Jenkins and Magic Miss weren't the only ones searching for the steam cannons. In fact, when they reached ground level, they discovered that the area around the ceremony was suddenly teeming with Enchanters from the Orthodox Churches.
To avoid them, the two had no choice but to blend in with the fleeing citizens, letting the throng carry them away from the Dock Area. In a way, it was a good thing; it ant that neither Jenkins nor Magic Miss had to play the hero and save the city. The Church had already made its preparations.
"So, do we take this chance to get out of here, or do we stick to the plan and find Femishue?"
Jenkins asked the woman beside him. Squeezed together in the crowd to avoid being separated, they were practically walking shoulder-to-shoulder. Chocolate was perched on Jenkins's head; his tall stature made the cat the only creature with a clear view above the sea of panicked faces.
"We're going after Femishue, of course!"
Magic Miss's answer didn't surprise Jenkins. As she spoke, she painstakingly retrieved a small tube rolled from hard brown paper, slipped it over her right index finger, and raised her hand, pointing the tube at the sky.
"Bang~"
She mimicked the sound with her mouth.
Bang!
A ball of red fire shot into the sky and burst into a brilliant firework, easily visible for several streets even in the dayti.
It was Magic Miss's signal to the huntress. What she hadn't expected was that within half a minute of her firework exploding, seven or eight more shot into the air, one after another, turning the chaotic event into a genuine celebration.
"Are those also yours... No, they can't be. Did you tell the huntress what shape your signal firework would be?"
The other fireworks had also been red.
"I just said red, not a specific shape... It's fine. As long as she sees it. It doesn't matter whose signal she sees."
With that, she grabbed Jenkins and forcibly pulled him from the crowd. Without a second thought for their surroundings, she dragged him in a direction away from the panicked mob.
The vicinity had descended into utter chaos. Jenkins couldn't tell if sothing else had happened out on the water, but after he heard the sixth cannon blast, another series of booms echoed from the direction of the sea.
"Are those naval cannons? Have the n on the warships lost their minds? Are they going to fire on the shore?"
Magic Miss asked, stunned.
Her guess was wrong. The warships' cannons were aid at the sea. When the two of them erged from a warehouse and back onto the street, they saw that there were more than just two ships on the water now.
Ignoring the smaller, scattered boats, Jenkins could count a total of five large vessels. Two were warships, but the other three flew the skull and crossbones.
In his original world, that flag ant pirates. In this world, it also ant pirates. Jenkins was certain that if his late friend Li Qian had also transmigrated, the flag would have ant pirates in his world, too.
"What's the aning of this? I thought Femishue's rabble was planning to attack the citizens directly! Where did they get three ships?"
Jenkins yelled at Magic Miss. The air was filled with screams and gunfire, forcing him to raise his voice.
"How should I know? This whole thing has been wrong from the start! Even that victory in the Broken Isles campaign felt questionable!"
She shouted back at him with equal volu, but her voice was imdiately drowned out by an explosion from a nearby warehouse. Goodness knew what had been stored in there; if not a warehouse full of gunpowder, then most likely one full of flammable lumber.
Jenkins's eyes were constantly scanning for any sign of Femishue. Having lost his high vantage point, he had to put on his monocle to barely make out the pirate king's aura. He remained in the basent of that low building, unmoving. With their target's location confird, the two moved with clear purpose.
Their journey took them through an active gunfight. They encountered a group of strange, masked individuals at a warehouse entrance, and both parties tacitly sidestepped each other. As they passed the burning lumber, Jenkins even took a detour to rescue a flower girl, who was frozen with fear, and carried her to safety before rejoining Magic Miss.
"I never knew you were such a good person."
Magic Miss teased.
"I've always been this good,"
Jenkins said nonchalantly, then casually pulled her aside as a bizarre procession carrying a coffin rushed past them toward the pier.
"Who on earth are all these people? That coffin looked empty."
"Those were followers of the pseudo-god known as 'The Pallbearer.' They're an obscure lot who like to compete with the followers of the Church of Death and End for funeral business. Sotis they just show up in strange places, waiting for a custor. Or they'll walk up to a rich man, tell him when he's going to die, and after he gets angry, they'll leave their contact information and a hefty price, waiting for the family to call... I suppose they've found themselves a big client this ti."
Magic Miss explained as she led Jenkins onward. They weren't the only ones darting through the alleys, so while their behavior was strange, they didn't stand out in the general chaos.
When they finally reached the low building, they found a firefight raging around it. The pirates had seized the nearby high ground and were exchanging fire with at least three different factions. So were the huntress's people, which was part of the plan, but her aura was nowhere to be found. Jenkins didn't recognize the others, but he was fairly certain at least one group consisted of foreign spies, judging by their facial features.
"What's our move?"
The main entrance was out of the question. The path was blocked by barricades and patches of ground slick with burning oil. A direct assault would just make them moving targets for everyone.
"That building has a back door," Magic Miss said. "It's been blocked off, but I know another way to get there—one that even Miss Windsor doesn't know about. She's not the only one who keeps an ace up her sleeve."
She led Jenkins around the battlefield and into another unassuming low building nearby. From its basent, they navigated a secret passage that erged in the pirates' backyard.
As Magic Miss lifted a wooden panel disguised as a patch of turf, Chocolate, still underground, twitched his ears and looked up, his eyes gleaming.
"Did you hear a strange sound?"
Magic Miss asked as she was the first to climb out.
"A strange sound?"
Jenkins climbed out of the passage after her and listened carefully.
"It sounds like ocean waves... We're so far from the coast. How could we be hearing waves?"
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