Thankfully, I did not need to spar with everyone in the end as Ardi shouted for them to get back to work.
Odeta kept pouting at her sister though, “Not fair! Why can’t I spar with sister Aster?!”
Ardi crossed her arms, “Are you going to go all out against her?”
“Of course I am! Otherwise it would be meaningless, wouldn’t it?”
“And what are you going to do if you wreck my ship?”
“Who cares?!”
Sister Ardi went ahead to smack the younger Amrap on the head, “I do you dumb little sister! You never know when to hold back!”
“Waaahhh!! Sister Aster!! Elder sister is bullying me!!”
I definitely did not expect to see the six foot tall Odeta come crying to me like that after getting scolded by Ardi. She even lowered herself to hug my waist while crying into my bosom.
I had to pat her head and make consoling noises at her.
I did my best to ignore the stares from Emilia and Delmare who were watching the entire scene from the side.
Ardi sighed but decided not to argue and instead, went back to watch over her crew, giving Odeta one last warning not to spar with me before leaving.
The Nekomata and the Siren came up to us, making a pointed effort to ignore Odeta who was still hugging me and making crying noises.
“Is she really your sister, Lady Aster? Aren’t you a Meslatar?” Delmare asked curiously.
I’m surprised she only asked this question now and not when we first met. I guess she thought that Odeta was just using that title as a term for endearment or something.
I gave her a wry smile, “That is true. Umm… You could say they adopted me basically… It’s their culture, I think?”
“Could I be your sister too, Aster?”
Odeta suddenly extracted herself from me, “No! Never! Sister Aster can only have me as her sister!”
Delmare pouted at her, “Why not?”
“Because I say so!”
The two of them started glaring at each other while Emilia took that opportunity to approach me.
“Ahem… Lady Aster, were you satisfied with the sweets?”
I gasped, “Oh yes I am! They’re all great! Thank you!”
“Mmm, that’s good. I was afraid that what I got was not up to your liking, that would have been embarrassing for me.”
“Ehehe~ They were all really good~ I liked them all~”
The Nekomata nodded in satisfaction at my answer, as though it was the one she was hoping to hear the most.
She then pranced away to the lower decks, leaving me to deal with the two girls who were still hissing at each other.
It was a rather comical sight since Odeta towered over Delmare, especially since the Siren was lying on the ground and barely reached up to Odeta’s knees.
I decided I should just leave them be and went towards the ship’s railing, leaning on it to watch the sea.
Since we were the clients this time, I don’t have any duties or work to do while on the ship.
I have yet to see the rooms that were assigned to us but I figured that someone would show me the way when the time came.
I also just realised that I never got to ask how we were getting back to Emilia’s ship, but I suppose that Emilia and Ardi must have already had some kind of discussion about this beforehand.
Looking at the waves blowing past the ship, I enjoyed the sea breeze and the view in front of me, feeling at peace where I did not need to worry about anything for now.
We were safe, fed and on our way back to the others, what more could I ask for?
After the events of the past few days, such a feeling felt refreshing to me and I really missed it.
Who knew that I would suddenly go from enjoying my vacation to suddenly start worrying about being stranded out in the middle of the sea?
What’s more, I even picked up another companion too. Or at least, who I assume would be my companion since I doubt Delmare would be leaving my side anytime soon.
Could we enroll her in school as well? I guess I’ll have to ask Mother for help with this matter if Delmare actually wants to follow me to school too. It would be good that she learned about the common sense of this World like I am.
Delmare and Odeta seemed to have finally realised I wasn’t with them anymore and came over to join me by the ship railing.
“What are you looking at, Aster?” Delmare asked.
I giggled, “Ehehe~ Nothing in particular. I’m just enjoying this little peace that we have now. I’m just glad that on this trip, we’re able to just sit back and relax this time instead of worrying about pirates and stuff.”
Odeta patted her chest, “Don’t worry sister Aster! If there’s any danger, both elder sister Ardi and I will protect you!”
I reached up yo pat her head, “Aww~ Thank you Odeta!”
“Me… Me too, Aster!” Delmare added in quickly.
I patted her head too, “Ehehe~ Thank you~”
The three of us fell silent after that, all of us simply enjoying each other’s company while looking out at sea. Everyone was just enjoying the tranquillity of the scene and each other’s company without a worry in the world.
But as though fate had heard my wish of wanting to have a peaceful trip and decided I did not deserve such a thing, the water a short distance away from us suddenly exploded upwards and a ship appeared from below.
It had tattered sails and a broken hull, obviously being in no shape to sail and yet there it was, floating a short distance away from our ship like it was still in perfect condition.
“Revenant ship to starboard!!” The Amrap in the crows nest shouted, right as the alarm bells started ringing across the deck.
It’s one thing after another it seems…
“What’s a Revenant ship?” I asked Odeta, who didn’t seem too worried about the current situation and was still leaning against the railing casually.
She grinned at me, “Oh, that’s easy! It’s an undead ship!”
An… Undead ship? Like the ship is an undead or something? Is that even possible?
“It’s just a name that refers to a ship that was sunk where its crew had received God Yokmii’s curse. Those crew would then be turned into aquatic undead to haunt the seas by the curse,” Another voice explained from behind.
I turned back to see Ardi standing there with her arms crossed, looking at the Revenant ship ahead with a rather lacklustre gaze.
I turned back to look at the decrepit ship, “So… Any ship that was cursed by God Yokmii and sunk turns into that?”𝔬𝗏𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t
“That’s right. This is one of the reasons why you would not want to get on God Yokmii’s bad side, otherwise you’d be forced to suffer like this until someone else comes along to put you to rest.”
She reached behind her back and took out a spyglass before handing it over to me.
It took me a second to realise what she wanted me to do with it and I opened it to spy at the Revenant ship’s deck.
Sure enough, there was a large group of undead on the deck of the ship, their numbers including skeletons and zombies with the former being the largest in number.
While some of the undead were busy cleaning or maintaining the ship, there were a few of them holding rusted and broken weapons in their hands, which honestly did not make them look any more threatening.
I also realised why Ardi did not look too worried about the current situation since the Revenant ship’s cannons were mostly broken and even if they weren’t, it would be next to impossible to fire them since everything was waterlogged.
Handing the spyglass back to Ardi, she took a moment to spy through the glass before shouting out at her crew.
“All cannons! Fire!”
The cannons below and on the deck started firing at the undead ship, breaking the already broken ship into even more pieces.
The undead on board that ship did not even stand a chance as the cannonballs ripped through the ship like it was made of paper.
Even at this distance, I could still see debris and bones of the skeleton flying all around the ship as the cannonballs tore the vessel apart, most of them crashing back down into the water and never to be seen again.
Despite the ship literally breaking apart and sinking around them, the undead offered no resistance as though nothing was happening around them. Even the ones that were cleaning the ship continued to scrub the decks without a care.
Soon enough, the ship broke in half and it sank below the waves with its undead crew.
Ardi later explained that this would be enough to break the curse over those undead sailors, which made me curious what they had to do to be cursed like that in the first place.
Just like that, the ‘crisis’ was already dealt with and we weren’t in danger anymore. Not that I was thinking we were even in any to begin with since I highly doubt those undead would be able to deal with a ship full of Amraps.
Even Emilia should have been able to handle this without any issues on her own.
I have to say though, it definitely felt good to know that we didn’t even need to step in to deal with the problem since we were the clients this time and everything could be left to Ardi and her crew instead~
Yep, this was definitely a step up from before on the caravel with Emilia!
I can’t wait to go back to Emilia’s ship and return to my decadent life of being pampered left and right~