You Said This Was a Patrol? (3)
"Oh?"
"The ship's bigger than I thought?"
"Plenty big enough for us to ride. Let's get going!"
These guys are demons—do they even know how to sail a ship?
"Alright, lads! Hurry up and prepare for departure!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Huh, that was a smooth, natural set of movements. Wait, they actually know how?
"So you all know your way around a ship, huh?"
"No, not really? We're land dogs... we don't know much. Isn't this thing just supposed to go once you raise the sail?"
"If you don't know how to use it, you'll row yourself backwards. Raise it wrong and that's exactly what happens."
"Ah..."
And from my experience back in China, rivers twist and turn, and raising a sail on one is incredibly dangerous. Just how far could we get before this ship broke apart?
Still, at least it's a river. We could survive chewing raw potatoes and drinking water mixed with a bit of holy water.
"Alright, everyone! Grab the oars!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Well, at least they're good at answering.
Going downstream like this is genuinely easy. When you get tired of rowing, you just rest a bit and let the current carry you along.
Drifting on and on. Row a while, rest a while, row a while, rest a while.
"What would you lot have done about escaping without me?"
"We'd have just borrowed some from those farmhouses over there, wouldn't we?"
"Ah..."
Meaning if they ran short of anything, they'd simply steal it.
"Look, there's a ship!"
"What!"
Were pursuers on our tail? Were they blocking our route downstream?
"Huh? Is that a trade ship?"
"Looks like it, doesn't it? They've got it loaded to the brim with cargo."
The ship was also far bigger than ours. No one on deck was wearing armor, so apparently not a warship. What a relief.
"Row! Row!"
"Let's go!"
Hold on. Why? Aren't we the ones running away? What exactly are you planning to do with that giant ship with this handful of people?
Maybe if they're just going to hijack it?
They're actually going through with it? The thing's on a straight course, too...
THUNK!
"!#!%!"
"Climb aboard!"
"WAAAAH!"
Oh? Our side's ship was a bit lower, so they were swarming up the mast and leaping across.
Impressive bastards. They're thinking about what to steal even in the middle of this?
POW!
"Gwaaak!"
SPLASH!
A few of them took a hit and went flying into the river.
SHING!
"!@#!^*#%&#"
One of them had actually drawn a sword. But what good does drawing it do?
SNATCH.
"Eheheh? You giving this to me?"
He was too slow to even swing it properly, and his hand got caught—the whole sword taken from him in one go.
"!#$!#%!"
"Ehahahaha! Everybody stand aside!"
There was one member of the crew who was noticeably bigger than the rest—his head had to be three times the size of mine. He'd grab a man's ankles with both hands and simply swing him around like a club. That was genuinely spectacular!
"BLUUUURGH!"
Oh! And a chemical attack thrown in for free.
SHING! CLANG! SHING!
The moment the weapons got confiscated, the fight was effectively over. Whoever these people were—merchants or whatever—every last one of them had tumbled into the river.
"My lady! All cleaned up here. Come on up!"
"Right..."
Could you please not say that like it's just an everyday occurrence?
I don't know what these friends of mine used to do, but I'm sorry.
"Oh? There's liquor and fruit on board!"
"Good. Bring it out and let's eat."
I figured the kids deserved a rest, so I nudged the ship along with telekinesis, pushing it gently toward the best current. Shouldn't they be the ones looking after me? I felt like a mother babysitting a pack of delinquents.
This ship was a rather odd shape. One big sail at the front, and that was it. Probably because they load so much cargo in the back?
"Nothing special aboard, huh. Only thing worth taking is the gold."
The hold was stuffed with produce and spices, but we already had all of that back home.
"Where on earth are we, I wonder?"
"Even moving slowly, we should have come down a tremendous distance in ten days..."
By the way—did they clean up properly after taking everyone's weapons?
"Speaking of which, what happened to your bows?"
"We snapped them before we got captured and buried them in the sand."
"Good work."
