Translator: Silver  Editor: Namorax

「Voyage」Part 1

Early morning the following day.

The sky was still a dark indigo blue and a thin layer of fog blown in from the sea still clung to Landfria.

Despite the fog that covered everything, the sailors of the Liebbelta were hard a work preparing the ship to set sail.

Chiome and I were both excited while the ship was being prepared, but Ariane and Ponta merely yawned and rubbed their tired eyes.

“I never imagined that a device could ridden up and down inside a building. It certainly makes moving supplies between the surface and the underground harbor easy.”

Chiome’s admiration leaked out as she looked back at the people working in the building behind us.

She had brought up rising and descending platforms that were connected to the building, they were basically elevators, or lifts, if you prefer.

However, they didn’t function via mechanics, but rather some form of magic to move the platforms, making it feel more Sci-fi than anything else.

“There are a lot of convenient things in elven villages.”

“……Hmm? I guess so……”

Ariane looked at Chiome and gave a non-committal reply to the statement she had made.

The sea breeze that blew her long, white hair about also made her hug her own shoulders and shiver.

Despite her tired appearance, a group of dark elf workers sent jeers at Ariane as she pa.s.sed by them.

There were a lot more dark elves like Ariane in this harbor in preparation for a voyage than there were in the entirety of Raratoia. Maybe it had something to do with them having the high physical strength working here required that regular elves lacked.

There were also many beastmen with excellent physiques from the Southern Continent.

One man, who seemed to be in charge of the whole operation, pushed his way through the crowd and greeted us with a large smile.

The man was a dark elf, but his lilac skin had a slightly gray tinge to it as if he was sporting a slight tan, and he just seemed to give a stronger impression of being a “Dark Elf” than others.

It was closer to the blown-skinned elf that I could turn into.

“Are you the ones the elder talked about? I am the captain of the Liebbelta. Hurry, we’ll be setting sail soon! Once you’re on board, please don’t get in the way of the sailors as they work!”

The man introduced himself as the captain of the huge trade ship before turning on his heel and walking away with large strides.

However, he seemed to have remembered something and turned around to give us one last instruction.

“I don’t mean to come off as rude, but please stay away from the rear hold! If things are quiet, we should arrive in Plymouth by tomorrow morning! See you later!”

Having finished his business with us, the captain went about giving the sailors of the trade battleship last-minute instructions.

Ariane began to board the ship after that, and Chiome hustled her baggage over her shoulders and followed her.

However, something the captain had said had me frozen in place.

“Hey, do you what to be left behind, Arc?”

Ariane looked back and asked me what was wrong with me.

However, I ignored her question and asked her about what was on my mind.

“Ariane-dono, was the captain telling the truth!?”

My rather vague question confused Ariane, so I tried to be a bit more specific with the follow-up question.

“Did the captain mean it when he said we’d arrive by tomorrow!?”

I didn’t expect to captain to say that…… it was unbelievable that a
n entire voyage could be completed in a single day. Ariane turned to Chiome to asked her about it.

“Is it really that impressive to arrive so early? Not having to spend days on end at sea is a good thing, isn’t it, Chiome-chan?”

Chiome responded to Ariane’s question with a nod.

“I’m actually grateful for not having to spend multiple days out at sea. But isn’t the closeness to the Southern Continent rather surprising?”

Ariane looked up at the anch.o.r.ed Liebbelta after hearing the surprise in Chiome’s voice.

“The Liebbelta is capable of reaching the Southern Continent in a single day. It would take a human ship four days to make the trip, you know?”

There was a tinge of pride in Ariane’s voice that made me look up at the trade battleship.

If she was telling the truth, this ship was four times faster than any current human ship.

The red comet is so far away……

While we were in the midst of our conversation a loud bell rang on board the Liebbelta.

Ariane hosted her baggage again and started to jog towards the ship when she heard that.

“Arc, that the departure bell! We’ll be left behind if we don’t get moving! Hurry!”

“! Gotcha!” “Kyun!”

I quickly began running towards the ship after replying to Ariane’s comment.

The ramp leading to the ship was removed from beneath my feet right after I manage to get on board, and sailors were already busy at work.

The trade battleship, Liebbelta, slowly began setting sail under the sound of the bell which was still being struck.

Not wanting to interfere with any of the sailors, I took over the side of the railing.

When I looked towards the harbor, I saw a crowd of people standing around, waving goodbye to some of the sailors above deck.

