Most of us were gathered at Emilia’s cabin, looking down at the table that had a map spread out on it.
While I had a map that showed the entire World, this one looked like it only showed the seas in the southern part of the World.
Odeta wasn’t here as she was up on the quarterdeck steering the ship, the Amrap being the only one amongst us aside from Emilia who has experience in handling a ship.
The Sirens however, were here more to learn about the World than to comment on our route.
Emilia pointed to a position on the map that was nothing but water, “I estimate our current position to be around here as I remember my ship was in this area before we were thrown overboard. Unfortunately the island is unmarked on the map so what I’m going by right now would be purely just estimates.”
“We’re still going to Edart Trade City right?” I asked.
She nodded, “Oh yes, but we will need to make a stopover at Sitnalta Union first. We need to sell off the Grey Powder we have and that’s also the best place for us to drop it off.”
“Eh? What’s so special about that place? Is Grey Powder not outlawed there?”
“Ohohoho~ It most definitely is! On paper that is~” She laughed.
“Ah… I get it… The government there is corrupted or something?”
She wagged her finger at me, “On the contrary, the government is pretty much fine there, except that it’s run by pirates. That place is literally a pirate haven.”
All of us blinked at her in confusion.
Emilia turned to face the Siren girls in particular, “Before that, I have to make sure of something. Do you remember your home at all? I’m talking about the home that you were snatched from, not the island that we had just left.”
The girls looked at Cherith since she was the only one who could even remember seeing their kidnappers amongst them.
She shook her head, “Unfortunately not… I do not even remember who our real parents were…”
Allure nodded, “Even our current names were picked out by ourselves from reading books. If we had a name before this, we do not know what it was.”
That’s actually pretty depressing…
Wait… Doesn’t that mean…
I widened my eyes at Cherith, “Do you mean you’ve raised everyone by yourself?”
She tilted her head, “I suppose that is one way to put it. I am the big sister after all, isn’t that what they do?”
The big sister and not the mother huh? I think it’s really a miracle that they even survived this long on their own without any help. How young were they when they were left there?
Cherith then turned to Delmare and patted her head, “I didn’t do it alone though, since Delmare also helped as well. Sometimes it makes me think that she’s the big sister here.”
The pink haired Siren blushed, “S… Stop it sister Cherith… You’re embarrassing me…”
Diona tried to shift the conversation back on track, “Why are you asking?”
Emilia seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before looking back at us, “Ah. That’s because the Sitnalta Union is a place where the population is primarily Merfolk you see.”
Ephyra gasped, “Does that mean we came from there?”
The Nekomata shook her head, “That’s what I thought at first… But now that I think about it, it’s not possible for you all to have come from there. If a group of young Sirens like you were taken, there would definitely be an uproar over there and everyone would know about the event. I’m quite sure you were all taken from a small, unmarked settlement somewhere instead.”
I looked at them carefully, “Do you want to find your parents?”
The girls looked at each other for a moment and a consensus seemed to have been reached between them just from that.
Cherith turned back to me, “To say that we were not curious about our real home would be a lie… But there’s also the fact that we don’t really hold much knowledge or affection for them from the start, so it doesn’t really matter whether we find them or not.”
I blinked at them, feeling rather surprised by their response.
Delmare giggled, “There’s no need to be so surprised, Aster. We’ve lived our whole lives thinking that we would never be able to get out of the island. We don’t have a habit of letting the past weigh us down, especially when it’s something out of our control.”
Allure also flashed a smile at me, “That’s why we don’t hesitate and just live our lives in the moment Aster~ It’s much better that way~”
I can’t say that I agree with their mentality a hundred percent but I can see why they would feel this way.
They have been stuck at the same place and saw the same unchanging scenery for years. To keep themselves from focusing on how dreary their life was, especially when they had nothing to keep track of the time, they simply chose to live in the present instead of worrying about either the past or the future.
I cleared my throat, “Ahem… Right… So I guess we can get back to the main question… Why are we heading to Sitnalta Union to sell the Grey Powder?”
Emilia grinned, “As I had mentioned, the place is made up of primarily Merfolk. In the early years, ships would pass by the area to resupply from the islands which upset the Merfolk as they were basically walking into their home to take what they wanted. They tried to retaliate by capturing the ships and forcing the people to pay a hefty price for invading them. And guess what? They realised how profitable it was to board ships and threaten people to pay them~”
“And they started to resort to piracy?” Ephyra guessed.
The Nekomata nodded, “Fufu~ That’s right. They started raiding ships on their own and they became a pirate nation. Smuggling, gambling, and raiding are amongst the things that they would do.”
“Then wouldn’t we be in danger as well?” I pointed out.
“Oh, they don’t just blindly raid everyone of course. They still need to sell their stolen loot right? So there are merchants and other pirates that would do business with them. The merchants would have special flags they would fly when approaching the pirates while almost all pirates are welcome to their ports.”
“Almost all?”
“Not all pirates like other pirates of course, so there’s bound to be conflicts between rival factions and such. But I do believe this group we took over should at least be on friendly terms with the pirates of Sitnalta Union so that we can just sail right into their ports. Which actually brings up our next problem…”
“What is it?”𝑂𝗏𝓁xt.𝒸𝗈𝗆
Emilia gestured around her, “This is a pirate ship. The only flags we have to fly are pirate colours… Which means we’re all pirates right now~”
“Umm… That’s bad…”
The Nekomata looked at me like I had just said something ridiculous, “Bad? What do you mean bad? This is perfect! We can go around raiding people as well and rob them of their money and cargo! Then we can dump this ship and all the blame will be on the pirate group we killed back at the island! This is beyond perfect in fact!!”
“Wouldn’t… Wouldn’t our faces be recognised?”
“That’s why we’re going to disguise ourselves of course! We’re each going to have a big makeover! That means you, Lady Aster! No more of those fancy dresses of yours! Those aren’t piratey enough!”
But… But I like my dresses…
“Couldn’t we just not use a flag?” I asked.
Emilia looked at me seriously, “Lady Aster… That’s one of the ways that you can piss off God Yokmii… And not flying a flag would also prompt both pirates and non-pirates to target us so that’s a really bad idea.”
Delmare gasped, “Does that mean we’re all going to dress up?!”
Emilia nodded, “There’s some extra clothes around the ship so we can just find some that fit us I suppose. I’m not good with tailoring though.”
Ephyra raised her hand shyly, “I… I can sew… I made all the clothes for us… Back on the island…”
Ah… This might be a bit late but I didn’t really pay attention to what the Sirens were wearing at first.
They were basically wearing what could be classified as bikinis with a short pareo wrapped around their waist, hiding the part where their tail would connect to their torso.
I honestly thought those were picked up from amongst the things that would drift ashore on their island but if Ephyra made them herself, then that’s really impressive.
Emilia grinned, “In that case, could I leave it to you to make outfits for all of us? We’ll need to hide our faces too once we start raiding ships!”
“Ye… Yes! I’ll start on them tonight!”
Oh wow, she’s actually serious about the raiding thing…
Well alright then… I did not choose the pirate life, the pirate life chose me I guess.