Water Magician
Chapter 729 : Battle of Skidbladnir
Chapter 0729 Battle of Skidbladnir
Translator: Jay_Forestieri
Editor: Tseirp
Even while Ryo and Abel were talking, battle preparations continued on the deck.
But hold on a second.
Skidbladnir was not a warship, but a merchant vessel.
So Paulina was not a ‘captain’ in the naval sense, but a ship’s captain.
That’s right, Skidbladnir was not a warship.
The crew were ordinary crewmen.
“But the captain said she wanted to intercept them, right?”
“Yes, she did.”
“I have a big question about that too.”
As he said that, Abel looked at Skidbladnir’s enormous masts.
Since Skidbladnir was a clipper ship, it had three enormous masts.
By raising sails on them, it could sail at high speed.
Conversely, if those masts or sails took damage, the ship’s strongest point, its speed, would drop.
Right now, perhaps because they were shifting into combat, all the sails had been taken in, and the ship was moving on momentum alone.
“You mean how they protect the masts and sails from, say, flaming arrows or stones?”
From Abel’s gaze, Ryo inferred that and nodded.
Yes, that was the hardest point in ship-to-ship combat.
“You are His Majesty the King, after all.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“So I assume you know this, but on the battlefield, arrow attacks are not very effective, right?”
“Right. A wind-attribute magician can use <Wind Pressure> to deflect enemy arrows... wait, this ship can do that too?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly it.”
Ryo nodded.
Ryo knew because he had seen the design documents.
The wind magic stones used to ward off sea monsters could be repurposed for defense during battle.
“Isn’t the sea-monster repellent... a water-attribute magic formula for a water magic stone?”
“Oh, as expected of Abel. You noticed something excellent.”
Ryo praised him.
That’s right, the sea-monster repellent used by the Western Countries was a ‘magic formula’.
Not a ‘magic circle’.
In other words, the attribute was fixed.
“The magic formulas for the ‘sea-monster repellent’ exist separately for wind magic stones, earth magic stones, and each other attribute.”
“Now that you mention it, I think I heard that before in the Eastern Countries. When you explained it for your ice ship... was it the Neil Andersen, I think? You explained it then, right?”
“You remembered that well!”
Ryo was surprised by Abel’s words.
This was the kind of thing where Ryo honestly thought Abel was amazing.
He really remembered.
“You also said that sometimes it’s inscribed directly onto the magic stone...”
“That seems to be possible too, but on this Skidbladnir, it isn’t drawn directly onto the magic stone. There’s a separate magic formula prepared to draw magic power from the wind magic stone.”
“So it’s prepared as an alchemy tool.”
“Yes. By switching it over...”
“With the magic power from the stone used for the ‘sea-monster repellent,’ it creates a magical phenomenon like <Wind Pressure> to protect the masts and sails.”
“That’s right.”
“During that time, the repellent...”
“Yes, it becomes unusable.”
Ryo nodded at the concern.
They were going to fight pirates and the like.
A temporary shutdown of the repellent was unavoidable.
“Deploy the ‘Wind Wall’!”
Paulina’s voice rang out.
Bwoom.
As if waiting for Paulina’s command, a deep rumble sounded.
Even the two on deck could tell that something had been deployed over the ship.
“This is the <Wind Pressure>?”
“Yes, it seems to be called a ‘Wind Wall’. Its main purpose seems to be blocking physical attacks like arrows and stones.”
“It can’t block magic?”
“It seems it is not absolutely unable to, but... its effect is weak.”
“Something like a <Physical Barrier>?”
“Yeah, that. It came up when it was explained to me, but I don’t really know that suspicious magic in the first place.”
“Yeah, it sounds like that’s the first spell magicians learn, but to Ryo it’s suspicious.”
“You mean that thing called non-attribute magic, right? Water-attribute magic is better!”
“I-I see...”
Ryo puffed out his chest and championed water-attribute magic, while Abel gave a small shake of his head.
“If we’re talking about defense using wind-attribute magic, it’s closer to a ‘wind protective membrane,’ I guess.”
“Oh, the thing where wyverns deploy it close to their bodies.”
“Whitnash has alchemy tools that imitate that too.”
“What did you say!”
“And I heard that the Union alchemist Frank de Verde made a simplified version of it, and it was deployed in the war against the Inbury Duchy.”
“What did you say!!”
Ryo was deeply shocked by the astonishing information.
“I’ll have to ask Kenneth about this when we get back to the kingdom.”
“Kenneth? Why him?”
“I hear Kenneth and Frank-san are old acquaintances. Through Kenneth, maybe I can arrange to see that alchemy tool...”
“That would be impossible, since it’s classified in the Union.”
“Grrr... Then I have no choice. I’ll have to bring the Prime Minister another bribe, this time a cake from Café de Chocolat.”
“A cake? A bribe?”
Abel tilted his head.
“With the intelligence network of Marquis Heinlein’s House, I’ll have them steal that alchemy tool... no, procure it for us.”
