Beg and Beg Again (1)
─If this is true, doesn’t that mean we have to kill a dragon?
After the Hero, the Demon Knight, and the young rogue set out to suppress the pirates, the Archmage did what she had to do.
It was the work of prodding the Magic Tower—the same Tower that, even with clear evidence in hand, still dithered because it hated to take a loss.
─Is there even anyone skilled enough to kill a dragon?
She closed her eyes for a moment at the voices that kept tossing in comments through the communication orb.
─Forget skilled people—shouldn’t we be discussing how to even approach the thing first? The Sea Dragon lives in the ocean.
─Leave me out of it. I’ve got enough headaches with the mermen and the grandson problem.
─You think you’re the only one? We barely scraped the time for this ourselves.
She had told the party that the Tower was returning to pragmatism, but the truth was worse. Beyond mere self-interest, there were countless cases where nothing moved unless it first caught the fancy of the Great Sages who held decision-making power.
─Oh, right. What about the Hero? We’ve got a Hero, don’t we? Can’t we just use the Hero?
─Gryu Telz is close to the Great Temple. Let’s dump it on them.
And that was also why she was the only Great Sage supporting the Hero.
“The Hero will naturally step forward. Their companions will not abandon their duty either. And the Great Temple will not ignore this tale.”
The Archmage sometimes thought the world had stood opposed to Satan for far too long.
When defensive lines hard-won through fierce war came to be taken for granted. Or when she witnessed people who no longer felt gratitude toward the warriors who had given their lives to hold back the demons.
─What, so we’re good then?
And… when she was forced to look squarely at mages who, instead of inventing magic to reduce those warriors’ sacrifices, were busy filling their own curiosities.
She found herself thinking that.
“Hardly. As White Wind pointed out, even the Hero cannot exert their strength without a means of approaching the dragon.”
But despair would do no good either.
“So stop backing out and cooperate.”
The young ones were striving without a moment’s rest; she could not afford to idle either.
─Ah, wait, wait. About that new companion of the Hero who just joined. Is it true? Not only is there a demon housed in the body, but they can convert Demon Energy into mana?
─What?? I never heard that!
─Is that even okay? Shouldn’t we just kill them?
─If it’s fine, I’d like a body-part sample for a specimen.
“That is none of your business, so shut up and cooperate. Please.”
…Looking after the safety of the one who had come to walk with them was also a duty she could not set aside.
“My lord, are you truly all right?”
So noisy… I know already…
“Good grief.”
I leaned against the deckhouse and covered my entire eye area with a raised hand. Even so, the lower half of my face must have looked thoroughly pale, because Dev and the Inquisitor refused to leave my side.
That only made it worse. Because of them I had to keep being aware of my surroundings with what little strength I already didn’t have.
“If you’re really struggling, shall I fetch medicine?”
These brats, seriously—I’m already suffering, don’t make me act on top of it…!
“…La.”
“Pardon?”
“I said stop making noise and get lost…!”
I had to throw a real tantrum for them to listen! I lowered my hand and scraped my throat raw, warning them with a face twisted as far as it would go. It worked, at least; the two flinched and backed off. They were nothing but little puppies.
“Looks like you’re feeling a bit better now.”
“Perhaps because this ship is larger than the one we boarded yesterday.”
“Do smaller ships make you seasick more easily than large ones?”
“…Do they not?”
“Of course they do—they rock more with the waves. Look at you asking again when you don’t even know that.”
“…You little—!”
Far from staying withdrawn, the two started bickering again. An old friend of mine used to carry on just like that with his little sister. A faint memory rose and faded.
He was rough with her, that’s all; real siblings wouldn’t be like that. Mm-hmm. Absolutely not.
“Hey, keep it down!”
While I was conquering my seasickness with the fantasy of being an only child, someone barked in a stern voice. The scar on his cheek and his looks would have made people mistake him for a pirate if he hadn’t been wearing the uniform of the regular soldiers.
“Ah, my apologies.”
“So prickly.”
Separately, I thought it was a little excessive to be this touchy when no enemy had even been spotted yet—you could talk a bit. It definitely had nothing to do with those two annoying brats looking cowed.
“Engaged ships sighted!”
Before long, though, one of those things appeared. When I somehow narrowed my swimming vision, two ships sat on the horizon.
The smaller one was fleeing the larger; it looked more like a chase than a proper engagement.
“After them!”
Three fast ships hastily shifted their sails and headed that way. I wondered if the other side would simply run, but I figured sailors had their own methods.
“Are they pirates?”
“The carrack is definitely Bipurit’s pirate fleet. The caravel side… looks civilian!”
A fair wind did nothing for my seasickness. I forced the nausea down.
If you mashed a brain into pulp and shook it, it would probably feel like this. I had already swallowed that complaint more than five times.
“My lord, you can fight, right?”
I don’t even know anymore. If it’s this bad now, how the hell are we supposed to catch a dragon?
I slowly accepted my place and drew a deep breath. The salty air rode my nose down into my lungs and I improved a little—until the next roll of the ship made it worse again.
I want to become seaweed on that sea floor.
“…You. Just take care of your own hide.”
