Chapter 229
Chapter 229
Preparing for the Retry (4)
I needed information about the territorial waters of the Valorn Empire.
Not only the kind of information that could be learned from books, but also the unique experiences known only to those who had actually boarded ships and traveled those waters.
The smuggler listening to Kairus’s request cleared his throat once before cautiously asking,
“What Survivor-nim is asking for isn’t some half-baked sailors, right?”
“Right.”
Half-hearted knowledge only became poison.
What Kairus needed was the knowledge and experience possessed by men who had mastered life at sea.
“Then if I narrow it down to people actually worth listening to… there should be about five.”
All of them were smugglers who frequently traveled through the Empire’s territorial waters, and each had served as a captain in this field for at least ten years.
“If you give me a few days… I can personally arrange a meeting.”
“No. Just tell me where I can find them.”
Calling people, arranging places, setting schedules, and gathering everyone together would waste too much time. If there were only five people, it would be faster for Kairus to personally track them down one by one and hear their stories.
“Understood. Then.”
The moment he heard Kairus’s answer, the smuggler immediately wrote several things on a sheet of paper and respectfully handed it over.
Like proper smugglers, most of them had their bases somewhere beneath the city.
“Good. I’ll stop asking for introductions here.”
Kairus casually dragged over a fishing chair placed beside the stall and sat down while looking at the other man.
“I’d like you to tell me what you know.”
“What exactly are you curious about? The patrol routes of the Imperial Navy? Seasonal changes in ocean currents?”
Kairus answered simply.
“A calm sea that freezes over during winter. Somewhere with a depth no greater than 300 meters. Mark it on the map.”
The smuggler listening to him let out a low hum.
“All seas that freeze during winter fall under the conditions Survivor-nim mentioned. I think the range will be extremely broad.”
If the sea wasn’t calm, it was difficult for it to freeze. And if the waters were too deep, freezing became difficult as well.
Kairus slightly frowned.
“This is troublesome.”
He thought he had considered plenty of conditions to narrow the scope down. But apparently, in practice, it had amounted to only a single condition.
After pondering for a moment longer, Kairus spoke again.
“Mark them first. And if there’s a naval port nearby, mark that too.”
Ordinary ships probably wouldn’t be checking the buoy’s location. Most likely, the buoy marking Liriana’s position would be monitored using warships instead. Therefore, there was a high chance that a naval port existed nearby.
Imperial territorial waters. A nearby naval port. A sea that froze during winter.
“Understood. I’ll check the naval ports matching those conditions and…”
The smuggler additionally marked the managed sea zones overseen by the naval units stationed at those ports.
“Still too broad.”
“My apologies.”
“There’s nothing for you to apologize for.”
Kairus slowly scanned the sea zones marked on the map. Just flying around all of them would probably take about a week.
And if he had to conduct a search to locate the buoy on top of that, it would take even longer.
‘I need to narrow the range further.’
If he just carried out a brute-force investigation like this, the wasted time would become excessive. Kairus checked the note handed over by the smuggler he had visited earlier and headed toward the locations written there.
‘Objectively narrowing the range has gone far enough.’
What remained now were personal experiences and eyewitness accounts.
That was why Kairus had obtained the list from the smuggler.
After that, over the course of two days, Kairus met three out of the five people listed on the note.
Every single one had been a dead end. He hadn’t managed to secure any particularly impressive information.
On the third day, the place Kairus arrived at was a tavern located somewhere within the maze-like underground passages beneath the city.
A signboard crudely scrawled with tar across an old creaking plywood plank came into view.
“What a ridiculous sign.”
The tavern’s name was Stinking Life.
A fitting name for a tavern buried in the dark, damp, foul-smelling underground.
Kairus pushed open the long-neglected swing door that shrieked and creaked in protest and stepped inside.
“Just take any empty seat…”
The man who appeared to be the tavern owner heard the creaking of the door and tried to greet the customer, only for his eyes to meet Kairus’s.
“Th- uh… excuse me. M-my apologies.”
Kairus lightly tilted his head at the tavern owner to indicate it was fine, then sat down at the bar table and spoke.
“Is a guy named Damon here right now?”
The moment Kairus entered the tavern, everyone had already been listening closely to his words.
Kairus spoke a name they recognized…
Naturally, everyone’s gaze turned toward someone sitting in one corner.
“That made it easy.”
There was no way he could miss such an obvious reaction. Kairus rose from his seat and walked toward Damon as he spoke.
“Owner, why don’t you step outside and smoke for a bit. And as for the customers… haven’t you all had enough to drink by now?”
In simple terms, he was telling not only the customers but even the owner to get the hell out.
“R-right, of course. What are you all standing around for? Let’s get out!”
The owner encouraged the customers as he left the tavern. The patrons, who had briefly been gauging the atmosphere, also quietly shuffled out.
“Ah, you stop right there, friend.”
Among the people leaving the tavern was Damon himself, the very man Kairus needed to speak with. At Kairus’s restraint, Damon squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.
“Al… right.”
It seemed he assumed there was no way Kairus had stopped him for a good reason.
“I didn’t stop you because I plan on doing something to you. I came because I have questions. Relax and finish the drink you were having.”
At the very least, there was a need to let him know he had no intention of harming him.
When Kairus spoke in a fairly gentle tone, Damon swallowed hard before sitting back down.
“How may I help you?”
