Ch.279Chapter 279 – Find a Ship (1)

“Excuse me.”

My voice echoed across the dock.

The two people who had been conversing turned their heads to look at me and Eve.

They had quite annoyed expressions when looking at me, but when they turned to Eve, their faces brightened slightly.

“Oh…”

“What a pretty young lady…”

It seemed they were in a better mood because Eve was beautiful.

Perhaps because of this, the better-dressed of the two men stepped forward eagerly and spoke.

“What can we do for you?”

“We’re looking for a ship.”

Eve addressed the man first.

The man soon tilted his head and replied.

“Ships? They’re all over there, aren’t they?”

“How far can those ships travel?”

At Eve’s question, the man’s expression darkened slightly.

In his place, the middle-aged man who had been talking with him scratched his head and answered.

“At best, just out there. On a good day, barely visible from the harbor.”

“And beyond that?”

“How far do you think a small boat can safely go?”

The man responded apologetically to my question.

“If you’re planning to travel to another region by boat, I’d suggest giving up and going by land.”

“That’s a bit difficult for us. We have a lot of luggage, and going by sea would get us there faster.”

At Eve’s words, both men examined her attire.

Then, nodding slightly, one of them quietly said.

“You’re a merchant, I see. And is this your hired guard?”

“No. Our relationship is more than just protection. Besides, we have a lot of luggage and want to save time, so taking a small boat would be inconvenient. We’d like to find a larger vessel.”

Eve spoke while placing her hand to her mouth as if troubled.

“For some reason, I don’t see any large ships. Has something happened?”

At Eve’s question, the two men briefly looked at each other.

Soon, the middle-aged man spoke first.

“That’s surprising. Merchants usually have quick access to information.”

“It’s only been a few days since that incident. Not strange that it hasn’t spread to all merchants yet.”

The two men exchanged such words.

Then the well-dressed man asked Eve again.

“When did you arrive at the port?”

“I arrived yesterday.”

“Hmm, if you came here just yesterday, you might have missed the news by chance.”

It wasn’t really that, but rather that we hadn’t had time to gather information because of the demons, but the men had already jumped to their own conclusion.

Soon one of them spoke again.

“All the ships have been requisitioned.”

“Requisitioned?”

“Yes. It’s never happened before, but they’ve taken all of them.”

The middle-aged man muttered as if troubled.

“I never thought my ship would be tied to the stern of another vessel and dragged away without even being in an accident.”

“You must be a captain, then.”

“That’s right. By the way, this fellow is the dock manager and the owner of my ship.”

“And a longtime drinking buddy.”

The two men introduced information that wasn’t particularly interesting.

The man who called himself the captain continued.

“It happened a few days ago. The Emiris Order suddenly sent holy knights to visit the port.”

“The Emiris Order?”

When Eve narrowed her eyes and asked, the man nodded.

“Yes. At first, I thought they might be looking for the rumored rebels, but that didn’t seem to be the case.”

“Rebels would probably be holed up on some island or in the mountains, I’d think.”

“Who knows? They say it’s darkest under the lamp—they might be hiding right here.”

The dock manager spoke, and the captain chuckled in response.

I gently interjected into their conversation.

“It seems the rebels and the Emiris Order don’t get along.”

“Well, there’s talk that the so-called rebels were raised by supporters of the former king. The former king disliked both the Emiris Order and the current king, so naturally, his supporters would be hostile to both.”

“We keep hearing news of rebels engaging in combat with knights from the Order or the royal family. It’s quite troublesome.”

The ship owner spoke as if perplexed.

However, the captain seemed to have some sympathy for the rebels and bluntly said to the owner:

“Well, recently there’s been talk that they’ve been slaying monsters and healing people in place of the Order and royal knights.”

“Bah. Aren’t they just copying what the Emiris Order does?”

“It’s true that the Order has drastically reduced their monster subjugation and healing services lately. If they want to win people’s hearts, they’d naturally take over those duties.”

