The Nebula’s Civilization

“I-It’s an Ogre!”

At the pirates’ scream, the Asticidea who seemed to be their leader yelled, “Afraid not! They’re just sailors! Other than the Ogre, they’re nothing! Shoot them with arrows!”

All at once, arrows flew past the air toward Hwae-Sa. Although the shots were made from a shaking ship, the pirates had decent skills. A few arrows ended up hitting Hwae-Sa, but they weren’t able to pierce through the thick skin and left only shallow cuts.

Vasen Lak Orazen was amazed.

‘At the end of the day, an Ogre is an Ogre.’

If Hwae-Sa could just take the ropes off of the railing, the pirates wouldn’t be able to get on the ship. However, the shots made by the pirates did end up having an effect.

“Ouch, ouch…!”

Hwae-Sa went up to the railing, but doing so only made them a huge target for the pirates. As arrows poured, Hwae-Sa raised their forearm to cover their face before taking a few steps back.

“F…first officer, hurt…”

Seeing Hwae-Sa lose momentum, Vasen asked Theone Itimo in bewilderment, “What’s wrong?”

“What? No one would be okay after getting shot by arrows.”

“But Hwae-Sa’s an Ogre.”

“Are Ogres not people?” Theone lowered her body to the deck as much as she could and added, “Well, even though Hwae-Sa is stubborn, they are prone to exaggerating their pain. If they had the courage to match that kind of physique and the ability to speak so well, they would have been a general somewhere.”

That did make some sense.

Vasen then said, “But we can’t just let the pirates get on board, can we?”

“No.”

“If you can buy me some time with Hwae-Sa, I’ll do something about the pirates.”

“Prince…no, you, the expedition leader?”

Vasen glared like he was wondering what was wrong with that.

Theone shook her head.

“You can’t. What do you think will happen to me if you get a scratch on your body?”

“Well, where’s the guarantee that the crew will be fine if the pirates get on?”

“Your life will at least be guaranteed if you say you're a prince from Black Scale. As long as those pirates aren’t dumb.”

That would be the case if he was lucky. When pirates captured a precious person, they usually held them captive and demanded a high ransom.

“In my case, sure, but where’s the guarantee that you’ll be fine?”

“I’ve diligently devoted myself to Night Sky until now for moments like this, so wouldn’t it work out somehow?”

“.....”

“It’s just a joke, so don’t give me that look. We have Hwae-Sa for now. They won’t be able to approach the crew…”

In Vasen’s opinion, that was too naive a hope. An Ogre could be a great fighter, but they weren’t invincible. And if Ogres couldn’t couldn’t carry out Ogre-like missions, their natural advantage would be useless.

Vasen put his bow on his shoulder and unsheathed his sword.

“Why are you drawing your sword?”

“I’m going to jump onto the pirate ship.”

“Are you crazy?”

“The ship is slowing down. If the other two ships catch up, pirates will come on board from the other side as well, and there’s no guarantee that an Ogre will triumph if there are more pirates. We need to defeat them first.”

“But…”

“If you don’t want to see me become an arrow rack, tell Hwae-Sa to get to work.”

As Vasen ran to the rear end of the ship, Theone hurriedly called out to Hwae-Sa. She knew that Vasen meant what he said.

“That’s right, Hwae-Sa!”

“Why are you calling me, Captain?”

“Didn’t you get on this ship to defeat the sea?”

“Yes. But arrow hurts… Hwae-Sa, defeated…”

Theone hit the now demoralized Hwae-Sa on the back.

“Then you can just attack from a distance!”

“...From a distance?”

Vasen pressed his abdomen to the railing and looked down from the rear end of the ship. As expected, the pirates were staring at the middle part of the ship where the Ogre had been.

‘But the moment I go down there, they’ll hear a noise. Hwae-Sa is…?’

As he anticipated, Hwae-Sa was running towards the railing with both arms raised. Above Hwae-Sa’s head was a large jug for drinking water.

“Huff!”

