543 The White Whale and the Great Sea Dragon 

Slowly emerging from Babylon’s "Hangar," the white whale-type Over Gear Vall Albus began to glide leisurely through the cloudless sky. 

"It’s not as fast as I expected." 

"It can reach speeds comparable to Gungnir, but there’s a limit to the magicules it can absorb from the surrounding air and water. Pushing it too hard would leave Vall Albus unable to sail for a while." 

"Wait, so if the magicule conversion can’t keep up… does that mean we’ll crash?" 

"No, no. We’d just lose altitude slowly. Like a feather falling." 

…Yeah, that’s still called falling. And if there’s a major city below, it’d be a disaster. 

Better not push the speed unless it’s an emergency. 

"We’ve left Babylon, but… where should we head?" 

Yumina, seated in the captain’s chair with a translucent visor, asked the Professor. 

"South for now. Let’s head to the inland sea between Mismede and Ramish. We’ll conduct a diving test there." 

The inland sea between Mismede and Ramish… Sapia Sea, huh? 

I suggested opening a [Gate] to teleport Vall Albus, but since this was also a flight test, the idea was shot down. Well, fair enough. 

Even if it wasn’t fast, it was still way quicker than a carriage. 

At this speed, we’d probably arrive in a few hours… but man, this is boring. 

Yumina seemed to be learning how to operate Vall Albus by giving Albus detailed instructions—ascending, descending, stopping, even reversing.  

Surprisingly, none of these movements made me queasy. I thought there’d be something like seasickness, but nope. 

The Professor and the others had been busily glued to the console, inputting something, and Kuhn was running around helping them. 

Only Kuon and I were left idly staring at the large monitor up front, but the unchanging scenery quickly grew dull. 

Eventually, even Kuon got bored. He sat on the floor, pulled out diorama parts and a base from his smartphone’s [Storage], and started assembling them. 

Even here…? This kid really does things at his own pace… 

Still, since I had nothing better to do, I offered to help. 

Kuon lined up small, brick-like pieces, gluing them together to form a large wall-like structure. 

What he was building now was a castle from the Regulus Empire—a sturdy, no-frills fortress that spoke of its long history. 

If I helped with the finer details, the quality would drop, so my role was mostly prep work. 

I was given some slime-derived material to stir. Apparently, if I didn’t mix it thoroughly into a smooth consistency, bubbles would form or something… What’s this even for? 

"We’re going to solidify it and use it as the moat’s water." 

With that, Kuon began pouring the slime solution I’d stirred into the castle’s moat. Ah, so it becomes water. 

Once it was all poured in, he took something like a toothpick and lightly traced lines across the surface. At first, I didn’t get what he was doing—until I realized he was creating tiny ripples on the water’s surface. Damn, that’s some meticulous work… 

"The Sapia Sea is coming into view." 

At Yumina’s voice, I looked up at the monitor. On the horizon, the glittering reflection of the water’s surface was visible. 

The Sapia Sea, connected to the Gau River, was about the size of a small country. Vall Albus should have no trouble diving here. 

"Alright, let’s begin the dive. Nice and slow." 

"Understood. Albus, please submerge." 

『Roger.』 

Following the Professor’s order, Vall Albus slowly descended into the water. For a moment, the screen blurred—but soon, the image sharpened, showing fish darting away through the sea. 

"Monitor switched to dive mode. Visibility clear." 

"No issues with water pressure. Proceeding normally." 

"No large sea beasts detected on sensors. Continuing search." 

Seemed like Vall Albus was diving without issue. I thought the ocean would be darker, but it’s surprisingly clear. 

"That’s because we’ve adjusted the visuals. It’s actually much darker outside. If we go deep enough, it’ll be a pitch-black abyss." 

The Professor answered my unspoken question. Ah, so it is dark out there. Vall Albus doesn’t have actual windows, so I wouldn’t know. 

In no time, Vall Albus seemed to reach the seabed. The Sapia Sea wasn’t that deep—apparently less than 3,000 meters. Not sure if that counts as deep or not. 

On Earth, the Mariana Trench was the deepest, right? Over 10,000 meters, if I recall. So… this isn’t deep? Maybe? 

"No issues with navigation. Next, let’s run a search test. Yumina-kun, deploy the unmanned probes." 

"Yes. Uh… this one, right? Albus, launch unmanned probes A00 through A99." 

『Roger.』 

Unmanned probes? 

As Albus acknowledged Yumina’s command, several spherical objects shot forward like torpedoes on the monitor. 

Those were the probes? They’re about the size of ping-pong balls. 

"They’re gonna search the area with those?" 

"Since even your [Search] couldn’t pick anything up, the ‘Ark’ likely has some kind of interference barrier. Visual reconnaissance is the most reliable method in that case. Those probes can see through illusions, and they’re also equipped with concealment magic like Vall Albus, making them hard to detect." 

Stealth function, too, huh? Well, better that than getting mistaken for food by some giant sea monster. 

The large central monitor’s side screens now displayed fifty split feeds each, like security camera footage in movies. 

The images were brightened, but it was still dim. Still, anything out of place should be noticeable… 

"Won’t it be exhausting to watch all of these…?" 

