Chapter 406: It’s a coincidence, I swear
‘Fuck it, just wing it,’ Zhen Liu told himself as his cousins kept staring.
As naturally and nonchalantly as he could, he denied everything.
“Last night…I don’t think I did? Again, I was very much engrossed with modifying my puppets for the upcoming trip.”
“Really? No sudden arrow or a flux of aether that caused the letter to appear in your hand?”, Zhen Hai followed up.
“No. Honest,” Zhen Liu lied.
His cousins stared at Zhen Liu a while longer, before just shrugging and believing him this time in regards to the ship being all weird without his intervention.
That didn’t stop them from speculating a touch though.
“Could just be a massive coincidence.”
Meanwhile, Zhen Li started making a few mental notes based on this interaction.
‘So the Fourth Young Master’s teacher has a reputation in regards to stuff like the ship suddenly transforming? Interesting…’
With the questioning now over, the scions decided that standing around and staring wasn’t going to help anymore, so they went down to the docks to see this ship up close, especially since they were going to be travelling on it.
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[Haha! Told you guys he wouldn’t go with the master lie again,] Razorstella laughed, [I’d victory dance but accessory mode is rather limiting.]
[I… get…that…]
[Tsk. I figured he would have come up with a new person for this,] Nepherage clicked her tongue in disappointment. [Better than being honest I suppose.]
[Dammit! I was two for two up until now!,] Hurricroak cursed, [how’d you even figure he’d change up his story? Well, straight up deny it.,]
[I read it a in book somewhere about this,] Razorstella answered, [about not attributing too many quirks or feats of power to a single character, because doing so leads to people just marking it as a…”Mary Sue”? I don’t remember the term, but basically, if he said this was due to his master, people would start doubting him more on the lie.]
[Huh…which section was this book?]
[Pop culture, literature.]
[Gotta read that later…]
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“Are we seriously just going to ignore the weird warehouse over there?”
“Not important, we have a ship to be on.”
“But it’s radiating the same vibes as that ship!”
“Greetings, patriarch.”
“Hi mom.”
“Huh? Oh, hello children.”
It only took a few minutes walking for the Zhen Clan scions to make their way down to the docks and when they did, they greeted by the sight of their respective parents, siblings and the patriarch standing by with their luggage while also staring at the ship.
They also saw the main branch members staring at the ship as well, with equally flabbergasted expressions on their face.
Unexpected surprises have a habit of making everyone share the same vibe.
“You kids ready to go to Roaring Tide?”
“More or less. Just a little nervous about the ship though…”
“Yeah, that’s… understandable.”
“Do you know what happened to the ship? Because we were told it looked…very differently.”
“Uh…not exactly…but we did learn that it’s called a steam ship.”
“That’s it?”
“Yup.”
Evidently, not even the clan elders knew the situation about the ship either. Luckily for them, they were about to get some answers straight from the source.
“Okay guys, now back it up slowly! Come on, easy, easy.”
Before the very eyes of the Zhen clan, the strange steam ship, as they learned it was called, somehow paddled itself backwards until it was lined up with the dock.
“We’re line up captain! Extending tethers!”
From the sides of the ship, large ropes fired out and tied themselves around the dock pillars several times over.
The sight stunned the clan speechless, while causing a certain member to mentally groan.
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‘Did y’all have to make the features so loud?,’ Zhen Liu mentally complained while acting surprised.
=It was, it’s just a bit overt is the problem.=
=I scrapped that idea, thank you very much.=
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“Captain on deck! Roll out the gangplank!”
“Rolling out the gangplank now!”
“Uhh, how do we do that again!”
“Stomp on the deck three times.”
“Oh! Right!”
A sailor on the side of the steam ship proceeded to do as instructed and stomped on the deck as instructed.
Click! WHIRRRRR!
Once he did, the sound of gears and coils could be heard as a metal gangplank made of several sheets of metal suddenly began to extend out of the side of the ship until finally reaching the docks below. Once it reached the dock, a pair of metal clasps opened up and closed around the edge of the dock, securing the gangplank in place.
