The forest keepers, seeing Luke return to Luke Forest, each had something to say.
“Did you have fun playing at the sea?” one asked.
“You were gone for a few days; did you have fun at the beach?” another added.
“Was the water play enjoyable?” asked yet another.
In response, Luke gave a slightly awkward laugh and replied.
“Haha… yeah, it was really fun…”
He didn’t particularly want to admit it, but it wasn’t a lie. The beach wasn’t without its fun. It was just that a few headaches had arisen.
In any case, after his replies, the forest keepers would respond with “That sounds nice~” or “Where did you go?” and so on.
Luke would then appropriately respond before getting back to what he was doing.
However, it was quite strange.
There hadn’t been any announcement throughout the forest that he was going to the seaside, so how did everyone know he had been to the beach?
The reason was very simple, and there was no need to think about it at all.
It was simply because Luke’s skin had been nicely tanned.
He must have been building sandcastles or walking along the beach, enjoying the scenery, and that was the cause.
Diana and Pyris hadn’t tanned that much, as it seemed that the girl had swum a lot and didn’t get as much tan as he did.
Luke hadn’t even dared to set foot in the ocean after he had flipped once while learning to swim from Yerna.
To be honest, what would he do if such waves suddenly crashed in on him again? He’d end up capsized in the sea or swallowing a lot of water.
Moreover, the earplugs he wore to prevent water from entering his ears were extremely uncomfortable.
In fact, the reason Luke hadn’t noticed the incoming waves much earlier was partly due to those earplugs.
Not to mention, how heavy his tail had become from the seawater; it was painful for his waist, and it was hard to keep his balance, making his posture slouchy.
It was also itchy.
Now, he thought that his skin had become much whiter, but it still appeared darker than usual.
Luke recalled when he returned home and woke up after a nap.
——–
When Luke opened his eyes, Yerna was already gone.
Since it was a holiday, she probably hadn’t gone to work.
If that were the case, she must have something else to do, and the most likely of which would be a meeting with Dayton.
‘Isn’t Dayton quite active now?’
In that case, he shouldn’t disrupt her.
Luke decided not to search for Yerna.
Besides, he had plenty to do himself.
First of all, the circle had stabilized to a certain extent, so he needed to adapt his body slowly, utilize the information he had gained about the solar eclipse for his research, recover his magic sight, and finish the final touches on the soul healing potion he was making for the Third.
However, anything requires preparation before starting.
And the first thing that always needed preparing was one’s own body, so Luke headed to the shower room to wash away the sweat he had drenched in from the heat overnight.
In the shower room, Luke first took off the eye mask made from a material with a particularly high mana-blocking rate.
At that moment, he felt a sharp pain; his still-recovering magic sight registered and reacted to the faint flow of mana in the air, causing the pain.
This discomfort could not simply be resolved by closing his eyes.
Magic sight had a certain degree of weak clarity, so it would respond to mana that passed through his eyelids.
That was why Luke had no choice but to live while wearing that eye mask.
The best way to make it heal faster was to avoid using it entirely, after all.
However, as he took off his pajamas, Luke discovered something unusual about his body.
The color of his skin seemed different somehow.
At first, he thought it might just be due to the lighting or difference in brightness, but there were clearly two sections of his body where the color was different.
The skin on the areas not covered by clothes had changed from its usual bright ivory tone to a bronzed skin tone.
“What, what is this? I’m tanned?”
Luke was shocked.
Five thousand years ago, he had never been exposed to the sun for such long periods, and thanks to the various protective magic he had always wrapped around himself, his skin had never burned.
Moreover, this body, awakened in the modern age, meaning a complete chimera body, had perfect recovery ability, making it impossible for his skin to burn.
So, he had never even considered such a thing.
However, the situation was actually rather predetermined, as he had sacrificed a portion of his body’s composition to Sigarmata, could not operate the circle correctly, and had spent extended periods exposed to sunlight while revealing so much skin.
But still, if it were merely that his skin had tanned, Luke could manage to understand that.
However, the fact that only the part covered by his swimsuit remained white made him feel embarrassed for some reason.
