Chapter 183: Giving a Show of Force.

Johnny handed Shu Li the deposit he had originally paid Bank.

Shu Li accepted the purse with a broad smile.

With the deal settled, the Squad of Light followed their employer across the gangplank and boarded the enormous cargo ship.

The Graves family had been wealthy merchants in the Dahlia Empire for generations, and their ship showed it. It was built of fine materials, carefully constructed, and fully equipped. The sailors were broad and muscular, clearly strong men who knew their work.

They greeted Johnny respectfully when he came aboard, then looked curiously at the seven mages following him.

Were these the mercenaries the young master had hired?

Why were they all slight-looking mages? Wasn’t there a single burly swordsman among them?

And they looked so young. Were any of them even twenty? What level of magic could they use? Surely they weren’t all apprentices?

Captain Baolf, a bearded man, bowed to Johnny before giving Shu Li and the others a critical look. “Young master, are these seven mages the mercenary squad you hired?”

“Yes,” Johnny said. “They’re the Squad of Light. All seven are magic apprentices, and they’ll be protecting the ship on our voyage.”

Baolf and the sailors behind him stared.

“Young master, you’re joking, surely?”

What could magic apprentices do? Having seven of them did not mean they could beat hardened river pirates.

“Exactly. Look how scrawny they are. I could knock them over with one finger!”

The large sailor behind the captain laughed, and two others joined in.

“Great Wind God Wendis Inor, I am Sperien. I ask you to command the wind elements to gather around me and bring me a whirlwind that sweeps all before it—”

Shu Li pointed his staff. The three laughing sailors abruptly lifted off the deck. A small whirlwind wrapped around them and carried them upward, faster and higher.

“Aaaaaah—!”

Blown into the sky without warning, the sailors, each built like a bear, screamed in terror. If the whirlwind vanished while they were more than twenty meters up, they would hit the deck like sacks of meat.

Johnny and the rest of the crew stared, then craned their necks to watch the men overhead.

They weren’t going to fall to their deaths, were they?

Shu Li decided he had made his point. He flicked his staff, and the whirlwind brought the sailors down. Its force gradually weakened until, a meter above the deck, it disappeared altogether. The three men landed hard on their backsides.

“Ow! Ow, ow—!”

They clutched their rear ends and howled.

The other sailors rushed over to help them up, checking whether they had injured anything.

Fortunately, the three were sturdy men. No bones were broken; their backsides simply hurt.

Johnny and Baolf looked at Shu Li, both at a loss for words.

Shu Li’s eyes curved with his smile, showing a neat row of white teeth. “Sorry about that. You doubted us, so I had to demonstrate what I can do. How was it? Did you enjoy the thrill of soaring freely through the sky? Exciting, wasn’t it? Heh heh.”

“Heh heh.” Disio, Angel, Budno, and Amanda bared their teeth in matching grins.

Kumandi and Ace did not laugh aloud, but neither could keep the corners of his mouth from rising.

The best way to put an end to someone’s doubts was to let them experience the power of magic firsthand.

The sailors were disgruntled, but one glare from Baolf subdued them.

Clap, clap, clap!

Johnny burst out laughing as he applauded. “Good! Very good! Excellent!”

Having seen what the apprentices could do, he felt far more confident. His three thousand gold coins suddenly seemed well spent.

“Baolf, Captain Sperien, come inside with me. We need to discuss the voyage.”

Before setting sail, they had to settle their plans, including how the apprentices would work with the crew to make the journey go smoothly.

Seeing their young master laugh so freely, the sailors knew he had accepted the seven apprentices as their escorts.

And after what they had just witnessed, they had to admit that magic was powerful. Perhaps they really could all return to the capital safely.

The thought left them looking to the seven apprentices with hope.

The Squad of Light followed Johnny into the bridge, where a meeting room could seat more than ten people. They gathered around a long table, and Baolf laid out a map of the Itongli River.

“If the young master trusts you, I won’t waste time arguing,” Baolf said. “I hope you’ll work with me to keep our losses as small as possible. At the very least—”

He paused. Sadness crossed his weathered face.

“At the very least, we must get the young master safely back to the capital.”

