Remina and Nentonia sat in Remina’s cabin, and had been engaging in small talk for a while before Remina finally asked the question she wanted to ask, which was how Nentonia and Kalaman met.

“I really don’t think it was anything special,” Nentonia said. “I was walking around town, trying to find a place to buy some equipment when he called out to me. We talked for a bit, then he asked if I wanted to join his party.”

“There has to be somethin’ more, right?” Remina pressed her for more information.

“I don’t know what else to tell you, that’s really all that happened.”

Remina didn’t think she was lying. It looked like she won’t be able to figure anything out from this, so she simply moved on. “Really? That’s interestin’. To be honest with you, I can’t understand why he’d be wantin’ to spend time with you, a total stranger. He doesn’t even wanna spend time with us!”

“Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizin’?” Remina laughed. “But anyways, you said you were keepin’ your distance from him, yeah? Why’s that?”

“It’s ... well, it’s complicated.”

“Do ya hate him?”

“No, of course not. It’s just that ... I don’t think it’s fine for the two of us to be around each other, that’s all.”

“How so?”

Nentonia simply hung her head in response. She probably didn’t feel comfortable opening up to Remina just yet.

But if Remina’s gut feeling was correct, then the next steps were obvious.

“Well, Kal’s tough and callous, for sure. Definitely not the kinda guy who’d look good next to a prim and proper lady such as yourself. But take it from me: I think you two match pretty well.”

“Match? I-I wonder about that...”

“Don’t be such a downer.” Remina slapped Nentonia’s shoulder, though her tiny frame meant it didn’t have that much force in it. “It’ll be fine! Let him talk to you every now and then. I think he could use a bit of socializin’ every now and then.”

“But—”

“Shush, shush!” She placed a finger on Nentonia’s lips. “Let me ask ya this: what do you think of Kal?”

Nentonia looked a bit surprised by her question. “I think he’s an admirable adventurer,” she replied, her words a bit muffled from Remina’s finger.

“I’m not interested in that drabble. I’m talking about what you think of him as a man.”

The cleric’s face got slightly redder and averted his eyes. “He’s ... alright.”

“Alright, eh?” Remina had a wide grin on her face.

“Rem, dear, where are you going with this?” Nentonia asked, slightly annoyed.

“Well, from what I can see, it seems that Kal’s got a crush on someone recently. I’m just tryin’ to get the two of ‘em together, that’s all!”

Stolen novel; please report.

Nentonia pushed Remina’s forehead away with her finger. “Stop with your jokes, please.”

Remina couldn’t get any more useful information out of her, but they spent the next hours conversing with each other about trivial things.

It was more enjoyable than she thought it’d be.

†

Remina’s been running around the ship a lot. She’s been doing it since the voyage began, and she’s been doing it often enough that most of the crew members don’t bat an eye when they see her. This put her in the perfect position to dig deeper into the ship’s secrets.

She’s been keeping an eye on the crew member’s positions and movements. Interestingly enough, she found that some members had ‘routes’ that they followed. They’d always be walking around a specific area and a specific time. They really didn’t do much of anything except keeping their eyes open. Almost as if they were on patrol. Strange, considering this was a merchant ship. Merchants usually didn’t follow such military-esque behavior.

Patrols such as these were indicative of one thing: the desire to keep one’s possessions safe. So, what did this all mean? Who were these merchants keeping their possessions safe from?

Wouldn’t it make sense to have the escorts you paid to protect you do these patrols?

And yet, the crewmen are doing the patrols themselves. Whatever it was they were protecting, it was important enough to them that they wouldn’t trust the escorts they hired around them.

That was all fine and good. Merchants should always value their possessions. But this all reeked of suspicion. The strange condition of the ship and the crew spelled something out of the ordinary.

Remina analyzed their patrol routes to try and see what it was they were hiding. There were plenty of dead ends; places that were being patrolled that had nothing of value in them.

But one place stood out to Remina, which was the bottom-most area of the ship. The patrols there were a bit tighter than usual.

Finding a way to investigate this area further was difficult. Unlike the rest of the crew, the patrolling crewmen were always keeping their eye out for her. Good call. Remina was everywhere, and they didn’t want her anywhere near whatever it was they were hiding.

But Remina had a few tricks up her sleeve. She was a bard that specialized in utility spells. In particular, she had a knack for learning illusion-based spells every now and then. A few visual tricks here and there, and she had the entire lower deck to herself.

It didn’t take her long to find a secret entrance inside one of the storage rooms. It was just a simple latch on the floor, obscured by dozens upon dozens of boxes filled with mundane cargo. Lifting the latch revealed a small, person-sized entrance to the lowermost deck of the ship.

Remina descended into the darkness, and saw what one would usually find in an orlop deck: ropes and cables. It was nothing out of the ordinary. But the moment she casted a light spell, things became a lot more interesting.

Hundreds upon hundreds of wooden crates, all gathered in this one place. Curious, Remina began to pry open some of the boxes.

A good amount of them held thousands of precious jewels. Gold, quartz, silver, diamonds, topazes, rubies ... gems and minerals of all kinds were inside. Even for a merchant ship, this amount was insane.

But the other half of the boxes were far more sinister.

They were filled with vials of dark purple liquid that had faint swirls of red inside them. Remina couldn’t mistake these potions even if she wanted to.

These were Magerot potions. Powerful poisons that were designed to target magic casters. If they were ingested by regular people, then they’d function as any old potent poison. However, if a mage were to ingest it, then it became a lot deadlier. The corpse they leave behind would begin emitting toxic gas that killed everyone in the vicinity. But what really made it stood out was its creation process.

The main ingredient for Magerot was a magic-caster’s organs. Livers, lungs, eyeballs, and the like. If it was inside a mage, then mana of extreme purity could be extracted from it. Hearts and brains were the most potent ingredients.

Their effects were dangerous, and their creation was monstrous, so much so that all nations outlawed it and seized almost every single one they could find. Most of the crates were filled to the brim with these abhorrent potions.

Remina’s eyes gazes upon the hundreds of creates that littered the orlop deck.

This ship was smuggling thousands of illegal potions.

The hero’s party was aiding criminals.

In Remina’s head, the second gear fit into place. A path that had long been closed off to her suddenly opened up.

And her heart sank.