The figure suspended in mid-air, Ronald conducted a simple self-analysis.
The song was calling out to a beloved adventurer waiting for someone. Ronald, who had been summoned by the royal family today to do grunt work, probably didn’t fit the type being called in the song, right?
And in the direction from which the song came, he could also feel very clear fluctuations of Magic Power, something mysterious was definitely at play over there.
Such an obvious trap, really left one wondering how to feel.
"Six hundred meters..."
Before returning to Claudia’s side, Ronald roughly estimated the position from where the song was coming.
The Power of Jun Lun casually pulled a palm tree from the small island, and the "Archangel" then stripped it of extraneous branches and leaves. Aiming in the direction of the song, Ronald hurled the newly fashioned ’javelin’ with all his might.
"Brave adventurer...gah!"
A series of reactions proving Ronald’s aim was good followed, and the singing in the storm abruptly ceased. Ronald didn’t even think about going to check; instead, he turned and flew towards where Claudia and the others were.
Because she was waiting for the results of the investigation, Claudia was clearly controlling their ’ferry’ to slow its pace.
Only when they could make out Ronald’s figure in the rampant storm
did the princess leading the team shout out loud:
"Ronald, what’s the situation on the island?"
"Most parts of the island are normal, but as I was preparing to return, some non-human, unidentified creature started singing there, so I gave it a shot!"
Hearing Ronald’s response, Claudia lowered her gaze to consider, and the boards they were standing on started to speed up.
Then someone else from the companions asked:
"Mr. Ronald, is that uncertain identity thing dead?"
"I can’t guarantee that. The target wasn’t human, and the place it was in had very obvious Magic Fluctuations. I just didn’t want it to cling to us on the way out."
After Ronald briefly reported all of his findings, the people on the boards began to express their own opinions. Some hoped to continue probing the situation on the island, and others wanted to start with the singing Ronald had encountered.
However, when Claudia spoke again, everyone still immediately fell silent out of respect.
"Ladies and gentlemen, time is of the essence right now."
"In fact, as time goes on, this typhoon’s wind speed is also slowly increasing. Some things can’t happen in Spring, so we need to hurry to prevent it..."
Claudia’s eyes were very serious at that moment.
She hadn’t intended to bring this up as well.
But whether as Princess of Grit or based on the educational beliefs she had been instilled with from a young age, she couldn’t accept the effects of the growing typhoon, so she deliberately used this information to reinforce the idea she wanted to convey.
After stating the problem and her concerns, Claudia’s gaze swept over everyone again. Seeing that everyone was intently watching her, the princess continued:
"I will now assign tasks."
"Ronald, continue to check the location where you heard the song, Modeste and Connor will search along the coastline, Sivler, Conni, and Jubis, the three of you enter the interior of the island to investigate."
Finally setting her sights on Heloise, Claudia hesitated for a moment before speaking again:
"I plan to be responsible for the communication work of everyone on the island. Philis, I entrust you with my protection."
"Prepare for action."
After giving instructions and assigning their tasks, Claudia pulled out the "Flowing Library" and chanted softly, setting up her unique communication spells among the seven of them one by one.
It was a very powerful communication magic.
After receiving Claudia’s magical enhancements, they could communicate telepathically without speaking and could also know each other’s locations. According to Her Highness, the princess, the range she could maintain covered the entire island with plenty to spare; they had absolutely no need to worry about the troubles caused by distance now!
Silently receiving Claudia’s spell, Ronald took to the skies again, flying towards the island.
As he looked back at the people still on deck, his feelings were complex.
Who would have thought that the one responsible for ensuring Claudia’s safety was Haloyce, the former Entrath spy?
Such a thing truly felt strange...
While pondering this, Ronald’s figure also disappeared into the stormy wind and rain. Unlike Ronald, the others all moved as a team and couldn’t just focus on flying quickly like he did.
And this round of flying was extremely fast.
It didn’t take long for Ronald to return to the spot where he had thrown the palm tree earlier.
The scene before him was rather gruesome.
The palm tree, enhanced by a spell, contained a very powerful force.
After hitting ’her’—the one singing—the tree pierced through her body and then shattered into pieces against the rocks behind. Wood, seawater, sand, rocks, and chunks of limbs were scattered everywhere.
If it were an ordinary person at the center of this attack, they probably would not be more dead.
"Good thing it’s not human..."
Muttering softly, Ronald snapped his fingers to reset the "Guardian Angel’s" defenses, then landed amidst the rocks.
—This was a very bizarre creature.
The upper body, that resembled a beautiful woman, was still gasping for air, while the bird-shaped lower body lay motionless amidst the storm.
Ronald instantly thought of a monster from mythology.
This humanoid bird would sing at sea to lure ships onto rocks, then treat the crew as its prey.
If he remembered correctly, there was a similar creature in the legends of this world, but it had nothing to do with singing.
Typhoon... sea monster... Siren...
So was this whole affair related to an original canon from some mythological system?
Staring at the creature before him, Ronald still chose to exercise caution and asked through the communication magic:
"I’ve hit a creature with the head of a human and the body of a bird. It didn’t die immediately even after being split in half and seems to be closely related to singing. Do you have any clue?"
"I haven’t heard of such a thing."
"Our school has no record of such a creature."
A series of negative responses came through the communication.
However, just then, the bright eyes of the upper half of the Siren lying on the rocks perked up, and she spoke with difficulty.