The jug flew into the air towards the pirate ship.

“Avoid it!”

“This way!”

Unfortunately, the damage wasn’t great. The pirates were able to avoid the jug because Hwae-Sa had thrown it with such a dramatic manner. Moreover, while Hwae-Sa had the higher ground, the acceleration provided by the gravitational pull wasn’t enough to cause great damage to the pirate ship. What poured out from the broken jug was the familiar water.

‘But that is enough.’

The pirates had been running around in order to avoid the jug, so they were unable to return fire.

Vasen rolled once as he landed on their ship. Only the pirate at the very back sensed someone’s approach and looked back.

“Huh?”

And that became their last words. Vasen got up and pushed his sword into the pirate’s body, piercing into and through their cervical spine. Vasen took out his sword as the pirate collapsed and approached the next pirate that had their back to him.

“Brother! The Ogre is throwing something again!”

“You fools! Shoot arrows at the Ogre, and they won’t be able to throw things!”

“But the Ogre is covering their body with the water jug, so…”

Thump!

The jugs Hwae-Sa threw in a row damaged the deck repeatedly until there was a dent.

“Just grab the ropes and climb!”

“B…brother!”

“What is it now!?”

“I…in the back there is a… Kugh!”

A long sword penetrated through the chest of the pirate mid-sentence before disappearing as if it got sucked in. The pirate then collapsed, and Vasen revealed himself.

“You must be the captain,” said Vasen.

The Astacidean captain of the pirate ship, Godan, was shocked. Behind Vasen, all the pirates who had been alive only a moment ago were dead. The three pirates behind Godan were the only survivors.

“Y…you fool! …H…how?”

“Will you surrender?”

Godan almost accepted the offer without thinking. However, from his perspective, he was still the one at an advantage. The two other pirate ships were close by, and he figured that Vasen must be the best combatant onboard the merchant ship.

‘Even if we leave the Ogre to the others to deal with, things will become much easier if this guy is removed. It was smart of him to get behind us, but that doesn't mean he is good with his sword.’

Godan took out daggers with his two claws and raised his big claw above his head to get into combat position. The unique claws of the Asticideas, who were also known as crawfish, were powerful enough to break a weaker body part in one go. And even when they could only hold off their opponent rather than breaking any body parts, they could always overpower their opponent with their other claw. It was common for Asticideas to show confidence in close combat.

‘Die!’

A claw the size of Godan’s head flew towards Vasen. Vasen easily avoided the attack and moved quite a distance away.

‘Are you afraid of my claws? You’re just a coward who can only target others from behind.’

Confident in his victory, Godan took one step forward.

“B…brother! Watch out!”

“Huh?”

Godan turned just as the water jug thrown by Hwae-Sa hit his face squarely.

***

“Crawfish is certainly crawfish. I can’t believe he’s still alive after being hit by that.”

“Team Leader, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“If Lizardmen call Astacideas crawfish, what do you call real crawfish?”

“...Edible crawfish?”

“...Wouldn’t Astacideas be offended if they knew Lizardmen distinguished them with real crawfish as edible and non-edible?”

“Would they?”

Godan, who had barely regained consciousness, raised his head and said, “We will!”

And as he said so, he tried to strike with his claws, but they were of course tied up with a rope. Moreover, he was no longer on his pirate ship, but on the deck of the merchant ship while two individuals looked down at him. Meanwhile, the other crewmen were busily cleaning after the battle. Godan’s subordinates were also tied up behind him.

“Oh no, where is my ship?”

Theone replied, “We sent our crew down to your ship to follow us.”

“What about the other pirate ships?”

“They ran away,”

“No way!”

Theone gestured to the side of The Humiliation of Pirates with her chin. There was one of the military ships that had eventually caught up to them.

Godan shook his antennae in shock.

“After we made quick work of you, the other pirate ships merely sailed in parallel to us because they were afraid. And in the midst of their hesitation, the military ships we had been waiting for arrived.”

