Chapter 111
“Damn, we’ve run into a monster....”
On the deck of the pirate ship, the man who looked like the captain muttered under his breath.
We’d watched everything that happened on the island through the spyglass.
Of course, the “monster” he meant wasn’t the fish-men.
We’d seen fish-men over and over, and we knew how to deal with them.
But the real monster fighting those monsters was different.
That was an existence no one dared think they could face.
The sight of a young girl single-handedly annihilating hundreds of fish-men in the blink of an eye.
It was a scene so absurd it was hard to believe it was real.
“Let’s get out of here, now!”
“Captain! The anchor won’t come up!”
One sailor shouted, drenched in sweat.
The anchor seemed to have snagged on an underwater reef.
“Cut the rope if you have to, and get us moving!”
“But what about later....”
“Later is the problem? Right now? We need to run before that thing comes our way!”
The sailors, terrified, raised their axes to cut the rope.
Right then.
“C-Captain! P-please, look at that!”
“If you saw it with your own eyes, then you tell me! Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“But it’s too hard to explain in words....”
“Stop being so annoying... What is it? Hand me the spyglass.”
The lookout sailor’s voice cracked with fear.
The captain cursed and snatched the spyglass back again.
As expected, those uneducated bastards didn’t even know the basics of reporting.
“W-what is that....”
The captain couldn’t believe his own eyes.
The girl on the island was now walking across the sea.
No, on closer look, she wasn’t actually walking on the water.
Each time the girl stepped, a sand path extended by a handspan.
A path stretching toward their ship at terrifying speed.
Of course, figuring out the trick to walking on water didn’t make the fear any less.
“N-no way....”
I’d only ever heard of magic like that in legends.
The captain urged the crew once more.
“Set sail, now!”
“You sluggish bastards, still not done yet?”
The deck erupted into chaos in an instant.
The sailors screamed as they hacked at the anchor ropes.
But the girl was coming after them much faster than they could work.
The sand path reached the bow of the ship in the blink of an eye.
The girl reached out her hand.
“Stop.”
The sand path swelled up enormously.
At the same time, two sand arms shot up.
The sailing ship was firmly seized between the two arms.
Crunch-!
The ship screamed as it came to a halt.
The force was on a whole different level from a snagged anchor, pinning the ship completely in place.
A ship that wouldn’t budge no matter how hard the wind blew or the oars were rowed.
The pirates were completely dumbfounded by the sight.
***
Even so, directly moving the soil beneath the sea was difficult.
What I did was simple.
I just hauled over the sand from the island’s beach.
Maybe the island’s area even shrank a tiny bit.
“That took more power than I expected.”
As expected, water really didn’t mix well with me.
If I accidentally fell into the water, it’d probably be a total disaster.
Land with a beach was basically my personal field, but on a ship, I’d have to move carefully.
I lightly hopped over the rail and onto the deck.
Thud.
The moment my small foot touched the deck, every pirate on the deck turned to look at me.
With my hands in my pockets, I slowly looked them over.
“Did you enjoy the show?”
At my voice, some of the pirates snapped out of it and tightened their grip on their weapons.
But their hands were trembling violently.
“The sea witch...!”
“Damn it, so we really ran into a witch....”
Murmurs spread among the pirates.
A witch? That wasn’t exactly a pleasant thing to hear.
Back in the next town over, they called me a sage.
“You’re the captain?”
I pointed at the captain, who was frozen stiff with the spyglass in his hand.
Just from the fact that he alone was wearing a red coat, he clearly had to be the captain.
“Are you going to fight?”
“....”
The captain swallowed hard.
A brief silence fell.
The captain slowly lowered his sword to the deck.
“Damn it, they say at sea you should watch out for women, children, and the elderly... I should’ve realized once I checked off two of the three boxes.”
The captain cursed, then looked around at the crew and shouted.
“What are you doing, you bastards! Drop your weapons! Do you want to die?!”
At that, the other sailors quickly threw their weapons to the ground and raised both hands.
Of course, not everyone was cooperative.
One sailor quickly drew a gun from inside his coat and shouted.
“… You think bullets won’t even pierce you just because you’re a witch!”
“What the hell is that idiot doing! Stop him!”
Bang!
The startled captain tried to stop him, but the trigger had already been pulled.
Of course, I wasn’t tense at all.
It happened in an instant.
The wood of the deck where I stood turned to sand, then rose up into a barrier.
Clack.
The bullet was easily blocked.
“Hmm.”
I pulled the bullet out of the barrier.
An old-fashioned bullet, round like a bead, different from modern bullets.
I fell into thought as I looked at the bullet.
How should I deal with that bastard?
As if he’d sensed what I was thinking, the sailor who fired the gun was also trembling with fear, his face drained of color.
Then.
“You stupid bastard, are you trying to get us all killed!”
The captain sprang to his feet and strode over to the sailor.
Without hesitation, the captain grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up.
“C-Captain!”
“Shut up, you bastard!”
