Mayonaize Shrimp

RAW: http://ncode.syosetu.com/n6073cm/15/

I changed Count into Earl because the machine kept translating it as Earl and I kept forgetting to change it into Count.

I was almost done with the chapter before I realized it, so I said ‘fuck it’ and kept it as Earl.

Here’s chapter 14

Earl Allan guided us to a gorgeous mansion… no… it’s a security faculty for the Chivalric Order. He seemed to hate useless luxury.
Even so, the furniture looked expensive, Barbarossa told me later that there were a few famous things that rarely seen even among aristocrats.
It’s the first time we were surrounded by so many treasures.
I wonder if this guy used all of them.

「We humbly thank you for helping Viscountess Adelhide Bernstein of Valentine Kingdom, a friend of Saint Drag Kingdom」(TL: Can someone paraphrase it?)

Sadly, the place is no more.
Adelle were actually a noble of a destroyed country.
Everyone from the Pirates of the Round Table were surprised. Both Barbarossa and Roxas as well. The only exception was Claudia.

「The Valentine Kingdom only cares about your competence so even a woman can be a noble」

「Then why didn’t you tel-」

「Iyaa, I think it would be more interesting if I kept it a secret」

Claudia was laughing happily.

(TL: I don’t think this is important but here’s the raw. クローディアは気楽に自分に接してくれたアデルの事を気に入り、アデルもまた同じ捕まった仲とでもいうのか。事実を知っても特に畏まったりせずに気楽に接してくれるクローディアの事を気に入って二人とも友人のような感じになっていた。)

「Count Alan, I am not a viscountess anymore. Both my parents died and our kingdom was destroyed. Now I am only Adelhide Bernstein. A vampire knight of a lost kingdom, and a member of Pirates of the Round Table」

「I see… What about… your people?」

「I fought against the Empire to let them escape but… most of them fell. I think I am the only surviving True Vampire…」

「Even so, I am glad that we can meet you in safe condition. The King will be pleased」

Earl Allan smiled brightly. The knight finally smiled after knowing Adelle was safe. (TL: help pls… 最初であった時は凛々しいまさに武人という感じだったのだが余程Adelleが無事だったのが嬉しいのかもしれない。)
Did Adelle know the King personally? We just saved an unexpected character.

After Adelle finished her story, Earl Allan faced me.
While trying not to be frightened by his gaze, I tried to look a bit more ‘dignified’.

「We need to ask something from the Pirates of the Round Table」

「Okay, go on…」 (TL: taking some liberty here)

「You told us that you escaped from the Empire, can you tell us anything that you know about the Empire’s current state of affair? Of course we had placed spies in the Empire but we need every information from every source」

「I understand. I will tell you everything we know」

Since Earl Allan knew Adelle personally,
I think it’s alright to share information with him.

***

Since it will take some time, I ordered everyone else to go shopping.
The remaining ones are Barbarossa, Claudia, Adelle, and me.

I started my report.
I was summoned from another world.
Then sent to prison and couldn’t use magic.
Saw a number of battleships.
It had just attacked somewhere and brought back a large number of prisoners of war.
Then I blew up a majority of battleship when I escaped.

The Earl blew his drink at the moment I told the last point.

「Wait wait wait, can you repeat it once more? I think I heard it wrong… I thought I heard you destroying hundreds of ships and more」

「I didn’t really count it, but there were huge ships… maybe it was a frigate. There were about 120 of them. And about 40 of the smaller sized ones… I think they’re called Caravel. I just put a little gimmick on their hull, but I failed to wreck some of them. Most of them sink instantly when as they exploded. But at least some of them wrecked and became useless」

「Big boss, we encountered a fleet on the way out」

Barbarossa added my report from my back. I totally forgot about it.

「And then we sank down 3 vessels that we encountered on our escape and a prisoner ship. We let the prisoners take one of the ship and headed east. The last surviving ship was sending the soldiers back home. We also gave them a warning that if we meet them again, there will be no second chance」

Earl Allan and Adelle were both stunned by my report.

