CH 47

The captain was so pleased with us that we were supposed to go straight to work for her on the pirate ship Scarlett…… but…………?

“How did we get into this…?” Tia asked.

“She sure is in a good mood.” I said.

I was currently next to Captain Rebecca in her chair, holding and waving an awfully big leaf and blowing a cool breeze. On the other side of the chair, Tia was doing the same thing, and her face was naturally bewildered as well.

“Errr, Captain? Is this …?” I asked.

“Hmm? Well, I’ve heard that the Royalties do this kind of thing. So, I thought I’d give it a shot, at least once.”

“You’ve got some refined taste.” I said.

“What, you don’t like it?”

Rebecca stared at me, and I responded with a vague smile.

“That’s not what I meant, but I didn’t think I’d be made to do this….”

So, for my part, I was ready to polish up the deck to the point where my feet would slip, or secretly indulge my self-satisfaction by peeling vegetables in long, thin strips without shredding them, so I felt confused by this treatment.

No, really, what’s going on? I assumed the difference would be just enough to be treated like a guest because we showed our ability, but I didn’t see the point of making us fan a leaf, right?

“Well, I was just trying to do something that just came to my mind. You wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to you as you did to the men you defeated, would you?”

“Ah, that’s true.”

Usually only beautiful men and women who were made to serve like this. I couldn’t imagine being fanned by an old man who was proud of his skills with his sweat flying all over. I could already smell the stench, and in every sense of the word, it seemed like a bad idea.

“Ugh, I absolutely hate it. …” Tia said.

“Ahahahaha!”

Tia, perhaps thinking of such a scene, frowned openly and her ears drooped down. Rebecca seemed to be laughing happily when she saw our faces, but after she finished laughing and drank a glass of wine, she took a breath and then slowly started talking to me.

“Haa… So? What’s the reason you guys rolled up here?” Rebecca asked.

“No, like I said…” I said.

“It’s just you and me now, right? If I pretend I didn’t hear it, that’s the end of the story. Is it still not enough to hide it?”

“… is that why you especially did this?”

“Well, I won’t deny that I’ve always wanted to try it.”

I see, you are leading a band of ruffians. If they go this far and don’t say anything, there’s a good chance they’ll be kicked out of the stones…. hmmm?

“Well then, between you and me…… I don’t mean to say this, but don’t you think Tia is quite an attractive woman?” I said.

“Fuehh?!? E-Ed, what’s with you all of a sudden!”

“Hmm? Yeah. Not sexy, but she is surely beautiful like a work of art. In addition… Nevermind, I’m not going to tell you this one.” Rebecca said.

“Even the captain!? Or rather, what is it that you don’t want to tell me?!”

“Ah, yes, yes. we’ll get to that later.” I told her.

“Ed!?”

I restrained Tia, who had a perfect blend of embarrassment, upset, and anger on her face, with my hand, and continued talking to Rebecca. I was still being slapped on the back, but I didn’t care about that――

“It hurts! I get it! I’ll tell you later!”

“Mou~! Definitely?”

“Good grief…Anyway, she caught the eye of a rather nasty bigwig. The trouble with people with power is that you can’t solve their problems by punching them in the face. However, we are not going to leave ourselves open to being attacked. I’ve been getting a lot of help laying the groundwork through my contacts, but if Tia is taken into custody before we get the results, there’s nothing we’d be able to do, so we’ve taken refuge here.” I said.

“I see. So, that’s why you are on my boat. It is true that no one will come after you on the sea, and we, who have been outlaws from the beginning, cannot be suppressed by public authority. But that is only on the premise that I will not sell you. We are pirates. Didn’t you think we’d just drop everything and jump at the small change in front of us, rather than take the risk and try to make a big profit?”

“We’ll see about that when the time comes. I gave up and resigned myself to my luck…”

Once there, I cut off my words, swapped the big leaf into one hand, and with my free hand, clenched my fist and thrust it forward.

“I’m just going to knock you out and take this whole ship.”

Rebecca gave me a blank look as I said this with a smirk on my face. But then, just as quickly, she started laughing out loud, clutching her stomach.

“Kuhahahahahah! Good, good! It’s nice to be able to let your youth take over and have a big mouth. But if you have that confidence, why didn’t you do it from the beginning?”

“It’s because it’s easier this way. I can’t do anything on a ship if I don’t have the skills to handle it. If there is nothing else I can do, I will do it, but if not, it is much easier to follow the captain and polish the deck.”

“You really have a calculating way of speaking. You are a brat with a big mouth but strangely realistic and not knowing what to do. That’s all right. As I said before, as long as you don’t give us any trouble, we’ll keep you on the ship, so don’t worry. You’ll still have to do work, though.”

“Leave it to me, Captain! I’ll work for you with great enthusiasm.”

Rebecca was in a good mood, and I waved the big leaf in her direction. We chatted for a while after that, and I decided to ask her something that had been bothering me for a while.

“By the way, Captain, do you know the story of the Hero and the Demon Lord?”

“What is it, all of a sudden? When you say “Hero and the Demon Lord,” are you talking about the Demon Lord of the Mist and the Hero of the Light?”

“The Demon Lord of the Mist? What is that?”

“Eh. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it!? It’s a famous fairy tale, you know?”

“No, that’s probably only in this area. You don’t hear about it at all when you go to the inland areas. I didn’t even hear about it until I came here.”

Before Tia could blurt it out, I hurried to follow up. Then Rebecca, who had been surprised for a moment, nodded and agreed with me.

“Really? Well, it’s certainly about the ocean… I will tell you then. At the end of the sea in this world, there’s a Demon Lord who creates fog. And the fog is spreading a little bit every year, and if it continues at this rate, the world will eventually be swallowed up by it. The Hero is the one who clears away the fog. The rough plot of the story is that the Hero uses a sword called the Sword of Light to clear the fog, defeat the Demon Lord, and bring peace to the world.”

“Eh. So that means the Demon Lord is still creating fog in the world?” I asked.

“What? Don’t be silly. That’s a fairy tale, right? It’s true that if you go all the way across the ocean, there are areas where the fog is so thick that you can’t go on, but it’s not unusual to have fog on the ocean.”

“Hmmm. So, both the Hero and the Demon Lord exist only in fairy tales?” I asked.

“If you think about it, that’s what common sense tells you.” Rebecca replied.

“I see. In other words, the purpose of this trip is to search for it,” Tia said

“Hmm? Did you say something?”

“No, nothing.” Tia said.

Rebecca tilted her head lightly at Tia’s little murmur, but fortunately she didn’t ask anything more. We just kept fanning her with the big leaf until Rebecca got bored … and that night.

“Now then, why don’t we get you to tell us a little bit about it?”

For some reason, I was being asked that question in close proximity to Tia on a bed that was too cramped for me to even sleep alone.