Chapter 318

I felt my vision freeze in an instant, and I quickly regained my composure to look ahead.

It wasn’t just Regina who was frozen.

Everyone on the deck.

My party members, the extermination squad, the swarm of Man-eating Crabs, the star barnacles spreading like a plague,

and even the Kraken were all frozen.

But they weren’t actually frozen.

It was all an illusion.

To be precise, every living being within the area was trapped in the illusion of being frozen.

Realistically, it’s impossible for one person to cast such a wide-ranging freezing spell so easily.

If that were the case, they would’ve taken down the Kraken alone long ago.

It was just an illusion that anyone could break free from over time, just like how I snapped out of it quickly.

It was more like a shallow hypnosis that could be broken faster depending on one’s mental strength and intelligence.

But on the flip side, if you didn’t know it was an illusion and had the intelligence of a beast, like the Kraken, you’d definitely fall for it.

No, actually, it didn’t even need to stay frozen for that long.

All I needed was a moment.

Just enough time to stop it from escaping into the depths and prepare my strike.

Thanks to the extermination squad keeping the Kraken’s attention, things went smoothly.

It was a risky strategy that could’ve endangered my party, but I trusted that they weren’t that weak.

So, I glanced at my party members and acquaintances who had bravely held their ground against the Kraken.

Mari, Karina, Serena.

Arisa, Liche, Daria, Aila.

Bran’s group.

Kirsh.

And finally, I looked at Lakia, who was frozen like everyone else, before leaping high into the air from the mast.

The only sound that reached my ears was the cool sea breeze cutting through the now eerily quiet deck.

It had been quite tricky dealing with the Kraken’s flailing tentacles while balancing on the choppy sea.

But smashing the frozen Kraken’s head at the end was ridiculously easy.

As I descended, I swung my spear with all my might toward the Kraken’s head.

Ah.

Wait.

Actually, what looks like the head on a squid is more like an extension of its body, so it’s more accurate to say its body was split in half.

While I was lost in such trivial thoughts, the Kraken’s body split in half a beat slower than my strike.

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Splash!

Regina woke up to the sensation of a damp, fishy liquid covering her body.

“Everyone, be careful! The blizzard is…! Huh…?”

“Huh? I was sure……”

“Eek! It stinks! What is this smell?!”

As she opened her eyes, the others who had been frozen—or rather, trapped in the illusion of being frozen—also began to regain their senses.

Lakia’s illusion wasn’t that powerful; it could be easily broken with a little external stimulation.

As the extermination squad members snapped out of the illusion, they were confused by the sudden blizzard and the abrupt end to the illusion.

But perhaps due to their extensive combat experience,

they quickly assessed the situation and prepared to re-engage in battle.

“Wait! This isn’t the time for this! I don’t know what just happened, but we’re still in combat! Stay alert!”

“T-the Kraken…!”

“Right! The Kraken’s still here! Stay focused!”

“No, the Kraken is…!”

“…What?”

When the extermination squad regained their senses, they saw the Kraken’s body cleanly sliced in half, as if measured with a ruler. They couldn’t help but wonder if they were still trapped in an illusion.

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Though the Kraken had been defeated without anyone noticing, they were still professionals in their own right.

They efficiently dealt with the remaining monsters on the warship.

It wasn’t that difficult.

Unlike the extermination squad, who quickly snapped out of the illusion after being drenched in the Kraken’s fluids, the Man-eating Crabs and star barnacles remained frozen in the illusion.

While the Kraken, being a highly intelligent cephalopod, might have broken free, the Man-eating Crabs and star barnacles were low-intelligence creatures with hard shells, making them less responsive to external stimuli. It was no surprise they couldn’t break free.

Taking down these frozen monsters was a breeze for them.

After the battle, those who had participated in the Kraken’s extermination finally let out sighs of relief and began to rest.

Though there was still cleanup to do, their priority was to rest their exhausted bodies after the intense battle.

The extermination squad members chatted, loosening the tension that had been stretched thin during the battle, relieved to have survived.

“Mr. Kurt. You’re here.”

“Yeah. Looks like you’re not seriously hurt. Seems like there are no fatalities, just some injuries. That’s a relief.”

Even Regina, who would normally be barking orders to keep the soldiers in line, was the same.

She was a highly capable commander who knew that whipping the soldiers wasn’t the only way to lead. Besides, she too needed rest after such a dense battle.

As she approached Kurt, she was cautious.

It was a level of caution that even she, who had always been polite to him, found unusual.

In the chaotic end of the battle, she had vaguely seen the silhouette of the one who had dealt the final blow to the Kraken—a human, no, more accurately, a Lizardman.

“Um… the one who defeated the Kraken at the end was…”

“Huh?”

Kurt looked at her with his usual demeanor as she spoke.

His face showed none of the fatigue or relief that was evident on the faces of the extermination squad members.

It was the same as always.

A calm face that didn’t seem like someone who had just delivered the final blow to the Kraken.

No, not just the final blow.

In the hellish battle where Man-eating Crabs and star barnacles had swarmed the deck.

If the Kraken had struck the deck with its remaining tentacles, the extermination squad would’ve faced an even more horrific situation.

She hadn’t thought much about it during the battle, but afterward, she realized.

The Kraken hadn’t intervened in the situation on the deck because it couldn’t.

And the reason it couldn’t was because one man had been holding it back alone.

That man was…

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Is that so? How dull…”

But instead of confirming whether it was truly Kurt, she simply smiled and offered her gratitude.

“Just… thank you.”

“For what?”

“For joining the extermination squad. Thank you for stepping up for Lailah, even though it’s not your hometown.”

“I’m not the only one who joined the squad. Don’t worry about it. Besides, there are people in this city who enjoyed the food I made.”

“Is that so… Still, thank you. I just wanted to say that. Ah, I should get back to commanding the soldiers. We’ve rested enough, so it’s time to clean up after the battle.”

“Alright. Good work.”

With a sincere bow to Kurt, Regina returned to the soldiers, signaling the end of their rest and instructing them to prepare for the cleanup.

She thought there must be a reason why Kurt, with his immense strength, chose to live as a mere adventurer without revealing his true power.

After all, someone capable of single-handedly defeating a gold-rank monster like the Kraken wouldn’t hide their strength without a significant reason.

There must be some profound secret she couldn’t even imagine.

As a third party, it wasn’t her place to pry, no matter how great the favor she owed him. In fact, the greater the favor, the more she should avoid digging deeper.

So, instead of asking Kurt if he had fought the Kraken alone, she simply expressed her heartfelt gratitude.

Unbeknownst to her, the reason Kurt didn’t reveal his strength was simply because he didn’t want to become too famous and lose the freedom to cook as he pleased.

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And so, those who knew Kurt’s true identity said nothing,

those who suspected it remained silent,

and those who didn’t know were left in the dark.

Thus, the secret of the Kraken’s defeat sank to the bottom of the sea along with its corpse.