Gate – Season 2 Thus the JSDF Fought in their Seas! - Volume 1 - Chapter 6

Next, Shamrock went to see the progress on the ships’ fitting out.

“What’s the progress?”

“Well, it’d be better if you see it for yourself.”

On closer inspection, the would-be-crew are hammering and sawing away at the final furnishings while lines of workers arrayed along gangways fixed alongside the hull are fitting in rigging and fixtures. Drake led Shamrock up one of the gangways onto the deck.

“Woah! It’s actually well done!”

“Yeah. Everyone’s surprised we’re working on new ships so they’re in really high spirits.”

“Hey, what’re y’all diddlin’ about?! Put some back into it, will ya?!”

A sharp, stinging rebuke echoed from above the mast. Up there, they could see a winged girl chiding a worker who was working on the mast. Clad in wings that were pitch black, she was sitting on a gaff that held one of the ship’s triangular lateen sails up.

“I-I’m sorry!”

“Enough yappin’! If only ya worked as much as ya yap, ya might’ve been done! Yer nothing without this work, ya hear?! So put yer damned back into it!”

“Y-Yes!!!”

The worker was panicking from the relentless stinging statements from the black-winged girl when his hand slipped and he fell from the sail yard.

“Woah woah woaaaahh!!!”

“Tsk! What a buffoon.”

But just as soon as the worker was about to hit the deck, the winged girl came and saved him. Hanging down from the gaff by her feet, she grabbed the worker by his ankle.”

“Ya dumbass! Didn’t they tell ya that one hand’s for yerself and the other’s for the ship?! That don’t mean that one hand is for jackin’ off yer li’l weiner! It means ya fuckin’ hold on to the rigging for dear life, dammit!”

“I-I’m so sorry, ma’am!”

The worker grabbed onto the nearby rigging and repeatedly bowed his head in apology.

Once they were done, Shamrock called out to the girl.

“Hey, Odile! Glad to see you’re as strongheaded as ever!”

“Shamrock!!!”

As soon as she saw Shamrock, she fluttered down to the deck to greet him.

“Why’re ya here? No, let me guess: yer here for me, aren’t ya?”

“Of course, I’m here to see you!”

“I knew it~! Let’s have some fun, ‘right?”

Odile tried to cling to Shamrock, but the young girls stood between her and him to block her.

“Stand down, Odile ze Nevulla. Sir Shamrock has entrusted to us his well-being.”

“Y’all knocked in the head or what? This ain’t about being his ‘servants’ or whatever, but fine! Not like a bunch of brats could understand how to really fulfill his needs.”

“No no, we do understand.”

“Hoh? Really now? What do y’all ‘ladies’ know about men? Just so ya know, it ain’t all about suckin’ up his li’l junior!”

“I don’t want to be lectured on how to suck his ‘junior’ by someone who’s never done it herself.”

“Yep, no virgins allowed here, meow!”

Confronted up front by the young girls, Odile started to get flustered.

“Wha-?! But how…?!”

“Yeah, we all know what you’re talking about.”

“Yep yep yep.”

“Alright alright, that’s enough! Please, no more fighting!”

Shamrock began to panic as the girls started glaring down at one another. Drake, however, cared not for their business and continued to show him around.

“Psst, Shamrock! This way’s the captain’s quarters.”

“Wait! Are you sure we shouldn’t stop them?

“And get myself killed trying to get in between them? Hell no! Leave them be…”

“Fine, fine.”

Shamrock followed Drake to the ship’s stern where the captain’s quarters were. Venturing inside, he could see that it was already furnished with a desk, the captain’s chair, and a wicker trunk filled with menial stuff for the captain’s personal use. There were even scattered clothes and documents, which pointed to Drake already calling the place his own before the ship had even entered service. Beyond the desk, there was already a bunk bed, complete with a white duvet and a lovely-looking lady…?

“Ah. You didn’t tell me you’d be bringing guests.”

Seemingly awaiting Drake’s return, the woman quickly covered her body with the sheets. Based on her reaction and what little skin he could see, the woman must have been bare naked. What else could he have expected from pirates and their lawlessness?

“My bad, Nike, but we have something to discuss. Could you give us some privacy?”

“Fine, fine.”

Bringing the sheets with her, Nike hurriedly left the quarters, passing by Shamrock as she went out. She seemed well-versed in such things, what with how she strategically covered herself to allow him to sneak peeks at her voluptuous, naked breasts as she passed, all while seductively winking at him.

