43. Parrrley (1)
43. Parrrley (1)
"Captain! That ship looks intact! Let's switch to that one!"
I took the telescope we'd found aboard Wilson 4 from Millia, who was completely absorbed in playing sailor, and examined the ghost ship. It was the best-preserved ghost ship I'd seen in days, though the skeletons wandering around the deck were a bit off-putting.
"Looks like we could get about a week out of it... Wilson 7 it is. Karina! Reni!"
Excellent. Our first big catch in a while. A prize that good was worth capturing. After nearly a month, I had come to understand the heart of a pirate as I gauged the distance between our ship and the ghost ship and turned the wheel.
"A new family member is right before us!"
"All set to move our stuff!"
"Almighty Kalon..."
After doing this seven times, our coordination was flawless. At this rate, we could have made decent pirates. Calling it piracy when all we did was raid ghost ships was a little dubious, though. We were basically just switching to abandoned vessels. That hardly counted as piracy, did it?
Ghosts and skeletons were aboard, but they'd surely be happy we were making use of the ship. Of course they would. We were sending them to heaven in lieu of a boarding fee. Kalon would probably see our merciful deeds, laugh heartily, and approve. Anyway, that was how it worked.
Wasn't taking one hit from the Saintess's purification beam and passing on a bargain compared with wandering this misty sea forever, unable to reach the afterlife? What were they gonna do wandering around here any longer? They weren't the Xlying Dutchman; they'd just be roaming these waters without end. So really, we were doing volunteer work and receiving a donated ghost ship in return.
Hmm.
The logic was so flawless that even the Saintess had agreed with it, so I wasn't accepting counterarguments.
Not that anyone was around to argue anyway.
"Captain, when do you think we'll get out of these waters?"
"Hard to say."
When I'd checked the Status Window a moment ago, it looked like we had roughly 800 km left. The real problem was that we'd already been unable to escape this stretch for two weeks. We were somehow replenishing our food by fishing, but we couldn't live indefinitely on a catch of two or three fish a day at best. There were three of us—no, four. Millia counted as a person too... right?
I watched Millia's back as she hummed and peered through the telescope at the ghost ship. Although she was the oldest among us, she looked the youngest, and throughout the voyage she had dashed around the deck staring at the sea as though everything fascinated her. It felt a little like having a kid sister around, which I didn't mind.
"Reni! Furl the sails!"
"Okay!"
The moment we furled the sails that had been carrying us on the wind, our speed gradually dropped. But with the remaining momentum, Wilson 6 was able to pull right alongside Wilson 7.
"...Purify!"
Before the ghost ship's undead could react, purifying light poured down. If this had been a game, it would have been an insane EXP-farming event. At that rate, watching a Status Window would have been especially satisfying, though I couldn't see anyone else's.
"Clean work."
"I'm first!"
"Careful! It'd be a huge pain if you dropped your head in the sea like last time!"
If her head hadn't bobbed along floating, it would've been an absolute catastrophe. Even so, it had still taken close to an hour to fish it out. Fortunately, once Millia crossed onto the ghost ship, she romped around like a puppy seeing snow for the first time. So full of energy. How had she held back that kind of impulse when she was just a head?
...Oh wait, no, she'd rolled all over the place back then too.
"Damn, there are a lot of them. Yohan! Hurry up and help!"
"Got it!"
It was time for me to get to work too.
Together with Reni, who was already hauling out cargo, I began shifting our supplies.
---------------
"Oh, this ghost ship's got all kinds of facilities."
"I think it used to be a cruise ship."
That did seem to be the case. Wilson 7, which we'd scrubbed and polished back into decent shape, had fairly elegant decorations carved here and there, befitting a former cruise ship. The owner must've been pretty heartbroken to lose a vessel like this. Ah, though of course the owner might've been among the ghosts we found aboard.
Anyway, I explored the ship, checking the condition of the structures connected to the wheel.
Condition: good. Sails: need replacing. Holes in the hull: patch them up by dismantling Wilson 6. Then see what facilities still worked, and finally make the rounds of the cabins and storage to scavenge anything useful. That would wrap up today's schedule.
"Yohan! Look at this!"
"...A book?"
"Looks like a log! It was in the captain's cabin or something!"
"A log?"
Millia handed me the notebook. It had grown wrinkled from repeatedly getting wet and drying during its long time at sea. I sat on a crate and carefully opened the log. Fortunately, though the writing had blurred a little, it was still readable.
[Month X, Day XX.
