About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

——It’s me, Orson, hehe!

"..."

Orson realized that he seemed to have personally infused the ghost shark's soul with Chimera's blood, and a layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on his forehead.

"—keep going, Orson?"

The old lynx came closer, and its dark green eyes stared at Orson as if judging him.

"That... uh... the situation was quite urgent at the time, and I didn't expect the Chimera blood in my consciousness to affect reality—"

Orson was talking stutteringly and avoiding the subject, but when Kal'tsit heard the words "Chimera's Blood", she was shocked. She immediately moved in front of Orson, and the distance between them was so close that they would kiss if someone touched her lightly.

"You, in your conscious realm, used your subjective will to distribute Chimera blood to the Ghost Shark...?"

"Uh... well, judging by the results, yes. Uwaaaaaaaaa!"

As soon as Orson admitted it, Kal'tsit grabbed his collar and shook him hard.

"Although this behavior is difficult to achieve according to common sense, you met all the coincidences when tuning the ghost shark... Why did you think of doing this? The consequences of this could be permanent!"

Kal'tsit questioned Orson loudly, but before Orson could speak, the ghost shark on the side suddenly stretched out his hands and stood between Kal'tsit and Orson.

"Sister... Orson stopped my collapse from those nightmare curses. He protected my remaining consciousness. My lover did this for me. He has always protected me and never thought of hurting or sacrificing me..."

"——Ms. Ghost Shark"

Seeing Ghost Shark actively "protecting" himself from being killed by Kal'tsit and speaking well of him seriously, Orson was instantly filled with emotion.

"He led me to a safe, holy, pure white land. He settled me in a wooden house. He lit a warm fire for me. He and I cuddled naked in the flickering flames, singing the song of life together—"

"Okay, stop for a moment."

Kal'tsit, who was standing there in a daze at first and didn't know what to say, interrupted Ghost Shark directly after hearing the last sentence of his inner confession.

"Orson... you are actually this kind of person."

Even the ghost shark beside him showed a sad expression and pulled out his greatsword.

——What’s going on with this tearful, Ma Su-like situation…!?

Originally, Orson thought that the ghost shark was trying to clear his name, but after hearing what happened later, he realized that the shark was afraid that his death would not be a quick one.

"Ms. Ghost Shark's expression is a bit problematic! In fact, it's not like that at all—"

"Do you want to continue here, Master Orson? Haha... I'm ready anytime and anywhere, as long as you allow..."

Orson tried to explain that Ghost Shark simply had a problem with its expression, but his explanation was overshadowed by Ghost Shark's "even more problematic" expression halfway through.

"No need to say anything, Orson—Mon3tr, take him out."

Kal'tsit smiled to herself, then placed a hand on Orson's shoulder.

"That's too bad. Prepare to sing a sad song."

Skadi also raised her greatsword and got into a golf ball position.

"Wait, wait a minute—the physique I cherish cannot disappear from this world. Let me explain, Didi, cat!!"

Orson let out a miserable wail.

……

"—These are what happened after I used the tuning on the Ghost Shark."

After being beaten up for no apparent reason, Orson finally found an opportunity to tell the two of them what he had experienced in the realm of consciousness.

Dreams about ghost sharks, "sacrificed" souls, those indescribable non-human creatures, and the sudden appearance of the "Doctor", etc.

Although it didn't take too much time to explain these things, Orson had to waste a lot of time pushing away the ghost shark that stuck to him and rubbed against him during the narration. As a result, a lot of time was wasted. Orson even had to use a pause to turn on the air conditioner.

"...I still don't quite understand what happened to the shark—the ghost shark."

After listening to Orson's words, Skadi's expression was a little complicated. She was still a little confused about what Orson had experienced, and at the same time she was angry about the torture that the ghost shark had suffered in its consciousness.

"Interesting speculation...Are you sure it was the 'Doctor' who said those things to you?"

On the other side, Kal'tsit's expression was even more solemn. She kept thinking and repeatedly confirmed whether these words were correct.

"Yes, do you know what those words mean, Kelsey?"

Orson nodded to indicate that he had heard correctly, and then asked Kal'tsit about the true meaning of those words.

"——This is a conjecture, a conjecture about the reason for the birth of Originium."

After a moment's silence, Kal'tsit responded while pulling Ghost Shark away from Orson.

"There was once a saying that there were actually pure [humans] on the Terra continent. These humans were the masters of the world in the previous era, who had already been destroyed."

