Chapter 179

(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 s.h.i.+p . 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 s.h.i.+p gets sunk, I would have to s.n.a.t.c.h the opponent’s s.h.i.+p .

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 a.s.sume 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 s.h.i.+p .

The pirate s.h.i.+p — the s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p .

It was just slightly larger than our s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p has been repaired many times, I was amazed that it could stay afloat .

There were about ten human presences on the s.h.i.+p . a.s.suming that it was not a slave s.h.i.+p or they did not hold any hostages, everyone on the s.h.i.+p would be a pirate . Well, it’s a fantasy world after all so the pirate s.h.i.+p might even be ferrying customers .

I guess that is the pirate s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p . ”

He shouted . Looks like there’s no room for negotiations .

Of course, the s.h.i.+p was a precious s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p! That s.h.i.+p — hey! Hurry up and stop the s.h.i.+p!”

The pirate exclaimed .

That’s right, it was about time I stopped the s.h.i.+p .

At that moment, I threw a question at the pirates .

“Sorry . How do you stop a s.h.i.+p?”

The pirate captain’s face turned blue the moment I said that .

“Hard to port!”

And he screamed . The pirate s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p and from the moment I let go of the s.h.i.+p’s wheel to stand here, it was already too late .

The result — our sailing s.h.i.+p rammed into the side of the pirate s.h.i.+p .

I tentatively leaped backward to be safe .

“Ah, as expected of a s.h.i.+p made by Pionia . Even though the pirate s.h.i.+p was tattered, we’ve not suffered much damage . ”

The bow of our s.h.i.+p rode onto the other s.h.i.+p .

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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 fis.h.i.+ng vessel, I was more surprised that this European-style world had the rich haul banner . (TL: Google image 大漁旗)

Was it handed down by a person formerly from j.a.pan?

“Hn”

It would be better if all of them were miscreants like pirates but they would definitely put the blame of destroying their s.h.i.+p 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 ma.s.sive 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 s.h.i.+p . So, why did you guys turn from fis.h.i.+ng 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+p captain replied .

“Yes — it’s that crafty Demon Lord — the work of that Miryuu . ”