“Well . . . Sadeena was far out at sea fishing with the other village fishers at the time.”

That made sense. So she wasn’t around when the wave hit. Not to mention, when the waves occurred, things got wild all over the place and I’m sure the ocean had been no exception. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but there was a good possibility she had died in the aftermath. Assuming someone that strong had survived, I’m sure they would have returned to the village.

Keel and the others may have enjoyed talking about Sadeena, but it was probably best not to continue this conversation, even though I was the one that started it.

“Come on, bubba! Can’t we go down to the ocean?”

“Hmm . . . Do you really want to eat fish that bad?”

Perfect—a chance to change the subject.

“I want to eat fish that you cook, bubba!”

“That’s what I want to eat, too!”

“Me too!”

It was like a bunch of Filos had been mass-produced. Thank goodness I hadn’t decided to hatch even more filolial eggs.

“Fine. We’ll go see what kind of seafood we can catch today. While we’re at it, Filo can go swimming and hunt some monsters.”

“Okaaay!”

And so I ended up taking the slaves to the ocean. It had gotten warmer lately anyway. So it was good weather for a dip in the ocean. The kids that had grown up here would be familiar with the ocean, so I was pretty sure they would know how to swim.

After walking for a bit, we arrived at the beach.

“Wheee!”

The slaves all took everything but their underwear off and started jumping into the ocean excitedly with fishing spears in hand.

“Rafu!”

Oh? There went Raph-chan, too, running toward the water excitedly. I wondered if I should use the familiar power-up function to raise her aquatic aptitude. I wouldn’t have minded seeing her spin her tail like a propeller to swim.

I was thinking about Raph-chan when I noticed we had a little problem.

“Filo! Grab Keel!”

“Huh? Okaaay!”

“Wha?! What are you doing?!”

Filo turned into her filolial form and grabbed Keel just as he was about to jump into the ocean. He was floundering about between Filo’s wings, having suddenly been snapped up unexpectedly.

“What’s the idea, bubba?!”

“We have a problem. We’re going to have to completely rethink how you should be handled.”

“What does that mean?!”

The other slaves noticed the commotion and were looking our way. It looked like they had caught on to what was happening. Imiya, who had Raph-chan on his shoulder, approached Keel and asked.

“Keel-kun . . . or should it be Keel-chan?”

“Rafufuuu?”

“Huh? What does that mean? I’m a boy!”

Keel’s chest was wrapped in a sarashi cloth, and down below he was wearing . . . a loincloth? Raphtalia walked over and reached her hand out toward Keel’s crotch, as if that were something normal to do. She was acting more and more unpredictable lately.