Nido Tensei Shita Shounen wa S-rank Boukensha Toshite Heion ni Sugosu ~ Zense ga Kenja de Eiyūdatta Boku wa Raisede wa Jimi ni Ikiru ~

Episode 68: Reunion with the Captain of the Sunken Ship

After that, we decided to return to the Sky Island because we caught the ship that Bahamut threw.
It was to ensure the safety of the crew members who were on the ship we rescued.
We need to confirm the safety of the crew members of the battleship Good Luther MK.1.

Fortunately, Bahamut only threw the ship and did not pursue us.
It was probably just a warning.
But knowing Bahamut, he would have pursued us without hesitation in a situation like this, so I was a little surprised.

So, we safely landed the Good Luther MK.1 on the Sky Island and entered the ship.

“Is everyone okay!?”

The inside of the ship was lit by magical lights, and although it was dim, we could see the situation inside.
The ship was scattered with dishes and tools, as if we had encountered a storm.
Fortunately, the chairs and tables were fixed to the floor, so there didn’t seem to be any injuries from that.

“Who are you…”

I heard a familiar voice from the back of the ship.
The voice sounded tough and cautious.

“It’s me, Rex, Barn-san!”

“…Rex, you say!?”

Barn-san appeared, making a clattering sound as if he had bumped into something or kicked it from the back of the ship.
He had scratches all over from hitting something.

“Oh.
It really is the boy!”

Barn-san exclaimed happily.

“Long time no see.
Is everyone else okay?”

“Yeah, we’re all fine! When the ship suddenly shook violently, and then suddenly became quiet, we were wondering what happened.
Did you save us!?”

“Well, I guess you could say that.”

“Oh! Just as I thought!”

Barn-san shouted with joy and called out to the back of the ship.

“Rejoice, everyone! The young… Rex-kun has rescued us!”

“…Rex?”

“Rex?”

The crew members gradually showed their faces from the back of the ship.

“It really is Rex.”

“If Rex is here, does that mean we really were saved!?”

“Of course! It’s Rex, after all!”

“That’s right! With Rex, even facing such a monster is a piece of cake!”

Wait, are they overestimating me or perceiving me in a strange way? But I didn’t want to dampen the crew members’ joy, so I swallowed those words.

“Rex-san!”

When I turned around in response to a voice calling me from the back of the ship, there was an unexpected person there.

“Ms.
Marlene?”

It was Marlene-san from the coastal country.

“Why is Marlene-san here?”

Huh? Barn-san and Marlene-san are from different countries.
So why is Marlene-san on this ship?

“Rex-dono, what is the situation inside?”

I heard Calm-san’s voice from outside.
Oops, I need to explain the situation to them too.

“Let’s go outside for now.
We also need to treat the injured.”

“Area Heal!”

I used area healing magic to treat the injured people gathered in one place.
Fortunately, there were no seriously injured people, so it was a simple treatment.

“Wow, to heal over a dozen injured people in an instant, you truly are amazing, Rex-dono.”

The vice captain thanked me with words of gratitude.

“Oh no, it’s just a simple area healing magic.”

“No, I’ve never heard of such healing magic…”

The vice captain said that with sweat on his forehead.
I wonder if there are no people who can use area healing magic in the Great Inner Sea church? Well, priests who only think about enriching themselves don’t put much effort into magic training, so it can’t be helped.

“In the capital’s large church, there should be people who can use area healing magic, right?”

“Is that so?”

The vice captain frowned and seemed skeptical, but there are plenty of people who can use area healing magic.

“…When you say the capital you mentioned, do you mean the capital of the Holy Kingdom? If it’s that country where the saint is, there should be monks who can use such powerful magic…”

The vice captain started muttering and thinking, so I headed towards Calm-san and Barn-san who were discussing.

“We appreciate being accepted by you.
Normally, intruders to our country would be captured regardless of the reason, but if you are Rex-dono’s friends, we will welcome you.”

“That’s very kind.
We are grateful for Rex-dono’s guidance.”

“Yes, indeed.”

Even though Barn-san usually calls me “boy,” he calls me by my name in situations like this.
But why does my name keep coming up in their conversation?

“By the way, where is the Seraphim Kingdom located? When we were suddenly taken to the sky along with the ship by that giant monster, we hurriedly took refuge inside the ship, so we had no idea where we were flying to.”

Ah, right, if you don’t hide inside the ship, you never know when you’ll be turned upside down in the sky.
And the location of this country is quite surprising to Barn-san, who is thinking about the geography near the Great Inner Sea.