Staring at a hundred feeds of fish and rocks was already making my eyes hurt. 

"No human could monitor all of them. Don’t worry—if anything strange pops up, Albus will alert us." 

『A42 has detected an unidentified object. Proceeding to investigate.』 

And just like that, it seemed they’d found something. No way it’s the ‘Ark’, right? No chance we’d find it this fast. Still, our eyes locked onto the enlarged feed from Probe 42. 

Something lay on the dim seabed. It was big. Wait… is that… 

"A… shipwreck?" 

The massive ship lay sunken, split cleanly in half down the middle. But something felt off. Near what looked like the mast, I could see something resembling a propeller. This wasn’t an ordinary ship. 

"This is… an airship?" 

"An airship?" 

The Professor opened his mouth slightly in surprise as he watched the footage from Unit 42. 

"It’s a flying ship that was fairly common during the Ancient Magic Kingdom era. To think one was sunk out here… Maybe it was shot down during the war against the Fraze five thousand years ago? Doesn’t look like a military vessel, though…" 

"A ship from the Ancient Magic Kingdom era!?" 

"If it were under a preservation spell, its condition shouldn’t be too bad, right?" 

"Hohoho, now that’s intriguing." 

Kuhn, Engineer Elka, and Doctor immediately latched onto the Professor’s words. These magic-tech otaku… 

"Yumina-kun, head toward Unit 42’s location." 

"Understood." 

The Vaal Albus changed course, advancing through the depths of the sea. Before long, the sunken ship discovered by Unit 42 appeared on the main monitor. 

It was fairly large—not as big as the Vaal Albus, but close to a hundred meters long. 

Three masts, two of which were broken. At the stern, there was another large propeller-like structure, and several massive oars jutted out from the hull. 

What the hell were those oars even for in the air? 

"They capture mana particles in the atmosphere to propel the ship. In principle, they’re no different from ship oars." 

Hmm… So, like auxiliary propulsion? Surely, they weren’t manually powered like a galley, right? 

"So… what do we do with it?" 

"We’re obviously taking it with us! It’s a relic from the Ancient Magic Kingdom era! You can’t just leave something like this at the bottom of the sea!" 

"O-Oh, right…" 

Kuhn chewed me out with frightening intensity. In her mind, retrieval was already a foregone conclusion. 

The Professor and the others seemed to agree. But… how were we supposed to recover it? 

"How? With your [Storage], obviously. One shot and it’s done." 

"Ah… right." 

At the Professor’s exasperated tone, I realized just how stupid I was being. I’d assumed we’d need diving robots or Frame Gears to haul it up… 

But [Storage] would make it trivial. Why didn’t I think of that? 

Following the Professor’s instructions, I retrieved only the airship using [Storage]. 

"We got it, but… where do we unload it?" 

"The Vaal Albus’ hangar. This way." 

Leaving Yumina, Kuon, and Albus on the bridge, the rest of us followed the Professor to the hangar. 

Thanks to the teleportation device, we arrived instantly. The hangar was absurdly huge—probably expanded with space-time magic, like everything else. 

I unloaded the airship from [Storage]. Since I’d only retrieved the ship itself, all the seawater had been filtered out. Not a single drop remained on its surface, leaving the hangar completely dry. 

The sand and debris clinging to the airship had also vanished, leaving it gleaming as if brand new. Just as Elka had guessed, it must’ve been under a preservation spell, just like Babylon. 

The Professor muttered as he looked up at the ship. 

"Hmm… Judging by the design, this is a merchant vessel from the Talwes Republic. Must’ve gotten caught up in a battle." 

Talwes Republic? Never heard of it. Probably one of the nations from the Ancient Magic Kingdom era. 

"A merchant ship, huh? Wonder what it was carrying." 

"If it’s an ancient magic artifact, that’d be exciting." 

"That’d be great, but the ship itself is already a treasure! Where’s the propulsion unit…?" 

The magic engineering otaku were all tinkering with the airship in their own ways. Aren’t you guys a little too free-spirited? 

I approached the airship and tapped its surface—knock-knock. It felt like metal, but not quite. More like hardened rubber. 

Ignoring the proper hatch, I slipped inside through a broken section. 

"Whoa." 

The interior was covered in what looked like wood shavings and sand. Probably the remains of something that had lost its protective magic long ago. Maybe when the mud-like stuff got sucked into the [Storage], it dried up and turned into this. 

…Now that I think about it, there must’ve been people on this ship back then… Is this sand mixed with their bones or something…? 

Muttering a quick prayer in my heart, I stepped forward. Well, it’s been 5,000 years—they’ve probably moved on. 

I searched the broken front section thoroughly but didn’t find anything noteworthy. Maybe the cargo was just food supplies or something. Like, they loaded up to escape the Frays but got shot down mid-flight. 

When I stepped out of the airship, Kuhn came running over excitedly from the rear deck. 

"Otou-sama, Otou-sama! This ship’s core reactor is still alive! If we repair it, we can bring this ship back to life!" 

Huh. So, the reactor survived. But isn’t she a little too hyped about this? 

