Volume 4 Chapter 110 West Coast
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The signs of land had been there for days.
First came the seabirds. The crew got excited – proof that land was close.
Then the color of the ocean changed. I woke up one morning and looked out at the water: the deep blue-black transparency I was used to had turned a murky white.
Land still wasn’t visible, but the birds were thick enough to look like mountains in the sky.
And finally, fresh fish started appearing on the menu at the Dining Hall.
Everyone was watching the lookout posts, waiting for a report. We launched a reconnaissance drone, but the weather was bad – it didn’t give us anything useful.
The current slowed, too. We started drifting from east toward south-southeast.
Then, around midday on May 25th, Pole – one of the Deck Crew on lookout duty – spotted land. The news came up through the voice pipe to the Bridge.
Everyone who wasn’t busy rushed up on deck, straining to see eastward.
Soon enough, land appeared on the horizon. Shouts went up, people started jumping around. We’d finally crossed the Pacific Ocean. This world’s Pacific.
Several days of quiet rain kept our water barrels full.
Food held out better than expected. We had no meat, but we had plenty of dried fish – no one was going to starve. More than anything, the rice we’d gotten from Hojo was a lifesaver.
The real problem for the crew was the monotony – we had no major storms. Even Ms. Leakle, who’d sailed this route before, said she’d never heard of conditions this consistently calm. Thanks to that, everyone had gotten a little lazy, but watching them cheer at the sight of land, I figured they’d work hard once we actually had something to do. Probably.
As we approached the shore, the coastline stretched in an almost straight line north to south. As far as I could see, the land was dry and barren – some clusters of forest far in the distance, but mostly exposed, rocky earth with patches of brush up to head height.
”For now, we should hold off on going ashore.”
Ms. Leakle’s suggestion drew a chorus of boos.
I wanted to set foot on solid ground too. But most of the crew had been kept aboard ship back in the Land of Shura, so I couldn’t blame them for wanting off.
”That wasteland is full of venomous snakes. And more than that – there are packs of terror birds. Red Feathers.”
”Terror birds?”
”Red Feathers?”
Terror birds were flightless birds over two meters tall. Beaks like eagles’ – sharp enough to crush a human skull in one bite. Feet with hooked talons that could grab you around the chest.
Fast-moving, too. And smart.
They got their name from the distinctive red stripe along the feathers near their tail.
This time of year, they gathered in family groups and ate seals. But in winter, they formed huge flocks – and apparently they’d even attack wolves and bears descending from the mountains.
”Besides,” Ms. Leakle added, “even if you try to land from the beach, the seals will get in your way. It won’t be easy.”
No one believed her – until we brought the ship close to shore and saw that the beach, stretching for kilometers, was packed solid with seals.
A few days later, we saw Red Feathers attacking those seals.
The birds were chunkier than I’d expected from the stories – sturdier legs, stockier build. A group of five adults and three chicks? – they formed a hunting party.
Four adults raced down the beach. One of them pinned a seal that couldn’t get away in time, clamped its beak around the seal’s head, and crushed it instantly.
Two of the four made a kill. They dragged their prey back across the wasteland and fed alongside the chicks.
We continued south for a few more days. The terrain was still wasteland, but the vegetation changed – low shrubs now covered the ground almost completely.
The seals and Red Feathers were gone. In their place, apparently, lived another terror bird: the Snake-Eater.
According to Ms. Leakle, this one was solitary, not pack-hunting. Much sleeker than the Red Feather. Brown overall, with blue rings around the eyes and a long, yellow beak like an eagle’s.
It ate snakes, but its main diet seemed to be a strange animal about thirty centimeters tall – something between a dog and a horse.
People lived in this area too, but they didn’t share a language. The tribe was primitive, hunting and gathering only – even the Amazoness had no contact with them.
Ms. Leakle said we’d reach Nicaragua in about ten days.
She also mentioned an inlet along the way where freshwater sprang from a rocky cliff jutting into the sea. We weren’t short on drinking water, but the idea of fresh spring water – not rainwater – piqued my interest. We decided to resupply there.
We entered the inlet in the afternoon. The beach was sandy, and the cliff Ms. Leakle had described was on the southern side. The spring water arced into the sea like a stream of urine – parabolic.
We dropped anchor about fifty meters offshore. The Deck Crew took the boats in for the resupply.
”It’s got to taste better than rainwater, right?”
