Skadi, My Wife

In the woods near the beach.

Watching the four people playing by the sea, the girl who had been hiding in the woods and observing them for a while without showing herself was puzzled. "I've never seen these people before. Are they visitors from out of town? Why didn't they play on the beaches near the city? Why did they come all the way here?"

The person behind her said, "Miss, it's getting late. We should head back."

"But... something seems wrong with the volcano. If we leave them here, they might encounter danger."

"You worry too much, Miss. Cronin is a Catastrophe Messenger, and the city has a department monitoring the volcano as well. They all say there won't be any problems with it, so naturally, nothing will happen."

That person continued persuading her, "We should go back first. If you stay out too long, the master will worry when he finds out."

"...No. I have to make them leave. This place is dangerous. As the daughter of Siesta's mayor, I can't let Siesta's tourists come to harm here."

Gritting her teeth, the girl ignored the advice behind her and chose to walk out of the woods.

Ceylon Begins to Question Her Life

"Pounce!"

With a fierce leap, Exusiai tackled Chen An onto the beach.

The sand was soft, so falling onto it did not hurt much. Exusiai, who had pounced on top of him, was light as well, and she was a soft-bodied girl. Being pinned beneath her was not uncomfortable at all—rather, it felt somewhat pleasant.

Sitting astride Chen An's lower back, Exusiai panted while flashing a smug smile. "Keep running, then. Caught you, didn't I?"

Chen An was not angry. Instead, he felt rather helpless. "I only teased you a little. Was there really a need to chase me so hard you were almost out of breath and still force yourself to keep going?"

Otherwise, how could Exusiai possibly have caught him? He had only deliberately gone easy on her because he was worried she would run herself breathless.

"Shut up!"

She thumped his shoulder with her little fist, and Exusiai said resentfully, "A girl cares most about her figure. You actually dared to laugh at my flat chest. Did you think I'd let you off that easily?"

Chen An muttered inwardly, Women care most about their figure? That's wrong, isn't it? It should be their weight, right? Like Skadi—every time someone says she's heavy, she looks so aggrieved, like she's been bullied.

At that moment, both Texas and Skadi walked over.

As Texas pulled Exusiai, who was sitting ungracefully on Chen An's lower back, to her feet, she scolded her, "Arguing normally is one thing, but how can you fool around like this? Chen An isn't like you—thick-skinned and tough. What if he got hurt from the fall?"

"Hey!"

Exusiai cried out angrily, "Who's supposed to be your best friend here? And this is a beach! How could anyone get hurt so easily? Aren't you taking his side a little too obviously?"

Texas ignored her and reached out to pull Chen An up too, but Chen An waved her off and sat up by himself.

Skadi asked with concern, "Are you okay?"

At that moment, Exusiai, who had been shouting, suddenly went quiet. She glanced guiltily at Skadi, then turned her head to look elsewhere as though admiring the scenery.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just like Exusiai said, this is a beach. With so much soft sand cushioning me, how could I get hurt that easily?"

"You just spoil her. She already gets carried away easily enough. At this rate, you'll spoil her rotten sooner or later."

"What spoiling? I'm just stating a fact. If it had been you, Texas, I'd have answered exactly the same way."

Chen An grinned at the helpless-looking Texas, drawing a soft snort from her. Then he stretched and stood up.

Without saying anything else, he turned to look at the two girls who had emerged from the woods earlier and now stood before them.

One was a pink-haired, orange-eyed girl wearing a white lady's hat. Dressed like a rich young miss, she looked intelligent and beautiful.

The other had silver hair and golden eyes, wore hot pants and a crop top beneath a transparent jacket, and looked cold and aloof. Yet she remained closely by the former's side, protecting her, and her gaze would unconsciously soften whenever she looked at her.

The former did not reveal much of her race through her clothing, but the latter's cat ears and cat tail made it obvious that she was a Feline.

