172 Mermaid Pirates

"I want to see the mermaid pirates," I stated my wish to Mary and Sebastian who were standing by the door.

I was expecting either of them to reject my idea and tell me it was not safe but surprisingly, Mary nodded and turned to Sebastian, "I'm leaving Mistress to you and Katsuki."

Sebastian inclined his head, "I will protect Mistress with my life."

"As will I," Katsuki added from beside me.

Odeta also joined in, "Me too!"

"Ehehe~ And I will also shield Aster with my body if I have to~" Lisa giggled.

Now you're all just making me feel bad for asking… Except that they were actually serious about what they said.

At that moment, Mother popped out from her room and saw us standing at the door.

"Ara, ara? What's with the ruckus outside?"

Mary bowed, "The ship is currently being attacked by pirates, Madam. Mistress would like to go and watch."

"Ara? In that case, do be careful, my little one~ If you need help, just call for Mama, ok?"

She even came over to give me a hug and a pat on the head before returning back to her room, not even trying to stop me from leaving.

I guess there wasn't really any need to worry when we have both Mary and Sebastian here who could take on dragons on their own. What's a few pirates to them?

Oh well, I really do want to go and see what those pirates are like so I'm still going to check them out.

With my escort prepared, I went up on deck to join the chaos that was currently happening there.

Several archers were standing near the rails of the ship and shooting arrows at the sea. Meanwhile, the cannons below deck were also firing relentlessly, even though there weren't any ships around us.

"Don't let them get close to the ship! Aim at the ones surfacing! Cannons, aim at the ones in the deeper waters!" One of the sailors shouted.

I went towards an empty part of the poop deck and looked over the railing, trying to see the enemies that our Nekomata guards were currently shooting at.

It was nighttime and normally the waters would be pitch black, but it seems like we have a Lumenmancer that was casting light balls overhead to illuminate the area, functioning like some sort of flare.

There, underneath the waves, were actual mermaids and mermen swimming under the waves while seemingly being propelled by what looked like small hand sails that they were holding in one hand. Those things reminded me of those underwater scooters back in the old World except these seemed to be pulling them along using something else, allowing them to swim even faster to catch up to our ship.

Most of the arrows on our side simply sank into the sea without dealing any damage to the pirates but some of them were unfortunate enough to be hit by the arrows when they surfaced.

A few were even unfortunate enough to be hit by the magic bullets fired by our cannons.

Unperturbed, the mermaid pirates continued their advance towards us unceasingly.

I never imagined that there would come a day that I would actually say such a thing like 'mermaid pirates'. Then again, there's such a thing called Sky Cows around here after all.

"Have you seen mermaid pirates before?" I asked.

Obviously this was Katsuki's first time at sea so she was also seeing them for the first time.

Odeta also shook her head, "I've never been this far east on a ship before but I have heard sister Ardi talk about them once or twice."

Lisa giggled, "Oh, this is my first time seeing them too. But they are quite infamous back in the capital. They're known for disrupting a lot of ships going in between this part of the sea, although I'm surprised this group was brave enough to target Emilia's ship since usually its size is enough to warn them off."

Indeed, this ship was practically a warship, so why would a bunch of pirates think that attacking it was a good idea?

Just as I was trying to unravel that mystery, a merman leapt out of the water with a javelin in his hand that he tossed right towards me.

My attention immediately focused on the spear and I prepared to snatch it out of the air when a sound similar to a cannon blast resounded on our right.

Our Wrunch combat butler had delivered a straight punch that sent a blast of air towards the javelin, enough to shatter the entire weapon midair.

Sebastian then immediately punched his other fist out, sending another bullet of air that hit the merman right in the face, the poor guy's head snapping back from the impact before crashing back into the water.

Damn… That's over two thousand points of strength for you.

Katsuki also slowly returned to her position a step behind me, my Inugami maid having wanted to try and intercept the javelin as well but was just a little slower.

It's ok, Katsuki! I'll give you all the head pats later! So don't need to look so disappointed with your tail curled up like that!

Several more mermen and mermaids leapt out of the water to start throwing their javelins, most of them bouncing off the sides of the ship while one or two of the projectiles embedded themselves into a sailor or two.

I winced when I saw one particular Nekomata get speared in his shoulder while trying to avoid it, the momentum carrying him until the spear embedded itself on the mast with the guy still hanging on it.

That was when the other mages started firing off their own spells into the water and projecting barriers to stop any more javelin attacks. The sea lit up from the combination of both magic and cannon explosions, a few of them sending some of the pirates flying up in the air.

Even the ones who were swimming in the deeper parts of the water were not spared as the spells caused explosions under the water surface as well.

I guess that was the deciding factor for the pirates to realise we were not worth it since they started to retreat, all of them diving even deeper to swim away from us.

There was some cheering scattered around the deck before the sailors started to tend to the wounded, calling out healers where needed.

Well… That was interesting I guess. I didn't get to see any of  them up close but I suppose that was for the best.

"This is worrisome…" Sebastian muttered, although loud enough for us to hear.

I turned to look at him, "What do you mean?"

"I've received requests from The Guild before to deal with these pirates in the past and they usually aren't this reckless or suicidal. This attack all seems very out of place to me."

Lisa also nodded, "It's surprising that they were even spotted in the first place. The main reason why they are so infamous is the fact that they can breathe underwater and could swim under your ship without anyone even noticing before jumping up on the deck when it's too late."

Odeta scratched her head, "Ehh… Perhaps they aren't those infamous bands of pirates but some other group of mermaids?"

Sebastian frowned, "It's possible… But this still feels a little off. Perhaps they were simply a scout group that was testing the ship out for another main force that will come later. Nevertheless, I think we should prepare for the worst."

I widened my eyes, "Ehh… You don't mean that I will need to stay inside the room and not come out, do you?"

"Oh, not at all, Mistress. Our duty is to protect you from any and all harm. We will never dream of restricting you to do something that you don't want to."

Oh, good. I don't think I would last very long if I knew I came all the way out here on this trip only to hear that I had to be confined inside a room.

Well, granted… All I've done in the past few days is just visit the shops on the ship that sold dessert to taste what they had to offer, maybe I should start seeing what else there was to do on the ship.

With such a big ship, there definitely had to be some amenities on board, right?

I heard footsteps approach us from the side and I turned to see Emilia standing there.

"Lady Aster! Are you unharmed?!"

"Oh, hello Emilia, I'm fine, no need to worry."

"Oh. Oh… That's good…" She sighed in relief before muttering something about paying for damages or something under her breath that I didn't manage to catch.

Sebastian took the chance to address her, "Miss Emilia. Is this the first time this ship has been attacked by those pirates?"

"Unn… We had some run-ins with Mahun pirates before but those were easily dealt with. But yes, this was the first time these mermaid pirates attacked us like this."

"Hmm… I understand."

That was all Sebastian said before returning to his position behind me, making me wonder what he learned from that question he asked.

Emilia then turned to me, "You do not need to worry, Lady Aster. Not only is my crew trained to deal with pirates, we have also hired Mercenaries on board to guard the ship as well so your safety is guaranteed."

Well, I wasn't really that worried if the pirates actually boarded us or something. Unless they have the strength of a dragon, I doubt any of them would be able to deal with either Mary or Sebastian anyway.

Let's just hope this was all there was to those pirates.