Roughly ten minutes had passed since the ship left the harbor.
"Urk!"
"Hey, go do that over there!!"
The inside of the storage room became a scene of chaos in an instant.
The surging swells and the vibrations of the floor continuously broke their balance, and the air was already thick with a mixture of salty tang and foul stench.
Those vomiting, unable to endure seasickness; those bumping into others while trying to avoid the vomit; and even the small pieces of luggage rolling around like trash amidst it all.
The door was firmly locked, so no one could get out.
Thanks to that, the nose-stabbing stench remained trapped inside, and with every breath, their throats tightened painfully.
"Damn, this is no different from hell."
Someone muttered, but even that voice was buried in the chaos of the storage room.
And so, before we even reached our destination, we were already running on half-depleted stamina.
Thanks to having quickly hidden myself in a corner of the storage room, I was able to step aside from this mess for a moment.
My nose had long since gone numb; even the smell was meaningless.
The old me would have my stomach turn the moment I boarded a ship, but this body strangely had no seasickness whatsoever.
If anything.
'I feel kind of excited?'
Even though it was inside this hellish storage room and not on the deck, my body felt strangely light.
An indescribable feeling of elation, as if the energy of the entire universe was gathering toward me, flowed through my whole body.
Along with that sensation, my strength rose, and even my vision and breathing became clearer.
'Could it be... because of this?'
The passive ability I had obtained not long ago, Unity with Water.
The name made it sound like one could meditate peacefully anywhere, but in reality, it was quite overpowered.
An effect that greatly increased various stats when entering water.
But then I remembered the description had a line about 'partial ability reflection even in humid environments.'
Right now, a ship floating on water.
This situation, surrounded by seawater in every direction, was the optimal environment for the ability to activate.
Thanks to that, I alone was boasting peak condition amidst this pandemonium.
'At this rate... this voyage might be pretty nice for me.'
The problem was that I was the only one doing fine.
Sailleon was staggering around the storage room, vomiting everywhere, and Baldik tried to grab and hold him up, only to collapse just the same.
Ranson and his servants had endured calmly at first, but after just a short time, their expressions gradually stiffened at the sailors' shouts, the twisting of the ship, and the foul stench drifting through the storage room.
Still, since they didn't end up vomiting, I suppose they were in relatively good shape.
The problem was that this hellish situation was only just beginning.
It hadn't even been ten minutes since the ship left the harbor, by my senses.
There was no clock, but it should take a solid half-day before the island would be visible.
'...Isn't someone going to collapse midway through this?'
That ominous premonition settled heavily, like the stench digging into my nose and lungs instead of the sea breeze.
And so, five minutes, ten minutes... no, a suffocating stretch of time passed, enough to blur even one's sense of time.
Inside the storage room, the smell of sweat and saltiness mingled and grew thicker, and the space was filled with nothing but the breathing of people slumped on the floor.
Even then, one man refused to give up, pounding on the door with his fist and shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Open up! Open this door right now!"
"I can't breathe!"
It was right as his rough shouting continued.
Clack!
With the sound of an iron latch unlocking, the door was shoved open inward.
"Ugh!"
The man lost his balance to the sudden force and fell backward, tumbling over.
With a dull thud and the sound of knocking into a metal barrel, his body rolled across the floor.
The eyes of everyone inside the storage room fixed on the door at once.
The air seeping through the crack of the door was completely different from before.
At the entrance stood a man breathing roughly.
On his forearm was a black anchor-shaped tattoo with chipped paint, and at his waist hung a rusty iron gaff and a short dagger, swaying back and forth.
His eyes were those of a beast sizing up its prey.
"Get out. Line up."
At those brief words, the men hidden behind him revealed themselves.
Those draped in foul-smelling leather; those with disheveled hair stiff with salt; and all of them had swords or clubs tucked into their waists.
In an instant, the storage room began to stir.
"What, have we arrived?"
"That can't be right... this isn't a dock, is it?"
The man at the entrance raised the corner of his mouth in a sneer.
"You still don't know? This is where you'll be sold, you stupid bastards."
At those words, the air froze.
Someone cursed, someone groaned, and someone else trembled violently, gripping the wall.
I swallowed a curse inwardly.
'Damn... I knew something was off, but was it this bad?'
Sailleon, who had been slumped over with seasickness, finally opened his eyes wide.
Baldik muttered with a half-dazed face.
"They're... selling us?"
From outside the storage room, the sound of heavy, wet ropes already falling to the floor could be heard, and between them, the sounds of unfamiliar footsteps and laughter mixed in.
There was no doubt that those who had come to buy us were waiting.
"What the fuck are you doing? Hurry up and get out here!"
Startled by the rough shout, the passengers scrambled to their feet.