From the Bridge, I could see the resupply crew catching the falling spring water in their mouths and drinking greedily – not even filling the barrels first. One of the younger Bridge crew grumbled.
”Those guys are gonna get an earful when they come back.”
I was talking with Fredys, my section chief on the Bridge, when Tomoe pointed up at the cliff and said one word: “あそこ” – there. In Japanese.
”Are those… native kids?”
I said it in Schweilitz so everyone could understand.
About five meters above the sea, at the edge of the thin tree line on the cliff, two children in white clothing were looking our way. One looked like early elementary school age. The other looked younger – maybe four or five, not yet in preschool. They were holding hands. Kind of heartwarming.
Then Tomoe, without a word, suddenly turned and ran out of the Bridge.
What was that?
I watched her go, then looked back at the children. They were still there, staring at the Izumo – probably fascinated by the ship.
”Wait… isn’t that a Snake-Eater?”
Fredys’s voice had a nervous edge as she pointed about ten meters to the right of the children. There, a large bird with blue rings around its eyes was watching them, motionless.
”Snake-Eaters don’t eat people, right?”
Even as I said it, the creature began slowly advancing toward the two girls, its long neck bobbing its head back and forth. Its gaze was fixed on them – the look of a predator sizing up prey.
”Prepare the bow-mounted Shishi-odoshi.”
I gave the order to the Artillery Department on duty at the bow, but removing the cover and getting it ready would take a good three minutes.
Then Tomoe appeared on deck, bow in hand.
She was a master of the strongbow.
She’d handle this.
She nocked an arrow and let the first shot fly. It grazed the top of the creature’s yellow beak.
The Snake-Eater – whether from temper or irritation – turned toward us, opened its beak, and let out a harsh, cawing screech.
That cry finally alerted the young sisters to the monster’s presence. They tried to flee the other way – but the little one tripped and fell.
The Snake-Eater stopped its threat display and charged at the girls. It was less than three meters away.
The second arrow finally pierced the creature’s head. But it didn’t die immediately – it thrashed wildly, screaming at the top of its lungs.
The older girl, terrified, fell backward onto her rear. The younger one had almost gotten up but tumbled again. Still holding hands, both of them fell off the cliff into the sea.
And then the Snake-Eater fell in after them.
To make matters worse, the boat taking on water was struck by the falling terror bird and capsized. The Deck Crew men aboard were thrown into the water.
In the end, Tomoe finished off the Snake-Eater on the surface. The boat was recovered, the crew rescued – but now we had another problem: the two children.
We couldn’t just take them with us – we had to get them back to their parents.
Immediately, we launched a reconnaissance drone to search for the native settlement that should have been nearby – but from the air, nothing was visible.
So I went with Pamela, the Elf Mage, and performed a mind-reading.
We couldn’t understand their language, so we had to rely on images alone. Even so, we gathered that the girls’ family was in the middle of a seasonal migration. They had come to gather plants – probably medicinal herbs – and had approached the cliff out of curiosity after seeing the Izumo.
Their family seemed to consist of nine people: their parents, an older brother and his wife, the two sisters, and three other children. That night’s campsite appeared to be a rocky alcove about a kilometer beyond the cliff.
We launched the reconnaissance drone again. It found the place – two large boulders leaning together, with the remains of a campfire in the hollow beneath them. We flew it back and forth several times until dusk, but no one ever returned to that spot.
The girls had no images of what came next. Before this camp, they had apparently been at the coast gathering shellfish.
In the end, we kept the two crying children aboard that night. Naturally, the ship couldn’t leave.
The next morning, we launched three more reconnaissance drones to search for the parents.
About a kilometer south of the rocky campsite, we found a young man – maybe of coming-of-age age – dead, his stomach torn open.
If that dead man was their father, then the family had likely sensed danger and abandoned the sisters, moving on without them. In fact, none of the drones spotted any human figures all day.
”What do we do?”
I asked Roland and Fredys, the senior section chiefs. Both said we had no choice but to take them with us.
I asked Gida, the Maintenance Department chief. She shrugged and said – irresponsibly – to just leave them on the beach at the back of the inlet.
And then:
”Didn’t you know? Kids bounce back even without parents.”
Uh, no. Absolutely not. We couldn’t abandon two little sisters in a place where man-eating terror birds roamed.
I asked Ms. Leakle, who knew this region best. She also said to leave them behind.
