Chapter 228

(228) A week’s voyage pa.s.ses in the blink of the eye

Translator: Tseirp

A fragrant smell spread across the s.h.i.+p .

Coming from takoyaki — or rather, grilled octopus arms . As one might expect, it would be impossible to haul that huge body onto the s.h.i.+p so only a single arm was cut off and the remainder was left to sink into the ocean .

Suzuki performed the last attack so I didn’t gain any experience points . We did form a party but we disbanded it after I had my job changed .

It was a fruitless victory .

“Here, shoyu . ”

I handed shoyu to Suzuki .

“Thank you, Kusunoki-kun . Uwah, it’s been a long time since I smelled this scent . ”

“It’s meant to be lightly salted so don’t put too much . ”

“Yup, I’m from a family of doctors so I at least understand the daily recommended intake of salt . ”

He sure is proud of it, I thought to myself as we proceeded to eat the Kraken arms .

It was a little bland but still tasty nonetheless .

It had been grilled sufficiently so there shouldn’t be any worry of parasites … I mean, even if there were parasites resilient to heat, they could be cured by just using Cure .

“Are you guys not eating?”

I still needed to pretend to be comrades .

I asked everyone who was surrounding and looking at us from a distance — but n.o.body came over .

Oi oi, even though it’s just a single arm, we can’t finish it with just the two of us so there’s no need to be polite .

What dreary people .

“It can’t be helped, Kusunoki-kun . Around these parts, it’s said that octopus is the Devil’s minion . Let alone the Kraken that has sunk countless s.h.i.+ps which, to the seafarer, is the Devil itself so to speak . They would never imagine eating something like that . ”

Ah, I recall that in the West, outside the Mediterranean coastal area, not many people eat octopus and squid, right? I heard that they are called devil fishes and most people avoid them . Their disgusting appearance might play a role but the reason seemed to be because, in the Old Testament, fish without fins and scales are said to be abominations .

I believe the fact that the people in the West don’t regularly eat my favorite unagi was because of that descriptor too .

After all, unagi appears to be scale-less fish too . Well, unagi actually has scales under their skin so it should be fine to eat them even if one follows the Old Testament .

“Could I have some?”

It was Pavlov who asked .

“I’ll have some too . ”

And the former guard Death Warrior .

Leaving aside Pavlov, I was surprised that the great master would come over .

“Sure, we have plenty . ”

It was quite uncomfortable to be surrounded by people .

Hah, even though I wanted to ask about many things . Well, I’ll just ask Suzuki .

“Hey, Suzuki . What kind of place is the island we’re heading to for the exchange?”

“It’s called Deijima Island . ”

“Deijima?”

It sounds like j.a.pan’s Dejima Island .

Suzuki gave a wry grin when he saw my face contort . He was probably having the same thoughts .

According to Suzuki, Deijima Island was located within the territory of a great country on the Southern Continent .

There were towns along the coast on the north and south side of the island . It was about the size of Awaji Island (592km2/228 sq mi) but the Eastern side was a desert while the central region had towering mountains so the hospitable areas were limited . In addition, there was a labyrinth inside the desert so there were many adventurers too .

“It is an island governed by Earl Paul — ”

Suzuki explained .

He taught me details like Earl Paul’s past, the composition of his family and his personality .

Speaking of aristocrats, there was the incident with Oregeru so I felt that it would be a little troublesome but going by what I heard, he didn’t seem to be a bad person .

Well, Oregeru was not a bad person either .

“Master Suzuki is very knowledgeable regarding Deijima . Did you investigate it on your own?”

“Ahaha, it takes one to know one . I asked a professional to gather information from behind the scenes . ”

Great Master Death Warrior showed a doubtful expression when Suzuki replied with a smile .

Does this guy perhaps suspect that Suzuki and I are enemies of this smuggling ring?

” … Octopus has a strange taste … it’s like eating clay . ”

It seemed like Pavlov wasn’t fond of octopus .

Great Master Death Warrior took the grilled octopus skewer but wasn’t eating much . As expected, his aim was not the octopus but to probe us .

We can’t let our guards down around this man .

A week has pa.s.sed since the start of the voyage .

It was hard to say that the voyage was going very well . Since I was quite free .

There was no way of knowing if n.o.body was watching me so I could not go to My World either . Only Sheena No . 3 and Pionia were left in My World but I wonder if they were getting along fine? Those two are similar in some ways so I felt that it would be okay .

I thought of helping with the voyage but Suzuki warned that if I helped the smuggling crew and became friendly with them, it would be difficult for me when we have to fight them .

He was right so in the end, I pa.s.sed time by fis.h.i.+ng .

Before coming here, I raised my Farmer level by harvesting tomatoes and such so my Fisherman job had not had the time to bloom .

Now that I’m at sea, I guess I’ll raise my Fisherman level .

Even with 400 times growth speed, a week of fis.h.i.+ng was equivalent to seven years so — it grew to Level 8 but I gained all kinds of strange skills .

「Match」 which sounded like it was a skill that could be used outside of fis.h.i.+ng and the 「Thread Manipulation」 skill which sounded like I could become a good puppeteer .

Well, they would probably be useful for something .

In terms of happening events, there was one huge happening event .

Even though it has only been a week, the smuggling crew’s body odor was terrible . Although it didn’t reach the level of Pavlov when we first met him, it was as smelly as Kendo pract.i.tioners who had trained in full equipment continuously for five hours .

If I don’t apply Clean on them, I would be the first to die .

Just as I had that thought .

“I see the island . ”

A loud cry came from the lookout post .

An island from here? — Oh, I see it .

Rather than the island, it was more like the tip of the mountain on the island .

That’s Deijima — the exchange of these guys (the smuggling crew) would begin there .