“Barn-san, this country is located above a plain in a country south of the coastal country.”

“South of a country? So, slightly north?”

Barn-san is probably thinking about the geography near the Great Inner Sea, but it’s a bit different.
It’s not on a flat plane like on a map.

“No, not in the geographical sense, but literally above the sky.”

“Above the sky?”

Barn-san tilted his head, not understanding what I meant.

“This is a Sky Island, an island that floats in the sky.”

“…”

Barn-san looked at me as if saying, “What is this guy talking about?”

“No, no, no, even if you’re a boy, that’s going too far with the jokes.
It’s impossible for an island to float in the sky.”

Well, I had a feeling he would react like that based on Liliera-san’s reaction.
It seems that people in this era don’t try to know anything beyond where they live.

Even if they just do a little research, they can easily obtain information about foreign lands.
It’s understandable for Calm-san and the others who were former refugees, but it’s not good for Barn-san and the others who come from a long line of knights to be ignorant of external information.

“Barn-san, please gather the crew members as well.”

Showing them the real thing is faster than explaining in situations like this.
I led the crew members of the Good Luther MK.1 to the edge of the Sky Island.

“Be careful of your footing and look down.
Oh, don’t get too close to the edge!”

Barn-san and the others looked down, wondering what was going on.
At first, they had a puzzled expression, but gradually their faces turned pale or widened their eyes.

“Wha-what is this, boy!? What on earth!?”

Yeah, yeah, everyone seems to understand the situation they’re in now.

“As I said before, this is a Sky Island, an island that floats in the sky.
You were brought here by Bahamut.”

“Sky… Island…”

“After you left, we discussed the handling of the demons.”

Barn-san and the others were shocked to learn that they had been brought to the sky, but as time passed, they gradually regained their composure and started to explain the events that had led up to this.

“Starting with the incident with the Kraken, there was a fierce dispute between the two countries, each claiming to have custody of the demons.
As a result, the custody of the demons was handed over alternately between the two countries to extract information.”

“But when we were transporting the demons on the ship, that giant monster suddenly attacked us, and we were carried high up into the sky along with the ship.
We hurriedly took refuge inside the ship to prevent ourselves from falling to the ground, but in the chaos, the demons escaped.”

“The sealed demons escaped!?”

That’s strange.
There’s no way the demons, who were restrained and had their magic sealed, could escape on their own.
And then, I remembered Bahamut, who had abducted the ship.
Maybe Bahamut is involved with the demons, just like the Kraken…

“After that, as you know, we were saved by you, and we are truly grateful.”

Barn-san saluted me, and the crew members behind him also saluted.

“Oh no, I just caught the flying ship, so it’s not a big deal.”

“……”

Huh? What’s wrong, everyone? Why are you all looking so serious?

“Rex-kun…”

“Yes?”

“Listen, you know, normally, a human being can’t catch a ship, right?”

“Uh, yes, I understand.
That’s why I used magic to catch it.
Even I can’t catch a ship with just my bare hands.”

“……You don’t get it!!”

Eh? What’s going on!? Why is everyone shouting!?

“Well, well, it’s because Rex-san said so.”

Liliera-san is trying to offer some support, but I don’t think that counts as support, does it?

“Hmm, well, it is Rex-kun after all.”

Eh? Everyone is satisfied with that!?

“But it’s a problem.
How are we supposed to descend from this island in the sky?”

Barn-san and the others, who have regained their composure, begin discussing what to do next.

“Ideally, we should consider bringing back this Good Luther MK.1, which the military paid a fortune to build.
But before that, we need to figure out how to return.”

Ah, it’s a state-of-the-art battleship.
It would be a huge loss to leave it on the sky island.

“Lord Rex, since you can use flight magic, can’t you bring this ship down to the ground?”

At that moment, the vice captain looked at me and asked such a question.

“Oh, that’s right! If it’s the boy who caught this ship, he can surely do it!”

Hmm, bringing this ship down to the ground…

“I think it’s possible, but…”

“Oh, really!? Then let’s do it right away!”

“However, there are no rivers in this area with the depth and width to operate this ship.
This is inland territory.”

“What!?”

Yeah, I didn’t see any big rivers while flying here with flight magic.
So if we just bring it down to the ground, it would still require a tremendous amount of manpower, budget, and time to transport it.

Plus, negotiations with neighboring countries would also be necessary.

“Oh, no! So there’s not even a big river…”

There’s nothing we can do about the bad location.

“Well, let’s put the ship aside for now.
If it’s just Barn-san and the others, we can transport them to the surface ourselves.”