Only then did our group gather their dazed wits.
[What should we do?]
[Let's just blend in and get out for now.]
After a brief exchange of glances, we decided to move mixed in with the line.
Following the passengers staggering forward, we crossed the damp, dark threshold of the storage room.
As soon as we stepped outside, a salty sea wind struck our faces.
For that one moment, it felt as though the nose-stabbing stench of the storage room was washed away, but the sight before our eyes quickly blew away that idle sentiment.
Beside our ship was a small warship, long and low in form.
Rowers filled both sides, and on the deck, a tattered black flag fluttered in the wind.
A design of crossed swords over a skull, and patterns twisted around it like sea serpents.
No matter who looked at it, it was a pirate flag.
"Watch your legs as you cross!"
The fake merchant sailors had tied the two ships together with thick ropes and laid planks across them.
Whenever the feet of trembling passengers crossed over with a clatter, the blue sea churned below.
Several men were already waiting on the pirate ship's deck.
Men with tattoos peeking out from their sleeves, scanning each passenger with narrowed eyes.
They exchanged brief signals with one another, as if selecting livestock at an auction.
"That one's arm muscles look good."
"That one's too skinny. He'll die rowing."
"That woman will fetch a good price."
Listening to that conversation, a chill ran down my spine.
Our group deliberately hardened our expressions and kept our heads down, mixing into the line.
Standing out recklessly would be suicide right now.
The cries of seagulls over the sea and the laughter of the pirates mixed together strangely.
As we boarded the deck, sailors strode up to tie us up with ropes and move us to the side like the other passengers.
"What's this short runt? A dwarf?"
The man at the front reached toward Baldik.
Baldik glanced at me and sent a signal with his eyes, and I quietly nodded.
"One more for the mines—"
Crack!
In an instant, Baldik's forehead smashed squarely into the man's nose.
Without even a chance to scream, the man crumpled, and Baldik quickly drew a dagger from his waist.
Squelch.
Baldik plunged the dagger deep into the abdomen of the man clutching his nose and staggering.
A short, stifled scream burst out, and he twisted his body, staggering back.
At the commotion, two sailors who had been tying up other passengers whipped their heads around.
A murderous glint in their eyes turned toward us.
"You crazy bastard!"
"He's lost his damn— what is that?!"
[Water Bomb]
Boom! Boom!
Two compressed water bombs shot squarely into their chests.
Water exploded instantly from the inside, striking their chests, and the two sailors rolled off the railing without a chance to catch their breath.
Between the white foam, the two figures were swallowed by the sea in an instant.
"M, mage?"
"Damn it, nobody said anything about that!"
"H-Hoist the sails!!"
The pirates who witnessed the scene from across the way paled instantly.
They kicked away the planks connecting to the ship we had boarded and cut the ropes haphazardly.
Each time the blade severed the ropes, the distance between the two ships grew.
Hands pulling on the rigging were frantic, and the deck became as busy as a stirred beehive.
The other passengers, tied up like cargo, stared blankly at the scene unfolding before them.
Some trembled violently, seemingly still thinking they were about to be sold, not even realizing the pirates were fleeing.
'They're running away just like that?'
I immediately leaped onto the ship's railing.
Strong wind and the smell of waves brushed my face, and the mast of the fleeing pirate ship came clearly into view.
'There's no way I'm letting them go just like that.'
I gathered mana into both hands, catching my breath.
Streams of water drawn from the sea surged like whirlwinds at my fingertips.
[Water Bomb]
Fwoosh!
A thick, sleek column of water cut across the sea toward the pirate ship.
The water spear struck the center of the mast in an instant, piercing through the hard wood and creating a massive fissure from within.
Screech—Boom!
The mast twisted and half of it tilted toward the sea, and the connected sailcloth and ropes tangled into a pitiful heap of scrap in an instant.
In an instant, screams and curses erupted from the pirate ship.
"The sail! The sail's broken!"
"Damn it, we can't move on the water!"
"Row, at least!"
The ship lost speed, rocking on the waves before coming to a stop.
I looked down at their plight from the railing and flicked my palm in the air.
'They won't be able to get far now.'
After I threw a water bomb at the pirate ship, tearing a mast in half, and turned around, the ship had already become another battlefield.
Sailleon had untied the rope at his waist and was bending the fake sailors' wrists behind their backs to bind them, and Baldik was still catching his breath while keeping a sharp eye on the surroundings.
Those tied up were all kneeling in the center of the deck.
Though they were fake sailors, now they were nothing more than firmly bound prisoners.
Among them, one in particular stood out.
A build a head taller than the others and a shaved head.
His tightly closed lips and resentful expression, as if gnashing his teeth, seemed to say, 'This isn't over yet.'
