Volume 4 Chapter 13 Seasickness
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The cruiser “Izumo” left the small bay with the shipyard, pointed its bow north-northwest, and stopped the turbines. From here, we would sail to the Norden Sea.
”Good work, everyone.”
I thanked my subordinates as the departure ceremony ended without trouble.
Katarina’s flight team was already taking apart their Amber fixed-wing drone, separating the main body from the wings to store them in protective cases.
”Is flying a twin-engine plane really that hard?”
I asked the flight team. Katarina gave a wry smile, and another girl said, “It ain’t impossible, but it sure is tricky.” Katarina said she treated golems like extensions of herself, but for others, handling two propellers felt like trying to walk two golems at the same time.
”It’s not that hard once you get used to it.”
Katarina says that, but she’s just naturally talented. With a twin-engine setup, you can fly through strong winds and rocket up to a thousand meters in seconds. That makes for great wide-area reconnaissance. The real problem is that, aside from me, only Katarina and the captured Rosa are actually good pilots.
”Well then, Section Chief, once we’re done cleaning up, we’ll do our morning training with the artillery team and then go back to normal duties.”
I had decided the Torpedo Section needed to stay active. If you don’t move on this cramped ship, your body and legs go weak.
”Understood. Give it your best.”
I was about to leave for a meeting on the bridge when—
”Aren’t you going to join us, Section Chief?”
Someone spoke up with a sharp tone. Don’t invite me to something so boring.
”I’ll join you guys later,” I said, brushing it off and turning to leave.
”The only exercise the Section Chief gets is in bed, anyway.”
Sigh. That voice—it was Sergeant Hebel, who had come back with us from Larland. I looked back and saw not just her, but several others wearing dirty, knowing grins.
So much for the feelings from the departure ceremony.
This is why I can’t stand female Mages.
”You lot. Give me one hundred push-ups.”
They’ll call it tyranny, call it power harassment. But in the military, an officer’s order is absolute. They have to listen, at least this once.
Muttering about how Hebel had opened her big mouth, Katarina and the others dropped down to start their push-ups.
This ship’s bridge isn’t high up. You enter the forecastle from the deck. There’s a storage area with ropes, sails, repair tools, a Coilgun launcher, various weapons like harpoons, waterproof cloaks coated in whale oil, and coal tar for stopping rust on the hull. Just opening the door hits you with a strong, sharp smell. You climb a narrow, steep staircase from there to the bridge.
Behind the bridge, there’s also an outside staircase. There’s a staircase going down from the storage area. If you go down from there, you can reach the stern, where the Dining Hall and living quarters are. Toward the bow, there’s also a storage and repair area for the fixed-wing drone, and a carefully managed storage room for dynamite and Coilgun cartridges.
”Torpedo Section Chief reporting.”
At the top of the stairs, I stood at attention and saluted. On the bridge were the Captain, one of the bridge crew, and the deck crew chief, Sergeant Freydis Ullman. They were all gathered around a sea chart spread out on a table.
The deck crew chief is a woman. She’s not very tall, and I’d say she’s well into middle age. At first, I worried whether she could manage the deck crew, which had over ten big men. But she gives off a scent very much like Louise and Isabella. She once served on a state-of-the-art three-masted sailing ship of this time.
”Chief Larry, the route is changing, so listen closely.”
The Captain spoke to me, and I joined the group looking at the chart.
The planned route was to ride the northward current and sail along the west coast of the Jutland Peninsula for half a day. Then use the engines to head west for a day. Then ride the current along the east coast of the Albion Isles for another half day southward. Finally, use the engines to cross the strait between the Great Albion Island and the continent.
The current in the Norden Sea comes from the Western Ocean, flows south along the east coast of the Albion Isles, heads east north of the continent, travels north along the Jutland Peninsula, and passes the west coast of Great Norden Island before going back to the Western Ocean. To compare with Earth, it’s like part of the Gulf Stream going into the North Sea, flowing south past the east of England, and then moving past the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Norway before returning to the Atlantic. The only difference is that the connected Saihites Sea (the Baltic Sea) isn’t closed but connects to the Arctic Sea. That causes slightly different movements, but it doesn’t matter right now.