“Was that… Was that perhaps your missus, Drake?”

“What are you, five? Of course, she’s a prostitute. I’ll never settle down… probably.”

“But I’m surprised that you still get prostitutes in such a deserted place.”

“We’ve got all sorts of lost spirits here and they brought with them all sorts of things. We got blacksmiths, shipbuilders, sailcloth builders, traders, thieves, we even got a gambling den with all sorts of con-men and a watering hole with harlots of all colors.”

Drake listed them all off his fingers, almost as if he was showing off. However, Shamrock noticed that there was something missing in his list.

“Sure, but I didn’t hear about any politicians among your ranks.”

“The fuck you on about? Ain’t that why you’re here, oh great Decemvirate, sir?”

“Heh. You think I’m buddy-buddy with you now?”

“You gave us capital and funds, and on top of that, you provided us with the magician kids. If that ain’t what you call ‘cooperation,’ what the hell do you think you’re doing then?”

“Ah, er… No, that’s about right.”

“Then let’s have a toast to our relationship!”

Drake opened a cupboard and took out a whiskey bottle.

“What’s that?”

Shamrock asked as he was handed a glass, into which Drake poured an amber-colored liquid from the bottle.

“It’s a spirit called whiskey.”

“An odd color, if you ask me. And this cup… it’s not made out of shells.”

Shamrock held the glass and the whiskey bottle up to the light.

“Try it out first, then we’ll talk about food, drink, and women. That’s how it usually goes, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Shamrock took a gulp of the amber liquid. It splashed down his throat and he immediately felt its immense strength as his face puckered up.

“Oh shit! This is strong!”

“Right? But it’s hella tasty.”

“Yeah, it’s got flavor. Where the hell did you get this?”

“Alnus.”

“Ahh, it’s from the other world.”

Shamrock took another look at the jewel-like material the glass was made of, holding it up in the light.

“It’s apparently a hit with the Imperials. We’ve managed to get some in the past but alas there are only a couple of bottles to go around and everyone drinks the bottles clean once they get their hands on it. But now we’re getting more and more of them. Y’see, these bottles aren’t just the personal goods of the captains of the ships we seize. No, these are the cargo itself.”

“Huh. Are you going to sell them on the black market?”

“Yeah, but it’s not that easy. Since these bottles aren’t circulating in the regular market, merchants are reluctant to take them in.”

It’s only natural for merchants to be reluctant. If people see that a merchant has an inventory of goods that couldn’t be imported due to the current situation and it’s included in the cargo manifestos of ships that have been seized by pirates, they would come to the idea that the merchant is in league with the pirates. It essentially meant that they would be targeted by the authorities, searched for information, and forced into a confession. Stolen goods could only really be sold if there were legitimate goods to hide them in.

This is where Shamrock comes in.

“Ahh, so that’s how it is. Alright. I’ll do something about it.”

He is a politician but he is also a merchant himself. He could go about it by sending ships to Alnus to import whiskey and bring them back to Tinaye legitimately. They could then easily put their stolen goods along with the legitimately imported ones.

“I’ll send word to the other pirate chiefs and turn over the whiskey to you. Consider it a token of my gratitude for everything you’ve done for me.”

“Oh! That’s great news!”

With this, Shamrock has secured a guarantee that the pirates won’t attack his ships. This isn’t a one-time thing; securing secret guarantees was how Shamrock succeeded as a merchant.

“Just don’t push your luck.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. I’ll leave out older ships in formation for them to attack so no one will bat an eye.”

If his trade missions were to always come out unscathed, people would start to wonder why. To maintain the facade of ‘normalcy,’ he must let his trade missions come under attack. Naturally, something like this is treason under Tinaye law; once he’s found out, he’ll be sent to the gallows without question. But Shamrock never really minded that risk. To him, everything—even his own life—was a necessary sacrifice to see his ambitions become reality, much less the lives of his fellow Tinayese whose overlords are the old, decrepit men he loathed.

“Ah yeah, what ever happened to Cairipinya?”

Drake asked him just as Shamrock began drowning himself in whiskey.

“Oh, him. I got Curaçao to helm the Odette.”

“That makes things easier. If that bastard ever got out to sea, we’d be fucked two ways. But if it’s the Curaçao family’s bastard son, we could sleep more soundly.”

Shamrock took another gulp of that fiery liquid.

“But we’ve got another problem on our hands. The Doge is moving ahead with sending Her Drunken Highness to Schilaff. He said they’ll move out in a couple of days.”

