Shepherd Wizard (Novel) - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

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The Blue Marlin’s voyage began with the ringing of a large bell attached beside the bow.

Following the captain’s orders, as they raised the anchor and unfurled the three huge sails, the wind-filled sails pulled the ship.

While the sailors worked hard, Turan leisurely lay on his cabin bed reading books.

The first was about ship regulations.

After explaining various positions on the ship starting with the captain, it listed unwritten rules and superstitions, with quite a few strange ones.

Not taking women aboard, not looking down at the sea at night, not whistling…

So many things that weren’t allowed, it seemed excessive.

Moreover, the punishments for breaking rules were all brutal, with many involving tying someone to the mast for whipping.

Next he read the book about merfolk, which, probably being written near where merfolk actually lived, had several more detailed and specific contents than what was in Orem City’s library.

From stories about the magic mirror connecting North and South seas to tales of mermaid royalty who could transform into giant fish.

For something bought just because it caught his eye, it had many interesting stories that helped pass time well.

After enjoying reading for a couple hours, Turan started feeling cramped in the narrow cabin, so he closed his book and went up to the deck.

The land had long since disappeared beyond the horizon, with deep blue seawater filling every direction.

Because of this, even though the ship was cutting through the wind, it didn’t feel like they were making progress.

“Oh my, Sir Knight has come!”

First Mate Osban greeted him as he came up to the deck.

Thanks to referencing the ranks of sailors in the book earlier, he knew this was the second highest position on the ship after the captain.

From being responsible for all cargo to operating the ship in the captain’s absence?

Though for such a position, he seemed rather lightweight with his excessive groveling.

“It felt stuffy inside so I came out for some air.”

“The cabin is a bit like that, isn’t it? Haha… Actually merchant ships aren’t usually this bad.”

Osban explained it was because the greedy shipowner had excessively enlarged the cargo hold to stuff in more cargo.

Originally even senior sailors could each use rooms slightly larger than Turan’s cabin, but on this ship they had to share one larger room.

Turan decided to be grateful he could use a room alone.

“I heard it takes twenty days to a month to reach the Enril Desert.”

“Yes. Though that’s assuming good wind and waves. The North Sea is quite rough.”

Osban said he had sailed in the South Sea in his youth, where there were few waves and weak winds so ships couldn’t go fast but there were almost no variables in navigation.

In contrast, the North Sea was the complete opposite – when catching favorable winds they could literally fly like the wind, but one mistake could greatly throw them off course or even sink them.

Not to mention pirates and merfolk swarming everywhere indiscriminately.

“But having you aboard makes us feel secure, Sir Knight!”

Though he hadn’t even seen his abilities, Osban loudly proclaimed that with Turan aboard, pirates and merfolk wouldn’t dare touch this ship.

Though somewhat embarrassed by such flattery, Turan didn’t tell him to stop.

It seemed it would only worsen the atmosphere, and moreover, the lower-ranked sailors nearby showed relief hearing Osban’s words.

He seemed to be deliberately boasting like this to reassure his subordinates.

Actually, regardless of the weak basis, his faith itself wasn’t wrong.

There weren’t many enemies who could touch a merchant ship guarded by someone with upper-middle class strength even among nobles.

After listening to continued praise for a while, Turan asked Osban what he was curious about.

“Actually I don’t understand why knights’ wages are so high here. Wouldn’t it be more profitable for the Karmaine family to station knights at reasonable prices to prevent merchant ships from being plundered? They must collect taxes on every trade anyway.”

Even Arabion had knights doing ship work in their vassal family territories.

Though he hadn’t looked into it deeply, surely they weren’t paying wages so high that even theaters couldn’t afford them.

“Well, that…”

At such questioning, Osban scratched his cheek and answered in a somewhat careful tone.

“Pardon my saying so, but this sailing work means not knowing when you might die. When we sailors lose contact with someone for a few years, we don’t think they’ve gone far away, but that they’ve died. So…”

“You mean even knights get scared since they’ll die if the ship sinks anyway?”

“Th-that’s not what I meant!”

“No, thinking about it, that makes sense. There really are reasons for everything.”

Thinking about it, he too wouldn’t easily dare try returning to land if the ship suddenly sank in the middle of the sea.

Though there was plenty of seawater to magically purify for drinking and fish could be caught and cooked for food, swimming to land would be tremendously difficult and how would one sleep?

If even Turan felt this way, ordinary knights would soon run out of magic power to become no different from normal humans before drowning.

Perhaps the Karmaine family had actively put knights on merchant ships in the past, but started demanding high wages because they couldn’t handle the losses.

“Seems like some interesting conversation going on.”

Just then, Captain Pires came up from below deck adjusting his eyepatch and said this.

He first bowed slightly to Turan.

“I haven’t been able to greet our esteemed guest for several hours since welcoming you. I hope these idiots haven’t caused you any discomfort?”

“Not at all. I’ve been hearing many informative stories.”

“That’s good. Osban? The wheat storage area looks like it might leak, go rearrange things.”

“Yes sir!”

At Pires’ order, Osban thumped his chest with his fist before going below deck.

Looking at Pires, Turan asked the question he had been meaning to ask.

“By the way, what do you mainly sell in the Enril Desert? I don’t know anything about that area.”

“Various things. Since it’s truly just sand, they can’t grow cotton so cotton and cotton cloth sell well, and after land trade with Arabion was cut off, grain sells a lot too. But the return journey is what really matters.”