「How did he sink those fleet…」
「Realy… the fleet that destroyed my home…」

They muttered like they were amazed.

「I wanted to say ‘Company Secret’, but in reality I summoned a bunch of monsters with explosion ability and attached them to their hull. Then I ordered them to explode at the same time」(TL: In case you didn’t catch it, he lied about how the bombs work to make it more believable)

Earl Allan was running the feather pen in full speed to record everything I said.
I only could see a bit of it, but his writing is tidy. (TL: ‘Beautiful writings’… what the hell was I thinking?)

「I see… No one expects underwater attack. If Masaki-dono can dive that long, it will take time but it’s possible. But how did you breathe?」

「I made air using wind magic. It’s not hard to keep air in one place」

「To be able to use magic like that… It would be easy for Masaki who can fly in the sky like the report said」

I didn’t lie. I heard from the twins that air can be kept like that.
I just didn’t use it since I can breathe underwater.
I think that summoning 【Time Bomb】 may also be possible.

「Where does the prisoners came from?」

「Since I was kept in prison, I don’t know about it. The only thing that I saw from a distance was beastmen who looked like wolves and beastmen with cat-like tail」

「I see… So maybe they are from the south」

The south is an area with a lot of beastmen population, it was also said that their country were also destroyed.

Then I reported to Earl Allan what I known for a long time.

Barbarossa fought with the Empire along with the pirates from the south.
Pirates in these parts fought hand in hand with the Empire, the weak pirates anchored and ended up became bandits and thieves.

Adelle was taken as prisoner after losing a war with the Empire.

Claudia was taken prison while fighting as an adventurer near the Empire.

A butler came in while we were reporting and served us cakes and tea.
I usually don’t drink tea, but it was really delicious.
The tea cakes were delicious as well… but my cookie from cooking skill 【Taste Essence】 was still better. How far will this skill goes?

When all the talks were over, the sun was set and it was evening.

「Thank you for your information today. I think that I will head to the kingdom tomorrow to report my data, will you come with me?」

「Of course. If you accompany an Earl, you can enter the Kingdom without difficulty. There’s no way I would refuse」

I bowed politely.
Courtesy is important so I kept using it, especially in modern society.
Even as a Big Boss, I can’t act freely like a pirate even among the nobility.

「I had arranged some accommodation for you to rest on your stay. Since the Kingdom is cold, I had prepared some warm clothes for you」

「I will gladly take that offer」

「For you who destroyed the Empire’s naval force, it is just a small appreciation for what you did. There will be a proper prize from his Majesty later. You should expect it」

***

This way, we are acquainted with Earl Allan and we got some luxurious accommodation that he offered.

After a while, the people who went out to shop came back to inn.
It seemed the place were too pretentious and we were stopped by the guard. Thankfully Adelle were able to explain the situation to the guard and we could enter the building.
People always willing to listen to a beautiful woman. That guard, his eyes were fixed to her chest.

After the others were back, we explained what happened with the Earl.
Earl Allan said that if we do well, we might became a pirate directly under the kingdom.

「Is it okay to not enter the marine?」

「If we get in, we need to discipline ourselves and cooperate with other people. If that happened, we won’t be able to fight freely like before and we will suffer from complaints if the marines are suddenly increased. The Earl-sama understand it」

Barbarossa replied to Roxas’ question.

Pirates should act like pirates, and that is for the best.
The one who protect the country are marines.
Us pirates fight in the sea as rogue.
There’s no need to go beyond the light and darkness.

「Yosh, you guys. It’s time to sleep」

「「「Osh!!!」」」

I ordered everyone to sleep. Even so, I allowed them to drink lightly, but we have to go to the kingdom tomorrow. Some of them went to drink and the others went into the luxurious bed to sleep immediately.

Barbarossa was gulping down the liquor and Roxas was there to keep him from going too drunk. When the time comes he will stop by himself, so I think it’s alright.
And so, we recharged ourselves in the luxurious inn.

We got 2 new friends joining the Pirates of the Round Table.

