“Thank you, Mickey.”
Tunzuo’s voice carried a hint of fatigue from just having swum, and she reached out with both hands to take a steaming cup of honey milk from Mickey.
The warmth of the ceramic cup seeped through her palms, driving away the chill of the seawater.
The fresh sea breeze brushed against Tunzuo’s face, making her squint comfortably.
Her legs dangled over the edge as she took small sips of the warm drink, the sweetness of honey and the richness of milk melting on her tongue.
Beside Tunzuo, Hai Lanyue cradled a classic hot cocoa, sipping it while chewing on freshly roasted marshmallows.
“Whoo-hoo, rest up, you two ladies! Glad to be of service!”
Mickey’s sharp voice brimmed with cheerful energy as he made an exaggerated gesture, pumping his fist into the air with all the distinctive flair of a rubber-hose cartoon character.
After delivering the drinks, Mickey whistled a light tune and began sweeping the deck, the broom letting out comical sound effects every now and then in his hands.
On the tranquil deck, only Tunzuo and Hai Lanyue remained seated by the ship’s edge, enjoying the gentle sea breeze.
“Tunzuo, don’t you think we should check on Olivia?”
After gazing at the picturesque shallow sea scenery for quite some time, Hai Lanyue finally couldn’t hold it in anymore.
She tilted her head slightly, glanced behind her, then leaned close to Tunzuo’s ear and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear.
Hearing this, Tunzuo’s body paused slightly.
She followed Hai Lanyue’s gaze and cast a sideways glance behind her.
There, in the shadow of the cabin, Olivia leaned alone against the doorframe, savoring her lonely time as a witch with no love and no care.
Her lustrous golden hair was dull and listless, her arms hanging weakly against the doorframe.
Olivia kept her head half-lowered, her expression melancholic, her silhouette desolate—like a sunflower withering in a storm, carrying sorrows too numerous to count or express.
“Hmph, ignore her.”
Tunzuo gazed at the distant line where sea met sky and said flatly, “Once we’ve rested, we’ll dive in to find the path and leave the Silent Sea.”
Tunzuo’s merciless words pierced Olivia’s facade before she even finished speaking.
Olivia spun around sharply, her face streaked with tears like a weeping pear blossom (fake), letting out a mournful, indignant wail as she launched herself at Tunzuo.
“Waaah, Little Ghost, how can you be so heartless! My devotion to you is pure, my sincerity witnessed by the bright moon—how could you betray me like this!”
Smack!
Just as Olivia was mid-lunge, suspended at the highest point of her arc, a translucent tentacle lashed out at lightning speed, tearing through the air with a sharp crack.
It struck Olivia square on the back of her head without mercy, forcing a muffled grunt from her as she collapsed flat onto the deck.
“Heehee, Yellow Lizard, try to steal the chicken and lose the rice, annoying and unwanted, putting on airs to apologize—righteous Naiya won’t allow it. Not. Al. lowed!”
Naiya, hanging on Tunzuo’s face, let out a malicious, rhythmically gleeful laugh, her tentacle tapping out a cheerful clatter like a bamboo clapper as she hummed her improvised doggerel, dripping with mockery.
Naiya’s fluid series of moves not only successfully kept Olivia a thousand miles away from Tunzuo but also earned her a venomous glare from Olivia.
As for how things came to this, we need to rewind the timeline a bit.
“Is there a risk of getting a cease and desist letter?”
Kneeling on the deck, Tunzuo stared at the vividly styled Mickey Mouse before her, her brain short-circuiting as she blurted out a confession out of nowhere.
“Ohoho, no worries, miss. This is another world—you don’t need to think about all that messy stuff.”
Mickey planted his hands on his hips, let out his signature series of sharp laughs, and gave a playful wink.
He reached out a large hand clad in a white glove and pulled Tunzuo up from the deck.
“Of course, even if there were a cease and desist letter, the Princess has more than enough funds to cover it. After all, a story meant for children can’t be stopped by such a trivial obstacle.”
“The Princess, huh… That’s quite a fairy-tale title. Though Principal Andersen really does resemble little Princess Sofia, so I suppose it’s not entirely off the mark.”
Tunzuo grabbed Mickey’s hand and stood up, shaking off the water droplets clinging to her as she accepted the somewhat abrupt plot development.
Meanwhile, Olivia and Hai Lanyue also successfully climbed onto the deck.
Having just emerged from the sea, all three of their clothes were naturally soaking wet.
Tunzuo raised a hand to brush back her hair, damp with seawater, droplets trailing down from the tips.
“Gulp.”
