Chapter 68: Reunion, and the Master of the Unsinkable Ship

After catching the ship Bahamut threw, we decided to return to the sky island. We had to check on the safety of the crew inside. The crew of this battleship… the Good Loser.

Fortunately, Bahamut only threw the ship; it didn’t give chase. The throw was probably just a warning. Still, the Bahamut I knew would have attacked without hesitation. I was a little thrown off.

In any case, we took the opportunity to land the Good Loser on the sky island and headed inside.

“Is everyone alright!?”

The ship’s magic lights were on, so even in the dimness, I could see. The interior was a mess. Dishes and tools were scattered everywhere, as if they’d been caught in a massive storm. Luckily, the chairs and tables were bolted to the floor, so it didn’t look like anyone had been seriously injured by them.

“Who’s there…?”

A familiar voice called out from deeper within the ship. It was hard, and full of caution.

“It’s me! Rex! It’s Rex, Sir Barn!”

“…Rex!? Is that you!?”

Clang! Crash! Thud! Barn appeared, sounding like he’d kicked and bumped into several things on his way. He was covered in scrapes, as if he’d been thrown around.

“Ooh! It really is you, lad!?” Barn cried out, his voice full of joy.

“It’s been a while. Is everyone else safe?”

“Aye! We’re safe, somehow! So, the ship shook violently, and then just as suddenly, it went quiet. I was wondering what happened… Don’t tell me… did you save us!?”

“Well… yeah, I guess I did.”

“Ooooooh! I knew it!!” Barn cheered, then turned and shouted back into the ship.

“Rejoice, men! The la—… Rex… Rex has rescued us!”

“…Rex?” “Did he say Rex?”

Slowly, the crew members began to peek out.

“It is Rex!” “If Rex is here, does that mean we’re really saved!?” “Of course we are! It’s Rex!” “Right!? Not even a monster like that is a match for Rex!”

Hold on. Are they… overestimating me? Or just remembering me wrong? But I didn’t want to rain on their parade, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Rex!” I turned at a new voice calling my name from the ship, and saw someone unexpected.

“Mayleen?”

It was Mayleen, from the coastal nation.

“Why are you here, Mayleen?”

Wait… Barn and Mayleen are from different countries. Why is she on this ship?

“Sir Rex! What’s the situation in there?” Karm’s voice called from outside. Right, right. I need to explain things to them, too.

“Let’s all head outside. We’ll need to treat the injured, anyway.”

---

“Area Heal!”

I gathered all the injured in one spot and treated them with a wide-area healing spell. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt, so a simple spell was all it took.

“My… to heal a dozen men in an instant. As expected of you, Sir Rex.” The vice-captain said, walking over to thank me.

“No, no, it’s just a simple wide-area spell.”

“Simple? I’ve… never heard of such a healing spell…” he replied, a bead of sweat on his brow. Do the churches in the Inland Sea not have anyone who can use Area Heal? Well, priests who are only interested in lining their own pockets tend to skip their magic training. I suppose it can’t be helped.

“I’m sure the big churches in the Royal Capital have people who can use it.”

“Do… do you think so?” The vice-captain still looked skeptical, but really, plenty of people can.

“…When you say ‘Royal Capital,’… are you perhaps referring to the capital of the Holy Theocracy? Indeed… a country with a Saint might have priests capable of such grand magic…”

The vice-captain started muttering to himself, lost in thought. I left him and went over to where Karm and Van were talking.

“We are truly grateful that you have taken us in.”

“Ordinarily, our law dictates that all trespassers must be captured, regardless of reason. But, as you are friends of Sir Rex, we will welcome you.”

“That is a relief. We have the la—… We have Sir Rex’s guidance to thank.”

“Indeed. We do.”

Barn usually just calls me “lad,” but he’s using my name now. …Why does my name keep coming up?

“By the way… where exactly is the ‘Holy Sky Kingdom, Seraphium’? When that giant monster grabbed the ship, we all scrambled inside. We have no idea where we are.”

