Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 2

The Amnesiac Girl 

Satou here. I’ve been on ferries and fishing boats before but never sailing ships. When I first saw a model sailing ship at a friend’s house, I was surprised by how much rope there was. 

“…Lalakie?” 

“Yeah, that’s what the Skeleton King on the ghost ship said.” 

Once I cleared the Fear status condition from my party, I summarized what had happened. 

“That name sounds familiar… Wait, didn’t you say the ghost captain of that blue sunken ship said the same thing?” 

With a nod, I presented my hypothesis. 

“He may have come to search for the ‘key to Lalakie’ in the ruins of Nonolie because I deactivated the anti-magic trap.” 

I didn’t know how spirits and magic were connected, but I had a feeling that might have been keeping them away. 

“So do you have it?” 

“Nope.” 

This wasn’t a game, so of course an important item like that wasn’t just lying around. 

“Didn’t Captain Ghost say something about keys and coffins and stuff like that?” 

Arisa’s words sounded familiar, so I searched my memories. 

Let’s see, I think he said… 

“…The key to Lalakie… Stolen. Now Lalakie…can no longer fly. All that remains is to bring the Coffin to His Majesty the Emperor in the Room of Reality…” 

…or something like that. 

Based on the clues, I guessed that Captain Ghost’s men had stolen from the Skeleton King the “key” required for Lalakie to fly, as well as this “Coffin” thing, which they were trying to bring to some “emperor.” 

“All this happened a long time ago, so it probably reached this ‘emperor’ after that.” 

“I guess so.” 

Arisa nodded in agreement, and we put the subject of Lalakie to rest. 

“Master! There’s someone on the beach!” 

Lulu pointed back toward the edge of the water. 

I couldn’t see too closely, but it looked to be a woman with long white hair. 

The tips of her hair were blue. Maybe they were dyed? 

“Oh no! We have to help!” 

Whoops. Arisa is right. 

Better rescue her first and worry about her hair later. 

We were still roughly three hundred feet from the shore, so I used Magic Hand to retrieve the person. 

Once she was on the deck, I could see that she was a gorgeous woman with dark-brown skin. 

Her face was pale, and she looked to be in pain. 

Lulu produced a blanket from her Fairy Pack and covered her with it. 

“Master, this woman…!” 

“I know.” 

Arisa looked serious, and I nodded gravely. 

To think that there is someone else with a bust big enough to rival Miss Karina’s… 

“Hi-ya!” 

Arisa’s tiny fist bopped my head. 

“Judging by that face, you’re not thinking what I’m thinking at all, are you?” 

Arisa put her hands on her hips, glaring down at me as I knelt next to the unconscious woman. 

“What—?” I started to ask, but then I realized what Arisa was talking about. 

Half-ghost? 

The AR display said that her race was Half-Ghost. 

In a strict fantasy world like this where humans and elves couldn’t even produce half-elves, how could a half-ghost exist? 

I had the urge to lodge a complaint with whatever gods made the rules of this world. 

“Looks like she’s lost her memories, too.” 

I nodded at Arisa, using the “Poker Face” skill to hide my inner complaints. 

Her status condition read Amnesiac. Maybe that was why most of the fields in her information, like name and affiliation, were blank; white text stated that she was level 1 with the skill “Song,” but next to that was gray text that said level 27 and listed skills like “Earth Magic,” “Summoning Magic,” “Singing Magic,” “Meditation,” and “Sociability: Lalakie.” 

“She’s level one with only one skill, so maybe we shouldn’t pry about her race?” 

Raising an eyebrow at Arisa’s muttered remark, I turned off my menu display and used my “Analyze” skill to check her status. 

As it turned out, the regular “Analyze” skill could see only the white text. 

In that case, Arisa could probably see only the white text that read Amnesiac, not the grayed-out titles like Last Princess of Lalakie and Sacrificial Maiden. 

Her race-specific inherent skills like “Magic Absorption: Weak,” “Health Absorption: Weak,” and “Spirit World Passage” were grayed out, too. 

It was similar to the state of my companions’ newly acquired skills before they fully sank in. 

“What’s wrong, Tama, sir?” 

Turning at the sound of Pochi’s voice, I saw Tama lurking behind the mast, glaring at the unconscious woman. 

Her tail was puffed up, and she was clawing at the mast, growling a little. 

The half-ghost woman was probably putting her on edge. 

“Satou.” 

“Don’t assault her!” 

Mia and Arisa protested when I put my hand to the woman’s wrist. 

“I’m just checking her pulse.” 

What the…? 

When I let go of her, something felt strange. 

Passing my hand over her skin, I felt some kind of reaction when my skin was on the verge of brushing against hers. 

“Mrrr. Guilty.” 

“How is that checking a pulse?!” 

The pair tried to pull my hand away, so I passed them off to Nana and Lulu. 

What’s going on here? 

No matter how hard I stared, I couldn’t see anything. 

With Spirit Vision activated, I saw that the space around her was utterly devoid of spirits. 

With “Magic Vision,” I noticed she was giving off more magic power than the average person. 

But what I was feeling wasn’t magic. 

If anything, it was more like when I touched the Undead King Zen’s shadow… 

> Skill Acquired: “Miasma Vision” 

Now I could see a faint black aura around the girl. 

Like when I first started to see spirits, it didn’t show up if I concentrated; I had to look at it out of the corner of my eye. 

I added points to the new “Miasma Vision” skill and turned it on. 

My vision turned black-and-white, like I was looking at a negative of the world. 

“…Geh!” 

I could see an ominous aura of miasma around the young woman much more clearly than before. It was like a dark hatching effect from a manga. 

A chill ran down my spine. 

“<…Nnngh…>” 

The aura seemed to constrict the woman, and she cried out in pain. 

Instinctively, I reached out and grasped some of the miasma. 

When I moved to break it apart, the mysterious woman’s face relaxed just a little. 

I set about removing the miasma that was tormenting her, like untangling a knotted web of fishing line. 

It was pretty difficult work. 

But as I concentrated so intensely that I could see only the tangled miasma, I became able to remove it faster and faster. 

The shackle-like miasma around her hands and feet was especially strong, but it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t be able to handle with a bit more concentration. The chain-shaped miasma trailing from the shackles cut off partway down, so I probably didn’t need to worry about that too much. 

“Aaaah!” 

In a distant part of my consciousness, I heard Arisa shriek, but it didn’t sound like anything too important, so I just kept working at the miasma. 

“Whew, all done— Wait, what’s going on here?” 

“Master, we must bathe the larva and give it new clothing, I advise.” 

Nana lifted the woman—or should I say, the little girl?—and carried her downstairs. 

“What in the world happened?” 

Lulu explained. “You started moving your hands like you were pulling on rope, and after a while, she started shrinking—or rather, getting younger.” 

I had been so focused on untangling the miasma that I hadn’t even seen what was happening around me. 

“Master, what were you doing?” 

Arisa looked at me suspiciously, so I explained that I’d been unraveling the miasma. 

“But why would that make her younger?” 

“Don’t ask me. She looked like she was in pain, so I just thought getting rid of the miasma would help her.” 

I had no idea why disentangling the miasma would have turned her into a little girl. 

