Chapter 754: Pleasure Cruising is very different.
[Daaammmn, I did not expect those rough and tumble sailors to turn their vessel into a full on pleasure ferry,] Hurricroak joked. [Then again, I guess we did influence their line of thinking with our additions. Yup, yup!]
[This is my first time seeing this vessel with my own eyes,] Screamira commented. [Then again, perhaps I saw a bit of it back when I was a simple zako?]
[Wait, you can still remember the time you were a zako?,] Spring Brawler asked.
[Sort of. It’s more like…I’m remembering a dream. I can remember details and things that I did while dreaming, but it doesn’t feel entirely real to me. Not like now, where I can easily remember things like the sun on my bones, wind in my hair and salt on my tongue. Well, none of us are using those features right now, but you get my point.]
[Dream…like…memories…hmmm.]
[While we’re on the subject of dreams though…,] Hurricroak began to say with a mildly teasing tone.[Hey Razor, don’t you think you should address the anaconda in the room?]
[I know what you’re referring to, and I refuse. Just because I rescued him from being drowned, gives me no obligations to talk to him,] Razorstella adamantly replied.[Even if our director’s cousin has been acting like a lovesick puppy.]
[Merda, girl. I always figured being cold was just Frosttusk’s thing, my bad.]
[To be fair, Razorstella,] Nepherage chimed in. [Even if you don’t want to talk to them, the least you can do is just give him a proper rejection. That way he doesn’t end up pining for a woman that…huh. I guess you do exist so I can’t say that…]
[Besides, if it turns out you two are actually romantically compatible,] Hurricroak picked back up, [we do have an IRL example of a kaijin-human relation on board.]
[We do?]
[Don’t you remember that slave girl we picked up and started attaching herself to Zhen Xing’s side? Her physique is due to having kaijin blood.]
[What the fuck?!]
Evidently, this was the first any of the kaijin were hearing about any of this.
∆Wait…did neither of us explain after that surgery a while back?∆
=I don’t think we did…=
∆Well then, I think we might be able to explain now. So you guys remember the Storm Queen? Turns out…∆
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When the Zhen Clan first rode the S.S. Nimona, the trip was actually fairly relaxing, excluding that attack from the swordfish man, but it felt…off.
Due to the crew being somewhat unfamiliar with the layout of their new ship at the time, they had simply treated guests like they were on their old vessels, i.e., making use of simple cabins and sharing with them the mess hall that the crew used for their meals.
However, now that they had been given time to look over their new ship, the crew of the S.S. Nimona came to the realization that they were underutilizing the whole damn thing several times over.
The crew didn’t realize it at the time, but they had only been using about an eighth of the rooms aboard the ship to accommodate the Zhen Clan and themselves, and had apparently ignored the fact that there was a second, even bigger dining room than the one they used for their own meals.
After coming to this realization, and then being approached by multiple people willing to pay a shit ton of money on order to make use of their ship, the crew of the S.S. Nimona realized that they couldbhavr an incredibly steady gig as being full time ferrymen.
That and they also came to the realization that their ship had a very real chance of getting damaged if they did their normal activities, and they had no way of fixing the ship other than relying on themselves. They didn’t know how many shipwrights in the world knew how to repair a streamliner, but they assumed the number was very small.
Regardless, once they figured out that their future laid in the newly formed ferrying industry, they took the opportunity to overhaul their looks, hire some new staff and make the Nimona the best damn ferry in existence…not that they had any experience in that.
Luckily for them, there was a book left behind for that exact purpose.
“Here you are, Patriarch Zhen Shi. Half of the seventh deck has been reserved for you and your clan to rest and use at your leisure. As leader of the group, you have been given a key to the Royal Suite, while your sons have been given access to the Ambassador suites. Feel free to unwind, your luggage will be brought over shortly.”
“Uh…sure…”
“Very good. Dinner will be at 6, which should give early diners a chance to see the sunset from the upper decks. We hope you enjoy your time with us in the S.S. Nimona,” the crewman said with a quick bow before leaving to go perform their duties elsewhere.
Now left to their own devices, the Zhen Clan proceeded to settle into their new rooms while also discussing with one another just how different everything was despite only being away for a month. Whether this was an indication for things to come or a one time fluke had yet to be determined.
“Father, we’ve been treated like VIP types for a while now, hell, back home we’re technically the local powerhouse” Zhen Long pointed out as he noticed how his father was acting surprisingly nervous about the sheer luxury of their new rooms. “Why do you still act so nervous about being treated so well?”
“There is a big difference between being a bigshot in a frontier town like ours and in more civilized and developed places like this,” Zhen Shi answered his son, picking up a decorative throw pillow that he recognized being made from aether beast silk. “That and I think I lost some of my ability to be stern after hanging around auntie again after all these years. I’ll get back my backbone soon enough though. Probably when we’re finally home.”
“That’s… that’s fair.”
“Anyways, we have free time before dinner so we might as well see what they changed about the ship since we were gone. I think I heard them mention the addition of something called…shuffleboard?”
“Yes, the crewman mentioned that it was on the top deck next to the dartboard range.”
“Huh…think there’s any crossfire between the two?”
“I don’t know…”
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“Well…this is a remarkably different experience from last time,” Zhen Hai commented while drinking some strangely colorful alcoholic concoction called a cocktail. More specifically, something called an AMF.
“Yup…but I don’t hate it,” Zhen Yue agreed while sipping on her drink, which was called a cosmopolitan. “I feel strangely classy drinking this.”
“Speak for yourself, I’m pretty sure if I don’t sip mine, I’ll end up on the floor.”
“Wait, we’re Aether Masters, how strong is that drink if that’s what you’re worried about?”
“Apparently, very.”
Shortly after settling into their rooms for the trip home, the Zhen Clan scions had decided to beeline to one of the new “entertainment” areas of the ship to see what the big deal was.
What they learned was that a portion of the ship that they assumed to be just an empty space storage with a weirdly large amount of space the last time they were here, was actually supposed to be a fully stocked bar with the open space being somewhere people could sit on special lounge chairs so they could enjoy the sun and view of the water trailing behind them.
The scions had thought the view was pleasant before, when they had to sit in the deck floor and lean over the railings, but it was an incredibly different experience being able to enjoy this kind of view while sitting in a strangely comfortable chair with a cocktail drink in their hands.
Well, that’s what Zhen Yue, Zhen Hai and several dozen other passengers were doing anyways. As far as the whereabouts of their other cousins…they didn’t know where they went.
All they knew was that they were on the ship somewhere, and that they could probably take care of themselves.
“Man, there are a lot more people on this vessel this time around,” Zhen Hai commented while eyeing some of the guests.
A majority of the guests aboard this ship were civilians or merchants, but Zhen Hai could recognize that a few of them were reigning in their true power.
“Huh…I think this is the most amount of cultivators I’ve seen in one place that didn’t have a formal occasion or banquet involved.”
“Agreed.”
“Do you recognize any of them, or nah?”
“Well…sort of,” Zhen Yue answered. “A good chunk of them appear to be Roaring Tide sects, which I ain’t too familiar with due to obvious reasons.”
“Obviously.”
“But I think I recognized those two in the back actually…”
“Really? Show me who.”
“Over there. Isn’t that…”
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“So…this ship definitely involved you in some capacity. How did you do it?”
