Chapter 954: The Queen’s Ship
=The lost daughter of one our former bosses?=
=Well, as they say, timing is a bitch. None of us could predict that Lady Daria wanted to give Jin Fang and Rianna her own crash course in regards to [Chaos] manipulation. Which, going to be honest, didn’t see coming.=
=You say that, but when I brought it up before, you yelled, “I remembered that bitch’s ex’s summoning ritual, I can remember…insert mundane thing there,” multiple times.=
=Right…by the way, you were on snack duty today for the children.=
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“Well, much like how this trusty bone club at my side once belonged to another Kaijin Lord, we’re about to go and dig up something that belonged to another one, the [Galleon of the Storm Queen],” Zhen Liu answered the girls.
“[The Gallon of the Storm Queen]…huh…”
At the name-drop of this mysterious treasure that Zhen Liu and kaijin were chasing after, both Bellona and Alicia went silent as they were both deep in thought.
‘There’s no way it’s that ship, right?,’ both Bellona and Alicia thought independently.
As women of noble upringing, both Bellona and Alicia were forced to learn about a little of everything, under the supervision of a private tutor.
It was during these sessions, that the two girls remembered that one of their lessons involved the figure known as the [Invulnerable Storm Queen]. More specifically, it was about a period of time during the Pearl Scale Empire’s more…tyrannical moments.
…
When the Pearl Scale Emperor was struck by the notion to take over all of Roaring Tide, he made a deal with the Flooded Nomads to conquer it all.
Their cruelty and power were a match made in hell, so millions ended up suffering because of this alliance.
This in turn, led to a point where rebel groups and individual rebellious heroes, rose up and died at the drop of a hat.
So, why was it that amongst them that the [Invulnerable Storm Queen] managed to stand out?
A multitude of reasons to be sure, but there were a few notable ones.
There was the fact that her particular group of rebels were known to be stronger and more dangerous than even the most infamous of the Pearl Scale Empire’s generals.
There was the fact that out of every rebel in existence, she was the only one who managed to leave a permanent scar across the Emperor’s face after she managed to challenge the man to a duel in front of his entire court.
There was also the fact that the Flooded Khan was absolutely decimated by her hand, but that is a whole other history lesson and a half.
The most notable reason though, the one that history books tend to focus on the most due to how unusual this practice was at the time, was the fact that she would purposely target areas of high slave labor activity and steal away all of the slaves.
When these raids first occurred, many assumed that she had simply wiped out the slaves in a bid to cripple the Empire economically, after all, there was no value in freeing large swathes of slave populations.
But the lack of corpses or dead spirits made people re-evaluate such thoughts.
If she wasn’t killing them and they weren’t scattered to the win like most other freed slaves, then where did they go?
It wasn’t until there was a raid on one of the Empire’s biggest aether mines that people finally had an answer. Well…part of an answer.
A memoir written by a former spy for the Emperor at the time, states that he had managed to blend in with the mining slaves and survive long enough to witness the Storm Queen and her knights in all of their thundering glory.
That sight alone was enough for the spy at the time to know that any rumors about her and her order were great underestimations of what she could actually do.
When the battle was over, the spy recalled the Storm Queen shouting about how she was going to take them all to a safe haven.
Unfortunately, before he could witness how this was to be done, he was caught by one of the Storm Knights.
A battle and an escape ensued but during it, he saw how the Storm Queen had summoned a massive ship, unlike anything he had seen before that was wreathed in the aura of the [Abyssal Lands], and had the freed slaves come aboard it.
Moments later, they were gone.
It was in this moment that the spy learned that the Storm Queen was based in the [Abyssal Lands].
It was in this moment, that he knew it would be impossible to find her then.
…
“…so yeah,” Zhen Liu capped off his explanation to the girls on his arms. “Apparently the Storm Queen’s ship was some kind of super vessel that could pop in and out between the [Abyssal Lands] and the surface due to being made from the bones of some weird shadow whale…thing. Either way, she ended up leaving it under the care of someone in the swamplands of Roaring Tide, which is why we’re here.”
“Huh.”
“Interesting.”
It should be noted that while Alicia and Bellona weren’t exactly interested in learning about the Storm Queen and her magic galleon, they couldn’t help but be caught up in Zhen Liu’s excited tone of voice.
There was something oddly intoxicating about listening to someone speak about something they liked or were interested in with such passion.
Regardless, now that they and a crash course as to why they were in Roaring Tide in the first place, they were more than ready to assist if the need ever arose. That, or at least provide emotional support.
But, they’d have to wait for that opportunity to arise.
The group of Kaijin and mortals continued to float down the river for a few more hours until they had finally arrived to a part where the scenery drastically changed.
No longer were they surrounded by gentle rivers and fresh water trees, but they were now deep in a swampy biome.
The smell of stagnant water and overgrown life tickled the noses of the mortals, as the sound of mosquitos and other creatures filled their ears.
As for the kaijin…they were amused but not impressed. Well, except for one member that is.
[Huh…on the one hand, I’m surprised at the sudden shift from river lands to swamplands, on the other, it feels like a logical transition,] Nepherage observed.
[It’s…a lot…smellier…than…the…rivers…,] Frosttusk noted.
[GERONIMO!]
“KUU!”
SPLASH
splash
“Grunt?”
[Ah…this feels right…]
Before even giving an inkling of a warning, Hurricroak had already jumped off Tiny the Raijin’s Hippo back, alongside a very excited Mini the baby hippo.
The kaijin and beast duo proceeded to make a rather large splash that managed to make contact with the kaijin on Tiny’s back and even the covered wagon.
The only ones not affected by the splash were Zhen Liu and the girls, due to the sudden appearance of Alicia’s maid, Matilda, coming out of absolute nowhere with an umbrella.
Alicia and Bellona were nonplussed by the sight, while Zhen Liu was actually shocked.
“Wait a minute, when did she-”
“Oh, she’s been with us this whole time. She’s just really, really good at hiding in plain sight.”
“A professional maid knows when to act as eye candy or as decoration at a moment’s notice, ma’am,” Matilda said with pride as she shook the water off her oil-soaked paper umbrella. “Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go back to playing poker with the kaijin in the wagon.”
“Wait, is that why I’ve been hearing cussing in my head every five or so minutes?”
“THIS GAME IS BULLSHIT, AND THE MAID CHEATS!,” Razorstella shouted with indignation from her spot in the wagon.
“You just have a terrible poker face,” Spring Brawler retorted.
“Says the man with no mouth!”
“Anyways, call me if you need me, miss.”
With that small moment of benign excitement out of the way, Matilda proceeded to disappear as if she didn’t exist in the first place, a true testament to her skill as an assassin maid.
“Well, with that out of the way…ladies. if you wouldn’t mind…”
“Oh. Of course.”
“D’awww, do I have to?”
Under light protest, Bellona and Alicia disentangled their arms from Zhen Liu so that he could do whatever he was he needed to do
“Alright…yeet!”
“Oh my word!”
“Nice.”
[Wait, were you wearing a swim suit this entire time, milord?]
And that whatever he needed to do apparently involved him stripping down to his swimming shorts and pouring a bottle of oil on himself.
“Bonzai!”
Splash
And then cannonballing down into the murky swamp water below.
