Chapter 43: Pray and Pray Again (1)

Chapter 43: Pray and Pray Again (1)

– If that’s true, doesn’t that mean we must kill the dragon? –

After the Hero, the Demon Knight, and the young Thief left to take down the pirates, the Archmage did what he had to.

His task was to urge into action the people of the Magic Tower, who were reluctant to take any losses even in the face of clear evidence.

– Is there even someone skilled enough to slay a dragon? –

He closed his eyes momentarily as he heard sentence after sentence spoken through his communicator.

– Shouldn’t we first discuss how to even approach the dragon before talking about the power required to slay it? Sea dragons live in the sea, after all. –

– Leave me out of this. I’m already having enough trouble with the mermen and my grandkid. –

– Do you think you’re the only one? We barely found time to meet up like this, you know? –

He had explained to his party that the Tower only moved for its own benefit, but in fact, it was far worse. In some cases, its mages even went beyond practicality, and the only way to move them was to attract the attention of their decision-maker, the Great Archmage.

– Ah, right. What about the Hero? You have the Hero with you, right? Can’t she just do it? –

– Grü Teltz is also close to the Great Temple. Let’s just leave it to them. –

And that was also why he was the only archmage supporting the Hero.

“Of course, the Hero will be stepping forward. Her Companions won’t neglect their duty, either. The Great Temple also won’t ignore this situation.”

The Archmage sometimes thought the world had been confronting Satan for far too long.

The lines of defense, usually only formed during fierce wars, were now taken for granted. He especially felt that way upon seeing those no longer grateful to the Heroes who sacrificed their lives to stop the Demons.

– What? Then isn’t everything taken care of? –

And... instead of using their Arcane Power to reduce the number of Heroes losing their lives like that, he was only confronted with mages too busy satisfying their selfish interests.

That was how he came to think the way he did now.

“How could that be? As White Wind has mentioned, the Hero needs a means to get near the dragon to make use of her power.”

That matter aside, it didn’t mean he would give in to despair.

“So, let’s set aside our differences and cooperate.”

Young people could simply work hard without stopping, but he had no time to play around.

– Ah, wait a second. Is it true that one of the Hero’s recently joined Companions holds a Demon in his body, and he also knows how to use Demonic Energy instead of Arcane Power? –

– What?? I never heard anything about that! –

– Is that really okay? Shouldn’t we kill him? –

– If you don’t mind, I’d like one of his body parts as a research sample. –

“That’s none of your business, so just shut up and cooperate. Please.”

...Taking care of the safety of those traveling with him was also one of his essential tasks.

* * *

“Mister, are you sure it’ll be fine?”

Shut up... I already know it wouldn’t...

“Oh my.”

I leaned against the deckhouse and covered my eyes with my hands. Nevertheless, the lower part of my face seemed quite pale, so Deb and the Inquisitor couldn’t just leave me alone.

That was even more annoying to me. Because of them, I had to maintain awareness of my surroundings with an energy I already lacked.

“If you feel bad, should I bring you some medicine?”

These kids were the ones who made me feel bad. Don’t make me act...!

“...ost.”

“What?”

“I told you to stop being so noisy and get lost...!”

I had to act truly vicious to make them listen to me! I lowered my hands, growled, and crumpled my face as if to warn them. It seemed to have worked as those two stepped back and stopped hovering around me like puppies needing to poop.

“I think he’s doing a little better than before.”

“Maybe it’s because the boat we’re on now is bigger than the one we rode yesterday.”

“Do you think one gets seasick more easily on smaller boats than on bigger boats?”

“...No?"

“Of course, one would get seasick more easily because the waves would shake the boat more. Look at you, going back on your answer because you didn't actually know."

“...You!"

The two of them started fighting again after moving away a little. My friend used to act like that with his sister. Hazy memories briefly surfaced in my mind before disappearing again as I watched them.

