Chapter 100 - A Battle for the Night and News from the East
"W-What is it?!"
I was staring at Cecily's face during breakfast when she glared back at me. Our breakfast at the camp was a vegetable and fish porridge. Although I was eating it thinking it was rice, the taste and texture were different from what I had in my original world. I blew on it to cool it down, slurping the hot broth. The seasoning seemed to be just salt; it could have used a little something more.
All the members of Levante were eating together, seated on simple chairs made from logs. We had gone for our meal at dawn, but even then, we were on the later side. Some people were already preparing for departure, and the port was beginning to fill with a lively clamor. A morning mist enveloped the surroundings, but as the sun grew stronger, the fog cleared, revealing the magnificent river scenery.
"Why won't you take your turn?"
When I said that, Cecily glanced at Mizuki.
"We promised not to tell Mash what we talked about in yesterday's meeting, didn't we?"
"Uh, yeah. But… I'm sorry."
Seeing Mizuki apologize, Cecily let out a heavy sigh.
"...It's my business, isn't it? I'm a free citizen now."
"You caused a scene on the prow yesterday, and didn't you say you'd be with us until Migul?"
"I did. But I never said I'd sleep with you."
Perhaps wanting to end the conversation quickly, Cecily tried to wolf down her porridge. And she choked. Aira, sitting next to her, rubbed her back.
"Do you hate me now?"
I asked after waiting for her coughing to stop.
"Mash, if you have time to worry about me, you should think about yourself. Besides, you're happy as long as you can do lewd things with a girl, right? You have plenty of options. Cough."
She gave one last cough, as if something was still caught in her throat.
"I want to do it with you, Cecily."
"What are you saying first thing in the morning, are you an idiot? You're a hero from another world, aren't you? Weren't you told by Lady Racshell to defeat the Demon Lord?"
"I don't care about the world. I want to be with you, Cecily."
"...What is someone who's going to die in ten years if left alone even saying?!"
She finished the last of her porridge, stood up, and walked away. Everyone watched her go, but only Aira was looking at me.
"Mash, if Cecily chooses someone else, I'll switch to that person too. I'll leave the party."
It felt like she had just confronted me with something incredibly heavy.
"...Are you really okay with that?"
"I don't want to increase my number of partners any more than I have to, and I've decided you'll do. So make up with Cecily before that happens!"
Once again, we were people of the river. The fleet of ships made its way downstream. We saw other vessels more often than I'd expected, though most of them were fishing boats with lines cast out, more numerous than our merchant convoy. They were pulling up fish that looked like salmon. The river was over three hundred meters wide in most places and sufficiently deep, so passing each other wasn't an issue, but it seemed the rule was to navigate on the left side. There were places where mountains closed in on both banks, narrowing the river, but even there, it was still quite wide—a gift from the countless river maintenance projects since the time of the Old Empire.
"Going down is fine, but going up seems like it would be a pain."
I muttered while looking at the mountain faces pressing in on both sides. The current was a bit faster here.
"Looks like they're waiting for a favorable wind over there."
Cecily pointed to where the river widened and the current slowed. A fleet of ships was anchored there, merchant vessels just like ours. When we waved, they waved back. The morning was spent being drilled by Avea. All members were forced to participate in combat training, so even Maira, Cecily, and Aira—who usually didn't—took part. We were taught how to use crossbows and handle oars.
By the afternoon, we had nothing to do and were bored. The other members, trying to be considerate, left me and Cecily alone. I watched her profile. I wondered if her seasickness was okay today.
"...There you go again, looking at me with that face."
She said.
"Let's go on a date when we get to Heilong."
"Mm. Okay. I want to go riding horses again."
"Really?" I was taken aback by how easily she agreed.
"You're the one who asked, so don't ask for a weird confirmation now."
A flock of water birds flew overhead in a V-formation. Cecily's gaze followed their path.
"I always thought I would live my whole life in Richelle. I never thought I'd fight against Lady Racshell. I never thought I'd join a caravan and travel. I never thought I'd end up saving the city of Nielen. I never thought I'd be able to gaze at a river view so peacefully. I never thought Aira would stoop to someone like that. I never thought I'd want to be with someone like this. This person, I…"
"Cecily…"
"All I could ever do was use magic, I've never really done anything else… I'm powerless."
