I've missed the sea. It's good to be moving again. I enjoy Marrow, even despite the trouble a few days back, I liked being home.

But truly this is my home. The open sea with the wind at our back. Well, okay technically now the wind is at our face but you understand my meaning.

I should mention Excalibur, my home, has changed a bit again.

Triff is apparently never done with upgrades once she gets an idea in her mind. And now with the benefit of having a highly skilled construction crew to order around in Marrow, her vision seems to have evolved quickly.

The mast is gone now, aerodynamics are necessary after all. We could use a variation on Aqua's staff to erect a mast if we ever need to rely on the wind, but for the most part, now we ran off two colossal squid core's I fished from the trench. The Abyssal core is used now entirely for fine steering as well as running pure water throughout the ship.

Apparently, Aquarou taught Triff a method of adjusting core output, and the Abyssal's core apparently could maintain a higher pressure which is necessary for plumbing.

And yes, the girls insisted on adding a bath. Apparently, this was a result of the talk had after the bank event.

But it's not just the top deck and magic tool that has changed, the exterior has a few odd looking additions as well. Although they looked odd to everyone but me and Triff. The boat now has proper hydrofoils, four of them. Two every fifty feet along the long slender boat.

Now that we have picked up some speed everyone on the shielded deck is very clear on the purpose of the fins. Although some seem confused as to why the technology works.

Admittedly it is somewhat terrifying for our entire boat to be floating above the water as opposed to in it. But the wood and metal skis seem to be working perfectly, and I have fairly good steering so I'm not too worried yet.

"Good work Triff." I raise a hand for a high-five and she responds accordingly.

"It's nothing, it was all Captain's idea." She says smiling and turning her attention back to the rough water around the hydrofoils.

"Well, I didn't invent the concept. Hell, I barely even told you about it, I just gave you the book. I didn't expect this much out of it."

The book I mention is 'History of Shipbuilding.' a poorly titled but apparently fairly comprehensive book I found deep in the merchant menu. It's an earth book. Why it exists in my menu is beyond me but I suppose it's not the strangest thing in my menu's.

The book goes so far as to mention the development of nuclear submarines but I don't foresee that being a problem. What's Triff going to do, develop nuclear fission?

"I don't like not having a high place though. This is difficult. Half of me wants to return to the elven forest as soon as possible, but the other half wants to be high." El says from the top of the railing on the command deck.

"Well raising the mast would be a problem at this speed." Well technically it would make us incapable of going this speed but that's too complicated to explain. "But we will be raising it when we get near populated ports. So just be patient."

"Muhhh. Alright, but I get to stand on it when you're raising it."

"Triff is that safe?" I ask unwilling to lose another member to this magic tool design.

"This version is much slower. It is extremely stable. Cole could probably break a mountain with it if he needed to without a single dent to the outer shell." Triff says attempting to assure me of its safety.

But really? Could I use the mast as a weapon? Isn't that a little extreme? And wouldn't it break the boat?

Triff nods to the silence as if listening to my nonvocal questions. "You see it was actually designed to be used as both a mast or makeshift weapon for Captain. It comes out really easily. You should try!"

"I see. Well, we will climb that bridge when we come to it. We just got up to speed so let's try to make some good distance before shutting down."

But really that's actually kind of smart. I have no long range physical attack. I suppose if push ever comes to shove I can just beat an Abyssal over the head with the mast.

Not that we are constantly being attacked. In fact, for the most part, we only notice the beasts long after they are behind us. I try to scope their corpses into storage but sometimes I am out of range.

Well, there really isn't much money in magic cores anyway.

I would have never thought I'd say that six months ago. Back when a few hundred gold was a massive wealth.

I make nearly ten times that now, on a bad day. My conglomerate is coming along perfectly.

Yes, I have indeed heard the name dubbed for my ventures.

Honestly, it's genius. I could have never thought of it myself. I might adopt it officially.

We have a fairly straight shot to our first destination. Yellow sands. We are bypassing most of the villages by cutting directly through the deep water of the bay. I thought of stopping in Ikin to evaluate the possibility of expanding towards it but Karlie said to leave expansion to her.

I suppose I will trust it to her. She hasn't let me down yet. But I am now giving her quite a bit more money to invest.

I hope she doesn't go overboard.

"Hey Clove," I say turning to the strangely quite princess who watched the water from the corner of the deck.

"Hmm?" She asks absently.

"Everything ok?" I ask handing the controls over to Rou.

"Do you hate me, Cole?" She asks finally turning her emotions back on and looking at me with drooping eyes.

"What?! No of course not. What's this about?"

"I was…" She begins before catching her breath and beginning again. "My actions at the Gala... reflecting on it now, they were selfish, weren't they? I am sorry, I should have asked you first before I began my plan. But it was such short notice, and the timing was so perfect that…"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I don't hate you. And I don't even mind about that anymore. Though at the time I was a little upset you hadn't spoken to me about it first. But what made you think I hate you?"

