While Wind continued to talk, Rose and Lira looked over, subconsciously listening in…
Petra tilted her head.
"When we leave, are we taking anyone with us?"
Wind frowned, then asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Like that girl named Albery," Petra casually replied. "Oh, and what about the people from the Gallon Family and the Azurefell Family? Even if you, Lilly, and Luna already cut ties with them, we won't be coming back for a long time. Don't you want to say goodbye to someone?"
In fact, Petra also had her eyes on some people, but none of them quite lived up to her criteria…
Wind shook her head.
"Actually, we've already discussed this before…"
Petra blinked in confusion.
"…Without me…?"
Wind nodded, then ignored her, but after a moment, she leaned over and patted her on the head. It was clear that whatever the maids had discussed carried a great deal of meaning.
"From now on, the Verdelith Castle is our home… Aside from a few people we can quietly help from afar, none of us have any remaining attachments to stop us from staying." In truth, most of the girls had already consciously severed their connections with the outside world, and those that hadn't did not have very strong feelings for those who were left. This was one of the things they had been doing over the past month in Llynun. Excluding a few 'special cases' like Levy and Nebula, the rest of the girls had all come to terms with their new family and home, and this would not change.
Petra nodded with narrowed eyes filled with gratitude.
"…Mm, okay! So what's the actual plan going forward~?"
Wind tapped the floating map that was outlined on the tabletop with her finger.
"Once everything is prepared and it's time to go, we'll use the Verdelith Castle as our ship…"
Hearing this, Rose immediately looked over, the hair on the back of her neck bristling with an impossible-to-hide anxiety! As a beastman, especially as a cat-type beastman, it was impossible to avoid her innate fear of water, especially when the body of water involved was the sea!
"…You were serious!"
"Completely!"
"Ah!"
Rose grimaced, and with a face full of despair, she shrank back!
Wind continued, "I've already started integrating the floating arrays and a steering system into the lower part of the castle, near a bit of the belly. By the time we leave the Secret Realm, the primary system that will allow us to autonomously move the Verdelith Castle should be complete and already operational. We can use this when the Castle Crawler is sleeping, or fails to control its own body for whatever reason, for example, when it's in the water… or if we ever manage to float it in the air…" She said the last part with some hesitation.
Petra's eyes immediately widened.
She had not thought that far ahead, but why did it suddenly sound so cool!?
She couldn't help herself and started giggling.
"Hehehe… walking castle, floating island, and flying ship! Hehehehe, as expected of my first beast!"
Seeing her excitement, Wind sighed. She knew that saying this now could cause a lot of disappointment later, because all of this was still a work in progress. Not to mention the logistics involved in turning the castle into a flying island, just turning it into a floating ship was already a monumental task, especially when they could only use their own people!
"Please don't overthink things, little master..." She sighed, her ears unconsciously drooping a bit.
"No promises!" Petra grinned, her little feet rubbing together.
"…This is exactly why I didn't mention it earlier!"
But even after hearing this, Petra's grin only widened.
"The Verdelith Castle is already a somewhat self-sustaining space. Aside from the spiritual energy needed to support the territory's future growth, all the internal systems are stable."
She briefly paused.
"Also, food and water won't be a problem anymore…"
Petra listened attentively.
"I had Lilly and Luna acquire several spirit beasts capable of producing renewable resources, like silk, paper, and certain medicinal materials. We also acquired several species capable of rapidly reproducing, alongside a few unique aquatic beasts that can survive within the boundary river."
Poya slowly raised her head after hearing the words 'aquatic creatures'.
"The farmland is stable," Wind continued. "And we will never have a lack of clean drinking water, so as long as no major accidents happen, we won't need to resupply for a very, very long time. Finally, we have located a special kind of earth that has a very high-level innate wood-element elemental energy, and we plan to use this to expand the rim of the Verdelith Castle before we leave, so we can use it to plant a forest and have it quickly grow."
Petra thoughtfully hummed.
"Since that's the case, where are we actually going? Have you decided on our destination?"
Wind smiled faintly.
But before she could answer, Petra continued speaking—
"I don't really want to fight in the calamity... Watching from the sidelines sounds way safer, so let's avoid the main body and find our own fun…"
Rose and Lira looked at her, speechless.
Wind, meanwhile, simply nodded.
"…Honestly, I agree." Putting aside her moral compass and the questions surrounding Petra and her Hero status, avoiding the calamity was indeed a good way to go. Regardless of whether Petra was a hero or not, participating in the early calamities wouldn't change much. A Hero was an individual who focused the resources, luck, and fate of countless people, so their importance in the early calamities didn't actually change their outcomes. With Petra's complete disregard for the calamities, even if she were the missing fifth hero, the negative attention she gained from her actions could actually have a positive effect in the long run.
