Ch.308308 – Pirate-Style Greeting

<308 – Pirate-Style Greeting>

The cruise ship, with half its crew gone, could hardly be described as having a good atmosphere, even as a polite lie.

“I’m getting off this ship once this voyage is over.”

“What about making it big with points?”

“I’ll earn them by carrying out normal foundation missions. For voyages like this, even multiple lives wouldn’t be enough.”

The crew members who had boarded the ship expecting instant fortune, regardless of their abilities or efforts, realized that luck brings not only good fortune but also misfortune.

If you don’t rely on chance, you can overcome life’s challenges through daily efforts, but if you stake your life on luck, a moment’s misfortune can end it all.

Moreover, those who died weren’t any less special than those who survived.

Cage 1 through Cage 4.

Crew members had been imprisoned in groups of 500 in differently numbered cages.

Just by being locked in Cages 1 and 2, which had attracted the attention of the demon contractor Low, crew members died in droves.

If Cages 3 or 4 had been chosen instead, it wouldn’t have been strange for the dead and living to be completely reversed.

“Miss Oknodie. As much as I’d like to escort you to your destination, the helmsman was among the crew killed by the demon contractor, so we can’t operate the cruise ship anymore.”

“Oh! That’s fine. We have a student who’s good at steering ships!”

Zigoku scratched his cheek with a dubious expression after being singled out by Oknodie.

“I’m fine with it, but are you sure? Entrusting a ship to a pirate is like leaving a fish shop to a cat, you know?”

“It’s okay. Even cats die if they eat pufferfish!”

“…”

Well, if someone tried to swallow this dangerous ship whole, they’d certainly suffer consequences.

Zigoku honestly thought a hundred times over that it was fortunate they had acted late.

The student rebels.

Professor Layve.

The apostle of Anrage.

If they had been the first to act amidst all the chaos, they would have been locked in cages or imprisoned as sacrifices long ago.

It was no exaggeration to say they survived thanks to their caution and hesitation until the very end.

“Captain Zigoku! Does that mean we get to steer the ship too?”

“Address me as ‘Captain’ with respect. It’s annoying to steer alone, so yeah, let’s do it together.”

“Wow! I thought I’d spend my whole life just being a lowly pirate underling, but I never imagined I’d get to experience steering a ship!”

“So how do we steer it? Do we row with oars or something?”

“Idiot. This isn’t a galley ship. If we were to row this huge ship, we’d need thousands of mana users in the hold, and even that wouldn’t be enough.”

So how do we actually steer it?

“Ships like this are mechanized. You don’t need to do much—just infuse mana and set coordinates, and it’ll navigate automatically. The helmsman only needs to make minor adjustments when approaching dangerous reefs.”

“So we’re just the cheerleading squad?”

“As if. The ship’s main functions were damaged in battle, and all the mechanical devices are broken. We need to activate the manual systems prepared for emergencies.”

Zigoku kicked open an emergency storage box in the warehouse.

“Here. Take one tool each.”

The third-rate pirate underlings of Zigoku’s crew each received a shovel handed to them by Zigoku.

“What’s this? What does this shovel imply?”

“Maybe it means we should hit lazy crew members with shovels. We are pirates, after all.”

“Ooh!”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Go dig coal with the crew and throw it in!”

“…”

The harsh reality of being a bottom-tier pirate with no dreams or hopes!

Even the crew members gave the pirates dirty looks.

“Aren’t those the pirates who burst into the grand hall wearing masks?”

“They still haven’t returned the jewels they stole…”

The crew members actively assigned the pirates to the most labor-intensive work areas.

“This is too much hard labor.”

“My arms feel like they’re going to break.”

“I miss my mom. I want to go home…”

One crew member, his face covered in soot, secretly glanced outside.

We’re working so pitifully here, please say something to the captain!

The crew member peeked his head out, secretly sending distress signals by mouthing words to the other students!

A student peeked through the window and made eye contact with the crew member who was trying to appeal to their sympathy.

“Eek!”

The crew member, who had fallen backward in surprise at the sudden eye contact, was even more shocked by who he had made eye contact with.

The Massgakki princess, with a bandage on her cheek, smiled with intensity in her eyes.

“Oh~? It’s one of those third-rate underlings who just watched from the sidelines during the entire battle, doing none of the hard work and freeloading♡”

“Ugh. The Imperial Princess…”

“Surely you’re not thinking of running away just because your arms hurt a little~? Unless you want to be beaten to death by an angry classmate, there’s no way you’d be that stupid~?”

Next to the Massgakki princess, the face of a rough-looking bearded man suddenly popped out.

“Just say the word. If anyone tries to run away, I’ll crack their skull with my staff.”

“…”

The alliance between the Massgakki princess and Son Ocheon, achieving the difficult integration of the frontier and the empire!

There was no place for the pirate crew members who had only watched from the sidelines in this unity of students who had survived a life-threatening crisis.

The third-rate pirate underlings realized there was no escape from their karma of freeloading and picked up their shovels with tears in their eyes.

