| Author: Shizuku | Original Source: Syosetu | Word Count: 3588 characters |
| Translator: Nomad | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1760 words |
| Editor(s): Robinxen | ||
When the captain swung his sword, the pirate leader used his sword to block, though he only used one hand, and his sword was still inside its scabbard.
“That’s all your strength? Do you have any idea how many moronic captains who thought they were stronger I’ve killed already?”
“Ough…”
The pirate chuckled mockingly and the captain tried to swing again.
“Get serious already, is this how a captain fights?”
The captain tried time and time to slash at the pirate, but he just dodged, blocked, or parried everything, not suffering a single scratch.
“Are you blind?”
The captain switched tactics a bit, trying to aim for the pirate’s legs, or switching the timing of his attack so they were harder to read, but none would connect.
“Are you really trying to kill me? Because if you don’t-”
The pirate finally attacked back, his sword moving swiftly in a straight line, flicking away the captain’s sword. And right after, he swung his empty left hand into the captain’s stomach.
“You’ll be the one dying!”
“Oh no-”
“Smolder true, Fire Arrow.”
The pirate shoots an arrow of fire, which instantly burns the captain’s stomach and sends him flying back onto the deck.
“Captain!”
The sailors ran up to him, but the captain was unresponsive. The wound was not lethal, but it had knocked him out.
“That’s a match, then. Anyone else wanna try?”
The captain’s decision to agree to the duel had been the right choice, rather than risking everyone’s lives. His only mistake was misjudging his and his opponent’s power.
But now that he had lost, everyone’s fates had been sealed.
There was nothing more demoralizing than watching one’s leader be defeated. It not only meant losing the one who kept things in control and made all decisions, it also stopped anyone else from trying to fight back, since the enemy had already demonstrated being superior to the one strongest in the ship. They would lose all semblance of order, and the enemy would just trample over them. That often happened even in rigorously trained military units, so it would have an even stronger effect on a group of sailors put together haphazardly. Just a glance around showed all the sailors had lost all will to fight, having given up entirely.
Except the pirates had made one small mistake. The captain was the one in charge of commanding the ship, but he was not the one with the most authority in the ship.
“I’m down.”
Marize had the most authority, and she had not given up yet. She had already cast aside her insecurities a long time ago.
“I can sense magic power in you. So it was you who gave my men a soak earlier, weren’t you?”
Being able to sense someone’s abilities from afar was a rather refined skill. The only person Marize knew who could do that was Oswald, as Olivia was far too clumsy to master such a delicate art.
“I have to warn you though, standing against me isn’t very smart of you. I’ll give you a chance to pull back, or maybe you wanna join us even? We’d welcome someone with your magic abilities.”
“Join you? Pfft, now that’s a joke.”
Marize instantly shot down the offer.
“I see, that’s too bad then.”
The pirate leader shrugged with an uninterested face, then raised his hand up. Once he snapped his fingers, the surrounding pirates jumped in to attack Marize.
Marize was well aware that pirates were never honorable enough to let someone go if they surrendered. The pirate leader was just doing that to buy time for his underlings to circle around her, and if a white flag was shown then he would simply have less things to worry about. Their methods were to kill anyone who opposed them, and thoroughly discipline those who agreed to join them.
As the pirates rushed at her with naked blades, Marize’s heart remained composed.
Clenching her fists, she muttered.
“Sparkling Lightning Discharge.”
The countless bolts of lightning emerging from her fists knocked back all of the pirates, not sparing a single one, and all their unconscious bodies became visible when the lightning died down.
But they were not done yet. Their leader was still standing, a large fireball blazing above his hand.
His true objective was to use his underlings as a distraction to have enough time to chant.
“Burn them down, Meteor Flare.”
The fireball flew straight at Marize, exploding into a tall pillar of fire. Seeing that and feeling the sudden gust of hot wind hitting their skin, all of the sailors believed Marize was gone.
“Ghahahahah! Not even the bones of your ashes will-”
“Is that all?”
A calm voice spoke from within the flames.
Then the fire parted open like a curtain, revealing Marize without a single burn on her body.
“That wasn’t as violent as Olivia’s or precise as Mathias’ spells.”
She had not let it hit her on purpose, but she had been curious to see how powerful he was, as this was her first time fighting a sorcerer outside the Magic Academy. But Marize soon discovered she had been greatly overestimating him. She knew from experience that a middle level spell used by Olivia or Mathias would leave her incapacitated after just one hit.