It was just that guy who treated his sister like that. Real siblings wouldn’t do that. Yup. Absolutely.

“Hey, can’t you shut up?”

As I was trying to overcome my motion sickness with the fantasies of an only child circling my brain, someone shouted at them in a stern voice. He had a knife scar on his cheek, and if not for his uniform, I would have mistaken him for a pirate.

“Ah, my apologies.”

“So sensitive.”

We hadn’t caught sight of our enemy yet, so I thought they could be a little loud. Even I thought the guy was unusually sensitive. Those two noisy kids definitely didn’t think the same, as they seemed rather discouraged.

“I see two ships engaging!”

However, it wasn’t long before one of our enemies reared their ugly head. As I narrowed my shaky field of vision, I could see two ships on the horizon.

However, rather than engaging, it looked more like a chase as the smaller ship tried to escape from the bigger one.

“After them!”

Three fast ships headed in that direction, quickly adjusting their sails. I did worry that those guys might run off before we could get them, but it seemed the sailors had their own methods.

“Are they pirates?”

“That carrack is definitely of the Vipurit Pirates, and that caravel... that’s a civilian ship!”

However, the tailwind didn’t help relieve my motion sickness. I tried to swallow my nausea.

I wondered if my brain turning to mush and being wildly shaken would feel like how I felt now. I had already choked down similar complaints and curses more than five times.

“Mister, you can fight, right?”

I wasn’t so sure of that anymore, either. I was wondering how I could fight a dragon like this.

I took a deep breath, slowly thinking over this matter. I felt slightly better when the salty air ran through my nose and into my lungs, but the shaking and sloshing of the boat immediately made me feel worse again.

I just wanted to become seaweed rooted to the seafloor.

“...You, just take care of your own matters.”

Still, it wasn’t like yesterday when I couldn’t stand at all.

I didn’t know whether it was because the vessel was larger or because it was less stormy here than around the north coast. Still, if my condition improved just a bit more, I felt I could move around.

So, saying some lines that would fit my character—though I wasn’t sure if I said the right things, I didn’t have the mental capacity to think about it anymore—I straightened up my body from where it leaned against the deckhouse.

I quickly pulled out my sword with my right arm—even if I held it in reverse—and blocked the blade by tilting it diagonally. Clang! A sharp, metallic sound rang out, and a stabbing attack came at me from the side.

“Hap!”

If there was no way to avoid it, I just needed to create one. I stepped forward and pushed my enemy back. If I poured some Arcane Power into my legs and strengthened them a bit, pushing away guys like these didn’t pose a problem.

I also swung my blade upwards to send my enemy’s weapon flying before I hit his wide-open body with my left fist.

Pow!

After being struck in the solar plexus, he folded like a flip phone and flew off.

Clang!

One after the other, they retrieved their swords again. I quickly lowered my arm to prevent another incoming attack.

As the ship suddenly started to sway, I lost my balance, but that was a good thing for me right now. I took one more step forward with my leg as though preparing to rush forward and punched the pirate’s head.

It was a devastating blow.

“Urgh.”

I felt motion sick again right away. It would have been better if I hadn’t. Uuurgh.

I quickly covered my mouth and tried to maintain my posture. It was only natural that the remaining pirates would take advantage of that brief gap.

So I planned on jumping up and landing again to activate [Ground Crash]...

Bam.

“Seems you leave your back wide open every time, huh, Mister?”

I didn’t think that was necessary, though. Deb, who had come over here at some point, cut off the pirate’s head with his kukri.

Ching!

“Or was it unnecessary?”

I didn’t mean to say that, but it wasn’t anything praiseworthy either.

Instead of answering, I leaped toward an approaching enemy. It was again time to sheathe that cumbersome longsword for a moment.

Swish.

I jumped lightly and stepped on the enemy’s arm.

His hand, which was swinging his sword forward, was crushed by my military boot before he fell, my knee crashing into his face.