"Humans possess a powerful capacity for creativity, but because of this, their exploitation of resources has surpassed the natural resources of this land."

"Humanity might have originally halted its development due to resource scarcity, but the discovery of a new energy source has ushered in a new golden age."

"That energy is portable, pure, lightweight, structurally stable, and holds infinite possibilities."

"Could it be that... that energy source refers to..."

Orson looked at the black crystals of mineral disease infection that had precipitated from Kal'tsit's shoulders and asked in a low voice about his guess.

"Yes, Originium. This is humanity's newly discovered energy source. It's highly efficient, lightweight, and most importantly, harmless to the human body."

Kal'tsit dragged Ghost Shark away again, and forced him into the arms of Skadi, who was looking confused.

"Originium is a blessing from God to humans, but while it doesn't affect humans, it can corrode the earth."

"Humanity has ignored the damage Originium causes to the environment. They have fallen into a vicious cycle of evolution. During the era of human technological advancement, they even possessed the ability to actively guide natural disasters and "artificially produce" Originium."

"In the end—humanity perished. They didn't die from the infection of the mineral disease, but from the natural disasters that followed from their reckless manipulation of natural disasters."

Kal'tsit's tone was extremely calm. She spoke of the end of an era and a race as if she was giving a weather forecast.

"Of course, all of this is just speculation. But if even the 'Doctor' says that Originium is [Original Sin], perhaps it will no longer be speculation."

"..."

Orson remained silent, and Skadi also remained silent, and at the same time, she restrained the Ghost Shark to prevent her from being seduced by Orson again.

"We don't have any clues yet, but Ghost Shark's experience may allow us to glimpse a corner of the end of the past golden age. Do you know what exactly you have encountered, Miss Ghost Shark?"

Kal'tsit looked at Ghost Shark, wanting to ask what this former deep-sea hunter had experienced.

"Ah... my experience—my song was snatched away, I fled from the deep sea, defeated, blood and bones... I came to land, and was captured by the creatures of the land—the deep sea, they call themselves... the Church of the Deep Sea."

Ghost Shark recalled his experience intermittently and told Kal'tsit with some difficulty.

"[Deep Sea Church]—I always thought it was just a boring rumor."

Hearing this word, Kal'tsit frowned.

"Do you know this organization, Dr. Kelsey?"

Skadi noticed that Kal'tsit seemed to know this organization, and immediately went over to ask anxiously.

"These are just rumors. This church is not recognized in any country. Its size and membership are unknown. The only thing that is certain is that this church adheres to the same truth as wild beasts. They believe that strength is everything and that evolution makes people strong. The root of 'evolution' lies deep in the sea."

"...Where are they?"

After hearing Kal'tsit's introduction, Skadi clenched her gloves and her tone became noticeably angrier.

"Calm down. I know your power as a deep-sea hunter is unquestionable, but the very existence of those guys is a blasphemy to the deep sea."

"……I see."

Skadi glanced at the ghost shark that had stuck to Orson again and was rubbing against him with loving eyes, sighed, and gave up her original plan of a rash action.

"Anyway, because of Orson's brilliant move (referring to feeding the Ghost Shark Chimera Blood), the Ghost Shark is now in a state similar to drunkenness and lust. This state will probably last for a while, but there is a solution. I will go look for some information."

"Really? Kal'tsit! That would be great—Puuuuuwaaa!?"

Upon hearing that Ghost Shark's current condition could be resolved, Orson immediately stood up from the coffin, but before he could finish his words, he was pushed down again by Kal'tsit. Ghost Shark also took the opportunity to stick to Orson again, and its hands continued to move downwards.

"It'll take some time to build and search the intelligence network. During this time... haah, you need to temporarily let Ghost Shark rebuild its most basic worldview in this state. At least, don't let her pounce on you the moment she sees you, like she does now."

Kal'tsit sighed and said, trying to pull the ghost shark away for the umpteenth time, but this time the ghost shark almost bit her finger with its teeth.

"Constructing a worldview...how do we do that specifically?"

Orson asked curiously, while Kal'tsit glanced at Ghost Shark and then rubbed her hair helplessly.

------

In the staff corridor of the Rhodes Island Landship—

"Orson, don't try to hurt Ghost Shark. She's actually very scary, much scarier than me, so I can rub you, right?"

"Put on your nun's uniform, Orson... and then I'll tear it off with my own hands. That will definitely be wonderful... Haha."

