However, there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be any nobles who would marry off their daughters to Touya just for personal gain. That wasn’t limited to Belfast, either. There could be marriage proposals coming from other countries, such as Mismede and Refreese.
Yumina believed that she and the other girls could prevent such things from happening. For a while, they could reject such proposals by simply saying that there were already four of them. However, as Touya’s fame would increase, so would the possibility of there being more fiancees. Of course, if the new girls thought of Touya above all else, they wouldn’t mind them joining even if they were nobles or princesses from other countries.
“For now, however, Touya will have to be supported by just the four of us. To do that, we have to become powerful, as well. Powerful enough to walk this life at his side, that is.”
“True. He can be really unreliable at times.”
“I-I-I’ll do my best!”
“But what is it we can do at this point in time?” Yae slightly tilted her head. She didn’t know what she could do for his sake. A girl like her, who spent her entire life following the path of the sword, simply didn’t have anything in mind.
“There’s no need to overthink it. You only need to try to become someone dear to him. Since we’re all fiancees now, perhaps we should try getting closer to him.”
“C-C-Closer, as in...?”
“Holding his hand, linking your arms with his, hugging him. Start with a little physical intimacy, basically.” Yumina’s words made the other girls turn beet red. The purity on display in that reaction made the princess smile. However, at that point, she herself wasn’t able to be that clingy and kept her physical limits with Touya at about the same as Sue’s.
Though there were many difficulties ahead of them, Yumina was confident that she and the other girls would do just fine. After all... you couldn’t hurry love, no, you just had to wait.
Interlude II: The Cursed Sea
“This thing can go pretty fast.”
“Well, that’s because the garden doesn’t have any unnecessary facilities, unlike the other Babylons.” The floating garden silently streamed above the clouds like a boat. Thanks to the surrounding magical barrier, in spite of the garden moving at an impressive speed, we only felt a slight breeze on board.
Another curiosity of the barrier was that if, say, a bird were to collide with the garden, the bird would instead be teleported behind it. The lack of exploding birds was indeed a welcome feature.
Cesca, the manager of the garden, operated it using a black monolithic device installed in the center of the vessel. As Cesca touched different places on the touch panel-like device, glowing red letters would appear and disappear.
Linze and Yumina watched in awe from either side. Similarly, the floating Sango and Kokuyou gazed at the monolith as well.
“Are you the only one who can operate this thing, Cesca?”
“The only other one who’s allowed is Master. Though that’s more who may operate it, rather than who can, I suppose.” Cesca answered Linze’s question without moving her hands away from the monolith.
“Is this vessel for recreation? Since it’s called the garden and all.” In response to my question, Cesca wagged her finger at me with a tut-tut. What’s her problem? That’s really irritating.
“Just take a look at that flower by master’s feet.”
“Hmm? These?” I looked down at my feet as told, and sure enough, there was a small yellow bell-shaped flower blooming.
It kinda looked like a sandersonia. Except there was only one of them.
“That’s called moonbeam grass, an ingredient in potions for treating mana starvation. And that flower over there is called sunbeam grass. It’s an ingredient in potions for recovering stamina. All the flowers in the garden are medicinal plants with their own characteristics.”
That’s amazing. Guess it really isn’t an ordinary garden. It’s kind of odd how quickly just hearing that explanation turned my impression around. So a lot of different drugs can be made here, huh?
“Well, I’ve got no idea how you formulate any of those drugs, though.”
“Huh?! You can’t make them?!”
“That’d fall under the alchemy department’s jurisdiction. Or maybe you could look it up in the library. Each Babylon’s been specialized to the point where a single one by itself isn’t all that useful.” Seriously? That didn’t sound very convenient.
As I thought that information over, a map and some text appeared on the monolith that seemed to catch Cesca’s attention.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m getting an unusual magical reading. It’s down below. Maybe a special kind of magical beast?”
“Down below? Where, exactly?”
