Chapter 171: The Tin Knight and the Short but Distant Voyage (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171: The Tin Knight and the Short but Distant Voyage (3)
Adelaide was the one serving as the lookout for the party’s ship.
Ever since acquiring The Belt of Amaryllis, her senses had become superior even to the Tin Knight’s.
As she blankly gazed at the surrounding scenery with her shimmering violet eyes, she spotted three ships approaching from the opposite direction.
Given that they were in a sea lane bustling with trade, the sight of ships itself wasn't particularly strange.
However, the fact that those ships were racing in a straight line, aimed precisely at Dorothea’s vessel, was a clear sign of trouble.
The three ships surrounded their vessel, then pushed their hulls forward to block the path completely.
When Dorothea’s party had no choice but to stop the ship, thick harpoons and hooks came flying from the other side.
Attached to their ends were thick, sturdy ropes, which the men used to cross over to the party’s ship.
Every step and motion was so fluid that it was clearly not their first or second time doing this.
Among those who set foot on the deck, a man who seemed to hold some rank shouted.
“This ship is ours now! Anyone who resists will be shark bait, so behave yourselves!”
With a line that showed no intention of hiding his identity as a pirate, the man grinned, as if showing off the scar on his face, and scanned the party.
And as for the party’s reaction?
[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses confusion, asking why they are attempting to board for close-quarters combat instead of using cannons!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if the basics of naval warfare aren’t cannons first, boarding second!]
“Well, they need to plunder the ship. It’s pointless if they sink it before they can loot it. It’s not like they’re going to dive into the sea to retrieve the goods.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ displays an exclamation mark of realization!]
“So this is how pirates do business. It seems they’re not so different from bandits on land.”
“Oh my, were there no descriptions of pirates in the adventure stories you like so much, Lady Adel?”
“Strictly speaking, my older brother was the one who liked them, but the pirates in those stories were eaten by a sea monster as soon as they appeared, so they didn't have a single line of dialogue.”
They were utterly nonchalant.
The pirate’s face contorted in fury at the sight of the group ignoring his threats and chatting casually amongst themselves.
If he’d had the survival instinct to sense that something was amiss and focus on escaping, his life might have turned out a little better. But having recently tasted the sweetness of money, his recklessness had grown, and he raised his voice even louder.
“You bastards, do you have any idea who we are to be so relaxed!? Where—”
The pirate’s thought, Looks like you need to be taught a harsh lesson, was never completed.
A crewmate suddenly grabbed his shoulder and began to shake him violently.
The pirate spoke in an irritated tone.
“The fuck is it!”
His crewmate didn’t answer.
No, it wasn’t just him; all the other pirates around them were silent, their faces pale with fright.
Normally, they would have been shouting lewd jokes or jeers at the women, but now they didn't seem to dare.
At this point, the pirate leader also felt a chill run down his spine.
He quietly followed his crewmates’ gazes.
They weren’t looking at the four people in front. They were looking further behind them.
The moment he saw the skeleton staring at him with its hollow eyes, the pirate froze without realizing it.
Clatter. Clatter.
One by one, more skeletons began to appear on the deck, climbing up the stairs from below.
In that instant, the staircase from which the skeletons emerged looked to the pirate like the very gates of hell.
The pirate was a man of the sea.
Of course, he knew the legends of ghost ships that circulated among sailors.
A thick fog where you couldn’t see an inch ahead. A spooky darkness as the sun set beyond the horizon, or was in the process of setting.
A situation where you didn’t even know where you were or where the ship was heading. The sound of the dead singing from somewhere.
Sails so worn and tattered they couldn’t properly catch the wind, riddled with holes, and a rusted, broken wooden hull.
‘For fuck’s sake, not a single thing matches.’
The pirate felt a sense of injustice.
The weather was clear without a single cloud, let alone fog, and the sun was beating down with scorching heat from directly overhead. The ship was a sleek, modern vessel, far from a decrepit ghost ship. He wouldn't have even approached it for piracy otherwise.