Chen An studied the two with interest for a moment, a thoughtful look appearing in his eyes before he offered them a friendly smile.

"You've been watching us all this time, and now you've specifically come out to meet us. Is there something you'd like to discuss, ladies?"

Exusiai and the others had long noticed someone nearby observing them, but since there had been no unusual movement, they had not paid it much attention. Under normal circumstances, Exusiai would probably have bluntly asked what the two wanted.

But now...

She glanced at Chen An, thinking, Who told you to be the boss now? She bit her lip in a somewhat cute manner and remained silent.

Perhaps because they felt that with Chen An speaking, they did not need to say anything and could simply follow his lead, Texas and Skadi also stayed quiet, standing calmly beside him.

Hurrying over to them, the pink-haired girl dressed like a young miss said anxiously, "The volcano is unstable. It isn't safe here. Please leave this place quickly."

"...Huh?"

Everyone besides Chen An showed surprised expressions.

After the girl who introduced herself as Ceylon, the mayor of Siesta's daughter, explained herself, everyone learned why she had rather rashly come over to greet them.

She believed the island's volcano was unstable and feared they might encounter danger while playing here, so she wanted to persuade them to leave.

The woman accompanying her was her bodyguard, Schwarz.

"Didn't Siesta's tourist guide say this volcano wasn't dangerous?"

Exusiai looked in surprise at the volcano in the center of the island, then looked back at Ceylon, even more astonished. "You think the volcano is dangerous, yet you ran straight into the volcanic area? You say you're the mayor's daughter—is that true?"

At Exusiai's words, Schwarz's expression immediately turned unfriendly. Like a big cat protecting her cub, she said coldly, "The miss kindly came to warn you, yet you question her? You don't know what's good for you."

Schwarz's words displeased Exusiai, and even Texas could not help frowning.

After staring at the distant volcano for a while, Skadi asked Chen An curiously, "Chen An, is this volcano really dangerous?"

"It's fine."

Chen An said carelessly, "One year, six months, and three days. Although this volcano is indeed unstable, just like this young lady said, unless someone deliberately interferes, nothing will happen before a year and a half has passed."

Ceylon froze, then revealed a delighted expression. "Sir, you agree with me? Are you a Catastrophe Messenger?"

Ceylon had always believed there was something wrong with the volcano, but no one besides herself agreed. Not only did Cronin, her father's deputy and Siesta's Catastrophe Messenger, disagree, even Siesta's instruments for monitoring volcanic activity showed that there was nothing wrong with the volcano.

Thus, she had been practically the only one seriously paying attention to the volcano's condition. Even Schwarz, the bodyguard who had grown up alongside her and whom she trusted deeply, did not acknowledge her claims. The reason Schwarz had accompanied her today was simply because she was worried about her.

Chen An, whom she had met today, was the first person to agree with her.

Exusiai gave him an odd look. "Aren't you a doctor? Since when can you spot Catastrophes like a Catastrophe Messenger?"

Ceylon froze again, disappointment appearing on her face. So this gentleman was not a Catastrophe Messenger.

Chen An was startled. "It's only a volcanic eruption. Do you need a Catastrophe Messenger for something like that? Can't you figure it out just by having a decent nose and reading a few more books? Fine, it wasn't obvious in the city, so you didn't notice. But you've been on this island for so long, and the volcano is right beside you. You still haven't noticed anything wrong?"

Texas: "???"

Looking at Chen An, who seemed to be saying, You don't even know this? Isn't it common knowledge? Texas, whose nose was very sensitive but who had yet to notice anything unusual, was full of question marks and wanted to speak but stopped herself.

Ceylon: "???"

Looking at Chen An, who seemed to be saying, You don't even know this? Isn't it common knowledge? Ceylon, the studious girl who had always felt the volcano was wrong but had only ever had a feeling and found no concrete evidence, was full of question marks and stopped herself just as she was about to speak.

Schwarz and Exusiai: "..."

