Chapter 27

“Uh...”

When Turan first landed on the deck, the pirates stared blankly, unable to speak for several seconds. The unreal sight of a human leaping dozens of meters from one ship to another had momentarily defied their comprehension.

A few seconds later, however, one nameless pirate broke the silence with a shout.

“K-kill him! Fight!”

Some seventy pirates advanced on him, brandishing swords, axes, and every other kind of weapon capable of hurting someone. Turan was inwardly bewildered. When a wizard suddenly appeared and demonstrated that much power, most people would lose the will to fight and surrender. Why weren't they?

His bewilderment, however, made no meaningful difference to the battle. A bear might flinch when a mouse suddenly attacked it, but that hardly gave the mouse a chance of winning.

He reached beyond the deck, and a wave of blue water rose in response to his will. In an instant, it released a rush of warmth and turned into ice spikes sharp enough to pierce anything.

“Wh-what's that...?”

“Dod—!”

Before the pirate could finish shouting “Dodge,” dozens of ice spikes rained down on the pirates gathered on deck. The results were horrific.

Some died instantly as their heads were pierced. Others thrashed, choking with spikes through their throats, or crumpled with their chests and bellies impaled... Fifteen or sixteen pirates were killed or incapacitated in an instant.

And that was with Turan deliberately using far less power than he could, to maintain his pretense of being a knight. Humans born without magical power were that fragile.

“Don't chicken out, you bastards! If we don't kill him, we're dead anyway!”

Someone in the rear shouted as the pirates at the front screamed, ice spikes protruding from their bodies. Only then did Turan understand why they were resisting so desperately. They, too, knew he would not spare them.

Facing the pirates rushing at him, Turan gathered some of the seawater into his hand and formed an ice longsword. He could have wiped them all out with more volleys of ice spikes, but to pass for a knight, he needed to show himself conserving power at this point and fighting them hand to hand.

“Gak—”

SHICK!

A body collapsed limply, its head severed. Human flesh and bone offered no resistance to a longsword wielded with strength that could crush iron.

After cutting down the first man, he shifted into the proper stance to counter an incoming attack and slashed another throat. Then he took a great step backward to open the distance, lengthened his sword, and cut down three men at once.

Unlike when he sparred with Haram, he felt no thrill of combat in any of this. The pirates' physical abilities were no match for his, and their fighting skills were even more crude.

Even so, the pirates' attacks did reach him a few times. He had only two hands and one sword, after all. With his strength and speed restricted to a knight's level, he could not block every attack coming from every direction. Things might have been different had he been a master like Haram.

“Ugh...”

But there was no need to block these attacks in the first place. A burly pirate thrust at his exposed neck with all his might, and Turan felt the weapon slide off without even breaking the skin.

Several others slashed and stabbed at his shoulders, chest, and back, but none of their attacks had any effect. A noble's body was not fragile enough for an ordinary person to pierce simply by swinging a sharp piece of metal. Even without the guardian magic tool, the outcome would probably have been much the same.

After about three minutes, Turan realized he was the only person still standing on deck. Low groans and anguished screams echoed across the sea of blood.

“Aaaaagh!”

“M-Mom, I'm cold, Mom—”

“Please spare me...”

Looking down at the fallen pirates, he tossed his ice longsword onto the deck. Just then, several grappling hooks clanked into place. After he had jumped aboard, the two ships had passed each other, forcing the Marlin to circle around before finally catching up with the pirate ship.

Captain Pires walked across a rope with practiced balance, then surveyed the pirate ship's deck in amazement.

“It's over, Captain.”

“So it seems. This is... well...”

Pires looked as though he had a great deal to say but could not find the words. Perhaps he suspected Turan was a noble. The sailors approaching behind him, however, were beside themselves with excitement, shouting incoherently.

“Y-you're incredible! Long live our knight!”

“Wooooo!”

“You sons of bitches! Serves you right!”

Some sailors were so overcome with delight that they kicked the sprawled pirate corpses, only to fall flat on their backs. Then one of them took a look at Turan and spoke.

“Shouldn't you see the ship's surgeon first, though?”

“He's right! No, you might have trouble moving. Let's bring the old surgeon here!”

Their fussing was understandable. Turan was covered in blood, and his clothes were torn in several places, making him look badly wounded. He smiled and shook his head.

“No need to worry. I'm not hurt anywhere. This is all pirate blood.”

“Is that really true?”

“Good heavens...”

“A descendant of the gods indeed.”

In truth, an ordinary knight's skin would at least have torn if a blade or spear struck bare flesh. A blow to a vulnerable spot like an eye could have been fatal. The sailors knew none of that, of course, and merely marveled at how extraordinary knights were.

“May I go back and rest first, Captain?”

“Of course. Boatswain!”

“Aye! All right, you maggots, clear the deck first! Throw them all overboard, alive or dead!”

Boatswain Renak shouted with a grin on his flushed face.

* * *

While the sailors cleaned up, Turan returned to the Marlin, stripped off his ruined clothes, and washed himself. One convenience of an all-male crew was that he could do so right on deck without concern.

“Could someone lend me some spare clothes?”

“Here you are! They might smell a little, though, if you don't mind...”

“I don't mind.”

Although his bloodline gave Turan an exceptionally keen nose, that did not make him especially sensitive to foul odors. The sense of smell tired quickly, so once the initial unfamiliarity passed, he soon grew accustomed to a scent. Otherwise, he would never have remained so filthy right up until his first stay in Orem City.

“Whew...”

After washing and changing into the sweaty-smelling sailor's clothes, Turan put his blood-soaked outfit in his cabin. Thanks to Asiz's enchantment, it would soon return to its original state. Judging by its condition, perhaps a few hours would suffice. When he went back on deck, Captain Pires had already returned to the Marlin as well.