* *

By the time the crew members were collapsing from exhaustion, the destination island finally came into view.

The ship’s horn announced this fact to all crew members and students scattered throughout the large cruise ship, and everyone rushed to the deck to see the island.

“Wow. That building is huge.”

“What is it? A magic tower?”

“It might be a secret foundation base.”

“To build such a large structure on this unidentified island. Could it be a treasure vault storing the foundation’s valuables?”

Jona, standing beside Oknodie, kindly answered the many questions from the students.

“This place is called the Querannia Archipelago, and the building you see is the Chairman’s mansion.”

“That’s all just a house!?”

“…It has more floors than our magic tower.”

“And it’s much more luxurious than our yellow magic tower made of earth.”

Rozini, freed from petrification, and Sandcooker, whose arms were thoroughly pinched by her, looked at the tower-like mansion with envious eyes.

Even a magic tower with over 30 floors was considered impressive, but the tower before them had more than 50 floors.

And yet it was called a “mansion.”

They knew the foundation operated throughout the continent, but this was an absurd level of wealth.

“It’s bigger than the palace where the princess lived?”

Even the Massgakki princess was somewhat surprised by the mansion’s enormous scale!

“The mansion is large because it also serves as storage for collections.”

“Collections?”

“Miss, you haven’t seen them yet, have you? Take this opportunity to look around. It will be a chance to broaden your horizons, especially for someone who constantly talks about collecting encyclopedias.”

“Does that mean there’s lots of food too?”

“You can look forward to it.”

Jona doesn’t make empty promises.

Oknodie’s expectations grew exponentially.

While her eyes sparkled with excitement, the hero looked quite intimidated and cautious.

“If we go there… will we receive those directives?”

The fear typical of a novice scholarship student who had heard rumors about the foundation’s directives but never carried them out!

Members of the <Secret Scholarship Society>, a subgroup of the <Organization That Plays with Oknodie>, secretly laughed at the naive remarks of the new scholarship student.

“They wouldn’t give difficult directives from the start.”

“Directives are given to inferior scholarship students who fail to prove their worth or don’t follow the foundation’s instructions.”

“The treatment was actually good when we were new.”

“Ah, I miss those days.”

“I want to go back to being a newcomer too.”

Even those who regretted becoming scholarship students reminisced about the early days, saying “those were good times,” showing how excellent the foundation’s initial investment was.

It was much better than ordinary production workers or adventurers who spend five years washing dishes just to learn how to cook ramen or five years as porters to learn mercenary work!

“Should I hold your hand if you’re scared?”

“Ugh. Don’t treat me like a child.”

Someone firmly grabbed Ishtar’s hand as she rejected Oknodie’s offer.

“Don’t put on airs. You’re trembling this much.”

“Yufi!”

“If you know it’s embarrassing enough to make your face red, you shouldn’t have done something embarrassing in the first place. This is punishment for knocking me out before while looking for backing.”

Rozini and Arcadia both sparkled their eyes at Yufi’s proactive attitude.

Rozini’s gaze turned toward Sandcooker, but Arcadia’s was directed at Oknodie.

“W-what?”

Sandcooker, tactless but bold, ran away in horror, but Oknodie unhesitatingly entrusted her hand to Arcadia, who had subtly reached for it.

“Are you scared too, Arcadia?”

“I’m worried that Ddi might be scared.”

“Me?”

Arcadia answered seriously to Oknodie, whose eyes had widened.

“Your papa is… a scary person, isn’t he?”

Everyone on the deck froze.

This was a papa who had prepared a disaster that killed half the crew on the ship sent to pick up his daughter.

If such a person wasn’t scary, then no one in the world was.

“Is he? I don’t really know?”

“Sob. That child has never experienced what a normal family is like, so she doesn’t even know to be afraid of her papa.”

“Poor thing.”

“The foundation is truly unforgivable.”

“Instead of saying ‘unforgivable,’ shouldn’t we be saying ‘please spare us’? We might meet the papa himself who set the trap this time.”

“Surely he wouldn’t set up horrible traps like on the cruise ship in his own home?”

Home is a place to rest.

Surely not.

He’ll probably maintain some boundaries, if not extend a warm welcome.

So let’s also hide our hostility and be tactful.

If we don’t upset him, maybe we can get through this smoothly.

The students made an implicit agreement behind Oknodie’s back!

“But why isn’t the ship stopping?”

“We’re getting closer and closer to the island?”

Everyone rushed to the bridge in panic.

Zigoku, the new master of the bridge, was waving something in his hand.

It was what had once served as a lever.

“What is that?”

Giselle, unable to hide her ominous premonition, asked while sweating profusely.

“Ah, this is what they call a brake. It’s broken now, so it doesn’t work.”

At Zigoku’s confident answer, the faces of many students, including Giselle who had asked directly, turned pale.

Despite their resolve not to upset Oknodie’s papa, the cruise ship—with a total tonnage of 200,000 tons, still 120,000 tons even after the fierce battle—plowed through the island’s sandy beach and charged toward the mansion.