A mage was a rare and valuable profession. She must have taken great pride in it. She wanted to help solve the problem I was facing, but just like me, she didn't know how. I was optimistic that if I went to the Demon Kingdom and gathered information on the Demon Lord, I'd see the path forward. She, however, didn't seem to think so and was growing impatient. In that sense, I trusted Racshell, but she didn't. Our faiths had reversed.
She was fundamentally a serious person. I thought she was taking it all too hard.
"Cecily, let's have a contest. A game."
"A game? A contest?"
She asked again, unable to read my true intentions.
"Yeah. I'll use tweezers to pull out the hairs in your right nostril and move them to your left nostril. If you sneeze even once before I'm done, I win. If you don't sneeze, you win."
"Are you a child? There's no way I'm doing something so stupid!"
"Hmph, you talk big, but you're just scared of losing, aren't you?"
I provoked her competitive spirit.
"I'm not scared! I'm just saying the content of the challenge is childish! For a grown man, what kind of idea is that?"
"Then it's a forfeit. You'll join the rotation. After Claire."
"I told you, I'm not joining!"
"You're just scared of losing, aren't you? You've got nothing but pride, after all."
"...Fine. Then if I win, we abolish the rotation. And every night is my night!"
She came back with an outrageous condition.
"Wh-What? If I did that, everyone would get mad!"
"Scared, are you?"
"Terrified."
"...I was finally playing along, don't just go back to being normal now!"
We entered the cabin. Sunlight couldn't reach here, but the lamplight provided enough illumination. Cecily was lying on the bed. I loomed over her, tweezers in hand.
All the members of Levante had gathered. They all looked uniformly exasperated by the nature of the contest, but for everyone except Mizuki, whose turn was over, this was no laughing matter. Their faces were a complex mix of anxiety, discontent, and anger. Everyone was clearly invested in the outcome.
"A-Aira, what do you think?"
Maira asked Aira for commentary, her expression tense.
"I don't think anything. I just think Cecily is an idiot."
"You think so? Could it be that Cecily is actually a brilliant strategist?"
So this is how Maira talks to her sister. It felt strangely fresh. I wondered if a day would come when she'd speak to me so casually, just like she did with Aira.
"Cecily just fell for Mash's smooth talking. She hasn't thought of any strategy."
"Who do you think will win?"
Maira clasped her fists at her chest, seemingly anticipating a heated battle.
"I don't know."
Aira shook her head dismissively, apparently uninterested in the game.
"What do you think, Fam?"
"In this kind of contest, Master is not very strong. But when it really counts, he never loses. I too was seduced by him."
Was she talking about the nipple-guessing game? That was a serious distortion of the facts. I wanted to retort that she was crying with joy when I guessed correctly, but I held my tongue to focus on the match. I looked at Cecily. She was staring at the tweezers in my hand as if terrified. She had long eyelashes. I clicked them open and shut a few times, and she swallowed hard.
I realized my other hand was resting on her chest. Since it was there, I might as well confirm the texture. I savored the feel of her assertions, which were a little larger than Fam's.
"...Mash, if you continue that, I'll declare it a forfeit."
Cecily's words snapped me back to reality. Her trap was dangerously effective. I carefully brought the tweezers closer to her nostril.
"Eek!"
Someone let out a small shriek. Everyone but Cecily was covering their own nose. The tip of the tweezers entered Cecily's right nostril. It was a tiny hole. I found myself getting excited by the act. It seemed I had awakened a new fetish. Thank you, Cecily. The wing of her nose twitched.
"H-achoo!"
Before I could even pull a single hair, she let out a cute little sneeze.
While I was engaged in a fierce battle with Cecily in the cabin, a small boat had apparently pulled alongside our sailing ship. Avea summoned me. When I went out on deck, I saw that the boat alongside us was a slender vessel with a large triangular sail. I could also see oars extending from it like the legs of a centipede; it looked built for speed. People from the other merchant companies had also boarded this boat and were gathered around its crew, deep in discussion. We watched them from a distance.
"Apparently, Demon Kingdom pirate ships have appeared about four days downstream from here. A merchant vessel was attacked."
Avea said.
"This might sound bad, but won't they just go home once they've stolen the cargo?"