Looking at Chen An, who seemed to be saying, You don't even know this? Isn't it common knowledge? the two were speechless. Schwarz secretly glanced at Ceylon and, seeing her utterly baffled expression, quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Miss is so knowledgeable, and she reacted like that too. So it isn't that my nose is bad or that I haven't read enough books. It's this strangely dressed man who is strange and talking nonsense.

Exusiai, whose nose was not sensitive enough and whose studies had not been very good either—she had spent her school days figuring out how to blow up the school—was simply bewildered.

If all it took to detect a volcanic Catastrophe was a good nose and a few more books, what was the point of Catastrophe Messengers?

Having followed Chen An for years and knowing just how outrageous his standards for "specific requirements" could be, Skadi quietly shifted one step to the side and pretended she did not exist.

He had no idea that with a single sweeping statement, he had condemned everyone present as ignorant and lacking a sensitive sense of smell—including Texas, a Lupo with keen senses, and Ceylon, a top student who had studied in Victoria for years.

Seeing everyone looking impressed yet confused, Chen An was even more startled. "The sulfur smell. You seriously haven't smelled the obvious sulfur smell all over this island?"

Chen An had smelled it on his first day in Siesta. Although the volcano was near the city, and there was a large stretch of sea by the city that allowed the sea breeze to disperse the smell, Chen An had still caught its scent.

The moment he smelled it, Chen An understood the situation with the volcano near Siesta. He simply had not told anyone—there was no need. Even if he said something, people might not believe him, so why waste his breath?

If he had not met Ceylon and heard her say the area near the volcano was dangerous, he probably would not have mentioned the volcano's condition even if Skadi asked. After all, it would not erupt for more than a year. There was still plenty of time.

But since they had met by chance, and she said she was the mayor's daughter, Chen An casually mentioned it as a warning. He had already planned to find a way to notify the mayor when he left Siesta later.

After all, he was not the sort of person who stood by and watched people die, especially when the danger was not man-made, but a Catastrophe.

Ceylon said weakly, "What's wrong with that smell? Isn't there naturally a sulfur smell near volcanoes?"

"Of course it's different. Volcanoes in active periods and dormant periods have different sulfur smells. Anyone with a little basic knowledge of volcanoes can smell the difference. Also, when a volcano starts becoming active frequently, the temperature nearby will be higher than when it is dormant. Once the temperature rises, the surrounding environment will change accordingly. For example, this place is surrounded by the sea, so if the volcano wakes from dormancy, the sea breeze will change as well."

"Besides that, there are tremors. You generally can't notice them, but if you pay attention, you can detect changes in the volcano from changes in the tremors."

"More importantly, isn't this place known for producing obsidian? Obsidian has Originium Slugs that live alongside it. Those slugs feed on obsidian and normally do not leave the volcano. But when I came here earlier, I saw several Originium Slugs on the road. Originium Slugs that live in the volcano appearing outside is already abnormal enough to prove that there's something wrong with the volcano, isn't it?"

As she watched Chen An patiently explain things to her, Ceylon's eyes gradually widened.

While feeling that he was incredible, she suddenly became a little depressed.

She was Siesta's mayor's daughter, and she even had staff from a professional volcanic monitoring department at her disposal. Yet despite seriously doing her utmost to find evidence of abnormalities in the volcano, she had found nothing at all.

But this gentleman before her, who should have only been a tourist, had completely seen through the volcano's problems after coming to the island just once. He had even immediately found a whole heap of evidence she had searched for without success.

And that evidence was all incredibly obvious, practically slapped right in her face, yet she had never noticed the slightest abnormality.

Th-this... could what this gentleman said just now be true? Have I not read enough books after all?

Her eyes began spinning as Miss Ceylon started questioning her life.

Specter Attempts to Win Over Gladiia (Mist)

Chen An's kind advice, Ceylon's gradual self-isolation, and her questioning of life could be put aside for now.