“A sea to the west of the Kingdom of Belfast. Let’s go take a look.” And with that said, the garden silently began to dive into the sea of clouds, rapidly descending to the sea below.
The weather below the clouds was gloomy, the air saturated with a dim mist. Though none of it entered the garden thanks to the magic barrier.
“Hey, did something happen?”
“The clouds are quite thick, they are.” Elze, Yae, and Kohaku noticed the Babylon’s sudden rapid descent and paused their training to come this way.
“There was some sort of weird magical reading, apparently.”
“Magical reading? Could it possibly be another Babylon, could it?”
“Nope. A Babylon’s barrier should completely isolate its mana signature from the outside world. It’s most likely either a magical beast or artifact.”
So a magical beast of the sea, maybe? If it lived in the sea, it’d probably be something huge. Like a kraken or a killer whale, maybe. Oh, if it’s a sea-dweller...
“Sango, Kokuyou. Anything you guys can figure out?”
“No, I do sense sseveral readings, but no ssstrange magical beastss in particular.”
“No, my lord. There don’t seem to be any particularly strange ones in the sea. Maybe there’s one in the air?” I thought Sango and Kokuyou would’ve known if it were an aquatic magical beast. So maybe it was something else? Like some sort of artifact swept out to sea.
“T-Touya, look at that!” Yumina shouted as she looked down at the sea from the garden’s edge. Incidentally, she wasn’t in any danger since the magical shield would’ve prevented her from accidentally falling off the Babylon.
I followed her pointing finger to find a single boat floating through the mist. It was rusted here and there, and barnacles crusted its hull. Tattered sails hung off its three masts. And lining its deck were rusted cannons.
Ominous light emanated from the tattered ship as it silently drifted in the sea.
It was obviously in pretty bad condition. The fact that it was still even floating was nothing less than a miracle, actually.
“A ghost ship...?” I questioned.
“G-Ghost ship?!” Elze loudly echoed my whisper. Yae, who was standing next to her, turned pale as she cast her gaze to the sea.
Conversely, Linze remained calm. She had a pensive hand placed upon her chin.
“Is it really a ghost ship, though? Maybe it’s just been abandoned recently?”
“Well, if you think about it rationally, I guess that’d make a lot more sense...” I may have been in another world, a fantasy world at that, but a ghost ship...? Really...? Then again, ghosts and wraiths and other spiritual monsters were commonplace. I’d fought the undead a few times, too.
“The magical reading’s coming from over there, huh? There might be a special artifact on board that ship. Normal artifacts don’t give that sort of reading, after all.” That made sense, I figured. I was surprised that Cesca could tell so easily. It’d be nice to collect another artifact, but I just couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that ship was giving off...
“Let’s go check it out.”
“Whaaat?!” Even before I could react to Linze’s suggestion, Elze and Yae shouted firs
t. Relics of the old world may have been involved, but that girl was oddly brave when it came to certain things.
“That boat may be carrying an important artifact from another country. I think it’d be best to at least check it out.”
“True. We should retrieve it, and if it’s dangerous, destroy it. Plus, this very well might be... Cesca, please show me the map.”
“Knock yourself out.” After seconding Linze’s suggestion, Yumina checked the map displayed on the monolith.
“I knew it... This is the Sea of Blasphemy.”
“The... Sea of Blasphemy?”
“It’s a magic sea where all boats, without exception, are said to sink before they can pass through. For that reason, merchant ships and the like take long detours to avoid this area. That could explain what happened to that ship.” All boats sink there? So it’s like the Bermuda Triangle in the Sargasso Sea, huh. Things like the Bermuda Triangle are a myth, but also entirely plausible in another world like this, so it’s kind of scary.
If that really was the cause of that ship’s demise, then if we left it alone, it could cause another ship to sink.
“I guess we’ll go check it out.”
“Whaaat?!” Elze and Yae shrieked again. If we used a [Gate], we could board that ship, and with Sango and Kokuyou, we’d probably be able to manage with the sea somehow.
