Warning: Contains depictions of blood.
To the southeast of the southern tip of the Elias Peninsula lies an uninhabited island named Io Island. Every year, it serves as the turning point for the Golem Boat Race.
Further to the east is another uninhabited island, known as Toryu Island.
Using Toryu Island as her base, Marcia had been conducting repeated tests on a new model of ship since the beginning of December. She had been doing this continuously to experience the stability and habitability of the ship in the open sea firsthand, making improvements wherever they were needed.
"Hardly anyone goes beyond Io Island, so keep your eyes peeled, Arrow!"
"Yes, Lady Marcia."
The Arrow that Jin had upgraded now spoke fluently and was active as Marcia's assistant in both name and reality.
"I hear they're building large ships over thirty meters long in other countries. Well, I can't let myself fall behind, can I?"
While talking to herself, Marcia piloted the ship.
Sometimes she would make improvements to the rudder.
"Hmm, the rudder response is poor. Let's try increasing the surface area a bit more."
Other times, she would re-evaluate the hull balance.
"If we use the side hulls for storage, it still tilts a bit when one side is empty and the other is full... I’ll have to think about how to load it."
And at other times, she would make improvements to the cabin.
"Hmm, I want to at least be able to take a nap. In that case, if I make the seat backs recline..."
In this way, as Marcia repeated the tests for the new ship, she refined its maneuverability, cargo capacity, and habitability.
"...Sigh. If it were Jin, he'd probably finish this in the blink of an eye."
For Marcia to fix things by hand took a considerable amount of time. Recently, Baccus had started helping her, which made things much easier, but the pace was still worlds apart from when Jin had been around.
"Yes, this is a passing grade!"
A test voyage after several modifications had finally brought the performance to a level Marcia was satisfied with.
Top speed: twenty kilometers per hour. Cargo capacity: three tons. Capacity: two people, four in an emergency (excluding the golem, Arrow).
Overjoyed, Marcia went to Toryu Island as usual and anchored there.
"The stars are beautiful tonight. The waves are calm, too. I think I'll wrap this up for now and report to the mayor... no, the Lord."
Wrapped in a blanket and leaning back in her cabin chair, Marcia eventually drifted off to sleep while watching the sky through the window.
The disaster occurred on the morning of the 25th.
There is a marine magical beast called the Bowall. It resembles a whale, with the largest reaching twenty meters in length, and an average individual measuring ten meters.
They primarily live in northern seas, but occasionally, some drift south on ocean currents before eventually returning to the northern waters. As far as magical beasts go, they are of the docile variety—essentially only consuming free ether—but they have a habit of mistaking large floating objects for enemies and ramming them. One such creature had migrated into the vicinity of Toryu Island.
At dawn, it encountered Marcia's new ship as she left Toryu Island, heading for Port Rock.
The Bowall that emerged from the surface was incredibly massive. It immediately vanished back into the sea.
"Whoa! What was that!?"
"Lady Marcia, it is a magical beast! We must escape!"
Marcia was startled, and Arrow shouted a warning. Arrow poured every ounce of her strength into the pedals.
However, the drive mechanism was far too fragile compared to the one Jin had built. Both belts driving the paddlewheel snapped. There was no longer any time to replace them.
"Lady Marcia, I will push," Arrow said. She had judged that there was no other choice but for her to enter the sea and push the ship.
"A-Ah. Arrow, I'm counting on you!"
At this moment, Marcia realized that to go out into the open sea, one should be equipped with weapons against magical beasts and a backup propulsion system, but it was already too late. Furthermore, the eight-meter ship was a bit too large even for Arrow to swim and push.
"Whoa!"
A violent impact rocked the ship as the Bowall rammed it. Even though it was a new model, it was basically a wooden construction and could not withstand the blow.
"Waaaaah! A-Arrow!"
"Lady Marcia!"
The stern section was blown away by the first ramming attack. Naturally, Arrow was thrown into the sea.
Then, the entire hull shattered during the second ramming. Marcia was thrown into the air before falling onto the sea surface. In the process, she suffered a deep laceration on her right thigh from a shard of the hull. Between the shock and the pain, she lost consciousness.
Having calmed down after crushing the floating object, the Bowall left the area as if nothing had happened.
Although Arrow had a waterproof structure, she was not built for underwater use. Being made of ordinary materials, Arrow's specific gravity was significantly higher than that of water. In other words, she would sink on her own.
Furthermore, her left arm had been damaged during the first ramming, allowing seawater to seep inside. As a result, she lost even more buoyancy and sank into the sea, several dozen meters deep.
As for Marcia...
She drifted away on the current, blood flowing from the laceration on her right thigh and staining the nearby sea crimson.
Fortunately, though it was a laceration, it was somewhat shallow, and the bleeding gradually slowed. It was also a stroke of luck that she had unconsciously clung to a large piece of wreckage when she fell into the sea, thus avoiding drowning.
Portoa Town.
Dashing out of the workshop, Jin hurried around to the shadow of the building. Naturally, Reiko was with him.
Jin took the manacam from his pocket and contacted Laojun. Reiko deployed a barrier around them, keeping watch to ensure their voices did not leak out.
"Laojun, I want to confirm something. What happened to the Secret Mobile Unit SP assigned to Marcia?"
"Yes, My Lord. Cattleya and Lotus stayed behind this time. They should be in the vicinity of where you are now."
"I see, just as I thought..."
While they could follow her on land, they had been unable to accompany Marcia once she headed out to sea.
"The installation of force generators was delayed..."
If they had been equipped with force generators, they could have followed her secretly by flying or moving underwater, but there was no use complaining about it now.
"In that case..."
If Arrow was with her, then perhaps they could find Marcia by locating Arrow—just as Jin thought this.
"Arrow!?"
Reiko spotted Arrow emerging from the sea.
It had been roughly four hours since the encounter with the Bowall. Arrow had returned by walking sixty kilometers along the seabed. Judging that it would be impossible to search for Marcia by swimming with her damaged body, she had returned with everything she had.
"Creator... Master Jin..."
Arrow crawled onto the land and collapsed.
"Reiko, take Arrow—"
Just as Jin began to speak, Rodrigo appeared, having come outside looking for him. Reiko instantly deactivated the barrier.
"Jin-dono! That golem is!?"
"Rodrigo-san..."
Having no other choice, Jin had Reiko carry Arrow back to Marcia's workshop.
"This is..."
"Is that Arrow?! What on earth happened!?"
Naturally, Jeremy and Baccus were shocked. Arrow, who should have been able to answer them, had pushed herself too far and was malfunctioning.
Jin set to work on emergency repairs. He opened her chest, drained the seawater that had entered, and rinsed the components with fresh water. After drying her thoroughly, he had Reiko share some mana with her.
Because her mana consumption had temporarily exceeded the output of her ether converter, Arrow's internal magi-circuits had shut down, but with this treatment, she rebooted.
"Master Creator, thank you very much."
Arrow thanked him as she recognized Jin.
"Never mind the thanks. More importantly, what happened? What about Marcia!?"
"Yes... Lady Marcia is..."
Arrow then began to recount everything that had transpired.