Still, it wasn’t as bad as yesterday when I couldn’t even stand.
Whether it was the larger ship or calmer waves than the northern coast, I couldn’t tell. But as long as my condition had improved even a little, I thought I could move.
So I delivered a line that fit the concept—though I wasn’t sure it did; I lacked the mental capacity to check—and peeled my back from the wall I had been leaning on.
Thud.
For an instant my legs nearly gave out. If I hadn’t quickly set my back against the wall again I might have dropped to my knees once more.
“…….”
Even with the hood covering his eyes, I somehow knew Dev was looking at me with pity.
“…Eyes. Elsewhere.”
“Yessir.”
…I did want to lighten the concept a bit, but I didn’t want it broken like this…
Hostile entities exist within a 30 m radius.
“Battle stations!”
In the meantime the distance between the engaged ships and the warships had closed.
The carrack had finally lost the caravel and was now moving alone to starboard, trying to avoid us. The caravel was peeling away to port, putting more distance between itself and us.
“Seeing them run, that side might be pirates too.”
“Judging by speed and hull shape, it looks like Baramson.”
“Privateers are still pirates. Tch. If only we’d been closer.”
“Shall we signal the rear ships to pursue?”
“Send just one. If it really is Baramson we won’t catch him anyway.”
The ship we had thought civilian turned out to be something infamous; the man commanding the warships chewed a curse.
Of course that didn’t mean he would ignore the pirate that had rolled right in front of him.
“Take that carrack!”
Only one of the three warships broke formation; the remaining two began attacking the carrack in earnest.
“Throw!”
Our lead ship was the first to hurl grappling hooks. The hooks at the ends of the ropes flew through the air under the hands of veteran navy men and caught on the pirate ship’s rail.
Pirate │ Marauders who roam the seas. Freedom and romance have fallen before greed.
The system that had been unemployed during the Dragon Tooth Soldiers was working again today.
“Reinforcements!”
“Kill them!”
“If we hold, we win!”
“We’re getting hanged if we’re caught anyway!”
“Fight back!”
The pirates weren’t going to just watch. They hacked at the ropes with dull blades, trying somehow to prevent the boarding.
Pirates were executed on the spot without trial—by hanging or beheading—so even those futile struggles were, in their own way, thrashing for survival.
But the ships were now fully linked by rope. The pirate ship had nowhere left to run.
“Whew. Finally a fight.”
“I will punish them without fail.”
As the two said, it was our turn now. We had come to fight. Which meant I also had to cross over and fight…
I covered my mouth and braced against the deckhouse wall. At my slightly staggering legs Dev swore and tried to support me.
“What the—my lord, you’re not fine at all!”
Yeah. Honestly, fighting with a face that blue wasn’t the wisest choice.
But backing down here would be worse. Losing to nothing more than seasickness just didn’t look good.
Besides, if a main quest ever involved the ocean, how was I supposed to progress then? I didn’t particularly like the philosophy of effort, but if that was the only way, I had to try.
I knocked away the supporting hand and somehow planted both feet firmly. Then I drew a deep breath to clear my lungs and stepped forward as I was.
Thump—one step. Thud—two. Tak—the third step, and the sound of my boot on the rail.
“……!”
“Demon Knight!”
The rail that couldn’t bear my push-off crunched and shattered. In exchange my body rose as if flying through the air.
Thump.
After clearing the gap between the ships in a single bound I stepped onto the rope. Balance only needed not to collapse too far to one side. Once acceleration built, the center held surprisingly well.
Screee.
The sudden added weight and impact twisted the hook holding the rope, but it didn’t come free easily. My body raced along the rope and in an instant I was on the pirate ship.
“Kill—?!”
Moving big actually seemed better. At least this body that hadn’t felt like mine was moving according to my lead.
I let that stray thought slide and sprang lightly. Thunk! A pirate’s blade buried itself in the rail I had just left, and my rising body stomped the face of the pirate who had swung it.
Then, from the high jump, a straight downward stomp. I didn’t use a sword. Wrap the body in power and you can still imitate a skill’s form.
Breaker. The skill performed with the legs struck the center of the pirate ship’s deck.
CRACK!
A spectacular fracture—or rather a luxurious web of cracks—was carved into the wooden deck. Starting from the impact point, the cracks sank layer by layer as if terraced.
The ship heaved hard two or three times.
“Hah.”
Ah, the rocking made the nausea rise again.
I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and planted my feet as wide as I could. Dust trapped between the deck planks and sawdust from the shattered wood rose in a pale cloud around my ankles before settling.
“A-a knight?!”
“You bastards! What are you doing! Kill him!”
Allies still hadn’t crossed, so for now this ship held only pirates.
Good. Honestly I hadn’t been confident about telling friend from foe in a melee, so this worked out.
I focused on the immediate task to ignore the nausea that kept pulling at me. First priority was dodging the approaching blades.
Even the dizziness dulled somewhat before the survival instinct; I slipped the first blade cleanly.
Because I spun while dodging, the coat hem flared and brushed the pirate, and my forearm slammed the back of his neck.
Thud!
One went down and the next closed in. A blade was coming from high to low to split me.