The captain hoisted him up and headed for the bow.
Seeing an adult man lifted that easily, the captain seemed to possess extraordinary strength.
It was while I was quietly watching to see what he was going to do.
Splash!
Without hesitation, the captain threw the sailor into the sea.
“Huh?”
I stared at the sight with round eyes.
An unexpected overreaction.
The captain brushed off his hands and said as if nothing had happened.
“You don’t need to worry about an idiot like that. From now on, I’ll take care of everything myself.”
There wasn’t a hint of agitation on his face.
So calm, it was hard to believe he’d just thrown one of his own men into the sea.
“So, did you like it? This pirate’s way of handling things....”
I looked at him for a moment.
He judged situations quickly, had decisiveness, and seemed easy to talk to.
I liked him.
I nodded in satisfaction.
“Good, it’s easier when we understand each other.”
I walked up to the captain and asked.
“What’s your name?”
“Edward Teach. Feel free to call me Teach.”
“What?”
A few images flashed through my mind.
“Your nickname isn’t Blackbeard, is it?”
‘Blackbeard’... Not bad. I’ll keep it in mind if I ever come up with a nickname later.
“No, absolutely don’t use that nickname....”
“?”
If his nickname were Blackbeard too, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to hold back my laughter.
Honestly, I was already at my limit.
I forcibly erased the flaming nipples and cherry pie that kept popping into my head.
“Anyway, from now on this ship is mine.”
I said, looking over the ship.
A ship that looked quite large and sturdy.
It would be useful for tackling the ocean field around the 40th floor.
Even at my sudden declaration, the captain didn’t seem surprised at all.
If anything, he even looked relieved.
“Of course, do as you please, Captain.”
The man answered without the slightest hesitation.
I became curious about the source of that composure.
“Aren’t you bothered at all? I’m saying I’m going to take your ship.”
“I’ve heard about witches like you, Captain.”
“Hm?”
“Witches always have their own goals, don’t they? Whatever those grand goals are, they hardly pay us any mind.”
“....”
“Besides, most of them supposedly go back quietly once you’ve kept them aboard for a month or two at most. So once they’re already aboard, it’s better to just think of them as a guest. No need to get on a witch’s bad side and die for it, is there? Damn it, it’s not like you can win anyway....”
“Hmm...?”
The captain definitely wasn’t an ordinary man.
That was a good thing.
If the underlings were capable, there’d be less for me to worry about.
“Good. Then before we set sail, load the ship with some sand first. As much as you can, until the deck is full.”
“Sand?”
The captain looked puzzled for a moment.
Why load a ship with something as uselessly heavy as sand?
But Teach soon nodded as if he had realized something.
He’d seen me handling sand earlier, so that much deduction was probably possible.
“I see. I’ll give the crew their orders.”
The sailors shuttled back and forth between the island and the ship in small boats, busily hauling sand.
But the pace was far too slow.
“Ugh, forget it. I’ll do it myself.”
Frustrated by the sight, I simply created a giant pillar of sand with magic and dumped it onto the ship.
The deck turned into a playground in an instant.
“Set sail now.”
At my order, the captain shouted at the crew.
“What are you all standing around for! It’s the new captain’s orders! Move, move!”
Only then did the crew come to their senses and start moving in perfect unison again.
I nodded in satisfaction and headed toward the captain’s quarters.
There might be something worth taking inside.
The captain quietly followed behind me.
“Can you read?”
“I learned here and there.”
The captain’s quarters were oddly filled with books. It was like a small library had been moved here.
Not very pirate-like.
‘Maybe this guy has read more books than I have....’
I felt a slight sense of crisis as I looked around the room.
It’s fine. These days, we have YouTube and ChatGPT.
You can afford to read a little less.
I don’t know who said it, but life is written outside the textbook.
The large desk in the center was neatly organized.
On top of it, along with an old sea chart, sat a compass the size of a palm.
“This definitely looks like something special.”
I said, lifting the compass.
Even at a glance, the compass was no ordinary object.
Its body was made of gold.
Where east, west, south, and north should have been written, strange patterns were engraved instead.
“What is this?”
As I picked up the compass, the captain spoke.
“It’s a compass that points to where you need to go. Ordinary compasses are of little use in these waters.”
“So it was an item.”
I turned the compass this way and that.
No system window appeared, but it was clearly an object imbued with the tower’s unique laws.
“Where were we headed next?”
“We were on our way to the Whirlpool Archipelago.”
“What’s there?”
“There are only two things pirates head for: treasure or slaves.”
“Treasure?”
At the captain’s words, I became interested.
Treasure hunting, huh. Not a bad event.
I tucked the compass into my pocket.
This is mine now too.
The captain said nothing.
He just stood there in silence.
“Looks like there’s nothing else to see.”
I went back out onto the deck.
A cool sea breeze brushed across my forehead.
I could feel the pirates who were now my crew sneaking glances at me from time to time.
How long had we been sailing?
One pirate holding the spyglass shouted.
“Something’s approaching!”