Orson, who was walking on the road, had his head rubbed back and forth by Skadi on his left, while his entire right half was stuck to a ghost shark that was constantly panting and speaking extremely bad lines.

[It's easy to take two deep-sea hunters for a stroll, right?]

—It's not simple at all, Kal'tsit! The deep-sea hunters... are so weird!

Orson, who was caught in the middle, was in tears.

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8. Two hunters walked ashore

After sending Orson Skadi and the newly-minted "Chimera Hunter" (referring to Shark), Kal'tsit returned to her office, turned on her personal computer and began searching for information about the Deep Sea Church and Deep Sea Hunters.

Because of Orson's arrival, the error in information transmission has been greatly reduced. Today, Rhodes Island even has the ability to receive and send signals that most countries do not have.

Using words such as "deep sea", "ore disease", and "church" as keywords, Kal'tsit began to collect information in the intelligence network she had built.

"Aha……"

Kal'tsit sighed as she tapped on the keyboard, wondering if her behavior of "letting Orson take two deep-sea hunters around" was a bit inappropriate.

Normally, I shouldn't let Ghost Shark continue to work with Orson in that state, but it was precisely because Ghost Shark was in that state that she possessed such terrifying individual combat abilities that if she couldn't hold it in and went berserk, I might end up raising a baby for the little shark Chimera by this time next year...

Kal'tsit gently stroked her lower abdomen, then quickly shook her head to get rid of the strange thoughts in her mind.

In short, instead of letting this bomb be buried and waiting to explode, it is better to arrange Skadi who can defuse the bomb nearby as we are doing now. Moreover, there are so many people inside Rhodes Island that Ghost Shark probably won't have time to do anything particularly extreme and will be stopped.

After thinking about it, Kal'tsit nodded, believing that there was nothing wrong with her behavior, and then she refocused her attention on the communication network in front of her.

After a hundred years of actions on the Terra continent, although Kal'tsit failed to have her own camp and military territory, it remained the same a hundred years ago, but the old lynx did not completely lose face for the Immortal.

Because of her frequent behaviors of abducting shotas (??), pretending to be a maid (??), and abducting little lolis (??), Kal'tsit has built an intelligence collection and exchange system that belongs only to her during this period of time.

It can be said that a large part of the reason why Rhodes Island can survive today is due to Kal'tsit's personal intelligence network, which allows them to avoid the impending disaster in advance.

Of course, if Orson had not appeared, Rhodes Island would probably have been bankrupted by Kal'tsit alone.

"Drip drip"

While checking the information, the personal terminal rang, and the intelligence network previously established in Lateran transmitted a message.

The general content of the letter was that in a village outside the suburbs of Iberia, a "bishop" who claimed to believe in the Lateran Law suddenly appeared in the village. While promoting his own ideas, the bishop also instilled doctrines such as "the strong must humiliate the weak."

The most important thing is that the bishop did not look like something you could see on land. Instead, he looked like the iron plate in a grilled squid—no, a squid.

"…Latlan?"

Kal'tsit stared at the information in thought for a few seconds, then responded, hoping the other party could provide more clues.

"Come to think of it, Orson should have quite a few acquaintances in Rutland, right?"

Kal'tsit thought of the Chimera. The last time he went shopping with the problem child Angelica, he returned to Rhodes Island a few days later with an order from the monastery and the admiration of a little fan girl.

Not only that, Orson seems to have a rather strange connection with the mysterious messenger of disaster, the fallen angel?

Kal'tsit thought about her next move, then leaned back against the chair and lay down.

——Orson can see the "Doctor" in the consciousness of others. From Orson's narration, it is unlikely that the "Doctor" is fictional, but it is more likely that he is pieced together from past fragments, and is similar to an advanced AI.

No matter what kind of existence the 'Doctor' is, the most important point is that Orson can "see" her existence.

When Kal'tsit was tutoring researchers at a research institute, someone once proposed a hypothesis: Originium might have the ability to become a "carrier," storing signals like "thoughts," "memories," and "personality."

If Originium can really become a carrier, it is obvious that Orson has the ability to unlock the origin hidden inside the Originium.

However, the problem is... if the existence of Originium represents humanity's [original sin], then if Orson possesses human characteristics and can trigger the ability of Originium carriers that only humans can... if he is also judged to be "human", then it means that Orson will definitely face the so-called [judgment].

……