Chapter 442
Chapter 442
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Into the Storm (1)
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Clink, clink.
"Got any candles on this ship of ours?"
"Nope."
"How about a small torch then?"
"Hmm... Would one of those rod-shaped mana lamps for deep-sea work do?"
"Better than nothing."
Click.
.
.
.
.
Fwoosh!
"Gwahhh!"
"Argh! My eyes!!"
On a nameless rocky coast littered with reefs where a shipwreck had run aground on a sandbar.
Ysena, who had just witnessed two people rolling around in front of the altar she'd set up on a flat rock, wiped the blood trickling from her mouth and snarled.
"This is the funeral for my brother and little brother. Shut your mouths, or I'll rip your ears off."
"Sorry...."
"Ugh, sorry."
The troll and human rubbed their eyes and bowed their heads toward a random direction.
Ysena placed the two fangs she'd just pulled from her own mouth onto the altar, gently stroking the names scrawled across it with her hand.
=========
Captain Grim Rock (17 years, 2 months at sea)
Second Mate/Diver Tuadal (3 years, 6 months at sea)
Deckhand/Diver Baimus (3 years, 6 months at sea)
=========
The two fangs were for her two blood kin who now slept in the sea, not the forest.
Clink.
The spot where the bloodied fangs lay wasn't a table of ceremonial incense wood, nor covered in clean cloth.
She'd laid planks torn from the deck atop a flat rock, and instead of white cloth, she'd ripped and draped a salt-crusted sail. Instead of brass candlesticks, she'd jammed in glowing rods bright enough to blind—a makeshift altar that, even by the loosest standards, wasn't fit for a proper rite.
"This'll do, right?"
"Guu. The dead captain's gonna show up in my dreams cursing up a storm."
But with a damp holy book on top and nameplates for the deceased, it was at least a salvager's funeral.
Teetering on the edge of outright insult, but just right for salvagers.
"Why would the captain come? He sank with that airship wreck. He's probably dancing with joy down there right now."
Ysena glanced at the man combing back his oil-matted hair with a wry grin.
Hyde. The priest and auror knight on his first voyage.
After the battle in the Deep Blueline had ended that way, and they'd drifted along in what was more shipwreck than voyage, Hyde had been the most active amid the gloom.
He'd patched leaks alongside Eggwil, brought waterlogged preserved rations to her after she'd lost kin, and stopped Tarimus's three suicide attempts fueled by guilt. Though after the man's fourth attempt with poison—being skilled in pharmacology—they'd had to tie him up and hang him in plain sight.
It was undeniable that the three days of drifting had dulled their emotions a great deal, thanks to him.
And in the process, she'd grown mentally close to this human named Hyde.
"Hyde. You seem used to this sort of thing."
"Hm? Oh, well. Just gotten numb to it in the usual way? You've all lost a sailor or two at sea yourselves. Even when I first hit the salvager office, they were mid-funeral for the last voyage's dead."
"Sure, but the others weren't as good at looking after people as you."
Hyde responded to her gesture toward the still-bound Tarimus.
"...Everyone processes guilt differently. Eggwil cried on deck every night, Tarimus threw tantrums wanting to join the dead. Me? Eh. I soothe mine by sticking my nose in like this."
"I see."
"Yeah. So don't hate Tarimus too much."
"That guy ditched us alone during the deck fight. Said the shelling hit the room with that damn sapling."
"That's why it's called a mental illness—he couldn't help it. Look at him. He can't stand that he ran either. What good would a non-combatant like him have done staying on deck anyway?"
"Grrr...."
"Sigh, shoulda kept my mouth shut."
Hyde approached the bound Tarimus, leaving Ysena's scales bristling behind him. He whispered a few words to the still-swollen man from the poison, then plucked three fresh leaves from the sapling, tossing them onto the altar. Tarimus convulsed as if stabbed, still tied up.
"These precious real leaves should complete the setup. Alright then, let's begin. Ahem. Ahh."
Clearing his throat, Hyde recited the prayer for the captain and two beastkin. He wasn't fully devout, so he didn't grasp the deeper meaning, but sometimes form mattered more than substance.
"Sniff, sob! Captain...."
"Brother.... Little brother...."
Sometimes you had to see it with your own eyes to accept it.
Splash.
Roooar—
Splash.
Roooar—
On the nameless coast, the prayer for the captain and two beastkin blended with the waves.
