Chapter 241: In Search of A Ship
Gamud led Fran back up to his office in order to give his disciples a bit of ti to cool down.
「Thanks for today, you were a great help. Sorry it ended up taking so long.」
「Not problem. Also learned.」
「Did you really?」
「Nn. Thank you very much.」
Fran bowed to Gamud in an expression of gratitude.
At a glance, it seed that Gamud had only made the request because he wanted us to beat down his disciples in order to curb the extent of their arrogance, but it was actually more than just that. He wanted Fran to learn a similar lesson. It was as if he was indirectly telling her that he didn’t want to see her get conceited. He wanted to make sure she was aware that there were stronger fighters out there, and that she would die if she didn’t remain aware of her own limits.
She picked up on his intentions even though I hadn’t ntioned them to her, hence why she chose to respectfully thank him.
「I dunno why you’re thanking . You were the one that helped out, after all.」
The guildmaster turned his face away from her out of embarrassnt, an act that essentially verified his intentions.
「Nn. Still wanted to thank.」
「…You’re still young. You’ve got plenty of ti to grow, so don’t push yourself too hard, you hear?」
「Got it.」
Fran thanked Gamud one last ti and accepted the request’s payout before finally turning heel and leaving the Adventurers’ Guild.
『Alright. It’s finally ti for us to find ourselves a ship.』
「Nn. Search imdiately.」
「Woof!」
『You two sure seem pumped. Did sothing happen?』
「Tonight, curry. Io.」
「Woof.」
「Can’t be late. No matter what.」
「Ruff.」
Fran and Urushi looked at each other and nodded in perfect sync. It was almost as if their appetites had sohow allowed them to communicate while forgoing the need for words altogether.
They were motivated for all the wrong reasons, but I didn’t really mind so long as their attitudes would help us find a ship sooner rather than later. That said, I didn’t want us boarding anything too sketchy. We could always co back tomorrow if we didn’t manage to find anything decent by dinnerti.
「To harbour.」
『I hope we’ll actually be able to find sothing with the Beastkin Country’s crest on it.』
Finding one would make things more convenient because the Beast Lord had given us that one thing, but honestly, it didn’t matter too much. It seed that Fran, or rather, the Black Lightning Princess, had beco famous enough even in Barbra for us to get ourselves an escort job with ease.
I was more so concerned as to whether or not there would be any ships headed towards our destinations in the first place, and how big they were if they did actually exist.
Personally, I was hoping to board a larger ship, preferably sothing on the scale of an ocean liner. I wasn’t really all that confident in a smaller ship’s ability to make it all the way over to another continent.
While size was important, it wasn’t the only thing we had to take into consideration. We also had to consider the crew’s attitude. The Black Cat Tribe was apparently no longer being looked down upon by the country itself, but that didn’t necessarily an that all its citizens felt the sa way. There wasn’t really much of a point in boarding a ship whose crew consisted mainly of people that discriminated against Fran and her people. The captain’s attitude was of particular importance, as it would dictate the manner in which his crew operated.
「Nom nom. That ship?」
「Nom. Woof. Nom.」
Fran and Urushi were both fully aware that they were going to have curry for dinner tonight, but they still ended up choosing to chow down on a couple curry flavoured skewers as they looked around for a ship.
「Look.」
『Did you happen to see a really nice looking ship or sothing?』
「That. Looks tasty.」
『Oh. That’s what you ant.』
The catgirl slowly drifted towards a nearby stall, seemingly attracted by its scent. The dish being sold had quite the interesting appearance to it. They folded up a bunch of dough in a conical shape before slapping sothing that kinda looked like Qeema Curry with all its liquid drained on top. It was kinda like an ice cream cone, but made with curry instead.
Both my companions happily shoved the stuff down their throats instead of actively looking around. It kinda seed like I would have to take care of all the actual searching.
We spent a bit more ti in the port’s general vicinity as the two gluttons I was accompanying went around buying and eating whatever they pleased. During that ti, I managed to spot two different ships with the Beastkin’s Country’s crest, but I didn’t particularly want to board either of them.
My reasons were as follows: the first ship seed worn down and belonged to a really small company hoping to profit from international trade. All the crew mbers were relatively low level, and the sa went for their sailing-related skills. I didn’t feel like it was safe to board, in fact, I was more or less convinced that it was going to sink. The second ship was in much better shape, it looked prim and proper. The sa, however, couldn’t be said for its crew. They couldn’t be called decent regardless of how you looked at them. They weren’t really pirates just yet, but they were definitely getting there. We couldn’t trust them. Boarding their ship was clearly a terrible idea.
As we hadn’t found anything, we ended up wandering around the port for a bit longer, at which point in ti we were greeted by a male rchant.
「Hey there!」
「Nn?」
「Are you maybe looking to escort a ship?」
「How can tell?」
Though we were on guard at first, we soon ca to understand that our goal was fairly obvious to the average bystander. Most imdiately recognized Fran as the Black Lightning Princess because she happened to be a young Black Catkin girl with a wolf at her side. In other words, they recognized her as an adventurer instead of just your everyday average girl.
She’d very obviously been looking at the ships that happened to be around, so the rchant had put two and two together and ca to the conclusion that Fran needed to cross the sea. It was fairly typical for adventurers to take on escort missions in order to hitch rides, after all.
「That’s why I approached you. What do you think about escorting my ship?」
Hiring an adventurer as strong as the Black Lightning Princess would not only secure the man’s cargo, but also allow him to promote himself as a prestigious rchant. He sweetened up the deal by not only offering us a ride, but also a pretty decent reward along with it.
Though the offer was quite promising, we couldn’t take it without first sorting out a few facts.
「Destination?」
「We were planning to set sail for the continent of Reddina.」
「Can’t.」
The rchant looked quite disappointed, but ended up backing off shortly after Fran shook her head. I’d expected him to be a bit more persistent, but it seed he was the type that knew that getting on Fran’s bad side wasn’t that great of an idea.
He wasn’t the only rchant to speak to us. A few more tried asking us the sa thing, but unfortunately, none of them were headed to Chrom, the continent in which the Beastkin’s Country was located. Still, we kept looking around and didn’t give up. In the end, it took us about three hours looking to finally find a ship whose destination was in line with our own.
I didn’t know too much about ships myself, but, the bit of knowledge I’d managed to pick up from a certain pirate-thed manga told that the ship in question was probably a galleon. It had five masts, and was definitely one of the biggest ships moored at the harbour. It even had a Beastkin’s Country’s crest on it, naly one decorated with a crown, aning it was a ship that worked directly under the royal family. The sailors on board seed disciplined, but lively nonetheless, as laughter often bood from atop the ship’s deck — a sign that the environnt they worked in was at least decent. In other words, both the ship and its crew seed like the kind we could put our faith in. Moreover, they would probably accomodate us if they could because we had Royce’s ID card on hand, so I decided to try asking to see if they could let us on board.
『Hey Fran, how about checking that ship out?』
「Nn. Got it.」
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