Those Who Dwell in the Sea (1)

After finishing our support for the pirates, we sailed the ship that could turn transparent out onto the open sea. Heh, the pirates' reactions to seeing Shiratsuki floating in the sky were hilarious! Perhaps because it made such an impressive spectacle, they meekly agreed to everything I proposed. Apparently, they decided that accepting superior equipment and fighting was better than angering an opponent who could crush them if we fought. It was a wise choice.

On our way back, I claimed the assassins' ship as my own without giving them a say. They apparently wanted a new ship as well, but they did not dare defy us. I felt a little sorry for them, so I told them that another, larger ship was floating out at sea. It could not turn transparent, but they were bound to be happier with a bigger ship. James immediately sent Richard and his subordinates to retrieve it.

"How is it, Shio? Is steering difficult?"

"Piece of cake! Normally I'd be busy operating the sails, but with the wind direction stable, I don't need to do that either. It's all thanks to magic."

Shio was the one holding the ship's wheel. Apparently, she had piloted a ship in another game, but since magic could keep a following wind blowing at all times, complicated operations and commands were unnecessary.

That left Nanako and me with the hard part, since we were the ones generating wind with magic. We had to keep sending out wind whose range had been expanded while its strength was reduced through spell adjustment. It required more concentration than I had expected. Still, amateurs could not operate the sails, so we had to do our best!

"When you think of a ship, you just want to shout, 'Hard-a-starboard!'"

"Yeah, I know! Or 'Steady as she goes!'"

"The sea at night is pitch-black... It's kind of scary."

"Really? I like it because it's so quiet."

"It barely rocks. I expected it to sway much more."

"Doesn't that mean it's a good ship? I don't know anything about what makes a ship good, though."

"A ship with three masts carrying fore-and-aft sails... It must be a schooner!"

"Ha ha ha. I'm glad you're all enjoying yourselves."

Our companions were all sharing their impressions of the ship they were riding for the first time. It was precisely when we acted on our curiosity that we truly felt we were enjoying the game.

Why were we sailing a ship that was inferior to Shiratsuki in every respect when we had a flying battleship? The reason went beyond enjoying a nighttime voyage. We had a more important purpose.

"Izaam! I'm finished!"

Iris said this as she opened the hatch in the deck and climbed up. She was carefully cradling a single magic device in her countless tentacles. Naturally, it was the device that rendered this ship transparent.

The device was extremely appealing, and none of us objected to taking it home. However, a problem arose. Helping the pirates had been part of our plan, but we had not anticipated bringing the captured enemy sailing ship home, and we had no means of doing so.

At first, I thought we could simply suspend the ship beneath Shiratsuki and take it home. However, Shiratsuki's AI advised that the odds of returning undamaged were below ten percent. As we had seen on the way here, the sky was a lair of powerful monsters. Entering it while hauling extra cargo behind us would be incredibly dangerous. The transparent device was certainly valuable, but not valuable enough to risk Shiratsuki, which could be called the clan's greatest asset. Therefore, I abandoned that plan.

As an alternative, I had Iris detach the device from the ship. She seemed nervous about removing a device she had never handled before, but ultimately took it off with impressive efficiency. Neither the device itself nor the more than ten cables extending from it showed any damage. As expected of one of the players' foremost artisans, she was remarkably dexterous.

"Could we adapt it for use on Shiratsuki?"

"Hmm... It would be difficult to use it as-is. The cables are nowhere near long enough."

"I see... Then we'll have to find a way to obtain the materials."

A transparent reptile—probably a chameleon-like monster. There was no information even after a quick look through the forums, so it might be a rare monster, or perhaps someone was keeping it secret. Maybe players had not reached its habitat yet. The only thing I knew for certain was that a monster existed whose materials could be used in the transparency device.

Then all that remained was to search until we found one. I could search for it myself, or have Conrad act as an intermediary to buy one from someone. In any case, one thing was certain: it would not happen today or tomorrow.

"There is no longer any use for this ship. Let's sink it already."

"It's a shame, but I suppose it can't be helped."

Once we had recovered the transparent device, we had no need for an ordinary ship. We had retrieved every item aboard it, and unless we were using Conrad's armed merchant ship, a voyage by sea to the Timbrica Continent would be dangerous. If we could not take it home, we should abandon it so that it would not fall into someone else's hands.

I felt the same way Iris did—it seemed wasteful. However, I did not want greed to turn into a massive loss. Instead, all of us thoroughly captured the ship's interior in screenshots. These images would serve as useful reference material when Iris eventually took up shipbuilding as well.

