Day five began with some damn good news. Apparently, two merfolk just happened to be in the area and helped us out. Scaly green skin, like a sea horse and no legs, also like a sea horse. Actually, they were just oversized sea horses with massive heads and eyes and arms. And they helped us out of the good of their hearts.
At least that’s what the staff told us, and the ship resumed its course. But when I’d snuck into the bottommost floor staffroom (they let me) for some random time pass session, they opened up. Long story short, the merfolk did return the magical device but only after getting a whopping 100 Gold as compensation. One round ticket on this ship cost 5 silvers, and it could transport about 100 people and some cargo at once; some of the first-class seats did cost maybe 8 or maybe even 9 silvers but that was it. So in theory, even if the cargo netted double money than the passengers, the ship owner or the crew rather, still lost a good chunk of their money. Yes, they lost money. Profit wasn’t even in the picture. And since they already charged people, they couldn’t really charge us again either.
So, suffice to say, the staff lounge was pretty much a morgue with how they were sighing and looking all dead.
Given how quickly they showed up- “Perhaps they took down the magical device themselves,” I said, trying to test out the water.
“But why not just take it away and sell it? I mean it’s worth at least 12 Stellers.”
Unbeknownst to me, there was an even higher currency than gold. Steller Coin. These were roughly equal to 100 gold but were not in circulation. In other words, they were place holder money used by the government in case they needed to reward some hero or warrior and they were lacking in the gold department. Of course, you could always just cash in from a high-born noble lord or maybe even the royal treasury if you were influential enough.
“Or they could wait a few years and keep doing this to you for generations,” I said. “Wait, does this happen often?”
“As a matter of fact, it does,” one of the sailors said. “Kid, what’s your name?”
“Sol.”
“Well Sol, I think you have a point.”
Most of the sailors were men and basically jacked. This guy, more than others. He looked like Alastur, just taller and with more flowy dreamy hair.
“Maybe,” I said. I wasn’t sure though. I mean, who wouldn’t want instant profit? “Wait, how long do merfolk live anyway?”
“200 years on average,” he said. “Some can live up to 500, or so I heard. This is my first time experiencing this but I heard my grandfather dealt with this twice during his time,” he sighed. “But what can we do? They’re a minority and if we did anything, they’d just say we’re discriminating and…”
“And the church would have their back,” I wondered aloud.
They just stared but didn’t say anything. One of them got up, stretched. “I’ll go sweep the deck.”
The rest followed suit. Apparently, our little conversation was too depressing.
The large man didn’t leave though. He just sat there, thinking. “I’ve heard this happen to other ships too.”
Pretty profitable business actually. 12 Steller coins was a lot of money. Even most mid rank nobles didn’t have that kind of money just lying around. So who would these merfolk sell to? Besides, if they were selling something so precious, they also ran the risk of being caught. So wasn’t it better to just take money offering the solution to a problem they created and just keep doing that? The money would be green, their reputation would be good rather than terrible, and they could just keep doing it to all ships while scheduling like a pro, so people would think this happened naturally.
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“Can you show me the device or how it works?” I hadn’t yet seen the magical device myself, so I was really curious.
“Sure.”
I wasn’t sure if he agreed because I was a kid, or because I helped him catch onto something so blatantly obvious but he didn’t really mind with showing me around. Incidentally the engine room- or rather, the device room as they liked to call it, happened to be next to the staff lounge.
We were at the center of the ship, at the very base and there was water here. A large hole of about eight centimeters across. And on top of that hole, a glowing black orb rested; barely the size of a baseball. It prevented the water from coming up, and oddly swirled a current, almost manipulating the whole ocean beneath it. All this time, I thought the magical device was merely forcing a water stream like an engine but no, it was forcing the water itself to- “Does this work if water didn’t touch it?” Technically it was floating over the water.
“No. It won’t work.”
No wonder they couldn’t just put it here and protect it with some sort of an encloser. “But does it work if you perhaps covered it up with a mesh of sorts?”
“What mesh?”
“I don’t know, let’s say you have a couple of tangled wire tangled in a specific way to prevent outsiders from grabbing it, and it would also prevent the orb from falling down and stuff.”
“I don’t think anyone has anything like that.”
“Then make it?”
He scratched the back of his head. “If only it were that easy.” He shrugged. “I already suspected as much you know. But no one listened to me. The crew didn’t even believe me till now.”
“So that’s why they were so uninterested when I brought it up.”
“Yeah.”
Figured. We proceeded to get out of the room and talk about the possibilities. Apparently, it was virtually impossible for the thing to just fall in water since it always floated. But sometimes it might decide to slip under the boat and that would instantly cause problems since most people weren’t stupid enough to jump into the ocean and even the few that were, wouldn’t be able to actually swim under the giant ship, find the missing orb that would be impossible to locate under water, and come back alive.
You’d think since this thing was so damn important the crew would keep at least someone here in this room, but no they didn’t. Mostly because the mana density or whatever in this room was so damn high, your body would rot from within… basically like radiation poisoning.
“Maybe we could try a cloth,” I said. “Assuming we’re wrong about the Merfolk, that should prevent the orb from falling down, right?”
“But sea water corrodes everything, so I doubt that’d last.”
And even if the sea didn’t, this thing would. Given long enough, this thing would corrode virtually everything. Even these reinforced wooden planks. Which did make me question the safety of Magical Devices but this guy was kind enough to tell me, most magical devices weren’t dangerous that. keyword, that.
“True that.” While talking, we’d climbed the stairs and made it back to the deck. Lively and bright. Midday! “Don’t you have work to get back to?”
“Not really. I’m free.”
“Really?” Meanwhile every other member of the staff I’d seen so far were pretty much working their asses.
Witnessing my utter confusion the man smiled, decked his hat and showed me those crooked teeth; I wish he hadn’t. “Captain Ayne Vorn. Master of the Dectorn.”
Dectorn was the ship’s name. And he was the captain. I hadn’t seen him the entire journey so far and it only made sense concerning the guy was a lazy ass who did nothing. Wait, wait, I shouldn’t have been that quick to judge him. I had seen him at least once or twice before, surely-
“But it only happens in a few years though, right?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then I don’t see why you should worry,” I said. But then I realized, things never really go according to plan. Sometimes a monster might attack. Other times, the ship might break down, a sailor might just die. Or maybe the mercenaries might ask for greater compensation. And oh yeah, I hadn’t even that into account; money was money and a net loss was definitely a pain. “Forget I said that. Kind of hard to imagine sea fares aren’t astronomical when you consider all additional costs,” I said.
“No, you’re right. I’m just making a big deal out of it. A hundred gold is nothing to sneeze at, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s hardly a dent in our pocket.” He chuckled but then abruptly stopped. “Sea fares?” He snorted. “My boy, even pricing the fare at 5 silvers isn’t doing it these days. You have more and more ships popping up and prices just keep going down and down.”
But wasn’t that a good thing? “Well, you still seem to be doing pretty well,” I said. I mean, he didn’t have a single empty room on his ship. He perked his nose with pride. “That means, you’re really rich, right Mr. Ayne.”
“Pretty much.”
“Well, be sure to treat me to a luxurious lunch sometimes,” I said.
“And why would I do that?”
“I don’t know, maybe because we get along so nicely and I’m getting kind of hungry?”
He laughed, he laughed really loud. “Sure, but it’ll be one of the cheaper options.”
Heh, a free meal was a free meal.