16 – I brought in a small potted plant(6)
Floor door that goes down the deck.
Marco opened the door and Toby threw a luminary into it.
The luminous body rolled down the stairs, illuminating the surroundings, then disappearing into the darkness.
“For now, there is nothing on the stairs.”
“Let’s go down. I go first.”
With Einer at the head, the crew lined up and went down the stairs.
The creak of the old wooden steps was quite depressing.
“Ugh… The smell…”
Standing on the floor, Kira frowned and covered her nose and mouth.
A terrible stench emanated from under the deck.
It was the body odor of someone who had not washed for a long time.
As with all ships, Dézere’s galley was even worse.
It’s because the place is full of rowing slaves.
The crew has experience in quarantine of Desser’s ships before.
When I’m in quarantine, I search all the way down to the deck, and when I do, I see slaves in chains sitting in rows with lifeless expressions.
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But now it was so dark that I couldn’t see anything.
“Float all the lights.”
I lightly flung the luminous bodies from my shoulders into the air, and they floated like fireflies, illuminating the surroundings.
“Huh?! What?”
Toby exclaimed in amazement at the sight revealed under the glow of the luminaries.
Aren’t all the oarsmen and slaves sitting in two rows collapsed or prostrated on the oars?
“Are you sleeping?”
“Hey!”
Marco tried to shake the slave nearby, but the slave didn’t wake up and collapsed to the side.
“What is this?!”
“Not dead.”
Dan Ryan said, getting down on one knee and placing his hand around the slave’s neck.
“It’s hard to say that he’s sleeping because he’s tired…”
Toby looked around inside, scratching his head.
It is strange that all of the slaves, two rows on each side, totaling close to sixty, are like this.
“Captain! I’m here too!”
Kira squatted next to the man who had fallen to the floor and shouted.
Looking at his attire, he seemed to be a slave master or an officer of a navigator.
The person was still alive, but unconscious.
“What the hell happened? Does it make sense to faint as a group?”
“Maybe it was carrying a dangerous cargo.”
Ryan looked at the fallen people with cold eyes.
“There are a lot of pharmacists in Dessere. If something harmful leaks out of one of the drugs they handle, that could happen. What do you think, chief?”
What Ryan said made sense.
Einer pondered for a while before deciding to go upstairs again.
Only five people could not get the shackled slaves and sailors out.
And as Ryan said, if something leaks, we can’t guarantee the crew’s safety.
“Let’s go up. Inform the management office of the situation and provide support to the security forces…”
Einer stopped talking and met Ryan’s eyes.
“Did you hear?”
“Yes.”
What Einer’s ears caught was the thin voice of a woman.
The voice seemed to come from below the oarsman’s quarters, from the galley’s hold.
By the way, the voice of a woman on the ship?
Dezere Empire is an extremely conservative country, and women are never allowed to board ships.
Even if they are slaves to be sold, only males are selected.
Did I hear that wrong?
“What?! I heard it!”
Kira opened her eyes wide, and Marco and Toby turned their heads in the direction of the sound.
I didn’t hear that wrong.
“I think you’re asking for help?”
“I’m the only conscious person on the ship right now, so maybe I can get some information.”
The crew quickly approached the floor door where the voice came from.
The closer you got, the clearer the voice became.
“This is something…”
Toby tilted her head and turned to Kira.
“Isn’t that like a song?”
“What are you talking about, idiot. You’re not in a situation to sing right now.”
“That’s true, but no matter how many times I listen to it, it sounds like a song…”
Einer didn’t just listen to Toby’s words.
Certainly, Einer was also feeling that the sound coming out now was a little different from a normal call for help.
“Then I’ll open it.”
“Wait a minute, Marco!”
However, Marco had already opened the floor door, and the clear singing voice of a beautiful woman could be heard from inside.
“It’s a real song!”
Toby looked at Kira as if to look at it, and she let out a silly laugh at Kira’s absurdity.
“Is there a song in this situation?”
The song was very sad and gloomy, and even bizarre at first glance.
Einer knows that song.
So, instead of confirming the owner of the song, he shouted while grabbing the members’ shoulders.
“Shut up everyone! Get up on deck now!”
“Eh? What?”
“Go up! Don’t listen to the song! Go up quickly!”
Einer grabbed Toby and Kira by the collar and pushed them roughly towards the stairs.
“Captain? What’s going on?”