As an alternative to destroying it, I had offered the ship to Anne. However, she said she did not want a ship of such an awkward size, nor did she want her first ship to be secondhand, and she turned me down. I had assumed pirates naturally used captured ships as their own, but... well, this was a game. I could understand wanting something new.

"Leave it to me, bro. I'll smash it to pieces!"

Jigoro volunteered while cracking his fingers. Apparently, he wanted to vent his frustration at the enemies being weaker than expected on the ship. If that was all it took to put him in a good mood, I was happy to let him do it. I nodded silently.

Jigoro then bared a vicious, murderous grin, clawed at empty air, and unleashed flying slashes that severed every rope securing the rigging. He stepped in and slammed an impossibly swift roundhouse kick into one of the masts. As expected, his kick was absurdly powerful, and it snapped the mast in a single blow.

The broken mast sank into the sea with a deafening crash, throwing up spray everywhere. Toji, whose face had been splashed with seawater, glared unhappily at Jigoro, but my brother did not notice at all. He stepped toward another mast, crushing the deck boards beneath his feet, and drove a straight punch through it.

"Ooraaah!"

"Geh!? No way!?"

Jigoro forcefully swung his arm through, and the mast, having lost its support, began to topple. It was the same scene as before, but the direction was a problem. Instead of falling toward the sea, it fell toward us—in other words, toward the hull. Hey, we said to destroy the ship, but who told you to capsize it!?

Unlike the rest of us, who were thrown into a panic, Jigoro remained calm. He caught the mast as it fell toward him, leaped from the deck, and hurled it with its tip pointed toward the surface like a harpoon. It was far too large and oddly shaped to be a harpoon, but propelled by Jigoro's strength, the mast plunged deep into the sea like one, raising an enormous wave.

"Hah-ha! I feel much better after letting loose!"

"You overdid it!"

"It's rocking! It's rocking too much!?"

Jigoro wore a refreshing smile, but because he had gone on such a rampage without holding back, the sea was heaving violently, as if we were caught in a storm. Those who could fly were fine, but everyone else desperately clung to the ship's edge to avoid falling into the sea. Eiji in particular could not stay on his feet, so he drove his axe into the deck and used it to hold himself in place.

Although the rocking was severe, the natural wind was weak and there had been almost no waves, so the sea soon settled back into its usual calm. At least the ship had not capsized, and no one had fallen overboard. I let out a sigh of relief and patted my chest.

"...!? Everyone, something's coming from the sea! And it's pretty strong! Its level is probably about the same as ours!"

"What!?"

Just as we relaxed, Ruby cried out to warn us that an enemy was approaching. Her cry came as a complete shock to us, since we had let our guard down, thinking the battle was over. Throwing the mast into the sea must have agitated a monster that lived there. If so, this was entirely Jigoro's fault!

The culprit himself was grinning at the unexpected encounter with a powerful enemy. T-this guy wasn't sorry in the least—he thought it was convenient! His tendency to prioritize battle above everything else would probably never change.

"Shaaahhh!"

"Hmph!"

As I lamented, the surface of the sea bulged, and a gigantic fish leaped out of it. Its head had a shape reminiscent of a crocodile, and its entire body was covered in glossy scales. All of its fins were large, and its pectoral fins resembled wings. Most notably, the dorsal fin growing from the base of its head merged with its tail fin, and together with the spines along its edge, it looked like a single saw.

Eiji was the first to react to the charging fish. He yanked his axe from the deck and used his usual large shield to block the fish's charge. Since it was a fish, I thought that once its momentum was stopped, it would simply fall. But then it flapped its pectoral fins in midair and accelerated. I had thought they looked like wings, but I never expected it to actually use them as wings.

"Hah!"

"Shii!"

Toji and Genjuro swiftly rushed toward the hovering giant fish and tried to cut it down with their respective blades. However, Toji's twin swords bounced off its scales, while Genjuro's katana merely sliced one of its belly fins without severing it. Both its scales and fins apparently possessed the hardness of metal. It was a much more troublesome opponent than I had expected!

However, merely flapping its fins in midair apparently had not given it enough power to knock Eiji down. Perhaps it realized that if it continued focusing on Eiji, Genjuro and Toji would cut it apart. The fish turned around and tried to return to the sea.

"Don't let it esca... What!?"

Nenashi extended his vines to bind it tightly so that it could not escape into the sea, but the giant fish spun around just before being restrained and sliced through them. Then, as though mocking us, it performed aerial maneuvers like a fighter jet before diving back into the sea. Had it really gotten away?

When I signaled to Ruby, she continued quivering the surface of her body without lowering her guard. Apparently, the giant fish had not fled; it was waiting for the right moment to attack again. In this situation, it would be difficult for all of us to escape to Shiratsuki. It couldn't be helped. We would have to fight our way through!