“Maybe it was a curse?” 

“That’s possible.” 

I hadn’t seen anything about a curse in her status, but that dark tangle of miasma was definitely out of the ordinary. 

Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been anything good. 

The girl’s Sacrificial Maiden title worried me, too. 

If what the Skeleton King said was true, that girl was probably his daughter. But judging by her titles and that miasma from before, it seemed to me like he might have tried to sacrifice her to resurrect Lalakie… Whatever that meant. 

Maybe she was the woman I thought I saw lying on one of the stone coffins in the underwater shrine. 

As I speculated, Arisa pressed me with another question. 

“More importantly, what do you think of that key-shaped hair barrette she was wearing?” 

“She had something like that?” 

“You boob-obsessed moron! You must’ve been distracted by that Karina-tier rack of hers!” 

She was absolutely right, but I tried to defend myself anyway. 

“Don’t be ridiculous. I was just worried about the miasma around her.” 

Sunlight began to peek through the clouds, bringing light to the deck. 

I gave a saintlike smile as the soft light washed over me, which seemed to convince everyone but Arisa. 

“I’ll let you get away with it this one time!” she snapped, grabbing me by the ear like a wife who’d seen through her husband’s lies. 

“Master!” 

With my “Keen Hearing” skill, I heard Nana call out to me from downstairs. 

“Nana!” 

I used “Warp” to get down to the central cabin as quickly as possible. 

“Wha—?” 

Bursting in through the open door, I found a completely naked Nana with the young girl reaching out to her. 

Noticing my entrance, Nana turned toward me, making zero effort to cover herself. 

She must have intended to warm the little girl up with a bath. 

“Master, the larva has requested magic supply. Permission to proceed?” 

Nana tilted her head, completely unabashed about her own nudity. 

“Um, no. And please put something on.” 

I picked up Nana’s clothes from the floor and pushed them toward her. 

According to the AR display, the little girl had zero MP remaining. 

“If she needs magic, she can have some of mine.” 

The girl was kneeling on a massage table, so I reached out toward her. 

Then I noticed that she was naked, too. 

Just as Arisa had mentioned, there was a key-shaped ornament attached to her hair. The key itself was golden, with six different-colored gemstones set into it. 

Her red eyes were blank and unfocused, suggesting that she wasn’t fully conscious yet. 

Catching my outstretched hand with both of her own, she bit my pointer finger and started sucking on it feebly. 

In my AR display, I saw my MP starting to go down, so slowly that it immediately recovered after each point. 

It was probably so slow because her inherent skill “Magic Absorption: Weak” was grayed out, to say nothing of the “Weak” aspect. If this was the most she could do, she probably didn’t pose a threat to my companions. 

As she continued to absorb my magic, the young girl slowly began to age, until she looked slightly older than Arisa. 

The color started to return to her face, and a bit of warmth came back to her cold hands. 

“<Such…pure magic…>” 

Mumbling in Hallowed Language, the young girl released my hand and passed out on the massage table, evidently satisfied. 

She was still completely exposed, so I took a piece of cloth from Storage to cover her. 

Turning around, I saw Nana and everyone else staring at me. 

“Well, I’ll be…” 

“What are you doing?” 

Arisa abruptly grabbed my hand and attempted to bite my finger, so I held her off by the forehead. 

“Well, it looked like that girl was enjoying it, so…” 

Arisa giggled innocently, and the other girls nodded. 

I could see why the younger kids and Nana would fall for her games, but I wasn’t sure why Lulu and Liza were agreeing. 

In the end, they all insisted that I hold out my hand. 

Liza, Lulu, and Mia each lightly kissed my fingertip, while Pochi and Tama licked my fingers like a puppy and kitten respectively. 

Fortunately, Tama was no longer growling at the little girl like she had on the deck. She had probably just been sensing that miasma before. 

“Looks like I’m up next.” 

“You must not take both hands, I rebuke.” 

“You can have the right hand, then.” 

After this strange exchange, Nana and Arisa each clamped on to one of my fingers like they were ice pops. 

Something about the way Arisa was sucking felt like sexual harassment, so I stopped her, ignoring her protests of “Just a little mooore!” 

“Master, no magic is coming out, I report.” 

“Oh, sorry.” 

At Nana’s request, I produced some magic power from my fingertip. 

“I believe that receiving it through my back is more efficient, I request.” 

Still just holding her clothes to her chest, Nana turned to face her smooth back toward me. 

Come to think of it, it had been a while since I last provided her with magic, so I decided to comply with her request. 

“Master, I’ll give this girl a bath.” 

“Lulu! I shall care for the larva, I insist.” 

Just as I was reaching for her back, Nana whirled around to face Lulu, which meant that my hand wound up directly on her new-and-improved F cups. 

It felt like the god of perverts was smiling down on me, but I prudently withdrew my hand without even a single squeeze. 

I am her guardian, after all. 

Arisa and Mia accused me of being “Guilty” as usual, but this was a genuine accident, so I didn’t feel guilty about it. 

Behind them, I saw Nana snatch the young girl from Lulu’s hands and start rushing over to the bath. 

That worried me a little, so I asked Lulu to intervene. 

“Hmm? I don’t see that young lady’s clothes anywhere.” 

Picking up Nana’s discarded clothing, Liza looked around in puzzlement. From the massage table to the floor, there was no sign of the girl’s clothes. 

The young kids peeked around the laundry basket and beneath the table, but they were nowhere to be found. 

I wondered if maybe they had gotten mixed in with some other clothes, but when we’d first rescued her, she’d been wearing a silk garment with a distinctive luster, so it would still stand out. 

“Search.” 

Mia threw the door to the bathroom open unceremoniously and stepped inside. 

“Eeeek! Mia, I keep telling you not to leave the door wide open when you enter the bath!” 

“Mm. Sorry.” 

Lulu was wearing shorts and a T-shirt for post-bath stretching, so it was no big deal, but I still looked away out of politeness. 

Arisa poked her head into the bath. “They don’t seem to be in here, either.” 

My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up on a conversation between Mia and Nana. 

“Clothes. Where?” 

“Once removed, her clothing faded and disappeared, I report.” 

Maybe her clothes were ghostly in nature, too. 

“That’s a good wind.” 

Standing on the starlit deck, I looked out at the island in the dim light. 

I’d set up Holy Stones, purifying magic circles, and runes all over the island to ensure that the people I’d reburied that afternoon wouldn’t be disturbed or resurrected as undead monsters. 

Since my Light Magic spell Laser was too strong, I used an inverted version of the Condense spell to disperse the wind and lessen its intensity so that I could use it to draw magic circles. 

This was my first time drawing such a large magic circle, but it was easy enough, since I used the map to draw it, adding Holy Stones as I went. 

Then, using techniques I learned in the elf village, I connected a magic power line from the magic circle to the island’s mana source, creating a weak purification field that should perpetually stay in effect throughout the island. 

If people started visiting the Seadragon Islands in future generations, maybe this island would become a popular sightseeing spot. 

With these absentminded thoughts, I continued reading the ancient text I had open in the menu, Secrets of the Underwater City Nenelier. 

In addition to the titular city, the book contained information about the ancient Lalakie civilization’s demise as well. 