The atmosphere isn't good.
The fog's so thick I can't see an inch ahead,
and before I knew it, the ship had strayed from its original course. I can see the passengers' complaints piling up.
Dammit. This was my last voyage—why does this have to happen now?
James says he spotted a strange shape in the fog. Surely... it's not that monster, is it?]
"A monster?"
"A monster, huh."
Only a handful of monsters came to mind in connection with the sea. This log looked extremely old, though, so I had no idea whether that monster was still around.
"Let's read the next part."
"Fine, so stop pestering me."
And stop hanging off me like it was the most natural thing in the world. It was uncomfortable. She needed to stop putting her head on top of mine, too.
[Month X, Day XX
Dammit. How did things end up like this?
A ghost ship! A goddamn ghost ship!
To encounter the very things you must never meet at sea—what terrible sin did I commit!
No. I have to pull myself together. I've got thirty-five years of seafaring experience. This is no time to panic.
I have to escape that ghost ship as fast as possible...]
"A ghost ship? Are they really that dangerous?"
"...We have Karina."
With Karina, the ultimate anti-ghost-ship weapon, it was only natural that we didn't feel threatened. Ghost ships were, in the end, ships crewed by ghosts, and any ghost hit by the Saintess's purification beam was destined to vanish without a trace. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to have been a single cleric among this ship's passengers.
"May the deceased rest in peace..."
"Rest in peace..."
[Month X, Day XX
Haha! Yes! No matter how old I get or how much I'm called a washed-up has-been, my skills haven't gone anywhere!
I managed to escape that damn ghost ship. The fog's starting to thin out too, so if I keep heading out like this, I'll be setting foot back on my homeland.
I missed Ellie and Ted.
When I get back, I'll sit my darling grandkids on my knee and tell them all about my exploits. I can't wait for that day...]
"It says they almost escaped these waters, but since they ended up as a ghost ship..."
"They must have run into another ghost ship at the last moment, or the monster from the log."
"It's not gonna attack us, is it?"
"Could happen."
"Th-then, are we gonna turn into ghosts too?"
"Can you even become a ghost?"
She was already dead. No—was she technically alive?
I'd resurrected her with an item, but her past was basically just part of her setting, and she'd been born a Dullahan. That was why she'd returned with her head still detached. The fact that Karina's Divine Power didn't seem to harm her suggested she wasn't undead, but...
I picked up Millia's head, which was sitting on top of mine, and set it onto her neck, then stood up.
"Alright then, go get to work. I've gotta steer the ship."
"Okay! Captain! See you later!"
After watching Millia dash off across the deck for a moment, I put my hands on the wheel. I'd already finished dismantling Wilson 6 to repair Wilson 7, so now it was time to test whether the ship was working properly.
"The wheel's a bit stiff."
That was only natural for a ghost ship that hadn't been maintained. I forced the wheel back and forth, then watched Reni replace the sails in the distance. Normally, one person couldn't possibly handle such an enormous sail alone, but a strapping woman like her wasn't going to struggle with the weight of a sail.
As I'd expected, Reni smoothly replaced the sail and hauled on the ropes to unfurl it. The sail, which had been passed down since Wilson 1, was made from bear hide and looked a little off in color, but its performance was unquestionable.
"Status Window."
[Yohan Quartz]
Age:19
Sex:Male
Race:Human
-Traits-
Insight:B
Shoveling:A+
Carpentry:A
Processing:A
Pharmacy:C+
Dexterity:B
Anatomy:B
Survival:S
-Skills-
Craft:A
Repair:B
Dismantling:B
Auto-Translate:A
-Mission-
Return to the mainland.[Reward:???]
Distance:811km
"If we're unlucky, it'll take another two months."
I hoped we would find an island where we could resupply along the way.
Leaning against the wheel of the seventh Wilson to join the family, I glared out at the fog-choked sea. Ah, that wasn't the right direction.
I turned the wheel to find my heading. Only then did this unhelpful Status Window, as if dispensing a rare act of charity, knock 0.1 km off the distance instead of telling me the direction.
Now all I had to do was keep heading this way and we could leave these waters...
That was when it happened.
"Captain! Look over there!"
At Millia's shout, I turned my head and looked where she was pointing.
Something wriggling in the fog.
Its shape was growing larger little by little, as if it was heading our way.
...We weren't going to have to find Wilson 8 immediately, were we?
"...Fuck. Would it kill you to let us have a little peace and quiet?"
I cursed and pulled the shovel from my back.