Ghost Bride
Ghost Bride
I just tossed the Prince's corpse in the corner of an alley, and everything worked out.
"4th Support Fleet Commander-in-Chief Marisa Adel, forward!"
The square in the ruins was decorated with military flags and colorful cloth.
Two honor guards, walking boldly to the beat of the military band, escorted Marisa to the podium.
Even though she was the one being honored, Marisa's social status must have been incredibly high.
As soon as she stepped onto the podium, even the old gentlemen sitting in the corner stood up to salute.
The person receiving the medal wasn't Marisa herself, but the honor guard who had escorted her.
'The hierarchy is crystal clear.'
Helping Marisa out had been the right answer.
The letter of credit and the villa would likely be more useful than I'd thought.
After finishing the simple victory ceremony, we returned to the fishing village just in time for dinner.
As usual, a maid came to find us and guided us to the dining hall.
Marisa was sitting alone in the dining hall we arrived at.
For the protagonist of a rather large-scale battle, the banquet was surprisingly small.
Just like when we first arrived here, it was only the three of us and Marisa.
As we sat side-by-side across from her, Marisa picked up her knife.
And as she sliced her meat, she brought up the topic.
"One person died."
I also sliced my meat as we conversed.
"Yes. It was a situation where it was hard to control my strength."
"I won't adjust the payment, but I have to express my regret."
"That's understandable."
"Do you intend to show sincerity later?"
"I'll need to keep using the letter of credit, so keeping the connection is welcome."
"That's fortunate. When do you plan to leave for Karla?"
"As soon as the war ends."
"Don't you want to leave earlier?"
As I popped the meat into my mouth and chewed, sending her a questioning look, Marisa continued.
"The 2nd Fleet that was at Brington Port is leaving for Ishtal tomorrow to support the expedition. A large merchant group is moving with them, and I want to obtain information related to that."
I could get a free ride on a ship, too.
There was no reason to refuse.
...Or so I thought, but,
Maybe I should have refused.
Kkiruk— Kkiruk—
The vast ocean.
On a reef.
I stared blankly up at the seagulls and asked.
"Is the letter of credit okay?"
Helsi was spreading out books and documents on the highest part of the reef.
"Yes. It's magic contract parchment, so it's perfectly fine."
"What about the books?"
"Um... one got a bit smudged, but it's not unreadable."
Thank goodness.
I sighed and sutured the torn instep.
The blood that had been streaming out stopped, and the blood that had stained the water surface sank deep down.
'It should be about time.'
A wide carpet of blood spread out on the seabed.
"Hap!"
With a shout, I lifted the carpet, and the sea surface began to ripple.
Hati, who had been sitting next to me looking up at the seagulls, jumped up.
At the same time, the sea surface swelled.
When Hati coolly snatched a seagull, the sea surface exploded, and a massive shipwreck rose up.
A shipwreck from an ancient era, coated in seaweed and barnacles, looking like a ghost ship.
...
"Oh."
This wasn't what I was aiming for...
What I had been trying to fish out was the lifeboat attached to the merchant ship we had arrived on.
Name: Milli Howell
Occupation: Bodyguard
Experience: None
Education: Academy 5th year (on leave)
The administrator couldn't help but sigh when he saw the scrawny guy with glasses, unsure if he was a boy or a young man.
"What a ragtag..."
Ishtal, a port city where the humid sea breeze kept the desert sand quite settled, making it not a bad place to live.
The administrator had been excited to hear the news of the 2nd Fleet's arrival.
The hometown preserved food that everyone complained tasted bad but couldn't wait to be restocked.
Reliable soldiers who made the picky locals act kindly.
Newspapers and professional books that suddenly became interesting after coming here.
The only day all of that was satisfied at once was the day a warship docked.
But the entire fleet came in?
This was a party.
That's what he had thought.
But all that arrived were the warships.
Some said two small supply ships had survived, but what did that have to do with him, a low-level administrator?
"Just more mouths to feed."
He spat out his complaint and returned the scroll-style passport to its owner.
The bespectacled Milli.
He smiled awkwardly and rolled up his passport.
"Where should I go?"
Having come here as a bodyguard to someone relatively high-up, he had expected to be treated with some level of respect.
But the first expedition member he met after stepping onto this strange land had a sour expression, and the administrator he asked was cold as ice.
"Here for tourism? Get lost, there are people waiting behind you."
Milli was flustered and glanced at the people behind him.
They didn't seem particularly dissatisfied, but being the timid person he was, he couldn't be sure of what they were thinking.
'The line is long, after all.'
Milli hunched his shoulders and stepped out of the administration office.
What unfolded before his eyes was a port city densely packed with buildings of exotic architecture.
Tropical trees he had never seen in his life.
Passersby wearing strange clothes he had only seen in newspapers.
Carts pulled by camels.
Red cliffs rising as if to wrap around the harbor.
As Milli stood there with his mouth agape, taking in the scenery, someone approached him.
"You're the Academy Institute reinforcement, Milli Howell, right?"
