Chapter 32: A Black Maiden, Huh… It Really Is a Black Ship That Looks Feminine

While talking about the cargo ship, Kazui and Yuri began passing through the city gate.

Because the wall was about twenty meters thick, rather than simply passing through a gate, it felt more like walking through a tunnel.

The noise of the automobiles passing through echoed, making the inside of the tunnel-like city gate quite loud. Since it was not a situation in which they could properly talk, the two of them fell silent.

Once they exited the city gate, a vast green grassland stretched out before them. Forests could be seen here and there, and in the far distance a mountain range was visible.

The blue of the sky and the green of the grassland divided the natural scenery into almost two colors. There were objects of other colors within the scenery as well, but most of them were artificial.

Many of those artificial objects were related to the port — Aquila Port. In small cities like Aquila, ports for terrestrial ships were often not fixed facilities.

They were composed of floating piers that moved by the same method as terrestrial ships, so the ports themselves were mobile. In other words, the terrestrial-ship ports were made up of multiple small terrestrial ships.

Usually, ports for terrestrial ships were set up near the walls outside the city gates. In the event of a dangerous situation such as a monster attack, the floating piers, which were themselves terrestrial ships, would withdraw to safety inside the walls.

At Aquila Port there were four dull-gray, giant rectangular floating piers. That meant four terrestrial ships could be moored at the same time.

The floating piers could change the height of their deck sections, so they could accommodate terrestrial ships of various heights. Equipped with multiple large lifts, they were convenient for loading and unloading cargo, and some even functioned as docks capable of maintaining and repairing terrestrial ships.

On the grassland near the city gate, the four floating piers were arranged with considerable spacing between them. They were lined up parallel to one another with their bows pointed toward the wall, keeping an appropriate distance.

On the sides of the floating piers, the numbers 1 through 4 were written in red. Currently only the southernmost fourth floating pier was empty; floating piers one through three were all occupied.

"That’s huge... a Whale-class, huh..."

Looking at the enormous terrestrial ship moored at the third floating pier, Kazui muttered. Terrestrial ships were roughly classified into three classes according to size.

Ships classified as large among the three classes — those exceeding 150 meters in overall length — were called Whale-class. Incidentally, there also existed various classes of terrestrial ships that did not fall into these three size-based categories.

What lay in the direction of Kazui’s gaze was a green terrestrial ship that looked like a giant container ship. It was a cargo ship with numerous colorful containers stacked on its deck.

A giant about five meters tall was unloading containers from the cargo ship onto the floating pier. This giant was a huge humanoid figure operated by magic — a golem.

Like terrestrial ships, it was made of a light yet sturdy metal created through the use of magic. To people who had come from Japan, such as Kazui and Yuri, it looked like a humanoid work robot.

Because golems handled the loading and unloading of containers and the like, there were no gantry-crane-type structures.

"Whale-class ships are cargo ships, so that one’s not Iron Maiden’s ship."

Kazui turned his eyes toward the second and first floating piers.

"Both of those look like Dolphin-class, and they don’t seem to be cargo ships either."

Dolphin-class referred to medium-sized terrestrial ships with overall lengths between fifty and one hundred meters. Incidentally, small terrestrial ships under fifty meters were called Porpoise-class.

"The one at the first pier is Iron Maiden’s ship."

Yuri pointed at the black terrestrial ship moored at the first floating pier with its bow pointed toward the wall.

"It’s called the Black Maiden, apparently."

The black hull of the Black Maiden, whose bow had a streamlined shape and lines that somehow suggested a woman’s body, bore an emblem on its side. It was an emblem depicting a female adventurer holding a sword and a staff.

"A Black Maiden, huh... It really is a black ship that looks feminine."

Looking at the Black Maiden, Kazui muttered. Because of the design of the hull and the emblem, the ship left a feminine impression on him.

Kazui and Yuri passed by the second floating pier and approached the first. Even though it was medium-sized, the height to the deck was about ten meters and the height of the bridge was twenty meters, so as they drew nearer to the Black Maiden the two of them found themselves looking up at the ship.

A woman approached the two of them.

"She looks like she stepped out of a Western movie."

Looking at the approaching woman, Kazui muttered with a surprised expression.

"Yeah... she really has that Western fashion cowgirl vibe."

Yuri replied to Kazui while equally surprised. The clothing of the approaching woman looked to Japanese-raised Kazui and Yuri like the Western fashion they had seen in Western movies.