An all-too-clear sound of swallowing saliva shattered the peace on the deck.
Olivia, greeted by a glorious view the moment she opened her eyes, couldn’t restrain herself.
Her brilliant golden slit pupils contracted sharply, and in an instant, only the most primal impulse remained in her mind.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Olivia rubbed her hands together sneakily at lightning speed, slithering over to Tunzuo’s side like a weasel eyeing its prey, a lecherous, ambiguous grin plastered across her face.
“Heheh, Little Ghost, you’re all soaked, that can’t be comfortable, right? If you caught a cold, I’d be so worried.”
Olivia said this while inching closer to Tunzuo, her gaze greedy and infatuated as it roamed over her.
“Here, let me dry you off with my dragon flame. Don’t worry, I’m really skilled—I’d never mess up and burn a hole in your clothes. Be good, listen to me, and you’ll be nice and dry in no time.”
Saliva practically dripped from the corner of Olivia’s mouth, and she was itching to make her move.
But just as she was about to touch Tunzuo, Tunzuo raised her hand and cast [Witch’s Rapid Dry Spell].
In the blink of an eye, the water droplets on Tunzuo’s body evaporated completely.
Her drenched clothes became dry and fluffy once more, and her hair returned to its silky smoothness.
After finishing all that, Tunzuo arched an eyebrow at Olivia with a look reserved for a complete idiot, arms crossed over her chest—the message clear.
What, got a problem?
And so, Olivia—who couldn’t help but lament how convenient magic was—slunk away in defeat.
The impulse in her heart was snuffed out by the warm breeze of the Rapid Dry Spell.
She leaned against the cabin, slipping into her melancholy state that no witch could understand.
Back to the present.
“Alright, stop making a fool of yourself here. Hai Lanyue is still watching. Have you no shame as a witch?”
Tunzuo looked at Olivia, who resembled an eggplant stricken by frost, shook her head, walked over to her, reached out, grabbed the back of Olivia’s collar, and hauled up the pitiful excuse of a perverted dragon.
Yet even in the face of Tunzuo’s scolding, Olivia could only muster a dry “Oh,” her eyes dull and lifeless, utterly devoid of energy.
Seeing Olivia look like she’d been abandoned by the whole world, Tunzuo let out a helpless sigh.
“Ugh, I really can’t do anything with you.”
Once Olivia was standing straight, Tunzuo suddenly rose onto her tiptoes.
Before Olivia could react, she felt a cool sensation on her cheek.
A slightly cool pair of lips gently brushed against her cheek—a fleeting, feather-light touch, gentle and brief, yet carrying a comfort beyond measure.
The fleeting sensation left Olivia frozen in place, her brain completely short-circuiting.
By the time Olivia snapped back to her senses, Tunzuo had already waved and walked off, leaving Olivia with nothing but a dashing silhouette.
“Time to get down to business. All that other stuff can wait until after the Academy Tournament is over.”
“Oh… Oh! I’m coming, Little Ghost!”
Tunzuo’s words made Olivia’s face instantly bloom with a radiant smile, like the morning sun rising in the sky.
Olivia hurriedly strode toward Tunzuo and Hai Lanyue, her steps light and bouncy.
Seeing all the witches gathered, Tunzuo composed her expression and turned to ask Mickey, who had been sweeping the deck beside them the whole time as if the job would never be done.
“Mickey, can you sail us through this sea? We’d like to check out other regions.”
“Of course, no problem, miss!”
Mickey agreed readily enough.
Of course, it would be impossible without a few conditions attached.
“It’s just that, with the Willy’s current performance, getting through the Silent Sea will be quite difficult. This sea isn’t as calm as it appears on the surface. We’ll need some modifications to get through safely, and for that, I’ll need the help of you three ladies.”
Mickey’s businesslike, leading tone made Tunzuo sigh inwardly: Of course, the usual quest procedure had to be gone through.
This story quest, they’d definitely have to run it.
So Tunzuo snapped her fingers, signaling Mickey to get on with it and stop being cryptic—they were on a tight schedule with heavy tasks ahead.
“Oh, don’t be impatient, miss. To successfully upgrade the Willy, we need to upgrade two parts.”
Mickey held up two fingers and wiggled them in front of Tunzuo, explaining patiently.
“First, the hull. We need to swap it for an anti-detection structure so the sea beasts won’t attack us. Those big fellows are very sensitive to vibrations. Second, the engine. The Willy’s current horsepower is too weak—we need something with more punch to fight the undercurrents.”
