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Deepwater Prison.

"What? You want to sniff me too?"

Herbert hugged his knees nervously, huddled in the corner, looking pitiful, helpless, and weak as he warily watched the lecherous Sea Monster with ill intentions.

She wants my body too!

How lewd!

"You... huh?"

The mermaid princess: ???

"What the hell are you talking about? Who wants to sniff you?!"

Freime's eyes widened in bewilderment. This fellow's thought process was bizarre, even a little perverted.

What normal person went around sniffing other people?

"I just felt something like a mark from my Sea Monster race on you. I thought someone else was about to be locked up here."

"Hmph. If you don't want to tell me, fine."

She rolled her eyes hard, already losing the desire to talk to him, and withdrew into her sphere of water.

"Oh? So you weren't lusting after me." Herbert stood up, wandered in front of the water sphere, and poked it with his hand.

Boing~

"Hey! Anyone home?"

Boing~

"Open up, open up! Don't hide in there without making a sound! I know you're home!"

"Are you there? Are you there? Are you there?"

After being pestered for quite a while, Freime finally reacted.

She abruptly pressed her face against the surface of the bubble, glared at Herbert, and spat out a stream of bubbles.

Bubble, bubble! ("You're so noisy!")

Unfortunately.

The Sea Monster lady, who had received a royal education, clearly wasn't as easy to coax or fool as the hungry dragon lady. She simply refused to take the bait.

All right, an education really did make a difference.

After being pestered, Freime declined his invitation to argue and chose to log off completely.

She made the bubble's surface hard and frosted, so that poking it no longer made it ripple, unilaterally cutting off contact between them.

"Alas, our bond has faded. Faded away!"

Herbert sighed sorrowfully, raised a hand to rub his eyes, and turned away, seemingly unwilling to let his tears fall.

In reality, though, he turned his back to hide a smile and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

He could be sure now: Freime merely found him annoying, rather than having some other reason.

"Looks like she's just like Valentina. They can both vaguely sense it, but neither can identify exactly what that feeling coming from me is."

Whatever else could be said about Harmonic God-chan's unreliability, the abilities she provided were pretty impressive.

With another worry put to rest, Herbert breathed a sigh of relief.

"But judging by this, winning over and reforming the Sea Monster lady probably won't go as smoothly as it did with the evil dragon lady."

A brain that had seen some use really was different.

Not easy to fool.

"Food alone probably won't be much of a temptation. I'll have to think of something else."

"So the question is, what do Sea Monsters like?"

"Seafood? Handicrafts? A fresh catch? Uh... forget the fish. I don't want to see another fish for a very long time."

Since she was unwilling to talk to him, relentlessly sucking up to her wouldn't achieve much. Better to play hard to get and leave her alone for now.

Sooner or later, she would be the one who couldn't resist.

With that thought, Herbert said goodbye to Freime, picked up the battered lantern, and once again passed through the barrier leading to the next area.

"I'm back."

Inside Lightless Prison, Herbert opened his eyes.

The same darkness blinded him, the same deep, gloomy chill surrounded him.

Yet something was a little different.

This time, Herbert no longer felt as though every path beneath his feet was the same. He had a remarkably strong sense of direction.

"It actually works."

Herbert hadn't intended to visit Lightless Prison before the Archbishop repaired the formation, but a special ability had changed his mind.

[Sea Monster Queen's Longing] included a blessing that prevented him from losing his way.

With this ability, he would no longer walk in place in the darkness!

Herbert set down the lantern and, using only the light radiating from the Holy Mark to protect himself, strode fearlessly forward.

Before long, he clearly felt his body veering slightly to the right.

It wasn't influencing his subconscious or twisting his body. It was changing the ground beneath his feet.

Seriously?

Wow.

Isn't that cheating a little?

You're picking on me because I can't fly.

He could simply start running and outpace her changes to the terrain, but that would be a little undignified.

After walking silently for another short while, Herbert spoke calmly into the darkness as he continued on.

"I know you're watching me and changing the path beneath my feet. If you insist on doing this, it takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it?"

"Archmage Svannie."

There were two Magical Beasts imprisoned in this area, but only one had ever possessed the ability to influence Lightless Prison.

[Forbidden Scholar], [Shadow Archmage], [Silent One]-Svannie Moore.

According to the records, this dark elf archmage was a recluse by nature, unwilling to communicate with anyone else.

Only someone with her knowledge could seize an opportunity to forcibly alter the structure of the sealing formation.

But knowing who was behind it was of no use. Herbert still had no way to reach that place.

So he simply stopped walking and stood where he was, speaking calmly.

"Last time, I was outmatched, so I left. I didn't throw a tantrum and beg you to meet me."

"But this time, I'm no longer affected, and you're still doing this. Isn't that being a bit of a sore loser?"

"You understand that we'll have to meet sooner or later. Are you sure you want to keep playing this game?"

"If you insist on making this ugly... I can make things very unpleasant for you too."

Herbert shook his head, helplessly raised his right hand, and lightly snapped his fingers.

"For example-like this."

Snap.

As the snap rang out, a grating scraping sound suddenly pierced the previously silent darkness.

Crack!

It lasted only an instant before everything returned to normal, but Herbert had already achieved his goal.

He smiled, shrugged, and said with excessive candor, "That's right. I really can't fully control the sealing formation right now. But neither... can you."

If you can seize control, why can't I?

"If you don't want me to mess with you every single time, stop hiding."

"Meet me, and I won't bother you again today."

"How about it?"

No one answered from the darkness.

But Herbert knew Svannie had heard him-because the path beneath his feet had stopped changing.

"Good."

Somewhat surprised by her cooperation, Herbert quickly started following the path ahead.

Sure enough, without any interference, he soon found the cell holding the prisoner.

Only, their first meeting looked a little different from what he had imagined-

"Hm?"

Herbert looked at the black iron coffin before him, tilted his head thoughtfully, then raised a hand and knocked on its lid.

Knock, knock.

The coffin gave an extremely hollow sound, as though there was nothing inside.

Empty?

Was it really empty?

Herbert thought for a moment, took a breath, leaned his head close to the coffin, and spoke softly.

"...Are you there?"

Click.

At his call, a faint sound suddenly came from within the coffin.

Click!