“I heard you sail often. Mostly through the territorial waters of the Valorn Empire.”
“Th-that’s correct. Did I perhaps make some kind of mistake? Or… is there something you need me to procure?”
Kairus waved his hand dismissively before pulling out a map.
“Take a close look at the regions marked here. And if you’ve experienced anything strange within these areas, tell me everything.”
This time, he had no intention of demanding information for free. It had already been two days without obtaining any worthwhile leads.
“If I hear something I like…”
Kairus glanced around before lightly tapping a large box sitting on the tavern floor with the tip of his foot.
“I’ll fill this thing to the brim with 100-pyint bills.”
It was an enormous reward.
Now that Damon understood Kairus hadn’t come to harm him, he broke into a broad grin wide enough to expose his gold teeth.
“I’ll answer with complete sincerity.”
If he provided truly valuable information, he could obtain an absurd amount of money. Damon carefully examined the sea regions marked on the map and poured out everything he could remember.
Kairus listened patiently to the man’s stories.
About three hours passed.
Just as Kairus was beginning to grow tired from hearing nothing useful, something finally caught his interest.
“The Bascal Sea Region. Come to think of it, I remember hearing something from fishermen operating around there.”
Apparently, a lighthouse periodically illuminated some specific location. Every new moon, when the moon never appeared in the sky, several lighthouses would always shine their beams somewhere.
“Lighthouses are supposed to shine on things. How can you tell whether that’s strange or not?”
At Kairus’s words, Damon laughed.
“Normally, lighthouses illuminate designated areas at fixed intervals. That’s how they signal ships in the distance that a lighthouse is there.”
However, if a vessel contacted the lighthouse keeper through radio communication and made a request, the lighthouse would temporarily guide the ship’s nighttime movement by shining along its direction of travel.
“But according to the fishermen, there aren’t any ships passing through the places those lighthouses shine toward during the new moon.”
And yet, for around thirty minutes, the lights would continuously beam toward a specific area.
It certainly did sound suspicious.
“…I see.”
Kairus made an additional mark over the relevant area.
Calling it the Bascal Sea Region made it sound as though the search area had suddenly narrowed dramatically, but—
It was by no means a small area. It would still require a considerable investment of time and concentration to investigate properly.
Even so, it was unquestionably far more manageable than blindly investigating the entirety of the Empire’s territorial waters.
‘It’s worth investigating.’
There was more than enough justification to prioritize this lead. In truth, among all the information Kairus had received so far, this was the most promising tip yet.
After organizing his thoughts, Kairus kept his promise and filled the box with bills before pushing it toward the man.
“Tell me anything else you can think of.”
Kairus continued listening to Damon’s testimony while marking additional notes onto the map. Afterward, he headed toward an empty lot on the outskirts of the city where Irena and Nora would be.
“You’ve both been working hard.”
Irena and Nora stood there covered in dirt, glaring at each other.
Judging only by their expressions, one would think they were mortal enemies who had killed each other’s parents.
“…”
Irena slightly moved her hand and signaled to Kairus. It probably meant she wanted him to wait a little.
The moment he stepped back slightly in agreement, Irena adjusted her grip on the greatsword.
‘Oh, she actually looks pretty decent.’
Kairus inwardly admired the sight for a moment.
She still fell short of someone who specialized in using a greatsword, but at the same time, it was difficult to consider her a complete beginner anymore.
“Hoo.”
One deep breath.
Thirteen clashes.
After colliding blades with Irena, Nora was pushed back three times. They were so serious about the duel that it almost looked as though they genuinely intended to kill one another.
“Unni, haven’t you become a bit too rough?”
Now that her weapon had changed to a greatsword, Irena’s mindset and movements in combat were being fundamentally reshaped as well.
Although she still fought using precise predictions, the movement of her body had become drastically minimized.
“That’s thanks to your help.”
And those changes continued to be refined through her sparring sessions with Nora.
Just as promised earlier, Nora was doing everything she possibly could to help under the current circumstances.
“Oh my, saying something embarrassing like that between us.”
Nora swiftly closed the distance and rapidly swung Moon Sand as she darted around.
Irena remained standing still, moving only her arms slightly as she deflected Nora’s attacks. She resembled either a machine or a massive rock.
Yet contrary to Irena’s stillness, the winds throughout the area whipped about chaotically, aiming for Nora’s life.
‘The sparring itself is good.’
Kairus gave a simple evaluation before finishing his observation of the duel.
Coincidentally, the two women had also just finished sparring.
After sharing the contents of the map, Kairus looked at them both.
“There’s no need for you two to come with me.”
The reason he had come personally to tell them this was because they at least needed to know where he was headed.
Irena and Nora simply needed to continue practicing like they had been.
“That’s a relief.”
Irena was currently struggling to regulate the output of Angelene’s Answer. In fact, the reason she had minimized her movements so much was precisely because of that issue.
“I can’t even imagine controlling the output while moving around flamboyantly.”
At Irena’s words, Kairus casually asked,
“Do you think it’ll stay that way forever?”
“…No. I’m improving. And I’ll keep improving.”
After hearing her answer, Kairus nodded in satisfaction.
That was enough.
“I’m not going to tell you the method.”
“Right.”
The method for controlling one’s weapon was something one had to contemplate and discover personally.
In the end, she might arrive at the same answer Kairus himself had reached—
But with things like this, the process of reaching the answer through one’s own effort was what truly mattered.