Hmm? 

My radar alerted me to a white dot moving on the ship. 

I heard light footsteps that stopped behind me. 

“<Are you hungry?>” 

“<Magic…please.>” 

“<Sure thing.>” 

I held out my hand, and the young girl—now wearing a baggy T-shirt—started sucking magic from my finger again. 

She’d looked around Arisa’s age when she fell asleep, but now she looked like a preschooler. 

Unlike earlier, her red eyes were no longer glazed over. 

I’d assumed that her faltering speech from before was due to her consciousness still being hazy, but maybe I was wrong. 

As she absorbed my magic, she gradually grew taller and rounded out a bit. 

It was like watching someone grow in fast-forward. 

When she’d had enough magic, she let out a sigh of satisfaction and gave me a timid “<Thank…you.>” 

“<It’s no problem. By the way, could I ask your name?>” 

I knew she had amnesia, but I asked anyway, since she should probably be aware as well. 

“<Name?>” 

The girl closed her eyes and furrowed her brow, trying to remember. 

“<…I don’t…know.>” 

She frowned, biting her lip. 

I noticed that her white hair had grown from around ear length to down past her shoulders in the magic-absorption process. 

“<We found you washed up on the beach, so it’s possible that you were in some kind of shipwreck. The shock might have addled your memory.>” 

She looked up at me with wide eyes, possibly surprised that I believed her so readily. 

“<But we have to call you something until you remember your name. What would you like to be called for now?>” 

I wasn’t the most creative person, so if I gave her a name myself, it’d probably be something like “Lala” from “Lalakie” or “Ha” from “half-ghost.” 

“<Name…>” 

The young girl looked around uncertainly. 

Then her eyes fell on the city-rock—Nonolie. 

“<Soul lights…pretty.>” 

At first I thought she might cry, but she simply gazed at the city-rock with a soft expression. 

The city-rock was lit up with blue light, creating a solemn atmosphere. 

“<Soul lights… How about…Rei?>” 

I didn’t understand at first, but then I realized that the first part of the Hallowed Language word for soul lights was pronounced “rei.” 

“<Nice to meet you, then, Rei. I’m Satou.>” 

“<Nice to meet you…Satou.>” 

We exchanged a friendly handshake, then smiled at each other. 

“<Thank you…for…saving me.>” 

“<Don’t mention it.>” 

I tried to convey that it was no big deal. 

Oh, right. Maybe I should ask her one more question… 

“<Do you know what ‘Lalakie’ is?>” 

“<Lalakie…>” Rei caught her breath abruptly. “<…I want to go home…>” 

Tears began to stream down her cheeks, so I wiped them away with a handkerchief. 

“<Am I…crying?>” Rei touched her own cheeks in surprise, unaware of the reason for her tears. 

“<Lalakie must be very important to you.>” 

“<I think…so. I don’t know why…but my heart says…I want to go there…very much.>” 

Rei’s homesickness must have been so strong that even her amnesia couldn’t erase it completely. 

Her small hands trembled as she clung to my leg. 

“<I see…>” 

I didn’t know how to tell her that her civilization was long gone. 

The ancient text was primarily about the Underwater City Nenelier, but within the text were also rumors stating that when Lalakie sank into the ocean, its survivors created a hidden village on an island somewhere in the southern seas. 

It would be a little bit of a detour, but we might be able to bring Rei to meet the descendants of Lalakie. 

As long as the others were okay with it, of course. 

“<Um… Satou…>” 

Rei tugged on my hand, interrupting my thoughts. 

She looked a little shy for some reason. 

“<Could I have…a bit more magic…please?>” 

“<Sure, but first…>” 

I didn’t want her to get cold in the evening breeze, so I sat her on my knee and wrapped her in a terry-cloth blanket. 

She hadn’t eaten since we rescued her, either, so I had her drink a sweetened nutritional supplement potion, a concoction I’d popularized in the elf village. 

As she drank, I noticed her hair ornament swaying in the breeze. 

“<Could I have a look at that, please?>” 

“<No!>” 

I reached out to touch the barrette, but Rei quickly covered it with both hands. 

I caught the potion she’d dropped before it spilled onto the deck. 

“<No one…can…touch this.>” 

Her voice trembled as she shook her head. 

“<I don’t…know…why. But…I feel it…deep in…my heart.>” 

So Rei didn’t know what the key was or why she didn’t want me to touch it. 

“<I’m sorry—that was rude of me. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t try to take it from you or anything like that. Please finish drinking.>” 

Once she finished drinking the potion, I took the empty vial back and supplied her with more magic as she’d requested. 

Squish, squish. 

Feeling a soft sensation enveloping my right arm, I opened my eyes to find a beautiful woman—Rei, returned to her adult form—sleeping beside me. 

Lowering my gaze, I found that she was hugging my right arm to her chest. 

Thinking back, I remembered that I’d been giving her magic last night. 

The blanket I’d produced so she wouldn’t catch a cold was just barely covering her body and my left hand. 

For some reason, I could feel something warm beneath my left hand— Oh. 

“Master, the larva has vanished, I report!” 

Nana came flying out of the hatch and landed on the deck. 

I started to call out to her, then remembered my current precarious position. 

Since I’d been holding her as she sat on my lap in her smaller form, my hand had naturally wound up somewhere on her lower half while we were sleeping. 

I hastily extracted my hand and folded both of them innocently on my lap. 

“Over here, Nana!” 

“Master… The larva has grown? I inquire.” 

“She asked me to supply her with magic last night, but I must have given her a bit too much.” 

Nana’s normally expressionless face was full of surprise. 

Checking my MP reserves just to be safe, I found that they’d already recovered to the maximum amount. 

Rei’s “Magic Absorption: Weak” must have absorbed magic at the same rate as my natural recovery, perhaps even a little slower. 

The other girls gathered around and made a fuss as well, but since Rei’s clothes were perfectly in place, it didn’t get too out of hand. 

“Hey, is she shrinking again?” 

“Master, she is almost there, I report.” 

Judging by the magic I felt leaking from Rei, staying in adult mode seemed to deplete the most magical energy, while being in young-girl mode took less. She probably reverted to near-infancy only when she ran out of magic entirely. 

Once Rei shrank back down to the size of a young girl, she opened her eyes. 

Greeted by the sight of the entire group staring at her, she winced. 

“<G-good…morning.>” 

“Mm. Morning.” 

Rei cautiously greeted them in Hallowed Language, and Mia responded quite naturally. 

“Satou, rings.” 

Mia held up the translation ring on her finger for me and the others to see. 

When we were in the elf village, she’d worn one so that she would match with the rest of us. 

Evidently, the translation rings we got from the elves also supported Hallowed Language. 

“Good thinking, Mia.” 

When Arisa complimented Mia, Nana held up her ringed finger as if to point out that she, too, had done well. 

So that was why Nana had been able to tell me that the “larva” had “requested magic supply” before. 

I just thought that she figured it out by looking at her somehow. 

“Riiings?” 

“I want to talk, too, sir.” 

The other girls produced translation rings from their Fairy Packs, put them on, and introduced themselves one by one. 

“<Nice to meet you… I’m Rei.>” 

Rei looked bashful under all the attention. 