“A-Are we really going?”
“We can’t just ignore it, can we? It could cause another ship to sink, after all.”
“Th-That may be true, but...” I ignored those two and opened up a [Gate]. It was easy to teleport to somewhere I could see.
“Kohaku, you stay here. Cesca, contact us through Kohaku if anything goes wrong.”
“As you wish.”
“Roger that, Master.” I passed through the [Gate] onto the deck of the ship.
The hull’s floorboards creaked ominously underfoot. The sea was gentle, but the mist only added to the eerie atmosphere of the situation.
Linze and Yumina followed me through the [Gate] and boarded the ship. Sango, Kokuyou, and finally Elze and Yae appeared behind me... Why are you guys holding hands? On the deck were cannons jutting out the side of the ship as well as small boards. The cannons were obviously rusted, and the boards were rotten and clearly useless.
The floorboards creaked with every step. Hopefully they don’t cave in due to decay...
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s on deck.” Linze was right. Just one cursory glance revealed that not a soul was on deck.
It was like that one ship, the San Juan Bautista. The first Japanese-built Western-style sailing ship built by Date Masamune, the first daimyo of Sendai. Hasekura Tsunenaga sailed it to Spain as a diplomat. It had been restored and should still have been on display in Ishinomaki. My grandpa took me there to see it once.
According to a little smartphone research, this type of ship was called a galleon. If this ship had a similar layout to what I found, then the captain’s cabin should’ve been in back. But this ship was the product of another world, so it was unlikely that every detail would be the same.
“...Now that’s strange. The magical reading feels weak. It felt stronger when we were up in the air.” Yumina’s words made me turn still and sharpen my senses. She’s right. The magic seems to be weaker than before. Or rather, it feels like the source of the magic isn’t here...
“For now, let’s just go inside. We might learn something.”
“W-We’re going inside?”
“W-We will stay and keep a lookout, we will. So please, go on ahead.”
“...Well, that’s fine by me.” As Elze and Yae both put up awkward smiles, the rest of us opened the door on the rear deck.
There was a dimly-lit passage beyond it, both sides of which were lined with cannons that faced outward. I had heard that this world had cannons, but had never actually seen one. My first impression was that they seemed pretty large.
Though, I’d also heard that having a few fire wizards on board was far more efficient than using cannons. Now that I think about it, these cannons mean that this could be an army ship. It’s a bit late, but whatever.
We passed through the rows of cannons and came across a thick, long rod protruding out of the floor.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the helm. It’s used to make the ship turn to the sides.” So this is what a helm looks like. I always thought it would be similar to the wheel-like thing you’d see on TV...
Anyway, since the helm was so derelict, I couldn’t help but worry that pushing it a bit too hard would break it. Not that I had any intention to do that, of course. Beyond the helm, there was a door that really stood out. A lot of its decor, which likely used to be beautiful, had fallen off, and the old metallic fixings were covered in rust, but it was easy to tell that it was the door to the captain’s quarters.
It was probably bent out of place, since we couldn’t open it without using a bit more force. A few creaks later, we were able to get inside.
Though it was dark, I could somewhat make out the shapes of an old lantern hanging from the ceiling, a plain chair and table, and some curved blades and axes hanging on the walls.
“Come forth, Light! Tiny Illumination: [Light Sphere]!” Linze cast a spell that lit up the room.
On the table, I could see a sea chart, a compass, and the ship’s log. And, of course, the papers had deteriorated so much that it felt like they’d crumble with just a stronger touch.
It doesn’t seem like there’s anything unusual here...
“I know it’s weird saying this at this point, but this ship is pretty strange, isn’t it?”
“That sure came out of left field, but why do you think that?”
“If this ship began drifting around because of some incident, you’d expect to see the crew’s corpses, wouldn’t you? Should we assume that they all jumped into the sea?” Yumina had a point. If it was really drifting about long enough for it to deteriorate so much, then there shouldn’t have been any survivors. With that in mind, you’d expect to find a corpse or two.