Johnny patted his shoulder. “Don’t be so pessimistic, Baolf! Have faith in Captain Sperien and his teammates.”

“We wouldn’t have taken the job if we couldn’t keep everyone safe,” Shu Li said gravely.

Ace studied the map from top to bottom. Then he placed a slender finger on one stretch of river and asked Baolf with a smile, “This is where the pirates are based, isn’t it?”

Baolf was startled. “You knew that?”

Someone who did not regularly travel the river should not have been able to make sense of the map at all. Yet this handsome young blond apprentice had identified the pirates’ base at a glance.

“I didn’t know before,” Ace said modestly. “The map told me.”

He pointed out several features as he explained. River stretches governed by lords were marked in green; those controlled by pirates, or by no one at all, were marked in red.

At first glance, the crisscrossing lines looked hopelessly confusing. Once you found the pattern, though, the map became clear.

After listening to Ace’s explanation, Baolf gave him an admiring thumbs-up. “Now I believe you really can protect this ship.”

“We always could,” Disio said, lifting his chin.

Shu Li looked at Ace with admiration. Ace was one of the Squad of Light’s sharpest thinkers. He always found the heart of a problem at once, and in a few sentences he had made a complicated map easy to understand.

The squad’s other keen mind, Kumandi, took a notebook and pen from his bag and carefully wrote down every point Ace had raised.

The young Fairies saw him and took out their own notebooks and pens.

Amanda scratched the back of his head. As a dragon who liked flying through the sky, he could not see much use in recording any of this. But everyone else was doing it, so... he supposed he would too.

His brother had told him that, when he went out to gain experience, he must never hold the others back. He had to keep up with the young Fairies.

And so Ace calmly explained the map while the young Fairies and the young dragon listened and took notes. Johnny and Baolf watched, thoroughly bewildered.

There was something rather strange about this mercenary squad.

When Ace finished, he smiled at Baolf. “Captain, is there anything you’d like to add?”

Baolf shook his head. “No.”

Ace had already said everything Baolf had intended to say and thoroughly examined matters that had not even occurred to him. What was left to add?

“In that case, let’s discuss how to use magic to speed up the ship!” Shu Li closed his notebook.

“Use magic to speed up the ship?” Baolf stared at Johnny in confusion.

“Didn’t you know, Baolf?” Johnny asked eagerly. “Mages can cast supporting spells on cargo ships. Wind magic can make them faster, light magic can illuminate the way, and so on.”

“You mean enchant it the way they do seagoing ships?” Baolf asked in surprise.

For safety and protection against sea beasts, seagoing ships carried advanced mages who cast defensive enchantments on their hulls. Rivers were safer and had almost no magical beasts, so riverboats rarely carried mages.

Were these apprentices proposing to give a riverboat magical protection like a seagoing ship?

Shu Li nodded. “Yes.”

There was no rule against enchanting a riverboat.

Baolf rubbed his hands together, his spirits rising. “Then tell me how we do it!”

Half an hour later, the discussion ended and everyone left the meeting room.

Grrrrowl—

Budno and Amanda held their rumbling stomachs and looked at Shu Li pitifully.

Shu Li cleared his throat. “Johnny, what are we doing about dinner?”

Night had fallen long ago, and all the cargo had been loaded at the docks. The ship could depart as soon as the captain gave the order.

Johnny was brimming with confidence now, however, and no longer felt quite so desperate to leave at once. At Shu Li’s question, he swept a hand out generously. “Come on. Dinner’s on me at the best restaurant in town!”

“Yay!” Budno and Amanda cheered.

A free feast—what could be better?

As the descendant of a wealthy family, Johnny was lavish with his money. He had said he would take them to the best restaurant, and he did. He booked a large private room and ordered a table full of delicious food.

Roast rabbit, beef in sauce, roast leg of lamb, boiled fish, freshly made milk soup...

At Shu Li’s request, he also ordered plenty of vegetables, fruit, wheat cakes, and toasted bread.

Johnny had meant to order beer, but everyone else at the table said they did not drink, so he let the matter drop.

They all enjoyed the meal.

