Overboard
How long had it been since he'd last set foot on a ship?
The thought drifted through him, and with it came a scatter of old memories. A lunatic elf who'd insisted a boat only needed to float, then tried to cross the ocean on a raft lashed together from a handful of felled trees. A lunatic human who'd carved decorative patterns into the logs, complaining the thing lacked ornamentation. A little girl tilting her head, too young to know any better. And a boy screaming himself hoarse at the sight of it all.
Compared to that, the warship beneath his feet now was the difference between a firefly and the sun.
"Now this is a ship. That thing was a raft..." He trailed off. "Huh?"
He was on his way back from answering a call of nature when he happened to notice a crowd gathered on the deck. Their clothes and weapons were a mismatched assortment — adventurers, by the look of them — and every last one of them had their brows furrowed, shouting in each other's faces.
"I'm telling you, you can't do it that way!"
"And why the hell not?"
A difference of opinion, apparently. Led by two middle-aged men, the adventurers had split into opposing camps, each side raising their voices over the other.
"You have to use a bobber out here! There's a real feel to it, and you don't wreck the fish!"
"Are you out of your mind? How are you supposed to bobber-fish off a moving ship? Just throw a net! There are fish right there, for crying out loud!"
They were, of all things, arguing over how to fish. Ain wasn't sure this was the kind of conversation an expedition bound to hunt down black mages ought to be having, but he supposed everyone had their own way of blowing off steam. He was shaking his head and about to walk on when another voice cut in.
"Is this really the time for that nonsense?"
"What?"
"Nonsense?"
The man who stepped forward looked about the same age as the two already arguing. He glanced from one to the other, his voice thick with disdain.
"In the end, catching the fish is all that matters. Bobber or net — who cares?"
"But—!"
"That's not what we should be worrying about!"
Watching him, Ain thought, Well, at least someone's taking this seriously. Then the man's next words reached his ears.
"We need to decide whether we're slicing it raw or throwing it in a stew!"
"Ah, I forgot about that!"
"You're a sharp one!"
"..."
In the end, he was no different from the rest. Ain watched the three men throw their arms around each other's shoulders and roar with laughter, then shook his head and turned back toward the cabin.
"S-sea monster!!!!"
The instant someone screamed those words, every person who'd been joking around drew their weapons and sprinted for the ship's railing. The first to shout had been an adventurer with a fishing line cast out over the water. He'd watched a monster with razor-sharp teeth clamp down on the line he'd dangled for fish, and now he was bellowing at the top of his lungs.
"It's a Mini Sea Serpent!!"
Mini Sea Serpents. In appearance they resembled their full-grown kin — Sea Serpents whose adult bodies rivaled the size of a decent ship — but these never grew larger than a man's torso. Small water-snakes, nothing more. Their blue scales blended with the color of the sea, and their needle-sharp teeth flashed as they launched themselves from the water, hurling their bodies at the adventurers on deck.
To seasoned adventurers, they weren't much of a threat. Even the man who'd first screamed after losing his fishing line recognized what they were and picked up his weapon with a deflated look. The others around him wore the same disappointed expressions.
Watching a Mini Sea Serpent burst from the water and come streaking toward him, one adventurer muttered under his breath.
"Ah, it's a dud."
A heavy thud. The Mini Sea Serpent slammed its head into a raised shield, and in the same instant the adventurers' weapons came down. In the blink of an eye the creature was carved to pieces, spraying crimson across the deck as it collapsed in a heap. The adventurer stared down at it with open disgust, and all across the deck the same scene played out — Mini Sea Serpents leaping aboard, only to be turned aside without any real difficulty.
"Anyone need the scales or the meat?"
"What is this, garbage duty?"
They chopped the Mini Sea Serpents into chunks as they talked, utterly unfazed. These were the adventurers Viscount Karpe had gathered to hunt black mages, and a pack of low-grade sea beasts barely registered. There wasn't even a mana stone to harvest from such trash, so the whole affair was more nuisance than anything. If anyone was struggling, it was the inexperienced soldiers stationed on deck — and the adventurers, with time to spare, were already stepping in to help drive the creatures off.
That was when a knight among the soldiers shouted.
"Cannon three, load!!"
"Cannon loaded!"
One of the cannons facing outward swung its muzzle down toward the surface of the sea. The shell packed inside had been prepared for exactly this — the appearance of trash-tier sea beasts like Mini Sea Serpents. It was a carefully manufactured round designed to churn the water into a whirlpool and sweep the creatures away on the resulting waves.