Mm, at least, if things like Luck and Fate could stick to her…
After hearing that Wind wanted to play hooky, Petra immediately became happy!
"Right!? Since we're heading out to sea, we can go fishing instead!"
"…Fishing?"
"Yeah! We can fish, and flyfish, and explore some islands! Oh, and of course go treasure hunting! We need to find a list of all the important people from the Sea Clan, and if we can find any people we like, we can try to recruit them for my last five maid slots. OH! Also, we can hunt some sea monsters and beat up some pirates! Hm! What else can you do at sea…? Let me think, let me think!"
While Petra was going crazy, Rose and Lira couldn't help but overhear her frantic mumbling.
For some reason, they both seemed slightly less averse to the upcoming voyage...
At the same time, Wind couldn't help but interject, "If we do that, doesn't it defeat the entire point of avoiding the spotlight? Won't the majority of those things bring the calamity directly to us?"
Petra ignored her sound logic!
Wind sighed before eventually tapping several locations on the tabletop map.
"In that case, I already picked a few destinations we can visit along the way." Following her words, five places on the table rose up, forming little wind cyclone-like pillars with labels.
"Here, this is an island called 'The Sea Singing Atoll'."
"This place is a large lagoon surrounded by coral reefs that naturally formed a series of wind tunnels beneath the sea. When the tides shift, the island produces a constant music-like hum that is capable of calming the surrounding sea beasts. It's a very peaceful place, but it's a little hard to get to…"
Petra frowned, not quite interested.
Wind pointed again.
"How about this? This is a place called the 'Ignis-Relic Spire'."
This time, Wind described a large volcanic spire that protruded from the seabed and stretched all the way through the clouds. At the foot of this spire, a rim of molten obsidian had accumulated over a long period of time and formed a small island. "I've heard that there is a unique tribe of intelligent creatures that live here who are known for their glassmaking skills. We can drop by and pick up a few—"
This time, Petra nodded.
Unlike the stupid lagoon, at least this place sounded like they could gain something…
"Next, this is called the 'Whispering Waves'. It's a stretch of sea that is commonly believed to be a haunted sea. Those who enter often disappear, and those who don't often get lost. Just seeing this span of sea is enough to distort one's perception, so there must be some secret deep within its depths."
Petra's eyes became slightly brighter.
She noted it down, adding it to their must-visit list!
After that, Wind took a breath.
While watching Petra roll back and forth like a child waiting for the story to continue, she stood up, walked a few steps, then looked around to see if she could tell why Mell was taking so long.
After finding nothing, she stretched, then returned to her seat before continuing—
The next destination Wind had chosen was a floating forest. This floating forest grew on the back of some unnamed creature, and despite still being quite a bit short of the legendary Kun-Peng, this creature did indeed have a small continent growing from its back, and this continent was the source of the previously mentioned floating forest!
While following a certain predetermined path, the floating forest circled through the several seas of the world, making a full cycle every fifty years. "The Floating Forest is also called the Lost Leaf Forest. This is a unique place that is occupied by the Leafy Sea Dragon clan, a powerful guardian clan that was expelled from the core circle of the Sea Clan! It is said that those who can live in the floating forest are all high-level experts above the fifth order! If we want to go, we'll need to make preparations in advance."
The reason Wind suggested this place was because she knew that it would be a really good place to train, and following Levy's confirmation, she didn't think that there would be any real danger.
Petra rolled around a few times, but after suddenly pausing, she asked, "Since it's a forest, why does the Sea Clan live in it? Shouldn't a mobile hard-to-find forest be the home of the elves? Why does it feel like something is wrong with the script?"
Hearing this, Wind's eyebrows raised.
"She smiled, then added, "You're right. This used to be the home of an extremely reclusive type of elf known as the 'Waterleaf Elf', a strange mixed-blood branch of the elf clan." Wind paused, then shook her head. "Unfortunately, after an accident around seventy years ago, this extremely rare type of elf seemed to disappear from the world. It was later replaced by the Leafy Sea Dragon Clan, who colonized the underside of the floating forest, turning it into something like an inverted forest that hung down from the sea surface. I only know this much, but I heard that the floating forest flips from time to time, which sounds like an interesting thing to see, so I added it to the list."
Petra completely agreed!
She checked this off as another of their must-visit destinations.
"The final destination I found is a relatively new place that was discovered a little over twenty years ago.
"This place is called 'Star-Anchor Isle', an island completely formed from the tip of a star iron vein that protrudes directly from the seabed. This place is formed from a large variety of materials, almost like raw slag from the earth's core, so many people have proposed the possibility that it should be filled with different mineral veins scattered throughout its body."