“Oh my, I can’t believe my brothers abandoned me. There’s no way…”

Despite his words, Vasen thought that Godan seemed to have quickly realized reality. And Gordan’s following words supported that thought.

“...they would do that, but please spare me this time, sister!”

“You should be thankful that we didn’t throw you into the sea right away. You’re being escorted by military ships, and our next destination is Sashian. You’ll be punished there by law.”

“Are you talking about the Sashian in Black Scale? If you punish me by the laws of Black Scale, I’ll die!”

“Hm, that’s unfortunate… But.”

“But? What is it?”

Vasen took a step closer and said, “If you answer my questions to my satisfaction, I’ll think of another way.”

“Questions?”

“I have a few questions about the Pirate of the Night.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t just sell my brothers out like…”

“It would be your freedom to answer or not.”

After a moment of deliberation, Godan shook his antennae. It meant he agreed.

“Alright.”

And that alone was enough for Vasen to confirm that the pirates had no god.

“Well, here’s the first question.”

“What is it?”

“Why do Astacideas ride ships when they can move in the sea?”

Theone’s eyes widened. It looked like she was silently asking Vasen what he was doing. And the crewmen working next to them heard and laughed before passing by.

Embarrassed, Vasen said, “Haven’t you wondered about that? I’ve always been curious.”

“I can at least tell how ignorant you are about other species.”

Godan also seemed to be wondering how he should answer Vasen’s question. Then he said, “Well, that is obviously true, but riding ships is faster than walking or swimming under the sea. It also takes less work. And above all, we can carry many things with ships.”

“I see. That was a personal question. I’ll get to the next one.”

“...Okay.”

Vasen said, “What religion is the White Spider God from?”

“It is the religion where I was born.”

“Where were you born?”

“If you take a ship and go down south from Black Scale, there is a place where Astacideas live together. Each of our islands has its own name, but Black Scale seemed to call the place Southern Archipelago.”

“Oh, that’s where you mean.”

Those islands were found shortly after Black Scale was established, and titular island lords had been assigned there.

“Tell me more about the White Spider God. What kind of god are they?”

Godan contemplated for a moment. In Vasen’s perspective, rather than not wanting to explain it, it seemed more like that Godan was wondering how he should explain it because this was his first time being asked the question.

“The White Spider God appeared one hundred years ago in the form of a big white spider and saved the chief at the time from a three-tailed snake. Other than that, they created shrimp from the ground when our tribe was starving. However, this kind of miracle happened all across the islands, and I’m aware that each island calls the god who conjures miracles by a different name.”

“Like?”

“On the northernmost island, the island closest to Black Scale, the god is called the Blue Insect God.”

Vased laughed.

Confused, Theone asked, “What is it?”

“The Blue Insect God is what Night Sky used to be called. He believed in the same god as us.”

“What?”

“The system hasn’t been unified because they are so far from Orazen, but…”

Vasen’s eyes turned rather cold.

“It is unforgivable that you went around committing piracy while invoking one of Night Sky’s names. Pirate of the Night has been making quite the reputation for themselves around Bavrin, but don’t tell me your whole tribe goes around committing piracy. They don't, do they?”

Godan hurriedly shook his antennae.

“N…no. Other Astacideas are leading a decent life on the Southern Archipelago. I was caught by pirates when I was young, and the pirates who raised me were absorbed by Yaboon’s Pirates. We simply go around using their name.”

“Then are you saying that their leader isn’t someone from the Southern Archipelago?

“Yes. Their leader is from another continent.”

Vasen became puzzled. If they came from another continent, it could only be the western continent based on where Black Scale was since no ships had come from the east. Even the merchant ship that had apparently been to the western continent left for the east and returned saying it was only open sea.

“Another…continent?”

However, it was strange that a person from the western continent would pass by Danly and Stone Cave to commit privacy off the coast of Danyum and Black Scale. But Vasen found it hard to believe that there was yet another continent.

“Then did Yaboon’s Pirates come from the western continent?”

Godan said, “No, they came from the southern continent.”