A boy raised by a demon king and a dragon king seems to be peerless in his school life.

Volume 10 Chapter 30 Hidden Island Oafuru

The group of Ruisha who landed on the hidden island of Oafuru disembarked with Captain Cindy.

Then, a figure dressed in a black robe approached.

The person was short with a bent waist, and deep wrinkles were visible around the mouth through the gap in the hood. It seemed they were quite elderly.

The old man approached Cindy and spoke.

“… Welcome, Cindy.”

“It’s unusual for you to greet us personally, Egil. What’s the occasion?”

“You’re going, aren’t you? To the Pirate King. I wanted to meet before you went.”

“… Surprising. Where did you get that information from?”

To Cindy’s question, the old man called Egil didn’t answer.

Intrigued by the mysterious aura surrounding the old man, Ruisha asked.

“Cindy, who is this person?”

“Egil is the ‘caretaker’ of Oafuru Island. He’s an old acquaintance of mine. Be careful, if you break the island’s rules, Egil might expel you from the island.”

“The rules, like no fighting, right? I’ll be careful.”

As they talked, Egil shifted his gaze to Ruisha and murmured, “I see.”

“You’ve found an interesting one. I thought you alone wouldn’t make it to the Pirate King, but… this might change things.”

“Me… interesting? What do you mean?”

“Every person has a path in life, commonly referred to as ‘fate.’ I don’t know what happened, but your path has significantly deviated from where it should have originally led.”

Ruisha was taken aback by Egil’s words.

Indeed, his fate had veered significantly from that day he fell into the infinite prison. To accurately predict that meant the old man in front of him was no ordinary individual.

“Those who have deviated from their path possess the power to change the fate of others. Be careful with that power.”

“… I understand.”

He didn’t fully grasp the true meaning of the old man’s words.

However, Ruisha deeply engraved those words in his heart.

◇　◇　◇

After that, Cindy and Ruisha entered the island. The crew members other than Cindy seemed to have plenty to do, as they stayed on the ship or went shopping separately from the captain.

With Vice Captain Mac around, everything seemed to be fine. Cindy, as the captain, went to a familiar shop, seemingly to buy things that could only be bought there.

“By the way, this island seems to have nothing but pirates, doesn’t it?”

There were a fair number of people on the island, but every one of them was a pirate.

They were drowning in alcohol from daytime, and there were those collapsed and drunk all over the island.

Seeing this scene and looking puzzled, Ruisha was spoken to by Cindy.

“Strange, isn’t it? The security seems terrible at a glance, but not a single fight seems to break out.”

“That’s true. But isn’t it because ‘fighting is prohibited’ on this island? Wouldn’t it be a problem if that were no longer the case?”

“In the past, it might have been like that… I wonder about now.”

Cindy replied with a somewhat lonely tone.

In a demeanor unlike her usual confident and bold self, Ruisha felt something was off.

“… What do you mean by that?”

“It’s simple. The current pirates are pathetic… they’ve lost their edge. A hundred years ago… during the time when Captain Bat was active, the pirates were sharp. They all believed they were the strongest warriors of the sea and fought almost every day. So, Oafuru, where fighting is prohibited, was the only resting place for those pirates.”

“I see. But… the pirates here don’t seem that fierce.”

The pirates on Oafuru looked dirty and had rough appearances, but they didn’t seem very strong. To Ruisha, they didn’t appear much different from common thieves.

“Nowadays, pirates have devolved into cheap ones who only attack merchant ships and plunder. The strong and awe-inspiring pirates from that era, they’re no longer around these parts. That’s why I left this sea and ventured to the seas beyond.”

“I see… I understand.”

Ruisha only knew of pirates like those from fairy tales, but indeed, the pirates present here bore no resemblance to them.

In fact, most of the pirates on Oafuru were on the island just to avoid getting caught and hardly engaged in confrontations among pirates.

In the sense of being pirates of the sea, that might be an accurate description. However, they were no longer the admired figures they once were.