But why on earth were skeletons pouring out of it so casually? The pirate simply couldn't understand.
The problem was, whether he understood or not, his opponents didn’t seem willing to wait.
Clack, clack, clatter, clatter!
With the harsh sound of bones, the white skeletons charged toward the pirates all at once.
“R-Run!! It’s a ghost ship!”
“Shit, no wonder they had a bunch of beauties on deck! Now they’re even using people as bait!”
“I heard if you die to them, you have to wander the seas forever without ever truly dying!”
The pirates began to flee, scared out of their wits.
Watching them, the Tin Knight sought his companions’ agreement, noting that for people in a panic, they seemed to have plenty of time to explain every little detail. But the pirates were genuinely terrified.
Men of the sea were (by their own claim) the roughest and freest of people, but they were also just as sensitive to superstition.
The belief that being killed by the monsters of a ghost ship meant you would join their crew and wander the seas for eternity was a fairly well-known superstition. Even without such tales, not a single one of them wanted to risk their life in a fight with no profit.
Raiding a ghost ship meant they couldn't enslave the crew, there was a high chance the ship held no treasure, and even if it did, taking it would surely bring a curse. It would be stranger if any of them still had the will to fight.
The pirates scrambled to return via the ropes they had used to board. Those who couldn't, simply threw themselves into the sea and swam toward their own ships.
The sight of them, having charged in with such bravado only to flee so desperately, was utterly comical.
Even Dorothea, who rarely laughed unless she was threatening someone, let out a hollow chuckle.
“What is this, some kind of joke?”
“Are you just going to let them go?”
“I can’t do that. They’re running away now because they’re scared of the undead, but if not for that, they’re the type to start swinging their swords without a second thought.”
Dorothea was about to use her usual ‘Tin Knight! I choose you!’ when she suddenly paused and turned her gaze to Adel.
“Adel. Go and finish them off.”
“Yes.”
Adel obediently nodded at the command, but the Tin Knight complained.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks why you aren’t calling him!]
“You can’t swim, so stay put. If you go and fall in—”
──Bwoooooooooooooo!
The sound came suddenly, swallowing all other noise.
The clattering of the skeleton soldiers, the pirates’ pandemonium, and even the witch’s voice.
──Bwoooooooooooooo!
With a horn blast that resonated deep within their bodies, the ship revealed itself.
A hull with a strange luster like ebony, and on its golden sails, the symbol of a pirate (Jolly Roger) was embroidered with jewels.
On the deck of the ship, which was a work of art in itself, sailors of all shapes and sizes exuded a menacing killing intent. The man standing on the bow was a figure from the party’s memory.
The leader of the Golden Pirate Crew, Cap’n Bill, tossed the whistle he had in his mouth behind him and shouted boisterously.
“Found you! I found you! I’ve finally found you! I’m so happy I could cry!”
“There’s so much I want to say, but first, let me say this, my friends!”
“—Eat this, you goddamn bastards!!”
It was a surprise attack showing a veteran's flair, a world apart from his juniors who had missed their attack window while posturing.
Executing a magnificent turn as if the wind didn't matter, Cap’n Bill’s ship exposed its flank.
And the cannons on that side all roared to life.
BOOOOOM!
For the crime of being too close to Dorothea’s ship, one of the pirate vessels was hammered by cannon fire.
The pirates, who had been fleeing from the wicked ghost ship (not) that had tried to lure innocent (not) people with the bait of beautiful women (not), were struck directly by the heavy cannonballs, offering their flesh and blood as a sacrifice to the sea.
“Fire, fire! Fire before we get hit!”
“We’ll all die if we run anyway! Fight!”
However, these pirates were also veterans of sea battles.
While they might flee from an unprecedented fight against the undead, it was a different story in a familiar naval battle.
They forcibly cut the ropes connecting them to the party’s ship and abruptly entered combat maneuvers.