"Fire!"
A thunderous boom. Gunpowder erupted, and the ship lurched. Whether the aim was off or not, a column of water exploded far too close to the hull — more than enough to set the whole vessel rocking. Adventurers who'd lost their balance were still cursing when it happened.
"Aaaagh!!!"
A tearing scream, and a body near the railing went flying into the air. The sudden lurch of the ship had done it. She was light — light enough that losing her balance wasn't the end of it. She went tumbling over the rail entirely, and someone sucked in a startled breath at the sight of a woman pitching overboard.
"Don't let go!!"
Someone had sprinted forward and caught her before she could vanish over the side. Ain, who'd dropped low when the ship heaved, seized the adventurer's arm just as she was about to fall and shouted.
"Find somewhere to plant your feet!"
"Y-yes!!"
At the sound of his voice, the adventurer dangling from the edge of the rail — arms and legs flailing — hooked her toes into a gap in the ship's outer planking.
That was the moment someone bellowed,
"Cannon, fire!!"
"—And that's how I ended up like this."
"..."
Jina stared at the man who'd left to use the bathroom and come back soaked to the bone, her expression somewhere between disbelief and exasperation.
"So other people fished you out of the ocean?"
"Something like that."
"...You didn't just go for a swim?"
"Do I look insane to you?!"
"..."
"You're supposed to deny that!"
Even after Ain's perfectly reasonable explanation, Jina couldn't quite shake the suspicion from her eyes. Then she spotted evidence she couldn't argue with, and let out a long sigh.
The girl still had a youthful face. What stood out most was the red hair that fell to her chin — and the red eyes, the exact same shade, that darted back and forth as she glanced between Ain and Jina, gauging their reactions.
"Is... is what he said true?"
"Y-yes! This person right here saved me!"
The recoil from the cannon blast had nearly been a disaster — Ain, still hanging onto the rail, had gone into the sea right along with her. Fortunately, other adventurers had hauled them both back aboard. Jina listened to the story, then glanced at the ash-gray iron plate hanging from the girl's neck.
"You're an adventurer?"
"Ah, yes... I work out of the royal capital."
"...How long have you been Iron-rank?"
"Um... a week?"
Jina clutched her forehead. Ain wrung out his dripping clothes and shook his head. The girl flinched, her shoulders drawing in at their reactions.
"I heard the reward for this request was really good. A-and I heard that if you just did odd jobs, it wouldn't even be dangerous!"
"...What about companions? You don't have a party?"
"Well..."
The fact that she couldn't answer easily said enough. The fragile-looking woman in front of them was a solo adventurer — and a complete rookie Iron-rank, at that.
"Didn't they say they were only taking experienced adventurers?"
"That's what I heard too..."
"No party, no experience..."
They kept their voices low so she wouldn't overhear. The girl, still hunched into herself, spoke up.
"Um, if I may ask... Benefactor, your name...?"
"B-Benefactor?"
"Yes! You saved my life! If it weren't for you, I would've been fish food!"
"I fell in with you..."
The first cannon shot had sent most of the Mini Sea Serpents fleeing. The second, meant as a finishing blow, had simply knocked them off the rail. They'd fallen on the opposite side from where the shells had landed, so they hadn't even been hurt — just a dunking in salt water. An ordinary accident, nothing more.
"By the time we hit the water, the sea beasts were already gone. You don't need to call me a benefactor."
"But if you hadn't grabbed me at the start, it would've been so much worse!"
"Mmm..."
He looked away, awkward. She pressed on.
"My name is... yes, Mar. Mar!"
"I'm Ain."
"Ain, Ain... that's a nice name!"
She seized his hand and pumped it up and down.
"Thank you so much. I'll be sure to repay you later!!"
"...You don't have to."
"No. I insist."
She said it with such earnest gravity that Ain didn't know how to respond. He was still fumbling for words when a voice cut through.
"Ain...?"
"E-Er?"
"You. Who are you with right now..."
Why did it have to be now, of all times? The commotion on deck, the ship pitching wildly, cannons going off — none of it had been enough to wake Er. And now her eyes were open.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
An awkward silence settled over them. It didn't last long.
"Well. How nice to see you looking so relaxed."
Er said it with a bright, wide smile, and Ain couldn't find a single word to say.