Ah. Right. If they hadn’t hidden, they’d have no way of knowing when they might be dropped. And… this location is going to be even more shocking than he thinks.

“Sir Van, this country is… above the plains nation that lies south of your coastal country.”

“Above… the southern nation? Do you mean… to the north?” Barn was clearly trying to picture a map of the Inland Sea, but he was a bit off. It’s not “up” on a 2D map.

“No, I mean literally… in the sky.”

“In the sky?” Barn tilted his head, confused.

“This is a ‘Sky Island.’ It’s an island… floating in the sky.”

“…” Barn just stared at me. He’s giving me the “what is this kid talking about” look.

“Now, now, lad, that’s taking the joke too far. An island can’t float in the sky.”

Yep. After Liliera’s reaction, I expected this. It seems people in this era really don’t bother to learn about anything outside their own lands. With just a little research, they could find this information. It’s one thing for Karm’s people, who were refugees, but for Barn’s knights, who come from an old lineage… isn’t this… bad?

“Sir Barn, and all the crew… please, come with me.”

It’s faster to show them. I led the Good Loser’s crew to the edge of the sky island.

“Be careful. Look down. Ah, don’t get too close!”

They all peered over the edge, wondering what was going on. Their expressions went from “What’s this?”… to pale shock… to wide-eyed disbelief.

“L-Lad!? What… what is this!?”

Yep. They get it now.

“Like I said. This is a Sky Island. Bahamut… carried you all the way up here.”

“A… Sky… Island…”

---

“After you left, lad… we began to discuss the Demon’s fate.”

It took some time, but after the shock of being in the sky wore off, Barn and his men calmed down and started to explain what had happened.

“The two nations… ours, which had captured the Demon after the Kraken incident, and theirs, which claimed jurisdiction since their country was attacked… were in a heated dispute. In the end, we agreed to share custody and take turns… interrogating it.”

So that’s why Mayleen was here. As an envoy.

“But… as we were transporting the Demon… that giant monster attacked. We were dragged into the sky. We all ran inside to avoid being dropped… but in the chaos, the Demon escaped.”

“The magically-shackled Majin escaped!?”

That’s impossible. With those restraints on… it couldn’t have. …Unless… Bahamut. Just like the Kraken… was the Demon involved with Bahamut, too?

“The rest… you know, Rex. We are truly, truly grateful.”

Barn gave me a sharp salute, and all the crewmen behind him did the same.

“No, no, I just caught a ship that was flying at me. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“””…”””

Hm? Why is everyone so quiet? Why the serious faces?

“Rex…”

“Yes?”

“Listen, lad. Normal, living people… cannot… catch… a ship.”

“Yes, I know. That’s why I used magic. Even I can’t catch one with just my bare hands.”

“””THAT’S NOT WHAT WE MEANT!!”””

Huh? What? Why is everyone yelling!?

“Now, now, it’s Rex. He says things,” Liliera said, in a very unhelpful attempt to help.

“Hmmph. You’re right. It is Rex…”

Huh? And that satisfies them!?

“But this is a problem,” Barn said, his composure returning. “A sky island… how do we get back down?”

“By rights, I should be thinking about how to return the Good Loser… a ship the military paid a fortune for. But I can’t even think of a way for us to get back.”

Ah… a state-of-the-art battleship. Leaving it here would be a massive loss.

“Sir Rex… you can use flight magic. Could you… could you not… lower this ship to the surface?” the vice-captain asked.

“Of course! The lad who caught it can surely do it!”

Hmm. Lower this ship…

“I… think I can, but…”

“Ooh! Truly!? Then let’s…”

“But… there are no rivers down there wide or deep enough for this ship. It’s all landlocked.”

“What!?”

Yeah… I didn’t see any major rivers on my way here. Just landing it on the ground… it would take a massive budget, a huge crew, and a lot of time to move it. Not to mention negotiating with the local nations.

