by Hiro Ainana
“’Course ya don’t. What kinda sailor would go around smellin’ like fancy perfume with nary a wrinkle in his shirt?!”
The man grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and scowled.
I must have still smelled like the cologne I’d worn to Viscount Emerin’s ball.
“Not to mention, yer skin and hair look like ye’ve never felt the sun nor the sea breeze in yer life.”
“Kid’s either a noble or some merchant’s boy.”
True enough, I’d been protecting myself from the harsh sun and winds using magic, so they weren’t wrong.
Still, if they were going to object to me this much, I wouldn’t be able to gather any information.
As I wondered what to do, I caught wind of a conversation in the corner of the tavern.
“Whaddaya mean, ale? What kinda sailor don’t drink rum?!”
“C’mon, can’t a man drink what he wants when he comes back to dry land?”
Two of the sailors were arguing over drinks.
Seeing them, the man holding me smirked and winked.
“We don’t got none of yer hoity-toity booze here.”
“Yeah, go on home.”
“Or are you gonna show us how manly you are by knocking back some rum?”
The soldier who’d been winked at grinned back and poured a full glass of rum in front of me.
The strong smell of alcohol assaulted my nose.
Rum was a kind of liquor made from sugarcane, with a high alcohol content—at least, it certainly was on Earth.
Expecting me to choke, the men all sneered at me unpleasantly.
“Well, if you insist…”
With that, I brought the glass to my lips.
Whoa.
This was very different from the rum I knew.
The taste and smell were incredibly aggressive, so strong it practically numbed my mouth with the first drink.
But it was good.
The rum still retained a bit of the sweet molasses taste of the sugarcane, perhaps due to imprecise brewing. It would go great with a bitter, salty snack.
I drank the rest down in one gulp.
“One more, barkeep!”
The men around me all stared in surprise as I called to the bartender.
“Another glass?”
“I’ll take a tankard!”
All at once, the bar was filled with crude laughter and the sounds of tankards being slammed down on tables.
“Good one, boy!”
“Ye’ve got the making of a real sailor-in-training!”
It appeared that I’d earned their approval.
I drank with the sailors for a while, and they taught me all kinds of things about ships and sailing. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any information about Lalakie, my original goal here.
“I dunno about no legendary sky cities, but I do know of a legendary pirate.” One of the men said, pointing at the wall.
Looking closely, I saw a board of wanted posters with drawn faces and their respective bounties. Most of them were grim-looking male pirates, but there were a few women in the mix, too.
The most faded, timeworn wanted poster bore a drawing of a skull. I guess the Skeleton King had a bounty, too.
“Urgh, don’t call that disaster a legend!”
“Yeah, what if talking about ’im brings ’im around?”
“Heaven and hell forbid!”
I gathered that the Skeleton King appeared every few years, unpredictably attacking island countries, trade fleets, and the like and pillaging their treasures.
“My gramps who was a sailor said that he first heard about the Skeleton King from his gramps.”
Hmm. If that was true, then the Skeleton King had been around since the ancient times when Lalakie fell.
I’d assumed he showed up because I broke the anti-magic spell on the city-rock island, but maybe it was actually only an unlucky coincidence.
“Aye, and the sailors he kills are forced to work in his ghost fleet for all eternity.”
“If ever ye find a drifting ship without a crew, turn round and run for all yer worth. It’s a sure sign of a Skeleton King attack.”
“Be wary of storms, too. They say the Skeleton King’s ghost fleet brings dark clouds and fierce winds wherever it roams.”
“Storms are never a good thing anyway, moron!”
Wow. So the Skeleton King was basically on par with a natural disaster.
I’d destroyed his ghost fleet, though, so hopefully he’d stay quiet for a while.
“Oh, don’t look like that, boy. As long as ye stay away from Lalagi, the Kingdom of Sorcery, ye’re hardly likely to see ’im.”
As I was lost in thought, one of the sailors appeared to mistake my reaction for fear, so he clapped me on the back reassuringly.
“S’right. I hear he oft shows up in years when the Skydea Festival is held.”
“Why? To check out the festival?”
The men around me burst out in raucous laughter.
“Yer a funny little noble, kid.”
“If the Skeleton King were such a fun-lovin’ sort, nobody’d be so afeared of ’im.”
Once they’d wiped away the tears of laughter, the sailors explained the real reason.
“It’s a war, see. Once the Skeleton King’s strengthened his ghost fleet, he attacks Lalagi.”
War?
That was strange. Why would the Skeleton King, the companion to the final queen of Lalakie, attack a kingdom where the descendants of the skyfolk—the people of Lalakie—lived?
Did they have some mysterious enmity or something?
“C’mon, I told ye—don’t make that face. The kingdom of Lalagi’s got mighty powerful magics, so you oughtta go check it out at least once. You’ll see how they’ve staved off the Skeleton King’s ghost fleet all this time.”
