DAR Vol. 6 Chapter 23 Part 5

<Hey, hey, Roa! We found something weird below!>

<Come on!>

The twins, for their part, clearly had no interest in the barrels at all. They had found something much more interesting, and now they were trying to drag Roa away to see it. They nudged his body with their noses, steering him toward the stairs leading below deck.

“Um, Dietrich. Roo and Phi say…”

“Sorry. I still want to check this out a bit more. Go on ahead. That sinister Gryphon’s going with you too, right? I doubt there’s any danger, but be careful.”

“Okay.”

Since there was nothing else for it, Roa spoke to Dietrich, who was still examining the barrels left on deck, only to get that easy answer in return. Roa found himself wondering whether it was really okay to head farther inside on his own, but since he had been given permission, he let the twins lead him down the stairs.

<Fhm. Something strange… Could it perhaps be that?>

<Uncle, don’t say it yet!>

<Roo and Phi are gonna show Roa first!!>

<Hm? Is that so?>

Naturally, Uncle Gry came along too.

It seemed he had already sensed the “strange thing” the twins were talking about through detection, but the moment he tried to say anything, the twins cut him off. Since they had found it first, they wanted to be the ones to show Roa.

The sight was so endearing that Roa could not help smiling.

As he let the twins lead him onward, he passed collapsed men everywhere.

Roa ignored them completely and kept moving. With his familiars protecting him, it did not matter if someone was lying in wait or pretending to be unconscious to attack later.

Besides, Roa himself was maintaining detection magic and staying alert. He could not afford to rely on Uncle Gry and the others for absolutely everything.

Though, in truth, the very fact that he was allowed to move around alone so casually inside a ship full of enemies was already possible only because of his familiars, which meant he was relying on them either way.

<Over there!>

<The big one!>

It was in a storage hold about two flights of stairs down from the deck. There were no windows, so the only light came from the stairwell, leaving the place dim. Roa narrowed his eyes to see better, but Uncle Gry immediately conjured light with magic.

Crates of cargo were stacked throughout the hold, but in the back there was one thing that stood out with bizarre force.

“A magic tube?”

The words slipped from Roa before he could stop them.

What lay there looked exactly like the magic tube Roa had only just bought the day before.

And yet…

<It’s huge!>

<Just like the one Roa bought! But huge!! Weird!!>

<It does not appear to have been enlarged in any simplistic way.>

It was enormous.

The tube itself was longer than Roa was tall. It was so thick that he could not have wrapped his arms around it. Iron had been used lavishly, and the tube walls were as thick as Roa’s palm. It was surely far too heavy for a human to lift. It rested horizontally atop a stand made from heavy logs lashed together, resembling some peculiar piece of art.

“…Something this size could probably withstand even a full-power spell from a proper mage… but then you couldn’t carry it around. And at that point, just using magic normally would probably be more effective anyway. Was it made as an experiment?”

Roa lightly tapped it to test the material, then peered down inside of the tube.

After returning home the previous day, Roa had conducted all sorts of experiments with the magic tubes he had bought. Three of them had already been reduced to scrap metal, and two more were only intact in appearance, no longer usable.

Uncle Gry and the twins had helped with those experiments.

Uncle Gry had been fascinated by the magic tubes too, and had layered the area with defensive magic so that even explosions would not matter, after which the one boy and three beasts had performed a long string of appallingly malicious tests that no sane person would have considered.

They had fired every sort of thing imaginable, tried launching magic directly to test its power, and even caused violent magical explosions inside the tubes to examine their durability…

If they had done all that without Uncle Gry’s defensive magic, by now the marquis’s estate would have been riddled with holes, not just in the buildings but in the ground itself.

When curiosity got the better of them and they started getting carried away, Roa and Uncle Gry were very much alike.

Needless to say, they had conducted those experiments in secret, without telling anyone in the marquis’s estate, any of the Nostalgia members, or even Coralde and his people. No one had noticed.

Uncle Gry had hidden it in all seriousness, so even those supposed to be watching Roa had likely remained unaware.

“There aren’t any scratches inside the tube. Maybe it was never even test-fired?”

When stones, metal, or other objects were launched from a magic tube, the inside of the barrel would get scratched. Their experiments had taught him that was a good way to tell whether one had been used.

“Oh, but there are parts that look slightly melted. Did they fire only magic through it? Why would they do that?”

A magic tube could do more than launch objects by means of magical explosions. It could also fire magic directly as it was.

Since the spell would shoot in the direction the tube was pointed, the spell formula needed for aiming could be omitted. Even with only a little mana, the power would be concentrated straight ahead, so the output would rise slightly.

In other words, it functioned as a magic tool to assist people who were bad at magic or had little mana.

The problem was the durability of the magic tube itself, which meant it could not produce any truly impressive power. It probably could not even be used to hunt ordinary animals.

After repeated experiments, Roa’s conclusion was that the magic tube was ultimately nothing more than a support tool that let people who were poor at magic use something resembling magic.

And if that was all it was, then making the magic tube larger and tougher so that even ordinary mages could use it did not seem to add any real advantage.

If anything, it threw away the small magic tube’s only real merit: allowing people poor at magic to use a little magic at all.

<Hm…?>

“Uncle Gry? What’s wrong?”