”The weather isn’t good. It’s going to get rough starting this evening. If we get too close to Jutland, the wind will push us, and we could run aground. So once we leave the bay, we’ll cut straight across the current and head for the center of the Norden Sea.”
Well, if there’s a storm, pirates probably won’t come out. That means the Torpedo Section is off duty. Still, the rule is that one person from the flight team and one from the artillery team must always be on watch on the bridge and at the stern. Other than that, there’s nothing to do. We just wait.
Unlike the other sections, the Torpedo Section uses a three-shift rotation: three hours of work, then six hours of rest. This makes a twenty-seven-hour cycle, so the duty hours shift by three hours each time.
I set it up this way because if we used an eight-hour, three-shift rotation, everyone would run out of Mana from being tired. Then they’d be useless. Of course, that might change if we end up in a battle. But that’s how I’ve decided to handle normal ship duties.
While we were talking about how herring catches are high this year and there probably won’t be many pirates, it turned noon.
This marked the start of normal duties. Katarina and Tatyana, the two flight team leaders on duty, headed up to the bridge. So I went to the Dining Hall with the Captain.
The Dining Hall is in the sterncastle at the back of the ship. I could have gone across the deck. But I thought the deck crew would be working on furling the sails. So I went through the ship’s interior. I went down two levels from the bridge and headed straight for the sterncastle.
I passed the stairs and opened the back door. There was a large room for the men, with hammocks hanging on the left and right for the enlisted soldiers. Since the waves were calm, the iron windows were open. I passed through there. The ceiling was open, and cows, goats, and chickens were kept there.
I hadn’t designed this part. Looking closer, it seemed the roof was made to close in case of rain.
Past the livestock area is the officers’ living space. There are private rooms for the section chiefs, including the Captain and me. The shared rooms for the non-commissioned officers are on the floor below. Going up the stairs on the opposite side leads to the Dining Hall.
The windows are made the same as those on the bridge.
The windows are from my navel to above my head.
All the windows open outward from the bottom. They’re triple-layered. If you lift the first one, it becomes a lattice. The next one covers the bottom two-thirds. There’s about a meter of overhang above the window. So unless the wind and snow are very bad, it won’t get inside. It doesn’t help with the cold, though. If you lift the last one, it closes completely. But there’s a round hole fitted with the shed skins of Ice Snow Spiders. That lets you check the outside.
You can see the rear from the bridge. But to make sure the rear area is checked, I have two people from the Torpedo Section on duty there.
Since they stand watch in the Dining Hall, the area is busy during the lunch hour. I feel a bit sorry for them.
”Bridge here, to rear: any issues? Over.”
It’s less than fifty meters in a straight line to the bridge. But the voice from the voice pipe was clearly heard at the table. I had only ever seen Dola use it on the pirate ship in Laputa. But it was more useful than I had imagined.
”Sterncastle here, to bridge: no ship silhouettes. No issues. Oh, and the Captain and the Torpedo Section Chief are in the room. Over.”
I hadn’t known this. But there’s a rule to report to the bridge whenever high-ranking ship officers are in the Dining Hall.
”What will you do now?”
After the meal, the Captain asked.
”Inventory of the dynamite, I guess. The Maintenance Section Chief gets pretty annoying about that.”
I told him with a feeling of giving up. The Captain gave a wry smile and left. I planned to go and thank the two subordinates doing their duty while everyone else was eating. But my path was blocked by a deck crewman who looked like a troublemaker. He was about the same age as Larry’s current body.
”Hey, Section Chief. Send some women our way, won’t you? You’ve got plenty, right?”
I had figured there would be people like this. A thin blue line on his hat, with two stars on the front. He was a Private First Class of the deck crew. Not even the lowest rank, a Private Second Class—is this guy sane?
”Let us touch some women’s tits, too.”
Another Private First Class from the deck crew stepped out.
”In that case, why don’t you try touching your own section chief’s? She’s got a good pair, doesn’t she?”
”Then how about this—trade your flight team leader for our crew chief.”
The first guy brought his face very close.
”Then go ask the Captain for that.”
”What are you talking about? I’m talking to you, man.”
Ah, the intimidation is weak. If he had at least Hans-niisan’s presence, I might have felt a bit scared.
Sigh. “Are you maggots growing in your brain?”