That much, at least, they handled flawlessly. Even if a composite bow did fall apart, our kids would just use it as kindling—apparently it's convenient for lighting fires when you've got gunpowder on hand. Give them a single hint and they'll have weapons again in no time.
Or some idle soul will probably blow something else up somewhere. The gunpowder really does need to stay a Daehan secret. Time to go be gunslingers of the West! Wait, for us it'd be the East, wouldn't it?
Maybe I should go strip-mine a gold mine in America with the kids. Heh heh heh.
Ah! I can't exactly lecture them, can I? Look at me, having these thoughts so naturally. Ugh...
"Sniff sniff."
Hm? That dog-nosed one has started sniffing the air again.
"I smell the sea!"
"Oh!"
"The sea, at last!"
"Great! So you know the way from here?"
"Nope?"
What exactly do you know, then? Looking back on it, these people had charged straight across a desert on pure gut instinct without knowing a thing.
Come to think of it... our Intelligence Bureau isn't a secret organization at all! They're just explorers (bandits).
They really do seem to recruit literally anyone. It's a miracle the whole operation functions.
"Sniff sniff."
Hm? Now what?
"There's a strong smell of something burning, my lady?"
"Uh... maybe we should hold off on going out there a while?"
This feels ominous.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
"Now what's this?"
From behind us—that is, upstream—came the sound of drums.
Drums are mostly a military thing, you see? Which means it's either pursuers, or it's connected to whatever's going on ahead of us...
"What do we do, my lady?"
"What should we do?"
"Ahead seems better, doesn't it?"
"I was thinking the same—behind us is desert, so we might as well plunge into the sea."
Near the ocean it'd be easier to find water than in a desert, at least. Surely we could scrape by on tree sap if it came to that?
"I don't know! Let's go!"
"Raise the sail!"
"You dummy! That's a headwind! What are you raising the sail for?"
"Huh? We can't?"
"No!"
If you can't handle a sail in a headwind, furling it and rowing is always the better option.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
"Huh? The sound's getting closer?"
"We'd better row, for now?"
"Move fast. If they so much as ram us, we sink."
Everyone threw themselves onto the oars, but the speed just wasn't there. And creeping into view around the river bend—warships.
"Whoa. Those are actual combat vessels."
"Come on, lads! Row even harder!"
The small boat had at least had some speed, but this one has none at all...
These mayfly-livered idiots...
KEE-REE KEE-REE.
"Oh! Seabirds! The sea can't be far now!"
The fool is shouting with hope in his voice, but not knowing how to sail—is that really good news? We're getting caught even on the river; what difference would the open sea make?
I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud.
"Should we abandon ship and swim? Wouldn't that be faster?"
"Huh?"
Right—if it came to it, ditching the boat and bolting overland would be best. There were mountains off to the side there; we could hide and run.
"For now, once we hit open water, let's hug the coastline and keep going."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Then we rounded the bend and the sea came into view—and it looked like an ocean of fire.
"What is all that?"
"Huh?"
Ships were burning across the entire sea! Why not just scoop up some seawater and put the fires out?
"My lady!"
"What? Why?"
Do you know something? Is it dangerous?
"Those are ships on OUR side!"
"What do you mean, our side?"
Where are we that 'our side' suddenly shows up? There'd be traders coming through these waters, sure.
But there were more than twenty ships burning before my eyes? Even granting that one of ours could take on a hundred, could a mere merchant fleet pull this off? I thought they sailed in flotillas of four or five, at most?
"Those are firebombs!"
"Huh?"
Why are those HERE? As far as I knew, the only firebombs in existence were the ones in my Subspace and the one that smacked me in the face back when we were playing with fire at the Temple.
"Look behind the smoke!"
"Uh...?"
What—beyond that smoke? The sea was packed solid with Orca-class warships.
"How did they get here?"
"The ones who escaped first must have hustled back and reported!"
"Hey? Even so, the distance from Sinsi to here is enormous, isn't it? They're already here?"
As far as I knew, that voyage took about four months?
"Aw, not from Sinsi—they must have gone to the nearest port!"
"There's a port here?"
