GC V8C228

(228) A week’s voyage passes in the blink of the eye

Translator: Tseirp

 

A fragrant smell spread across the ship.

Coming from takoyaki — or rather, grilled octopus arms. As one might expect, it would be impossible to haul that huge body onto the ship so only a single arm was cut off and the remainder was left to sink into the ocean.

Suzuki performed the last attack so I didn’t gain any experience points. We did form a party but we disbanded it after I had my job changed.

It was a fruitless victory.

“Here, shoyu.”

I handed shoyu to Suzuki.

“Thank you, Kusunoki-kun. Uwah, it’s been a long time since I smelled this scent.”

“It’s meant to be lightly salted so don’t put too much.”

“Yup, I’m from a family of doctors so I at least understand the daily recommended intake of salt.”

He sure is proud of it, I thought to myself as we proceeded to eat the Kraken arms.

It was a little bland but still tasty nonetheless.

It had been grilled sufficiently so there shouldn’t be any worry of parasites … I mean, even if there were parasites resilient to heat, they could be cured by just using Cure.

“Are you guys not eating?”

I still needed to pretend to be comrades.

I asked everyone who was surrounding and looking at us from a distance — but nobody came over.

Oi oi, even though it’s just a single arm, we can’t finish it with just the two of us so there’s no need to be polite.

What dreary people.

“It can’t be helped, Kusunoki-kun. Around these parts, it’s said that octopus is the Devil’s minion. Let alone the Kraken that has sunk countless ships which, to the seafarer, is the Devil itself so to speak. They would never imagine eating something like that.”

Ah, I recall that in the West, outside the Mediterranean coastal area, not many people eat octopus and squid, right? I heard that they are called devil fishes and most people avoid them. Their disgusting appearance might play a role but the reason seemed to be because, in the Old Testament, fish without fins and scales are said to be abominations.

I believe the fact that the people in the West don’t regularly eat my favorite unagi was because of that descriptor too.

After all, unagi appears to be scale-less fish too. Well, unagi actually has scales under their skin so it should be fine to eat them even if one follows the Old Testament.

“Could I have some?”

It was Pavlov who asked.

“I’ll have some too.”

And the former guard Death Warrior.

Leaving aside Pavlov, I was surprised that the great master would come over.

“Sure, we have plenty.”

It was quite uncomfortable to be surrounded by people.

Hah, even though I wanted to ask about many things. Well, I’ll just ask Suzuki.

“Hey, Suzuki. What kind of place is the island we’re heading to for the exchange?”

“It’s called Deijima Island.”

“Deijima?”

It sounds like Japan’s Dejima Island.

Suzuki gave a wry grin when he saw my face contort. He was probably having the same thoughts.

According to Suzuki, Deijima Island was located within the territory of a great country on the Southern Continent.

There were towns along the coast on the north and south side of the island. It was about the size of Awaji Island (592km²/228 sq mi) but the Eastern side was a desert while the central region had towering mountains so the hospitable areas were limited. In addition, there was a labyrinth inside the desert so there were many adventurers too.

“It is an island governed by Earl Paul — ”

Suzuki explained.

He taught me details like Earl Paul’s past, the composition of his family and his personality.

Speaking of aristocrats, there was the incident with Oregeru so I felt that it would be a little troublesome but going by what I heard, he didn’t seem to be a bad person.

Well, Oregeru was not a bad person either.

“Master Suzuki is very knowledgeable regarding Deijima. Did you investigate it on your own?”

“Ahaha, it takes one to know one. I asked a professional to gather information from behind the scenes.”

Great Master Death Warrior showed a doubtful expression when Suzuki replied with a smile.

Does this guy perhaps suspect that Suzuki and I are enemies of this smuggling ring?

” … Octopus has a strange taste … it’s like eating clay.”

It seemed like Pavlov wasn’t fond of octopus.

Great Master Death Warrior took the grilled octopus skewer but wasn’t eating much. As expected, his aim was not the octopus but to probe us.

We can’t let our guards down around this man.

 

A week has passed since the start of the voyage.

It was hard to say that the voyage was going very well. Since I was quite free.

There was no way of knowing if nobody was watching me so I could not go to My World either. Only Sheena No.3 and Pionia were left in My World but I wonder if they were getting along fine? Those two are similar in some ways so I felt that it would be okay.

I thought of helping with the voyage but Suzuki warned that if I helped the smuggling crew and became friendly with them, it would be difficult for me when we have to fight them.

He was right so in the end, I passed time by fishing.

Before coming here, I raised my Farmer level by harvesting tomatoes and such so my Fisherman job had not had the time to bloom.

Now that I’m at sea, I guess I’ll raise my Fisherman level.

Even with 400 times growth speed, a week of fishing was equivalent to seven years so — it grew to Level 8 but I gained all kinds of strange skills.

「Match」 which sounded like it was a skill that could be used outside of fishing and the 「Thread Manipulation」 skill which sounded like I could become a good puppeteer.

Well, they would probably be useful for something.

In terms of happening events, there was one huge happening event.

Even though it has only been a week, the smuggling crew’s body odor was terrible. Although it didn’t reach the level of Pavlov when we first met him, it was as smelly as Kendo practitioners who had trained in full equipment continuously for five hours.

If I don’t apply Clean on them, I would be the first to die.

Just as I had that thought.

“I see the island.”

A loud cry came from the lookout post.

An island from here? — Oh, I see it.

Rather than the island, it was more like the tip of the mountain on the island.

That’s Deijima — the exchange of these guys (the smuggling crew) would begin there.

 

Author’s note:

Apologies for the late update, the currently in sale 6th volume had a large branching point so I’ve been adjusting the story and decided to finish writing the 7th volume so that the Web novel and 8th volume can link up.

 

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