“Go upstairs, boys!”
I don’t know the English language, but after realizing that something was serious, the crew hurriedly covered their ears and tried to climb the stairs.
“Oops! Toby! What’s wrong?!”
Suddenly, Toby fell limply and Kira patted him on the back.
“Wake up! What are you doing…”
As Kira also fell on Toby’s back, Einer cursed at the remaining two.
“Marco! Ryan! Follow me! Leave them alone!”
Einer and the other members jumped over Toby and Kira, who collapsed on top of each other, and flew up the stairs.
But Marco seemed to have been struck by the dull thud from behind.
“Ryan! Are you following me?!”
Einer, who had climbed up to the deck, looked back, but he saw that no one had followed him.
All that followed was that strange song in the cargo hold.
Einer, realizing that his vision was gradually blurring, stumbled and closed the bottom door of the deck.
“Mr. Malia…!”
Holding on to his fading consciousness, Ainor leaned on the deck railing and called for the wizard.
“Mr. Einer! What is it! What happened?!”
“Cantovera is inside the ship…!”
“What, what?!”
“Go to my house quickly… The demons there…”
After saying that, Ainor fell to the floor and passed out.
* * * * *
The sun slowly rose and began to dissipate the thick haze of dawn.
At that time, Ael was standing in his kitchen scolding him for his stupidity and gluttony.
This morning, Ael got up before the master and prepared breakfast.
I made delicious toast by properly combining the ingredients in the kitchen, and it was a success to pass one into the owner’s mouth.
After that, Ael also ‘simple’ breakfast with leftover toast.
No problem so far.
It was an appropriate behavior for a slave to give to his master and eat the leftovers.
But if that’s how you ate five toasts, it’ll be a different story from there.
She had just eaten her fifth toast and she was sucking her finger in satisfaction when Ael noticed that she had used up most of the ingredients left on her shelf.
“Stupid b*tch! Pig b*tch!”
Ael blamed herself while pinching her cheek.
“What if I eat it just because it’s delicious! I can’t help my master, but I shouldn’t become an insectivore!”
Ael, who had been pinching her cheeks for a long time, finally gave up on self-injury and prepared to go out.
To go to the market to buy things for the master to eat tonight.
Ael, carrying a small leather bag he found in the storage room on the second floor yesterday, changed his mind about putting money in it.
It’s in trouble if your whole bag is pickpocketed.
With a silver coin deep in his pants pocket, Ael ran to the living room without opening the front door.
Standing in front of a full-length mirror in the corner of the living room, Ael rummaged through his hair to make sure that his horns were not visible.
My master said that since many races come here to Daham, it wouldn’t be a problem for demons to wander around.
But there might be some people who are harmed by the Demon King’s Army.
So always pay attention to your words and actions and don’t stand out in the slightest.
I can’t see the horns and my clothes are pumped up.
Okay. It’s okay. From the outside, she looks like a stupid, dull human woman.
After turning her body around, Ael finally opened the door and left the house.
“Hey!”
Ael, who was just locking her door, noticed people running towards her from below her.
It was a woman in a black robe and several men dressed in neat blue and white outfits.
Those clothes are port management office uniforms… Is the woman in the black robe a wizard?
Suddenly, Ael remembered seeing that woman at the scene where the market building collapsed.
I gasped for breath after the security guards dispatched to the scene.
Are you here to catch me?!
As soon as he thought about that, Ael hurriedly went back into the house and locked the door.
“Hey! Open the door!”
The woman slams the door and she screams a terrified Ael.
“I-I didn’t do anything! I’m a slave officially purchased by the owner of Einer!”
“Oh, what are you talking about! Hurry up and open the door! The owner is in trouble!”
Malia, the sorceress knocking on the door, almost collapsed in front of her when the door suddenly opened.
It really would have been if the administration officials standing behind her hadn’t grabbed her robes.
“Lord, what happened to you, Master?!”
As Ael asked with her lips quivering, Malia’s gaze moved over Ael’s head.
What, no horns?
“Are you a demon?”
“No, that’s right…”
Ael fumbled and parted her hair, revealing a cross-section of a short-cropped horn inside.
Malia confirmed that it was the demon Einer mentioned, and grabbed Ael’s wrist.
“Einer was beaten by Cantovera.”
“Huh!? Cantobera!? Why is that here?”
“Let’s go first.”
Ael ran to the pier following Malia and her management staff.