Chapter 147
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 147
Chapter Title: Heading to the Archipelago
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"Yeah. Aurora's from the Western Continent, right?"
"That's right. The Western Continent doesn't have particularly bad relations with the Archipelago."
In other words, using a ship from the merchant group led by Aurora would make it easy to enter the Archipelago.
The races of the Archipelago folk and Central Continent people weren't all that different anyway.
Of course, simply getting there didn't solve everything.
If the Angler Bird really came from the Archipelago, where should they start searching afterward?
Unfortunately, with the means at his disposal, Leon had no way to even confirm where the Angler Bird came from or how it was connected.
Sure, if it was intelligent enough to come to him directly and deliver an item, it probably knew the way back...
But regrettably, after the treatment, the creature couldn't understand a word he said, just like a wild Angler Bird.
Fortunately, things went well, and Melissa soon brought him the news.
"They said there's one ship preparing to depart. We can take that one. I want to go too, but..."
"I'll go."
Melissa was the lord of the territory.
She wasn't in a position to move freely whenever something happened.
"This is an order from the family head. Find her no matter what and bring her back. Got it? And don't you dare get hurt."
"Understood."
He'd be indebted to Aurora once again.
The ship from Aurora's Planetaria Trading Company was headed to Remilish Island, the closest one in the Archipelago.
Most of the Archipelago was under a closure policy right now, and Remilish was the only place with an open port.
At this point, a thought crossed his mind.
Planetaria Trading Company.
Its scale was bigger than expected.
There were countless trading companies on the continent, but he'd never properly heard of Planetaria.
When divided by continent-level scale, the largest were those under the Lavren family, but Planetaria wasn't affiliated with them.
For its position to have grown just from this recent deal, the business ventures Aurora already controlled were far grander than he'd imagined.
"By order of Lady Aurora, we will do our utmost to escort you to the Archipelago. We'll ensure your stay is as comfortable as possible. I'm Bag Ensail."
"Pleased to meet you."
Bag Ensail. A name that screamed shrewd businessman.
"Having served Lady Aurora for so long, this is a deeply moving moment. She doesn't have many close friends... Ahem! Forgive my sentimentality."
He wore neat merchant attire, and his refreshing smile gave off a harmless vibe, but up close, he had that same fox-like cunning in his eyes as Aurora.
"To start, due to poor relations between the Central Continent and the Phainas Archipelago, we can't officially carry you two under the agreement."
"We know."
"That's just on paper, though. There's plenty of unofficial exchange. Truth be told, the bad blood is mostly at the upper levels—the common folk of Phainas don't particularly like their elites."
During the voyage, Bag Ensail gave them a rough rundown of the Phainas Archipelago's structure.
A confederation of kingdoms ruled by various families on their islands.
Too small to call full kingdoms, too large for mere families—a united force of bloated islands. In the past, they'd raided Central Continent nations as pirates, leading to a big war.
"I hesitate to say this, but... that place has a lot of lawless zones. We avoid islands with high danger ratings ourselves."
Remilish Island, their destination, apparently had fairly stable public order compared to the rest of the Archipelago.
"Even the Western Continent doesn't love trading with them. They're so arrogant, always bullying merchants. But Remilish is at least a place where words carry weight."
The special ship sailed at a decent clip—not as fast as the previous mermaid vessel, but quick enough.
Remilish was a large island with a massive castle at its center.
With a resident population in the hundreds of thousands, it was mid-tier in size even among the Archipelago islands.
Population alone didn't make it a threat, but their scary part was that if even one island was attacked, the entire Archipelago confederation mobilized at once.
In short, mess with even the smallest island, and you'd be at war with the whole Archipelago.
"Even so, the Archipelago's forces alone couldn't stand up to the Central Continent."
"True. They probably figure no expedition would reach them from the continent. If there's profit to be had along the way, they'll squeeze out every drop."
Whatever the past wars were like, it didn't matter. They just needed to quietly find Arsha.
