Chapter 149: Ships Overturn
At Maganen, the southeastern end of Black Scale, an Elf was talking to a warehouse worker.
The Elf’s dark red clothes were embroidered with gold threads, but she didn’t seem like any other wealthy merchant. To prevent her clothes from flapping around in the sea breeze while not restricting the movement of her arms and legs, her sleeves and the hems of her pants were sealed and tied with strings. She seemed to be a sailor.
The Elf was squinting, which gave the impression that she was smiling, but her eyes were deep black, making it difficult to tell what she was really thinking on the inside.
The warehouse worker was angry and complained to the Elf, but they soon calmed down and bowed when the conversation was over.
As the conversation came to an end, a Lizardman approached the Elf and asked, “Are you busy?”
Her long and pointy ears twitching, the Elf looked at Vasen Lak Orazen.
“Prince Vasen…no, Team Leader?”
“It’s been a while, Captain Theone Itimo.”
“Captain?” Theone said with a big smile. “I’ve become the owner of a small fleet thanks to you.”
“Then should I call you Fleet Leader?”
“But I am also the captain, so you can just call me that.”
After finishing her conversation with the crew member, Theone went to a nearby noodle shop with Vasen Lak Orazen and talked about what had happened until now. During the continental war, when Vasen commanded the army as a general, Theone had diligently transported war supplies. And when the war ended, Theone received payment from the palace and became rich because of it.
“I even joined The Fifth Waterwheel.”
“The Fifth Waterwheel? What’s that?”
“Wait, you don’t know?”
As Vasen nodded, Theone covered her mouth.
“Then you didn’t hear anything…”
“What, I can’t know about it?”
“I naturally assumed you would know since you’re a prince… I just made another slip of the tongue…”
Vasen smiled.
“If even mentioning it makes you feel troubled, why don’t you just tell me about it? I don’t know what it is, but I’ll keep it a secret.”
Theone seemed to think for a moment, and she then nodded.
“It’s nothing big. It’s just a secret merchant union.”
“A secret merchant union? Not just any other merchant union?”
“Yes. It’s a union founded by Hwee-Kyung, composed of famous merchants in Automation in the past.”
“Is it like a legend among merchants?”
"Well...something like that. The interesting part is that it's not a legend. I thought it was as well until I got an offer.”
Vasen thought about asking what benefits there were to joining the union, what the secret merchant union aimed to do, as well as the identity of those who had joined under such strict conditions. However, it seemed to Vasen that Theone didn't want to answer, so he didn’t ask. He wasn’t that curious anyway.
“Well, if you’ve joined such an impressive union, then congratulations.”
“Thank you. By the way, was it you who decided on the trip to the Southern Continent?”
Vasen nodded.
“Yes. The original plan was to go to the eastern mountains, but things have changed a lot, haven’t they? It’s also what His Majesty wanted, and I heard that the gods of the pantheon wanted that too.”
The term ‘pantheon’ still seemed unfamiliar to Theone. Stories about the gods were the trending topic after the war. The stories told to the chosen priests by Dancing Shadow God, the god of the Elves of Zarin and the messenger of the gods, had been made into a book and circulated throughout the continent. Soon after, the stories could be seen performed on the streets, and everyone in civilized regions of the continent knew it as ‘Dawn of the Pantheon.’ Theone, who had spent a long time traveling the seas, belatedly learned about the stories, and so she was still getting used to them.
“I’ve seen the performance too. They were performing it out there in the square just yesterday.”
“I’m not sure if they’re the same performance group, but I used to watch it everyday in Orazen. Once I even saw someone playing my role, and they weren’t a Lizardman. It was a Dwarf wearing a mask instead.”
“But there should have been plenty of Lizardmen in Orazen.”
“I heard that the Dwarf was the best actor and thus took on multiple roles. It was fun though.”
“Actually, in the performance I saw yesterday, a Troll was playing your role.”
“...Interesting.”
Theone said, “Anyway, we’re going to carry out the story of Dawn of the Pantheon in real life now, aren’t we?”
“That’s right.”
Dancing Shadow God had said that they needed to travel to the distant Southern Continent in order to revive the dead Concealed Text God. And for that journey, they needed priests as witnesses, as well as strong explorers who could overcome the difficult journey. So Vasen became the leader of the expedition team, and Theone became the captain of the fleet that would take the expedition team to the Southern Continent.
However, Vasen had told a little lie. The journey wasn’t something that he truly desired. Due to his victory in war, support for him had been growing even though he didn’t want it, and the whole continent was still too vast for Black Scale to rule over. He would become a burden for Kyle if he stayed.
‘Well, Kyle still would have gotten things done one way or another.’
But to save trouble, it seemed better to step out of his position, and there happened to be a role that suited him.
Theone said, “Although it’s not the eastern mountains we promised to go to in the past, I guess we’re going further.”
“Who knows? Maybe we’ll go there someday.”
A few days later, the selected priests and explorers from each nation departed from Maganen. The five ships sailed together from Maganen to Doltan Island, but they planned to anchor on different parts of the coast of the Southern Continent to avoid the area that belonged to the Deep Ones, known as the Black Order. This was partially to gather as much information as possible, but it was also because they didn’t know much about the weather and the water in the area. It was thus also a precaution to ensure that even if something dangerous did happen, not all of the five ships would get caught up in it.
‘We’re going to land that we didn’t even know the existence of before. There’s no telling what will happen.’