He turned around to see a man in a familiar uniform holding out his hand.
"Ah! Yes, that's me."
He immediately straightened his posture and shook the man's hand.
The man smiled brightly, waved his hand, and scanned Milli up and down.
"Are you not wearing your uniform?"
Milli scratched the back of his head.
"Ah, that is... I came as a bodyguard, so..."
Fortunately, the man seemed to have heard something about that.
"Ah, a bodyguard..."
He nodded with a skeptical look on his face and pointed in the direction he needed to go.
"Let's go for now. The Academy Institute Head is waiting."
Milli's shoulders, which had only been hunching more and more, finally straightened up.
The expression he had been wearing—a mix of embarrassment and a servile smile—hardened with tension.
He took a deep breath to calm his heart and followed the man.
Once they left the bustling district, the scenery changed completely.
The red cliffs that had been surrounding them disappeared, and soft sand dunes appeared.
Although he could see Stone Mountain, sparsely covered in green, near the horizon in the distance, to Milli, who came from Rehingel, famous for its pastures, it looked like nothing but a vast sea of sand.
So, imagine his surprise when he saw the temporary camp of the large merchant group set up in such a place.
"Wow—"
He let out an exclamation without realizing it.
As Milli stared blankly at the massive cart pulled by an elephant, the man chuckled.
"That's just for show. The cost of transporting the grass to feed that thing is higher."
Even with the cynical explanation, the sense of awe Milli felt didn't diminish.
In fact, it peaked when a cheerful woman's voice rang out immediately after.
"Don't you dare call our Tusmon a glutton! It actually plays a role in preventing small monsters from swarming, you know?"
When he turned to look at her, the awe that had exploded within him transformed into a different, grander emotion.
Mysterious, long, greenish hair.
Exotic hood and vestments he had never seen at the Academy.
In truth, the emotion Milli felt was a crush he had been harboring for a very long time.
But because everything he saw was so new and mysterious, he mistook it.
'Is this what religious devotion feels like?'
To Milli, the Academy Institute Head, 'Estelle Thiol', looked like a goddess from a far-off land.
She was so holy that it was hard to even look her in the eye.
Let alone talk to her.
"Ah, u-u-uh, Se-Senior, ah, hello."
Milli malfunctioned.
Estelle seemed to find her pathetic junior cute, as she laughed heartily and teased him.
"We're meeting in a foreign country after 3 years, and your greeting is just 'hello'? That's so cold."
"Yes? No, no, no, no, that's, uh..."
He panicked and scrambled, then shouted firmly.
"It's so good to see you!"
Estelle burst into laughter again and then made a request to the man who had brought Milli.
"Prepare some personal supplies for him. He probably doesn't know anything, so if there's a spare survival manual, throw that in too."
The man seemed to find Milli's behavior amusing as well.
"I shall obey—"
He replied with a giggle, then winked at Milli and walked off somewhere.
Once they were left alone, a brief silence flowed.
A short silence that didn't even last a minute.
Milli barely suppressed his racing heart and mobilized every cell in his brain to simulate how to strike up a conversation.
A line as a reliable bodyguard.
A line as the most loyal club member.
Among the various concepts for lines, the one Milli chose was a line as a 'crush he hadn't seen in a long time'.
"Y-your clothes are pretty."
It was an immense act of courage.
His heart was pounding so hard it hurt, and he felt like he wouldn't be able to try it ever again.
But unfortunately,
"Oh? As expected of our super-archaeology club president! You recognize it?!"
Milli's line was misunderstood as that of a 'fellow geek obsessed with pseudo-academics'.
Estelle was excited and explained the clothes she was wearing.
"This is the traditional clothing of the Amon religion believers, who can be called the orthodox line of the Heta religion! 'Mishunu'! The practical parts might look the same because everyone wears them similarly, but the details, for example, right here..."
Even though his true feelings hadn't been conveyed, Milli was happy.
Beaming.
Thanks to Milli, who kept nodding and responding, Estelle became even more enthusiastic.
While the senior and junior who had met after a long time were holding a seminar on a common interest (presumably),
In the great nation across the sea.
In Karla, which was evaluated as possessing the most fertile land and the strongest warriors, an extra edition of the newspaper was being distributed.
"Extra—!!! Scoop—!!!"
The young man who had just gotten off the train whistled as a sheet of newspaper, scattered by a boy, flew past his face.
[Southern Fleet annihilated! Barbaric Rehingel's unannounced preemptive strike!]
[Playing the victim after starting it]
The young man read the article with just his eyes and leisurely walked on, while an old couple who picked up the newspaper from where he had been standing clicked their tongues and worried about the country.
"They should have stopped those guys from entering Ishtal in the first place."
"That's true. Now, what's going to happen..."
At the same time.
The culprit who had annihilated Karla's Southern Fleet and smashed five supply ships that Rehingel's 2nd Fleet had been escorting.
The unidentified ghost ship.
Soi, its sole passenger, discovered land and cheered.