The modest funeral ended there. They wiped their tears, lit a fire, and boiled the remaining preserved rations.
They'd survived, after all. Now they had to think ahead.
****
The next morning.
Splash—
"Captain's sea chart."
"That guy was surprisingly meticulous for how he looked.... Can you read it?"
"Eggwil, you idiot. No one reads sea charts."
Eggwil and I, Tarimus and Ysena, scowled at the sea chart salvaged from the wrecked Whale Ho.
"I-I can read it."
"Oh, as expected of a long-lived race. You can read sea charts too?"
"The captain's cabin got the best sunlight, so whenever it was stormy, I'd hunker down there with the sapling...."
"Your whole life really revolves around that tree."
Tarimus was still downcast, but no longer attempting suicide like before. They'd forced it, but offering part of his most precious possession as tribute had helped. Guilt like that often improved once you instilled the sense of "having paid the price."
Tarimus rubbed his still-sore wrists and pointed around the chart.
"This is Semeyren's port. We came this way, reached the Deep Blueline center here."
"We've come farther than I thought."
"Rode the typhoon, yeah. If we'd stuck to plan, we'd have finished salvage here, caught that current, and hit old Lordric South...."
"Guu. But accident."
"And we got completely knocked off our intended current."
Scribble-scribble—
Tarimus's charcoal marked an X over the old Lordric region.
"So where'd we drift to?"
"Hmm.... The fact that this half-smashed ship drifted safely without waves, storms, or sea beasts attacking is miracle enough, but judging by the sun's position, wind direction on the way, and this coast's vegetation...."
Thud.
"Looks like we've drifted here."
Tarimus carefully picked up a patch of bone-dry moss from a rock crevice and pointed to a corner of the chart with his finger.
"....For real?"
"Probably."
"Tarimus, that's impossible in reality."
"Reaching land unharmed on that busted ship was impossible to begin with. Did you maybe get special help from underwater? A top-tier spirit or some great being like that?"
"No, well.... Some old man said he'd help...."
I compared the spot Tarimus pointed to against my fragmented mental map of the continent several times.
"So you're saying we drifted to old Baltin Empire territory in three days?"
Tarimus nodded with a confused look at my question, while Eggwil's eyes sparkled for some reason.
The Baltin Empire lands we'd reached—commonly called the West Empire—were far west of our original target, old Lordric, on an entirely different continent.
[Follow the waves. The waves will guide you....]
....Clink.
The feel of the small blue gem in my pocket brought back memories from days ago.
Ottoman. He'd sent us here.
'That means there's something in the West Empire too.'
Ottoman had said it was too soon. Whether memories or another arrangement, I wasn't ready yet. He'd pushed our ship all the way to this distant empire to fill that gap.
Thump. Thump.
My heart, as always, pointed like a compass toward the direction we'd fled.
Now I knew for sure. What I was seeking, what that guy wanted.
The deaths I'd glimpsed through his memories.
Pablo's resentful face.
The captain's final moments flashed by.
'....I have things to do.'
Probably, those were the Warlord's "things to do."
The reason I'd ended up seeking that bastard too, most likely.
"....Means I have things to do as well."
He was strong like something out of myth, and with Shard Knight traits, he'd grow faster the more people he killed.
If he hit a limit and rampaged after getting that strong....
'I don't even want to imagine it. A rational Warlord.'
The name Warlord could well become synonymous with the world's end.
No time to dawdle.
"West Empire. Land of emperors, magic, and knights."
I had to get stronger. So next time, I wouldn't lose so pathetically.
"....So, what do we do now?"
With no more info from Tarimus, the three salvagers naturally turned to Hyde. He'd been the most proactive on the drift here, and he was the strongest of the four.
"Let's strip it."
Hyde, who'd been staring at the map, spoke up.
"That ship. Yeah, it swallowed seawater, but there's still plenty of mana engine and good timber left, right? Stranded with nothing—we need cash for valuables to hitch a train or whatever."
Or.... make something to ride ourselves.
Hyde eyed the shipwreck's planks and struts, protruding metal frames, pulleys, wheels, etc., recalling those wanderers he'd seen hauling carts alone on soft ground.
With a troll, auror knight, and beastkin, power wasn't an issue.
Plenty of sturdy planks and metal frames for a whole ship's worth.