In the process, crewmates who hadn't managed to escape in time either fell into the sea with the ropes or were crushed by the moving ships, but such was the nature of pirate loyalty.
However, it wasn't easy for a ship that had stopped to regain its momentum, and with another volley of cannon fire, the first pirate ship was completely sunk.
It was just as the golden ship aimed its cannons to sink the second vessel.
“Sir Tin, you have to block that.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he understands!]
BOOOOOM!
CLAAAANG!
Two different sounds rang out in succession.
One was the sound of the cannon fired from the golden ship, and the other was the sound of the Tin Knight, having leaped from his ship, deflecting the incoming cannonball with his shield.
The pirates were dumbfounded to see the knight land with a thud among them, and Dorothea narrowed her eyes.
“Why are you saving them?”
“Because if they sink too, we’ll have no way to fight back.”
“Ugh.”
The ship Dorothea’s party was on had no cannons. It was only natural, as it was originally for transporting agricultural products.
She didn't know why that golden skeleton was suddenly attacking them, but if he maintained a certain distance and kept firing his cannons, they had no effective way to respond.
An Alchemist would have built a large ballista to counter, and a Wizard would have retaliated with attack magic, but a Necromancer was neither.
Though she realized it a step later than Sophia, Dorothea was not the type to hesitate in her judgment during a fight.
She shouted at the pirates.
“We’ll block their attacks, so you fight back!”
“Uh, uh, well, that…”
“Stop spacing out and move!! Before I turn you all into undead and work you to the bone!”
“Y-Yes, Captain!”
Although a strangely grating title reached her ears, this was no time to argue about it.
And so, a sudden naval battle commenced.
The golden ship fired its cannonballs, the Tin Knight deflected them with his shield, and the pirates returned fire with their own cannons.
Dorothea and her undead crew, though lacking cannons, dedicated themselves to tanking, with Dorothea using her staff’s defensive magic and Adelaide using her two-handed sword to act as shields.
However.
“Good, very good! This is the kind of fight I was looking for! I have so many grudges to repay!”
The golden ship led by Cap’n Bill was overwhelmingly strong. No matter how many cannons the pirate ship fired, not a single shot reached Bill’s vessel. In contrast, Bill’s attacks steadily accumulated damage on their side.
No matter how skilled the Tin Knight was at deflecting cannonballs with his shield, he couldn't block the shots aimed at the lower part of the ship.
Eventually, another ship sank into the sea.
Dorothea gritted her teeth.
‘What do I do?’
They were still far from land.
It was realistically impossible to keep running with their backs turned to an enemy with such superb helmsmanship and naval combat skills.
“We’re, we’re out of cannonballs!”
Moreover, unlike Cap’n Bill’s side, which seemed to be creating cannonballs out of thin air with their endless supply, their side had run out of ways to attack.
As if confirming there would be no more counterattacks, the Golden Pirate Crew’s ship could be seen calmly closing the distance, aiming its cannons.
At most, he could deflect two or three cannonballs at once.
If that volley was fired simultaneously, their ship might sink right then and there.
In that moment.
The Tin Knight leaped toward the sea without hesitation.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Like a skipping stone, the Tin Knight’s body bounced repeatedly off the surface of the water.
In exchange for sequentially releasing the mana stored in his shield, the Tin Knight’s body reached the very bow of the golden pirate ship.
SLICE!
The next moment, the golden ship was split in two horizontally.
The long row of cannons, the sailors preparing to fire them, the massive mast—nothing was spared. Everything was cleaved in half, separating upper from lower.
However.
“Oh! A magnificent strike! But I can’t allow any free rides!!”
Only Cap’n Bill did not permit the Tin Knight’s blow to land.
Leaping into the air, he swung his cutlass at the Tin Knight.
The Tin Knight blocked Cap’n Bill’s attack, but in doing so, he lost the momentum he needed to board the ship.
His heavy body, made of metal, plummeted into the sea.
SPLASH!
And then, the black witch also dove into the sea without a moment’s hesitation.