Let’s Go To The Holy Papal State (Ghost Ship 1)

It was a night with stars shining overhead.

I had returned to my own dungeon. Inside the burlap sack I was carrying on my back was Mani, the unconscious fanatic.

I walked down the passage illuminated by bluish-white light and came to the hall where Kou, the Dungeon Core, was.

Naturally, Liricia was beside me too.

I spoke to Kou, the round orb about one meter across.

“Got a minute, Kou?”

“What is it?”

“I want you to connect a passage to the Luktia Holy Papal State, but before that, are Edgar and the others all right?”

“For now, it seems they’ve managed to evacuate?”

Liricia placed a hand on her large chest and let out a relieved sigh.

“Thank goodness.”

“We have to save them quickly. Then connect us to Luktia. Was it a little difficult?”

“The other dungeon will notice us.”

“It’s fine if they notice now. Getting to Luktia takes priority over everything else.”

“Okaaay, I’ll connect it at once. Quick-cast spell activate! Berserker So—ugh!”

Kou, who always casually spouted incomprehensible words, raised his voice louder than usual. The hint of panic in it bothered me.

“What’s wrong, Kou?”

“They put up a paid barrier!”

“A paid barrier?”

“You can buy it through Koogle Pay or the Afool Store. I think it’s probably a twelve-hour or seventy-two-hour barrier, and during that time, other dungeons can’t interfere at all.”

“What! That’s a problem! I want to get to Luktia even one day sooner.”

“You may say that, but if the sleeves aren’t there, it’s an effortless victory?”

“Can’t we do something about the barrier? If we can’t get in for three days, the people inside the subspace will be in danger.”

“Ah, the barrier nullifies dungeon attacks, so if the master personally enters Luktia as someone who isn’t a monster created by the dungeon, there shouldn’t be any problem?”

“Then how far can we go through a passage?”

“As far as that port town we visited before, easily?”

I pressed a hand to my forehead and sank into thought.

So we could go as far as the port town of Northpton.

From there to the northern peninsula where Luktia was, we had no choice but to cross the sea.

—Suddenly, I remembered when we went to the Star Dragon Realm.

“What if we flew through the sky? If Rāna carries us on her back, couldn’t we cross the sea?”

Liricia lowered the ends of her eyebrows and looked uneasy.

“If she were a complete Sacred White Dragon, I hear she could fly anywhere, as far as needed, for days on end, but with Rāna-chan incomplete as she is, there is a chance she could run out of strength midway…”

“She does suddenly run out of energy and fall asleep while playing. That’s too dangerous, huh.”

“Small children run out of battery quickly, after all.”

Even Kou was indirectly telling me it was impossible.

—I thought it was a brilliant idea, though.

I guess a spur-of-the-moment idea really was no good… Hmm?

“Wait. The dwarf duke’s daughter Hilda was supposed to be trying to cross by ship, right? She even said she would cross in a small boat if the worst came to worst. Maybe she had some prospect of getting one? If there’s a small boat, maybe we don’t have to fly?”

“That’s right! If she releases magic power from her wings behind the small boat, we should be able to reach quite a high speed. And even if she runs out of strength and falls asleep, it will be safe!”

“A human-powered high-speed jet boat. If someone else saw it, it would look like quite the child welfare report case?”

“Urk! I don’t really understand, but it certainly doesn’t sound good. We’ll row by hand until we get out to sea. We’ll have Rāna push us from there.”

“That sounds best.”

“Now the problem is how to contact Hilda. Can you check where she is right now, Liricia?”

“Yes, leave it to me.”

Liricia shook her silver hair and was about to leave the hall when Kou stopped her.

“Wait a minute, ma’am rice shop.”

“What is it, Kou-chan?”

“Hilda-san has a sub-device. I secretly did infrared communication with it, so we can contact her.”

Liricia and I were surprised.

“Seriously!”

“As expected of you, Kou-chan.”

“Seriously. Free Wi-Fi is surprisingly dangerous?”

Kou said it a little proudly.

