Chapter 1444: Anam City
The merchant ended up asking for even more Creas and surprisingly, Emilia went ahead to give it to him without complaining which was honestly a huge surprise to me.
She assures me that the money will return back to us again eventually so I don’t question her.
I was actually half expecting another pirate attack or something but it seemed like those pirates were the only ones in the area since no one else showed up after that.
There were a few ships that passed by but all of them were other merchant ships, passenger ships or patrol ships so we didn’t have to fight off anymore pirates.
There was one time some kind of tentacle monster appeared but another patrol ship was nearby so they went ahead to shoot their magic cannons at it to repel it easily, meaning we did not even need to participate in the fight at all.
A few more days passed without any interruption before Anam City appeared on the horizon, the outline of the city jutting out from the landmass quite distinctively.
Our ship sailed along the shoreline to join several other ships that were also headed towards the city.
We slowed down to a crawl as we had to wait for our turn to be guided into the busy port, something that was apparently commonplace for places like this.
All of us were on the deck as we slowly drifted closer and closer to the city, rounding the bend that would bring us around to enter the harbour area of the city.
As the ship turned, I was treated to the sight of a sprawling, walled city that was built in a semicircle around the coast.
With a slight similarity to Nomed Metropolis, this city seemed to have been built upwards as well but in a more spread out area around the coast.
But the city was not built that high up as the buildings seemed to eventually spill outside the walls and began expanding horizontally instead of vertically afterwards.
Seeing that the land outside the walls also looked just as dead with the dead trees and cracked earth like the ones outside Nomed Metropolis, the effects of the giant tree must also reach here as well which meant that there weren’t any monsters around the area since they would not be able to form here because of the tree.
And since the Abhorrents were concentrated around the Tree of Death, the city here didn’t need to worry about those things coming all the way here either.
I’m guessing the city was first built within the walls to protect itself against monsters but after the disaster with the Tree of Death, the people here figured out that the land outside the city walls were no longer dangerous and thus expanded outside.
In contrast, they had focused on building towers near the coast with magic cannons and what looked like other types of magic artillery perched on the walls and towers all pointed towards the sea, clearly there to repel any aquatic monsters and pirates from breaching into the city from the ocean.
As though to prove such a point, a large sea serpent suddenly rose up from the sea a distance away, the creature letting out a loud roar before it set its eyes on the city.
It then started slithering its way towards the city, somehow being able to keep it’s upper body outside of the water as it sped towards the shore.
A bell started ringing along the coast which I believed was the alarm bell indicating an attack and the magic cannons and artillery all powered themselves up.
I watched in fascination as the cannons took aim at the serpent by themselves, probably being controlled by some mage within the tower itself, before they fired in unison.
Instead of cannonballs, the cannons fired balls of cackling blue energy that flew with blinding speed in an arc towards the serpent.
The monster didn’t even have time to react before the energy ball crashed down on top of it, piercing through its scales and exploding in bright blue sparks.
Chunks of its flesh flew out in every direction and the serpent tried to rear back to let out a pained roar, only for another of those energy balls to crash down on top of its head and blast its head into pieces.
The remains of the serpent wobbled for a moment before it came crashing down on top of the water, its carcass floating lifelessly.
There was another pause before boats were suddenly speeding out from the harbour, all of them roughly the size of a sail boat but without the sail.
It looked like all of them were being propelled by a contraption at the back that was shooting out water behind them to propel them forward, all of them skipping along the waves to head towards the sea serpent.
"What are they doing?" I couldn’t help but ask.
Lilith was the one who answered, "Oh~ Those are the fishermen~ Aside from just fishing, which is one of the main industries in this city, they also go out and carve up any monsters that are killed by the city’s artillery to bring back as food too~ Pretty cool right?"
"It is pretty cool. What are they using to accelerate that quickly?"
Emilia then spoke up as well, "Ahem~ The engine you see there is one of our products, Boss~"
Oh... I should have guessed. As expected of Emilia.
I watched the boats, which I suppose were more like speedboats now that I know about those engines, swarm the carcass of the sea serpent and the people on board started their work cutting up the sea creature.
That eventually shifted out of sight as we sailed closer into the harbor, the ship aiming to dock at one of the open piers.
As we got closer, I also spotted a rather impressive looking temple at the edge of the water and it was in a design that I’ve never seen before.
I’m guessing that’s a temple dedicated to Goddess Yokmii, seeing that this city seemed to be quite dependent on the sea after all.
Ropes were tossed overboard and the dockworkers caught them to start tying the ship to the pier, anchoring the ship from drifting off.
Gangplanks were brought out and lowered to form bridges and we got ready to depart.
But before we could leave the ship, an Infrid wearing official looking clothes flanked by several others in the same uniform came up to board the ship.
"This is a ship inspection. I need everyone to gather on the main deck," She ordered.
I guess this was something normal around here so I didn’t complain and gathered on the deck with my girls.
The rest of the crew also thought so and they also gathered alongside us without any complaints.
What was surprising was the merchant being absolutely livid about this as he stepped in front of those Infrids and started shouting at them.
"What?!! This is discrimination!! You’re only doing this because I’m not an Infrid like you!! You’re discriminating against me!! I have done nothing wrong for you to warrant an inspection!!"
As though they were already used to outbursts like these, the Infrids did not show much reaction aside from taking a small step back to avoid the spittle from the angry Nekomata merchant that was still shouting at them.
The lead Infrid waited until he was done before she spoke, "I assure you this has nothing to do with the fact that you are a Nekomata, sir. This is simply a random inspection check. You do not need to worry if there is nothing wrong with your ship. Go."
At her command, the others around her moved to descend below deck to check the rest of the ship.
The merchant tried to stop them but the lead Infrid muttered something before stretching her hand towards him, prompting chains to appear around the merchant and wrap him up like a cocoon.
"Sir... You are impeding an official investigation. Please cooperate. If there is nothing wrong, this will be over quickly," The Infrid told him casually.
As though on cue, one of the Infrids suddenly returned looking quite grim in the face.
"Report," The lead Infrid demanded.
The other Infrid nodded in the direction of the stairs, "The ship is carrying boxes of Mana Crystals."
The lead Infrid nodded, "Mana Crystals. I’m going to need to see your permit for bringing Mana Crystals into this port, sir."
The merchant snapped his mouth shut.
The Infrid did not hesitate and clucks her tongue at him, "No permit? I’m afraid that’s going to be a fine and we’ll have to confiscate it."
Another Infrid came up from the stairs, "Reporting... The ship is also carrying monster meat."
"Monster meat too? I’ll also have to see your permit for that sir. Hmm? Do you also not have a permit for that? That’s another fine and confiscation sir."
As if waiting for that moment, another Infrid came up, "Reporting. There’s boxes of potions but they don’t have the apothecary’s markings on them."
"Oh? Unmarked potions? Bought from the black market? Tsk, tsk. That’s another hefty fine and confiscation."
I slowly turned to Emilia, only to see her lips curled up in a wide smile.
She’s the one that did this I see... But why did she say the money will come back to us? Are we getting compensated or something?