“You remembered your name?” 

“<No… Satou…gave me…this one…yesterday.>” 

Arisa whipped her head around at me like a haunted doll in a horror movie, looking accusatory, so I simply said, “It makes things easier.” 

Still, Rei was the one who had chosen that name herself. 

Could it be that she didn’t remember? 

“All right, want to offer up those flowers before we head out?” 

Now that Rei was awake, I directed the ship toward the grave of the Nonolie people on the opposite side of the island. 

I’d been worried that the purification barrier I put up around the island would have a negative effect on Rei, but now that the miasma had been cleared away, it didn’t seem to affect her at all. 

I supposed in that case, the ship’s anti-monster barrier would’ve had a stronger effect anyway. 

Putting on the Flying Shoes, I sped our journey along by shuttling the ship through the air. 

The Flying Shoes I’d found in the salvaged goods automatically adjusted their size, so they could fit anyone without a problem, but they weren’t very easy to use. 

With my “Skyrunning” experience, I was the only one who was able to use them. 

Tama seemed pretty close, though, so she might get the hang of them soon. 

“Funeral song.” 

Once we offered the flowers, Arisa had a moment of silence, and Mia started playing a lilting tune on her lute. 

It reminded me of the memorial we’d held for the lost ratmen at a battlefield in Seiryuu County. 

“<Sleep now… Sleep well…>” 

Rei began to sing a requiem, matching the tune to Mia’s song. 

It was a calming song, almost like a lullaby. 

I listened peacefully to their singing and playing for a while. 

Then Mia put her lute away in her Fairy Pack and pointed to a well-lit area. 

“Satou, seeds.” 

“You mean you want me to plant some seeds there?” 

She was referring to the Treant seeds from her hometown, which the high elf Aaze had asked us to plant on our travels. 

“Mm. Best.” 

It was a good spot, and the purification barrier would prevent miasma from harming them. 

Mia was probably right that it was the perfect place for some. 

“Can you all help me plant some Treant seeds?” 

“Aye-aaaye!” 

“Of course, sir!” 

With the girls’ help, I planted ten or so of the Treant seeds. 

“Master, will one fertilizer orb do?” 

“It should. Bury it a little ways away, please.” 

The golden fruits that contained the seeds had been removed for use in magic potions, so instead we were using fertilizer orbs to promote healthy growth. 

These were given to us by Jia, the elf gardener. 

“Larva, you must not pack the earth too tightly when you bury it, I advise.” 

“<I’m sorry… I’ve never…touched earth…before.>” 

“Mm. Experience.” 

Nana and Mia were helping Rei plant. 

She was fitting in with the group faster than I’d expected. 

“Are you worried about how to deal with that girl?” 

Having planted her seeds, Arisa came over to me, her mature expression at odds with her age. 

“Yeah, a little.” 

Judging by Rei’s Last Princess of Lalakie title and the Skeleton King proclaiming himself as the companion to the final queen of Lalakie, the chances were good that Rei was the Skeleton King’s daughter. 

Normally, I would assume I should return her to her father, but between her Sacrificial Maiden title and the Skeleton King’s insane-sounding promise to return Lalakie to the skies…no matter what I must offer up in exchange, I was hesitant to put her in harm’s way. 

If the Skeleton King was going to try to sacrifice Rei, I would prefer to keep her safe at least until her memories returned. 

However, the warning of the sunken ship’s ghost captain—without its key, Lalakie cannot fly—seemed too obviously linked to Rei’s key-shaped hair ornament to be a coincidence. 

My concern was that the Skeleton King might be after Rei’s hair ornament in order to return Lalakie to the skies. 

If I blindly took Rei in, knowing she might be targeted by the dangerous and elusive Skeleton King, I would be putting my companions in danger. 

“I see…” 

Once I explained my concerns to Arisa, she folded her arms and nodded thoughtfully. 

“I don’t think the Skeleton King would be able to reach her if she’s protected by the purification barrier on this island, but…I don’t want to leave her here after she’s been alone for so long.” 

“Alone? How do you know that?” 

“I mean, she seems to really want company. She’s always staying close to one of us, and even when Nana and Mia fuss over her too much, she actually seems happy about it.” 

Obviously, Arisa was more observant about other people than I was. 

“Thank you, Arisa.” 

I smiled at her, grateful for the push. 

“Everyone, I’d like to talk to you about something…” 

When I proposed that Rei travel with us until her memories returned, everyone was in total agreement. 

“<I…truly…appreciate it…>” 

“Tsk, tsk, tsk!” 

“You can just say ‘thanks,’ sir!” 

“<Okay… Thanks.>” 

Rei was trying to be polite, but Tama and Pochi shook their fingers at her. 

Pochi didn’t seem to be very good at clicking her tongue, so she just said “Tsk” out loud. 

Meanwhile, as far as the Skeleton King’s movements were concerned… 

I’d been keeping an eye on his status since the day before via the marker on my map. It seemed like my attack had hit him harder than I realized, though, as his health gauge was recovering very slowly. His stamina and magic gauges were still totally empty. 

His location hadn’t changed from the Spirit World area, either. 

For now, I would just have to keep checking on a regular basis. 

“<Satou… Good…morning.>” 

“<Good morning, Rei.>” 

As I was leaning over the side of the ship and looking at the sunrise, Rei showed up, barely awake and in her younger form. 

She didn’t seem particularly surprised that the ship was flying. 

When Captain Ghost was raging about Lalakie, he had used phrases like floating ships, so she was probably accustomed to this kind of thing. 

“<Would you like a drink?>” 

“<Thank…you.>” 

Opening my Item Box, I produced a glass of yellorange fruit juice with ice. 

The ice was actually cubes of juice that I’d created with the Freeze Water spell. 

“<Yummy.>” 

Rei gulped down the juice in one go, letting out a contended sigh. 

She must have been thirsty after sweating in her sleep. 

“<Want some magic candy, too?>” 

“<Yes…please.>” 

I handed her the candy, and she popped it into her mouth immediately. 

The magic candy was a version of one of the magic recovery potion recipes I’d learned in the elf village. Sucking on it would continuously restore your magic. 

The original recipe for the candy restored six points of magic per second, but the one I’d just given Rei was a type I’d specially made for her that restored only one point per second. 

With this, even if she ate the whole thing, she would stay in her little-girl form. 

I’d come up with this solution because if she kept growing and shrinking, her clothes would keep ripping or coming off. 

At first I thought I should stop giving her magic, but if she ran out completely, her status would change to Starvation. 

If she stayed in that state for too long, she would enter a magic-hungry trance like the day we first met her, which was why I’d created these candies. 

While she sucked on the one I’d just given her, Rei gazed out at the sea, resting her head against me. 

“<Did you have a nightmare?>” 

“<Yes… I dreamed…a shadow person…was chasing me…>” 

A shadow person? The Skeleton King, perhaps? 

“<It was very…very…scary…>” 

Normally, a bad dream was still nothing more than that, but in Rei’s case, I had the feeling it might be some kind of omen. 

Just in case, I decided to stay on guard for a while. 

“Master! Do not monopolize the larva for yourself, I beseech.” 