“You better give it up. If we got caught doing that, it would mean war with the Union.”
“F-for the sake of developing the kingdom’s alchemy too...”
“Even without doing that, I’ve already asked the Royal Alchemy Workshop to develop it.”
“What! ”
At Abel’s words, Ryo was once again deeply shocked.
“As expected of Abel... you sure move fast.”
“But even the Royal Alchemy Workshop says it won’t be easy. It’s an imitation of the ‘wind protective membrane’ that, as expected of Frank de Verde, nobody else could make.”
“Even though it’s an imitation, they still can’t make it...”
“I guess it’s that difficult to reproduce.”
Abel shrugged.
For Abel, all they could do was wait for it to be finished.
In five years, or even ten.
“Even so, you knew a lot about that thing called the ‘Wind Wall’. Did you say you were taught about it?”
“I learned about it at the Franzoni Shipping Company during my first visit to the Republic. It’s the family home of the head of the Intelligence Special Affairs Bureau, but after a lot of effort, they taught me a great deal about the Republic’s maritime navigation technology.”
“That could be useful for developing the kingdom’s own navigation technology.”
“Right? When we get back to the kingdom, shall we go to the Maritime Ministry? If it’s Goro-san, I don’t think he’d brush us off.”
“So in Ryo’s eyes, the Lord Admiral is highly regarded.”
“Of course. The coffee beans I was sent showed just how capable he is.”
Ryo praised the Kona coffee that had been sent during his time as magistrate of Kona Village.
“If everyone were as capable as Goro-san, the country would be safe.”
Ryo folded his arms and shook his head, looking very smug.
Yes, even from Abel’s perspective, he looked extremely smug.
Just as Abel was about to say something, he heard Ryo suddenly exclaim.
“No way, a catapult...”
“A kapataruto?”
A word Abel didn’t know.
But he immediately understood what Ryo had muttered.
“Launcher Unit One, deployment complete!”
“Launcher Unit Two, deployment complete!”
“Launcher Unit Three, deployment complete!”
A wooden device that looked like it had to be operated by two people was set up on the deck.
“It looks like a kind of trebuchet used in siege warfare.”
Drawing on his own knowledge, Abel gave his impression.
But he had a question.
“What are they throwing?”
“That... it looks like they will launch… shoot that barrel-looking thing out.”
Ryo pointed out a barrel about sixty centimeters tall... it looked like they were going to launch that.
And on top of that ‘barrel’ was something like a fuse...
Then he looked at the five approaching ships.
“Ah... the people on that ship’s deck are holding weapons.”
“Definitely pirates or something of the like.”
Ryo and Abel were in complete agreement.
From the five pirate-looking ships, shouts rang out toward the Skidbladnir, the ship carrying the two of them.
“Halt the ship! Leave your cargo and we’ll spare your lives!”
“Definitely pirate ships.”
“And the cargo we’d leave behind includes the Skidbladnir itself. Even if they say we’ll spare your lives, they’d just leave us adrift in the sea.”
Abel shrugged, and Ryo grimaced as he described the likely future.
The crew of the Skidbladnir did not flinch at the pirates’ voices at all.
As always, they continued their preparations calmly and methodically.
The ‘barrels’ were loaded into the three launchers.
A crew member carrying a torch stood beside the launchers.
“Unit One, ignite!”
At Captain Paulina’s command, the torch lit the top of the ‘barrel’ on Unit One.
“Unit One, fire!”
The next moment, the flaming ‘barrel’ was launched.
It drew a beautiful arc toward the deck of the lead pirate ship.
When it struck the deck, the ‘barrel’ shattered, and the liquid inside spread out.
It also spread the fire attached to the ‘barrel’.
The deck where the barrel landed erupted into a huge blaze.
“Oil?”
“Yeah, looks like what was inside the ‘barrel’ was oil.”
“It’s a giant version of a Molotov cocktail...”
Abel and Ryo were both stunned.
And this had only just begun.
“Wind speed normal! No adjustment needed!”
“Good. Ignite Unit Two and Unit Three!”
Firing only Unit One had apparently been a test to see whether the barrel would drift off course under the influence of the wind.
“Unit Two, Unit Three, fire!”
With the command, the other ‘barrels’ were launched toward the remaining pirate ships.
Again drawing graceful arcs... the decks of two pirate ships were transformed into seas of fire.
“Well done...”
Abel murmured without thinking.
“Being able to drop them into exactly the right place means there must be differential calculus.”
“Divun?”
“Ah... um... a method for calculating trajectories?”
Ryo gave an awkward answer to Abel’s question.
Originally, the differential calculus taught in Earth’s high school mathematics had developed in part to determine the trajectories and impact points of cannonballs fired from cannons.
It is a well-known story that Napoleon, who distinguished himself as an excellent artillery officer and eventually became Emperor of France, loved mathematics.
The launchers installed on the Skidbladnir worked on the same principle as cannons.
They were given kinetic energy the moment they were launched, then flew on inertia, slowing down under gravity and air resistance before finally falling.