“What’s he on about? There shouldn’t be enough oarsmen in Nasta to man their ships on such short notice!”

“That’s why he issued a slave requisition order.”

Hearing this, Drake spat out the whiskey from his mouth in surprise.

“Coff, coff… Hahaha! What the hell! That Doge of yours is just as callous as us, if not more! So he swings his powerful big stick around and he gets to seize people’s property at will. The people will be hella mad.”

“Not like it’ll change things even if people get any madder. But then he’s only targeting the slavers; the common households’ slaves are spared.”

“Huh… Still, that’s not good. It’ll be harder to move with our plan to seize the Odette and take Her Drunken Highness hostage. Even if we move the Odile’s commissioning forward, we probably won’t make it.”

“Can’t you really do something about it?”

“We’re already at a fast-tracked pace. We can’t go any faster. What’s the word on the princess’s escorts?”

“A squadron, so three ships.”

“Three warships? Then we gotta prepare at least three, too. I’d like more to guarantee results, but… Damn, guess I’ll have to ask for Captain McKinnon’s help in this one.”

“You’re gonna ask for help from another pirate elsewhere?”

“Yeah. Now that we’re pressed for time, it’s our best bet. We pirates don’t really ask help from other pirates, but when push comes to shove we could count on them in exchange for some reward… You got a lot of spare change lying around, right? You could easily change how it’ll go for us.”

Shamrock raised both of his hands in the air as if to confess something.

“Well, you’re out of luck then… The truth is I’m actually broke at the moment.”

“What the fuck?! Haven’t you been making buck from buying and selling shit from us?! Can’t you just fork some of that out?!”

“Unlike you pirates, we merchants don’t settle every transaction we make, so we don’t always get our money right away. We also need at minimum the money to be able to procure goods, pay our people’s wages, and maintain our ships. Then there’s no telling whether there’d be extra expenses. With that said, I have no money in hand.”

Drake shrugged his shoulders as if to say that wasn’t his problem.

“Then we’re fucked.”

“Can’t we just tell him he’ll get paid after or something? Aren’t you seven pirate chiefs or whatever you call yourselves friends?”

“We… help each other out, yeah, but we’re not in the kind of relationship where we get to boss or be bossed around. In fact, I’m more worried about us; that old geezer McKinnon isn’t the type to have mercy, regardless of our situation!”

“Please, just say anything to convince him. You realize how big this opportunity is for us, don’t you? Sending Her Drunken Highness to Schilaff in exchange for help is a sign that the Doge is on his last legs. If we pull the rug from under him by taking her hostage, he will have nothing left to play. Tinaye will crumble from its feet!”

At that point, the populace of Tinaye will rise up and force the Doge out of power.

“Oh, so then you’ll become Doge, is that it? Become the overlord of one of the region’s powers with as much riches and fame as the heart desires?”

“You’re shitting me right now, right? Hell no, I’m not remotely close to doing that! As the youngest of the Decemviri, there are nine more oldtimers ahead of me! I’d have to go through all of them before becoming Doge myself!”

“So let the mobs take them down by force. If you launch a coup, they’ll back you right up.”

“No. Individually, they’re easy pickings, but if those geezers team up they’ll be a force to be reckoned with. That’s why we must play it safe and not be suspected.”

“Alright then. I’ll stop asking the impossible.”

“Really? Now you’ll let me off, right?”

“Don’t misunderstand me; what I’m saying is that I know the shit you’re currently in. That doesn’t change the fact that without your help, I can’t do shit.”

“You do realize that if Schilaff sends their navy, it’ll be game over for you pirates, right? That McKinnon guy should be able to understand that.”

“If any of us thought that far ahead, we wouldn’t be pirates in the first place. Besides, the ocean is big. If the Schilaff Navy deploys in force, we’ll just go to where they aren’t.”

“If that’s how it’s going to be, guess I’ll just live the rest of my life waiting out the deaths of the nine oldtimers after me. By the time I get to the top, I’ll be an old fucking coot myself.”

“If you really hate it that much then you have no choice but to prepare a large sum to convince McKinnon. I’ll do the talking, so you just have to get the coin.”

“Please. Do me a favor and convince him to accept a discount.”

“Being a pirate ain’t easy, mate. No pirate will agree to a discount when it’s their lives at stake.”

“Tsk! Fine! How much would he want?”

Finally committing himself to preparing the sum, Shamrock was now in negotiations for the price.