"Nah, we ain’t that interested in this ship. Figured we’d let Kuhn-chan have it…" 

"Mention that, and she’s over the moon." 

"Well, only if Touya-kun approves. What d’you think?" 

I mean… what’s there to think? 

Kuhn was staring at me with sparkling, pleading eyes—like I could say no to that! 

If only Lean were here, maybe I could’ve resisted a little… 

"…Fine, but set a strict time limit. And only if Leen won’t get mad…" 

"Thank you so much!!" 

Kuhn hugged me with a bright smile. Wait, is she planning to repair this alone? …Might’ve been too big of a gift for a kid. 

[Warning. Massive lifeform approaching starboard bow.] 

Suddenly, a sharp BEEEP echoed through the ship as Albus’ voice rang out. 

"Hm. Seems something’s up. Let’s return to the bridge." 

Following the Doctor’s orders, we teleported back to the bridge where Yumina and the others were waiting. 

On the main monitor, an enormous sea serpent-like magical beast was swimming straight toward us. 

"The Great Sea Dragon… Leviathan?" 

Leviathans were hundred-meter-long sea monsters, feared by sailors alongside the Kraken. Not that it matters—I’ve summoned both as familiars before. 

But this one seemed even bigger than a normal Leviathan. The monitor said 300 meters—was it actually twice that? 

"That’s no ordinary Leviathan. It’s a subspecies—Leviathan Lord." 

Leviathan Lord? Now that he mentioned it, its scales were spikier than a normal Leviathan’s, and its color was a deeper blue. 

Suddenly, the so-called Leviathan Lord fired a ring-shaped distortion straight at us from its mouth. 

The Vall Albus shook slightly. Did it just attack us? 

"No mistake—it’s hostile." 

"Maybe it’s the area boss? Pissed we invaded its territory?" 

While Kuon and Kuhn were having that conversation, I found myself agreeing with them. Their intent was probably to drive out outsiders who’d trespassed into their territory. 

As I pondered this, the Professor next to me grinned fearlessly. …Man, that’s a scary look. 

"Perfect timing. Let’s have Vall Albus handle the combat." 

"The Leviathan Lord has plenty of usable magic engineering materials, doesn’t it?" 

"This is more of a treasure trove than the airship, eh?" 

"Yumina-hahasama! Let’s do it!" 

It was obvious that Kuhn’s motivation had skyrocketed at the mention of magic engineering materials. 

Easy to read, thankfully—though I couldn’t help but worry if he’d ever get scammed by some guy waving rare materials in his face… 

Prompted to attack the Leviathan Lord, Yumina slid her fingers across the console on the armrest of the captain’s seat. 

"Attack, right? Uh… then, Albus, let’s use this 36-Tube Magic Torpedo—" 

"Hold it! That’s way too powerful. You’ll turn the Leviathan Lord into sea foam!" 

"Yumina-hahasama, veto on that!" 

Just what kind of insane armaments does this Over Gear have…? 

While the Professor and Yumina were arguing, the Leviathan Lord kept launching shockwave-like attacks. 

Fortunately? The ship didn’t seem to take much damage from them. 

But that didn’t mean we could just sit there and take it. 

"Albus, fire Magic Torpedo Tube Four." 

『Roger.』 

A soft beep sounded, and in the next instant, a single torpedo streaked across the monitor at an absurd speed toward the Leviathan Lord. 

A blinding flash lit up the screen for just a moment, and then the Leviathan Lord split cleanly in half, scattering debris as it remains drifted through the sea. 

"Damn. That was too clean a hit…" 

The Professor clicked his tongue in annoyance. Apparently, the torpedo had landed a direct hit, dealing catastrophic damage. 

I didn’t know about the Leviathan Lord, but regular Leviathans weren’t exactly high-defense magical beasts. Even if this subspecies wasn’t much tougher, one shot…? 

Just like with the airship, I stored the Leviathan Lord in [Storage]. 

If I dumped it straight into the hangar, the place would reek, so I’d keep it in [Storage] for now. 

Later, I’d have to commission the Adventurer’s Guild to dismantle it. 

The problem was, a beast this massive couldn’t be processed within the guild’s grounds—we’d have to haul it outside town. The butchering would take ages, and if we dragged our feet, the quality would drop. Guess we’re pulling an all-nighter… Sorry in advance, guild dismantlers. 

"We’ve done our combat testing, so let’s call it a day. After fine-tuning things back in Babylon, we’ll begin the full-scale search." 

"By ‘full-scale search,’ you mean scouring every ocean in the world for the Ark? You’re not planning to keep Yumina stuck on this ship the whole time, are you…?" 

"Nah, nah. Albus alone is enough for recon. We’ll keep comms open in case of emergencies, so no worries." 

So Albus would handle the underwater search. Well, being a golem, it could probably work 24/7—but combing every corner of the world’s oceans sounded like a nightmare. 

"At the same time, we’ll place markers along the coasts of allied nations. That way, we can detect any incursions by the Apostles of the Evil God early. Touya-kun, I’ll leave explaining this to their leaders to you." 

"Got it." 

Letting those bastards run wild any further would piss me off. Next time, we’re taking the fight to them and crushing them first.