While Roa was investigating the giant magic tube, Uncle Gry, who had been quietly watching, suddenly spoke up.

“No, it is nothing… I think. I merely sensed something slightly strange.”

Even as he said that, Uncle Gry tilted his head, clearly dissatisfied with his own answer.

“Ahh, I really can’t make sense of it. What in the world was something like this made for? I’d love to take my time and examine it properly…”

Perhaps his concentration had broken when Uncle Gry interrupted him, because Roa said that while stretching deeply.

<Then simply take it home.> 

“Huh? I can’t do that.”

Roa immediately objected to Uncle Gry’s easy answer. The trading ship would be confiscated and turned over to the harbor officials or the soldiers before long.

<And yet you have every right to do so, do you not?>

“Why?”

<Roo and Phi are the ones who seized this ship. Naturally, the right to plunder belongs to you as their master.>

“Plunder?!”

Startled, Roa began thinking over Uncle Gry’s words.

Come to think of it, the ship Roa had ridden here on really was a pirate ship. He had gotten so caught up in the thrill of boarding it, the interesting mechanisms aboard, and the battle that had begun, that he had forgotten the obvious.

They had boarded a pirate ship and committed piracy.

Only now did it truly occur to him that he might have done something very bad.

“So that’s… just stealing, isn’t it?”

<It would be a proper reward for an act of piracy. That vessel is a legitimate pirate ship, issued a letter of marque by the state. No law is being broken. Besides, this ship belongs to fleeing criminals. There is no need for you to trouble yourself over it. If there is something you want, no one would condemn you for taking it.>

“…Is that really how it works?”

<Leaving aside sleepyhead, that playboy is not the sort of man who would break the law, is he? And yet he participated in this piracy without the slightest objection. That alone proves it cannot be wrongdoing. Besides, that Sword Saint fellow is a high-ranking noble, is he not? You have powerful backing as well.>

“When you put it like that…”

Temptation was beginning to win out over Roa. The chance to obtain this giant magic tube by proper means was hard to resist. He knew Uncle Gry was probably talking him around, but if he framed it as a reward for bringing villains to justice, then it was not wrong.

If anything, it was the true adventurer’s way.

“…I’ll try asking the captain…”

After agonizing over it, Roa decided he would try asking the captain for the magic tube… or, failing that, see whether he could buy it.

“But if that happens, then it’ll be thanks to Roo and Phi that I get this, right? Thank you!”

<Did we help Roa? I’m happy!>

<Love Roa!!>

The twins wagged their tails furiously and leapt at him. Though their momentum nearly bowled him over, Roa gently stroked them with heartfelt gratitude.

<Hm!>

Uncle Gry let out another strange noise.

This time, unlike before, there was nothing vague about his reaction. His sharp gaze told Roa just how serious the situation was.

<Brat, something is wrong. It seems someone has come aboard this ship without tripping my detection. It has gotten noisy above. We are going.>

“Huh?”

Roa hurriedly looked around, but nothing seemed different. Perhaps because of the ship’s fine construction, no sound from outside reached them. But if Uncle Gry said something had happened, then something had happened. There was no doubt of that.

Suddenly, wind began to flow around them.

Uncle Gry had used magic.

It was an even stronger defensive spell than the one he normally kept on Roa and the others.

It was likely just a precaution in case something happened, but that only sharpened Roa’s focus further. A dangerous abnormality was unfolding, one serious enough that even Uncle Gry deemed such measures necessary.

<My detection is being obstructed, so I cannot get a proper read on the situation. Be careful!>

“Yeah! Let’s go!!”

At Roa’s words, all of them broke into a run.

A situation severe enough to interfere with Uncle Gry’s magic.

Dietrich and Kristoff, the captain, and even the sailors likely would not be able to handle it on their own. Uncle Gry’s strength would absolutely be needed. They had to get back to the others quickly.

They raced up the stairs in one go.

And what they saw when they emerged onto the deck was a crowd of people.

“You bastard! What the hell are you doing here?!”

Dietrich’s furious shout rang out.

There was rage in it, enough that anyone could tell from that single voice that he was not merely angry. He was livid.

The sailors had all gathered in one place, surrounding something. Dietrich seemed to be at the center of it.

“My, I find it far stranger that you’re here, darling little boy.”

A woman’s sultry voice, every bit as clear and carrying as Dietrich’s shout, drifted over them.

The people encircling Dietrich and the others blocked Roa’s view, so he could not see her, but her voice carried the haughty, oppressive air peculiar to nobility.

“Don’t mock me!!”

“My, don’t tell me you lack even the self-awareness to realize you’re a foolish son? A little boy whose bluster is the only thing he has in full measure?”

“Shut up!”

At the continuing exchange, Roa and the others came to a stop.

Something was clearly wrong, but the content of the argument sounded strangely familial. It did not seem to be an emergency, exactly.

“Oh my, it seems your little friends have arrived too. I see some nostalgic faces among them.”

At that voice, the crowd in front of Roa parted as though prompted, opening his field of view.

And there, revealed at the center, stood a woman in a vivid red dress.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Roa. I’m Scarlet, Dietrich’s mother.”

The woman wore a dazzlingly beautiful smile on her crimson lips.