The first one is a vampire knight. Adelhide Bernstein.
She is a True Vampire.

She could fly in the sky like a vampire, compress mana, throw it like a lance, and change it’s shape into a sword to fight. It’s more like a skill. Although she had little magical talent, it seemed that she had great perception ability.

She had silver hair and golden eyes. Her style is great, and her breast are relatively large. Her slender legs are attractive. Her skin didn’t look like vampire’s, she looked like any ordinary people under the sunlight. She is indeed a beauty.

The other one is Claudia Fyura, who fell in love with my idiot sofa and the other furniture in the 『Room』. I think she took interest in me. It’s scary to imagine that she might dissect me for the sake of it.
(TL: previously, I translate dame sofa as sofa. I think that this sofa will be a recurring villain who strips people from their productivity, so I will start translate it as idiot sofa. The softness turns people into idiots)

She is good at using magic with tags.
When I asked her about it, she put a note with a pattern on the ground and a small earth golem emerged from the ground. She said that the golem can change depending on the material.
She could make a lot of small sized golems, but only a few person-sized golems. It seemed that the ability was limited by mana.
Instead, she could make 50 smaller ones.
Her power seemed to be useful for human-wave tactics.

Regarding other magic, she can use every common magic except light and dark attribute.
Her 【Water Magic】 can heal but not as much as my 【Healing Magic】, but it can recover to some extent.

It’s nice to have a healer with ability to summon golems in the group.
She was also familiar with magic artifact, so I’ll ask her to identify them if I managed to procure one.
She had blond hair and regular sized chest. When she looked beautiful when she was calm, but her image was ruined by the idiot sofa which brought the ugliness in her heart. But overall, she’s a friendly person.

We couldn’t force the other slaves to join us. There were also small children, so we can’t invite them aggressively.
They didn’t seem to be from the Kingdom so I’ll ask the guards in the Satellite City near here. And let’s hand over these slave ship as well.
The idea of slavery isn’t really that bad, but there are a lot of cases where orphans are kidnapped and turned into slaves. It was illegal in many countries.
The only exception is the Empire.

(The slaves themselves are not bad. People sell themselves to support their family. Besides, criminal slaves are also a form of punishment)

Families who are too poor and can’t live without selling themselves are common in ancient Japan. If slavery was forbidden, the entire family will starve to death or worked to the bone with low wages.

I’d rather be a slave. At least I have something to eat.

There are a few people who thinks like that.
The issue also leads to employment problems. There will be an influx of cheap workers.
In modern times, there are many companies who worked their employees 24 hours 365 days with low wages and no holiday breaks.
As a result, there were some cases where simple slavery would be better.

We changed our route to satellite city Schutzwald at once. To help the slaves and turn in the slave ship crews. And since our food stock were dwindling at amazing pace, I wanted to refill it before we arrived to the Kingdom.

On the other hand, what do I do until we arrive?………studying.

「Well then Masaki-dono, let’s start the test」

「Please do」

「Let’s begin the first test. Good luck, Masaki」

「Don’t say it while sinking in the idiot sofa……」

Claudia is giving me a test while enjoying herself on the sofa. She had coffee on one hand.
It’s my first test in years. The school days are so far away, in term of years and dimensions.
The reason why I studied is simple. I never buy anything in this world yet.

I never had the chance.
Being summoned to another world, sent into a prison, arranging a prison break.
Destroying war vessels and became a leader of pirates.
Party hard and capturing a random slave ship.
And now, returning former slaves and turning in slave ship crews.

In other words, I need to be able to read and write in the city.
Initially, I was thinking about asking the pirates to teach me but they are useless.
Roxas can barely read numbers. He said that he remembered everything in order to not getting scammed when trading.

But now we have Claudia and Adelle. Even though they were one of demon-kin, both of them had education because they’re acting as a scholar and a knight.
(TL: someone help pls… 魔が付くが学者という事や騎士っぽい振る舞いをしているから教養があると思い頼んでみたのだ。)
Both of them happily gave me an OK.

Education is power.
Students need to study hard.
But remember to play.
As a GM I just want to say that you need to study hard and play harder.