The sight would have shocked the Zhen Clansmen even more, but they felt a familiar flux of energy that assuaged their surprise.
“That was aether coming off of that gangplank, right”
“Felt like it, just…a lot weaker than normal.”
“Maybe the ship uses several weird arrays to power it?”
As the clansmen discussed among themselves how a ship like this could operate, the owner of the ship descended the gangplank to greet them.
“Welcome Zhen Clansmen, to the PS Nimona! I am Captain Douglas! Pleased to meet you all.”
Captain Douglas was an elderly fellow with a salt and pepper beard and face that had clearly spent many hours in the sun. That said, he was also built like a bear and looked like the type who could judo flip a shark. In essence, the embodiment of a sea captain.
After accepting the man’s greeting, Zhen Shi and Zhen Wang proceeded to separate themselves from their respective groups to greet him properly.
“It’s good to meet you, Captain Douglas. My name is Zhen Shi. You have a beautiful vessel.”
“Nice to see you again, Captain Douglas,’ Zhen Wang greeted, “what happened to the old Nimona?”
“Hello again, Zhen Wang. And what do you mean?”
“Wasn’t the Nimona a galleon, I think was the term?”
“Oh! That’s what you mean…yeah this is actually the same Nimona,” Captain Douglas answered, “see the figurehead? Exact same one.”
Zhen Wang was stunned at this reply.
He had traveled on the galleon known as the Nimona to get Stampeding Bison from Roaring Tide, so he could recognize at least some of the ship’s finer details should he see it in port.
“No way…,” Zhen Wang muttered to himself.
When he examined the new ship though, he did notice that from the mast to the figurehead, several features of the vessel were exactly the same as the galleon known as the Nimona. It was just bewildering see it all in the first place.
While Zhen Wang was looking about however, Zhen Shi decided to get some answers.
“If you don’t mind me asking Captain, but…how?”
“Oh you mean how the ship got like this? Well…I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you the answer to that one…,” Captain Douglas answered while scratching back of his head, “honestly, it was kind of a miracle.”
“Huh…,” Zhen Shi hummed when he heard this reply. The captain was clearly lying about something, or rather, he didn’t want to mention the sheer strangeness that lead to this ship’s existence.
He decided to ask a different question, one that he think could provide a response he was expecting. Luckily for him, Zhen Wang was busy checking out the rest of the ship so he could be a bit blunter with his questions.
“Really? A miracle you say?”
“Yeah, well…”
“Is it safe to assume that it involved…the appearance of strange humanoid creatures?”
As soon as Zhen Shi used that particular set of words, the captain looked stunned.
This was the reaction Zhen Shi was looking for.
“Uh huh…,” Captain Douglas went as he eyed this newcomer, re-evaluating his initial thoughts on the man.
Douglas mulled over the words for a second, before deciding what to do.
“Would you like to take a tour of the ship? I’m sure that you’ll find it interesting.”
“That does sound interesting, but I still need to assist my family with.”
“Ah, don’t worry about that. My crew can handle that.”
“Ah. In that case, lead the way.”
As Douglas lead Zhen Shi on a tour of the ship, the former used his aether to speak to him.
‘How did you know about the strange humanoids?’
‘Would you believe it was a lucky guess?’
‘Hah! Very funny.’
‘I’ll tell you what I know, if you tell me yours.’
‘Fair enough…’
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“Alright guys! One at a time, don’t run up the gangplank or else you might slip and fall.”
“Bwah!”
“What did I just say?!”
Once the two leaders of the Zhen Clan branch and main members amde their way onto the ship, the clansmen followed soon after with their luggage in tow.
As they got onboard the ship, they couldn’t help but admire the ship’s look.
“This is much cleaner than I had anticipated.”
“Is it weird to say that this a very decorated vessel?”
“I don’t think so, check out the iron pillar over there! It must have been made by a master craftsman.”
But as the Zhen Clansmen admired the ship’s design, a certain member of them was looking embarrassed as all hell, with only a pair of companions who knew why attempting to comfort him.
“Xiao Liu…it isn’t that bad…”
