To heal their bodies and minds exhausted from arduous days, the Tin Knight’s party enjoyed a summer vacation—except it wasn’t summer—on a remote island in the northern part of the continent.

However, a serious and terrifying secret existed on the island they visited.

Mysterious life forms that seemed to be a mix of humans and sea creatures, creeping out from under the sea.

Blood-scented monsters of darkness coiled deep within the seemingly endlessly bright and clear island.

Faced with the approaching threat, the Tin Knight’s party…

[The ‘Tin Knight’ calls for a toast!]

“What toast, my foot. Adel, can you pass that plate over there?”

“Ah, yes. Here you go.”

“Fufu, shall I join in too? Cheers!”

…were completely unconcerned about any threats and had entered party mode.

***

After hearing about the conflict between the Dragon King’s country and vampires from the turtle fish-person’s mouth.

Dorothea declared, “Who cares about underwater countries or vampires or whatever. Just ignore it.”

That was an utterly unacceptable statement for you.

No, you’ve come to a new area, and a new quest was flashing with an exclamation mark in the mission window, and she was saying to just ignore it?

To your protest, Dorothea snapped back with a crooked posture, “Then do you want to starve? Huh? We came here for a vacation, and you want to get tangled up in another weird incident and end up chewing on jerky while trying to solve it?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that come to think of it, people need to rest when it’s time to rest!]

You quickly surrendered.

Of course, you had your excuses too.

Dorothea had requested it from Gale, and the food consumption function modification, which they hadn’t been able to touch for a while as the Magic State situation dragged on, had finally been completed.

Strictly speaking, it was a bit different from “eating” food.

You weren’t actually putting anything in your mouth or digesting it.

It was just that a function had been created to share the sensation when Dorothea, Adelaide, and Sophia ate something. There was even an additional function to arbitrarily select so that sensations wouldn’t get mixed up with each other.

You might ask if that was just tantalizing… but surprisingly, it wasn’t just that.

Originally, people could feel some vicarious satisfaction just by watching someone eat something.

Mukbang content didn’t exist for nothing, and in fact, you eagerly recommended foods that you couldn’t taste or smell to your companions during meal times. Just that was enough to feel some satisfaction.

But what if touch came along with the mukbang?

What if you could actually taste it, not just see and hear with your eyes and ears?

As a magic doll, you didn’t know the pleasure of eating.

This cold metal body was too practical to feel such “extra” things.

You outside the monitor were the same.

Your body didn’t feel hunger, thirst, or fatigue, but there was always a mental sense of emptiness and void.

But there was no way to fill it.

The only things in the room you were in were a desk, a chair, and a computer.

But now it was different.

When Adelaide tore into meat, you could clearly feel the texture, heat, and juices spreading in your mouth.

When Dorothea chewed fruit, you could taste its sweet yet refreshing flavor and invigorating scent, and when Sophia drank a beverage, you felt life coming to your parched throat.

The joy of regaining not just the pleasure of achieving goals and defeating someone as a game, but the pleasure of eating and drinking something as a person, was truly indescribable.

Your companions seemed to understand this emotion too, as they responded to some extent to your detailed requests.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to eat meat!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ requests to tear into fresh meat!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that you can’t taste anything by nibbling like that and tells you to tear into ribs to your heart’s content!]

“Augh! Enough already! What’s with this meat, meat, meat obsession!?”

Dorothea got irritated.

Your passionate love for meat seemed somewhat burdensome to her, who didn’t eat much to begin with and preferred vegetables.

In Sophia’s case, it was even worse, as she only sipped drinks and didn’t particularly enjoy other foods.

“Ahaha… It’s okay, Sir Knight. I can still eat more.”

It was fortunate that Adelaide was among the companions.

You gave a thumbs up to your pupil who, befitting a warrior who used her body a lot, devoured food voraciously in an amount unbelievable for her small frame.

After the long barbecue party that lasted just short of two hours ended, while there was no physical sense of fullness, the mental satisfaction was indescribable.

You took a posture of lying spread-eagle on the ground, which might be something you were doing for the first time with this metal body.

Your body felt languid.

To the point where you felt like you might be able to sleep if it were now.

“Completely knocked out. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen this guy so sprawled out?”

“But he seems to be in an extremely good mood.”

“It was worth it for Dorothea to ask Gale for the modification. She even chose this instead of a sacred treasure, right?”

“…Anyway, it was a bit awkward to ask for shoes in that situation, so I just chose this instead. Managing the mental state of a familiar is also one of the master’s roles.”

The sound of your companions’ conversation felt somehow distant.

Just as you were thinking it would be nice if this gentle time continued to flow.

Something caught your senses.

Splash. Splash.

The sound of something crawling out from the deep sea far away.

Slap. Slap.

The sound of wet feet trampling the sandy beach.