The scene shifted to Iberia.

It was also by the sea.

Unlike Siesta's so-called sea, which was actually just a large inland lake, Iberia's sea was a true sea in every sense.

But that was not important for the moment. What mattered was that on the shore, Specter, an Abyssal Hunter like Skadi, was having an intense argument with her captain, Gladiia.

Specter was an Abyssal Hunter, a silver-haired, red-eyed girl with a somewhat fiery temperament.

In the past, while carrying out a mission on land, she had been captured by the Deep Sea Church and subjected to cruel, inhuman experiments, during which a large amount of liquid Originium had been injected into her body.

Because of those experiments, she, an Abyssal Hunter who should have been immune to Oripathy, ultimately contracted severe Oripathy and suffered equally severe psychological trauma. Her sanity collapsed, and she changed from an energetic, somewhat hot-tempered girl into a quiet, somewhat withdrawn obedient girl.

Like Specter, Skadi had also caught the attention of the Deep Sea Church after coming ashore and became one of its test subjects.

However, because the direction of the experiments differed, Skadi did not suffer the same ordeal, though her circumstances were not much better.

Wanting to test the various possibilities of an Abyssal Hunter under extreme mental pressure, the Deep Sea Church forced Skadi to become a harbinger of disaster. Everyone who approached her was eventually persecuted by its schemes and met with misfortune.

At the time, Skadi did not understand the Deep Sea Church, nor did she know she had become a test subject. She only knew that people were constantly hunting her down and that anyone who got close to her would suffer misfortune.

Under that influence, Skadi, who was somewhat gentle by nature and did not want others to suffer because of her, gradually became silent and withdrawn, unwilling to get close to anyone else.

Until that day, when Skadi met Chen An.

Chen An was extremely strong. Merely seeing him show a little of his skill was enough for Skadi, who considered herself a harbinger of disaster and dared not get close to others, to accept him.

But Chen An had a mild temperament and disliked fighting, so aside from Skadi, who had seen him fight, almost no one knew how strong he was—not even the Deep Sea Church.

Because of that, the Deep Sea Church, operating on faulty intelligence, suffered badly.

Following its usual methods, after discovering that a companion had appeared beside Skadi, the Deep Sea Church attempted to murder Chen An. It wanted to remove him and continue its psychological pressure against Skadi.

But because its intelligence had been disastrously wrong, every Deep Sea Church operative assigned to the mission was caught by Chen An and Skadi. All the schemes aimed at her were easily seen through and exposed by him with Skadi's help.

It tried to steal a chicken and lost the rice used to lure it. The Deep Sea Church lost its surveillance over Skadi, and not only that, Skadi finally learned the truth behind why she had become a harbinger of disaster after coming to land.

Though she had not changed the habit of silence and reluctance to get close to others that she had developed over time, her tightly closed heart had opened. The Deep Sea Church's experiment was declared a failure.

Because of this, the Deep Sea Church laboratory experimenting on Specter pulled away part of its combat force. Specter, who had regained her sanity and had been pretending to be an obedient girl all along, seized the opportunity to rise up. She wiped out every Deep Sea Church member in the laboratory in one stroke and successfully escaped.

Afterward, based on fragments of information she had heard from others in the laboratory—words such as "Ursus," "Chernobog," "Dawn," and "Skadi"—Specter fled northward, hoping to reach Ursus and warn Skadi.

After several twists and turns, she successfully reached Chernobog. But due to an Oripathy attack, she fell into a state of mental collapse again just after meeting Dawn's people, before she could see Skadi and warn her.

In that state, she knew nothing when asked and could not even recognize Skadi.

Oripathy was difficult to treat, and the mental trauma it caused was even more so. Shining, Nightingale, Nearl... all of Dawn's medical personnel were helpless regarding Specter's condition.

But Specter was fortunate, because Skadi and Chen An had still been in Chernobog at the time and had not left.