Since, like cannon fire, the launch power was constant, the landing point had to be controlled solely by adjusting the launch angle.
That required differential calculus.
The cannons used on Earth had not seen major development in either the Central Countries or the Eastern Countries.
They had not developed much in the Western Countries either, but...
“Catapults certainly have a long history.”
“Kapataruto?”
“Math is fascinating.”
“Suugaku?”
“Abel has been playing the role of the jokester for a while now...”
“Sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’ve had the role of the funny man stolen from me.”
Ryo lamented to himself.
“In both the Central Countries and the Eastern Countries, the basis of fleet combat was close combat... boarding the enemy ship, right?”
“That’s called close-quarters boarding combat. But Skidbladnir is...”
“Engaging at long range, and not even with magic.”
“It’s probably oil meant for cooking.”
“If not for this battle, it would have been used for cooking... that would have been the more practical use, honestly.”
“All of this is the pirates’ fault.”
Abel and Ryo both shook their heads slightly at the same time.
The fourth 'barrel' was launched, and just as intended, the fourth pirate ship was swallowed by the sea of fire.
Those ships stopped, and the pirates either tried to put out the flames or gave up and jumped into the sea...
They were in chaos.
That left one ship.
And that one ship was still coming.
“Prepare for close combat!”
At Captain Paulina’s command, the crew took up bows.
It seemed they would no longer use the launchers.
“For the last ship, it’s a close fight.”
“Maybe they’re trying to reassure us.”
“Reassure?”
“They want to show that even if it comes to close combat, Skidbladnir won’t have any trouble.”
“But, but... even so, it won’t be as one-sided as before, right? It’d be better to burn them all down with the launchers and barrels like before.”
Ryo said the obvious.
Abel understood what Ryo meant.
That way, they could reduce casualties to zero.
No matter how confident they were in close combat, and no matter if nobody died, it still would not be completely unscathed.
Someone might get hurt... well, as long as they could be healed with <Heal> or a potion, that would be fine.
“Still, if you look at how well they handled the long-range fighting just now, wouldn’t that mean they’re pretty well trained?”
“True.”
“The crew is that well trained... I’m a little interested in what their close combat looks like.”
“I see. Now that you mention it...”
Abel was saying, as a king rather than as an individual, that he wanted to see the strength of the captain and crew entrusted with Skidbladnir, a kingdom asset.
Ryo could understand that feeling too, now that he mentioned it.
And then...
“Magic bombardment, volley fire!”
With Paulina’s command, five fire-attribute spells were unleashed.
Before they struck the pirate ship, they split apart.
“Area suppression!”
“<Fire Arrow>? And they’ve got five crew members who use fire-attribute magic?”
“One of them is... the head cook.”
“No way...”
Ryo spotted Head Chef Kobatch among those who had cast the magic, and Abel was stunned.
The <Fire Arrow>, which ultimately split into twenty-five attack spells, seemed to have dealt considerable damage to the pirate ship’s crew.
They pressed the attack even further.
“Archers, fire!”
Twenty arrows were released all at once.
To begin with, the Skidbladnir’s deck was higher than the pirate ship’s deck.
Skidbladnir was a large clipper ship, after all.
Its deck height was different from that of pirate ships that looked as though they had been modified fishing boats.
And there is one major principle that applies to every battle.
Attacks from higher ground are more advantageous.
That is because it is easier to confirm the enemy’s situation, and because gravity can be an ally too.
“Archers, second volley, fire!”
Another twenty arrows were fired.
How many uninjured pirates were still left on the pirate ship?
“Shift to boarding combat! Don’t annihilate them! Get information out of them, and take about five prisoners!”
Paulina’s order rang out.
At the same time, ropes were thrown from the Skidbladnir’s deck to the pirate ship’s deck.
When the grappling hooks at the ends of the ropes caught on the pirate ship...
“Charge!”
After giving the order herself, Paulina was the first to descend the rope and board the pirate ship.
“I had a feeling.”
“Well, she’s not the type to hide behind the crew.”
Ryo nodded, and Abel agreed.
Yes, Paulina was the type who suited taking the lead and charging in first.
Of course, she did not look rough by appearance.
On the contrary, she usually spoke calmly and composedly, and her actions were not hurried.
But whenever the ship or crew fell into danger, both of them had the impression that she would throw herself into the danger first and save them.
And now, just as they had imagined.
Of course, a captain who hides safely somewhere while sending subordinates into danger is far less trustworthy than that.
“Rather than boarding immediately, striking the enemy’s forces down thoroughly first may have been her usual calmness at work.”
“Certainly. She probably wants to avoid not only crew members casualties, but even serious injury.”
“Choosing close combat too wasn’t just to reassure us by showing it off, but to extract information.”
“What an impressively level-headed judgment.”
Both Abel and Ryo praised Paulina’s decisiveness.
And from that came the conclusion.
This captain and crew could be trusted with the ship.
Soon after, Skidbladnir subdued the five pirate ships without sustaining any serious damage.
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