At the captain’s words, the owner laughed and said:

“It’s probably fake rumors spread deliberately.”

“But with such rumors coming from so many places, it can’t be entirely fake, can it?”

The owner and captain continued their debate for a while.

Finally, Eve cleared her throat, and only then did the two stop their discussion.

“My apologies. We’ve kept the young lady standing.”

“It’s fine. But about the requisitioning?”

“The Order requested cooperation from nearby ports for monster subjugation. They said they needed ships above a certain size.”

The captain spoke with a hint of dissatisfaction.

Then the owner continued:

“The purpose was to eliminate a giant sea monster that appeared in the ocean. They took many vessels, saying they needed them for that.”

“A giant sea monster?”

“Are you curious, miss?”

The man spoke while casting a suggestive glance at Eve.

I gently inserted myself between Eve and the man, and Eve smiled and said:

“I am curious.”

“Don’t be alarmed. That sea monster is…”

“A damn sea dragon.”

The owner tried to build up the atmosphere, but the captain ruined it.

Soon the owner looked at the captain with displeasure, and the captain smirked and said:

“You seemed to be flirting, so the guard stepped in. I just saved your life.”

“Ah, damn it.”

The owner clicked his tongue softly while looking at me.

But he continued his explanation:

“Anyway, the Order announced they wanted to mobilize many vessels to hunt the sea dragon. So they took almost all the large ships.”

“Almost all?”

“Yes. The problem is that this sea dragon is extremely active.”

The owner sighed and said:

“It’s not usually like this, but it’s been wandering from port to port, destroying everything indiscriminately.”

“And when they try to lure it somewhere, it somehow senses it and attacks elsewhere. So the Order gave up on tracking it and instead gathered as many ships as possible, anchoring them at various candidate locations.”

“As platforms to fight the sea dragon.”

“The sea dragon had already destroyed many ships, and with the Order taking more, there are hardly any left.”

The owner sighed as he spoke.

Then Eve quietly asked:

“I understand the situation, but I doubt they took absolutely every ship.”

“That was true until two days ago.”

“Two days ago?”

The owner narrowed his eyes and said:

“By royal decree, an order suddenly came down to take all ships above a certain size.”

“The reason was that the sea dragon might appear near the ports around the capital, so they needed them for defense. We already had few ships left after the Order took some, but then the royal family took the rest, so we can’t even see their shadows anymore.”

“That happened two days ago, in the morning.”

The captain sighed and said:

“With both powers taking the large ships at once, it’s become difficult to find any decent-sized vessel. At least in this port, all ships have been taken.”

“Of course, some vessels were exempted. Ships used for foreign trade. But those ships are registered as exceptions because they play important economic roles, and they absolutely won’t take other routes except for extraordinary circumstances.”

The owner finished speaking.

He glanced at Eve’s expression and then quietly said:

“There might be hidden vessels in other ports, but…”

“I doubt you could find a ship capable of evading the eyes of both the Order and the royal family by mere luck.”

The two major power groups in this country were the royal family and the Emiris Order.

If a ship had successfully hidden from the eyes of these two powers, it would be difficult to find through ordinary means.

The owner then spoke in a troubled voice:

“Still, I personally think it would be best to try another port. For a young lady like you, who knows?”

“I see. I understand the current situation now.”

Eve said with a smile.

Then I quietly asked the owner:

“By the way, sir, I have one more question.”

“What is it, guard?”

His voice was much more annoyed than when he spoke to Eve.

Ignoring that, I asked quietly:

“Do you know someone called Domestica?”

The owner seemed to be thinking about something for a moment.

Then he quietly opened his mouth:

“I don’t know them.”

“I see.”

After I responded lightly to the owner’s words, he asked me:

“By the way, why are you asking about this Domestica person?”

“I was just told to ask about them when I came here. I apologize for the intrusion.”

I only said that much.

Then the owner apologetically said:

“I’m sorry. If you’re looking for someone, I’d like to help, but it’s beyond my abilities…”

I didn’t specifically say I was looking for someone.

