Chapter 123: Wings Of Dreams (part 1)
“That tavern boss you mentioned isn’t trying to scam us, is he?”
At night, Obei, who had been busy all day, was fiddling with a bunch of various flintlock guns, all of which she had snatched from those pirates who laughed at her during the day.
Anyway, they were leaving soon, so even if it was a souvenir they gave her.
“That man didn’t lie.”
Aoxi sat cross-legged on a wine barrel, eating cherries while replying affirmatively.
“Then that’s easy. We just wait to set off tomorrow morning.”
Wright’s tone was somewhat relaxed at this point. If possible, he really didn’t want to be swept up to the sky by some sea current as recorded in the notebook.
This wasn’t a method a sane person should try.
After all the ups and downs along the way, he was now a bit afraid of heights.
“By the way, this morning it seemed like a sea area to the east of the island suddenly went dark, like nighttime. Did you notice?”
“That? The island residents said it’s some natural phenomenon that happens irregularly every year a few times. Nothing strange.”
“Oh~~~ That’s really magical…”
“Get prepared. Tomorrow morning, whether the person Aoxi mentioned comes or not, we’re leaving here.”
Jin was fiddling with the recording pointer in his hand, planning that if things didn’t work out tomorrow, he’d fly up to the sky alone to search.
As for why he didn’t use this method from the start… there was actually a cognition issue here.
The existence of Sky Island isn’t really a secret in the New World. Anyone with some experience actually knows about it, and some have even tried to occupy certain small Sky Islands.
But for people in ‘Paradise’, it’s completely different. A ‘floating island in the sky’ is total fantasy.
This information asymmetry led Jin to think, when he heard that everyone here believed Sky Island didn’t exist, that the real Sky Island was hidden by something and couldn’t be reached by conventional means.
So he spent three days trying to find clues or something on the island.
……
Meanwhile.
While Aoxi’s group was resting and quietly awaiting tomorrow’s arrival, the ship graveyard was bustling with activity.
“You big tall guy, why aren’t the wooden boards nailed yet?! Have you been squatting there shitting for so long?”
“And you! Look at this size, is it right?! The gap between these two floor boards is big enough to bury your second grandfather!”
“Fulaihai’er, you bastard, stop messing with those broken chains at the ship’s prow! Get down here!”
“You lot look all big and burly, aren’t you great at fighting usually? How come now when there’s work to do, you’re not even as good as a few hooded brats?”
In the pitch-black night, Tang Li was directing everyone to reassemble parts dismantled from various ships into a new ship.
It had to be said that although Tang Li was greedy for money, once paid, the work was done without any slacking—from morning till now without stopping.
Luckily, most of these ships were produced in Seven Water Capital or modified from Seven Water Capital standard models, so matching parts could be found for key joints.
Otherwise, one day and one night really wouldn’t be enough to assemble a ship.
“This Tang Li is really cocky~”
A pirate nailing nails complained.
“Who let him have the skills? If it were just us dozen roughnecks, it’d probably take a month to not even assemble a proper ship.”
“Hm? Hai’er bro, what are you thinking about?”
Fulaihai’er, who was fixing chains, seemed to have something heavy on his mind.
“I’m wondering what our senior used to hire that Tang Li guy to help.”
“And who are those hooded brats Tang Li mentioned earlier? Do we have anyone wearing hoods here?”
“No, right? Don’t scare me!”
……
“What are you chattering about? If you’re idle, go carry those wings over for me! Not much time till dawn!”
Tang Li, who was fixing the mast, saw everyone’s actions slow down and impatiently urged them again.
Not far away, the tavern boss was standing side by side with the old pirate watching the ship, watching the ship gradually taking shape before them.
“That tavern was bought with all your savings back then, right? Now handing it over to others, doesn’t it hurt?”
The old pirate wasn’t smoking his pipe at this moment but had slung the long pipe on his back as he asked.
“Of course it hurts, after living there for over a decade, that place was my home.”
“Home gone, how could it not hurt~”
The tavern boss let out a long sigh.
“But compared to losing my home, I still want to know if ‘Sky Island’ really exists. This concerns whether everything my companion and I did back then was meaningless.”
The tavern boss looked away as he spoke, gazing at the sea in the distant night.
“Remember before our first voyage, there was an old man… my master, I suppose.”
“He said the sea is a man’s true home. What pushes our ship forward has never been the sea breeze, but an unstoppable dream.”
“Though there weren’t always pleasant things in the process, and I even paid an unacceptable price for it, but…”
The boss limped forward a few steps, then turned back with a smile to the old pirate, looking again at the ship being fitted with wings:
“Me, I still love adventure the most after all!”
“……”
“Laika, you…”
The dying old pirate, hearing these words, opened his turbid eyes wide, as if seeing the other anew.
In his eyes, the tavern boss—once ground down by reality, with a scruffy beard and a somewhat paunchy body—now seemed to return to the spirited and vigorous state from their first meeting.
……
Eight in the morning, west coast of Gaya Island, port.
“You’re here?”
“I’m here.”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“?”
“What nonsense is this brat saying? Didn’t we agree yesterday to meet this morning?”
“Cough~ Sorry, slipped my tongue.”
“Let’s start over.”
……
“So, did you bring the goods? Let me check if they’re pure.”
“What goods? You okay, brat? Why are you saying all this weird stuff first thing in the morning?”
Seeing this unreliable guy before him, the tavern boss already felt a faint unease in his heart.
Smack!
“Sorry, my big sis isn’t all there in the head.”
Obei knocked Aoxi on the head from behind and pulled her aside to step forward herself.
“You’re the one who said yesterday you have a lead to Sky Island?”
“State your conditions directly, and how do you guarantee your method is real?”
Obei didn’t believe the other had no ulterior motives and asked straightforwardly.
“I do know a method to reach Sky Island, but whether it works still depends on luck.”
“As for conditions… I hope you can take our ship to Sky Island.”
With that, he pointed to a strangely shaped ship slowly sailing in from afar.
The ship wasn’t large, on the smaller side of medium, but had a pair of huge wings spanning both sides of the hull.
The ship’s surface was reddish, looking like freshly painted and quickly fire-dried, somewhat uneven.
The ship’s prow was a long slanted mast, like a unicorn horn, with a chain clinking below it.
But the strangest thing was the many upright poles on the deck, and the stern’s fence specially heightened, who knows what for…
“Whoa~ Cool ship!”
Aoxi took a liking to this hastily assembled ship at first sight.
“Red, with horns, we can go full speed ahead at triple☆speed!”
Obei ignored Aoxi, who was bouncing over to the ship’s side, and continued looking at the tavern boss as she countered:
“You mean you’ll give us the method to reach Sky Island, and your payment is us using the ship you provide?”
“Yes.”
“……”
“Sorry, pies don’t fall from the sky. I can’t believe you.”
