinary creature, but to hear that he had changed directly from an octopus into a whale left him astonished.
-There’s a lot to talk about, really.
“It’s too cramped here to talk properly. Did you notice the sea cave on the eastern side of the island?”
-I know it.
“Then how about meeting there instead?”
-Sure!
On the east side of the island, there was a hidden coastal cave. It went quite deep, large enough for Yul to enter comfortably.
There, Yul met not only Ian but also two new people. One of them, he recognized—Celestia Drake.
-Huh?
“Haha. Let me introduce you again. This is my wife, Celestia, and this here is my son, Lucian.”
There was also a small, chubby little creature toddling around.
Blue eyes like his father’s, and red hair like his mother’s.
Cradled in his mother’s arms, Lucian stared at Yul with wide, astonished eyes.
Could there be a creature so small and adorable?
-Your son?
“Yes. He’s quite smart, must’ve taken after his mother.”
-Probably after his father.
Thinking back to the time Celestia had drawn her sword on him the moment they first met, Yul figured his guess was correct.
Come to think of it, it had already been nearly three years since he’d left this place. Time really flew.
“Ubabababa!”
“Oh my.”
As the baby squirmed in her arms, Celestia set him down. Lucian toddled forward, heading straight for Yul.
“Bababa.”
“This one’s name is Yul.”
“Uuuuuh.”
It was adorable how he tried to mimic the sound.
He placed his tiny hand on Yul’s snout, which was sticking slightly above the water—but the warmth could barely be felt; his palm was so small that there was hardly any sensation.
-Heh.
“Looks like Lucian likes Yul.”
Celestia, watching her son cling to Yul, asked uneasily,
“But… is this orca really that same octopus we saw before?”
Yul replied to Celestia using Transmission of Thoughts.
-Of course. It's a long story, though. Are you sure you're up for it?
“Of course. We have plenty we’d like to share, too.”
Ian was the one Yul trusted most. So he could tell him everything that had happened so far.
Still, he kept things related to his status window hidden. They wouldn’t understand it anyway.
-I realized, at one point, that the time had come for me to change into a new creature.
Starting from there, Yul told them about the time he had followed the song he’d heard in the southern sea, down to the strange sunken ruins where he discovered the Syrendron.
“Ooh. So it was a living weapon left behind by an ancient civilization beneath the sea? Incredible. And to think an Orca Tribe protects it! It’s like the tale of barbarian warriors guarding an ancient seal. There are records of such tribes in the northern parts of Britain.”
Somehow, Ian had fetched his writing tools and began jotting down notes.
-The orcas of the Great Azure Ocean are different from the ones here in the Continental Ocean. They’re highly intelligent, able to speak and think like humans.
“Oooh! You mean, an intelligent species living in the sea!?”
-But we still wouldn’t be able to talk with most of them. Sea creatures communicate using mana signals. Orcas also use ultrasound waves when they speak.
Then Yul told them about being invited to the orca village. And after witnessing the stone tablet, he was forced to do an Ascension.
‘Truth is, I’d already been thinking about staying in that village, so the tablet was just the trigger.’
He also mentioned that though the Ascension could have caused danger, the effect of the Stone of Authority kept him safe in the end.
He told them how, after becoming an orca, he traveled with the Nugh family, training and learning hunting skills, as well as a physical technique called Stealth Form. He also learned about other oceanic powers of the Great Azure Ocean.
He explained about the Orca Tribes of the Great Azure Ocean, the Turtle Kingdom, and other sea factions.
“My goodness. So beyond the world we know, such extraordinary things are happening.”
“Wait, that all really happened?”
Ian and Celestia were both astonished. The world they knew wasn’t all there was—there were countless seas and living beings across those waters……
“Dear, should we raise our son to be an adventurer?”
“If he wishes so……”
Their gaze turned toward Lucian, who was still by Yul’s chin, patting his smooth jaw and babbling, “Ubaba.”
They were still bound to their own world, but perhaps their child might one day venture out to sea.
Ian already knew that Yul’s lifespan had increased by consuming magic stones.
