Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 183

183―――――

We need to get out of here!

That was Pirate Crew Member 1’s thought, as he wished he was just having a nightmare.

The sight of the pirate ship that had been sailing right next to them just moments ago turning into a blazing inferno was a spectacle that left everyone dumbfounded.

It was daytime, but the flames were so intense that he, along with the other pirates, even the veteran sailors and the boatswain, could only stare in disbelief as the ship that had been sailing alongside them transformed into a massive blaze.

But the fire-watching was short-lived, as it didn’t take long for them to realize that their own ship was the next target.

“W-what the…

Shit!”

The captain, the boatswain, the veteran sailors, and the greenhorn sailors were all losing their minds and scrambling about.

How many people could stay sane when a fireball suddenly dropped from the sky out of nowhere!

Kyak!

Yes, that sound!

That’s the sound!

Seconds after hearing that hideous screech, a pillar of fire erupted!

The pirate sailors frantically scanned the sky, trying to find the source of that bizarre sound.

However, they couldn’t help but panic, as nothing had ever targeted and attacked them from the ‘sky’ before.

As the screech echoed once more, the pirates finally looked up.

And soon after, they could see something flapping its wings, circling and hovering around them.

“W-what is that!

A seagull?”

“You moronic bastard!

The nearest island is more than a day away, what seagull are you talking about!”

“What nonsense are you spouting! Of course there could be seabirds!”

“You sons of bitches! Is this the time to be arguing about that!”

It doesn’t matter if it’s a seagull or a seabird.

What matters is that two flying creatures were circling above the pirate ship like eagles eyeing dying prey, looking for an opening.

Whatever those things were, one thing was certain: something invisible had suddenly appeared, and a ship sailing next to them had vanished in flames.

“U-uh oh! W-why is that getting bigger?”

“W-what is that… That doesn’t look like a bird?”

Due to the nature of pirates living in the middle of the sea, they rarely had experience with flying monsters.

Even monsters needed a place to rest their wings, so most of them stayed close to land or islands.

Moreover, they had rarely seen a creature suddenly dive like that.

What bird would plummet straight down onto a ship?

They would just glide leisurely, land on the mast for a moment to rest, and then leave.

But those weren’t birds; they weren’t creatures looking for a place to rest.

They were true hunters, with eyes wide open, scouring the sea for pirate ships to prey on.

“You moronic bastards! That thing is coming down to the ship!”

“Arrows! What are you doing! Shoot, shoot them!”

Still, not all the pirates were fools. The boatswain and the captain, who had seen their fair share, sensed that it was not approaching with good intentions and desperately shouted for arrows to be fired.

However, the creature diving towards the pirate ship was far beyond the level that arrows could hit in the first place.

It might have been possible if it were gliding slowly, but it was plummeting from above at an incredible speed.

If they shot arrows upwards, they wouldn’t go far and would just lose momentum and fall back down, or the pirates might even get hit by their own arrows.

Above all, the griffins’ descent speed was too fast for them to react.

Kyak!

A screech as if telling them to go to hell echoed, and immediately after, two massive fireballs flew straight towards the pirate ship.

The captain gritted his teeth and tried to avoid them, but the fireballs flying towards the ship were so fast that they would be right in front of them in the blink of an eye.

No ship in this world could avoid a bombardment that had already been aimed.

Kwaaaang!

Another massive pillar of fire erupted, and sparks scattered in all directions.

Some came from the fireballs, but others were pieces of wood from the deck or parts of the sail that had been blown away by the force of the explosion as the fireballs pierced through the deck and detonated.

“Aaaagh!”

Some were engulfed in flames, their bodies burning alive beyond help, while others rolled on the deck or jumped into the sea to put out the fire on their bodies.

Shouts to put out the fire rang out from everywhere, but it was nearly impossible to control those who had already fallen into a panic.

Since the two fireballs had fallen straight from above, it was only natural that the flames spread to the entire deck, including the sails, and the fires that had broken out inside after piercing through the deck were consuming all the trade goods that the pirates had plundered.

“Put out the fire first, you pathetic bastards!”

“If we can just put out the fire, we can still sail! Don’t panic, put out the fire, you vermin!”

The ship was on fire, and some of the deck was destroyed, but the entire ship was not engulfed in flames.

