Chapter 49 - Not Our Day to Die

Damn you, Being X! The Gorgon B regained her consciousness, while I was explaining the course of actions to my companions. Making my quickly put-together plan, defunct, since she could just relay it to the king, either as a retaliation or an attempt to save her life.

Yet, she offered a ship. A way out, out of this city and away from immediate danger. But at the same time, she could be lying. For a few reasons, in fact. One, she could be just trying to save her life, prolonging it as much as possible in order to attempt an escape. Two, she might try to lead my group towards the king's forces, or otherwise attract their attention in order to have revenge on me and my group.

Or she could be telling the truth and indeed have a ship of her own, preferably ready to depart at any time. But to discern it better could be achieved by, learning her motivation.

"Why should I trust you?" I asked Gorgon B.

"I want Euryale, to live!" she said, looking at the Gorgon A.

With the way she fought, I should have expected such an answer. Not to mention, she initially threw her companion out the harm's way. And then tried to lead me away from Gorgon A, or rather, Euryale.

"Arachne we have to go!" urged Medusa, interrupting my decision-making.

Ultimately there was nothing to lose by trusting the Gorgon B and attempting to set sail on her ship. As a precaution, she and her comrade were both bound. And should she prove to lie about the ship, or lead my group to an ambush of any sort, I would have an excuse to kill her and her companion. After which, me and my group would enact the original plan I've formulated.

The only complication in this scenario might be, if the king ordered his forces, to blockade the harbor, then there would be no immediate way out of the city. This could prove problematic as I would have two POWs, who could be potentially very dangerous, depending on a given situation. Also, my original plan could not be enacted, because of said POWs, since they needed someone to guard them 24/7. And missing Persephone and Orthrus could prove to be fatal, for myself and Medusa.

Given that two women, who while way above average in strength and reflexes, are still just two individuals, were able to drive out the king from his city, I would not overestimate the king's army commander's competency. Yet I could not underestimate it either. Should the worst case come, I would have to get rid of the Gorgons out of Medusa's sight, to preserve the secrecy of my plan.

"In that case, change of plans, Miss Persephone, Medusa, we are going to use, Gogon's ship," I explained turning to my ushering the whole group on the way out of the palace.

"Name's Stheno! Remember that!" shouted Gorgon B, or rather Stheno as she named herself.

What an unnecessarily loud individual Gorgon B was. Hopefully, she will keep quiet for the duration of our escape from the city willingly.

Although I had the means to silence her, should such a simple thing prove to be too hard for her. But those means were reserved only in case she happened to be uncooperative.

"Arachne, a pleasure to meet you," I said, as I had no intention of presenting myself as a similarly rude individual, to her.

"Are you for real? You say that as if you were not trying to kill me just a moment ago!" she again shouted my way.

The exasperation in her voice was surprising, and mostly also rude, since she was the one who proposed the alliance. Alas, it was to be expected for a monster like her to have little to no manners, especially if she lived in isolation and her only point of social contact was the other Gorgon.

"We can resolve our differences, once we are out of this dangerous situation. Now please remain silent!" I reassured my temporary ally, while at the same time urging her not to attract unnecessary attention.

Since there was no time to idle talk, the movement of the armored unit could be heard from down the hill, on which the palace stood.

"Fine!" Gorgon B seethed between her teeth but kept her voice to an acceptable undisruptive level.

With the soldiers approaching, it was necessary to look as inconspicuous as possible. The more average my group looked, the better. Thus I ordered Persephone to choose a different look for a moment, as well as I did for my own transformation. For Medusa and both Gorgons, I had to improvise with an illusion spell. Thus my acquaintance ended up looking as one of my troops and the gorgons were now sacks put over two horses, which once again, was Orthrus.

My group managed to avoid all the attention without as much of a problem. However, that did not mean that the route to the harbor was any less stressful. Especially difficult was to pass through the market, which was still crowded despite not being morning anymore.

As, it was my fear that the king ordering to block the harbor, thus preventing my extended group from traveling, was unnecessary. Given how much I overestimated the king's power over this international trading hub. Since the merchants had the harbor guards in their pockets. It must be a great job to be a guard in the harbor, just look menacing enough for people not to try anything funny and look the other way, when coins were given to them. And even in the very unlikely event of an enemy fleet invasion, all they had to do was to ring the alarm.

How envious! Maybe I should have attempted to go for a similar position during my second life, but as was proven with my attempt at the training corps, even such an easy position would be taken from me by that damaged Being X. Moreover, there was barely any career growth involved, so unless I managed to get a sufficient amount of bribe money and on top of that launder it, in order to make it legally usable, I would have still been a poor soldier.

And therein before me, was the ship. It was big enough to fit all of us, yet small enough to be piloted by only a handful of people, in the case of Gorgons I assumed it was just a few. Yet it was bigger than the ship I forcefully exchanged back on Lesbos and even then the sea monster did strike my ship. I eyed the seemingly calm waters with suspicion, after all, I avoided a sea voyage whenever possible.

"What?! You are afraid of water?" asked Gorgon B.

I could stay silent and led her to believe, that was the fact. It would be even strategically sound to mislead my potential future enemy, should the Gorgons decide that they did not like my company. But at the same time, it was highly unproductive or outright suicidal, to withhold the crucial information about the potential danger which was hiding just beneath the surface.

"Of water, no. Rather what might be hiding in it," I answered, ready to continue my explanation.

"HA! You believe in sea monsters?" laughed at me Stheno, most likely not realizing the full truth.

Quite frankly such a behavior was arrogant of her. Especially since she was a land monster. What could make her believe, that there were no sea ones?

"Actually, there are quite a few sea monsters. Besides the Charybdis and Scylla, near the Underworld, there are a whole bunch of others, like Kraken, which is rarely used by Zeus as a means to wipe out coastal cities, there are Hippocampi, half men, half horse and half fish. And yes, I know how that does not exactly add up, but let's just say that they are one and a half person, each. Then there are Cetus units, larger-than-life whales, which target mostly merchants or military ships. Though they should avoid us, given the current generation of Cetus units directives are to avoid the ship of this size," explained Persephone.

Oddly, I felt satisfaction seeing how the blood drained from the unwitting Gorgon's face, once the detailed explanation was given to her. Yes, the waters of ancient Greece were far more lively and unreasonable, than in modern times.

But there, I would trust the maniacal scientist, who so far proved to be a well of knowledge, and boarded the ship. Although, Gorgon B was now looking quite suspiciously at the waters, probably having doubts about ever sailing ever again.

Alas, given the explanation Persephone provided, it was quite suspicious, that the Cetus I encountered on my way to Mount Ahtos, was attacking me, who was aboard a small ship, it should have ignored. But it must have attacked me, most likely because I was on the pirate ship when it struck them, not wanting any witnesses of its presence. But could it even plan, that much?

Moreover, the dread queen mentioned different generations of Cetus units. While the current one should avoid our ship, there still might have been some survivors from the previous one. Needless to say, I would stay vigilant throughout the whole sea travel trip, as I was planning to begin with.