The atmosphere on Remilish Island wasn't bad.
The bustling port full of busy sailors and merchants made it hard to call the place completely dead.
That said, the sight of slave-like figures in tattered clothes hauling cargo with dead eyes was something rarely seen on the Central Continent.
Slavery existed, but these days, all continents at least respected slaves' basic human rights to some degree.
Bag Ensail said to come to the trading company camp anytime if they needed anything.
"How should we search?"
"Good question. It's a bit daunting..."
The only clue was a single Angler Bird.
Beyond that, just a sheet of paper with a drawing.
It felt like searching for a needle in a sandfield.
Regrettably, gathering info via the Machine God's Heart in his current state wasn't easy either.
For now, to find locals who knew the island inside out, they scouted for an information guild on Remilish.
Bag Ensail was gathering leads via the dockside merchant guild, so checking elsewhere was more efficient.
"Where would an information guild be...?"
"The slums, probably."
Slums. That's what they called poor districts, and indeed, that's where criminals, info brokers, and related groups often lurked.
The problem was that storming into the slums mostly netted con artists with nothing useful.
Even when Leon and Luna entered Remilish's slums, there was no real harvest.
Beggars initially swarmed them, but soon vanished, likely spooked by their aura.
This vibe was worlds apart from the Central Continent.
Luna pondered as she eyed the eerily quiet slums.
"Leon."
"Yeah."
"I have a way."
She gave him a poke.
"Stay back for a bit."
At her request, he obligingly hid out of sight.
What're you up to?
The moment that thought crossed his mind...
Luna unhesitatingly pulled back her robe's hood.
She put on a slightly scared expression and ventured deeper in.
A tasty morsel? Predators never pass those up.
Luna's looks would draw aggro even brushing past. For slavers, it'd be irresistible bait.
—Or so she figured...
Didn't she know mushrooms could be too pretty and raise suspicions instead?
Convinced her plan would work, Luna waited boldly.
But as time dragged on with no takers, she started showing signs of panic.
After a long wait with zero bites, Luna was clearly pissed.
A lot of folks in these slums seemed on guard against them from the start.
This wasn't normal. Unless someone had stirred things up recently.
"Leon."
Unable to hold back, Luna called him over and redonned her hood.
"Not working, huh?"
"Someone stirred it up for sure. No other way it'd be this quiet."
"So, what's next?"
She pointed to a rundown tavern deeper in the alley.
Poor districts weren't all total shacks.
"We'll drag 'em out ourselves."
She strode confidently to the door, where presences stirred inside, and flung it open.
Dozens of eyes locked on them, but soon dismissed them.
Definitely stirred up.
And badly—they'd gotten burned hard last time.
Otherwise, on a slaver haven like this island? Treating them like idiots.
Luna marched straight to the counter and blurted at the bartender,
"I want to buy info. Pay good."
Despite her bold demand, her sparkling eyes betrayed her excitement—this was something she'd always wanted to try.
Come to think of it, there'd been reports from Cascadia's info guild of a hooded figure occasionally spouting odd demands before vanishing.
He'd wondered who the nutjob was.
It was you.
"What nonsense is this? This is a dive bar. If you're not drinking, get lost..."
Krunch!!!
Her hand on the table tensed for an instant, cracking it with a sharp snap.
"I'm not here to play. Guide me. Now."
Scrrrt...
The bartender's face hardened at her abrupt demand.
"What the... the table..."
"Now."
Luna sometimes got that gleam in her eye after hearing adventure tales, dying to try it herself.
Like a kid experiencing the world for the first time.
"Crazy bitch, huh? Hey, drag this one out."
The bartender broke first and called out.
A few men who'd been eyeing each other rose.
The moment they approached her, a line etched across the floor at their feet.
The men flinched at the sword-sharp mark.
"Don't cross that."
"What bullshit you spouting, you crazy..."
Of course, some thug without a clue wouldn't listen.
The instant one stepped over, a fierce gust erupted.
"Guhk..."
"One step back. Stay."