“We're still searching her, but we've established that she's a merchant ship that went missing from Abacha a few years ago. It seems the pirates captured her and made use of her.”

“I see.”

“Would you prefer to sell her?”

Turan gave him a puzzled look, and Pires smiled.

“You won the battle single-handedly, Master Turan. The ship belongs entirely to you.”

“Oh.”

Come to think of it, a ship like that could hardly be cheap. Though the clash had barely deserved to be called a fight, apparently the exertion had left his mind a little slow for the moment.

“What's usually done in this situation?”

“We could return to Abacha and demand a reward for restoring her to her original owner, or sell her in the Enril Desert... But I think it would be best to sell her at an island along our route. The North Sea Archipelago always needs sailing ships. Goods fetch the highest prices where they're needed, after all.”

As its name suggested, the North Sea Archipelago was a scattering of islands in the middle of the North Sea. It also served as a trading hub connecting the world's northwestern, central, and northeastern regions. The Marlin was due to stop at one of its islands soon to replenish food and drinking water. Captain Pires looked somewhat uncomfortable as he continued.

“The thing is, it takes quite a few men to sail a vessel that size...”

“So you need a transport fee. How much should I pay you?”

Pires blinked his single eye in surprise. Apparently, he had not expected Turan to agree so readily.

“It's not as if I can sail that ship there by myself. If I put people to work, I should pay them.”

Having spent the past week learning seamanship, Turan knew how difficult it was to handle a ship that size. Ships did carry extra hands against the possibility of deaths on a rough voyage, but operating another vessel of similar size would hardly be easy. Their work would probably double, along with their watches. How could he make them do all that for nothing?

“In that case, perhaps a tenth of the proceeds...”

“A fifth. Could I leave the sale to you as well?”

“Absolutely! I know quite a few people there. I'll see that you get a good price.”

Watching Captain Pires's delight, Turan suddenly realized he had a new problem. His pack was already bursting with gold coins. Where was he supposed to put the money from selling an entire ship?

It seemed he would have to buy something small and expensive on the island where they stopped. Assuming, of course, that anything of the sort was for sale.

A little later, the sailors began cheering for Turan again, apparently in response to something Captain Pires had told them. He had probably encouraged them to work hard, saying that the knight would give him a cut of the sale and that they would receive a share as well.

Though Turan alone had done the fighting, drinks were being passed around to celebrate the victory when a sudden commotion arose aboard the pirate ship tethered to them. A sailor shouted, looking utterly flustered.

“Captain! Merfolk! Merfolk!”

“What? Now merfolk are attacking us too? Where?”

Captain Pires cried out in alarm. After an entire uneventful week, pirates and then merfolk attacking in quick succession was surely too much. But the sailor's next words made it clear that was not what had happened.

“N-no, that's not it... The pirates caught one and were keeping it belowdecks!”

* * *

When Turan returned to the pirate ship, Boatswain Renak was stripping the men who had gone below and shaking out their clothes. He explained that the sailors sent to search the ship might pocket any valuables they found, so they had to be searched this way.

It was quite an ordeal in the North Sea's increasingly wintry weather, but no one complained. How could they dare, when someone might have stolen from the knight who had just slaughtered seventy pirates?

“So, there's a merperson inside?”

“Aye. I haven't gone in myself yet. I've only received the report.”

“Well done. Would you like to take a look, Master Turan?”

“Certainly.”

Naturally, if there really was a merperson, it belonged to Turan as well. Entering the quarters belowdecks, he asked Pires a question.

“Do merfolk fetch high prices?”

“I understand pretty females sell for tremendous sums. Rich people with a taste for rarities go mad for them.”

Turan recalled what he had read about merfolk. Didn't they sing among the reefs to lure ships in, sink them, and devour the people aboard?

Were their voices really that beautiful, or did they possess some special power to bewitch people? Now he would be able to find out for himself.

“This way.”

CLACK!

Descending into the ship's hold, Turan's eyes widened at the sight before him. The merperson the sailors had mentioned looked like a young boy, no more than thirteen or fourteen. Beside him, he heard Pires click his tongue.

“A male? He probably won't fetch much. Unless he's one of those legendary royals who can turn into fish...”

At Pires's words, the merboy shouted angrily.

“How dare you! A male, you say? I am Armani, the forty-seventh prince of North Estadale! Show some respect, land-dweller!”

Indeed, the merboy's voice was more beautiful than any human voice Turan had ever heard. It was almost like an instrument accompanying a performance at the theater. Yet what he said was even more astonishing than how he sounded.

“... Is he saying he's royalty?”

“It seems so. Though he might be bluffing in the hope that we'll sell him alive instead of killing him.”

With a grave expression, Pires added that it might be true, considering the pirates had bothered to keep a male merperson despite its lack of value.

“Can you turn into a fish, merfolk prince?”

“I-I can't!”

“Why not?”

“Well, because I'm tied up out of the water like this... I can only transform once I'm back in the sea in proper condition.”

Turan and Pires looked at each other and reached a wordless understanding. This brat was trying to pull a fast one so he could escape.

“What will you do?”

“Merfolk eat humans quite often, don't they?”

“Yes.”

“Then I'll kill him. You said he wouldn't fetch any money anyway.”

“But if it's true, that would be such a waste...”

“We can't let him go just to verify it. No one will buy him unless he transforms, anyway.”

Turan immediately reached toward the merboy. Since he at least looked like a child, a painless instant death seemed best. Perhaps sensing the danger, the boy drew back and shrieked.

“I-I've never eaten a human in my life! And I have no intention of doing so! Spare me, and I'll give you treasure!”

“Treasure?”

When Turan hesitated, the merboy Armani's face brightened.

“Yes, treasure! Left behind by those Freyan gods you worship!”