Monster Fish

"Soldiers, maintain order! Bring over the fishermen who hauled up the monster fish. Everyone else, clear a path. Your lord has arrived."

With a simple command from Connor, the port constables began shouting as they drove the crowd aside. The soldiers did their best to stand straight, trying to make their worn old armor look a little more presentable.

The crowd noisily dispersed. This place was remote, and Theus's predecessor had rarely left the manor. The townsfolk's disgust and fear were mostly directed at the tax collectors. As for Theus, their nominal lord, they were more curious than anything.

Facing those mixed gazes of curiosity and fear, Theus dismounted and walked forward. At the center of the crowd lay what seemed to be a huge, dark mass.

He couldn't make out what it was from a distance. It seemed to still be writhing, and an uncomfortable feeling slowly wrapped itself around his heart.

Wet. Slick. Clammy. Like trying to catch an eel twisting on a cutting board.

Theus followed the parted crowd and approached, examining the thing before him.

It was a lump of rotten flesh that constantly twisted and writhed.

The fishy stench was like flies crawling into his nostrils, loudly announcing its presence every second. Its limp limbs were covered in swollen, pallid exposed flesh, like blisters scalded by boiling water, or festering wounds bloated with pus.

It looked like a balloon about to burst, as though the pus inside it could explode at any moment.

And this "balloon" was as large as a horse.

Now Theus understood why the fishermen had called it a monster. He too felt that nothing but "monster" could describe that lump of rotten flesh. Compared to monster fish, he would rather call it a Swollen Monster.

Theus turned toward the butler while suppressing his nausea, only to find him as calm and composed as ever.

Sensing Theus's gaze, the butler stepped forward and said quietly,

"My lord, it's this kind of monster. You can occasionally find them in the Deep Sea far from the continent. They float on the surface, and usually don't live long before their flesh splits apart and they rapidly rot."

Theus frowned and deliberately spoke vaguely. "There shouldn't be..."

"No, it's safe. This monster fish isn't dangerous. It brings nothing but disgust, and it isn't aggressive either. Sailors often wonder how it manages to survive in this world."

How did it survive in this world? That question was meaningless. If this monster caused no harm, there was no need to care about it.

Even so, it was Theus's first time seeing one, and he studied the creature with interest.

Indeed, it seemed to struggle even to move. Despite being a sea creature, it hardly looked capable of swimming. Those swollen, twisted limbs didn't seem useful in any way.

How had it evolved into this?

Talking about evolution after transmigrating seemed rather ridiculous. Perhaps this world had no theory of evolution. Perhaps all life here had been directly created by the gods. Perhaps this monster was a product of magic. But as someone from Blue Star, as an engineer, Theus still instinctively analyzed how the creature before him lived.

Even the fictional Godzilla had legs to move forward and teeth to tear apart its enemies. Was the creature before him truly just a meaningless, inexplicably twisted creation?

Theus frowned, fighting back the urge to vomit as he observed that lump of rotten flesh. Slowly, a strange sense of familiarity surfaced in his heart.

Familiar?

Strange. He seemed to have some... impression of such an incredibly ugly, disgusting creature. How did it feel like he'd seen something similar in his previous life? Swollen limbs... disgusting appearance...

A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Theus. His chaotic, vague thoughts came together into a clear answer.

"This is a... fish from the deep sea," Theus said.

"A fish from the deep sea?" The whispering crowd fell silent. Even the monster's agonized struggling seemed to pause.

"Yes. They originally lived in the deepest parts of the sea, where the water pressure is immense. Their bodies need equally immense pressure to balance it. Once they come to the surface or shallow waters, the pressure inside them turns them into this... monster."

"Look at those swollen limbs and bloated skin and flesh. That's the result of a sudden change in pressure. In the deep sea, they're merely ordinary fish... well, ordinary large fish. They only become so ugly and frightening after entering a different environment."

He had seen photographs of similar deep-sea fish in his previous life. They were creatures called Blobfish, once voted the ugliest animals in the world. They truly did look disgusting and hideous—but that was on land.

Blobfish in the deep sea looked entirely normal. Without their puffy appearance, they even became dark and unremarkable, just like ordinary fish.

Theus spoke more smoothly as he went on, organizing that small spark of inspiration into a complete idea. Excited, he said to the fishermen around him,

"We would become frightening and disgusting if we went into the deep sea as well. The wood there would be compressed by the water pressure until it became as hard as steel. The monster before you looks normal in its own environment, and that's precisely why this kind of monster fish can generally only be found in the deep sea."

The people around him began discussing it in amazement. They were ignorant fishermen who had spent their entire lives on boats. To them, Theus was no different from a king high above them. They accepted his explanation with reverence, agreeing that it was merely an ordinary fish—though how much they understood about water pressure was another matter.

But the butler beside Theus stood frozen in place. For the first time, shock and contemplation appeared on his usually unruffled face.

He had truly seen deep-sea fish before. Sailors had always regarded their ugliness and strangeness with awe, believing them to be some sort of divine punishment. He had also vaguely sensed the concept of water pressure. When diving in the sea, the deeper he went, the more it felt as though his whole body was being squeezed. Perhaps that was what they called "water pressure."

But could this "water pressure" truly be so powerful? Powerful enough to turn wood into steel? He had only heard of such miracles in the Church.

Water alone could do something like that. Then could people also find a way to use water to...

Struggle and confusion appeared on Connor's face, as though certain shackles were about to crumble.

Theus smiled. He wasn't afraid of opposition or doubt. Doubt had never been the opposite of truth; it was part of it.

"I read this in the Royal Library. I've read many books and know many things. This knowledge is incomparably precious, yet I will tell it to you freely. In my territory, knowledge will never be locked away on a high shelf!"

The fishermen around him began cheering. The soldiers and constables placed hands over their chests in salute. They didn't really understand what use this knowledge had, nor did they know what such sharing represented. They simply instinctively praised their lord's generosity.

Theus smiled in response to their enthusiasm. In truth, he wanted to say much more. He intended to build schools on this island, establish factories, and let the tide of iron and fire sweep across this world.

But those were matters for the future. For now, he was merely an ordinary lord. Any nearby power could crush him like an insect.

Besides, he had been killed by the Church in his previous life. Thinking of that mechanical figure covered in machinery, a shadow entered Theus's smile.

In a corner where no one noticed, the monster fish suddenly twitched.