Chapter 245 – Lazy Turtle

“…At any rate, it looks quite beautiful.” (Bouchi)
It was frozen in a picture-perfect state, and it had a certain charm to it that made you want to look at it forever. It was probably because Oremia certainly was a beautiful bird.

“But is it seriously alive…?” (Bouchi)
“Without a doubt, milord. This one senses a strong will from this being.” (Shiki)
“Will?” (Bouchi)
“Yes. The will to live, so to say. He is determined to not die.” (Shiki)
It wasn’t just Shiki. Sol and Kaza were saying the same thing. If they all said so, then it must be the case. Unfortunately, I had no clue myself.

“But milord, how do we get him out of there?” (Kaza)
“Sol will melt it with her flames! Peeeeeww! Puuuuu!” (Sol)
Sol suddenly inhaled deeply and let out a large breath of fire. The flames licked at the wall of ice, but it wasn’t very effective.

After a while of breathing out fire, Sol fell into my arms.

“Puuu… That ice… I hate it…” (Sol)
“Hahahah… There, there. You did well.” (Bouchi)
I held the dejected Sol in my arms and stroked her feathers as I examined the wall of ice.

“Sol’s flames haven’t melted it at all… What’s going on?” (Bouchi)
If it were normal ice, it would have melted right away, and we would have been able to get Oremia out.

“Hmm…. Hmhm…” (Kaza)
Kaza had a curious expression on his face and nodded as he touched the wall. He seemed to have come up with something.

“Did you figure something out, Kaza?” (Bouchi)
“Yes. It seems that this is no ordinary ice. I sense a strong power within this ice.” (Kaza)
“Really? Let’s check it out then.” (Bouchi)
I decided to take out the [Appraisal Looking-Glass] to examine the wall of ice.

At that moment, I discovered a surprising fact.

“…Oi, oi, are you kidding me?” (Bouchi)
“Milord, what is the matter?” (Shiki)
“Ah, man. This guy got himself into some serious trouble.” (Bouchi)
“Trouble…?” (Shiki)
“Don’t be surprised when you hear this. This iceberg we’re on… It’s actually a monster.” (Bouchi)
“““Haaah?!”””

The three of them let out cries of shock all at once. And immediately after that, with a rumbling sound… I began to feel the ground beneath us start to shake as if an earthquake were happening.

I almost lost my footing, but Shiki propped me up.

“Thanks, Shiki.” (Bouchi)
“It was nothing. But this shaking…?” (Shiki)
“Perhaps Sol’s fire attacks woke up this S-Rank monster…” (Bouchi)
““S-Rank?!!“”””
Yet again, the three of them let out a cry in unison at the drop of this sudden bombshell.

“For now, we should get away from here as soon as possible.” (Bouchi)
“What shall we do about Oremia?” (Kaza)
“That can wait. If we don’t get out of here now, we’ĺl also end up being frozen in ice too!” (Bouchi)
I immediately took out the [Jet Book]. We all climbed on and began to escape from the iceberg at top speed. It was only after we flew out from the crack in the ‘iceberg’ that we finally got the full picture.

The iceberg was floating on the ocean like an island, but it wasn’t because the ice surrounding it had melted. It was due to the fact that the iceberg was actually the back of a monster that was floating in the sea.

“So the iceberg was the back of its shell.” (Shiki)
Shiki broke out into a nervous sweat as he saw its form in the ocean.

His reaction was normal. The monster was a giant turtle, just like one out of the movies.

There was a Middle Eastern folktale of a sailor who landed on what he thought was an island, only to discover that it was actually a giant creature. Of course, that was just a fictional story. The name of this person was apparently Zaratan or something along those lines.

“It’s like a kaiju, huh?” (Bouchi)
“This is the Lazy Turtle of Ice and Snow, Galafegorn?” (Kaza)
Certainly, that was the name that came up when I looked at it using the [Appraisal Looking-Glass].

(TL: Kaiju – a giant monster, like Godzilla)

“Do you know him, Kaza?” (Bouchi)
“Yes. Just like Belzedor, he is one of the ultimate existences known as S-Rank monsters. But there are not many who have seen him.” (Kaza)
“Why’s that?” (Bouchi)
“He lives in the unpopulated glacial areas and rarely moves on his own. It is said that he usually moves only 10 meters every three years. That is what earned him the alias of ‘Lazy Turtle’.” (Kaza)
Ten meters in three years…? With the size of this guy, he could have gone much farther than that just by turning over in his sleep. Well, he probably wasn’t going to be rolling over with that big of an iceberg on his back.

“I never thought I’d have to face an S-Rank monster here too.” (Bouchi)
“Milord, he is attacking!” (Shiki)
As soon as Shiki’s warning rang out, the iceberg on the back of the turtle lit up with a dazzling radiance, and a flash of light shot towards us.

“Crap! We gotta dodge!” (Bouchi)

The light was shooting towards us at a tremendous speed. I operated the [Jet Book] at full speed and started to take evasive maneuvers.

However, the flash of light seemed to be able to change directions at will. If things continued like this, we would eventually be caught by the light.

I ducked behind a small iceberg, but it was instantly vanquished by the light.

What destructive power! If it comes down to this…!

“You guys, hang on tight and bear with me!” (Bouchi)
Immediately after shouting out to the three of them, I controlled the [Jet Book] and plunged us straight down into the cold, icy sea.

The flash of light could still chase after us even underwater, but I kept moving until I was directly below Galafegorn.

At that moment, the light faded, as if it had lost sight of us.

…Alright, I guess it can’t attack us if we’re right underneath it.

“P-pupupuu!!”
Sol was clinging onto me with bubbles of air frantically escaping from her mouth.

At this rate, Sol would drown. But if we moved too much, Galafegorn might sense us and attack once again.

I slowly began to resurface at a speed that wouldn’t set him off and eventually broke through the surface of the water.