“Now, let’s end this dull conversation here. We’ve arrived at our destination. Let’s go in.”

“Y-yeah.”

Ruisha obediently entered a small shop-like place as instructed by Cindy.

Inside the shop, various tools for use at sea were densely packed. Compasses, binoculars, medicine… and various strange tools whose purpose he couldn’t fathom.

While Ruisha found all of these intriguing, what piqued his interest the most was the shopkeeper.

“Hey, Asha, making good money?”

“You can tell just by looking at the lack of customers, Cindy. Since you’re making money, leave a lot of gold behind.”

The woman conversing amicably with Cindy had distinctive long red hair.

She seemed to be in her mid-twenties. Although she possessed exceptionally good looks, there was something that caught Ruisha’s attention more than her beauty.

“Um, about that body…”

“Hm? What’s up? Is it your first time meeting a mermaid?”

Saying so, Asha moved her large tail fin in the place where legs would normally be.

◇

Volume 10 Chapter 31 The Sea Treasure Hall of the Songstress

Asha, the red-haired mermaid and the owner of the “Songstress’s Sea Treasure Hall,” had a large aquarium inside the counter where only her lower body was immersed in water. She lived with her upper body exposed.

“Wow, mermaids really exist…!”

“Hehe, what’s up, Cindy? Who’s this cute boy? Where on earth did you catch him?”

Asha, teasingly, said as a mermaid.

“It’s not like that. I’m just in a cooperative relationship with Ruisha. Well, I do plan to recruit him after all this is over.”

“Really? It’s unusual for you to be so invested. Be careful. That woman may seem straightforward, but she can be surprisingly persistent.”

“W-Well…”

“Quit the nonsense and get to work, will you? I need you to prepare various things.”

Saying that, Cindy handed Asha a note filled with what seemed like text.

Seeing it, Asha made a surprised expression.

“What’s this amount? Are you planning to go to a distant sea again?”

“Not this time. I’ve finally found it… that.”

“…It’s hard to believe all of a sudden, but you wouldn’t joke about something like that. Okay, wait a moment.”

Asha said seriously and then shouted in the shop’s direction, “It’s time for you to work!”

Creatures resembling large crabs and shrimp emerged from the aquarium and started arranging the products. As a mermaid, she could communicate with sea creatures.

“This is an amazing sight…”

“The world is vast.”

Watching the aquatic creatures bustling around inside the shop, Ruisha and the others were overwhelmed.

Ignoring them, Asha asked Cindy seriously, “You’ve casually slipped in, but what do you intend to use the ‘Tears of the Mermaid’ for? You’re not going to say the destination is the bottom of the sea, are you?”

“Excellent guess. Do you have a good intuition? Perhaps suited for a pirate?”

Unapologetically saying such things, Asha let out a sigh, “Well…”

“I know that you’ve been chasing Captain Bat from a long time ago. But stop at the seafloor. That place is the closest to death; it’s not a world where humans can easily go. Unless you’re a mermaid, a fish person… or a creature like a seafloor-dwelling merman, you’ll definitely die.”

“That’s why I’m willing to pay a high price to buy the ‘Tears of the Mermaid’ to borrow the mermaid’s power. I appreciate your concern, but I’d like you to lend your strength as a friend here.”

Saying this, Cindy bowed her head.

Witnessing her friend’s action, which was rare to see, Asha understood her determination.

“Sigh… you’ve always been stubborn once you set your mind on something. Alright, I got it, I’ll sell it to you. However, show me your plan, and I won’t allow you to go unless you have everything I’ve mentioned.”

Saying this, Asha started listing the things necessary to go to the seafloor.

What she wrote covered about five pages, and the total cost was quite substantial.

“Geez, you’re quite the shrewd businesswoman. If I buy all this, our pirate crew will go bankrupt.”

“That’s good then. In that case, you won’t be able to go to the Pirate King anymore, right?”

They exchanged banter, and the two formidable women smiled at each other.