“Ariane-dono…… shouldn’t they be unfurling the sails?”

She was shocked for a moment by my unexpected question, but she quickly understood what I was asking and why.

“The Liebbelta is a magic ship. Since the wind doesn’t flow through the underground harbor, how is it supposed to move forward if not by using magic?”

Learning that the ship could move without having to rely on the wind, Chiome looked up to the still furled sail but had only casually brought it up before looking over the side of the ship.

In layman’s terms, this ship was at least partially powered by a propulsion engine.

Given the captain’s warning, the engine was probably located in the rear hold.

I wonder if the mechanism behind the ship’s propulsion was also kept hidden from humans.

“Ariane-dono are ships like this kept secret?”

Ariane indifferently leaned on one of the ship’s carved out railings as she answered my question about the Liebbelta.

“I don’t know. I’m not an engineer and have no idea how this ship was built.”

After answering my questions, Ariane looked up at the sky and her large chest swayed with the rhythm of the waves.

I scratched my chin while taking note of her ample bosom.

What she said was reasonable, as I doubted that non-engineers could explain how a machine functioned all that well.

Even in my old world, everyone knew that cars required an engine to run, but few people actually knew anything beyond that.

In any case, this propulsion engine-equipped ship was four times faster than human ships.

Though I was a little disappointed that this voyage to the new world would end within a day, reaching the Southern Continent quickly was a good thing in the end.

I nodded at my own conclusion.

When the bell rang again someone shouted “Open the sails!!”, and the sails that had been furled on the three masts until now began to open.

The magic ship Liebbelta left the harbor all too soon and pa.s.sed several islets and reefs off the coast.

The ship began to gradually increase in speed, leaving only collapsing waves behind as it left the area.

However, the next moment an alarm bell rung and the deck became very busy.

Ariane jerked up and looked towards the back of the ship.

“Pirates……”

Her white her was blowing in the sea breeze as Ariane squinted her golden eyes.

At the place she was looking at…… I could see the shadows of two ships appearing from behind a nearby islet.

“Pirates actually appeared……”

We weren’t even that far away from Landria’s harbor. The sanity of any pirate that would ambush a ship here had to be called into question.

The pirate ships weren’t even half the length of the Liebbelta.

The Liebbelta was ironclad by using dragon scales, while the other ships were common wooden ships.

Moreover, the ships were obviously the slower vessels.

Though their ambush was somewhat successful, the distance between us was gradually increasing.

“Occasionally, human countries send ships disguised as pirates to steal elven technology…… Things should be alright if they remain as they are.”

Ariane seemed to have been aware of the pirates and dismissively shrugged her shoulders as the distance continued to grow.

I suppose that any competent ruler would be after this shipbuilding technology. The pirate ships couldn’t compare to their elven counterparts. It could be inferred that these pirate ships were greatly surpa.s.sed by any of the other ships anch.o.r.ed in Landria.

The moment I thought that two shock waves rocked the ship.

When I turned back I saw that two gun ports had opened up and fired upon the pirate ships.

As the shockwave echoed through the Liebbelta, an explosion erupted near the pirate ships.

A ma.s.sive column of water rose to the sky behind one of the ships but the shot had succeeded in breaking the mast and confused shouts could be heard from there.

In a marine battle, the heavy metal sh.e.l.l that cannons fired packed quite the punch and were barely affected by the sway of a ship. However, it was also possible to damage enemy ships with explosive rounds if they were within the blast range.

The sh.e.l.l that had just been fired was probably similar to the  『Explosive Magic Crystals』 that had been used during the revolt in Hoban.

The other ship lowered its speed an attempt to rescue those on the ship that had lost the ability to sail.

As the two pirate ships gave up their pursuit the Liebbelta began to widen the distance between them.

“A single mana cannon-equipped ship can easy best ten human pirate ships……”

Ariane replied to my comment as I observed the situation.

“They’re primarily used to combat monsters, not to sink pirate ships.”

“Oh, I see.”

Hearing her comment, the realization that monsters inhabited the sea dawned on me.

The blue sea spread out before us as the morning sun rose and the glittering waves forced me to narrow my eyes.

I placed my head in front of my eyes and smiled at the sky and sea in front of me.

In this vast sea laid a number of monsters that could become a threat to the Liebbelta and its crew.

If there were things like ground dragons and Dragon Kings on the land, who was to say that there wouldn’t be any monsters in the sea?

And what’s the most famous ocean monster in the world?