"The wheels make dragging heavy stuff like the engine to the tracks easy, less noise and vibration than carrying. Hm, nice. This'll work."
"....???"
"Strip.... what?"
Crack!
The question turned to shock amid flying planks.
"Hyde! That's the salvage ship the captain protected even while rampaging from shrapnel!"
"It's beached now! And the captain's sunk anyway, partying with that airship wreck—whatever! He doesn't need a salvage ship anymore! He's reached Airship Number One!"
"Th-the Whale Ho sailed the seas with us like a comrade! We shared life and death for years—better to sink it at sea by his side than this ignoble end...."
"What's the point of wasting good stuff on sentiment? You sailors gotta ditch that wasteful habit. Big-money types who strike it rich don't get the terror of small expenses. Dropping this haul in the ocean when we've washed up on an unknown continent? Tch, you shortsighted fools!"
"H-how can he be so ruthless...."
Crack! Clank-clank!
The three Whale Ho crew tried to stop him, but they couldn't halt the auror knight's brutal dismantling of the already half-wrecked ship.
Soon, with the hull plating stripped, the skeletal metal frame and mana engine lay exposed. Tarimus, reminiscing about times with the ship, quietly whispered to Eggwil.
"....If I die, grab my tree and bolt to sunny spot quick. Before he sells it."
"Ugh. Cremate me if I go. Hyde'll drain my blood and sell it all."
"Such a.... worldly priest. Hyde is."
.
.
.
.
The three watched Hyde work in a daze.
....Whoosh!
Eggwil stood first, heading toward the mid-dismantling Whale Ho.
"I'm going with. If this is West Empire, there's a place I've always wanted to see as a magic dreamer. Safer with Hyde than alone. Guok, you guys?"
"I.... dunno. We three siblings boarded to dodge warrants, but this far out, that's no worry. No money, kin, or place to go—so sticking with you familiar faces is it."
"I need money. Fertile soil to revive my tree, blessings or relics from near-extinct abundance priests, and my grass-free diet means constant cashflow. Can't salvage anymore, so.... for now, follow Hyde—the expert at drifting and earning—and learn his ways."
"Guok. Decided then. Stop gawking and get to work."
Resolved, the three rolled up sleeves and approached Hyde wrestling the frame.
"I'll help."
"Was wondering when your consciences would kick in. You! Ysena and Eggwil, lift that mana engine. Got tools for the mounts? Can't budge 'em barehanded."
"I've got reagents to swell rust on metal. I'll handle it."
"....Reagents? That's alchemy, right?"
"To elves, all naturals are one."
"Tarimus learned alchemy too. For plant nutrients, he said."
"Thought elves without bows were useless, but you've got skills."
Grrrrind, screeech—clang!
"Assuming elves shoot bows is speciesist prejudice."
"But the elf-tree-love prejudice is spot on."
"Linking biological traits to biased views is a discriminist's common fallacy—"
"That's Tarimus for ya. Just roll with it."
"R-right."
Clang! Boom!
"Hyde, move. I get what you're building. I'll do it better."
"Won't.... work like I thought?"
Clank-clank!
Half a day stripping the ship, pocketing valuables.
Half a day eating, sorting usable parts, building something.
"....Dude. You could thrive without being a mage."
"Eggwil's always been a do-it-all troll."
"Guok. Couldn't behead the captain though. Useless troll when it mattered."
Before the sweating Eggwil wielding a hammer stood a proper handcart.
Pulleys for hoisting thick sails made fine sturdy wheels; the ship's frame and planks became the cart's skeleton and shell.
"Tracks nearby for sure. Coastal soil's too salty for earthworms, so there's usually a line hugging the shore. Push to there, follow to a city or outpost or whatever."
They loaded the rest, stuck a deep-sea glow rod at the rear for night—don't want to get hit by a train.
"Alright, captain. Suin 1 and 3, Tuadal and Baimus are with you."
Glancing back at the shore altar one last time, the four pushed inland.
Flutter—
Seabreeze whipped the altar cloth toward a cliffside.
Clunk,
Thud!
A dusty signpost there caught the flying cloth and toppled.
Shattered continent coasts once marked inland. The Blueline Mountains' explosion split the land, sea flooding in.
The flapping cloth wiped dust from the ancient sign—once by the Blueline Mountains before this became shore.
The signpost, fulfilling its role after ages, toppled toward the four vanishing with the sea wind.
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