The fire was on the front sails and part of the deck, so if they quickly extinguished the fire and raised the spare sails, they could escape from here!

In other words, if they could somehow put out the fire, they could return to their base, repair the ship, and report this situation, or so the veteran sailors and the captain thought.

But conversely, if the fire couldn’t be put out, they would eventually have to abandon the ship.

And the griffin riders under Zion’s command were well aware of that.

“Hey, Best! Looks like they’re trying to hold on somehow!”

“No way! Dickinson! Remember what Master Confucius said!”

A man riding on the back of Phantom, a griffin that looked a bit worse than the others but had tremendous strength, shouted to Dickinson, who was flying next to him.

Then Dickinson, the rider of the griffin ‘Corsair,’ grinned and raised his index finger.

“The only good pirate is a dead pirate!”

Hearing that, Best gave a thumbs up!

And then, together with his griffin ‘Phantom,’ he began to dive towards the burning pirate ship at an incredible speed.

Best was aiming for the stern, more precisely, the stern where the captain was at the helm.

However, the surprise attack had already been revealed, and the heat, light, and smoke caused by the flames on the pirate ship were all working against him.

His griffin could be injured by the flames, but Phantom didn’t seem to care, charging straight towards the pirate ship without the slightest fear.

Kuaaaak!

“…Alright, let’s do this right!”

Having received permission from the person in question, Best continued to dive until he reached the distance where he could inflict the most accurate and devastating damage.

Diving lower and faster than he usually trained, Best was soon able to accurately identify his target.

Although the smoke partially obscured his vision, he went even lower than the original attack point and visually confirmed the target, so he immediately tore the scroll and then ascended back into the air with his griffin.

Wheeeee!

At that moment, the captain of the pirate ship felt a chilling sensation.

He had lived as a pirate for quite a while, tasted a lot of blood [sword rice is likely a metaphor for a life of violence], so he could now sense danger to some extent.

Ah, something very bad is happening to me right now.

“…Oh, shit.”

Looking at the massive fireball flying straight towards his location, the captain uttered an expletive that was a mixture of admiration and lament.

And that was the last image the crew members remembered of their captain.

Kwaaaang!

The fireball that pierced through the sail struck the stern directly.

The only part of the ship that had been intact was once again engulfed in flames, and soon the entire ship was swallowed up in a crimson blaze, making it impossible for even the veteran sailors to hold on.

Eventually, the boatswain’s order to abandon ship was given, and the pirates were faced with the choice of burning to death or jumping into the deep sea with nothing.

After hesitating for a moment, the pirates decided that the deep blue sea was much better than that crimson monster and immediately began to jump into the sea.

“Jump!”

“Aaaagh!”

The burning ship and the trade goods they had struggled to steal were long forgotten.

Whether they drowned in the sea or became fish food, they desperately wanted to avoid being burned alive.

However, the monsters that had cruelly attacked them had no intention of letting those pirates go easily.

Kyak!

Another screech was heard from above as the two flying creatures circled in the sky.

At the sight of this, the pirates cursed and shouted for them to go away, but the griffin only responded with an even louder screech, as if telling them to shut up and wait for their deaths.

“B-boatswain… W-what do we do?”

The pirates, who were treading water without any floating objects, looked at what was once called a ‘ship’ but was now a giant bonfire, and gathered around the boatswain, whom they could still trust, and asked for a solution.

But the boatswain had no brilliant ideas.

What could they do when they were floating in the middle of the vast sea without even a plank of wood, let alone a ship?

At that moment, one of the pirates narrowed his eyes and looked at something before urgently opening his mouth.

“T-there! The end of a warship is visible!”

“…Isn’t that a Hispania ship? Shit! It’s the Hispania navy!”

Of course, the fact that it was a Hispania ship and not another pirate ship was a huge problem.

The pirates knew very well what kind of future awaited them if they were caught by the kingdom, so they wondered if they should try to escape, but they knew all too well that humans, who could only gain speed by swimming and were not affected by the wind at all, could not outpace a ship.

The appearance of the navy was scary enough, but what happened next was even more terrible.

It was simply a nightmare itself.

“W-what?”

“What is that, shit!”