‘Yul will live longer than me, and maybe even longer than my children.’
As Ian briefly fell into thought, Yul asked,
-What about you two? How did things turn out?
“Well, as I mentioned, we got married. It was originally an arranged match set by our families, but along the way I came to truly love Lady Celestia…….”
Ian scratched his cheek and pulled Celestia into his arms.
Celestia’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she leaned into him naturally.
Yul almost blurted out, “Well, aren’t you two just disgustingly lovey-dovey?”
“And we held the wedding at the main Beltaine estate.”
-What’s the main estate like?
“It’s located along the western coast of Britain. If you walk a bit south from the castle, you’ll find endless golden fields—rich and fertile lands. But it’s countryside, so there isn’t much to see.”
As Ian spoke about the House of Count Beltaine, he added,
“Despite the family’s opposition, I returned to the lighthouse. Even after marrying and having Lucian, I couldn’t give up on restoring the magic of Beltaine. I set up the telescope, the Pathah Shile, and began studying the heavens again. Fortunately, Celestia understood.”
“At first, I wasn’t fond of living on an island, but being with Ian made anywhere fine.”
Didn’t she once say she never wanted to live on an island? Ever since having a child, Celestia’s attitude had changed completely.
-You two are disgustingly sweet.
‘Huh? Why am I getting irritated for no reason?’
Still, Yul blessed their marriage. It was only natural for two people in love to meet and have a child.
Yul, after his transformation, had strangely little interest in such things.
After that, Ian said they had decided to settle permanently at the lighthouse.
“There were quite a few difficulties. But since the island belongs to my family and we can get supplies from the mainland, it’s been manageable. We even built a proper house.”
-Ah. I saw houses on the island, so those were yours?
“Yes. I could’ve lived in the lighthouse alone, but with a wife and child, we needed a real home.”
“After that, a few servants came to live with us too.”
-Ah, I see. That’s why there were several houses.
It seemed Ian only went up the lighthouse for work. Naturally, magical artifacts or Arthur Beltaine’s records were things a child should never touch.
While they were talking, Yul suddenly thought of Étienne.
-Ah, there’s something I’ve been meaning to say. Celestia, do you have an uncle?
“Hmm? An uncle?”
Celestia thought for a moment before answering.
“When I was a child, I had an uncle who went to the Kingdom of Frangia. But we lost contact long ago, and my parents assumed he was dead.”
-I found him. Rescued him, actually. He was on a shipwrecked vessel in the Great Azure Ocean.
“What? A shipwreck!?”
Yul briefly explained about the wrecked Frangian privateer ship, how Étienne Drake had been on a royal mission from the Kingdom of Frangia to chart the seas of the Great Azure Ocean, and how Yul had saved him.
“My goodness. So my uncle’s still alive and working as a captain in the Kingdom of Frangia. A royal privateer captain, no less?”
-Étienne already knows about you. Since your family name matched, I asked him once.
“I’ll look into it later. Still, I can’t imagine how my parents will react when they learn my uncle’s alive.”
Celestia would probably send a letter later to confirm the matter with Étienne.
After that, Yul and Ian’s family spent time catching up, sharing all the stories they hadn’t been able to before.
Then, Yul noticed Lucian slipping and instantly stretched out his body to catch the child.
“Lucian!”
“Ubabababa!”
-That was close.
Yul caught him before he could fall.
Celestia gasped and scooped Lucian up. Ian, with the look of someone who’d just lost ten years off his life, said,
“We’ll have to renovate this cave. It’s far too unsafe.”
-Right. That’d be best. It’s not safe for a child—no guardrails, slippery floor, and those corners are all sharp and uneven.
For a sea creature like Yul, staying still in such a rough, hard place was also uncomfortable.
“By the way, Yul. There’s something important I want to talk to you about.”
-What is it?
“It’s about the moon.”
Just then, as Yul glanced toward Lucian, he said,
-Hm? What’s wrong with his hand?
“Eh? What do you mean? Oh? Lucian?”
At the tips of Lucian’s fingers, magic was rippling—flickering like lightning.