The soldier smacked my back heartily again, then loudly shouted for another drink.
From there, the topic changed to the Skydea Festival, from the different parades to which shopgirls were the cutest.
Some of the sailors also knew that the royal family of the Kingdom of Sorcery Lalagi were called “skyfolk,” so it didn’t seem to be a big secret.
“Well, there is a place kind of like Lalagi at the very end of the sugar route.”
“The end of the sugar route… Y’mean Ishrallie?”
Oh, that was a new name.
“Ishrallie?” I echoed.
“Aye, the maritime nation. Rumor has it their royal family is descended from some kinda flying castle place, too.”
As the veteran sailor explained, I searched my Storage for information.
“If ye’re a real man, ye’ll aim to make a real fortune out there.”
“Ye mean by finding a Heaven’s Teardop in Ishrallie?”
The men crashed their tankards against one another and roared with laughter.
“Oi, don’t tell the kid to go to Ishrallie. It’s all prospectors and pilferers out there.”
“There are tons o’ pirates in those waters, not to mention the bullet tuna and monster fish…”
“Aye, I’d steer clear. Might be a different story if ye were as strong as the Eight Swordsmen of Shiga, but for the rest of us, it ain’t worth the danger. Only gamblers and fools with a death wish dare travel to that place.”
“It’s still safer than treasure-hunting in the Seadragon Islands, though, eh?”
“True that. Not even gamblers go there.”
As I sat searching in silence, the men around me explained everything they knew about Ishrallie.
The Heaven’s Teardrop in question was a particularly high-quality gemstone that could be found only in Ishrallie.
It was highly sought-after, especially by well-to-do nobles living in the royal capital of the Shiga Kingdom, who would pay a fortune for it.
Wait, forget about that.
I heard something much more important just now.
“There are tuna there?”
“Huh? Y’mean the bu
llet tuna? Aye, they appear time ’n’ again there.”
The sea captain seemed a little taken aback by my sudden enthusiasm.
All right! We’ve gotta go there!
First, I would have to make a knife that could properly cut tuna. I know! I’ll make a tuna knife out of orichalcum.
“I hear the battleships and speed ships alike that go after the monster-fish fins disappear into the depths of the sea…”
“Not like ye can just bring a battleship into a trade area anyway.”
“’Course not. Ishrallie’s Dragon Cannon would send ye up in flames, ship and all.”
Monster-fish fins were an important material for skypower engines, but I had seven enormous giant monster fish in my Storage, so I wasn’t interested in that.
“Are you really planning to go to Ishrallie, boy?”
“Yes, my interest is certainly piqued.”
In the tuna, that is.
“Then ye better buy some silk. I doubt ye can afford jade silk, but I hear all kinds of silk sell there for several times the amount in the old capital.”
“And glasswork for Lalagi, right?”
“Oh yes, ye’ll sell plenty of glasswork there. But unlike in the old capital, transparent glass is valued higher there—at least, according to me captain.”
As we drank together, I learned more from the sailors about sales and trade.
I didn’t particularly need to turn a profit, but I wound up writing down buy glasswork and silk on my to-do list on my menu anyway. I couldn’t resist the allure of a phrase like making a killing in trade and all the exciting images it brought to mind.
In a good mood now, I declared that I would pay for everyone’s drinks as thanks for all the information, and we wound up drinking together until dawn.
I’d already stopped by the magic store to buy the scrolls and spell books I couldn’t get earlier in the day, so it was no big deal.
There were some establishments with pretty ladies, too, but those would have to wait.
“So you drank until morning, hmm?”
“Mrrr.”
When I returned to the viceroy’s castle, I ignored Arisa’s and Mia’s complaints and asked the maid to send for their regular tradesman.
“Are you going to order something?”
“That too, but I wanted to see if they could send some articles of the deceased to their respective families.”
For those who were related to people I knew in the old capital or their retainers, I had the items delivered directly. I sent the rest of the old capital deliveries to Tolma; for those who couldn’t be identified, I sent the items to Sara at the Tenion Temple to donate to the old capital museum.
Foreigners often visited the museum, so that way a relative of the deceased owners or a researcher might find them. It was certainly better than letting them rot away in my Storage forever.
My excuse for having the goods was that I acquired them from a trader friend who bought them off pirates at a black market.
“You must really trust Sara and Tolma.”
“You could say that.”
They couldn’t be more different as people, but I was confident that neither of them would misuse someone else’s belongings. Despite his generally lax attitude, Tolma actually had a very strong sense of duty.
For items that belonged to deceased people from outside the Ougoch Duchy, I kept them in Storage for now, thinking that I could give them to someone trustworthy when I visited the royal capital.
Miss Nina, the competent consul of Baron Muno, was coming for the kingdom conference, so I could also potentially give the items to her to help the Muno Barony form stronger ties with the rest of the world.