The monsters made of fire were not attacking the kingdom’s ship; instead, they were gliding leisurely and approaching the warship.

As if responding to this, the Hispania ship lowered its sails and stopped, preparing to welcome the monsters.

They had thought it couldn’t be, but they were really bringing those terrifying monsters onto the ship!

The ship, which had briefly lowered its sails in the distance and accommodated all the monsters, raised its sails again and slowly began to glide towards the place where the pirates were struggling.

Thanks to this, the pirates, who could see the ship in more detail, forgot about their own situation for a moment and let out an absurd sigh at the sight of the ship’s appearance, which they could never have imagined.

Meanwhile, Zion was relieved that the accident he had feared had not occurred.

For example, the griffins failing to find the mothership and crashing into the sea, or attacking the pirates, or getting injured in the process of landing on the mothership.

‘The griffins are said to have a strong homing instinct to return to their nests. And I’ve made sure to mark them clearly so they can easily find the mothership.’

It had been two days since they had begun to hunt down and eliminate pirates in earnest.

They had left the port of Sardena much earlier, but they needed a little more time to familiarize the griffins with taking off and landing on the mothership.

In addition, Hemon and his crew, who had to operate a completely new type of ship, also needed a period of adaptation.

“…I still can’t believe it. To operate flying monsters like this.”

Duke Hemon shook his head as if he was fed up.

There had been times when they had captured flying monsters and tried to use them in various situations, but no one in the world had ever thought of operating them in the middle of the sea like this.

In addition, no one had ever thought of operating a ship that could accommodate, rest, and relaunch those flying monsters.

Zion smiled lightly and opened his mouth.

“Unfortunately, the effect won’t be that great. First of all, the number of griffins is too small, and on the other hand, the sea is too vast. The navy’s ships and griffin riders are constantly searching for pirate ships, but they’ve only captured a total of seven ships yesterday and today, haven’t they?”

“…”

Was he doing this on purpose, or was he really unaware?

Duke Hemon couldn’t help but react with disbelief.

Two days, just two days.

The time it took to attack and cripple or sink seven pirate ships.

Moreover, those seven ships were only the griffins’ achievements; if you add the pirate ships that they discovered and guided the navy ships to attack, the number would be well over double digits.

As Zion said, the sea is too vast.

Finding pirates in that vast sea is too difficult.

Even if they find pirates, they will also discover the kingdom’s ships, so instead of secretly ambushing them, they mostly had to catch up with them at speed and force a battle.

So the navy would say it was a good year if they caught more than five pirate ships in one voyage.

But this nobleman, Zion Claussen, operated griffins and even created a ship that could move with them, increasing the radius of operation and reconnaissance range several times over.

Thanks to this, unlike the past when they had to search for pirates by only looking at the horizon, they were able to secretly follow them while avoiding the pirates’ watchful eyes and deliver a fatal blow to enemies who were completely unprepared.

‘Why didn’t we think of this! Why didn’t we think of such an effective and amazing method…’

The fixed idea of seafarers that ships should look cool, and the fact that flying monsters cannot be active in the sea for a long time, must have combined to prevent anyone from coming up with such an idea.

He himself was no different, and Hemon Isik was full of doubts at first.

However, as the ripple effect was felt directly on his skin, the heir to the Isik family, who had been friendly to Zion from the beginning, now trusted and followed Zion completely.

‘No, no. We’re not the weird ones. Duke Zion is a genius. Unless he’s a genius, there’s no way he could come up with a way to clean up the sea in this way! A war hero! The kingdom’s saint! He’s truly Hispania’s future and lifeline!’

Hemon shuddered at the thought of being at odds with such a man.

Zion and Prince Erader didn’t seem to be on good terms, but could Prince Erader really become king?

With such a man as an enemy?

Would Zion Claussen really let that happen?

‘Absolutely impossible. The prince can never be king.’

Hemon shook his head.

He was sorry to his father, Count Bremen Isik, but Hemon himself could assure that Prince Erader would never become the next king.

“Duke Zion. What should we do with the pirates?”

Forcing himself to hide his true feelings, Duke Hemon asked Zion, who was quietly looking at the sea.

Zion smiled and replied in a voice that said it was obvious.

“Pull them all up.”

―――――――Author’s Note―――――――