Tilt. The enemy fell right past me.

I bent my back to avoid the incoming horizontal blade slashes one after the other and hit that guy’s side with my fist. With that, if the guy just bent his waist slightly, I would be at the perfect angle to punch in his head by lifting my upper body.

Pow!

The pirate was instantly knocked out with a single punch.

“You bastard!”

After killing a few more of those bastards like that, the pirate ship and warship were almost completely connected. It was then that the Inquisitor, who couldn’t cross over sooner due to her armor’s weight that also slowed her body, attempted to board this ship.

“Accept... judgment!”

With the Inquisitor’s arrival, the tide of the battle turned entirely in our favor. The brilliance of God fell upon the pirates.

The city guard and other adventurers who joined the fight never even got their turn.

* * *

“You’re stupidly strong, aren’t you?”

The deck, already half-destroyed by my kicks, had a huge hole blown into it by the Inquisitor’s glowing mace.

I was rather concerned that it might cause the ship to might, but that luckily didn’t happen.

“What did you say?”

“I said that you’re strong.”

It seemed Deb’s purpose in life was to make fun of the Inquisitor. Just as that justified suspicion rose within me, a pirate about to be beheaded cried out bitterly.

“One day, the Vipurit will cut off your arms and throw you into the sea as bait!”

The reactions to these words were as follows:

“The Vipurit? Cut off our arms and use us as bait?”

“If you are so skilled, why don’t you try reclaiming that island you lost to your brethren?!”

“Uwahahaha!”

Wahaha. The navy’s taunts immediately followed.

“Vipurit? What’s that?”

“What? You don’t even know that?”

“...No, I don’t. Do you know more?”

“Hah, of course I do. Aren’t you just stupidly ignorant for not even knowing that?”

The Inquisitor seemed quite enraged by Deb’s comment. The problem was... I also didn’t know. What was that?

“It’s a former province of the Yabad region, a huge island separated from the mainland.”

...And where was the Yabad region?

The last time I looked at the Archmage’s map, I saw a huge island at about seven or eight o’clock. Was it that one, by any chance?

“The lords of that place secretly allowed privateering. However, they did it too openly, which aroused public opposition. That’s why they lost rule over the land to their brothers.”

While I was wondering where Yabad was, Deb continued his explanation. It was stuff I could figure out from the navy officers’ taunts, as well.

“So, they were kicked out?”

“And ever since, they’ve gone around robbing merchant ships while calling themselves the pirate kings.”

“Yabad is a good distance south of here. There’s no reason for them to come all the way here, though.”

“How would I know what goes on in the minds of pirates? I can only guess that they came here due to food shortage because of the thing with the Sea Dragon.”

Well, unlike the northern coast, Grü Teltz didn’t seem to have suffered any major impacts. With that in mind, the regions further south, including Yabad, should be in a better shape as well—maybe.

“Or maybe they were targeting that ship from earlier. Windhand is a very famous privateer captain.”

“Hah, how can trash be famous?”

“He’s very famous for his excellent navigation skills, so much so that people claim he holds the sea in the palm of his hand. Among sailors, he’s considered a descendant of Soldini, the first explorer of the sea.”

Deb pointed to one side as he spoke. It was the warship that had broken away from our formation earlier after receiving the order to chase the caravel.

It seemed they lost it, as I couldn’t see any damage inflicted on the boat.

“He’s good enough to at least win against a warship. Assuming that caravel actually belonged to Windhand.”

“Right, trash is still trash, though.”

In response to the Inquisitor’s harsh words, Deb only shrugged his shoulders as if expecting that would happen. However, I was rather interested in one part of Deb’s spiel.

A captain whose navigation skills were so excellent that people said he could control the sea. I didn’t really know who Soldini was, but Windhand was considered a descendant of the first explorer of the sea.

I mean, just hearing about him made it seem like we would definitely need him for the Sea Dragon Raid, right?