Amanda’s appetite was enormous. He ate so much meat that Johnny eyed his flat stomach suspiciously.

Could he really eat all that without throwing up?

Amanda blinked guiltily.

After trying several kinds of meat, Budno resigned himself to the truth: Fairies were not suited to eating it.

No matter how it was cooked, meat tasted unpleasantly gamey to him. Eating it was torture.

He wept inwardly as he quietly gnawed on some fruit.

So much for his dream of tasting every delicacy on the continent.

Shu Li saw his miserable expression and laughed to himself. When he had first gone to the human world with Ilio, he too had looked forward to trying all kinds of meat. Reality had cured him of that. He would rather eat dry bread than meat.

Still, given the chance, he wanted to make himself a plate of red-braised pork to satisfy the craving.

First, of course, he would have to find the right spices.

He had heard that the Serex Empire in the east produced tea and porcelain. Perhaps it had the spices he wanted as well. He would visit someday if he had the chance.

After dinner, the group returned to the docks, full and content.

On the second floor of the mercenary office, Bank leaned against a window. By the light of the streetlamps, he watched the group pass below and scoffed.

“Has Johnny lost his mind? He hired seven magic apprentices he knows nothing about?”

The middle-aged man reading behind the desk said, “You turned down his job. Why do you care whom he hires?”

Bank curled his lip. “I’m thinking about the three thousand gold coins I missed out on.”

“Missed out?” The man raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you come out two thousand ahead?”

Someone had tried to buy Bank off. Bank had demanded an outrageous five thousand gold coins, and the other party had actually paid.

The competition among the Graves family’s prospective heirs must be fierce.

Johnny knew nothing of Bank’s mockery. Back aboard the cargo ship, he told Maka to show the seven apprentices to their cabins.

Space aboard was limited. The rowers slept in the lowest part of the ship, while officers such as the first and second mates stayed on the lower level of the bridge.

The captain needed to keep constant watch over their course, so he slept in the wheelhouse at the top.

Johnny took the best large cabin on the middle level of the bridge. The mercenary squad could divide the remaining small cabins among themselves.

As luck would have it, there were eight. Every member of the Squad of Light could have a cabin of his own.

Shu Li was pleased. He straightened his bedding, set down his bag, and went out to the deck with his teammates.

They had preparations to make before departure.

The seven apprentices stood on deck while the sailors weighed anchor, took in the gangplank, and set the sails. As the oars carried the ship away from the dock, the apprentices raised their staffs and began to chant.

“Great Light God Laient Freys, I am Sperien, your faithful follower. I ask you to command the light elements to gather around me and help me surround this cargo ship with a strong shield of light.”

“Great Light God Laient Freys, I am Angel, your faithful follower. I ask you to command the light elements to gather around me and bring me glowing orbs to drive away the darkness!”

“Great Water God Hildani Geti, I am Budno, your faithful follower. I ask you to command the water elements to gather around me and help this cargo ship travel with the current.”

“Great Wind God Wendis Inor, I am Estel, your faithful follower. I ask you to command the wind elements to gather around me and bring me swift winds, so this ship may sail smoothly.”

As the spells took effect one after another, brilliant light spread over the ship. A shield of light enclosed the entire vessel like a transparent dome shimmering with starlight.

An orb of light rose into the air and divided into five or six smaller orbs. They spread out around the ship, clearly illuminating the river.

Under the spell’s control, the current itself began to carry the ship. The rowers were astonished to find themselves leaving the docks with barely any effort. They passed other vessels and soon reached a broad stretch of river.

Then the wind spell filled the sails and drove the cargo ship faster still. Apart from steering, the sailors hardly needed to row at all.

They had never expected their work to become so easy!

Thrilled, the sailors were full of admiration for the apprentices.

People on the docks watched the Graves family’s cargo ship blaze with light and race away like the wind. They stood open-mouthed.

In a secluded corner of the docks, Ilio stood atop a mooring bollard, wearing a hooded cloak. He watched the ship recede with a helpless expression.

After a while, he jumped down and headed back toward town.

Before they encountered the river pirates, he still had time to find an inn, take a bath, eat a meal, and enjoy a good night’s sleep.