Volume 3: The Land of Mist Chapter 18 Diana and the Mist
"There's a medium-sized three-masted sailing ship heading northwest. Captain, what should we do?"
"What flag did the ship fly?"
"No flags whatsoever, Captain."
Upon hearing this, the bearded middle-aged man in a neat navy uniform and a tricorn hat with an eagle feather on it picked up a brass telescope and looked at the black spot in the distance.
After a while, he put down the telescope and said:
"The hull is not the long and thin style with pointed ears. It is more like the merchant ships on the East Coast."
"If it's just an ordinary merchant ship, we don't need to care about it, right?"
The sailor who reported the situation asked carefully.
Hearing this, the middle-aged man with a beard stared and said:
"Has your brain been rusted by the seawater? There are no ordinary merchant ships on this route. Where are they going to do business? They can't be going to the Ruins of Osis, right? Tell the wind controller to speed up the wind and intercept the ship first. I bet that the ship is either filled with smugglers smuggling supplies to Ava Continent, or elven spies disguised as merchant ships."
Hearing such a strong order, the sailor who understood what the captain was going to do whispered a warning:
"But Captain, what should we do about Miss Diana..."
This sentence made the captain feel conflicted.
Under normal circumstances, if he encountered a smuggling ship that did not fly the flag of the Imperial Shipping Company, he would just rob it. After all, he had a privateering license issued by the royal family, and the other party was most likely a smuggler doing illegal business with Ava... Well, even if he was not a smuggler, who would care about a ship that disappeared in the vast ocean?
The empire's naval system is very independent, and outsiders are basically not allowed to interfere except for the priests on board. And the priests on board are also very easy to bribe. If you really encounter a stubborn and stubborn one... There will always be some risks at sea, right?
In this way, they take on some "private jobs" of their own, and as long as they are clean enough, there will basically be no trouble afterwards.
But now, in his cabin, there was a troublesome woman with lace cuffs, who not only used silver knives and forks but also candlesticks when eating. And this woman they could neither bribe nor create any accidents for her.
After all, who would dare to bribe or harm a divinely inspired person who has been certified by the Eighth Order's priest group and has performed miracles?
After much hesitation, the captain said:
"I'll go and steady her. You go and notify the second officer. Let him take charge of the situation. Tell him to move faster and handle the situation more cleanly."
…………
"This is bad luck..."
Captain Hobbs muttered to himself as he watched the Imperial warship appear on the skyline.
"How can we live in peace even though we are so far apart?"
William asked.
At this moment, he was covering his forehead with his hand, which looked like he was blocking the sunlight, but in fact he was covering up the amber halo that was slightly flowing in his eyes when he released the [Eagle Eye Technique].
The imperial battleship that appeared in the sky was somewhat different from what William had imagined.
Although it was also a wooden three-masted sailing ship, there were no gun ports on the side of the ship, and no rams on the bow. There were only two conical wooden towers in the middle of the hull, as high as the masts, and the tops of the towers were shining with a deep light like the starry sky.
In a world with highly mobile, small-target artillery arrays like magic casters, there is indeed no motivation to develop bulky weapons like artillery.
"Everything is going well?"
When Captain Hobbs heard William's question, he laughed out loud as if he had heard a joke.
But the smile on his face was a mixture of ridicule and distress.
"There is a reason why the Empire can maintain such a large navy with such a small naval budget."
As he spoke, he raised his monocular telescope and kept looking in the direction of the Imperial battleship, muttering to himself:
"The most notorious pirates on the sea are the pirates from Daemon Continent. Eight out of ten ships doing business in the White Sea have been hijacked by them. But generally speaking, as long as you cooperate with them and don't resist or harm them, in most cases the pirates will let the ship return safely, which can be considered as not exhausting the pond to catch fish. In contrast, the Imperial Navy has no reputation for being evil at all. Can you guess why?"
William said nothing.
"Because few people can survive to tell their glorious deeds. If they are targeted, the end result will be the destruction of the ship and the death of the people."
Seeing that William didn't answer, Hobbes spoke directly.
As he spoke, he lifted up his whalebone prosthetic limb and knocked on the deck.
"Even if you survive and accuse them of what they did, no one will bother. They will only advise you to join the Imperial Freight Company, register your ship as an Imperial merchant ship, pay a huge tax for each batch of goods, and there will be no risk if you fly their flag... Ah, that warship has accelerated."
William, who used the Eagle Eye Technique, also saw that the sail of the warship in the distance with the dragon sword emblem on it was bulging like a pregnant woman, and a silver light was shining on one of the wooden towers.
It was obvious that the other party was also using storm spells to speed up the ship.
"Unfortunately, they targeted us."
Captain Hobbs came to a conclusion.
Then he shouted to the sailors around him:
"Have Big Cannon and Thunderfire come up on deck quickly. Have everyone ready their weapons for boarding. We may have a tough fight ahead."
After shouting, he turned around and looked at William:
"Mr. Yin Shima, please hide in the cabin for a while. Also, please hide half of your cargo and keep the other half on you."
"Then how long will we hide?"
William asked, frowning.
"Hide until we kill them, or until they kill us. Of course, the more fantastic possibility is that we can negotiate a deal with them, and they take away most of the things on the ship, and the matter will be over, and everyone will be happy."
"Which one is more likely?"
William continued to ask.
In response, the other party showed a bitter smile on his face.
"My suggestion is that you can prepare a sharp enough dagger in advance, so that you can be more comfortable when the time comes."
William hesitated for a moment after hearing this.
In principle, William didn't want to make too much noise before arriving in Ava, or even before meeting Remedios. And he wasn't sure if sinking an imperial warship would be considered a big noise.