“<Good morning…Nana.>” 

“Good morning, Rei, I greet.” 

As soon as Nana came onto the deck, she picked up Rei and rubbed her cheek against her. 

Rei had been bewildered by Nana’s behavior at first, but now she seemed accustomed to it. 

“Mrrr. Excessive.” 

Mia emerged next, shaking her head at Nana. 

“Cuteness is justice, I declare.” Nana seemed undaunted. 

“<Good morning…Mia.>” 

“Mm. Morning.” 

Rei smiled sheepishly at Mia, who gave up on her efforts to stop Nana, instead securing a spot on my lap. 

“Good morniiing.” 

“Good morning, sirs!” 

Tama and Pochi bounded onto the deck, arm in arm with Arisa. 

Like a student who had recently come back from summer vacation, Arisa had been late to rise since we left Bolenan Forest. 

“Wake uuup?” 

“Time for calisthenics, sir.” 

“Yeah, yeah…” 

Tama and Pochi pushed Arisa forward, but she just slumped tiredly to the deck. 

“Part one.” 

With that, Mia started playing a lute version of a radio calisthenics tune from Japan. 

Rei escaped from Nana’s grasp to join Tama and Pochi. 

She seemed to have become quite fond of this little morning exercise. 

“Master toooo?” 

“Join us, sir.” 

Nana had started doing the calisthenics with Rei, so I would’ve preferred to stay off to the side and watch her, but Tama and Pochi insisted that I line up next to them. 

While I was at it, I dragged Arisa to her feet to participate along with me. 

“Ughhh, I hate mornings…” 

Despite Arisa’s grumbling, she was back to her usual energetic self by the time part one of the calisthenics was over. 

Once we finished part two, a delicious smell drifted up from the vent of the galley, and the girls’ stomachs began to growl. 

When Liza emerged onto the deck carrying an enormous stockpot, everyone’s attention was riveted on her. 

“Breakfast is ready.” 

Lulu’s call was met with a chorus of cheers, and everyone scrambled to reach the food. 

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I report.” 

“Mm. Let’s go.” 

“<Okay.>” 

Even Rei was among them, dragged along by Nana and Mia. 

“Master, I’ve spotted a ship run aground.” 

I was in the ship’s hold making a magic tool to deal with the Skeleton King when Liza came in to give me her report. 

“Thanks, I’ll be right there.” 

As I stood, I opened the menu to check the time and found that it was later than I realized. If that much time had passed, it meant that we had to leave for the Seadragon Islands area fairly soon. 

I needed to set up another seal slate here, or I wouldn’t be able to return to the city-rock island with only the Return spell from a long distance. 

“Satou, look.” 

Once I reached the deck, Mia pointed at an island up ahead. 

Among the reefs surrounding the island, I could barely make out the shadow of what looked like a ship. 

Using my “Telescopic Sight” skill and the Clairvoyance spell, I took a closer look. 

The ship’s three masts all seemed to be intact, but there were holes all over the hull of the ship itself. There didn’t seem to be much evidence of acid attacks, so they’d probably managed to avoid sea serpents. 

“Isn’t that a Shiga Kingdom flag?” 

“Yeah. And the one below it is from the Ougoch Duchy—it’s Viscount Emerin’s flag.” 

So the missing ship from the viscount’s fleet had actually run aground here. 

The area up ahead was unexplored territory, so I couldn’t check the status of the ship. 

It would be a pain to explain things if they saw us flying, so I lowered the ship into the water to sail toward the island normally. 

As we traversed the few miles between us and the ship, we were attacked by monsters like flying manta rays and the mosasaur-like sea monster I’d seen elsewhere in the Seadragon Islands. 

Liza’s harpoons and Mia’s bow made quick work of the flying rays, but the sea monster attacking the bottom of the ship was hard to reach directly, so I used my Remote Arrow to take care of it. 

Remote Arrow was only half as effective underwater, but since it was already overkill to begin with, that didn’t matter much. 

Once Mia mastered her Spirit Magic skill a little more and could use Create Water Spirit, she would probably be able to help with underwater battles more. 

“There are survivors. That’s a relief.” 

As soon as we passed into the new area, I used “Search Entire Map” and found there were some thirty-seven people alive on the other side of the fairly large island. All of them were sailors from the ship that had run aground. 

“Then we’d better save them right away.” 

I was about to nod, but I wasn’t sure how we were going to fit that many people onto our little ship. 

Our best bet was to repair their ship for their transportation. 

“We have to prepare a bit first.” 

I stopped the ship at the edge of the reef area and took off with my Flying Shoes, heading for the grounded ship. The shoes were so that Rei wouldn’t question why I was flying. 

“It’s more beat-up than I expected.” 

The two lower decks of the four-deck ship were flooded, and there was a huge hole in the bottom of the hull. 

I had planned on just repairing it normally, but this would probably require some special maneuvers. 

“Arisa, you’re on.” 

“Okey-dokey!” 

Using the Space Magic spell Telephone to contact Arisa, I instructed her to begin Operation: Keep Rei Distracted. 

“We’re good to go.” 

Once Arisa gave me the okay, I put the grounded ship into Storage and separated the seawater. 

Next, I used Freeze Water to solidify the surface of the sea, took the ship out on top of the ice, and sealed up the holes from the outside with boards. Conveniently, I had the parts from the other sunken ships we’d stumbled onto in the Seadragon Islands. 

Once they were reasonably covered, I used Treespirit Pearls to adhere the boards to the ship. 

All I needed was for the ship to be able to sail again, so I casually ignored the dents in the hull. 

With the repairs completed, I used Storage to bring the ship back to safe sailing waters and got rid of the ice I’d been using to hold it up. 

Now all that was left was to put up the sails. For some reason, there were no spares to be found on the formerly grounded ship, so I used the most intact ones from the sunken ships of the same build. 

Then I towed the ship—a carrack—with Magic Hand and returned to our own ship. 

“All done.” 

“Welcome back, master.” 

Liza was the only one to come greet me; the rest of the girls were playing dress-up in the main cabin with Rei as their doll. 

“I better get things set up now,” I murmured, opening the biggest Fairy Pack. 

“<Numbers one through ten, activate. Advance forward ten paces and stand by in remote mode.>” 

When I gave these orders in Elvish, large wooden living dolls around the height of brownies marched forth from the Fairy Pack. There were a few gargoyle-style dolls for reconnaissance, as well. I had made them as practice in an elf workshop, so they all moved rather clumsily. 

The living dolls had squat, gnomelike bodies and were wearing loose, hooded brown robes. It might look a bit strange in this hot weather, but at least it wasn’t obvious that they were living dolls. 

These low-cost versions didn’t use Holytree Stone, but they were made with a lot of the elves’ secret techniques, so I didn’t want any thieves coming after them. 

“Scarecrow, control the living dolls according to the ‘sailor’ preset.” 

When I gave the order to the figurehead golem Scarecrow, the living dolls began moving about briskly, miming various sailor-like tasks. 

Since I’d made the Scarecrow golem after mastering the art of controller units, it was pretty high performance. 

Hearing the living dolls’ footsteps, my companions came up to the deck and were caught completely by surprise. 