"Plenty of our ships dock at foreign ports, my lady!"
"So these are the kids who were trading nearby?"
"That's right!"
Was there really that much to sell? When we get back, shouldn't they be building their headquarters out of solid gold?
But hold on—if they're here to trade, why are they hauling around weapons that vicious?
"Hmm... nice to meet you and all, but..."
"What is it?"
"Isn't business about to get impossible around here?"
"Aw, those merchant types don't care about any of that. Show them the goods and they'll buy them one way or another."
Was this always what Arabian merchants were like?
"For now, let's head over there. We can get home comfortably."
"Yes, ma'am!"
We rowed all the harder. Those kids over there would actually know how to sail, unlike us land dogs.
FWEEET! THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
"Arrows! Take cover!"
"GYAAAAH!"
Ah. I hadn't thought of that? From their perspective, we're an enemy vessel, aren't we? Thank goodness we had so much to hide behind.
"Being shot at by our own allies—what a rare experience, huh?"
"At least they're not throwing firebombs."
"That's because they're the same breed as you lot."
Anyone could see that was a trade ship, after all—loaded with cargo ripe for the taking...
THUNK.
"EHAHAHA! A trade ship!"
"WAAAAH!"
See? Look at them go. They're thrilled simply because it's a trade ship.
VROOOOM THUNK.
Our ship was far taller. Really, they're just leaping over it like that?
"Huh?"
"..."
"Ah. Um, my lady?"
"What."
It's not like I could be hurt, so I'd just stood there while the arrows flew—but the ones hanging off my clothes every which way did make me look a bit fearsome.
"GYAAAH! You wretched bastards! You shot arrows at MY LADY!?"
Weren't you the one who gave the order? Normally they shoot because their captain tells them to, don't they?
"Stop spouting nonsense and let's go home."
"Yes, ma'am..."
He knew perfectly well and put on the whole show anyway, didn't he?
"Listen up, everyone! My lady has arrived! See to her comfort as you see fit!"
"Oh my! So this is where you've been!"
"We searched everywhere for you!"
I'd rather die than be coddled like this. At least our ship has a cabin—I should go in and rest.
RAT-TAT-TAT. RAT-TAT-TAT.
Just how many arrows did I catch? Look at all these holes in my clothes.
"Um..."
"What?"
"Perhaps you'd like to change your clothes before we arrive?"
Yes, there are a lot of holes, but why would that make him blush like that? It's just a little underwear showing, that's all.
"So what if my underwear shows a bit?"
"Are you quite certain, my lady?"
"Women's swimsuits at the beach in summer show more skin than this, don't they?"
"Ah..."
My underwear is basically a tube top with short hot pants—hardly scandalous, right?
This guy frets over the strangest things.
"Besides, where exactly would I change? There's nowhere to do it here."
These kids' ship had no cabin at all. Where on earth do they shelter when it rains?
"Then please come along for now. We'll escort you to the cabin."
"Fine~"
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
Ah, right—the warships were still coming.
"Aw, it's warships. We'd best hurry back, then."
Huh? They're not going to fight?
"They're escorting away a ship with nothing worth stealing on it. Boring."
So the problem wasn't that they were warships—it was that there was nothing to loot?
These people's way of thinking really is something else.
"Move quickly!"
"Yes, sir!"
FLAP. FLAP.
So these guys really can work sails even against a headwind?
Sail raised and oars churning, the Sasanian ships shrank away behind us in no time. Once we got home I'd have to order our defenses shored up, in case they attacked in retaliation.
Not that it mattered—if they came pushing in, we'd prepared enough that victory would be ours, no question.
Still, their heavy cavalry had been rather terrifying when I was first captured. Chain mail from head to toe, metal helmets and all.
The other ships scattered to watch the show, while the ship I was on made all speed for Sinsi. They called it all speed—it had taken three months just to reach Gunpo.
Sailing along the coastline takes its sweet time, you know? What we need is a chronometer!
With a properly accurate clock, we could work out our position anywhere on the open sea!