Third chapter. Well, seeing as how I was out for a month, you guys at least deserve this much. Enjoy.

The Preceding Hero and the Female Pirate

「Who"s the Three Stooge……Fufu. Well, it"s fine. Why don"t we continue on to business.」

The female pirate Angelica plumped down and sat in the chair again.

「Black hair. From the time you were the luggage boy for the Hero crew, I"ve been aiming for you. That combat ability that could spitefully be identified as excellent. That tactical eye that"s so high it make you feel humiliated. That avarice that goes to the point of being sacrilegious. ……Honestly, I thought that it was a waste to keep you as a luggage boy.」

Three years ago, in order to undo the seal on the Sacred Sword, we needed to go around to several sacred places.
It"s that gathering jewels or something thing that often comes up in games.
The Three Stooge Pirates led by this Angelica would appear before us, create some ruckus, then scurry home, and were a bunch of guys that I didn"t really get.

There were times where they got in the way, and there were times where they were useful……

Incidentally, that luggage boy thing was a fake-out in order to hide the social status of being a Hero.
There was also the reason that when we met, Sylvia was in a tsun tsun mood and left the luggage carrying to me.

「And then, when meet again after such a long time, this time you"re the luggage boy for those two brats……I"m sad, you know. To think that the bitter enemy that once unfolded struggles to the death with us, is smoldering in a place like this.」

So, in Angelica"s mind, I"m Bernadette and Kuon"s luggage boy, huh.
Rather, when did we unfold struggles to the death? Basically, these guys" combat ability equated to nothing.

「……Won"t you come with us? If you"re with us, I won"t put you in the position of luggage boy. I"m thinking that it would be fine to bestow you the seat of vice-captain!」

「I refuse. More like, as if I would ever become something like a pirate.」

Even if they"re rotten at it, these guys are pirates. Becoming a wanted person would be inevitable.
Since I wanted to stay ordinary and not stand out, there"s no way I would become something like a pirate.

「Fufufu. A pirate, huh. Sorry to break it to you, black hair, but we"ve already quit the occupation of pirate.」

「Ha?」

「The era is that of the sky. ……That"s right, we"ve become 『Sky Pirates』!」[1]

Standing up with enough energy that it seemed like the sound effect *Baba~n!* was attached to her, Angelica pointed to the sky (though what she was actually pointing at was the ceiling of the bar)

「Sorry do this after you made such a cool-looking face, but I refuse even more now. Airships are only usable in the Sky s.p.a.ce Region around Leezelion, aren"t they? ……I don"t want to be chased around by Leezelion"s air forces.」

If I were to be discovered by Sylvia, I would get killed.
Although I have an interest in airships, the reasons to refuse are bigger.

「……Fufu, fufufufufu. It would seem that in these three years, you"ve had a retired life or something and have been left behind the times. During these three years, airship technology has been raised to the point where they can fly outside of the Sky s.p.a.ce Region!」

「What!?」

When I was surprised enough to make me stand, Angelica boldly smiled and sat back down.

But, still……this really surprised me.
When speaking of airships, it"s the iron plated vehicles used to travel through the skies that often show up in recent RPG games.
In games, they have the characteristic of being able to soar freely through the sky, but for the airships of this world, unless they"re in an airs.p.a.ce called the『Sky s.p.a.ce Region』, they can"t soar the skies.
The reason was because the engine"s Wind Stone (you can just think of it as a Magic Stone that was given an attribute) seemed to only function in that Sky s.p.a.ce Region but……

「How about it? It"s a bit attractive, isn"t it?」

Yeah. I honestly had a huge amount of interest.
I really wanted to know how the engine was tampered with to make it so that a single ship could fly. I get excited just hearing about the latest technology.

「But being a sailor is impossible for me. I want to travel slowly after all.」

「I, I thought you would say that……Why don"t you go with us on a single dealing?」

Angelica s.n.a.t.c.hed the gold coin that the tall, lanky man picked up, and once again fiddled around with it with her fingertips.
……I see, so that"s what they were planning from the beginning.
By showing that they have no hostility by inviting me to become a sailor, even if I refuse, they could effectively promote doing the next dealing……well, I guess they can"t do such an advanced dealing. After all, when I refused, she dropped the gold coin again.

「You want to touch an airship……We need a superior quality Magic Stone. That"s where the deal is. We want you to conquer this Nordyord"s Dungeon.」

「But I refuse.」

「Fufu, it really helps that you"re quick to the chase. In that case, starting tomorrow, let"s go……Fue!?」

When I refused, Angelica"s smart looking face cracked and distorted into a face that looked like she would cry.