“Ooooh… no great rivers…”

Can’t do much about geography.

“Let’s worry about the ship later. If it’s just people, I can get you all down.”

“Aye… you’re right. It’s greedy to ask for the ship after you saved our lives. Thank you, lad. Could you… transport all 85 of us?”

“…Eighty-five?”

“Hm? Ah, yes. It’s not just my crew. We have Maylene and the rest of the envoys from Vertino. …Is it… too many!?”

Barn looked panicked. Transporting them isn’t the problem… but… …doing it one by one is a huge pain. Even with Liliera helping, it’s one at a time. Karm’s wings are repaired, but they’re built for one. …This is too much work.

…I’ll just… modify the ship to fly. Luckily, this island is full of the exact material I need.

“Sir Barn.”

“What is it, lad?”

“It’s going to take a lot of time to fly everyone down, one by one. So… to move you all at once… do I have your permission to… tinker… with the ship?”

“The ship? Well… it’s useless as it is. If it’s to get us to the surface quickly, you have my permission. Do as you like. We have to abandon it here, anyway.”

Good. Now for Karm.

“Karm. I need to ask the Sky King for permission for something.”

“His Majesty?”

“Yes, I need…”

“Hah? You want… stones from the island? Sir Rex, you don’t need permission for a few rocks. But… if you insist, I will go and ask.”

Yep. I need the Gravium in the island’s soil. It was a restricted mineral on the old Sky Continent, so it’s best to ask the ‘King’ for permission first.

A few hours later, Karm returned. “His Majesty says… if it makes the ‘troublesome people’ disappear faster, you can have all the ‘worthless rocks’ you want.” (It took so long because Karm had to report about Barn and the crew.)

“He said… ordinarily he’d have to arrest them, too… but when he heard they were your acquaintances… he made a very… tired… face, and just said to ‘get them out of here.'”

What a reason… but, it saves me time. Okay, let’s get this done. I could modify it for normal flight, but… I don’t have the materials on hand for a ship this size. I’ll just use the Gravium and make it an airship.

---

(Barn’s Point of View)

My name is Barn Debag. Captain of the Tion Inland Sea Knight’s 2nd Division, and… captain of the state-of-the-art battleship, Good Loser. A man who… has effectively… lost his ship. And… let his prisoner escape.

…The more I think, the more my stomach hurts. But, thanks to the lad, my life, and the lives of my men, were saved. And he has a way to get us home. In exchange, I lose my ship.

Gods… to lose the fleet’s newest ship in less than a month… What punishment awaits me?

And now, the lad is… “working” on my ship, to get us home. He’s probably… using the deck planks… to build a large stretcher, to ferry us down in groups. Made from the legendary Ancient Plant… and its end… is to be a stretcher. How pitiful.

The next morning, after a night spent sleeping on the ground, the lad returned.

“The modifications are complete!”

Modifications. A “glorious transformation” from a battleship to a stretcher, no doubt.

“Ta-da! Behold, the new Good Loser!”

He pointed at… my ship. It looked… exactly the same.

“Lad… what part of this is ‘new’? Did you not… build the stretcher?”

“Oh! Right! You can’t tell from the outside! Here, I’ll show you.” The lad hopped onto the deck and grabbed the ship’s wheel.

“Show me…?” I don’t understand.

“Okay! Relaunching the Good Loser!”

And the instant he said that… my ship… …lifted. It… floated… into the air.

“””…..Huh?”””

The ship. Is floating. I can see… the keel. I am seeing the bottom of my ship.

“L-Lad! What is the meaning of this!?”

“Well, flying everyone down was a pain, so I modified the ship to fly. This way is much easier, right?”

…I… do not understand a single word he is saying. But… one thing is certain.

“””THIS ISN’T ‘EASY’!!”””

In that moment, the hearts of the Good Loser crew, and the envoys from Vertino, were one.