From his pocket, via a four-dimensional folding space, Mickey pulled out a blueprint larger than his entire mouse body and spread it flat on the deck with a “flap,” pointing out the areas that needed modification for Tunzuo and the others.
Additionally, Mickey added the most pressure-inducing detail of their mission.
“The heavy bone oil used as engine fuel is only produced at the bottom of the Abyss in the Silent Sea, and some of the materials needed to modify the hull and engine also come from sea beasts that live in the Silent Sea.”
All in all, no matter what, Tunzuo and the others would still have to make several deep dives into the Silent Sea to gather all the materials needed to upgrade the Willy.
“Great, got my hopes up for nothing. Though at least once we gather the materials, we won’t have to swim all the way on our own. Having a ship beats swimming any day.”
Tunzuo massaged her temples hard, already dreading the coming deep-sea sickness.
But after quickly sorting through her thoughts, she found something to comfort herself in the bad news, then reached out to Mickey, asking for the material list.
“Mickey, tell us what materials we need for the Willy’s upgrade.”
“Alright! No problem, I’ll tell you all the materials you need!”
Before Tunzuo even finished speaking, Mickey pulled a waterproof sheet from his pocket and slapped it into Tunzuo’s hand, clearly having prepared it in advance.
Long accustomed to this, Tunzuo shook her head and unfolded the material list to browse.
But the more she read, the more something felt off, and her brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
The first few items were manageable—all collectible in the shallows, just requiring larger quantities, nothing too problematic.
But these last few…
Deepwing Mother Whale’s carapace, lithium clam ore from Giant Jaw Clams, the spine of a Ghost Leviathan, and even the fangs of an Ancient Dragon Leviathan?!
Tunzuo looked at Mickey, and in response, Mickey just spread his hands helplessly, indicating that fate could not be defied.
Tunzuo, feeling like she was about to be stranded in the deep sea, twitched at the corner of her mouth.
“Seriously?”
“Fine! I’ll take it!”
With no other choice, Tunzuo gritted her teeth and accepted the high-difficulty ship-modification quest, folding the material list and tucking it into her pocket.
Seeing the story quest had triggered, Olivia sidled over and silently asked with her eyes what they should do next.
After a brief moment of thought, Tunzuo quickly arrived at a plan.
“Splitting up isn’t realistic. The situation here is complicated—we don’t know the shallows or the deep sea, and if we run into danger, we won’t be able to cover each other. Let’s move together. We’ll gather the shallow-water materials first, then head to the deep sea for hunting as a group.”
Tunzuo’s plan received unanimous approval from Olivia and Hai Lanyue.
Seeing both witches had no objections, Tunzuo walked to the ship’s edge, gazed at the crystal-clear water, and shook her head in resignation.
“After all that fuss, we still have to get in the water, and get soaked all over again. Shouldn’t have cast that drying spell earlier—wasted mana.”
Just as Tunzuo was about to take a deep breath and dive in with a dolphin leap, the summoning contract rune engraved on Huanye suddenly reacted.
With a flicker of thought, a flash of white light appeared, and Shub, in her cute fluffy sheep form, materialized before the witches.
“Young miss, you don’t need to go through all that trouble. Just ride on me—I’ll safely deliver you all to the material locations.”
Shub’s gentle voice sounded in Tunzuo’s ear, her round, glossy black eyes seemingly able to read the worry on Tunzuo’s face.
With that, Shub crossed over the ship’s railing and went “splash” into the sea.
To the witches’ surprise, Shub—who looked like she’d absorb water—didn’t sink.
Instead, she floated on the surface like a swim ring, her four little stubby legs paddling back and forth in the water, kicking up ripples.
The next second, Shub opened her mouth and sucked in, drawing countless surrounding air into her body.
“Boop—!”
With a puffing sound, Shub’s body began to swell rapidly.
In no time, the little black sheep transformed into a comically fluffy black sheep hovercraft.
Her dense, curly black wool interwove tightly, forming a thick waterproof layer.
“Ooh, now that’s Shub for you! I never knew you had this trick!”
Tunzuo’s eyes lit up.
In a flash, she vaulted over the railing and landed lightly on Shub’s broad back.
The soft, plush comfort of the ride made Tunzuo praise her out loud, successfully earning a look of intense jealousy from Olivia.
Seeing Tunzuo safely aboard the sheep, Olivia and Hai Lanyue didn’t hesitate, hopping on right after.
Once both witches were seated, Tunzuo stood at the sheep’s head, facing the sea breeze with her arm raised high, striking a full captain’s pose, and shouted:
“Fluffy Sheep Express, set sail!”
“!”