I took out my own sub-device.

When I looked at my contacts, Hilda had been added.

I tapped it and contacted her.

After several rings, Hilda answered. Maybe she was suspicious, because her voice was low.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Alec.”

“If this is about switching electricity companies, I’m not interested!”

The call cut off with a click.

I muttered while looking at the screen.

“What’s an electricity company?”

“Well, it’s sort of like a scam phone solicitation. Just not being mistaken for a bank-transfer scam is much better, Tashiro Mercy?”

“I don’t get it. Well, once more.”

This time, she answered after one ring.

“You’re persistent.”

“You were looking for a ship in Northpton, right? I want you to tell me where I can borrow a small boat.”

“Why?”

“We’re storming Luktia.”

At my words, I heard her breath catch. Then she answered in an easygoing voice.

“I see. They told me to buy it instead of borrowing it, so I left it on hold. There’s a fishing harbor on the outskirts of the port town, right? One of the fishermen there said he was quitting anyway. The place is—”

I listened to the location and memorized it, then repeated it back to confirm and had Liricia memorize it too.

Seeing Liricia nod with a serious expression, I thanked her.

“Thanks, Hilda. You saved us.”

“Well, this much is nothing.”

“Also, does it look like you’ll find the Dwarf Dungeon’s core?”

“Hmm, it looks like they’re moving it around. Seems like they’re gathering cores somewhere.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Tell me once you find out the location. I’ll help.”

“Well, if I feel like it.”

It was a curt reply. It seemed the conversation was over.

After thanking her once more, I ended the call.

I said to Liricia.

“Then let’s take Rāna and go to Northpton.”

“Yes, Master!”

Kou let bluish-white light run across his round surface and said,

“Then I will call Rāna-san.”

Almost at the same time as he finished speaking, small footsteps came pattering lightly from the passage.

Her white hair streamed behind her as she ran toward me with a smile.

“Yaay! Ouding! Ouding!”

“Outing. We’ll have you push a small boat from Northpton to Luktia. Is that all right?”

“Okaaay! Rāna will twy hard!”

“She’s still a little lisping. To have her become a shop clerk, I guess we’ll need about two more Jewel Orbs.”

But Kou let out a voice of impressed admiration.

“To think it would be ‘ouding.’ So she went that way. I was sure she’d end up blurting out things like ‘ncha’ or ‘hoyoyo.’”

Rāna tilted her whole body sideways in curiosity and said,

“Hoyoyo? Is that stwong?”

“If you raise your hands to the sides and run while saying ‘keen,’ you’ll be even stronger.”

“Keen!”

Rāna raised her hands to the sides and started running. The hall where Kou was located was fairly spacious, but even so, Rāna was too fast. She used even the walls and ceiling as she raced freely in every direction.

I said in exasperation.

“Stop playing around and let’s go. Kou, connect us to Northpton.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

A gaping hole opened in the wall facing the room in front of the hall.

Rāna ran off with her long hair streaming behind her.

“Then, Kou. Take care of things while we’re gone.”

“Leave it to me, Fugaldo.”

I walked side by side with Liricia and headed into the passage.

The sea before dawn.

We were adrift in a small boat in the middle of the vast ocean.

The night sky was gradually turning bluish-black, and the eastern sky had already created a layered sunrise of red, orange, green, and blue.

Morning was about to rise.

The sea was still dim.

Splash, splash, the black waves struck the hull of the small boat and made a sound.

Rāna, whose strength had run out, was sleeping as if collapsed at the back of the small boat. She was breathing softly in her sleep.

Since we had set out in the middle of the night, sure enough, she had run out of strength along the way. She had worked very hard pushing the boat while shouting, “Keen!”

The small boat was fairly easy to obtain.

It was a five-person fishing boat. Though small, it was equipped with a live well in the bottom of the boat. Mani, whom I had been carrying on my back, was in the way, so I put him inside the live well. I had knocked him unconscious using medicine and magic.

The old fisherman seemed to have been planning to quit his job anyway, and he handed the fishing boat over to us as it was.

