We waited for a while, but Oujin didn’t surface.

Void grimaced, lowered me from his back, and shoved me toward Riona.

“Hey, cat. Hold this.”

“Aha~! With pleasure~!”

Damn it. Treating people like objects.

“Tch, that kappa slipped and sank, seriously?”

Just as he was about to dive in, I saw a large shadow cross underwater.

“Wait!”

Cradled in Riona’s arms, I hastily reached out and grabbed Void’s uniform.

“Back to the wall! There’s something in there!”

“Huh?”

“What?”

As we backed up until we were nearly against the wall, it quietly emerged—just the upper half of its head peeking out of the water.

Long black hair and red eyes without conjunctiva.

—A homunculus!?

It sneered lasciviously.

Leaving behind only faint ripples, it sank back under the water again.

“Damn it, did it drag him under!? Hey, cat! What happened to scouting!? That’s your job!”

“I can’t do anything if the enemy’s underwater! Besides, it barely made any ripples or sounds! I didn’t even notice Ryoka-chan disappearing!”

Void clicked his tongue and dropped his bundled daggers on the ground. His gear was too heavy for underwater combat.

“Void! Use this!”

I twisted out of Riona’s grasp, drew my short sword, and tossed it to Void.

Void caught it silently, stripped off his heavy metal-thread coat, and dove headfirst into the subterranean lake.

I looked back at Riona.

“I’m going too. Stay here and wait.”

“Will you be okay in the water?”

“Thanks to Void, my body’s still warm. I’ll finish it quickly and return.”

I undid my sheath belt, peeled off my uniform top, held the magelight in my mouth, and dove into the cold water with my unsheathed wakizashi in hand.

Good thing it was a magelight. If it were an oil lamp, we’d have to rely on the faint glow of the moss.

That said—

I looked around underwater.

I could see Void’s back, but neither Oujin nor the homunculus was in sight.

Where are they? Don’t tell me he was dragged all the way to the center of the lake. If so, we’re screwed.

We swam deeper into the cold water, scanning our surroundings. It was freezing. We wouldn’t last long.

We surfaced for air, then dove again.

Void kept scanning as he swam. Neither Oujin nor the homunculus could be found.

Just then, plop—a sound of something falling into the water echoed. Looking toward it, I saw a pebble sink down.

Another plop followed, and a second pebble sank, farther ahead from the first one.

—Riona!

I shook the magelight in my mouth to get Void’s attention and pointed in the direction the pebbles had sunk. Void surfaced for a breath, then swam in that direction, overtaking me.

Plop—yet another pebble dropped ahead.

About fifty steps from the shallow area where we had been, we finally found Oujin locked in underwater combat with the homunculus.

—No, it wasn’t even a fight.

The homunculus was toying with Oujin, gripping his legs as he tried to surface. Oujin swung his blade, but underwater, the movements were dull, and it deflected the strike with its palm easily.

Occasionally, bubbles escaped from Oujin’s mouth. Riona must have seen them and guided us with the pebbles.

What stood out was the homunculus’s appearance. Its upper body resembled a human’s, but its lower half was like a fish. Like that dragon before, it appeared to be a magical creature created using monsters.

Rather than a homunculus, it was more like a chimera. Occasionally, such powerful creatures are born in the natural world from crossbreeding between different species.

At first, Oujin resisted violently, but after releasing a particularly large bubble, he suddenly went limp, his whole body slackening. Eventually, his blade slipped from his hand and sank to the bottom.

Void surged forward, slashing the water with his short sword in hand.

However, as soon as the creature saw him, it sneered and smoothly pulled away—still clutching Oujin’s uniform.

Its long hair drifted eerily like waterweed, and it curled its red lips into a provocative grin aimed at Void.

It didn’t notice me, sneaking around behind with the magelight extinguished.

Go for the throat? No, I should secure Oujin first.

I crawled along the lakebed like a lizard, slowly floating up behind it, relying solely on buoyancy to avoid making sound.

Then, I slashed at the arm gripping Oujin’s uniform with my wakizashi. Aiming to cleave through rock, but my movement was sluggish.

—Tch!

Still, the blade wounded the homunculus. Apparently, even among homunculi, there are variations in physical toughness. Faint red spread through the clear water. Clutching its wound, it let go of Oujin.

I held the wakizashi in my mouth, grabbed Oujin with both hands, and shot upward.

But now it grabbed my leg. I let go of Oujin, and he began to sink again—only for Void to grab him and surface.

I, on the other hand, was dragged down to the bottom.

I tried to slash the hand with my wakizashi, but it slipped away just before I could strike. It waited for me to start rising before grabbing my clothes again, pulling me back down.

Its speed was abnormal. It swam faster than we could swing our weapons underwater. Unless we caught it off guard, a blade wouldn't be enough to bring it down.

—Running out of air…!

Worse, the cold had soaked into my whole body. Pain started flaring in various places. When that pain fades, I’ll probably lose all strength.

I kept swinging the wakizashi.

But it dodged, mocked me, approached during the gaps in my surfacing attempts, and pulled me down again. Oujin must have been done in by this nasty tactic too.

This wasn’t a matter of combat power anymore.

It was about swimming ability. The homunculus itself wasn’t particularly strong, but it was specialized in underwater combat.

—Gh...!

Dragged back down again and again, large bubbles escaped from my mouth. A ten-year-old body couldn’t take in much air to begin with.

This is bad. Really bad. I’m going to die.

The water’s surface above me warped. The soft glow of moss wavered. Before I knew it, the pain had vanished. I was floating on my back at the bottom of the lake.

In my blurred vision, the homunculus wore that same loathsome smile. It reached for my neck—pulling at the flesh, grinding the bones—but in that moment, something white coiled around its neck.

In my narrowing field of vision, I saw Void and Oujin, each holding one end of a cloth, floating on either side of the homunculus, choking it with the white cloth as they kicked its head from both sides.

And during that, I was lifted up by someone else’s arms—…