I explained to them that these were dummy crew members so we would look like a normal sailing ship. 

This might’ve been a small galleon, but it still wasn’t very realistic to claim that it was being operated by nine people, most of whom were children. 

“Master, there are people on the beach, I report.” 

“Yeah, they probably came because they saw the ship.” 

“I believe there are people hidden in the woods near the beach as well, master.” 

I nodded at Nana and Liza. 

I was aboard the newly repaired ship, which I’d brought over to the inlet where the survivors were living. 

The rest of my group was on the galleon, which was stopped nearby, out of range of any possible attacks from the beach. 

Of course, I’d put the flash anti-monster magic into stealth mode. 

I lowered the bigger ship’s anchor in a safe area away from the reef and had my “sailors” take a small lifeboat back to our ship. The sailors were actually living dolls made to look like humans with the Light Magic spell Illusion. 

I was actually operating the ship myself with Magic Hand, but my official story was that I couldn’t use magic, hence the facade. 

“I am a noble of the Ougoch Duchy in the Shiga Kingdom. For my valiant battles against monsters, I have been granted the Ougoch Duchy Blazing Scarlet Medal. They call me Baron Jeetbert!” 

A middle-aged man who was carrying a two-handed sword like a walking stick greeted me in a clear voice. The emblem with the red gem on his chest must be the aforementioned Blazing Scarlet Medal. 

He must have introduced himself preemptively because I was wearing noble clothing. 

“His Excellency has introduced himself. Now it is your turn!” 

A smaller man standing next to the baron in mage-like robes shouted at me next. 

There were a few other men stationed nearby with large shields, ready to guard the baron at a moment’s notice. Since they were sailors to begin with, none of them was wearing heavy metal armor. 

“I am a noble of the Muno Barony in the Shiga Kingdom. For fending off a lesser hell demon in Gururian City, I have been granted the Ougoch Duchy Sapphire Medal. My name is Satou Pendragon, hereditary knight.” 

Just for fun, I decided to match the baron’s style of self-introduction. 

While I was at it, I produced the Sapphire Medal from Storage by way of my pocket and fixed it to my breast as well. 

“…The Sapphire Medal?!” 

The baron’s eyes widened as he stared at my medal. 

His hands were visibly shaking, revealing his alarm. 

The knights and mages around him all murmured in surprise, too. 

Thinking back, I remembered that Sir Ipasa Lloyd, the imperial knight and son of a viscount, had been surprised when I received the Sapphire Medal, too. 

A few of these men were muttering things like, “Isn’t the Muno Barony that cursed territory?” but most of them seemed to be more surprised by the medal. 

None of them made any effort to hide their surprise, but the baron was the first to recover. 

“Sir Pendragon, might you be willing to take us to the trade city of Sutoandell on your ship? We are the sole survivors of Viscount Emerin’s trade fleet. Naturally, we shall reward you however you may wish.” 

“Yes, of course.” 

I had no intention of asking for a reward for helping out a friend of a friend. 

“Perhaps it was fate that I discovered that ship adrift at sea.” 

“Adrift, you say?” 

I thought it might cause a scene if I told them I repaired it, so I decided to say that I’d just found it by chance. 

I wasn’t sure if they would believe my story, but they definitely wouldn’t believe the truth. 

“Indeed. Since it was flying the flag of Viscount Emerin, I thought it prudent to search for survivors on the nearby islands. This is the last island in the area, so I was quite relieved to find you here.” 

My “Fabrication” skill helped me make up a story on the spot. 

Of course, I’d already confirmed on the map that there were zero survivors anywhere else. 

If I didn’t tell them that I’d searched the islands, they might drag me into a lot of pointless searching. 

“Well then, Sir Pendragon, if you do not mind a brief wait, we shall prepare to depart at once.” 

The baron called over his associates and asked how long it would take them to prepare enough water for the trip. 

“Five days… No, if we mobilize everyone with the ‘Item Box’ skill, we can do it in three,” his first mate responded with grim determination. 

“Your Excellency,” I interrupted. “Pardon my intrusion, but if it’s water that you need, we have more than enough on board for the journey to Sutoandell.” 

“A-are you quite certain?!” 

I nodded and gave the first mate a number of barrels. 

“Yes, that is more than enough. Why, with that amount, we could make a round trip to the ends of the Seadragon Islands and still reach Sutoandell safely.” 

I pulled out a sea chart from my Garage Bag, showing them our current location. 

This chart was for use with the general public, so it wasn’t marked with the places I’d set seal slates. 

“Wh-what a detailed map!” 

“It even includes the watering holes on the islands and the distribution of monsters…!” 

The sailors were all very impressed with my sea chart. 

“You really searched the islands this thoroughly for survivors…?” 

One easily moved sailor fought back manly tears as he gazed at me in admiration. 

I definitely couldn’t tell them that I’d drawn it in the thirty minutes or so it took to get here. 

“Your Excellency, from here, we should be able to reach Sutoandell within less than ten days.” 

At the navigation officer’s words, the other men embraced one another with shouts of joy. 

Even the archers who’d been hiding in the forest forgot to keep concealing themselves, jostling shoulders with one another excitedly. 

In the end, we decided to depart the following morning. 

The sun had set while the men were carrying their supplies from their base onto the ship. 

We’d decided to have a banquet that night to celebrate the departure, so I was sitting with the baron at a table on the bigger ship. 

I’d already sent Liza and Nana back to join the others on our ship. Some of the young sailors’ eyes were fixed lustily on Nana, so I thought it best to have them retreat. 

“ ? Lamp Toumyou.” 

The monster wards hanging from the prow to the stern, which looked a bit like mosquito lamps, weren’t very bright, so the Practical Magic users on the crew created magic lights all over the deck. 

“Oh-ho, that smells tasty. How long has it been since we’ve had any seasonings but salt?” 

“Sir Pendragon was kind enough to share some of his spices, so I used them to the best of my ability!” 

The baron and his sailors looked thrilled when the food was carried out. 

Most of the hearty fare was made from seafood the men had caught on the island. To celebrate their departure, they even brought out tankards full of ale, which were distributed to even the lowliest soldiers. 

“Sir Pendragon, you have women in your crew, no? It’s bad to bring women on a long journey at sea, you know.” The baron took a swig of ale. “Some captains bring their wives or lovers on board, but that often leads to mutiny, see.” 

I assumed he was referring to the old bad-luck superstition, but it turned out he just meant it could cause unrest with the crew. 

“Thank you. I’ll keep your advice in mind.” 

In our ship’s case, we were more like a family than a crew, so I didn’t think it would be a problem. Besides, I was the only man in the group. 

“Raise anchor!” 

“Anchors aweigh!” 

“““Anchors aweeeigh!””” 

When the captain gave an order, the head sailor would repeat it back loudly, followed by a chorus of the rest of the sailors. Together, they began hauling on a pulley. 

Many of them had the “Strength” skill, but it still looked pretty tough. 

I wanted to see how a normal ship prepared to set sail, so I asked the baron to let me stay on board. I was able to use the Telephone spell to give orders to our ship’s figurehead golem, so there were no issues there. 

“Bowsprit, hoist the sails!” 

“Saaails!” 

“““Saaails!””” 