This world’s character is similar to katakana so it’s hard to see but relatively easy to remember.
With this I do not understand Cyrillic letters or translations If it is a stylist it should be a lot hard to memorize.
(TL: I’m at loss with this one. これでキリル文字とか訳が分からん文体だったら覚えるのに相当苦労するはず。)
The numbers were Roman numerals. It was easy so I didn’t have any trouble about it since the first day.
At first, I had trouble with the complicated letters and get a lot of wrong answers, this went on for days, and it ends today on the graduation exam.

「………Yosh, I finished reviewing. Please grade it」

The listening test is over, I handed the thin wooden board that substitute exam paper to Adelle.
Adelle couldn’t stop staring at the board as she received it.
Next to her, Claudia fell from to the sofa.
Her coffee was spilt.
Oy don’t waste the coffee!

「……It’s perfect score. It’s amazing, Masaki-dono. Have you been educated somewhere?」
(TL: She was asking if Masaki was ever gone some kind of education somewhere, but I was struggling to form the question in English)

「In my previous world, my country gave aids for education so every children can read and write. The numbers are same so I don’t have any trouble with it. The letter were also similar to the ones in the previous world so if I can understand them if I put some effort」

Then I proceed to tell them that I was summoned from another world.
I was the leader of these pirates and I don’t want to keep my past as a secret among them. But my abilities were a different matter.
I haven’t told anyone about 【Invicibility】 yet. It’s too dangerous to disclose this information.

「I-I see… So that’s why you can get perfect score on the numerical test」

Claudia managed to rise from the sofa.
Has the sofa prison’s effect weakened?

「Is this enough to shop around the city?」

「It should be alright. This is enough to be employed as a staff in the castle. Your writing is beautiful and easy to read」

The literacy rate of the people in this world is low. People like Roxas, farmers, and general public couldn’t even read and write letters.
Although there are educational facilities to study, they are expensive so only nobles and aristocrats can afford them.
On the other hand, I was taught by the beautiful Adelle-sensei for free.

「The writings should be beautiful. Writing speed is important but it’s useless if no one can read it」

「I heard the same thing from civil workers. Even if it’s not an important document, you should write it as beautiful as possible」

It seems that this world is quite similar. In my workplace, there was a guy who placed too much importance on speed and we were overwhelmed by unreadable documents.
No one can decipher his “encryption”, that includes colleagues and seniors.

I savor a cookie after the test.
The two women enjoyed their cookie in relaxed manner.
Using a culinary skill 【Taste Essence】, I can make a very delicious meal. This tastes great. However, if I do this too many times I would get stuck in the kitchen, so I only applied it to simple dishes.

We were having an elegant break time in the 『Room』 when someone shouts from the outside.

「Big Boss. We can see the city! It’s Schutzwald!」

A voice came from an underling who was watching.

「Schutzwald? What kind of city is it?」

「Well, it’s a city under Kingdom’s protection, it’s main commodity is fishery and commerce. There are soldiers  from the Kingdom assigned there so the security is good」

「Are they fine with pirates?」

Since I had never anchored at a harbor, I don’t know if they accept pirates.
I’m going to leave this to Barbarossa. They made me into Big Boss without my permission, so I think they shouldn’t complain about me giving orders.

「Soldiers won’t take a move unless a crazy situation occurs」

「On the other hand, if there are anyone running rampage, pirates will help the soldier? Pirates are important customers」

Claudia stretched her hand to reach the last cookie, but Adelle snatch it away in a heartbeat.

「Aaa!」

「First come first serve!」

The knight has no mercy.

「Anyway, please don’t worry about it. Let them handle the slave children and the slave ship crews」

「That would be better. Even if we do a good deed. If you turn in the slave ship crews on them, there will be bounties」

「It’s nice to have gold,  but it’s not nice to be targeted」

「Masaki would turn the tables on them, though. As far as I can see, that sword has more power than an artifact」

So Claudia could understand just by looking at it. Obviously, this is a good sword.
It’s basically a boss weapon. The idea is to make players grind all day long for this weapon.
It’s sad to think about a boss monster trying to stay alive from the hunters.
I’m the kind of person who would hunt them for days.