“A thousand silver coins. More or less.”

Shamrock hesitated when he heard that number. The amount he was asking for was no small change, but there really was no other way. If they don’t convince McKinnon to lend him their help, Primera will be married off to the Duchy of Schilaff, solidifying the ties between them and Tinaye, and then the Schilaff Navy will drive away the pirates blockading Tinaye. Peace will return to the republic, but the old status quo of entrenched merchants preventing innovation and advancement for the new generation will endure, ensuring that Tinaye will forever be a conservative nation ruled by incompetent old geezers. For them to be driven out, the pirate crisis must continue.

“Alright… A thousand silver coins. I’ll have them ready.”

“When?”

“I can only promise that I’ll get it ready as fast as I can.”

“That settles it. I understand you’re in a tight spot, but I’ll do what I can from my end. That’s what friends are for, right? Just be quick. You beat the bush for too long and that princess will be on her merry way to Schilaff before we’re out. But maybe things would be different if you could buy some time…”

“Fine. The money, the time, I’ll think of something.”

“Don’t fuck up, you hear?”

With that, their conversation was over. Shamrock got up and exited the captain’s quarters.

“If only the Odile could’ve joined us in time… Well, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it if I were you.”

Drake remarked as he patted Shamrock on the shoulder.

“Yeah yeah. Must be hard on the men with the fast-tracked schedule.”

Shamrock remembered the girls’ remark about how he had just been lucky all this time. Only now did he really feel how true such words were.

“One, two! One, two!”

Coming up to the deck, he caught a dozen or so sailors in the middle of pulling a long rope. They were operating a crane that was hoisting a newly cast iron tube together with its frame up onto the deck. Odille was up in the air, flapping her black wings as she encouraged the sailors.

“C’mon! Heave, ya lazy asses! Show me that fight in ya!”

Hearing those words, Shamrock, too, was roused.

“Oh, I will. With this, it won’t be just the Odile setting sail. This’ll be our trump card, the proof we won’t need luck to be victorious.”

As he said those words, he slapped his palm onto the cast iron tube that was being loaded onto the deck. No sound emanated from where he had hit the tube for the iron was heavy and thick.

The next day

“We’re screwed…”

Inside the office prepared for them by the Black Hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs team led by Tōdō clutched their heads and were at their wits’ end.

It may have been fortunate for them that the process of negotiations for the enslaved journalist was streamlined with the Tinaye government’s issuance of the slave requisition order, but all their requests for negotiations had been turned down. In the Tinaye government’s words: “What slave requisition order?”

“We’ve tried everything. We even mobilized all the contacts we’ve created in the three months since coming here, but we’re getting nowhere!”

As Tokushima processed the sheer amount of time these guys had been in this place, he tilted his head in confusion.

“I wonder why none of it’s working out.”

“We did some research on why and apparently whenever Tinaye issues these requisition orders, the powerful merchants typically use their connections in government to try and place exemptions on their goods. That’s why the government never entertains any requests related to those orders, no matter the circumstances. If anyone tries to bypass them, the government deems such actions as obstruction of policy implementation and they’re bombarded with hefty fines, not to mention other forms of sanctions.”

Hearing of the reasons why, Edajima nodded in admiration.

“That is a justified response to dealing with attempts to undermine the legal process through extralegal means.”

“Definitely. Still, I’m extremely pissed that we’ve come to this point. We’re out of moves we could play. Adding insult to injury, it’s currently their weekend, so government offices are closed.”

Tokushima turned to Edajima.

“What now, sir?”

“Well, for starters, the enslaved journalist will be forced onto a ship as an oarsman. It only takes a surface-level understanding of what’s going on in this country to know that the ship he’ll be forced to board will be a warship and that that warship will engage in combat against pirates. It’d be fine if they emerge victorious, but in the realistic chance that they don’t, he will either go down with the ship or be captured by the pirates to be forced as their oarsman. In any case, it will become even more difficult to save him once he leaves dry land.”

One of Tōdō’s colleagues despondently concluded.

“We did everything we could but it’s just impossible. Guess that’s that.”

“If the person in question were Japanese, I’d be more inclined to give it all, but they’re not.”

“And they’re also the type of person to disregard all the warnings not to go.”

The diplomats were all talking as if they were completely giving up on the foreign journalist. Whether they were really serious or just saying in exasperation, no one could tell.

“Now what?”

Tōdō asked Edajima, who had something to say.