I couldn’t help but take the bait.
”The hell you say?”
He grabbed me by the collar. In situations like this, you grab their face to keep them away. You crouch down. You make them stretch the right hand holding your collar. You grab their hand from above to lock the joint. Then you kick them in the stomach to roll them over. But these cheap tricks often cause resentment.
”You bastard.”
The other troublemaker swung a punch. Even if you swing your fist like that, it won’t hit. It would be strong if it connected, though. I lowered my posture to dodge it. With my palm, I thrust upward from the lower right to the left of his chin.
Fists are surprisingly easy to hurt. You can break your finger bones or tear a tendon. If you’re going to hit an opponent, use your palm or the side of your hand. That’s what Hans-niisan taught me when I was a brat. He tapped me on the head with his fist while saying it.
The man whose wrist I had just locked picked up a chair. It would hurt if he brought it down on my head. So I slipped into his guard. I grabbed the hand holding the chair. At the right moment, I gave a headbutt to his face.
One more time.
This is exactly why the Captain says that no matter how much you train in close-quarters fighting, it’s useless.
I won!
I looked around. The whole deck crew was standing and glaring at me. And I had gone to the trouble of using bare hands, too.
I couldn’t help it. Without saying “You got a problem?”, I stared back at them with that kind of look. Then a man in his mid-twenties with a fairly strong build came up.
”Section Chief.”
He showed no signs of attacking.
”Paul and Oliver were just teasing you a bit. Isn’t that going too far?”
”And that’s after I went easy on them?”
Hearing my voice, the man bristled with killing intent.
”What are you doing!”
Before I knew it, the female deck crew chief had come into the Dining Hall. Thanks to that, the hostile atmosphere died down. But it seemed I had made enemies of the deck crew.
I thought about how I had gotten myself into trouble on the very first day of the voyage. But what’s done is done.
For the record, I flatly told the deck crew chief that we had just been getting some light exercise. Hitting an officer can be a capital crime, depending on the situation. I figured no one would want to go that far.
Just in case, I told my subordinates that if they got into a fight with the deck crew and hands started flying, they should immediately drain their Mana to knock them unconscious.
From that evening on, the swells grew larger, and the ship began to rock.
When I went into the corridor where the officers’ rooms were, the Maintenance Section Chief was crawling on the floor, throwing up. Seeing that and smelling the vomit, I started throwing up too.
The Captain saw this and ordered the deck crew to clean up the vomit. The ones who arrived were Paul and Oliver, the men I had roughed up in the Dining Hall earlier.
”How pathetic.”
”We won’t be able to win even if the enemy comes at us like this.”
They kept making cruel remarks. Even so, they pulled up seawater and used mops to wash the corridor.
I spent a while out on the deck, throwing up everything I could toward the sea. When I couldn’t even bring up stomach acid anymore, I rinsed my mouth with the rainwater on the deck and went back to my room.
When I lay down on the bed, I felt tired and sick. Then the rocking got even worse.
I could hear the turbine sounds. They were probably heading into the wind. There wasn’t much rolling, but the pitching was brutal. Even lying in bed, I felt like I was on a roller coaster. My insides were lifted up and then pressed down. Sometimes it felt like I was being thrown out of bed.
By the middle of the night, I was actually thrown out of bed.
The rocking continued until morning. It was so bad that I felt I would be better off just jumping into the sea.
”Let me off,” I thought. I headed to the bridge to seriously ask the Captain to let me off. Then the bells began to ring violently.
”Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”
A crewman shouted and ran past me toward the stern.
”You’ve got to be kidding me, in this miserable state?”
I hurried up to the bridge. The Captain, and both the bridge and deck crew chiefs, were already there.
”There are four longboats chasing us from the rear. What will you do, Torpedo Section Chief?”
The Captain asked. I looked. Four wooden longboats, over twenty meters long, were rowing hard to catch up with this ship. Because the wind was blowing from the direction we were heading, this ship couldn’t build up much speed. We would be caught soon.
”Let’s not use the dynamite. If they come alongside us, let’s crush them with the hull.”
”Are you sure about that? With four longboats, there could be a hundred enemy soldiers.”
That means some might manage to get on board even if we crush their boats.
”How many can move?”
I asked the girl on duty.