He asked for quite a high price at five million gort, but when I bought it at his asking price, he was pleased. Well, we had the money from selling a large quantity of Puchi Elixirs to the Dwarf Duke, so we had plenty of funds.

More importantly, right now, time was precious. I didn’t want to waste any on negotiations.

Even just drifting among the waves like this made my impatience grow as time passed.

I was not worried about the Demon King, but there was always a one-in-a-million chance. If the Demon King died, Liricia would return to heaven.

I was also worried about Edgar’s party. In particular, the children who had been at Liricia’s orphanage were all good kids, so I was worried. If something happened to them, how deeply would Liricia’s heart be hurt—

As I sat around the middle of the small boat with a grim expression, Liricia came to my side and gently held my hand. Her smooth, slender fingers were dear to me.

“It will be all right, Master. I am sure everything will go well.”

“Was it showing on my face? Sorry, Liricia.”

“No, it cannot be helped.”

Somehow, the two of us sat close together.

It was a peaceful moment beneath the sunrise.

Before long, the sun rose, and through a white haze, its blurred sunlight began to illuminate the ocean blue.

“Hmm? White?”

I looked around. White smoke was spreading across the sea as if sliding over the surface.

Liricia frowned with her beautiful face.

“Fog has appeared. I hear fog forms easily over the sea because of temperature differences.”

“This is a problem.”

The fog grew thicker and thicker, hiding both the distant view and the sun.

Eventually, even Rāna, who was sleeping at the stern, began to blur.

While holding Liricia’s hand, I slowly stood up.

“Let’s go beside Rāna. If she turns over in her sleep and falls into the sea when we can’t see, it’ll be terrible.”

“I did not notice that. As expected of you, Master.”

Liricia and I went to the stern and sat beside the sleeping Rāna.

Just to be safe, I also held Rāna’s small hand. Perhaps she was dreaming of eating something delicious, because she smiled broadly and moved her mouth.

Has an hour passed?

Rāna still had not woken up. The fog had grown even thicker.

It was a dense fog where I could not even see one meter ahead. Even Liricia’s face beside me looked blurred, as though covered with white cloth.

However, that face grew more stern. She looked around with sharp eyes. Then she formed a ring with her fingers and looked around through it.

Seeing that, I wondered what was going on and asked.

“What is it, Liricia? A monster?”

“No, something… I sense something unknowable and eerie—I will become an angel.”

Liricia leaned forward, crossed both arms in front of her chest, and strained with a small sound.

With a rustle, white wings spread from her back. The force of it cleared a little of the fog around us.

Then, the moment she activated her angelic finger-ring ability—Search Eye—Liricia widened her violet eyes in surprise.

“Master! A ship! There is a huge sailing ship nearby!”

“What! Take care of Rāna.”

I quickly stood up and picked up the oar at the stern.

—In this fog, there was no way the other ship could see our little boat.

We had to avoid it ourselves.

“Liricia, which way should we dodge? —Wait, the oar won’t move, and the rudder isn’t working either!?”

“It is rapidly approaching from the right… No, this boat is being pulled toward it!”

“What!?”

Then, a gigantic sailing ship appeared on the right side of our small boat. It was one hundred meters long, and its height seemed about that of a five-story building.

However, the hull was damaged here and there, and its sails were torn and hanging down.

There was no sign of people either.

“What is this? It’s like a ghost ship.”

“It may be one… However, it seems slightly different.”

“What do you mean?”

“I feel little evil presence or Darkness Attribute presence from it.”

“Oh? That’s interesting.”

Liricia looked at me. Her serious expression was beautiful.

“What shall we do, Master?”

“Well, if we’ve been invited, I suppose we have no choice but to board. The oar and rudder not moving, and this sudden fog, are probably the ghost ship’s doing too. To get to Luktia, we have to break through this.”

“Understood. Let us go.”

I handed Rāna to Liricia, then grabbed the rope hanging from the ghost ship’s deck and climbed up.