CH 88

Ch. 88: Retrieving Luggage

Kurasuke: [Whoa~ this ones so big~]

Kurasuke peeked into the latest corf we built and wriggled his triangular body with delight.

The salmon-like fish is so far the biggest fish we have.

“When winter comes, the bigger migratory fish will come up from the southern sea. When that happens, let’s catch a few and start raising them too.”

Luke: “Bigger ones? Then we’d better get bigger and sturdier corfs than the ones here.”

If it’s just one, we don’t have to rush to build it.

Wait, it’ll probably be a pain to do it during winter. We should get it done while the waters are still warmer.

Kumi: [Mr. Luke, thank you for doing so much for my son.]

Luke: “This is nothing, Kumi. Don’t worry about it.”

Kumi: [Um, there is something I wanted to ask…]

Kumi had half her body rising out of the water, and in one of her arms, she carried something wooden.

I wonder what it is?” Kumi: [I found this at the bottom of the sea. It must be cargo from one of the ships I attacked.”

Luke: “Oh! Could it be from the Rotonoa Merchant’s gift to us? Can you show me?” We went to the docks, and Kumi brought over the wooden object she recovered.

It was a western style drawer that was covered in small barnacles.

Luke: “Hmmm……if I use my Alchemy BOX, I could fix it, but I wouldn't be able to place something this big inside.”

Kumi: [Shall we discard it?]

Eri: “Sir Luke, maybe one of the wood craftsmen could disassemble it? Oh, I mean with physical tools and not like your Magic.”

Luke: “Disassemble? Oh! I see. They could pull out the nails and take them apart piece by piece.”

Princess Aires nodded and smiled at my realization.

It would be like those restoration shows with a before and after photo.

Okay then.

Luke: “Kumi, if you can, can you go find other lost cargo similar to this one?” Kumi: “Yes. Kurasuke, come help your mother too.”

Kurasuke: “Yes, momma~”

Kumi carried the larger cargo, and Kurasuke helped with the smaller ones. The dock was now flooded with cargo they brought out of the sea.

We placed as much as we could in the wagon that was carrying the nets, and we moved the rest onto a ship that was docked.

Luke: “Tomorrow, we’ll come back with 3 wagons.”

Eri: “Will 3 be enough?” Sia: “There’s only 3 though~”

Yeah, that’s right.

“Baron, I believe we will need more in the future. Could you use your Alchemy to make a few more wagons?” “There have also been requests to begin taking the materials gathered from the Dungeon and sell them at Port Aurier.”

Luke: “Yeah, that’s right. They wanted to wait until they had sufficient amounts stored up before shipping it across seas.”

We brought back some of the furniture back to town and asked any wood craftsmen that were free to begin disassembling it.

I went over to the surplus wood supplies and made wagons.

With the previous 3 in the count, we have a total of 10. I think that would be enough?

<<<<>>>>

On Tristan Island, there are a total of 20 Knights residing here.

Chateldon told me that this was the bare minimum number I needed to protect a territory.

But well, I also have the Adventurers residing here too, so as far as protecting the island, there should be little concern.

In the first place, on this island, we have an Ancient Dragon, Gonzo, whose race is revered as the creators of the world, and in the ocean, we have Kumi, the Kraken.

No idiot would even think about attacking this island.

But the Knights’ main duties on this island were intervening in drunken fights between Adventurers and helping with the construction.

But each one also brought an impressive horse.

Brookhart: “Baron…….I understand that we have a lot of availability in our schedule, but could you please consider purchasing horses for pulling wagons?”

Luke: “Ohー.....yeah. When the ship from Aurier arrives, I’ll ask the Captain to relay that message back.”

Brookhart: “Why not just look for some on this island?” Though Brookhart said so, are there really horses on this island?” The 5 wagons arrived at the shore.

But it was chaos that awaited them.

How did things end up this way?

On the docks and in all the nearby areas neighboring it, there were small mountains of things stacked everywhere.

Is this……….all the lost cargo?

As they neared the docks, a sailor greeted them. He was in the middle of rummaging through all the stuff there.

Luke: “Good morning. How did we get so much cargo?” “Oh, Sir Governor. Good morning, sir. This is…….well, oh, there’s Kumi right there. You can ask her.”

Luke: “Kumi?”

The sailor pointed southward, and looking that way, I saw Kumi swimming this way.

Kumi: [Good morning, Mr. Luke. Here is all the cargo.”

Luke: “All…..? Wait, how far did you go to pick these up?!”

Kumi: [Oh, to the area where we first met you, Mr. Luke. And I also brought the cargo from other ships I destroyed along the way.]

She was not talking just about Rotonoa's merchant ship, but other ships she deemed as threatening her son and the cargo they carried.

But she limited her selection to things that still were in mostly one piece and left the broken cargo behind.

Luke: “Kumi, would you be able to tell me where you found each of these things?” Kumi: [Yes. I have relayed that information to that sailor over there.”

“That’s why I’m sorting through these thingsー. Thought if it was the governor, you’ll want to know which cargo belonged to which merchants.”

Luke: “That’s great! That would be immensely helpful. If we know where we picked up the cargo, then we can determine from which ship the cargo came from.”

We can put those cargo inside the former Pirates’ hideout. It would at least be able to escape from the rain.

Well, not that they can get any wetter at this point.

I asked the sailor to transport the cargo, and we had to fill up 3 of the wagons here.

I may need to bring the 5 other wagons after lunch…..

Kumi: [Oh, there seems to be a ship heading this way.]

Luke: “Hm?” Kumi glanced towards the sea as she gazed into the distance.

A ship…….? There’s nothing on the schedule today though.

Kumi: [It’s quite a large vessel.]

Luke: “It’s big?”

Kumi: [I will go check it out. If it’s a pirate ship, what shall we do?]

A pirate ship, huh. …….it’s hard to think that there’s that many pirates around butーー

Luke: “If they are a threat to the island or if they try to attack us, you can dispose of them.”

Kumi: [Understood.]

And she quickly sank below the surface of the water.