And if he just wanted to escape, he could just release storm spells to speed up the Whalebone and get rid of the imperial warship.
but……
William looked at Liz beside him.
A faint mist lingered around her, obscuring her figure. Captain Hobbs, who was standing not far from her, did not sense the presence of this witch.
In response, Liz just made a "no problem" gesture to William helplessly.
"I'll stay on deck, too."
William said to the weathered, lame captain.
Hobbes, who had turned around to go back and arrange the tasks, turned back and looked at the source silver merchant who claimed to be from Blackwater Province with a curious expression on his face.
"What are you going to do here? Be cannon fodder?"
He asked very directly.
William shook his head, and bright red flames ignited on his hands.
Looking at the flames burning in the other's hands, Hobbes's eyes suddenly dilated.
"Are you a magic caster?"
"You don't really think that an ordinary person would dare to carry dozens of kilograms of source silver and go to Ava Continent alone to do business, do you?"
William replied, and then continued:
"I know a thing or two about magic. Don't worry, these pirates called the Navy will not steal anything from this ship."
…………
"I heard some noise outside, did something happen?"
A female voice with no ups and downs in tone and sounding very ethereal came from inside the closed door.
The middle-aged man with a full beard hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not open the wooden door that was engraved with various runes.
Ever since he received the mission from the Eighth Order to escort the "God-enlightened One" named Diana to Ava, rumors about her spread on the ship, one more outrageous than the other.
Some say that if you look into her eyes for too long, you will go blind. Some say that her tears can cure all diseases. Some say that she can turn iron and stone into gold with just a touch.
At first, she said she didn't want to put on airs as a "divinely inspired person" and hoped to eat and live with the sailors on the ship. As a result, three fights broke out on the ship the next day because of her, and in the end, she lost four fingers and an ear in total - all because the sailors fought for the right to sit next to her at meals.
After that, as the captain, he had no choice but to give up his private room to the "Saint Lady", and also prepared and arranged meals for her separately.
"Miss Diana, our ship has just encountered a group of pirates, and we are now preparing for the next encounter on the deck..."
After hearing a slight inhalation from behind the door, the captain immediately quickened his speech and said:
"But please rest assured, we are fully capable of protecting your safety with our military force. But the premise is that you stay here and don't go out until everything is over. It is very dangerous outside."
The person behind the door was silent for a long time before speaking in a disembodied voice:
"Since they are pirates, there is nothing we can do about it."
Hearing these words, the captain's heart was finally relieved a little.
As an imperial navy that is truly far away from the emperor, the empire has not failed to formulate methods to restrict their looting.
However, effective means were too costly, while low-cost means had very limited effects. In the end, the Empire had no choice but to force every ship to be equipped with a priest to influence and cleanse the crew's minds. This method, which they themselves probably wouldn't believe, was used to show that they had tried their best.
And for the pastors of the Holy Spirit Church, he had a joke he never got tired of telling.
Piety, wisdom and sincerity, any pastor can only possess two of these three excellent qualities at the same time.
As long as he could find out the quality they lacked, he could easily control the priests who were sent on board to monitor them and use them for his own purposes.
Now it seems that not only the pastor, but even the so-called "divine revelation" who claims that the eighth holy spirit once predicted the future through her mouth, cannot escape this pastor's law.
She might be pious and sincere enough, but it was obvious that wisdom was not her thing.
You have to know that this is the Broken Sea. In the past eight hundred years, apart from the Storm Helmsman who tied his head to his belt to do smuggling business, there would be no pirates in such a place.
But he just said that and the other party believed it.
The captain suppressed his proud mood and gave a look to the side. Two sailors who had been waiting for orders for a long time came over and stood guard at the door of the room, one on the left and one on the right.
"You stay here and protect Miss Diana."
The captain said loudly.
Then he added in a whisper to the two sailors:
"Remember, don't let her step out of this room before I come back..."
Before he could finish his words, the emotionless, ethereal voice from inside the door suddenly rang out, startling him.
"Captain, I don't need any extra protection here. The battle outside is more dangerous."
"Don't worry. Pirates are nothing more than a mob to us. We asked them to protect you here just to prevent the enemy's lightning mages from using space spells to attack us."
The captain said perfunctorily, and then he ignored the other party's answer and left in a hurry.
Therefore, he did not hear Diana's last words.
"In the battle that's about to begin, please be careful of the fog..."
…………
"Can you do it?"
While everyone around was focusing their attention on the warship, William quietly asked Liz who was flying behind him.
"It's just a small problem. If you want to teleport people here, there may be some risks. But if it's just laying a magic channel, it's not a difficult task for the Witch Mist."
Liz, who was flying behind him, answered with great enthusiasm for some reason.
William, who was far away in the Blackwater Swamp, wanted to use his clone to cast spells on the Broken Sea, but the most fatal problem was the attenuation of his magic power.
At present, in Blackwater Swamp and Nakuland, William overcame the distance problem between several large cities by using reaction terminals engraved with space spells as magic transmission base stations.
However, in this vast ocean, he couldn't fix the reaction terminal as a magic transmission base station - if he threw it into the sea, it might be swept away by the ocean current. Secondly, even if he now controlled the source silver resources of the entire Thorn City, he couldn't afford such a waste. The distance between the Broken Sea and the Blackwater Swamp was much greater than the distance between the several large cities in the Blackwater Swamp.
But fortunately, William finally remembered that in addition to lightning spells, there was another way to cross space and shorten the distance.
That is the witches' innate magic, the witch's mist.
By mimicking the concept of the lake and blurring the distance, the two places are connected.