The sailors climbed the mast easily, untying the ropes that kept the sails in place. 

Once the sails were unfurled, the wind began to turn the ship gently. 

“Pull the port rigging!” 

“Pull to pooort!” 

“““Pull to pooort!””” 

A few of the sailors turned bright red with exertion as they yanked on the rope. 

Once the ship was turned in the proper direction, they used the rigging to keep it running straight. 

There was probably still a rudder, of course, but the sails were the main power source regardless. 

Leaving a few sailors in charge of the bowsprit, the rest rushed to help with the stern. Their crew wasn’t as large as usual, so they seemed to have their work cut out for them. 

Arriving at the stern, the sailors climbed the rope ladder easily. 

“Main mast, hoist the sails!” 

“Saaails!” 

“““Saaails!””” 

When the central sails were unfurled, the ship’s speed rose. 

The sailors on the main mast slid down the rope, heading to their assigned rigging. 

“Stern, hoist the sails!” 

“Saaails!” 

“““Saaails!””” 

Once the rear sails were ready, most of the crew came down to the deck, operating the rigging ropes to keep the ship on course per the captain’s orders. 

This work seemed primarily fueled by manpower; they weren’t using the ship’s Magic Furnace. 

I guess since Magic Furnaces were fueled by cores, it would be too costly to use them all the time. 

Thinking back, I remembered that the dwarves used something called “refined monster coal” instead of cores because Magic Furnaces were so inefficient. 

“Sir Pendragon, your sailors are a talented bunch. It’s rare to see such skilled steering and effortless departure.” 

“Much obliged.” 

I’d borrowed the blueprints from the elves’ self-steering ship library, so I didn’t feel like I could be particularly proud. 

“By the way, why isn’t your ship flying the Shiga Kingdom or the Muno Barony flags?” 

“My apologies. I’m afraid our flagpole was blown off in a recent storm, flags and all.” 

My “Fabrication” skill helped me answer the baron’s question. 

I’d completely forgotten about flags to show our affiliation. 

According to the information I casually gathered from the navigation officer later, most ships generally flew the flags of their kingdom, territory, and captain, as well as a flag to indicate whether they were warships or general passage. 

I mostly remembered the Muno Barony flag, and I could probably copy the kingdom flag from this ship’s. 

As for the general passage flag, I could probably re-create it from some of the sunken ships I’d recovered. 

“Captain, we’ve entered the current.” 

“Very well. Activate the Magic Furnace and double down on our lookout.” 

The first mate nodded, then shouted, “Activate Magic Furnace, lowest output!” into a speaking tube. 

After a few moments, a voice reported, “Activation complete,” and a mage used the Wind Magic spell Long-Range Search Wind. It appeared that he was using the power from the Magic Furnace to maintain the spell after he cast it. 

The results of the search were displayed on a mirror near the helm. 

Keeping the spell up continuously cost a huge amount of magic, so it couldn’t be used at the same time as their defensive barrier when the Magic Furnace was in low-output mode. 

Apparently, with their current stock of fuel, the Magic Furnace could run in high-output battle mode for only thirty minutes at the most. 

“Oof, I gotta take a leak…” 

“Fool! We have a guest here!” 

As the captain scolded him, the soldier ran to a mysterious object at the side of the ship, a sort of car seat–like protrusion. 

That’s a toilet?! 

Once his business was taken care of, the soldier hurried back to his post, ducking his head toward me apologetically. 

“Don’t just stand around! Swab the decks!” 

The head sailor barked a command, and the lowest-ranked sailors scrambled to start cleaning the decks with seawater. 

Maybe this was for sterilizing, but if anything, I thought the salt might actually damage the wood. 

Curious, I asked the head sailor if he knew why they were using seawater, and he explained that soaking the wood caused it to expand, shrinking the gaps in the deck to reduce the risk of flooding. 

I see. That makes sense. 

Our ship was coated with resin, so that wouldn’t be necessary in our case. 

We used a resin called “alua” developed by the elves, the same substance that was used for my favorite goblets in our tree house. Alua was transparent and light yet durable, and like acrylic, it wouldn’t break when dropped, so I used it frequently on tableware for the kids and such. 

“Sorry it’s nothing fancy.” 

At the baron’s request, I joined him for lunch. As he said, it was fairly modest: a few lightly baked biscuits, salty soup with beans and jerky, and a sauerkraut-like side along with some dried yellorange fruits. 

Aside from the dried fruits, the rest of the ingredients came from the barrels we’d found washed up on the beach at the city-rock island, as well as the ale they were drinking. 

I was reluctant to give them secondhand goods, but all we had available that was appropriate for a voyage at sea was the dried fruits, so I didn’t have any other choice. 

I used “Analyze” to make sure none of it had gone bad, of course. 

“This is delicious. What kind of fruit is it?” 

“Oh, that’s dried yellorange fruit from a Mountain-Tree.” 

When I answered the young assistant mate’s question, everyone froze. 

“Y-yellorange fruit?” 

“Y-you mean the legendary Mountain-Trees that only grow in the elves’ forest?” 

The sailors all peppered me with questions. 

Mountain-Trees grow in the giants’ forest in the Muno Barony, too, you know. 

“Ch-chef! Cease distributing the dried fruit at once!” 

Looking flustered, the baron gave an order into the speaking tube connected to the galley. 

“Is something wrong?” 

“S-Sir Pendragon, do you not know how valuable yellorange fruits are?” 

Huh? 

Each giant piece of fruit weighed more than a ton, so I had lots, and I knew they were delicious. 

But I’d never seen them in a market before, so I hadn’t gotten the chance to use my “Estimation” skill on one. 

Looking at the dried fruit, I saw that a single slice was worth anywhere from one to three silver coins each. So five slices would be worth more than a gold coin? Even if they were rare, that seemed pretty ridiculous to me. 

As we ate lunch, I decided to find out if the captain or any of his men happened to know anything about Lalakie. 

“Lalakie? I feel like I’ve heard of it.” 

The baron stroked his beardless chin thoughtfully. 

“…Ah, I remember. I heard about it at a festival in the Kingdom of Sorcery, Lalagi, which is in the middle of the sugar route.” 

According to the baron, the royal family of Lalagi were said to be descendants of the skyfolk, and the Skydea Festival was exhibiting something called a “Lalakie Box.” 

If I remembered correctly, “skyfolk” referred to the people of Lalakie. 

Perhaps the descendants of Lalakie were secretly living in this Kingdom of Sorcery called Lalagi. 

“Thank you very much, Your Excellency.” 

“Not at all. I’m glad I was able to be of some assistance.” 

I thanked the baron and later asked a navigator to tell me the locations of the sugar route and Lalagi. 

Getting to Labyrinth City would probably take a little longer than expected, but if we traveled at full speed with the flying ship, the detour should amount to only a week or so of lost time. 

In the middle of this conversation, we unluckily came across some monsters. 

“Captain! We’ve spotted a school of torpedo squid to starboard! They haven’t noticed us yet.” 

“All right, hard to port!” 

The ship veered off to the left, attempting to avoid getting into a battle. 

The torpedo squid were only around level 10, but there were a lot of them, somewhere between thirty and fifty. If they all came at us at once, it would be a pain to deal with. 