But judging by the owner’s cautious glance toward the captain beside him, he was deliberately covering up by saying it was about finding someone, even though he knew otherwise.

Since there was no reason not to respond to the owner’s words, I feigned calmness and said:

“It’s fine.”

The owner spoke in a gentle voice, all traces of his earlier annoyed tone gone.

Then he looked at me and Eve and said:

“It seems that’s all I can help you with. May the Goddess of Guidance be with you.”

“The Goddess of Guidance?”

“The deity of seafarers. They say she’s a goddess who leads people to their future by helping them find the right path.”

The owner explained softly.

“Now her name is forgotten, and sailors just use it occasionally as a phrase to wish for good luck.”

“I see. Thank you for the information anyway.”

“May fortune be with you.”

The owner spoke with a noticeably gentler attitude than before.

And soon after we turned around, voices could be heard from behind.

“Hey, you’re suddenly being nice to that man? Did you eat something wrong?”

“I felt a bit sorry for answering so curtly. Happy now, friend?”

We left behind the captain who seemed to have found something to tease about and the owner who was busy making excuses.

And I quietly said:

“It seems we’ve fallen victim to that damn Order’s schemes.”

“Indeed.”

We were cursing the Order as we returned to our companions who had been watching us from a distance.

+

We returned to our group and explained the situation.

Soon, Sera spoke as if dumbfounded:

“They took all the ships saying they’ll catch the sea dragon they themselves released?”

“In reality, it’s probably a ploy to prevent the sea dragon from being subjugated.”

According to what Beatrice had said before, the orthodox way to fight a sea dragon was to lure it onto land first.

But those creatures have no reason to leave their home turf, so we’d need to somehow drive them toward land, and for that, we’d need ships—a lot of them.

Of course, that wouldn’t justify requisitioning civilian ships indiscriminately, but…

“They probably pulled this stunt to eliminate even the slightest possibility.”

They used the pretext of subjugating the monster themselves to take ships of appropriate size.

Of course, under normal circumstances, in other places, such schemes would be impossible, but…

“Since this place is called the Second Holy Kingdom, I guess the Order can get away with such unreasonable demands.”

“It also means there are people who comply with such unreasonable demands.”

Chris and Sia quietly remarked.

“Getting a ship doesn’t solve all our problems, but it’s troublesome that we’re facing issues from the very first step of finding one.”

Eve sighed quietly.

Looking at her, Beatrice quietly asked:

“What about asking someone to build one?”

“It’s not that we don’t have the money, but it would take too long.”

A ship couldn’t be built overnight, after all.

Essentially, there seemed to be no means to acquire a ship.

‘…Is there really no way to get a ship?’

I quietly pondered, recalling the conversation we’d just had.

Ships had become scarce because both the Order and the royal family had requisitioned them at once.

There were exempted ships, but also the possibility that some had hidden their vessels to avoid seizure by the two powers.

A location that wouldn’t be discovered by the two powers.

Or, a faction that doesn’t bow to either power.

‘…There is one.’

There was one faction that disliked both powers and might have the necessary resources.

That faction might have hidden ships.

“Kei?”

“…There’s just one place where I think ships might be.”

At my words, the group briefly looked at me.

Then Sera quietly asked:

“Where is it?”

“It’s…”

Just as I was about to name the faction—

*tap*

“You seem to be in a predicament.”

Suddenly sensing a presence behind us, I stopped speaking, and everyone turned to look in that direction.

Judging by the thin voice, it appeared to be a woman.

“Who are you?”

“Just a passing merchant, but…”

The woman spoke with a slightly amused voice.

“I think I might be able to procure what you’re looking for.”

As she spoke, her hood opened slightly.

There was a movement inside as if she was lifting the hem of her dress.

“If you don’t mind, could we have a brief conversation?”

The hooded woman bowed her head.

Along with this gesture, familiar black hair flowed gently from beneath her hood.