It was as though the shape of his underwear had been imprinted on his body.
Swimsuits and underwear were certainly different, but given only the marks, wasn’t the difference not that big?
Still, a mark on his body could easily be hidden by changing clothes.
The white line from the strap covering his shoulder could be concealed by wearing sleeves and hiding his shoulders.
However, that didn’t resolve the issue entirely.
Then what about his face?
Luke could no longer ignore it.
If only the parts covered by clothing were tanned and marked, what about what had been covering his face all this time?
Luke immediately checked the mirror.
In the mirror, a scene unfolded that didn’t stray even an inch from his expectations.
“W-What is this…!”
There were tan marks in the shape of the eye mask on Luke’s face.
——–
So, currently, Luke really disliked his tanned skin.
He wouldn’t be able to go without his eye mask until this all healed.
Walking around with skin that was tanned in the shape of an eye mask would certainly draw a lot of attention.
It would look quite unrefined and ridiculous.
Without a doubt, it would become a subject of laughter.
Luke had no desire to become the village fool.
Yet, at the same time, he couldn’t prioritize the healing of his skin over the recovery of his magic sight…
Luke’s heart was quite troubled.
He could only hope that his skin would be somehow resolved before his magic sight healed…
‘Speaking of which, when is the next shedding?’
Considering the cycle, he predicted that it would be around two weeks from now.
Having gone through the experience of returning to new skin after shedding, Luke thought that if it were to happen again this time, he might feel gratitude for shedding for the first time.
But, unaware of his inner thoughts, a female forest keeper, while watering a flower bed, called out to Luke.
“Your tanned skin looks healthy! I’m so glad that your body seems to be doing well! Where did you go to have fun?”
“Omerun beach. It had quite a lot of people.”
“Omerun! That’s nice. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the sea. I wonder if I could go there on my next break? How was it? Was it good?”
“Yeah, although I haven’t been to many beaches, it was fine. I recommend it.”
After exchanging casual remarks, Luke went back to focusing on watering the flower bed.
After watering the flower bed for a while, the watering can soon ran out of water.
“I need to refill this.”
As he walked to the well, he saw Sorbi, who had also tanned skin, probably drinking some water.
Spotting Luke, Sorbi approached with a wave, exclaiming, “Hello! Luke, today’s such a beautiful day!”
“Yeah, it sure is a nice day.”
“In that case, how about one picture?”
“Sure, go for it. Want me to pose too?”
“Please do your usual!”
“What do you mean by usual…?”
Luke sighed and flashed a peace sign with his fingers, giving a slight smile.
At that, Sorbi, pulling out a camera from somewhere, began to snap pictures in front of him.
Originally, as his interest in photography had already diminished, Luke wasn’t very fond of being photographed by Sorbi. However, because of the events he experienced during this trip, Luke ultimately came to realize another fact while checking out Sorbi’s camera.
Forbidding a certain action only makes that act more secretive.
Like when alcohol is forbidden, smuggling becomes rampant; telling someone not to take pictures of you only makes them want to take it more secretly.
How shocked had he been when he saw his moments captured in the camera, moments he hadn’t even realized were happening?
The instant he faced all the different forms of himself that he hadn’t even perceived was enough to make him feel dizzy.
‘Is that what they call paparazzi?’
If the reason he didn’t get to take pictures was that he didn’t allow them, then he would rather be aware of being photographed and have himself captured at such moments.
Feeling anxious without knowing when you had been photographed or having an embarrassing thing you wouldn’t want to show others captured was still unpleasant.
“Okay, um! I like this artificial taste too!”
Artificial taste… what on earth did that mean?
It was ridiculous to treat himself like food, but Luke, becoming too lazy to respond to Sorbi, decided to let it go.
“If you’re done taking pictures, could you show them quickly and step aside? I need to go water the flower bed again.”
“Sure! Let’s see it!”
Checking the picture where his own likeness was captured, Luke first examined his face.
A youthful-looking girl smiling normally.
What Luke specifically focused on was whether ‘the white area covered by the eye mask had been exposed.’
‘No problem there.’
