Chapter 51
By noon, about half a day had passed since we set sail. I had shut myself away in the Lazybones's cabin so I could work through the tasks I had brought with me.
The cabin prepared for me aboard the Lazybones wasn't half bad. Though small, it contained a desk and chair, and fresh sea air flowed in through the window. The bed had crisp, pure-white sheets pulled taut across it, and everything was spotlessly clean.
Of course, if one considered it a room for a count's daughter to sleep in, it was exceedingly plain. But all I needed was a clean bed and a desk where I could work. My only complaint was that the chair's seat was a little hard, but I had brought along my beloved red cushion, so that was no problem.
I sat on the chair with the cushion beneath me and scanned two documents filled with rows of figures. Then I checked whether the figures written on both documents matched. There were no errors. It was a simple task of comparing them, but the final check to ensure no fraud had been committed could not be entrusted to someone else.
After confirming that there were no mistakes in the documents, I raised my head and took a breather. Then I stacked the two documents on the left side of the desk. On the right was a mountain of documents I had not yet checked. I had kept putting them off, thinking they could wait. I wanted to finish thirty percent of them today.
There were still many left, but since I was away from home, at least the pile was not growing.
Feeling a little tired, I stepped out of the cabin onto the deck for a change of pace and some sea air. Borel, Gatt, Zeze, and Jini were sprawled across the deck. Their faces were pale, and they were groaning. A short distance away, Al was leaning against the ship's rail. Even he, who was always so full of energy, looked pale now.
"Are you all right, Zeze?"
"Y-yes, I'm fine, Rome...!"
I called out to the limp Zeze, who somehow managed to lift their head. However, halfway through the reply, Zeze's face turned deathly pale. Zeze clapped a hand over their mouth, leaped to their feet, and ran to the rail, where they vomited the contents of their stomach into the sea.
"You don't look... all right."
I sighed as I watched Zeze vomit and Borel and the others lie sprawled on the deck. Even the famed Romelia Squad was no match for seasickness.
"Damn it. What the hell does a ship have to rock for?"
Al leaned against the ship's rail and grumbled at it as though the rocking were somehow the ship's fault.
"Heh. Don't be so pathetic, Al."
Ray came over from the stern to where Al was suffering from seasickness. However, Ray was not nearly as energetic as those words made him sound; he was breathing heavily.
"What are you talking about? Your legs are shaking too."
"Mine isn't seasickness. I've simply run out of magical power."
Al and Ray, both pale, glared at each other.
"Honestly. At least get along when you're feeling unwell."
I admonished Al and Ray. Just then, loud laughter rang out from the stern.
"Hahaha! They look like they're dying."
Captain Maurice, sporting a huge, bushy beard, swaggered across the deck as though it belonged to him. Laughing at those suffering from seasickness was probably a sailor's privilege.
"Damn it. I'll get used to this ship by tomorrow, no matter what."
"You must be Al-san, eh? If sheer determination could cure seasickness, we'd have no trouble at all."
Captain Maurice laughed heartily, and Al scowled.
"Captain Romelia, you don't get seasick at all, do you? Is there some secret to it?"
Al looked at me curiously.
"There is no secret. You simply stop getting seasick after spending enough time aboard ships."
"Did you really have that many opportunities to spend time aboard ships?"
Al tilted his head. Since the Lionel Kingdom was landlocked, its citizens had few opportunities to board ships.
"I traveled all the way to the Demon Continent of Gordia, where the demons live, to defeat Demon King Zergis."
"Oh, that's right. I seem to recall that you went there aboard something called a magic ship."
I nodded at Ray's words. A vast ocean lay between the Axis Continent, where we lived, and Gordia, where the demons lived. It was said that no ordinary ship could cross it, and only the magic ship built by Demon King Zergis could make the round trip.
Prince Henri and the others had stowed away aboard the magic ship and crossed to the Demon Continent over several days. That was when I became accustomed to ships and stopped getting seasick.
"You were aboard the Demon King's magic ship—the one I've heard rumors about? What was it like?"
Captain Maurice walked over to us. As a sailor, he was naturally curious about a ship belonging to the demons.
"Since I was stowing away, I don't know that much about it myself. But it was an enormous ship, at any rate."
I summoned my memories of being aboard the magic ship.
Looking back, that ship had been enormous—and utterly bizarre.
"When you say enormous, do you mean about twice the size of this ship?"
I shook my head at Al's question.
"No, it was much larger. It was so far from starboard to port that I would have been out of breath before reaching the other side if I ran all the way."
I looked across the Lazybones from starboard to port. Since the Lazybones was a fast escort ship, crossing from one side to the other did not even require a run. The magic ship I had boarded, however, was so huge that you could hold a footrace on it.
"And from bow to stern, it was far enough that I would have wanted a horse."
"A-are there really ships that large?"
Ray blinked in confusion, unable to imagine a ship that size.
"But stranger than its size were the paddle wheels attached to the magic ship."
"Paddle wheels? What's a paddle wheel?"
Captain Maurice echoed the unfamiliar word as a question.
"You know those waterwheels turned by a river's current? They were similar to those, but attached to both sides of the ship. The wheels turned and paddled through the water to propel the ship forward."
"H-hold on, miss. Are you saying that this magic ship can move even when there isn't any wind?"
"Yes. It was absurd."
I nodded at the astonished Captain Maurice with an exasperated look of my own. I had no idea what principle made the thing move. The man who had built something like that, Demon King Zergis, could only be called a genius.
"Still, I'd like to try building a magic ship of my own someday."
"That's quite a grand undertaking, miss."
Captain Maurice laughed at my muttered remark. But I was serious. My ultimate goal was to free the people enslaved on the Demon Continent. For that, I absolutely needed a magic ship. However, none of the human nations currently possessed one. If none existed, I would have to build one myself.
"I suppose it would be difficult after all."
I brushed the subject aside in a joking tone. In my heart, however, I fully intended to build a magic ship, no matter what it took.
Of course, I knew it was an absurdly ambitious undertaking. Magic ships were built using technology wholly unknown to us. I had only seen the outside and knew nothing about its inner workings. Even if I began researching it now, understanding the principles would take years. Building a massive magic ship after that would take several more years. And leading a huge army across to the Demon Continent was a dream within a dream.
"Indeed, a ship that moves without wind sounds useful. If you ever build one, give us one too."
Captain Maurice laughed heartily. As he said, I could not even imagine when such a thing might become reality. But that was no reason to give up.
At the age of fifteen, I had set out on a journey to defeat Demon King Zergis. It had been an impromptu departure with no plan whatsoever. Defeating the Demon King had seemed impossible, but we had accomplished it. If we managed that, I should be able to build a magic ship as well.
As Captain Maurice laughed, I set myself the goal of someday building a magic ship, no matter what. But it was not yet time to speak of that goal, so I laughed along and played it off as a joke. Al and Ray beside me, however, were not laughing. They simply stared at me.