“Hieee, Your Highness, please drive safely!”
“Is this the time to be saying that?!”
I managed to evade the relentless pursuit of the pirate’s cannonballs while performing emergency maneuvers.
“Damn it! There are too many of them!”
Five medium-sized airships were closing in on our small boat.
“Why can’t we fire back?!”
The combative Lisha inquired.
“We don’t have such things stocked on this ship!”
Cannons are heavy and not typically found on small vessels.
“Then ram into them! Let’s engage in close combat!”
“Are you crazy?! If we ram, we’ll hit their defensive barrier and be done for!”
The airships had a defensive barrier surrounding our vessel.
Without it, we couldn’t access the deck, and wooden ships couldn’t withstand the aerial winds.
“Your Highness! More cannonballs incoming—Ahh!!”
“Argh!”
“Damn it!”
The pirate’s cannonballs struck the defensive barrier of our ship.
The impact shook our bodies, destabilizing our stance.
“It’s over! Rather than being captured by pirates and dishonored!”
Maria drew a knife and, without hesitation, pressed it against her own neck.
“You fool! It’s too early to give up!”
Lisha took the knife from Maria.
“G-Give it back… Ouch!”
Maria tried to retrieve the knife from Lisha but was smacked on the head by her.
“Keep quiet! Lloyd, can we escape?!”
“Our ship is faster, but their cannon fire seems quicker in bringing us down. Lucky us. We won’t face dishonor.”
A crash was imminent.
“I don’t want this! I don’t want to die in a crash! I want to be surrounded by children and grandchildren, dying peacefully in bed!”
That sounds good to me too.
“What about your magic?!”
“I have it, but in that case, I can’t maintain the defensive barrier.”
Even for me, handling the airship and the defensive barrier was a challenge.
“So?”
“Being shot down is a matter of time.”
Regrettable…
“Hey!! Do something, Black Prince! What’s the point of your dark magic?! I don’t intend to die a virgin!! I want to have children! I want to leave descendants!!”
A noisy holy lady…
“What’s the plan?!”
Lisha inquired.
“In this situation, we have no choice but to land.”
“Land?! If we stop, we’re sitting ducks, aren’t we?!”
To land, we had to keep moving.
Usually, that’s how you descend.
“A sliding landing.”
“Can we do it?”
“That’s our only option. Pirates won’t pursue us to the ground, and if they do, we can handle them.”
“Alright! Close combat it is!”
I doubt that.
I don’t know why they targeted such a small boat, but pirates usually attack, plunder cargo and women from surrendering ships. While pirates are skilled at operating ships, their individual strength is weak, so a landed ship is vulnerable and not likely to be attacked.
“Grab onto me!”
I instructed, as Lisha embraced my upper body and Maria clung to my lower body.
“Brace for impact!”
I said, steering the ship downwards.
The boat tilted downwards.
“Ahh! We’re falling! We’re leaking!!”
Such a noisy bunch…
“Close combat, close combat, close combat…”
Lisha is intimidating in her own way.
“Here we go!”
As the ground or rather the forest came into view, I diverted the magical power I had been using to operate the airship to reinforce the defensive barrier.
The ship started hitting trees, the impact growing stronger rapidly.
Then, an immense impact hit us, a sensation as if everything in our stomachs was about to come out, and I realized my consciousness was fading.
***
“Your Highness, wake up, Your Highness.”
I woke up with a sensation of being shaken.
Opening my eyes, I saw a black-haired girl peering worriedly at my face.
“Maria… Where’s your hood?”
Maria used to wear the hood that nuns wear, but now her long black hair was visible.
“It’s not a hood, it’s a wimple! I threw it away because it caught fire.”
It caught fire…
I sat up, looking around at Maria and the surroundings.
Maria’s nun attire was tattered with holes all over.
The surroundings were littered with fallen trees and scattered wood.
A small airship emitting smoke could be seen a few dozen meters ahead.
“We landed safely…”
“It’s not safe, it’s a crash…”
If it’s a crash, we wouldn’t be alive.
“Ouch…”
I instinctively held my arm due to the pain.
“Please don’t move yet. I applied healing magic, but your arm and leg were broken.”
Seriously…
“The painful ones are your right arm, held by Lisha, and your right leg, clung to by you.”
Isn’t it your fault?
“I-It’s just your imagination. Anyway, I’ll apply healing magic again… Heal!”
With an uneasy expression, Maria waved her hand towards me, using healing magic.
Gradually, the pain subsided.
“Wow! Truly a holy lady.”
“Hehe, do you think so?”
She always seems humble but never denies a compliment…
“What about Lisha? Is she under the ship?”
It’s just me and Maria in this place.
“She’s not under the ship… well, she woke up before Your Highness, looked around, took Your Highness’s sword, and said she was going to check the surroundings.”
Upon hearing that, I scanned the area again.
All I saw were trees.
This is definitely a forest.
“Where did she go?”
“I’m not sure. I tried to stop her, saying I might get lost, but I had to heal Your Highness. Before I knew it, she was gone.”
Can’t she stick with the group?
“Sigh… What about the pirates?”
“I don’t see anything. No signs at all.”
Maria glanced upward.
Surrounded by trees, only the sky was visible from here.
“The airship probably couldn’t land in the forest, so they likely gave up. But why did they attack us? Attacking a small boat like this seems pointless.”
“Worse case, the cost of the cannonballs might exceed the loot.”
“Who knows what goes on in the minds of pirates.”
I have no idea.
“Anyway, when Lisha returns, let’s exit the forest.”
“Alright. By the way, Your Highness. Where are we?”
“I have no idea.”
“Huh… Could it be, though unlikely, that we’re lost?”
Seems like the only explanation.
Seriously, where are we even?
