Chapter 753: Luxury Liner Nimona
‘Hang on…did you just make a pun about Zhen Liu’s kaijin fashion sense?,” Rianna asked Jinju Ren while Jin Fang was deep in thought.
“I…huh…guess I did! Oh hey, looks like they’re wrapping up.”
…
“Wait? That’s all you need us to do? That’s super easy!”
“Glad to hear it!”
With his business involving Rodenia and Kit now settled, Zhen Liu and company decided that now was the best time to get out of the candy store and back to their lodgings with the rest of the clan for the evening.
Of course, Zhen Liu made sure to dismiss the kaijin before leaving and buy some candy on his way out. Partially out of personal desire, partially out of wanting to repay Elsa and Kit for keeping an eye on Rodenia for gods know how long.
As for what he needed Rodenia and Kit to do while he was back on Stampeding Bison…that’s a story for another time.
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“Huh…there are a lot more people here than I anticipated.”
“Yup.”
“Damn, how much are they making on just ferrying people back and forth now?”
After spending a night in Pearl Scale Harbor, the Zhen Clan had gotten up bright and early the next day in order to go and wait by the docks.
More specifically, they were going to wait by the dock where the S.S. Nimona was going to be.
However, beyond their expectations, they were not the only ones waiting at this time by the docks.
In fact, there were several dozen other groups who were waiting in front of the Zhen Clan, all of whom were carrying large suitcases like they were.
‘Huh…thank the heavens that I don’t have to worry about icebergs appearing in the route between here and home…hopefully,’ Zhen Liu mused as the scene before him reminded him of a certain, iconic movie about a cruise gone wrong played in his head.
A thought that Zhen Liu immediately, partially, regretted once he heard the kaijin in his head singing that movie’s iconic theme.
Well, a version of that theme.
[Every night…I feel you…I see you…]
[Near…far…]
[In the back of your-]
[No, no! Stop that, no!]
[Boo…]
[Wait, cars don’t exist here.]
[Not yet…]
Thankfully for Zhen Liu, nobody else could hear his thoughts…except for one old guy who has doing his absolute best right now to not burst out laughing, much to the confusion of his Imperial ward.
The gathered groups spent this time mingling with one another, in order to make the wait for the Nimona more bearable. Luckily for them, they didn’t have to wait too long.
The sound of a horn as loud as thunder, ripped through the air, catching the attention of the people waiting at the docks.
There were other people present at the docks, those who were unrelated to the Nimona but still worked in that particular area, who noticed the sound of the horn for a brief moment before focusing on their present tasks.
‘Huh. Looks like the people here have gotten used to the Nimona’s loud ass horn. That’s good to see at least.’
With their attention now grabbed by the loud horn, the would-be passengers of the incoming ship turned to face the water and see just how far it was from port.
Most people didn’t really care about seeing sea vessels enter port, since a lot of them were essentially the same. But there was something strangely fascinating about seeing this strange ship using nothing but paddles and aether, enter into port. Perhaps this fascination would die out in the years to come as people got more and more used to the presence of the S.S. Nimona, but for now, it was a novelty that grabbed their hearts and minds with ease.
∆”ATTENTION! ATTENTION! THE S.S NIMONA IS COMING INTO PORT. PREPARE FOR LANDING ACTION AND THE GANGWAY!,”∆ an aether enhanced voice called out for both the dock workers and the customers to hear.
The former began to make the necessary preparations to receive the S.S. Nimona, a sharp contrast to when it first arrived, while the latter simply became rather enthused about being able to go aboard it.
One would think that a world full of “magic” and monsters would find such a vessel to be boring at best, but even the most advanced society can find amusement and excitement in things that others would deem mundane.
Once the ship was close enough to port, a mechanical gangway appeared from the side of it and attached itself to specialized parts of the dock that appeared to have been added for the sheer purpose of making it easier for the Nimona to dock.
‘Damn, looks like they have been getting a lot more business lately,’ Zhen Liu noted as he saw the gaggle of people waiting on the deck of the steam ship.
Evidently, off boarding from the vessel was just as interesting as on boarding to the people of Roaring Tide and Stampeding Bison.
As the vessel came to a full stop, and the gangway settled into a locked position, and the people began to walk off the ship, Zhen Liu could sense that some of those passengers were actually Aether Grandmasters. This surprised the young man because he’d assume that they’d want to simply fly off of the ship once they were close enough to shore, but it appeared that not even old experts were immune to the promise of novel experiences.
Once the last of the previous set of passengers came ashore, a pair of well dressed sailors appeared at the top of the gangway.
“Ladies, gentlemen, everyone in-between! We welcome you to the S.S. Nimona, the only steamship that connects the sister ports of Pearl Tusk and Pearl Scale on a regular schedule. Please, have your tickets ready before coming aboard or identifying emblem ready so we know if you have a reservation or not. If you do not have tickets, you can buy last minute passage. However, do note that there is a twenty percent increase in price when doing so. Thank you!,” one of the sailors announced to the waiting crowd.
The other sailor ended up repeating this exact same message but in Tide Tongue.
As soon as this announcement was made, many people in front of the Zhen Clan began to either produce small pieces of paper, strings of coins or dusted off their family seals.
As for the Zhen Clan themselves, they brought out the lattermost one.
“We did make a deal that they’d take us back a month from when we left, right?,” Patriarch Zhen Shi asked his sons.
“I think so, father,” Zhen Long answered. “But just in case…”
Prompted by his oldest brother, Zhen Hou produced a long string of gold coins that could be used to pay for passage.
“Granauntie Xun Tian was surprisingly generous. Scary as all hell though.”
“Yeah that sounds about-wait, granauntie? Shouldn’t you boys be calling her matriarch?”
“We did, but she insisted we called her granauntie instead,” Zhen Xi explained. “When we brought up that it seemed impolite to do so, she simply laughed it off and stated that etiquette was boring.”
“Yeah…that’s accurate.”
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∆Well, I’ll be damned. I honestly expected them to end up crashing this thing into a cliff face or reef before we could ride this vessel again. Good on them for maintaining it this far. Oh! You think they finally got the other facilities up and running? We did remember to leave them the keys to the ballroom and banquet rooms right?∆
=To be fair, I think most of their naval related bad luck lived and died with that attack from Marlancer and his coral zakos awhile back. Also, judging from the way some of those passengers left this boat, I’m assuming yes.=
∆Yeah, I remember…huh. I just had a weird thought.∆
=Hmmm?=
∆We didn’t know Marlancer somehow survived after all these years, we didn’t know that Grand Blue and Ikairo ended up having parts of them salvaged and neither of us expected Lady Jin Fang to be related to you know who. You think anymore of her kaijin are still around?∆
=That…hmmm. I guess it depends on another question’s answer.=
∆And that question is…∆
=Do we think that her kingdom is still intact after all these centuries?=
∆That…is a very good question…∆
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“Identification emblem, ticket or passage fare, please!”
“Alright, here you go.”
It took a bit of time for the Zhen Clan to get to the front of the line, but they made sure to present their clan emblem when they did.
The sailor took a brief moment to compare the emblem to what appeared to be a travel log before nodding in approval.
“Confirmed. Emblem belongs to the Zhen Clan that had resevered passage a month ago from this day. Please leave your bags in the designated area and I’ll escort you to your rooms.”
“Uh…okay.”
As the Zhen Clan followed the chipper sailor, Jinju Ren proceeded to reposition herself in a way so that she could whisper into Zhen Liu’s ear.
“Did you by any chance have anything to do with this vessel?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny anything.”
“Right…how many other surprises did you cause?”
“No comment.”
