The voyage west continued smoothly, even with the mock battle between Ryo and Zack along the way.

Until they encountered it.

“Storm coming!”

The lookout’s shout sent tension racing through the entire ship.

“Ah. Right. This was a thing...”

“We can keep monsters away, and we can turn pirates back on themselves, but storms are another matter.”

Ryo and Abel were both grimacing.

A thought occurred to Abel, and he asked Ryo, “Does this ship have any mechanism for dealing with storms?”

“No.”

Ryo answered with a look of deep regret.

“For a ship, a storm is the greatest nuisance of all, isn’t it? And yet there is nothing?”

“It certainly is a nuisance, but at the same time, there is nothing you can do about it.”

Ryo answered with a small shake of his head.

“The energy in a storm... well, its force, I suppose, is not something humans can do anything about. In the face of it, all you can do is pray it passes before the damage grows too serious. Humans are always powerless before the fury of nature.”

“I see. Still, I would like to avoid having the sails or masts break.”

Abel had experienced storms at sea.

Twice, in fact.

Those storms were what had washed him ashore in Ryo’s forest.

“Yes... yes, that is true.”

Ryo thought.

Skidbladnir had already furled every sail.

That was how every sailing ship dealt with a storm.

But there was nothing to be done about the three enormous masts.

For a sailing ship caught in a storm, capsizing was the most frightening outcome.

The next was damage to the masts.

A mast that broke in the middle of a storm could damage the ship’s equipment.

Worse still, even after the storm had passed, if the masts were broken, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the sails could no longer be set.

What did one do if a mast was damaged?

If the broken mast remained, or could be recovered, it would be reconnected... though one had to accept that it would look somewhat ungainly and its strength would be reduced.

And if an island or some other land was found along the way, they would procure wood there and carve out a new mast themselves.

The sea was a harsh world.

Was there not some good way to prevent that?

Ryo thought.

What entered his field of vision was a red old man and a coffin.

“A coffin... put it in a box... wrap it in a box... Ah. Maybe...”

Something flashed through Ryo’s mind.

“What is it, Ryo?”

“Yes. If all we need to do is keep it from breaking... I think we can manage something.”

“Truly?”

Abel seized on Ryo’s mutter.

In recent days, that had become a rare thing.

Abel knew what happened when a ship was swallowed by a storm.

He had experienced it firsthand on the smuggling ship.

If that could be avoided...

“We’re going to Captain Paulina.”

“Naturally. If that is possible, I would very much like to ask it of you.”

“The rocking is caused by the swell of the sea, so that part will be difficult...”

“No, preventing damage alone would be a blessing.”

When Ryo explained, Paulina thought for a short while, then accepted the proposal.

“Then I’ll begin. <Ice Wall Package>.”

When Ryo chanted, a wall of ice covered the whole of Skidbladnir.

The entire ship, more than one hundred meters from end to end.

In that instant, the fierce wind blowing across the deck stopped.

“Oh...”

Even Paulina let out a voice of surprise.

It would be no exaggeration to say she had spent most of her life aboard ships, but even she had never experienced anything like this.

Nor was she the only one.

The crew members who had been bustling about the deck in preparation for the storm also stopped in surprise.

Then they looked up at the sky.

They realized it.

The storm had not passed.

Something had enveloped them and was protecting them with overwhelming power.

“Yes, with this, we should be fine. However, Your Grace... forgive me for asking, but how long will your mana last?”

“Ah... let me think. If it is only maintaining <Ice Wall>, then I think two or three days should be all right.”

“Oh.”

“That’s amazing.”

Paulina and Abel were both astonished by Ryo’s answer.

Even Abel, who had known him for a long time, found that beyond what he had imagined.

Yes, even Abel, who usually settled most things with “because it’s Ryo,” found maintaining an ice wall of this scale for three days to be...

“Are you truly all right?”

Enough that he asked Ryo again despite himself.

“Who do you think I am? ‘Reckless one, thy name is Ryo.’ Leave it to me.”

“I don’t quite understand that, but recklessness is exactly what I do not want.”

“Well, truly, if it’s only maintaining it, I’ll be fine. It’s just one layer of <Ice Wall>, after all.”

Ryo took the matter on.

And Skidbladnir was swallowed by the storm.

Skidbladnir was tossed about by waves as tall as a several-story building.

In the distinguished guest room at the stern, two noble personages were speaking with blue faces from seasickness.

“As long as <Ice Wall> is there... the ship won’t be damaged... and it won’t sink either.”

“That alone is incredible. This rocking, though...”

“Unless we float up off the surface... there’s no helping this rocking... Float? With <Water Jet>... making the whole ship float... should be possible in principle... but is it a bit too large? If we make one attempt... and fail, everyone falls together? In the spirit of ‘nothing is scary if everyone falls together’... shall we try it?”