“The return?”

“Yes. While things needed in the Enril Desert are all heavy and bulky compared to their price, things coming from there to Abacha are expensive and easy to store. Since it’s mostly spices and gems, we can even sleep more comfortably on the way back.”

“Too bad I can’t take the return journey with you.”

At Turan’s banter, Pires giggled and asked back.

“Will you be staying long in the Enril Desert?”

“Yes, probably.”

Actually, Turan still hadn’t clearly thought of how to find his roots in Zahar’s land.

Barging into the main house without even knowing his father’s status was like reaching into a box not knowing if it contained treasure or a sword.

But excluding that method, he had at most a portrait depicting his mother’s face and a few belongings as clues.

With just those, he might need to stay in the desert for several years or more.

* * *

Very fortunately, Turan’s first voyage proceeded smoothly for a week.

Without storms, tidal waves, or attacks from pirates and merfolk.

Which meant, days continued with nothing to do and boredom.

“This is the number 5 rope?”

“Yes. When strong headwinds blow from the front, we need to quickly furl the sails by loosening this and those two middle ropes over there. Otherwise the ship will just spin in place.”

“Oho.”

Having finished the books, Turan satisfied his thirst for knowledge by catching available sailors one by one to learn various skills from sailing methods to techniques.

Though the sailors were initially flustered that a knight like heaven would learn skills that lowly sailors use, seeing him listen attentively and never easily forget what he learned once, they generously passed on various tips and tricks.

Actually just looking at appearance, Turan was close to the youngest among the sailors here, so there wasn’t much awkwardness in teaching him.

“Meal time!”

“Come on, let’s eat! Everyone to the dining room!”

Meals came three times a day, and as expected, both quantity and quality were incomparably crude compared to meals on land.

This was because they hadn’t allocated much space for food storage to begin with, and most preserved foods were low quality.

Since even the captain’s cabin wasn’t very spacious, Captain Pires and Turan also ate with the sailors in the ship’s largest dining room.

“Still good we didn’t leave out this pickled cabbage! We’d all have died of gum disease long ago without it!”

“Gum disease?”

“Yes. A disease where you die bleeding from the gums, but sour foods cure it. Since fruit spoils quickly, pickled cabbage is best. Though it tastes terrible. Khe.”

Boatswain Lenak eating hardtack with salted meat and pickled cabbage beside him laughed while speaking as if trying to scare him.

Perhaps because Turan had asked many questions while learning ship handling skills over the past few days, though his speech was still honorific, he now treated Turan like one of his young sailors.

“That’s interesting. How did people learn about that?”

“Well, such things must have spread after someone discovered them sometime. Before that was known, they even ate merfolk raw.”

“Oh.”

Suddenly reminded of dark elf necromancers munching on people, Turan’s appetite dropped and he put down what he was eating.

Just then, a shout was heard from the sailor observing surroundings at the top of the mast.

“Ship! 2 o’clock forward! Medium-sized!”

“What?”

“Pirates?!”

When one of the dining sailors shouted, an answer came shortly after.

“Can’t tell! No family flag raised!”

“Feels like pirates. Weather was too good with no rain. Battle stations for now!”

At the boatswain’s order, the dining sailors rushed to the deck or distributed weapons without anyone needing to go first.

First Mate Osban turned the Blue Marlin left to try avoiding the approaching ship, while Captain Pires watched his subordinates handle the situation with a fairly composed attitude though somewhat tense.

Turan slipped past the busily moving sailors to the deck and used detection magic to check the approaching ship.

At a glance it looked slightly smaller than their Blue Marlin with four masts, and estimating, it seemed slightly faster than them.

Shortly after, the unidentified ship turned right as if pursuing the Blue Marlin.

“Damn, they were pirates after all!”

“What should we do, Captain? Try to shake them? They’re a bit faster so we might get caught in a long chase. With good wind we might dock at a nearby island before getting caught.”

Turan felt Pires’ gaze briefly scanning him.

Though they had verified his skill once, since they hadn’t seen his actual combat ability, he seemed somewhat uneasy.

“Will you be alright?”

“No problem unless there’s a knight or noble aboard.”

“…Very well. Turn the ship! We’ll engage!”

“Long live Sir Knight!”

“Kill them all!”

At Turan’s confident answer, the Blue Marlin’s sailors showed somewhat anxious but trusting attitudes.

Shortly after, the Blue Marlin turned direction again and rapidly closed distance with the enemy ship.

Though the likely pirate crew seemed perplexed by the Blue Marlin’s sudden turn, they didn’t withdraw their aggressive stance.

“Hey-stop your ship-! Then we’ll spare your lives-!”

When the distance closed to a few hundred meters, a man standing at the bow shouted in a booming voice.

Hearing this, Turan grew curious and asked the boatswain beside him.

“Do they really spare lives if you surrender?”

“I’ve heard they do as they please.”

“As expected.”

Well, it would be strange for pirates who don’t follow laws to keep promises.

Thanks to this, Turan too could act freely without any guilt.

After all, humans who kill humans for their own desires were just wolves that needed to be hunted.

The two sailing ships drew closer and closer.

When the distance reached thirty or forty meters, Turan leaped with transcendent leg strength and landed on the pirate ship’s deck.

The pirates showed dumbfounded expressions seeing the deck crack with a boom.