BXBX NOVEL — (179) Is that a pirate… or…
Chapter: (179) Is that a pirate… or…
Translator: Tseirp
In the mountains, they are called bandits(mountain thieves); in the sea, they are called pirates(sea thieves).
I laughed wryly at that extremely simple naming sense but the real Pirate was an advanced job for the Thief. I didn’t know if all the pirates had Pirate as their jobs but if there were any among the enemies, I couldn’t afford to be careless.
I once fought with a bandit. At that time, due to my immaturity, I exposed Haru to danger and it led to the death of two others.
“Carol, please return to My World for now.”
I ordered Carol.
Even if it becomes a fight, I don’t intend to lose but we were on a ship. We didn’t have the geographical advantage (land advantage). Well, there’s truly no land to stand on after all. How one fight changes at sea and in the worst case scenario that our ship gets sunk, I would have to snatch the opponent’s ship.
I couldn’t leave Carol to fend for herself in such a dangerous fight.
”… Carol wants to observe it… but, Carol will probably be a burden. I understand.”
Carol nodded and before she entered the spatial rift that I opened,
“Ichino-sama. Please promise that you will not be reckless.”
She said worriedly.
“Of course, I don’t plan to do anything reckless. If possible, I would like to negotiate peacefully.”
I grinned and Carol replied with a smile.
“I wish you the fortunes of war.”Carol said before she left.
Fortunes of war, doesn’t that assume that it will become a fight… well, it would probably end that way.
After closing the spatial rift which was the door to My World, I stood at the bow of the ship.
The pirate ship — the ship with a black sail painted with the mark of a skull gradually drew closer.
As the distance shortened, I could grasp the size of the ship.
It was just slightly larger than our ship but it was pretty much the same size. It’s just that their sail was tattered and there was evidence that the side of the ship has been repaired many times, I was amazed that it could stay afloat.
There were about ten human presences on the ship. Assuming that it was not a slave ship or they did not hold any hostages, everyone on the ship would be a pirate. Well, it’s a fantasy world after all so the pirate ship might even be ferrying customers.
I guess that is the pirate ship captain?
A man wearing an eye-patch with a respectable beard pointed the blade of the saber he held at me,
“Stop right there! We will be taking that ship.”
He shouted. Looks like there’s no room for negotiations.
Of course, the ship was a precious ship made by Pionia so I won’t hand it over so easily.
“I refuse! A part of our cargo — I’ll give you a full barrel of wine and tomato! Would that be enough to satisfy you!?”
“Don’t joke with me! Against pirates… hmm, that’s a little attractive but… no, we need a ship! That ship — hey! Hurry up and stop the ship!”
The pirate exclaimed.
That’s right, it was about time I stopped the ship.
At that moment, I threw a question at the pirates.
“Sorry. How do you stop a ship?”
The pirate captain’s face turned blue the moment I said that.
“Hard to port!”
And he screamed. The pirate ship took a large left or swerved right from where I was looking from. Normally, I would have to make a hard turn to port as well so that the tragedy that was about to unfold wouldn’t happen but that was impossible. After all, it was also my job to steer the ship and from the moment I let go of the ship’s wheel to stand here, it was already too late.
The result — our sailing ship rammed into the side of the pirate ship.
I tentatively leaped backward to be safe.
“Ah, as expected of a ship made by Pionia. Even though the pirate ship was tattered, we’ve not suffered much damage.”
The bow of our ship rode onto the other ship.
While I was feeling impressed, a single young man slashed at me with a saber.
I pulled the steel sword that I always wore on my waist from its sheath and from bottom up, I hooked the handle of the saber and raised it up. As the man was still stunned from seeing his saber fly into the air, I sent a kick to his stomach and returned him to the pirate captain.
“Now then, since you’ve seen the difference in our ability, I’d like it if you guys just leave.”
I provoked them but as expected, it won’t go so smoothly.
All the pirates held the same type of sabers in their hands.
Was there a buy two get one free campaign somewhere? All of them had exactly the same saber after all. However, if it was truly such a campaign then if they bought 9 they would lack 1 but if they bought 12 then they would have 1 extra. Everyone had theirs drawn so maybe the sheaths were sold separately? While thinking about such absurd things, I looked at the pirates’ jobs.
Then, I found it strange when I saw all their jobs.
Most of the people were Anglers or Fishermen. Not to mention Pirate, there weren’t even any Thieves.
”… Did you guys give up on fishing and turn to piracy?”
“””Guh.”””
Looks like I hit the bulls-eye.
Looking closely, I saw nets and harpoons that fishermen would use on the deck and more importantly, I saw that on the back of the sail they used to paint the mark of the skull, the banner fishermen hoist when they have a rich haul had been secretly raised.
More important than the fact that it was originally a fishing vessel, I was more surprised that this European-style world had the rich haul banner. (Note: Google image 大漁旗)
Was it handed down by a person formerly from Japan?
“Hn”
It would be better if all of them were miscreants like pirates but they would definitely put the blame of destroying their ship on me and as for the guy I kicked, perhaps I kicked a bad spot because even though I held back, he was still convulsing and twitching. I had apparently grown too much that I had difficulties holding back.
If I fought like this, there would most likely be deaths.
“I guess I can’t help it… I actually wanted to refrain from using magic for a while.”
Mainly it was so that I could replenish Pionia’s magical power.
But, if it was just a little more — there shouldn’t be any problems if I didn’t use magical power boost.
“You guys, look carefully.”
I took out a staff from my item box and pointed it to the sea.
Then,
“Ancient Nova!”
A huge ball of flame burst from the tip of the staff and the instant that disappeared, a ray of magic shot out from the tip.
Immediately after that, that ray hit the ocean surface about 1 kilometer away — and suddenly caused a massive explosion.
Looks like it still has considerable power even without Boost.
Then, I pointed the staff at the pirates.
I was able to witness them all prostrating splendidly.
※※※
“My bad for destroying your ship. So, why did you guys turn from fishing to piracy?”
I asked as I applied Healing Magic on the man I kicked just now.
The pirate leader removed the beard that was apparently a stick-on beard.
“We were merely Fishermen just yesterday.”
“Yes, I can tell just by observing you guys.”
”…………”
For some reason, the pirates were at a loss for words when I nodded.
It seemed like they thought they had been able to properly act as pirates.
Or rather, I wanted to retort that if they really wanted to become pirates, they should refrain from hiding the rich haul banner behind the pirate flag.
“Seriously, just stick to fishing if you guys are fishermen…”
As I said that, I thought that perhaps because of the effect of the Leviathan’s revival, the fishes all hid in their nests and the fishermen were out of work… I would feel responsible if that was the case.
“Actually, there is a profound reason for this.”
The pirates all started shedding tears and some began hitting the deck.
Now that it came to that, it was no longer an atmosphere where I could leave them alone.
I couldn’t ask them the distance to the continent at all.
”… A profound reason?”
I asked reservedly and the ship captain replied.
“Yes — it’s that crafty Demon Lord — the work of that Miryuu.”