Finally, I asked Tatyana, the Torpedo Department chief. She insisted we had a responsibility to raise them until they came of age.
That sounded reasonable.
But then came the question: who on the ship was actually going to raise them? And that’s where things got messy.
In the end, we decided to put the three Amazoness women – Ms. Kenze, Kamea, and Ms. Leakle – along with their own children, plus the servants Tete and Lamu, in charge of the two sisters. We moved them into the former Captain’s cabin and assigned them to care for the girls.
Incidentally, Kamea and Ms. Leakle’s children had only come out of the storage jars the day before and the day before that.
And thanks to all this, we ended up anchored in that inlet for another full day and night. The reason: most of the crew had insisted on going ashore, and they’d gotten their way.
While they were on land, fortunately, no terror birds appeared.
—
Summary:
The Izumo completes its Pacific crossing and reaches an unfamiliar, barren coastline, where Leakle warns of dangerous terror birds. The crew encounters two native sisters on a cliff, who are threatened by a Snake-Eater; Tomoe’s archery kills the bird, but the girls fall into the sea and are rescued. Unable to find their family, the crew faces a divisive debate over abandoning the orphans versus taking responsibility, ultimately assigning them to the Amazoness women and servants.
—
Trivia:
The ship is named Izumo.
Hojo is the source of the rice that sustained the crew.
Leakle has sailed this route before and is surprised by the lack of storms.
The Red Feather terror birds hunt in family groups and prey on seals.
The Snake-Eater is solitary, slender, and hunts a strange dog-horse-like creature.
The Amazoness have no contact with the local primitive tribe due to language barriers.
Nicaragua is the next major destination, approximately ten days away.
Tomoe is a strongbow master and acts on instinct to protect the children.
Ms. Pamela is an Elf Mage who performs mind-reading via images.
The dead young man found south of the campsite may have been the sisters’ father.
Kamea and Leakle’s children had just been born (or emerged from storage jars) recently.
Notes:
• Pole – Orphaned Celt soldier aboard Izumo, this youthful, enthusiastic deck crew member guides Earnest and protagonist. Proficient in Turku, he is loyal, gossipy aide who rows landing boat, leads marlin hunts, and caught large yellowfin tuna. Former gambler seeking first love’s freedom, he counts Rafaela as childhood friend. Fishing enthusiast, he draws comparisons between Amazoness beliefs and Valhalla.
• Hojo – An unsettling, aggressive male warrior from a fallen clan and ambassador/lord of the Land of Shura, this “Berserker” commands Imai and the Izumo. Dressed in sumo referee-inspired garb with a gauntlet, knee guards, and hip-mounted longsword, he has an intense, unblinking gaze. Linked to the Hojo clan, he speaks in imperious, clipped Kamakura-period Japanese. Driven by honor and trauma from his family’s slaughter, he views lethal violence as jest, yet shows restraint before outbursts.
• Ho – Ho is the family name of Oliver, a 17-year-old deck crew member and comrade of the protagonist. As a member of the military unit that defended Garao Village, the young man was ultimately murdered during a night watch, slaughtered alongside Marx-san.
• Leakle – Administrator-level Amazoness official at Viscount’s Palace in Oceanus. Wears administrative clothing. Fluent in Schweilitz, diplomatic interpreter and intermediary for Acting Captain’s crew. Speaks formally, analytically, with elegant restraint and calm superiority. Mother of children on ship. Next Administrator of Amazoness. Received transit permit from Queen of Oceanus. Reacts with alarm to Hole-Eaters, mobilizes for Larry-san. Provides clinical exposition on region’s history, politics, and Mexictli Kingdom’s child sacrifice. Diplomatic, apologetic, firm about not letting Izumo crew escape.
• Fee – Larry Fee Getys is a 15-year-old reincarnated youth and titular Duke. Pragmatic and telepathic, this sharp-eyed young man leads the Getys household and rules Strock Village alongside Hans, Iffens, Teressa, and their maid Nico. While building a new nation, he enjoys prime whale meat and maintains crucial connections to Adolf and various underground networks.
• Fredys – Battle-hardened former slave, Izumo deck crew foreman, pragmatic squad leader. Related to Ullmans, lives with Roland, loyal voice of reason to Acting Captain. Assumed command after Earnest’s capture; navigates Izumo to Luzon, oversees rescue ops post-Whale Eater attack. Left on standby with flee orders. Competent organizer, crisp command presence, noted preference for young boys. Asks clarifying questions about Amazoness operations and child sacrifice.