“Yes, indeed.
It would be quite luxurious to ask for the ship to be transported after being saved.
I apologize, young boy, but could you transport the 85 of us to the surface?”

“85 people?”

“Hm? Ah, not only the crew of our ship, but also the envoys, including Lady Mayleen, who were planning to return to our country from Veltino.
…Is it impossible!?”

Barn-san is getting anxious, but if it’s just transportation, it’s not a problem.
However, it would be troublesome to transport that many people one by one.
Even with Liliera’s help, it would probably be a limit to transport one person at a time using Calm-san and the others’ wings.

Hmm… it’s troublesome, so maybe I should modify the ship to be able to fly.
Fortunately, there are plenty of materials on this island to modify it into a flying ship.

“Barn-san.”

I called out to Barn-san.

“What is it, young boy?”

“Can I make some modifications to the ship?”

“To the ship? Well, it’s not usable as it is.
If you’re going to use it to bring us down quickly, feel free to do whatever you want.
After all, we have no choice but to leave it here.”

Alright, now that I have Barn-san’s permission, I need to talk to Calm-san.

“Calm-san, I’d like to ask for permission from the Sky King.”

“To His Majesty?”

Calm-san asked me what it was about.

“Well, you see…”

“Hmm, do you want a lot of stones from this sky island? If it’s just pebbles, you don’t need permission, but if Rex-dono says so, I will inquire.”

Yeah, I want Gravium, which is contained in the land of the sky island.
However, Gravium is a prohibited material that was once banned even on the Sky Continent.
So I need to get permission from the Sky King, who is the king of the country.

And a few hours later, through Calm-san, I obtained permission to use the materials from the sky island.

“If it means getting rid of the trouble quickly, they said they would give us as many stones as we want, even if they are just pebbles.”

It took a while because Calm-san had to report about Barn-san and the others.

“Normally, we would have to capture Barn-dono and the others, but when I mentioned that they were acquaintances of Rex-dono, the Sky King made a very displeased face and told me to let them go quickly.”

It’s an unusual decision for a ruler of a country, but it’s fine if it saves us from unnecessary trouble.
Now that we have the materials, let’s quickly finish the modifications.

It’s possible to modify it as a regular flying magic item, but this ship is too big and I don’t have enough materials on hand.
So this time, let’s modify it into a flying ship using Gravium.

My name is Barn Dobag.
I am the captain of the latest battleship Good Luther MK.1, and also the commander of the Great Inner Sea Knights of the Tion Kingdom.
And now, I am a man who has essentially lost his ship.
In addition, I let the prisoners escape.

Oh no, the more I think about it, the more painful it becomes.
But fortunately, thanks to the boy, both my subordinates and I were saved.
I was surprised by the sky island, but thanks to the boy, we have a way to return to the surface.
However, we will lose our beloved ship in return.

Ah, it hasn’t even been a month, and I have lost the military’s latest battleship.
I wonder what kind of severe punishment awaits me.
My stomach is starting to ache just thinking about it.

And to make matters worse, the boy said he would do some work to bring us down to the surface.
He probably intends to cut out large pieces of the deck to create something like a tanker to transport multiple crew members at once.
It’s a pitiful end for a ship made from the material of the legendary creature, Ancient Plant.

And the next morning, the boy came to us after spending the night camping.

“The ship modifications are complete!”

Modifications, huh? It seems our battleship has transformed into a tanker.

“Ta-da! This is the new form of Good Luther MK.1!”

The boy pointed to our ship, which should have been dismantled for parts.

“Boy, what’s new about it?”

Did you make it into a tanker to transport everyone at once?

“Oh, you can’t tell just by looking from the outside.
Then, let me show you by actually moving it.”

Saying that, the boy climbed onto the ship and took hold of the helm.

“Move it?”

I don’t understand what the boy is trying to say.

“Alright, the new Good Luther MK.1 is launching!”

As soon as the boy said that, our ship floated up.
It was floating in the air.

“……Huh?”

The ship is floating.
It’s not a mistake, I can clearly see the bottom of the ship.

“W-What does this mean, boy!?”

Did my ship become the material for a tanker!?

“Well, you see, it was too much trouble to transport everyone one by one, so I modified this ship into a flying ship that can transport everyone at once.”

I don’t understand what he’s talking about.

“With this, it should be easy to transport everyone, right?”

I don’t understand, but there is one thing I can say for sure…

“It’s not easy!!”

At that moment, the hearts of the crew of Good Luther MK.1 and the guests from Veltino became one.