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chapter 4
Seamstress and kitchen assistant.
They called it “assistant,” but in truth, the cooking was practically all Rinka’s responsibility.
“Add sugar.”
“Why sugar?”
“Because it’s sweet.”
How on earth had this captain managed the cooking until now?
It wasn’t even a dessert, yet he wanted sugar in it. Then he’d say he wanted something greasy and insisted on frying everything, all while pestering her pointlessly at her side. In less than a day, he had become nothing more than an annoyance.
No matter how handsome he was, if he kept interfering while she worked, it was only troublesome.
“Grilled fish isn’t supposed to be sweet. And please, go outside.”
“Why? The cook before you said my face was a blessing.”
“Is that so? And what happened to that cook?”
“Who knows? I fed him to the sharks. If he was lucky, he might’ve survived.”
Rinka adapted to life on board faster than she’d expected. Though… hearing such terrifying words still gave her chills.
If she’d been dragged here against her will, she might have cried every day wanting to return home. But maybe because the lingering regret—Mecard Cader—that had kept her tied to the port even after her mother’s death had finally disappeared, life here was surprisingly bearable.
The ship, the Ghost Ship, was huge for a pirate vessel, yet had only nineteen crew members.
With Rinka, that made twenty.
Among them were three rare and precious magicians.
They took turns steering the ship with magic and lessening the effects of the waves.
“Magicians can do things like that?”
“We do it a little better than anyone else,” one of them, Mien, boasted.
She explained that some pirate crews had to row their ships themselves, unlike theirs.
Still… being on a ship is scary. If I fell into the sea…
She would have to flee through the water, where sea monsters might lurk.
If someone rescued her, they’d see the scales on her body, and then the pirates would demand to know what she really was.
And if even one of them knew what a mermaid was and what powers they possessed?
Rinka had heard things from sailors and merchants passing through the harbor.
They say pirates know everything about the sea.
About the monsters beneath the waves, the treasures, and the secrets hidden below.
If they knew so much about the ocean, would they really know nothing about mermaids?
In Cader, people barely spoke of them. But pirates—who could say?
“Seamstress, are you here? I’m doing laundry now, so bring anything you’ve got.”
“Oh, yes! Coming!”
Rinka tried not to wander far from the galley or storerooms.
Even if the waves were magically calmed, she still wasn’t used to the ship’s rocking, and walking steadily was hard.
And the pirates often fished from the deck, splashing seawater around, which made her nervous.
She’d only shown her scales twice, both times after being drenched completely in seawater. She still wasn’t sure exactly how much it took to reveal them.
If she’d known, she might have tested it beforehand.
When I was little, water splashed from the fish market and nothing happened, I think…
Anyway.
These men had nothing to do but lounge around, haul up fish, and polish weapons, yet they clamored for food all day.
The only good part was that, since Rinka had lived alone after her mother’s death at fifteen, she was treated here like a chef from a fine noble’s restaurant—at least aboard this hopeless ship.
And then…
“You use magic to do laundry?”
“Of course. How else would we wash clothes at sea? The men’s laundry gets done by the navigator and that idiot, but ours—I handle it.”
Mien, the magician who had been the youngest until Rinka joined, laughed and placed her hand above the washbasin.
The sky-blue gem on her ring glowed, releasing a refreshing aura.
“There. Done.”
“Wow…”
“Rinka, you were surprised last time too. Haven’t you ever seen a magician?”
“It’s not the first time I’ve seen one, but it’s the first time I’ve seen magic used. The magicians in Cader only worked at the lord’s manor, so someone like me never had a reason to meet them.”
She’d only glimpsed them from afar. Cader was a fairly safe place, so magicians were kept for emergencies, never for daily use.
“I wish I could learn magic too.”
“Haha, there’s a way to check if you have the talent. Try it when you’re back on land. You’ll be leaving soon anyway, right?”
“Oh, um… yes. Maybe next time, then.”
“Yeah, once we stop at Rabanto—”
But this was the part that bothered her.
The ship.
All the crew of the Ghost Ship were kind to Rinka, but they also drew a clear line.
“Captain, then will you put Maribel through the trials and take her as an official crew member?”
“No. Rinka will disembark the next time we dock.”
“…Next docking?”
“Yeah. We’ll stop by Rabanto first.”
She remembered the puzzled looks they’d given her, as if wondering why she’d been brought aboard at all.
And since they hadn’t even told her where this “Rabanto” was, it was clear they didn’t consider her a crewmate.
Rinka didn’t ask.
And really, it was right.
She was just an unwanted passenger who’d boarded to survive, and she would disembark soon.
She decided to accept that.
Once she got off, she’d never see them again anyway.
“…I should just get back to cooking.”
After Mien left, Rinka closed the laundry room door that had been left open and returned to the galley.
Because the crew handled the cleaning after meals, once she finished her stew, she had free time.
But Rinka never had much to do on the ship, so she simply killed time aimlessly.
“…What’s that?”
Today, the deck was unusually noisy.
Normally the pirates and Rinka kept their distance, so she rarely joined their chatter. But with such commotion, she grew curious and went to see.
The navigator stood near the railing, scanning the sea and sky in turn.
“Is something wrong?”
“Oh, Maribel. No, nothing serious. The waves are acting a little strange.”
“The waves?”
“Yeah. Suddenly there’s hardly any wind, and the waves just… stopped.”
He explained that, while they could force the ship to move with magic if needed, they didn’t want to waste mana. His expression was troubled.
Without oars, the ship could only move with magic once stopped.
Now that she thought about it, the ship hadn’t rocked much today. Since morning, it had been still enough for her to walk easily…
And now it was already midday.
“Don’t worry too much. The sea does this sometimes.”
“Sometimes…?”
“Haha, well, we have enough provisions, and there’s still plenty of time.”
“Yeah, even if we can’t move for a week, it’s fine.”
A week…?
That didn’t sound fine at all.
Maybe they were used to it, but Rinka didn’t want to be stranded in the middle of the open sea.
“We haven’t even entered the western waters yet, so the real problem is we don’t know why the waves stopped.”
“Usually it means sea monsters are messing around below… Rinka? Hey, I was joking.”
Her face paled, then relaxed, then paled again, which amused the pirates. Laughing, they clapped her on the shoulder.
“Don’t really worry. If it gets bad, the magicians will take turns moving the ship or conjuring wind.”
“Sure, the magicians will be worked half to death, but what can you do? The sea always does as it pleases.”
“…Does this happen often?”
“Not often—regularly.”
So she had to spend a whole week aboard, doing nothing?
Rinka still hated the sea. The lapping waves, the spray washing over the deck—it all terrified her.
And to be stuck here for a week, doing nothing?
Unthinkable.
Just as the last color drained from her face—
“Don’t scare the girl who knows nothing.”
A low, pleasant voice cut through the air.