Hiss. Hiss.

A bizarre creature’s breathing sound, somewhat strange to be the breathing of a normal person.

Black shadows were stealthily gathering around the carriage that was lit up like a camping car.

Above your head, you heard the witch’s sigh.

“…Maybe we should have just finished them off instead of letting them go.”

“Well, that in itself had the possibility of turning into a completely hostile relationship with an unidentified marine force. It’s also troublesome to keep them captive.”

“Hmm, about a hundred? A hundred creatures? If we include those that keep crawling out of the sea, it might be two or three times that.”

“If they can mobilize this much force normally, the vampire on the island who’s holding out against them must be quite capable. Or there might be a secret to the island itself.”

“I don’t care. As long as they don’t try to get involved with us.”

A conversation was held with no sense of tension.

As if displeased by this, killing intent gushed out from the shadows surrounding the area.

Their forms reflected in the bonfire were bizarrely mixed between humans and sea creatures.

Eyes bulging out, backs hunched, gills or scales sprouting here and there on their bodies.

The turtle fish-person who first appeared and Bill’s pirate crew members could almost be called handsome in comparison

One of them raised a harpoon high, then pointed it at the group and shouted, “Foolish ones who harmed the Dragon King’s messenger! You shall pay for your sins with blood!”

“Pay with blood!”

“However, the great one’s mercy is endless, so if you come along obediently even now—“

After hearing that far, you abruptly raised your upper body.

While thinking that it ruined your good mood, you also thought the timing was perfect for some after-meal exercise.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks whether it’s Dead or Alive, or Only Alive!]

To your question, Dorothea answered without particularly seeming to ponder, “Sweep them all away. Just be careful not to dirty the clean scenery.”

“Only Dead” was truly a pleasing answer to hear.

You rushed forward as you were and smashed a knee strike into the head of the fish-person who was earnestly babbling something.

The bizarre fish head with an angler fish mouth and only large eyes was squashed flat with a thud.

Before its blood could splatter on the sandy beach, you blew away the creature’s corpse with wind pressure created by striking the air with your shield.

Upon landing, you slashed once at the octopus head next to you.

The octopus head tried to stab you with a harpoon, not knowing what had happened, but you were faster in grabbing its tentacles that had grown like a beard and throwing it.

The opponent who fell into the sea tried to crawl back out above the water surface in anger, but before that could happen, its body was split in two horizontally.

You felt inwardly amazed.

You tried it because you remembered something like an urban legend that very skilled chefs could fillet fish so cleanly that the fish didn’t even realize it was dead and kept swimming, but you didn’t expect it to actually work.

Even the Tin Knight’s body, which had all sorts of combat experience beaten into it, seemed to feel strangely unfamiliar, as if it had never done such an outlandish thing before.

Thinking this was just the right skill to have acquired, you swung your sword gleefully.

Slash, strike with the shield.

Slash, grab and spin like a windmill.

Slash, throw using the sword itself as an axis.

Only then did the fish-people realize something had gone wrong and tried to target your other companions instead of you, but that was a wrong decision.

Boom!

With Adelaide’s single strike, a fish-person resembling a stingray soared high into the sky before falling deep into the sea.

Adelaide seemed to think it was impossible for her to deal with opponents as cleanly as you did, so she just gripped her sword sideways and decided to strike them.

You wondered what would happen if they survived that, but after observing for a moment, you realized such worry was unnecessary.

Each of Adelaide’s strikes contained as much monstrous power as the collision of a high-speed cargo truck.

At that level, whether they flew far or not, they were at least dead from the moment they hit the sword blade.

Those who targeted Dorothea and Sophia didn’t fare any better either.

When Sophia poured holy power into the barrier Dorothea had spread with her staff, the fish-people who came into contact with it shuddered as if electrocuted, then collapsed with foam in their mouths.

It also somewhat felt like insects being hit by an electric fly swatter.

The night sky was clear, and the stars were bright.

You suddenly recalled various horror movies.

Deep sea fish-people, creatures, vengeful spirits, zombies, masked killers, sharks with tornadoes, and so on.

Anyway, you felt deep sadness for the protagonists who died without being able to enjoy a proper vacation due to all sorts of disasters that appeared whenever they reached a resort.

When vacations were this enjoyable, what could be sadder than not being able to enjoy them due to external interference?

But in all things, a change in perspective was important.

If external interference was a problem when trying to enjoy a vacation… wouldn’t it be fine to just beat up all the external interfering factors?

It would be obnoxious and inconsiderate behavior to remove ordinary tourists trying to use the same resort because they were a disturbance, but wasn’t it self-defense to defeat those trying to harm you?

You were thrilled at this truly perfect theory you came up with yourself.

You swore.

That no matter what happened, you would have a perfect vacation.

***

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