“Increase power to the Magic Furnace. As soon as it’s ready, raise the defensive barrier!” 

After a minute or so, the ship was surrounded by some kind of Practical Magic–type defensive shield, and its speed raised slightly. 

The underwater portion of the shield was probably reducing the friction from the water. 

“W-we’ve detected the presence of rock-head bass near the island up ahead!” 

A sailor who was in charge of monitoring the enemy detection reported this with a shaking voice. 

According to my map, there were only about ten of these rock-head bass, all of which ranged from level 10 to 15. 

Was that really an enemy worth shaking over? 

“Magic Furnace, maximum power. All hands not steering the ship, prepare the Magic Cannons! We’re going around the right side of the island, so focus on the port-side cannons!” 

The baron called out orders. 

I helped move the Magic Cannons across the deck as well. 

“Here they come!” 

“Their rock heads can repel Magic Cannons! Aim for their bodies or the center of their foreheads!” 

“““Aye-aye!””” chorused the men. 

So these were a type of monster whose defense was focused on their heads. 

The captain shouted, “Fiiiiire!” and thunder shots flew forth from the cannons. For water-based enemies, they apparently used thunder, ice, and rock shots. Fire was reserved for foes like pirate ships. 

Since they were short on shooters, I got to man one of the cannons. 

Because the magic supply was relatively sparse, the shots weren’t very powerful. And since one Magic Furnace was powering all the Magic Cannons, it took a long time to recharge between shots. 

Forced to lower their speed to dodge the shots, the rock-head bass were circling around to regain speed, aside from one that charged forward without attempting to evade. 

When it got close, the fish monster leaped into the air, aiming to strike one of the crewmen on the deck. 

It was enormous, easily around the size of a car. I guess even low-level sea-based monsters could be pretty huge. 

“Aaaagh!” The targeted sailor screamed in fear. 

The captain drew his two-handed sword, but it didn’t look like he’d get there in time. 

I pulled out a heavy rock spear from Storage and tossed it at the rock-head bass. 

It hit the monster much harder than I expected, pinning it against the forecastle wall. 

“Thank you, Sir Pendragon! Hurry up with the second volley, men!” 

The baron made no comment on the spear that had suddenly appeared in my hand. He was too preoccupied with giving battle commands. 

Just in case I needed an excuse later, I put on a stone spear ring. 

As far as anyone else could tell, I was officially level 30, so I didn’t think the fact that I defeated the monster would be too suspect, but it was possible that someone would question the sudden appearance of the spear. 

“Let’s finish them off! Aim carefully, lads! Once you’ve fired, prepare for close-quarters combat!” 

“““Aye-aye!””” the crew shouted again. 

The first round of shots managed to take out only about 30 percent of them. At this rate, the rock-head bass would definitely break through, possibly putting my party in danger. 

So instead of preparing a second shot, I went to the other side of the ship and made sure nobody was watching as I fired Remote Arrow into the water. 

I chose the most roundabout course possible so that they would hopefully reach the fish at around the same time as the second round of shots from the cannons. 

“All cannons, fire!” 

“““Aye!””” 

The shooters looked grim as they pulled the levers to fire the second volley. 

A barrage of magic shots hurtled toward the rock-head bass, which were now incredibly close. 

At the same time, there was a flash in the waves, and the underwater monsters began to sink as they were hit by Remote Arrow. 

“Whew. Looks like we drove ’em off somehow.” 

The baron heaved a sigh of relief, then started giving post-battle orders. 

The crew gathered the cores that had wound up on deck, but since it seemed like they were just going to give up on the ones in the water, I collected them for myself. The captain wanted to buy them off me to power the Magic Furnace, so I sold them at the price he proposed. 

“It’s the water gate to the port!” 

Back on our ship, we heard a shout from the baron’s ship. 

Seven days since the battle against the rock-head bass, we were about to safely enter Sutoandell. 

I’d returned to my own ship right after that battle and hadn’t bothered the baron’s ship any further except to confirm our route. 

Since the sailors hadn’t been bathing, their ship smelled absolutely awful. 

They avoided using up precious fresh water whenever possible and would use seawater for cooking, washing their faces, and so on. 

No wonder the first mate and I had such different outlooks on the value of water. 

Before my eyes, the water gate began to open. 

Oh, I better warn her now. 

“<Rei, you mustn’t sing in front of other people, all right?>” 

“<Okay…Satou.>” 

The rest of the group often sang together to pass the time on our journey, but whenever Rei joined in, it always attracted schools of fish or swarms of seabirds. 

This was all very nice and fantasy-like, of course, but in reality it might cause problems if she did it in front of strangers. 

While the girls amused themselves on our travels, I’d secretly been doing a bit of remodeling on the ship. 

In preparation for a possible rematch with the Skeleton King, I’d made portable Holy Stones for each member of the group and upgraded the ship’s Holytree Stone engine to a bigger, more powerful model. 

In the future, I planned to add features like a rocket launcher and improve the defensive barrier. 

“Wow, now that’s a big gate.” 

“They have so many big cannons and towers…” 

Arisa and Lulu gazed at the gate and its fully armed defensive towers in surprise. 

The towers also seemed to be staffed by birdfolk soldiers, archers, and mages. Defense must be very important to them. 

“They use the gated entrance to the bay there to keep out monsters.” 

There were large pillars placed inside the gates for warding off monsters, too, like the ones we saw on the huge river near the old capital. 

The flow of water coming through the narrow gates was as fast as a river. 

That was probably because the water from that same river let out into the bay. 

Checking my map, I saw that there were other gates and channels for routing out excess water. One particularly large channel even doubled as a place to cultivate seaweed. 

“Master, the harbor watch ship has given us the signal that we may enter.” 

“Thank you, Liza. Let’s head on in, then.” 

Thanks to the baron’s ship preceding us, we were able to get into the harbor after only a simple identity check. 

Normally, the harbor watch would have to thoroughly inspect any weapons and search for smuggled goods before allowing us in. 

There were virtually no monsters in the harbor, so there were plenty of small boats fishing. 

“<Lots of…big…ships.>” 

“<Yes, they seem to be from many different places.>” 

Rei pointed out the many larger ships in the harbor. 

Several of the largest ones were Ougoch Duchy gunships; a few large and medium battleships were anchored in the harbor as well. 

They were evidently kept here as a precaution against the foreign ships in the same harbor. 

The most noticeable ships were what looked like paddle steamers with sails from the Saga Empire and Weaselman Empire ships with oars, but there were also many medium-size ships from the southern islands. 

As I was explaining some of the ships to Rei and the others, I heard the rumbling of the beastfolk girls’ stomachs. 

“Well, it’s almost lunchtime. Shall we eat once we get into the harbor?” 

“Meeeat?” 

“I want meat, sir!” 

Tama and Pochi hopped up and down excitedly. 

We’d been subsiding largely on seafood during our travels at sea, so they were overdue for some red meat. 

“All right, let’s find a place that sells some good meat dishes.” 

Everyone except Mia cheered in agreement. 

“And rice and vegetables, too, of course,” I added. 

“Mm, yeah.” 

At that, Mia smiled and nodded, too.