A butler asked if he could do anything else to help, so I requested that he send some small casks of fairy wine and dried yellorange fruit to the two captains from the previous evening.
I didn’t want to leave anybody out, so I sent some to Viscount Emerin, too.
While I was at it, I gave the staff of the house some simple baked sweets as thanks.
Seeing the beautiful women’s serious expressions melt at the scent of the pastries was well worth the trouble.
“You’re departing already? Why not stay a little longer and rest?”
“Thank you, but I recovered more than enough energy at last night’s ball.”
Viscount Emerin seemed disappointed that I was leaving so soon, but he saw me off kindly nonetheless.
On top of that, he even gave me a large supply of silk, jade silk, and transparent glasswork. Evidently, one of Baron Jeetbert’s subordinates had been at the tavern the night before.
The rest of the group besides Rei had already set out, so the viscount’s vassals generously carried these supplies to the harbor for us.
Rei still wasn’t back to her usual self, which was why she was leaving late with me.
It was also a precaution against another attack from Yuuneia.
“Oh, I almost forgot.”
I reached into my pocket and produced a replica of Rei’s hair ornament.
I’d used my “Forgery” and “Metalworking” skills to make it, so it was virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, even up close.
I’d added a little bonus feature to it, too, but that wasn’t too important.
“
As soon as she saw the fake key, the light left her eyes, and she stopped in place.
“<…Rei?>”
I called out her name, but she didn’t respond.
Then her mouth opened, her face expressionless.
“
She spoke rapidly, in the same tone she’d used when we ran into Yuuneia.
“
When she finished, the light slowly returned to her eyes.
“
“
Speaking in her usual manner again, Rei blinked a few times.
No, maybe not quite usual. Her hesitant pauses hadn’t changed, but her pronunciation was more fluent than before.
“
“
Rei shook her head.
On further questioning, she remembered that she’d been speaking, but she couldn’t recall what she’d actually said.
Seeing Yuuneia again must have jogged her memories a bit.
It didn’t seem like the kind of thing I could rush along, though, so I went back to the main point.
“
Rei touched the key-shaped hair ornament on her head as she looked at the one in my hand.
“
Her eyes widened in surprise as she compared them.
“
I handed her a small Fairy Pack–style pouch, which I’d made with the interior of a Magic Bag from the salvaged goods.
Judging by the information she had just unknowingly spoken, it was increasingly clear that her hair ornament was extremely important to anyone connected to Lalakie.
“
“
I smiled at her and fixed the fake ornament to her hair.
The barrette glowed a faint blue for only a moment.
It was meant to absorb the excess magic coming off Rei and use it for purification, which should reduce her chances of getting attacked by miasma again.
It might not have much of an effect on Yuuneia, but it should work against the Skeleton King or the ghost bird Yuuneia called Chibi.
It could even communicate with certain other magic tools like a walkie-talkie, but it would work only within a thousand
feet and absorbed a great deal of magic, so I had that feature turned off.
When I brought her to the harbor and passed through the crowds of people, I found the rest of my companions getting ready to set sail.
“Master, all cargo has been loaded on board, I report.”
“Here is the inventory list, master.”
The vanguard group, who’d left early, had brought all the goods delivered to our temporary warehouse onto the ship.
“We haggled ’em down—don’t worry.”
“There were some good bargains, too, so we purchased them like you said, master.”
“Satou.”
Arisa, Lulu, and Mia, who’d gone to pay the merchants, returned from the chamber of commerce.
Mia rushed through the throngs of people and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Mrrr.”
Noticing that I was holding Rei’s hand, Mia puffed out her cheeks and started rubbing her face against my side.
She seemed to be the jealous type.
“Mia.”
I held out my free hand to her, and she accepted it with an “Mm” and a happy smile.
It goes without saying that when the rest of the group saw us, I was forced to take turns holding hands with everyone and doing laps up and down the deck.
Waving good-bye to Viscount Emerin, Baron Jeetbert, and the others who’d come to see us off, we left Sutoandell behind us.
They had offered to send gunboats along to escort us to the border of the neighboring Ganika Marquisate, but that seemed inappropriate, so I politely declined.
I appreciated the thought, but if we had a guard with us, then we could hardly use the ship’s flight mode.
The Sugar Route
Satou here. The compass is known as one of the Four Great Inventions, but doesn’t it seem like surprisingly few people actually know how it works? When I first learned about it myself, I remember being surprised that it was so simple.
“Where are we going next?”
“We’ll head west for a while, then go south by southwest to Ishrallie. After that, we’ll head to Lalagi.”
I looked at the map in my menu and the physical sea chart in my hands as I explained my plan to Arisa.
She was wearing a white sailor suit—the kind a seafaring person would wear, not the school uniform.