「Wh, why are you refusing!? There aren"t any big demerits for you……」

「There"s a huge one, idiot. Who"d want to dive into something like a Dungeon, idiot. Don"t ever come to me again, idiot.」

I drink up the water on the table in one gulp.

「Y, you didn"t have to……go saying all of those "idiots"……did you.」
「Ah, Nee-san!」
「Hey, black hair! It"s yer fault tha" Nee-san star"ed cryin"!」

She started crying like a child. That"s way too unresistant to being stirred up.
Hmmm, still, feelings of guilt are completely not being produced. Maybe it"s because they got in our way so much three years ago.

「To begin with, we were going to leave this island depending on when the storm ends. Looking at it as a problem of time, diving into the Dungeon and gathering Magic Stones is impossible.」

That"s right, even if they say to gather Magic Stones, good quality Magic Stones are really small.
It wouldn"t take very long but finding them in half a day is impossible.

「……」

「……」

When I declared that, for some reason, the Three Stooge Pirates……Since they"re no longer pirates, let"s go with the Three Stooges.
For some reason, the Three Stooges looked at me and stiffened up.

「Gusu, ……You, did you just come in today?」

「Eh? ……Yeah. We came just a little while ago. We were in the middle of heading to Galarie when we were swallowed up by the storm.」

「……We"ve been locked up by this storm for a week now. I simply can"t think that it will stop tomorrow.」

……What?

「Ho, hold on a minute! ……Just now, what did you say?」

There was a sentence that I wanted to think that I misheard her.

「We"ve been held up by this storm for a week already! After all, only fools would try to advance through the sea in the middle of this storm.」

I didn"t mishear her.

「You"ve been stuck here, for a week!? Just hold on there, a storm of this scale has been continuing on for a week?」

Something like that is no longer just abnormal weather.

「We were also swallowed up by the storm……Listening to the guys that live here, it"s seems that it"s continued on for two weeks.」

「T, two weeks!? ……Even abnormal weather is something I would be asking for. It"s enough to say that this is a definite, it"s the effect of "something".」

It was a situation where you could say "if that wasn"t it, then what could it be".

「But still, two weeks, huh……They"ve held out well.」

With two weeks, they should have started running out of food and other various things……

「Other than us, there were also several merchant ships that were swallowed up as well. Moreover, among the monsters of the Dungeon, there were some pretty delicious ones……Well, there isn"t a problem with the food situation at present.」

Being practical in this situation was pretty amazing.
Even so, this situation, it"s pretty bad.

「I understand that this is an abnormality. ……But, as long as we don"t know the cause of it, we can"t do anything.」

That"s right. If the opponent were an ent.i.ty like an Ancient Dragon or the Demon Lord, it could still be put to an end if they were defeated.
But when it comes to disasters on a global scale, I can"t do anything about it.

「……The cause of the disaster is in the Dungeon……or so it seems.」

「The Dungeon? ……Why do you know something like that?」

「An Elf woman calling herself a scholar said so. Though, as for the reason, we don"t know it.」

……Jeez, this has become something really troublesome. At this rate, the ship can"t leave, and, just for argument"s sake, even if we could leave, we can"t just leave things like this……

「……I guess there"s no other choice but to dive in.」

Though I"m afraid of ghosts. Thought I"m afraid of ghosts!

「O, oi! Where are you goin"!?」

When I stand up, Angelica also stood up, looking fl.u.s.tered.

「Even if I am going dive in, I"ll do it tomorrow. ……It looks like it will be a long distance after all. I"ll buy what I need to buy, and dive in after my companions come back.」

「Ah, take us along with you. If we don"t have a Magic Stone, our ship can"t move! We"ll make it so that we won"t get in your way so please……!」

「……Tomorrow morning, we"ll a.s.semble at this bar. Be sure to dress yourselves appropriately, got it?」

It"s a pain to take them along, but I"m not able to judge Magic Stones. There"s no way around it.

「We did it, Nee-san!」
「If we accompany them on the conquering of the Dungeon, our names will also get famous, Nee-san!」
「You nitwits! ……Refer to me as Captain!!」

「「Aye, Captain!!」」

Seeing the Three Stooges make a racket as if they were in the prime of their lives, I was already starting to regret things.

Translator’s Notes:
[1] d.a.m.ned English. For those that don"t understand or are saying that there is no difference, the kanji for pirates, or "kaizoku", has the kanji for "sea". The Sky Pirates thing was originally this: 空賊 (スカイパイレーツ). The kanji for "sea" was replaced with the kanji for "sky" and is literally read as "Sky Pirates"