I drew my sword with my right hand in a reverse grip and angled it diagonally to catch the edge. Klang! A razor-sharp metallic ring rang clear, and a thrusting attack came from the side.
“Hup!”
If there’s no angle to dodge, you make one. I stepped forward and shoved the enemy. Pour mana into the legs for reinforcement and pushing someone back was nothing.
I also knocked the sword upward, sending the enemy’s blade flying, then drove my left fist precisely into the opening body.
Whump!
The enemy who took it in the solar plexus folded like a flip phone and flew.
Shing!
I immediately switched to a proper grip, dropped my arm fast, and blocked another incoming attack.
The ship rolled without warning and my balance broke, but it was a windfall for me. I took one more step with the foot that still had spring and drove my fist into the pirate’s head.
It was a clean, brutal blow.
“Urgh.”
The seasickness hit right after, but I would have preferred it stayed away a little longer. Gah.
I hurriedly covered my mouth and struggled to hold my stance. Of course other pirates seized that brief opening.
So I thought about jumping up and landing again to try Ground Crash at least…
Slice.
“My lord always seems to leave his back open?”
No need, apparently. Dev, who I hadn’t even noticed crossing, took a pirate’s head with his kukri.
Clang!
“Or was that unnecessary?”
He didn’t have to put it that way, but it wasn’t exactly praiseworthy either.
Instead of answering I launched myself again toward the approaching enemies. The cumbersome longsword could go back in its scabbard for a while.
Whoosh.
I sprang lightly and stomped on an enemy’s arm.
The hand that had been thrusting the sword was crushed under my boot, crashed downward, and then the face was driven into the knee.
Wobble. Enemy and I went down together.
The next blade coming in a horizontal cut I ducked under, then punched the side. Once the enemy’s waist bent a little, the angle was perfect for me to rise and smash his head.
Whump!
One punch and the pirate crumpled straight down.
“You bastards!”
After dealing with a few more that way, the pirate ship and the warship had almost closed. The Inquisitor, whose relatively heavy body had kept her from crossing until now, naturally began to come over.
“Receive judgment!”
With the Inquisitor’s arrival the tide completely turned our way. The radiance of the god fell upon the pirates.
It was a moment when neither the city troops nor the other adventurers who had joined the commission even got a proper taste of the fun.
“Honestly, all that brute strength and nothing else.”
The deck that had already been half-wrecked by my kicks now had a hole punched clean through it by the Inquisitor’s blazing mace work.
I worried the ship might sink, but fortunately it never went that far.
“What did you say?”
“I said you’re strong?”
I was starting to suspect Dev lived for the joy of teasing the Inquisitor when a pirate on the verge of beheading screamed.
“Lord Bipurit will one day cut off your wrists and throw you to the fish of this sea!”
The reactions were as follows.
“Bipurit will what? Cut off our wrists and feed us to the fish?”
“If he had that kind of ability he should first take back the island his brother stole!”
“Ahahaha!”
Wahaha. The navy’s mockery followed immediately.
“Bipurit? Who’s that?”
“What, you don’t even know that?”
“…Right. I don’t. Do you know?”
“Ha, of course I do. Only an idiot wouldn’t.”
At Dev’s jab the Inquisitor looked resentful. The problem was… I didn’t know either. What the hell was that.
“He’s the former lord of the Yabad Region, the great island separated from the mainland.”
…And where’s the Yabad Region?
Last time I snuck a look at the Archmage’s map there was a huge island somewhere around the seven- or eight-o’clock position clockwise. Was that it?
“The lords over there quietly tolerate privateers, but that one ran pirates so openly he earned popular backlash. That’s why his brother took the castle from him.”
While I was figuring out Yabad’s location, Dev continued the explanation. It was the basic knowledge needed to understand the navy’s mockery.
“So he was driven out.”
“After that he just styled himself pirate king and has been plundering every merchant ship he can find.”
“The Yabad Region is much farther south than here. No reason for him to come this far.”
“How would I know pirate psychology? Maybe the Sea Dragon problem made food scarce.”
I don’t know. Unlike the northern coast, Gryu Telz still hadn’t taken a major hit. Looking at that, the more southern—probably—Yabad Region should be even finer.
“Or maybe they were after that ship earlier. Baramson is a famous privateer captain.”
“Ha, can trash even be famous?”
“He’s so skilled at sailing that people say he commands the sea itself, so he can be famous. Among sailors he’s apparently regarded as a descendant of Soldini, the incarnation of the ocean.”
Dev said that while pointing to one side. It was our warship that had left formation earlier under orders to chase the caravel.
The complete lack of damage on the ship suggested they had lost it after all.
“At minimum he’s skilled enough to shake off a warship. Assuming that caravel really is Baramson’s.”
“Trash is still trash no matter how you look at it.”
At the Inquisitor’s hard line Dev only shrugged as if he had expected it. I, however, found my interest snagged on one part of Dev’s words.
A captain so skilled at navigation that people said he commanded the sea. Whoever Soldini was, a figure regarded as a descendant of the incarnation of the ocean.
Doesn’t that look exactly like someone we’d need for a Sea Dragon raid?