But due to her friendship with them she had almost forgotten that Olivia had always been the strongest in the Academy before graduating, while Mathias had the best academic scores. They were essentially the pinnacle of what the Academy had to offer, so they were not the best points of reference to compare others. Not to mention that Marize had been trained by both of them, making her one of the better students too1.
“Wh-Wha-What?!”
“You’re done then? You give up more easily than I thought.”
Marize mocked the pirate leader as she began walking toward him, channeling electricity into her fist until sparks began to jump out.
The pirate leader quickly realized what was going to happen, each of Marize’s footsteps counting down his demise.
Maybe he could use his remaining mana to fight back?
That was ridiculous. He had already used the strongest spell at his disposal, Meteor Flare, but that had no effect at all. He had no way of fighting her. Not to mention that he had no time to chant for any spells.
“Alright, my turn next.”
And then his fears were realized.
“W-Wait, I surrender-”
“Sparkling Lightning Shock.”
A fist clad in lightning struck the pirate leader squarely in the chin, lifting him into the air, drawing a long arc before landing unconscious on the deck. He showed no signs of waking up anytime soon, and the many teeth he was missing spoke of the punch’s power.
“Alright, wake up everyone!”
The sailors were all watching with mouths agape, but snapped out of it when Marize spoke to them.
“Half of those who can move should round up the wounded, I can use some basic healing magic so I’ll treat them as best as I can. The rest of you tie up these scumbags.”
“Ah, r-right away!”
The sailors hurried to follow her orders.
Luckily none of the sailors was seriously hurt. Marize’s healing magic was also really basic, so it would leave behind scars, but that was a cheap price to pay for one’s health.
The first pirates who had fallen into the river with their boats being shattered had likely been devoured by the monsters of the river already. It would be easy to push those unconscious on deck to suffer the same fate, there was no reason to show mercy to such ruffians anyway, but the sailors were rounding them up to claim bounties from the guards later on.
“Gh…mff…”
“What are you doing to him?”
After Marize finished treating the wounded sailors, she noticed a sailor doing something to the pirate leader. Wondering what was happening, she approached them.
“I’m stuffing his mouth with dried Madragoblin Bamboo. The toxin won’t kill him, but it’ll numb his tongue so he can’t speak. That way he can’t use magic anymore.”
Marize quickly understood with that explanation.
Not being able to speak meant he would not be able to chant, and no chanting meant no spells.
That did not impede him from using magic devices or chantless spells, but he was already tied up and searched, so he had no magic devices in his possession, and only skilled sorcerers knew how to skip chants for spells. Numbing his tongue should be more than enough to restrain him.
“Umm, the captain is looking for you.”
“Me?”
It was good to know that the captain had woken up after being knocked out by the pirate leader, but Marize did not understand why he was looking for her.
She began to fear that maybe he was not satisfied with the medical treatment she had provided, but when she got there she found the captain next to a row of sailors who had nothing to do.
“You’re here.”
“Yes, why did you need me?”
The captain turned to face Marize, and then bowed with his entire upper body.
“You saved all of our lives2! Thank you!”
“””Thank you!”””
“Huh?”
The row of sailors, and even those who were working stopped what they were doing to turn around and bow at the same time.
That had been the last thing Marize had expected, so she just stared blankly at them.
“Also, I’m sorry I called you a brat. We’ll follow you to the ends of the world, Milady!”
“Milady?!”
“We’re all in your service, Milady!”
“Wait, stop!”
“We’ll follow your every command, Milady!”
“Why are you calling me that?”
“Alright, let’s rename this ship to Marize too!”
“Anything but thatt!”
In the end Marize was able to stop them from naming the ship after her, but she could not make them desist from calling her Milady.
“It’s finally come into sight, Milady.”
“Yeah…”
The air had felt salty and fishy for a while, quite different from sailing on a river, but actually seeing what lay ahead imparted a different feeling.
There was water spreading far into the horizon in a seemingly endless manner. Waves with white foam crashed against the shore rocks, and flocks of white birds flew overhead.
Everything was new to Marize.
“So this is it…the sea…”
The girl named after the marine breeze was finally seeing the sea for the first time.
The desire of her parents for her to see the vast world they lived in had finally been granted.