“No. Stop.”

From a risk-hedging perspective, Abel stopped Ryo’s spirit of challenge.

“If Golden Hind could do it... then there is no reason Skidbladnir cannot...”

“That one was designed and built... as a flying ship... The starting point is different...”

“Damn it... Someday, Skidbladnir too will be refitted... as an aerial clipper ship...”

“If it can sail... several thousand kilometers...”

Because the ship was rocking so violently and both of them were horribly seasick, Abel and Ryo’s conversation came in broken fragments.

“Oh, right, Ryo.”

“Yes?”

“Say what you just said in the Dark Continent language.”

“Eh...”

A sudden special remedial lesson in the Dark Continent language.

“...గోల్డెన్ హింద్ దీన్ని చేయగలిగితే, స్కిజ్బ్లాజ్నిర్ దీన్ని ఎందుకు చేయలేకపోవడానికి కారణం లేదు.”

“Oh, not bad. ‘If Golden Hind could do it, then there is no reason Skidbladnir cannot.’ Good. Your studies are showing results.”

“Heh heh heh... When I get serious... this much is easy-peasy.”

“Easy... peasy? Well, in any case, I am glad your acquisition of the Dark Continent language is going smoothly.”

Abel was satisfied with Ryo’s performance.

Of course, that did not change the fact that they were still in the middle of a storm.

Skidbladnir was protected by the <Ice Wall> covering the entire ship, but that only meant she would not be damaged or capsize.

The rocking was awful.

Truly, terribly awful.

“Captain Paulina said it too... when she came to report earlier. Even seasoned crew members... get seasick when the rocking is this bad.”

“She did. And yet... the captain herself was not sick at all...”

“People like that really do exist.”

Ryo shook his head slightly.

Yes, Paulina had not been seasick.

When she made her report to Abel, her feet were spread a little wider than usual, but she reduced the rocking with nothing more than shifts in her weight, and did not fall over at all.

“That... may be training in shifting one’s center of gravity, which is necessary for swordsmen.”

“Yes, the fact that your mind goes there at all... is proof that you are battle-crazed, Ryo.”

Of course, even in the middle of a storm, the ship was not always rocking at maximum force.

There were periods of violent rocking, and periods when the motion was smaller.

But even during that smaller rocking, naturally, neither of them could stand.

The storm continued for seven days and seven nights.

All that time, the ship kept drifting.

As if guided by something.

At last, the storm passed, and the two of them went out onto the deck.

“I never knew sunlight could be this wonderful.”

“Yes. That was rough.”

If Ryo and Abel’s words were written out, they would look just like that, no different from before the storm.

In truth, however...

They had lost weight.

“With rocking like that, no wonder.”

“It’s been a long time since we survived on bread, dried meat, and water.”

Even Head Chef Kovac, for all his skill, could not cook inside a ship tossed by a storm.

A Demon Man and a coffin came over to the two of them.

“I am impressed, Ryo.”

“Huh? Coffin... no, Regna?”

“That was magnificent mana supply. To think that, while in a human body, you continued supplying mana for seven days and maintained the ice wall. Splendid.”

“Indeed. As expected of the darling of the Fairy King.”

“Th-thank you.”

The coffin Regna and Demon Man Merlin praised him, and Ryo grew bashful.

But these two were not going to end there.

“You are far more capable than that Spermelno over there.”

“Now, Regna, come out of that box. I shall beat that insolent tongue of yours flat.”

“Interesting. Try it if you can.”

“No, please don’t. The ship will break.”

Merlin and Regna traded provocation for provocation, and Ryo, the sensible one, stopped them.

Abel only shook his head faintly in silence.

That night, dinner after seven days was, naturally, karaage.

“As expected of Head Chef Kovac.”

“Yes. He understands.”

Ryo and Abel praised the choice of dish and enjoyed the expected deliciousness.

Of course, up on deck, the crew members were enjoying fried chicken as well, along with the Kingdom’s knight orders.

Amid that, the two of them spotted a group using instruments to observe the stars and write on the nautical charts spread across a table.

At the center of them was chief navigator Rokya.

A little distance away, Captain Paulina was receiving reports from Rokya each time, so they decided to go over and ask.

“Captain, you are calculating where we are, yes?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. We drifted a great distance during the storm.”

“From that expression, does that mean there is a possibility we have been carried away from the Western Countries?”

Abel read that from the faintest change in Paulina’s expression.

“We will soon...”

Paulina had just begun to speak when navigator Rokya came over.

“Your Majesty Abel, Captain, we have determined our location.”

“Very well. Where are we?”

“Off the coast of the Dark Continent.”

“I see.”

“Eh...”

Paulina had anticipated Rokya’s answer.

Abel and Ryo were left speechless.

“If we continue west like this, we will sight Vamos Island, northeast of the Dark Continent, tomorrow morning.”