「If you understand, then don’t spread the news about it」

「I know. Usually it’s taboo to spread information about legendary smith or craftsman. In the worst case, we might get some bounties instead」

「Then I can rest easy」

Being targeted for a weapon is troublesome. I’m fine with it, but it’s better not to cause any problem.

We got out of the 『Room』 and went out to the deck to look at the city.
There are a lot of ships anchored, proving the richness of the trading port city.
There was a big ship that was different from the Empire’s in the distance.

(Is that… a galleon?)

A dragon was drawn on the mast.
There are several of them. As far as I can see, there were no less than 10 ships.
But the Empire is still specialized in abnormal naval strength.

(If their ships came here, this city will fall as well)

Suddenly a small boat was headed to us. A soldier could be seen on board.
Roxas noticed it first, so he approached him and started talking.

「What are they talking about?」

「He asked if why we were carrying Empire’s slave ship behind us」

Roxas helped the soldier to turn the ship around and Paddle used his wind magic to assist.
Separating the slave ship and brought it to the military.

As we wait for the slave ship to be released, we docked to a vacant berth and several soldiers came to us.

「Are you the pirates that rescued these slaves?」

A red soldier cried out.
His plate armor and shield had the same dragon emblem as the galleon mast.

「Yes. That’s right. I hope that you will take care of them from here… is that okay?」

「Of course. Those we can identify will be returned to their hometown. Those who became orphans are protected here under the name of the Kingdom」

The protection here includes the search for foster parents and simple work at some facilities, just like the previous world.
Most of maids and manservant comes from these facilities.
There are some underdeveloped areas in the kingdom and they might get sent there, at least they got wage and won’t starve to death. These were what I heard from the soldier.
If they feel like it, they are allowed to go as adventurers.
But doing so will remove any protection provided by the Kingdom. The Kingdom doesn’t protect adventurers.

「I understand. Please wait for them to get off」

「Do you have injured or sick people?」

「Everyone is healthy. We had healed their minor injuries」

「Really? I really appreciate it」

I didn’t say how I healed them. I’d like to keep 【Healing Magic】 as confidential as possible.

We gave a small pouch to each slaves that leaving the ship.
The contents were freshly baked cookies and their recipe.
I also drawn the cooking method in case they couldn’t read the letters.
Just think of them as souvenirs.

「Thank you very much! Big Boss-san!」

「Open the contents later. Don’t sell them or get robbed」

「Un!!」

The children answered in cheerful tone and the adults lowered their head as they told us their appreciation.

I never thought that this will be one of the town specialties in the future.

As everyone got off the ship, Roxas and Paddle came back with soldier wearing a fine armor.
Is he one of the higher-ups?
The soldiers salutes him.
I felt a bit nervous, but let’s keep it for ourselves.
Don’t get intimidated.

「Are you the leader of this pirates, Masaki?」(TL: he ends with Masaki kane, I don’t know if it’s a honorifics or not)

「Yes, I am. I am Masaki, the Big Boss. And you are?」

「I am the leader of St. Gran Kingdom’s Chivalric Order, Mark Alan. I’d like to thank you for releasing the slaves and capturing the slave ship」

The leader came. He may be quite a big-shot.

「Don’t worry about it. I did this is because I dislike the Empire」

「But still, I heard that you are a pirate, but you really don’t look like one. If I had to say, you have a very unusual air」

You can discover if someone is a pirate just by talking to them?
This guy is pretty sharp.

「You are right. Masaki is the one who rescued me who was caught by the Empire,  Count Alan」(TL: 伯爵 means either count or earl. I go with count unless someone disagrees)

Adelle said it braggingly while descending from the ship.

「Adelhide!? You are safe… thank god… We thought that all hope is lost when the Valentine Kingdom was taken down by the Empire…」

So he really is a big-shot.
And my colleague got acquainted with this great man.