• Tomoe – Tall, strong warrior woman serving Hojo as attendant and watchman. Daughter of Higuchi, skilled with naginata and longbow. Maintains blank expression in battle, yet calm and deadly. Easily flustered by nudity, naive around men. Grows close to other women, aids protagonist with language, and holds deep ties to deceased Children. Shot terror bird’s head from fifty meters, claims can hit stationary target from two hundred. Clings to protagonist, doted on like child.
• Schweilitz – This kingdom, featuring towering academy spires and a full military arsenal of Royal Army troops, forces the protagonist to return. Ruled by a king involved in a hostage exchange, this political power holds a captive feared for execution. It also ordered the confirmation of Princess Rosa’s corpse, driving a scheme that the Queen has caught onto.
• Izumo – The iron-hulled primary vessel, named and personified as a character herself, who loyally carries the protagonist and his crew throughout their journey.
• Elf Mage – Elf mage and shut-in engineer who stands watch in the engine department, managing the ship’s boilers. They are highly reclusive, irritable, and fiercely resistant to any orders coming from the Torpedo Department.
• Pamela – A loli elf mage and the protagonist’s companion. Uses pseudo-archaic Japanese with playful undertones. Acts as the protagonist’s lover and telepathic partner. Mischievous and quick to play along with schemes. Carries magical abilities. Loli elf mage and Earnest’s master. Sharp-tongued and practical. Uses telepathy and mana techniques. Acts as Earnest’s caretaker and disciplinarian. Observes the provisions gathered. Reacts with disappointment to the estimated duration. Knows the protagonist’s usual cautious nature and expresses surprise at his boldness.
• Mage – Elf mage and shut-in engineer who stands watch in the engine department, managing the ship’s boilers. They are highly reclusive, irritable, and fiercely resistant to any orders coming from the Torpedo Department.
• Elf – A reclusive, middle-aged mage who lives as a shut-in aboard the ship, where he tends to the boilers. He uses his own conjured fireballs to generate heat for the vessel and maintains a keen interest in studying the properties of asphalt as a potential fuel source.
• Pam – An escort to the protagonist who is observant and loyal.
• Roland – Dwarf bridge squad leader, former ship captain, expert navigator. Telepathic, cautious, authoritative. Precision docking; prompts narrator for orders at Corra. Lives with Fredys and young boy. Implied gay, unmoved by allure. Steady pillar for team.
• Gida – The Izumo’s Maintenance Section Chief is an older, disheveled former finance bureaucrat on the Acting Captain’s crew. Pragmatic and outwardly insolent yet polite, she handles logistics—from transferring rescued women and seeking shore supplies to negotiating coal with Rao. Known for using skincare sesame oil, she clashes with Daran and initially resisted hiring Raphael.
• Tatyana – Department head ordered to deploy the artificial shishi-odoshi.
• Captain – The middle-aged commanding officer of the Izumo is outwardly calm, experienced, and traditional, masking a ruthless, pragmatic leader who prioritizes vessel survival over subordinates and civilians. While rarely reprimanding his men, he will execute deserters. Bebel reports directly to him, holding orders to return to Kure should the protagonist fail to return from their mission.
• Kamea – Amazoness crew member, former acting captain, knowledgeable navigator. Larry’s physical partner. Mother on ship, holds child. Speaks clumsy Schweilitz, communicates via Leakle. Brings rice, recommends green fruits. Unrelated to syphilis outbreak.
• Kenze – Kenze is a muscular, brown-skinned Amazoness and former Tashkurgan operative turned research student. Energetic and urgent, she wears gauntlet-like armor, has dragon tattoos, and fights with precision. Formerly bonded with Earnest, now a rebel leader on the Izumo, she rooms with Larry—whom she prioritizes—and cares for the weasel kid and her daughter Sinon. Deeply protective of children, she reacts with horror to child sacrifice. Impulsive actions escalated tensions toward war. Currently nursing an egg while declining in health.
• Lamu – Bought wet nurse who shows learned loyalty behavior. Looks young and shy. Follows the main character like a baby bird. Not a fighter. Body look not described.
• Tete – Bought wet nurse who shows learned loyalty behavior. Looks young and shy. Follows the main character like a baby bird. Not a fighter. Body look not described. Mentioned as being with Pamela. Likely a slave or friend.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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