It really wasn't easy to keep Hamlet running. Aside from those special Romani goods, all the negotiations with the trade caravans were handled by Tiffany and her people. The heavy workload let her rapidly accumulate enough experience, and now she didn't fall behind even those seasoned rchants.
But Grendel wasn't having it easy either. As the operation spread out, every kind of matter in Hamlet needed her decision, not to ntion keeping an eye on the Association of Healers and those Church people.
Even at night she had to carve out ti to brew those potions—Hamlet's most important source of funds. Lance had a plan, but she didn't mind doing more.
Busy over her potions, Grendel still heard the faint ringing of a bell from far away. She couldn't help stopping what she was doing, anxiety showing on her face.
She knew what that bell ant. Could Amanda's divination be coming true?
But Grendel wasn't Rom. Hardship couldn't knock her down.
She strode quickly toward the outside, the Deer Head Staff appearing in her hand.
She had to hold Hamlet. No matter what enemy was coming!
......
The bell set off a chain reaction that startled quite a few people.
But the most imdiate were the patrols nearby. Soone responded quickly—there were mbers of the coastal patrol, and also the sheriff who had heard the bell nearby and rushed over.
"What happened?"
The people who ca demanded answers from Amanda, but all they got was her muttering the sa word over and over: monsters.
Yet the sea was calm and flat. They held their torches high, pacing along the shoreline, and found nothing like the monsters Amanda spoke of.
Not to ntion monsters, there wasn't even a single dead fish.
The ones who ca felt they'd been played. This wasn't sothing you could joke about. They all grew furious and began bombarding Amanda with questions.
"Why did you ring the alarm bell?"
As for the first squad that had arrived, their faces were full of anxiety—not because they believed any of this.
It was because that bell wasn't sothing you rang at random. Who knew how many people had been alard; they felt this farce would probably end with them taking the bla for not keeping an eye on that lunatic.
It's over, it's over. He had just managed to get into the coastal patrol and beco a squad leader, he'd even wanted to join the Navy soday…
And just then, soone holding a torch further down the shore shouted, then more voices joined in, quickly drowning out all the questioning.
"Look at what's in the water!"
"Careful! Careful!"
"..."
The shouting drew everyone's attention over. They all raised their torches and approached the waterline. Dark shapes swam back and forth, half-seen in the torchlight.
Suddenly sothing in the sea exploded out in a leap. One poor bastard who'd gotten too close was yanked straight into the water by the shadow. It happened too fast; they only saw his torch go out in an instant. He didn't even have ti to scream. By the ti the others reacted, the surface was calm again.
The rest realized what was happening and hurriedly fell back. The torch flas, flickering in the sea breeze, were like their emotions—wild and heaving.
They hadn't even t the enemy yet, and a wordless terror was already spreading.
"That's definitely not human."
"Monsters! Monsters!"
"Let's just go back…"
Seeing this, Amanda actually let out a breath of relief. No one would believe her no matter how much she said, so let the facts speak for themselves.
She'd already done her best to buy ti. What ca next was up to fate.
Now no one stopped her from ringing the bell, but she had no ti to waste here.
"You, keep ringing the bell. You, go notify the Navy. You, go notify the militia. You, go inform those rchant ships and pull everyone back in. Don't worry about…"
Amanda tossed the striker to the patrolman who was standing there stupidly, then barked her orders.
Only then did the others snap out of it. The squad leader who caught the striker felt sweat pouring down his body, as if he'd just taken a trip through Heaven and Hell.
He hadn't expected there to really be sothing out there. If trouble had broken out because of his negligence, it would have been far worse.
With those tangled feelings, he hamred the bell even harder, as if trying to vent all the pressure that had been building up.
After a brief lull, the bell rang out once more, and under his frantic pounding it carried an even more urgent ssage.
At the sa ti, the hastier peal of the bell seed to be urging the monsters lurking in the sea to gather toward this place.
But among the patrols and the sheriff's n were veterans who'd changed careers. They weren't so easily cowed by fear, and they shouted loudly to pull the chaotic squad back together.
"Bastards! What are you afraid of?!"
"You useless fucks! Grip your weapons and reform the line!"
"Use what you've been taught! You're militia, not trash!"
You had to admit, the militia training had paid off. At least they had so discipline and could understand orders.
A few veterans quickly brought the chaotic shoreline back under control and straightened out the squads.
Once the formation snapped into place, it inexplicably gave the militian a sense of safety. A forest of spears, rows of torches—that was the power of order.
And as they pulled back from the water's edge and reford, the things in the sea, drawn by the bell, finally couldn't help themselves. Leaving the water, they began to step ashore along that long stretch of coast.
In the firelight they saw the monsters crawl out of the sea onto the beach, then slowly straighten up and stand.
They weren't particularly tall, but their horrific shapes were enough to strip a man of his reason.
They saw the monsters rear up on two legs. Their basic structure was vaguely humanoid, but their bodies were covered in blue-gray Scale Armor. Fins jutted from their arms, and their hands and feet were webbed, each joint ending in sothing like a claw.
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