Chapter 65

"Chase it!! It should be in the sea!!"

A voice echoed from the neighboring ship.

Right now, a ship is about to sink into the sea.

Several ships were heading towards it all at once.

I returned to the Mareas and gave the order to head to the scene.

"I'll speed up!"

Yuri said, and pulled the lever near the helm.

The sails of the Mareas swelled suddenly with a gust of wind.

The other ships, adjusting to the wind direction, took some time to gain speed.

However, our Mareas, powered by a wind magic device, started moving through the sea immediately.

"That ship... is it Prince Alex's ship?"

"His taste is bad, but it's quite fast."

We overtook the naval and noble ships, which were throwing such remarks, and rushed towards the ship that was already half-sunken.

When we arrived at the destination, the crew members were just escaping from the ship.

It seemed that more people couldn't get into the boats. Some were even drowning in their armor.

This isn't the time for searching the sea...

"Let's launch the boats. We need to rescue everyone."

"Yes! Everyone, lower the boats!"

At Yuri's command, the blue-haired people lowered the boats and headed to rescue the crew members.

I, in the meantime, looked at the ship that had already sunk, leaving only the mast visible.

"There were no noticeable external injuries on the part above the water... it must have been hit on the bottom."

Indeed, there were no signs of the crew being attacked.

It seems the purpose was simply to sink the ship.

I looked around the sea. There were no particularly high waves.

The other ships, thinking they weren't too far away, had started to spread out and search the area.

However, a dull thudding sound came from below the deck, as if something was hitting the ship from underwater.

Yuri exclaimed.

"Could it be... under our ship!?"

"I'll check below! I think we'll be fine with the 'Dark Wall' planks, but..."

The thudding sound stopped immediately.

After a while, one of the blue-haired people came from the lower deck.

"The bottom was hit in several places, but they gave up when they couldn't break through the 'Dark Wall'!"

It seems the ship was unharmed.

I immediately looked out over the sea from the deck.

There were no signs of a large object passing by.

The magical reaction... it's hard to grasp, maybe because of the fish, but there was no significant large reaction.

The enemy seems to be relatively small?

According to the blue-haired person on the bottom, they were hit in several places. There might be multiple attackers.

At that moment, another ship, a bit further away, suddenly started to rock violently.

After a while, it also began to sink.

"Again..."

Other ships rushed to the newly sinking ship.

But, as expected, they couldn't find the cause.

Yuri said, looking incredulous.

"It hasn't even been a minute since we heard the sound..."

"It seems to be moving through the sea at considerable speed."

Or, perhaps, there are multiple attackers moving in different directions.

"... Once we rescue the crew here, we'll head to the next location."

Everyone nodded at my words.

However, as we rushed there and started the rescue, another ship began to sink in a different place...

This cycle repeated, and five ships sank in no time.

The Mareas became crowded with the rescued crew members and nobles.

I asked Virtus to temporarily stop the search and let the rescued people disembark in the capital.

"Oh, Prince Alex... I can't express my gratitude enough!"

At the dock, the nobles were expressing their thanks as they disembarked.

"Don't worry about it... more importantly, how did your ships sink?"

"Suddenly, large holes appeared in the bottom of the ship... and it sank in an instant."

"Mine too."

I was asking the disembarking nobles and crew members about the cause of the sinking.

All the ships had holes in their bottoms and sank. The ships that had sunk before also seemed to have sunk this way.

After the nobles left, Elysia whispered beside me.

"It might be difficult without diving into the sea... but the sea is vast, even in the bay."

"It would be difficult to ambush them. It seems we have no choice but to use our ship as bait... but"

They might already realize that our ship is sturdy and won't sink.

They might be aiming to sink ships at any cost.

... No, is that really the case? If they want to hit the empire's economy, they could sink everything, including fishing boats, indiscriminately.

"... There's something I want to try."

"Something you want to try?"

I nodded at Elysia's words.

"Yes. Let's go out to sea again at night."

And so, we quietly set sail from the capital's dock in the middle of the night.