"You almost didn't ask for my hand. And you did it merely as an afterthought." Clove says lowering her head and dropping a tear.

"I am sorry. Honestly, at the time I was the same as you, a plan came together in my mind and I went with it. You are right though, I should have been more conscientious."

"You really don't hate me?" She asks turning back to me with tear-filled eyes.  

"No, I love you Clove. You are sometimes selfish but I appreciate that honestly, so often it is only me making moves, you force me into situations but often they help me in the long run."

She still seems hesitant at my words so I grip her face tightly and plant a kiss on her lips. It was only light but her face was completely different after.

"You…" She says gripping at her lips with a finger.

"What plan, Captain?" El asks, overhearing the conversation despite the heavy wind.

"Well, it's a worst case scenario type thing. But either way, it's not a bad idea to have some land under our control." I explain with a shrug.

"A demon lair we can return to?" El asks with a devious grin.

"Well not exactly, but sure, something like that."

~ ~

"So there is something that needs to be discussed," I say putting on my most serious of faces.

A few smirks from around the group seems to indicate I still have some burger on my face so I wipe my mouth carefully and start again.

"Ahem… As I was saying. I am sure it is something you all noticed, the room has become crowded. The large bed in Marrow was a luxury that we now lack."

"But…"

"Yeah! What are you saying?" Rou asks with turnt eyebrows.

"I think it will be a good idea in the long run. Everyone will sleep in their rooms, and a schedule will be decided for sleeping in my room. I think having alone time with you all will bring us closer." I explain, doing my best to calm the reluctant group.

Honestly, I was reluctant too, but I know this will be a good idea. It is often difficult to find times to speak with each of them alone. I think this space will bring us closer, I am willing to try.

Admittedly this is the opposite of the advice I got from Damien's book. But thinking about it, he did fail. So why should I take his advice?

There was some reluctance expressed by Mirna and Alice but they eventually came to agreement.

Now they argue about the schedule. It seems Rou and Aqua want to combine their days so they can sleep with me two times. For some reason, i feel like that's cheating, so I denied them. Oddly they still agreed to combine their days.

That's dangerous. I didn't really think Theo was being serious. Perhaps it gave the sisters a bad idea.

The schedule was being argued about when I noticed some guests on the deck.

I crouch down near Mirna and point while whispering to her. "Are you planning to eat that?"

"Ah, birds!" Mirna shouts noticing the place her second burger patty and bun sits.

Three long beaked birds are peaking at the bread carefully. One turns its attention to the patty and quickly scoops it into the pouch under its beak.

"Pelicans," I explain watching them carelessly. Mirna didn't seem too upset over the loss so I would watch for now.

Oh! The one who found the burger is being attacked by the other two. The patty is dropped back on the deck and the battle began. The three birds caw loudly at each other while they peck at the deck with their long beaks.

One sprints into another knocking them both down like bowling pins. The third takes the opportunity and runs for the burger. One of the downed ones, noticing the fast break extends a beak tripping the running one. It leaps up over the fallen one and triumphantly opens its mouth to grab the patty.

"Oh!" El says, apparently noticing the wings above the near-victory's head.

The bird is smashed to the ground and the burger loosely topples from its mouth directly off the deck.

The three birds look around at each other and then around the deck. They carefully walk over to the railing and glance below. A small, happy, fish swims away casually. The birds again look at each other and drop their heads in disappointment.

"Oy. Here you go, you three. Good show." I say holding back laughter and tossing each of the three birds a small chunk of meat.

The each caw in turn, before devouring the meat and happily sitting down on the deck.

"Can we keep them?" Mirna asks looking at me with a wide grin. "I'll feed them and walk them and…"

"Well, they are wild creatures, Mirna. If they want to follow us its fine, but I don't want to hold them prisoner."

The birds watch the two of us talk carefully. They are likely waiting for me to give them more food. Greedy sea squirrels…

"They need names Mirna!" El says from beside us.

"Oh! You're right. Hmmm…" Mirna contemplates it with a finger to her cheek. "Ye, Bu, and La"

Oh, that was quick. But where did those names come from?

"Ah, I see," El says nodding to the pelicans who continue to watch us from seated on the deck. "So he's Ye, that one is Bu, and she is La?"

"Right right!" Mirna says nodding to El with a grin.

"I… I don't get it," I admit lowering my head to the proud two.

"Look closely Captain. See, that one has yellow fuzz near his head. That one has blue…"

"And the last one?"

"It's clearly lavender."

I suppose lavender does work better than purple.

The birds absently bend their heads as if nodding to the names. It my imagination though right? They can't understand what we are saying.

Of course not.

Mirna happily ran over and began petting the birds who didn't seem too disturbed by the action so I went off to watch the view for awhile.

It's always something.