“Considering this situation, have you thought about realizing an emergency rescue scenario?”

“Emergency rescue scenario?”

Edajima elaborated.

“If self-defense refers to a person acting to defend themselves from attack, emergency rescue refers to a third party rescuing a person who is in a situation of imminent danger. The conditions for that are the same as in self-defense.”

“Are you saying we rescue him?”

“The problem is that in this country, slavery isn’t considered an injustice. Not only are our laws in conflict with Tinaye’s laws, but we’re currently in Tinaye sovereign territory, so that means Tinaye’s laws take precedence, and basing our emergency rescue operation on rescuing him from slavery would be unjust.”

“It’d be considered theft, robbery, or aiding a fugitive. We would essentially be causing a diplomatic scandal between us and Tinaye. If it were up to me, I’d want to contact my superiors back at the ministry for a decision.”

But Tokyo was all the way beyond the Gate, which is in faraway Alnus. Without adequate communication infrastructure, every decision must be made by the personnel in the field. That’s why the foreign ministry and the SDF respectively sent Tōdō and Edajima, who were both high-ranking officials.

“It’s certainly difficult to decide under such circumstances. What I can say is that if we brute-force our way through this issue, it’ll definitely come to bite us in the ass later. As foreign affairs officials, we’d rather not be in this situation at all.”

“So then what if we don’t ‘brute-force’ our way? Naturally, it won’t involve the use of weapons.”

Tokushima timidly raised his hand.

“Err… Edajima, sir? What exactly are you planning?”

“I’d rather not explain it in full right now. If Tōdō and the others here were to hear it, I’m 200% sure they and the foreign ministry won’t like it.”

“Ah, but then it’s fine if I don’t like it?”

“Yes. That’s because you are my subordinate. I make the plans, you carry it out. That is a normal thing to do.”

“So it’s like that, huh.”

Tokushima leaned back on his seat in resignation. Tōdō asked him for clarification.

“But why go all the way there, Edajima?”

“Because under these circumstances, whether we rescue the journalist or not, the government will come under intense scrutiny either way. If we don’t rescue him despite the fact that he’s basically within reach, we’ll be scrutinized: ‘Why didn’t you go the extra mile?’ If we then say that we’ve exhausted all legal options, the media and the opposition will then attack us for ‘not having any heart or compassion.’ On the other hand, if we do rescue him, the headlines will read, ‘abuse of power by officials,’ or maybe perhaps, ‘the government’s botched attempt at rescue.’ The opposition will have a field day attacking our government. Since we’re essentially damned if we do, damned if we don’t, we must consider the option in which we might still stand to reap benefits.”

Hearing this, Tokushima raised his hand.

“Don’t you have any humanitarian considerations or something?”

“Of course I do. It’s just not something worth bringing up, so I didn’t.”

“Ah, okay.”

Tokushima kept his mouth shut as he realized it may have been a stupid thing to ask. Tōdō, however, heard something that stood out.

“Reap the benefits, you say?”

“Yes. I’ve become very interested in knowing the reason an American journalist came all the way out here.”

“Isn’t it just… to learn about and document this world?”

“That’d be the case, but that may just be appearances. How can we be sure it isn’t?”

“So you’re saying there may be a different reason?”

“Yes. Is his infiltration of the Special Region solely for journalism? Or is it for an objective for an operation greenlit by some organization? The fact that he was detained in that manner may have been an opportunity to understand the reality of clandestine operations by foreigners which we aren’t aware of. For all those reasons, we must get our hands on that person at any cost.”

“I see. So that’s why you’re also all the way out here.”

Tōdō nodded, understanding the reasons in full.

“So… Care to indulge us in that plan of yours that ‘won’t involve the use of weapons?’”

Tokushima grinned at Tōdō.

“You sure, Tōdō? You might regret it.”

“The foreign ministry also has a vested interest in knowing the reason why that journalist came all the way out here.”

Behind him, the other foreign ministry guys leaned in, seemingly invested in what the plan was just like Tōdō. With that, Edajima humored them.

“Alright, so consider yourselves part of the plan as well. First off, I’d like you to request a ship we could use to escape once we rescue the journalist. We also need a base of operations from where we could carry out our plan.”

“A ship and a base of operations?”

“Well, we can’t exactly use this office, provided by the Black Hand, to carry out an operation that we’re supposed to keep from them, right?”

“Ah, right. We’ll get them ready as soon as possible.”

Tōdō and his team immediately got to work.