"Unfortunately, or rather, it was a fleet of five ships. One was sunk, and the rest managed to escape."
"I see. So there's a chance another ship will be attacked."
Avea nodded. Mercedes approached us.
"We will be staying at the settlement ahead as planned for tonight. The problem is what comes after. Do we turn back, push forward as we are, or wait for the Flucht fleet to move?"
"Will the Flucht fleet take care of the pirates?"
"Yes, protecting this stretch of the river is an imperial decree, and more importantly, it's the city's lifeline. However, we don't know when the fleet will be dispatched."
"Won't the fleet from Heilong move out?"
"After destroying the Old Empire, the Demon Kingdom's next targets are Heilong and Migul. Right now, they're waging an information war in the cities behind those front lines. Some cities are on the verge of war over whether to side with the Empire or the Demon Kingdom."
"Don't humans unite with other human nations?"
Mercedes shook his head. Just because they were all human didn't mean they could easily unify their intentions. There were all sorts of interests and schemes at play.
"The city of Migul is united in its resistance against the Demon Kingdom. However, the city of Heilong seems to be wavering."
So that meant there were people who would let the Demon Kingdom's pirates pass upstream, and internal divisions made it difficult to dispatch a fleet easily.
"What are your thoughts, Sir Mash?"
"Me?"
"Yes. The other merchant ships are leaning toward pushing forward."
The longer it takes to transport cargo, the more personnel costs add up, which translates to losses. This is a business, so they can't let those losses exceed the value of the cargo. Besides, the crew members are also combatants, so it's not like they're defenseless. They likely don't want to choose the option of sitting and waiting when they don't know when help will arrive.
"I don't want to take any unnecessary risks. I think it's best to dock at the next settlement and see how the situation develops."
I wanted to avoid any extra risk. A fight would likely result in considerable damage, and besides, I wanted to avoid getting involved in conflicts between people as much as possible. I looked around at my companions' faces. Fam started to say something to me but then fell silent. Her face was a little pale.
I remembered that the ship her friends were on had departed a day earlier. Since it was a passenger ship, it would have less cargo and be lighter, so it was possible they were ahead of us.
"Hunting pirates doesn't sound so bad. We just saved the city of Nielen, after all."
At my words, Fam bit her lip.
"Master, you don't have to worry about me. But… thank you very much."
Fam bowed her head.
"But I think my friends will be fine. They have a strong knight named Wake with them."
"Yeah, but no matter how strong one knight is, if they're up against a group, some things are just impossible."
Isn't that why you look so distressed? I asked her silently. It seemed she was just trying to force her worries away.
"Could you mean… Unsinkable Wake?"
Maira asked.
"Un-sink-able…? He didn't seem to be castrated. I think he's just a normal man."
The girls froze at Fam's words.
"Fam! It's fine that you like Mash, but don't get infected by his way of thinking!"
Mizuki shook Fam by the shoulders. What a rude woman.
"Mizuki, Fam has always been like this. She possesses the high-level skill and ability to convert anything you say into something dirty."
I figured it was a pointless effort, but I told Mizuki anyway.
"There's no way that's true!"
"Hmph, that's right! The lewd one is Master!"
Mizuki was being deceived by her childlike appearance. Who knows whose underwear she's even wearing today.
"But, if it's Unsinkable Wake…"
Maira murmured.
"Is he that amazing?"
"Yes, this was back when I was in Aidan's party. He came to Richelle seeking a weapon Aidan had made. We explored a dungeon together then. We only fought monsters on the lower floors to match my level, but his strength was completely unfathomable."
She had progressed to the 30th floor. Could the 30th floor really be called a 'lower floor'?
"Is he stronger than Aidan?"
I knew how strong Aidan was from the battle at the goblin-occupied village.
"I cannot imagine him ever being defeated. Anyone who spends time with him would feel the same way."
Such a terrifying person exists? I felt a shiver run down my spine.
Thank you for reading. To everyone who has liked, bookmarked, and rated this story, thank you very much. It encourages me. I'll do my best. Thank you for the typo correction. I have corrected '商隊' to '隊商'. I was surprised to find that the word '商隊' doesn't exist when I looked it up in the Daijirin dictionary. Thank you so much.