#1099 The World’s Mysterious Back Side

Continuing from last time is me, young S-rank Corey.

When I actually get a chance to talk with Lord Saint, I find he’s much more down-to-earth than I imagined.

Even today, he’s graciously answering our bold and somewhat rude questions.

“A ship at sea? Did that happen? Hmm…”

Granted, the answers themselves aren’t exactly clear.

“Hmm? Give me a sec, I’m trying to remember. Let’s see… something like that might’ve happened? Or maybe it didn’t?”

“C’mon, it totally did! You have to remember!”

Racha Leones yelps in distress at Lord Saint’s fuzzy memory.

“If it turns out you never met me on that calm ocean, then all my adventures since then become a complete sham! You wouldn’t do that to me, right?!”

Though, having your ultimate goal turn out to be a mirage is not unheard of in the adventuring world…

“Stop it! That’s not helping at all!”

Feeling sorry for him, Lord Saint puts even more effort into dredging up old memories.

Finally, something clicks.

“Ah! Aaaah! Right, that! I remember now! It was just a little lapse in memory, not because I’m getting old or anything!”

For some reason, Lord Saint is very insistent that this is not due to old age.

“It happened when I decided to spend one winter building a self-propelled steel ship for my own amusement, and took it out for a test run...!”

Self-propelled?
A steel ship?

Those words sound vaguely terrifying.

“I spotted a ship in distress, so naturally, as a decent human being, I rescued them. …Ah, so that’s where I met you, Racha Leones! Seeing you alive and well now really makes it all worthwhile.”

Lord Saint speaks with quiet satisfaction.

So Racha Leones’s story is true after all.

The unbelievable details, like a ship with no sails and made entirely of metal, were all true too?

“I figured I might as well build a ship that doesn’t get shipwrecked… something that’s hard to sink. I mean, no one wants their carefully built ship going under, right?”

Right...

Everyone would prefer their ship to stay afloat, obviously.

“So I made it metal. That way, it’s harder for the hull to get punctured. And if it can propel itself, it won’t be at the mercy of the weather either, right?”

That’s not wrong...

But can metal ships even float on the ocean?

Aren’t they supposed to sink...?

“People say that a lot, but it’s all about buoyancy, you know? I’ll spare you the details, but if you calculate it right, even metal can float. It was a real labor of trial and error, but in the end, I was pretty proud of it. I haven’t been using it much lately, though.”

“Why not?! If it’s that amazing, you could travel anywhere in the world!”

Racha Leones exclaims, surprised.

Given that his adventures center on the sea, a perfectly unsinkable, self-propelled ship must sound like the ultimate dream to him.

“Well, I originally built it as a fishing boat…”

“A fishing boat?!”

“Yup. The orcs on my farm wanted to fish. I made it big so we could catch tons of fish. But I thought the exterior looked too plain, so I asked some dwarves to spruce it up.”

At that, Lord Saint’s expression grows wistful.

“The dwarves really went overboard. It ended up looking like a luxury cruise liner! They even pimped out the interior without me asking, adding hotel-quality rooms, a casino, a dance hall, and even a pool...!”

He grows more and more nostalgic, probably recalling how he felt back then.

“It’s so fancy now, I can’t use it as a fishing boat anymore. These days, I only break it out when I’m visiting my wife’s family.”

“Only when you’re going home to the in-laws?!”

Racha Leones is stunned.

After that fiasco, the orcs apparently got a more modestly sized boat built.

Also entirely metal, of course.

“But I still envy you! Owning a ship like that means you can go anywhere in the world!”

Racha Leones’ eyes sparkle.

As an explorer who made his name on the high seas, his love for ships is unmatched.

“Eh, it’s not always that great. The bigger the ship, the harder it is to manage. It takes a lot of work, a crew, preparations; all that’s a huge hassle.”

“What?!”

Lord Saint seems like the type who hates anything too troublesome.

“That’s why, if I just need to pop over somewhere and then come straight back, I’d rather ride my dragon-horse Sakamoto. It’s way more cost-effective.”

Now I’m curious about this “dragon-horse” called Sakamoto.

Is that the horse grazing over there? Lord Saint comes to the development site every morning riding it, and leaves every evening on it as well.

The issue is that the horse can fly.

Horses can fly?!

I thought maybe it was a Pegasus, but this horse has no wings. It just sort of gallops through the air?!

How on earth does that work?

“Sakamoto’s a homunculus horse created by Zoth Syra. He’s got Veil’s dragon genes mixed in. That lets him run through the skies and fly at incredible speeds.”

Dragon genes?

Wait, so he’s basically a horse-dragon hybrid?

“Whenever I travel beyond the farm’s borders, I rely on Sakamoto. It’s just easier. Though taking care of him is a chore. He’s a bit spoiled, probably because he inherited Veil’s genes.”

“So that means the reports of a flying horse spotted all over the place… that’s actually your steed?”

“Flying horse?”

Racha Leones elaborates on the new term.

“It’s a rumor among explorers. They say there’s a horse that flies through the sky, with sightings reported worldwide. Most think it’s just a bird or a dragon mistaken for a horse. Some explorers have dedicated themselves to solving this mystery!”

So it’s a pro-level puzzle people have been trying to crack.

And the truth is that it’s just Lord Saint riding around on his special horse!

“Wow, so people have seen me after all. I really tried to avoid being spotted, but I guess I ended up as some kind of urban legend. How embarrassing!”

Given Lord Saint’s extraordinary powers, even his casual, everyday activities must look like supernatural phenomena to outsiders.

I’m starting to suspect that most of the world’s mysteries might secretly be connected to him in some way.

“Hold on now. No matter how great Lord Saint is, he can’t be behind every mystery in the world. That would make our jobs as explorers kinda pointless.”

Yeah, that’s true.

If every world mystery led back to Lord Saint, then the entire world would revolve around him, and that’s just too bizarre.

“Besides, some rumors are just plain silly. Like the so-called ‘Sea Walker’…”

The Sea Walker?

What’s that?

“Just as the name suggests. Supposedly, there’s someone who can walk on the ocean’s surface. Ridiculous. Probably someone just saw a mermaid doing something weird at sea level.”

“Oh, that might’ve been me, too.”

Huh?

Are all the world’s mysteries really Lord Saint’s doing?!

“There was a time I tried to lose weight. And the best exercise for that is walking, you know? But if I walked on land, Sakamoto would give me those puppy-dog eyes like, ‘Why aren’t you riding me?’ So I ended up strolling across the ocean to avoid that guilt trip...”

Walking on the ocean?!

Is that even possible?!

“It’s all about buoyancy again! If I use the Hand of Supremacy to amplify buoyant force beyond its limit, I can stand on the sea surface!”

I have no idea what he’s talking about!

The only thing I understand is that the Sea Walker rumor also points straight back to Lord Saint.

“Okay, okay, what about the rumor of the ‘Flying Plum’?”

“Hmm?”

Lord Saint reacts immediately.

“They say beautiful flowering trees appear all around the world, and if you ask their name, they say, ‘I’m a flying plum tree...!’”

“Ah, sorry, something urgent came up. Gotta wrap this up early today.”

Lord Saint starts packing up to leave.

He calls out to someone in his entourage.

“Hey, Platy! Is Sensei in the dungeon today? I need to summon Michizane-sama when I get home! Why? Because I need to ask why he’s been scattering plum trees around this world without permission! That’ll mess up the whole ecosystem!!!”

I don’t get all the details, but it’s clear Lord Saint’s involved in this tree mystery too.

So nine times out of ten, when there’s something strange going on in the world… it all leads back to Lord Saint!!!