Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

A week…all it took was a week to build the damned hip. I had never seen such diligent workers, the hero's party were quick learners and near-perfect at executing orders. Under Raven's command as their head, they worked like ants with only a few hours of rest and cycling between shifts.

The many machines from the iron queen helped of course, and with the witch's help in putting things together, the hull was done as soon as the necessary material became available.

Even so, the last few screws were yet to be hammered and the alignment of the helm was yet to be finished. Putting the wheel into the socket and greasing it as I was done, I turned around to the others scattered throughout the beach.

A witch seemingly tired of the circumstances surrounding her, a handful of monster girls, and those burdened with responsibility, the thought of sailing with such folks was just as terrifying as ever before.

'What kind of war are they even prepping for…' Glancing over to the many barrels full of explosive black powder, I couldn't even imagine what kind of monster they were gonna use it all out on. We had no cannons as they would weigh the ship too much, making their decision to carry those barrels even more enigmatic. 'Don't they know magic?

And the amount of scrolls from Darius should be enough already, so what exactly are they stocking up for?'

Secrets were brewing and I knew they were hiding them from me–the captain of the ship. I've tried to make a few of them slip up, but it seemed that Raven had instructed them to keep their lips sealed. Despite that, I've figured out enough to know that the witch was the cause of this secrecy.

'Necro flower.' I've heard her mention it. A myth with no basis in reality, a hub for dead sailor souls to conglomerate and raise a fleet of phantom ships manned by the dead. My father used to tell me about seeing one himself, but the old bastard's drunken tales were only as real as the plank of a foot.

"I just hope we don't nail our own foot trying to chase ghosts," heaving a sigh, I lifted myself off the ship's ledge. Moving over to the main body of the ship, I swiftly leapt off into the knee-high water and began making my way towards the rest.

It was time to eat and with Lana cooking and Daine and Zoey helping her with it, the meals were often quite delicious, although the ingredients lacked the freshness of Athenian greenery. While sitting around the campfire and eating, I often heard about something of a dungeon being conversed about between Lana and Raven, and today was no different. An update report, perhaps?

I was kept out of the discussion hence I had no clue what exactly it meant. Either way, from the little I caught them say, the progress has been rather slow thanks to someone called Shamisha taking a while to build something.

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"Reina, do you think we can start sailing tomorrow?" As soon as his conversation ended with the elf, Raven turned to me with his questions. "We've spent too long waiting around already, to be honest, I would prefer if we could leave tonight if it's not too risky."

"Hmm…" Giving the matter a quick moment of thought, I saw no reason to talk out of his suggestion. "We can leave tonight then, gather everyone and I'll get the ship ready in the meantime."

"Great," he responded, content with the progress.

However, in my opinion, things were moving too fast and there was a real chance of everything catching on fire, especially considering we were carrying an unnecessarily large amount of black powder inside the ship.

'And I thought I could relax by sailing for a month or two.' Done with the meal, I began the preparations to leave the dark sand bay. It was my first time sailing through here, but thanks to the stars it wasn't hard to navigate our position. Even so, to my surprise, the island city where I was born was no more than a day or two, far closer than any potential nest of monsters could be.

"They worship another god there, right?" Raven questioned while walking closer to me at the ship's helm.

Moving my head off the periscope, I quickly turned to look at him. Wandering around in a half-button casual shirt, he had his muscles visible to everyone. Had it not been for everyone else being lazy about clothing throughout the week, I would've guessed that he was trying to hit on me.

"Lantherm–the god of light, yeah…they worship him there at a lighthouse." His eyes frowned at the news. It didn't much surprise me, anyone would be confused, why a god was being worshipped in such an unusual place. "A lesser god, he's not exactly that well known and the city rests on an island so there's not much funding for a church."

"What about pirates and outlaws? An island city sounds like the perfect place for a hideout," the voice of the witch rang in my ears and following its direction, I watched her walking up the steps with her lecherous hips swaying like a pendulum. Much like the others, she showed no care for decency at the bay in terms of clothing.

Wearing a near-transparent pajama set, she appeared as if she had clad her body in clear jellyfish.

"As long as you stay with me nobody's gonna cause any issues, they still think I'm a pirate too and my father used to have a reputation there so that should help us stay out of trouble too," as much as I tried to convince them, there was one small thing that did worry me to no end.

Perhaps noticing a flicker of hesitance in my eyes, Linkle tilted her head and questioned.

"Hmm? Are you sure?"

"I am…" I replied, and that was the end of the conversation as sooner or later, these bastards will know the truth anyway.