”I don’t think anyone can fly the fixed-wing drone.”
Well, I figured as much.
”Can you fire the Coilgun?”
”If that’s all that’s needed, there are four of us.”
Since they can handle Mana, even the flight team can fire the Coilgun. It looks like it might work.
I can probably fly the fixed-wing drone. So I’ll scout the enemies first and give instructions. I told the Captain that, and we immediately moved to action.
Notes:
• Katarina – A 30-year-old former Chief Researcher and drone expert, this tall, stunning squad leader has long, slender limbs and an assertive personality. Once the protagonist’s intimate subordinate who still spends nights clinging to him, she now serves as Earnest’s telepathic attendant after being expelled by Pauman. Despite an explosion-triggered instability, she recently decided to marry her partner, Larry.
• Amber – An object or entity that receives mana infusion from Pamela, serving as a vital source of Mana to power the Golems.
• Rosa – A 14-year-old, square-built Sabaski shipyard professor of noble half-Dwarf descent, this cynical genius has immense mana and psychopathic tendencies. A wealthy Kure associate and drone pilot, she profited from the protagonist’s blueprints to design the ship’s piping and Bohemian glass propulsion before being kidnapped by the Amazoness, deemed a state danger, and targeted for assassination.
• Larland – A fallen kingdom, marked by its royal lineage of eight distinct princesses, has reemerged as a ruthless invading force. Driven by the loss of their homeland, these royal heirs now lead an aggressive campaign that threatens the entire region, turning former neighbors into desperate targets as they fight to reclaim power.
• Sig – A student and friend of Marie characterized by a casual and uninhibited personality, often seen yawning during academic discussions. Has short brown hair from the Holstein territory. She is blunt, realistic about the nature of war, and failed the entrance exam at the Sabaski Magic School.
• Ullman – The family name carried by Torge and Ursula. The lineage is associated with the amber trade and processing in the northern coastal regions.
• Isabella – A towering, scarred Royal Army Lieutenant in her late thirties, this jet-black-uniformed master spear-fighter is a kind noble VIP who led the Weasels of Bohemia mercenary group. A pragmatic platoon commander alongside Thomas, she is linked to rumors with the protagonist, acts as Marie’s escorting aunt (who is pregnant with his child), and treats Ange like a granddaughter.
• Louise – A tall, rugged Jutland-born former Mage Lieutenant of the 101st Golem Battalion, she now serves as a school principal and shipbuilding manager. Sporting short red hair and a guard-like build, she pilots a Type 95 Golem. Despite a past miscarriage, she is the mother of the protagonist’s son and is currently pregnant with his child. Their complex connection remains a subject of local rumor.
• Larry – Sammy I (Larry-sama) is a 16-year-old bald, dark-haired Grand Duke, Second Lieutenant, and Engine Department Head nursing a broken rib. Reincarnated from a professor across multiple lifetimes, this serious, flustered naval officer uses tech, mana, and telepathy to design ships and dynamite. Frequently underestimated, he maintains heavy influence through his four wives and children.
• Al – Alberto (Al), a massive red‑haired man recently wed to Mary, lives near the Dish Basin. He’s a companion of Hans, helping intimidate and rally elders as a villager and leader.
• Mana – A non-commissioned officer and liaison who previously had their mana drained by Larry.
• Tatyana – A playful yet composed 31-year-old human female, Royal Magic Academy Assistant Professor, and divorced mother of two from Viscount Bizan. Intimately involved with Katarina, this protagonist’s associate synchronizes with Golems in combat and guides students. She respects veteran grannies and links with a former 101 Golems Battalion member leading the Artillery Squad.
• Hans – Rugged, 2m, 100kg Obernbach ruffian and Kessler estate heir, this pragmatic, harsh Strock Village Head manages stability and protects the narrator’s family. A charismatic leader struggling with emotional control, he clashed with Niko but deeply cares for his subordinates. He is a new father to twin girls and a devoted older brother figure who aggressively grabs Larry upon his return.
• Paul – A man in his mid-thirties, Paul is a roommate of Larry and is assigned to acquire shipbuilding technology at the camp.
• Ho – Ho, a comrade of the protagonist. A member of the military unit that defended Garao Village and was slaughtered alongside Marx-san.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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