As Vasen looked out over the sea from the ship, Theone said, “Don’t worry. These ships wouldn’t overturn so easily.”
And two days after they passed Doltan Island, the ship that Theone and Vasen were on, the Humiliation of Pirates, got caught in a cyclone.
***
“...Waves!”
Waves that towered over the large hull of the ship and had to be looked up at even from a pier struck down onto the deck.
Theone yelled, “What are you doing! Bail the water!”
Theone grabbed the helm of the ship while yelling, and Vasen tried to help with anything, but then the ship tilted more than 30 degrees to the left and swayed violently.
“Hold onto the railing!”
Those were the last proper words that Vasen remembered. The next things that followed were shouts and screams, the sound of huge waves crashing down like they were going to crush the world, and what sounded like the ship’s screams of pain.
When Vasen opened his eyes, he saw something green and thought to himself, ‘Damn it, is this the Prairie of Beginnings that?Shune?said he saw?’
But that wasn’t the case. As he brushed off the sand from his eyes, he saw shrubs and a fairly dense forest. And when he looked behind him, he saw a yellow sandy beach that extended into blue water.
The sun shone through the clear seawater at an angle. It didn’t seem to have been long since it rose.
‘Did I regain consciousness as my body warmed up? Thank goodness.’
His head was throbbing like he had gotten hit by something or perhaps hit it when rolling around the ship, but fortunately, he didn’t seem to have any injuries. The unfortunate part was that there was nothing around him.
‘...Well, there are broken parts of the ships scattered everywhere. There might be others who got washed ashore like me. But before that…’
Vasen felt his throat burning.
‘I must have swallowed some seawater.’
And perhaps because being in the water took away his body heat, he felt very hungry as well.
Vasen decided to enter the forest to see if there was any food and drinkable water nearby before walking the coast to look for other survivors. He got a little lost amid the vegetation of the unfamiliar southern land, but as expected, he found a small pond.
He thought there was a chance the water would be salty given how close it was to the sea, but that wasn’t the case when he bent down to drink from it.
‘It would be good if there was a bottle to take some water in…’
As Vasen looked around the pond, he noticed a strange figure staring at him. At first, he thought it was a strange looking beast. On its back was what seemed like a round tough shell, and its snout was long and pointy. It seemed to be about the size of a Halfling, which meant it was only half the size of an average Lizardman. It was wearing a loincloth with only the front of its body covered, and it held a pouch that Vasen was looking for in its hand.
Vasen had never seen this species before, but it certainly looked like a person. It was a Pangolin, which was a species that looked like scaly anteaters. Pangolins had scales that covered their whole body from head to tail, and when in danger, they could ball themselves up to avoid dangerous situations.
But as if this Pangolin was belatedly noticing Vasen while getting water, they simply stared at him. And as the Pangolin stayed still, Vasen decided to initiate a conversation.
“Hey, you.”
“...Heek!”
The Pangolin got surprised and let out a sharp shriek before running away.
“No, wait!”
Vasen didn’t want to miss the chance to talk to the Pangolin as they were still a person, so he ran after them. And as the Pangolin noticed Vasen, they rolled their body into a ball.
“...Huh?”
In Vasen’s moment of bewilderment, the Pangolin started rolling downhill. Vasen was puzzled as it was his first time seeing a species like the Pangolin, but he didn’t give up his chase. As the Pangolin reached the bottom of the slope and slowed down, Vasen began to have hope that he could catch up with them. However, at that moment, a giant figure appeared in front of the Pangolin.
To Vasen, it was another strange-looking species. Their overall height and build was similar to a Troll, their face looked rough, their mouth was stretched apart, and their eyes were slanted upwards in a way that made it look perpetually angry, while parts of their face were different colors as if they were wearing a mask. It was another species that Vasen had never seen before, but known among players as Rakshasa. They were a species that could be considered a distant relative of Trolls, but their distinct characteristics were that they had faces that always looked angry, and each individual had a different color face.
The Rakshasha grabbed the Pangolin’s tail and picked them up.
“Margo! You ran away again instead of working, didn’t you!”
Lifted upside-down, the Pangolin named Margo unrolled their body and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, Master! But sick Chacha wanted to drink water…”
“Didn’t I tell you before? Leave Chacha alone!”
“But if I leave Chacha be, Chacha will die…”
“That’s exactly what I want! Taking care of that sick punk is delaying the construction of the temple!”
“But Chacha isn’t sick, you whipped Chacha…”
As if Margo’s words made them angry, the Rakshasa clenched their fist.
“How dare you!”
It seemed evident that the Rakshasa was a vicious master, and the Pangolin, Margo, was going to get whipped after trying to help their friend.
Vasen didn’t bother trying to say anything like 'that's enough’ or ‘stop’ to the Rakshasa because the Rakshasa was similar in size to a Troll, and Vasen’s sheath must have gotten lost somewhere amidst the crashing waves. So as the conversation continued, Vasen took a rock and carefully approached the Rakshasa from their back. Just before the Rakshasa was going to make a swing, Vasen used the rock to strike the Rakshasa’s head.
Thunk!
The moment the Rakshasa got struck, it swayed back and forth before falling down on one knee.
“Who…?”
‘As expected, they are similar to Trolls. Their head is hard.’
Before the Rakshasa could turn around, Vasen struck their head again. And the Rakshasa collapsed.
“Oh my!”
The freed Pangolin, Margo, looked back and forth between the collapsed Rakshasa and Vasen.
“Oh no! What do I do!”
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