Maybe they’re all piled up in a single room we didn’t check yet...? That’s not really something I’d like to discover, though.
Making sure not to ruin it, I opened the old ship’s log and found out that the ship belonged to pirates who pillaged Belfast’s waters. My assumption that it was an army ship wasn’t completely off the mark, though, since that was exactly what it was before the pirates stole it and began using it for their own dastardly deeds.
However, the dates on the log were throwing me off. Why is the most recent entry more than a whole century old? Has this ship really been drifting about for that long...?
“...Masster, don’t you hear some sstrange ssound?”
“Huh?” Floating in the air and wrapped around Sango, as usual, Kokuyou began talking to me.
“Though, it’s less of just a sound... and more of a... song?”
“A song?” Sango seemed to agree to Kokuyou’s words.
I strained my ears, turned alert, and began looking around. Still, I could only hear the waves, the creaks of the boat’s hull, and the fluttering of the derelict sails.
Right as I was about to say that I couldn’t hear anything, the sound entered my ears.
“...re...s, we’r... pir... ...ow...of...nd ...on...f brine ...boo... we... ho...” Though I could only hear pieces of it, there was no doubt that it was what Kokuyou called it — a song.
Wait, does that mean that this ship that’s been adrift for more than a century actually has survivors on it?! There’s no way!
“Kyaaaaaahhhhhhh!” A moment later, a feminine scream reached the captain’s quarters and cut my thoughts short.
“I-It’s my sister and Yae!”
“Did something happen on the deck?!” We hastily ran out of the room and through the gun deck. When we got closer to the upper deck, we could hear the song clearly.
“We’re pirates, we’re pirates! We know naught of solid land...! Unmat
ched upon these waves of brine! For there’s booty we must find, yo ho, hoo!” When I kicked the door open, I was greeted by a deck full of skeletons wearing pirate-like clothing and wielding cutlasses.
“This is...!” I was utterly stunned.
“Yo ho! We’ve got some more guests, ye bilge rats! Give ’em all a piratey welcome!”
“Aye aye, sir!” On the bow of the ship, wearing a pirate hat and an overcoat, there was a captain-like skeleton. He was accompanied by another one who also wore clothes different from the rest of the underlings — likely the first mate.
Once the skeletal captain raised his sword to the sky, the boney underlings charged at us with their own cutlasses.
“Blade mode!” I pulled out my Brunhild, turned it into a longsword, and cut down the skeletal pirates closing in on us.
Though they broke as easily as porcelain, their bones quickly began regenerating and came back together in but a moment. Should’ve known that normal attacks wouldn’t work on the undead.
“Come forth, O Light! Shining Duet: [Light Arrow]!” I fired off three [Light Arrows] in a row, and all of them broke through a different bone pirate’s head.
The undead were weak to Light magic. The three unfortunate skeletons I hit couldn’t regenerate and quickly became dust.
“Look at that! A Light magic user! Been a while since someone surprised Captain Trepang like this!”
“...Trepang?”
“Aye! The ruthless devil of the seas! The one and only Captain Trepang! Yo hoo!” A devil...? I’m pretty sure that ‘trepang’ is a word for ‘sea cucumber,’ though...
Captain Cucumber laughed as his bones rattled. As I was wondering how to react, Yumina suddenly called out to me.
“Touya, look there!” She was pointing at the crow’s nest on top of the mast, where I saw Elze and Yae, tied up and hanging on a rope.
“Sorry, they got us!”
“How careless of me...” Oh man... Well, they couldn’t use Light magic and didn’t have anything that was enchanted with it, so I guess this result is only obvious.
“Hyahahah! Don’t worry, lad. After all, yer joining them soon! Except yer rope’ll be goin’ around yer neck and— Gah!”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 3 Page 19