"In other words, it should have been a miner's paradise, but due to the appearance of a large number of Cloud Dragons, the initial mining had been delayed over and over again. If we can reach it in time, then it's possible for us to, erm…" She looked at Petra, her face lightly flushed. "W-we can take it for ourselves, and maybe also solve one of our future problems in advance… if, if we're lucky…" Her voice was nearly reduced to a whisper at the end...
Petra looked at her and, seeing that the tips of her ears were nearly smoking, Petra understood.
Wind wanted to steal everything for herself, but she didn't have the guts to say it out loud…
Petra smirked. 'How cute!'
After leaning back on a cushion, she finally asked the big question.
"After saying all that, where are we going in the end?"
Wind looked toward the distant horizon, also wanting to know the same thing.
Petra naturally wanted to know where they would go after the third calamity passed. Since they were not returning to the Cross Continent, they needed to choose their next destination, right? After all, they couldn't stay out at sea forever, right?
As for their final destination…
"I think… we should go to the Cellistan Continent…" Wind muttered.
"…Cellistan?"
"Hm…"
When discussing the overseas experts, this was a name that often came up.
"Since it's the largest continent in the world, there's a high possibility that the fourth calamity will come from there, but it's better to be prepared beforehand instead of wandering too far away…"
The Cellistan Continent was the birthplace of humanity and the original homeland of the migrants that eventually settled on the Cross Continent. This was the largest landmass in the world, and it was over ten times larger than the Cross Continent. In addition to its size, the powers occupying it were naturally far greater, so unlike the fifth-order ceiling of the Cross Continent, the Cellistan Continent was said to have eighth-order experts, which was terrifying to think about!
With all that said, their other options were the Beast Continent, the Sky Continent, the Dragon Continent, the Twin Continent, or even the Underground World, but the Cellistan Continent was the only continent that was primarily run by the human race, so it was an easy option.
It wasn't because they were avoiding the non-human races, instead, Petra felt like there was a predetermined order to certain things. If she skipped ahead, even if nothing stopped her, then it was possible that they would arrive on an inactive stage, and then be forced to wait for the respective calamity that would be needed to eventually kick-start certain events.
She didn't want to end up in a situation where she was forced to become passive.
In other words, Petra didn't want to arrive at the end of the game early, especially because the 'player', which was definitely not her, had to arrive before anything fun would happen…
How boring would that be!
Although she could make her own fun, after receiving so much top-quality loot from the first two calamities, Petra understood that the goodies she could milk from these world-ending mini-events were far more than what she could find on her own.
Anyways, they were still undecided, but things were pointing towards a general direction…
"When we arrive, we'll decide what to do from there..."
Petra nodded in agreement.
"A lot can change in four years, so there's no rush."
Suddenly, from the side, Rose popped back in and crossed her arms while leaning over Petra's petite head. "Speaking of which… how exactly are we planning to deal with the Third Calamity? Assuming that you want to fish, you're going to have to get involved eventually, right? Since that's the case, shouldn't you, you know, figure some things out so that we can prepare in advance…"
She looked down at Petra with a knowing gaze.
'Shouldn't we ask your big sister? She should know something!' Naturally, Rose meant Elena.
Petra immediately shook her head.
"Don't want to!"
"…Why?"
Petra puffed out her cheeks.
"I think karma is very annoying!"
Wind: "…"
Rose: "…"
Petra continued.
"If I don't need to know something, then I won't ask! Even if Karma doesn't work the same way on me, my conscience will still hurt!" She said this, but none of them believed her…
Perhaps, there was another reason, but Petra refused to say!
Of course, what Petra didn't know was that Wind had already contacted Elena behind her back quite some time ago. In fact, many of the preparations currently underway had only been possible because of Elena's timely warning regarding the coming Sea Calamity and what it entailed.
…Wind simply never told Petra about this.
Because Petra clearly didn't care, so it never really came up…
What surprised Wind the most was that Elena also seemed not to care! Although she found it strange that this pair of adopted sisters seemed to take each other's existence for granted, they seemed strangely cohesive about it and trusted each other despite not having met in a long time. It almost felt as if they both knew that it was not yet time to meet, and honestly, that made things a lot easier.
Wind silently sighed while watching Petra playfully roll across the cushions.
But just then—BOOM!
There was the sudden sound of a distant explosion.
Wind abruptly stood up.
The sound was faint, and the majority of it was drowned out by the noise from the stage, but Wind, as a White Whistle, naturally heard it clearly.
She turned her head and frowned.
After a moment of thought, she planned to get up and take a—Crash!
Her brows furrowed even tighter.
Rose, Petra, and Lira looked at her, not hearing the same thing, so they looked at her like she was crazy.
Wind could tell that there was some kind of fight happening in the distance, but she couldn't tell what was going on. She needed to get closer because the sound from Uuo's performance was too distracting.
Just as Wind was about to step out and check the source of the commotion, Mell returned…