This guy was probably the real captain of this ship.
And in front of him lay Ranson's servant, unconscious.
Judging by his posture, he had clearly used a relic to bind the captain.
"Is that the captain?"
"Yes. If it weren't him, there's no way such strength would come from that build."
The big guy glared straight at me.
With killing intent thicker than the water bomb I had thrown at the pirate ship earlier.
His eyes seemed to say, 'Give me the chance and I'll blow your head off.'
"What kind of bastards are you?"
"..."
"Not answering, huh."
Ranson replied while tending to his servant.
"They're clearly human traffickers impersonating a merchant company. We interrogated a few of them, and they all said the same thing."
In other words, the ship passage Sailleon and Baldik had arranged turned out to be a human traffickers' ship.
"I'm sorry, boss..."
Even the shameless Sailleon had a deflated voice this time.
Normally he would have smirked and made excuses like 'It was all part of the plan,' but this time, even that excuse seemed blocked.
"...Forget it."
When I cut it short, Sailleon moved his lips and then froze.
He had the look of someone who knew he'd catch an earful instead if he said anything more.
But, well, with scammers operating on this scale, anyone could fall for it once.
They had set up everything from the merchant company signboard to the ship, crew, and cargo as a complete set, so at a glance, there would have been no difference from a normal trading company.
The problem was what came next.
I had to somehow sail this ship to Cron Island.
I looked down at the big guy glaring at us while kneeling—presumably the captain.
"Hey, can you guys get to Cron Island?"
"..."
As expected, no answer.
His eyes alone betrayed a strange conviction: 'You can't go without me.'
This was troublesome.
If you counted the ones we’d blown over to the pirate ship earlier along with the ones who’d died during the fight, then not just the helmsman but the crew capable of sailing itself were as good as wiped out.
And yet this big guy kept his mouth shut to the very end, which was basically telling us to go drift in the middle of the ocean.
Besides, his expression looked as if he was enjoying deliberately driving us into a corner.
I studied the big guy’s face for a moment, then opened my mouth casually.
“Let’s just kill him.”
“Huh?”
“I said let’s just kill him.”
My tone was calm, but when the words left my mouth the air turned frigid.
For a moment the party members fell silent and stared at me.
They were surprised because they knew I wasn’t someone who’d actually go through with it, but for that big bastard it was a different story.
He had definitely witnessed me using magic, too.
He must have seen with his own eyes not only the fake merchant sailors but also the pirate ship being obliterated.
If so, then in this situation I would be no different from a demon capable of cutting people down without hesitation.
And when such a demon-like person said he would kill him without hesitation—
Even if it were a lie, there was no one who wouldn’t be shaken.
“I··· don’t think so.”
Sailon suddenly cast a vote of opposition.
He glanced my way, then sneaked a wink and shaped his mouth.
[I know what you’re trying to do.]
As expected, he’d caught on.
“You’re going to shove magic up his ass and make him explode from the inside, just like last time. That··· the smell and the cleanup was hell. It didn’t leave my nose for days.”
At that, the big guy’s face froze instantly.
His pupils trembled, and the muscles around his neck went rigid with tension.
“I’m against it too.”
Valik crossed his arms and snorted as he chimed in.
“Cleaning up the bits of flesh back then, spending days in that rotting stench, ugh. Blood is one thing··· but when you add that sticky rag stench on top of it, I thought I’d rather cut my own nose off. And—”
He looked straight into the big guy’s eyes and slowly drew out his words.
“—that magic that pulls the brain out through the nose. I don’t ever want to see that again.”
Even Ransom added a word in his uniquely quiet, gentle manner.
“It was really··· scary back then. Sir Liev can be a bit too much sometimes. Especially··· with guys like this.”
As the three of them painted me in perfect unison as a mad killer without a drop of blood or tears in his eyes, the big guy’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily with a gulp.
Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and trickled down his temples, while his breathing grew rougher by the moment.
I savored that expression briefly, then slowly raised my hand.
Small droplets formed at my fingertips, then gathered together and began to rotate into a round sphere like a marble.
Within the droplet, a light like ripples flashed, and a sharp vibrating sound that seemed to tickle the ears spread outward.
“H-huff···”
The big guy hung his head low, as if even meeting my gaze was terrifying.
Thick drops of sweat fell one after another from his forehead, pattering onto the tops of his feet.
“Last question. Can you get us to Cron Island?”
“W-we’ll go! We’ll go! Please··· j-just not that!”
I lightly flicked my finger, making the droplet vanish, and gave a short nod.
“Good. But if you get distracted until we arrive··· you know?”
The big guy raised his shoulders, which had sagged to his chin, with great effort, and wheezed like a condemned man granted a day’s reprieve.