Seeing that the picture seemed to have no issues, he lightly nodded his head and said, “Pass.”
“Thanks! Then you take care of watering the flower bed too!”
“Yeah, I’ll manage the flower bed, so don’t worry about it. Just take care of your work.”
As he sent Sorbi off and was filling the watering can, a notification came in on Luke’s phone indicating a message.
“Hmm, who could it be?”
He momentarily set down the half-filled watering can, took his phone out of his pocket, and checked.
The sender was Shirud.
– Luke, the expert says, fortunately, that fish from last time isn’t a ‘Tigalodon.’ It seems it’s a subspecies or mutation of the crocodile whale.
So, you don’t have to worry too much. There probably won’t be any issues.
After reading the message, Luke exhaled deeply.
“Ha.”
It couldn’t be; it was definitely the Tigalodon.
Ha, could it be a mere coincidence that it looked extremely similar to Tigalodon?
It was hard to believe, but if it came from a creature expert of this age, there was no room for rebuttal.
He was a mage, not a creature expert.
That being said, it didn’t mean he had no knowledge of biology, but that knowledge was from five thousand years ago.
He had no deep understanding of modern biology.
So, in terms of biology, that expert was likely to have more knowledge than he did.
Even if something felt off, if it passed without incident, he would be glad.
Luke replied as follows.
– Got it. If that wasn’t a Tigalodon, it seems I must have mistaken it. I’m glad if there’s nothing wrong; thank you for letting me know. That’s a relief.
——–
“…”
Marine biologist, Sanderson.
He stepped out of a truck carrying a massive fish caught at Omerun.
And there was a man watching the massive fish corpse he had brought.
Upon seeing the lifeless eyes of that enormous fish, he shook his head and shrugged.
“I must have completely forgotten.”
The experiment that used dragon heart fragments within the Tigalodon’s body.
It was a toy he had created at a time when they still had no proper technology for transplanting dragon hearts, mixing it with necromancy, and he had completely forgotten about it since.
After all, it hadn’t lived properly, so he had discarded it as is.
But apparently, it hadn’t completely died at that time and had occasionally revived and been active due to the influence of the solar eclipse.
He fiddled with a red ring on his finger and muttered.
“But to find it on a beach like this…”
It was strange.
Its behavioral pattern was so simple that it would merely prey on any nearby creature possessing strong mana.
That was the only method for it to sustain its physical form.
Hence, there should have been no reason for it to be discovered in a recreational beach.
If those ‘residual memories’ engraved in its body were instinctual, then that wasn’t the case either.
There wouldn’t have been creatures here that it could have eaten during its lifetime.
So, it purely meant that it had been drawn by strong mana…
“It’s strange, indeed. Who did you receive this from?”
When he asked, Sanderson responded with a blank expression.
“It was from Solird of the Triple Circle.”
“Hmm, the Triple Circle? That’s a possibility. But wouldn’t that have been insufficient?”
Throwing it away had been done in the very midst of the Lutena; it could easily be referred to as a vast sea.
There was no way it would’ve approached just because of the Triple Circle.
Then, was it influenced by the power plant?
No, if that were the case, there would be no reason for it to be at Omerun.
If anything, it would have made sense if it had gone to Pieceira, where a new marine power plant was being built, as there would have been plenty of mana for it to be attracted to there.
But even though there had been many solar eclipses, it had not moved.
Then, it meant that something had pulled the trigger.
If that were the case, there could only be one possibility.
“Dragon Heart…”
The Dragon Heart calls to the Dragon Heart.
And currently, the most intact Dragon Heart was ‘Parvati.’
He stroked his chin thoughtfully and asked.
“Did you say Solird?”
“Yes.”
“Understood. Now go wash your hands and get some sleep. Forget about that fish.”
“Yes.”
“Go home.”
– Snap.
As he snapped his fingers, Sanderson turned and began to walk away with tired steps.
Moments later, Sanderson suddenly looked around, scratching his head.
With an extremely bewildered expression.
“Uh, what was I doing here again?”
He couldn’t remember.
He only felt the thought that he needed to go home.
