The Locrian Federation was a country deeply connected to “water” in many ways.

About half of its border directly touched the sea, and there were many wide and deep rivers connected to that sea.

Therefore, many domains belonging to the federation owned ships.

They were useful for paying taxes, good for commerce, and could even be used for leisure if needed.

Fortunately, Dorothea had extracted a ship from Donnengarten from the lord’s wife.

Donnengarten, whose main source of income was selling fresh produce, would struggle to fill the gap left by losing a useful means of transportation, but Dorothea didn’t need to worry about that.

Splash!

As Dorothea waved her hand wearing a navy blue glove, a large ship appeared on the sea, causing waves.

And when she touched the carriage with the glove again, not only the carriage that had been used as both accommodation and transportation until now, but also the golem horse with it, slipped into the glove.

Dorothea muttered with a slightly obsessive look, “I wonder if I can ask the kingdom to not extract this glove. It’s so much more convenient than any key.”

She was casually muttering words that would drive thieves and treasure hunters across the country mad with envy if they heard.

Well, unlike thieves who had to secretly rob other people’s treasure vaults, Dorothea’s party could boldly charge in from the front, behead the owner, and plunder their wealth, so a pouch to hold treasures was more important than a key to open doors. The Witch of the West, who had personally donated her wealth, proved this.

“The ship is bigger than I thought. How do we handle it?” Adelaide asked, looking at the ship swaying on the sea.

This was the second time the party was boarding a ship.

Unlike Franka’s ship, which was small and nimble as its purpose was purely “transportation”, the ship extracted from the lord’s wife was overall large and heavy-looking, probably because it was originally for transporting agricultural products.

Even to Adelaide, who didn’t know much about ships, it looked like it would need dozens of skilled sailors, but there was no sign of anyone other than their party nearby.

Of course, Dorothea had a plan.

“No need to worry. I didn’t bring out the ship here for nothing.”

The place where the group was currently located was avoided because people often drowned or committed suicide there.

In the Tin Knight’s parlance, it was a spiritual spot itself.

Ordinary people would avoid such an ominous place, but for a necromancer, there were few such natural resource warehouses.

Sure enough, when Dorothea took out a cage and called for souls, all sorts of spirits sprang up from the surroundings.

No, to be more precise, things other than spirits also emerged.

“Um, Miss Witch. It looks like something is swimming out from the water!?”

《Groooooan…!》

Pale blue faces. Hair stuck to their heads, wet with water. Eyes with so much white showing that one might think they had no eyelids.

Beings that could be called the epitome of water ghouls were emerging onto the shore with physical bodies.

Moreover, the ones described above were among the neater-looking ones, and not a few had appearances that were hard to describe in words due to their bodies being swollen and burst.

Rapunzel trembled at the horrific sight reminiscent of the end of the world, and even Adelaide looked somewhat frightened, but Dorothea remained calm.

“Hmm. Is it because this place is deep with resentment? It seems they were already half-transformed into undead before I even touched them.”

Sophia asked, “Can they be controlled, then?”

“They can, but it’s easier to break their spirit first when they aren’t undead,” Dorothea answered briefly, then added. “Go.”

An extremely short command, and it was even difficult to tell who she was talking to.

But none of the party pondered its meaning. It was obvious, anyway.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ welcomes the impromptu battle event with joy!]

Splat!

The head of a feminine water ghoul at the front exploded spectacularly from the Tin Knight’s excited knee kick.

Ghouls with physical bodies that could physically harm people were like nightmares for ordinary people, but for the Tin Knight, they were just easy targets to hit. In fact, even if they had no physical form, he would just beat them with sword energy, so there wasn’t much of a difference to him.

Above all, the undead’s unique mental attacks or physical ability reduction due to negative energy didn’t affect the Tin Knight at all.

The horror genre might be effective against humans, but its potency fell short against non-humans.

As the water ghoul army turned into something that was once an army in front of the Tin Knight’s leaps, Dorothea went through a “retraining” process with them.

“Those who think they know how to steer a ship, come this way. No, leave your bodies and come with just your souls. I’ll have to rot everything away except the bones anyway, because your condition is so bad.

“What? You want revenge on the woman who betrayed you and fooled around with another man? Forget it. Payment is given in bulk as enlightenment. If you don’t like it, stay in the cold water forever.

“And what about you? You want to leave a letter for your mom to say sorry? You too? Haa… really. Just write one each. Sophia, help with the writing. Adel, go catch some birds from around here.”

After about an hour of this.

Following the preferences of the witch who, despite being a necromancer, was quite sensitive to hygiene, the skeleton army, made entirely of bones that were bleached white and odorless through various decolorizing, deodorizing, and filling in missing parts with mana, saluted Dorothea in unison.

《Thank you, Witch! Our minds were constantly turbid and full of dark resentment, but now they are clear and clean!》

《Thanks to you, we were able to send our last words to our hometowns!》

《We will ensure a safe voyage for you!》

“Uh, um. Right.”

Dorothea nodded with a slightly dazed expression.

In truth, she hadn’t had high expectations for the quality of the souls she summoned.

Although she had summoned numerous craftsmen in Tik-Tok and made them work, that was only possible because it was an urban area.

Just because people died in a specific place didn’t necessarily mean their souls remained there, and the probability of those with the functions Dorothea wanted remaining was even lower.

Conducting emergency recruitment at a spiritual spot avoided by people, not even a port, her original calculation was that it would be sufficient if even one-tenth of them knew how to steer a ship.

And that calculation went astray in a direction more beneficial than the original plan.

“Even so, it’s quite a coincidence. To think that victims of a naval battle that took place in the nearby area were trapped here,” Sophia blinked and shared her thoughts.

Various types of magic tools flowing out of the Magic State had long been renowned for their excellent quality.

From refrigerators that could keep food cold, to simple bathtubs that could use hot water without having to boil it in advance, to bags that greatly reduced the weight of their contents.

Although it was said that the Empire’s magic engineering wasn’t far behind the Magic State’s since the Witch of the South obtained the position of Imperial Crown Mage and mass-produced wizards as a national project, this was only limited to combat.

Magic tools convenient for daily life, and thus more likely to open the wallets of nobles wide, still couldn’t catch up to the Magic State.

The reason for this was the “Garden” firmly established between the Empire and the Magic State, and even in places without the Garden, soldiers from both countries strictly guarded the borders. Trade was impossible except for a select few companies that had obtained permission for commerce from both countries simultaneously.

What remained were the route through the eastern continent’s land and the route through the western continent’s sea.

Everyone knew that water routes were easier than land routes for transporting goods, so the waters between the Magic State and the Federation were always teeming with merchant, pirate, and warships.

Among the souls Dorothea summoned, there were quite a few mixed in from such naval backgrounds.

“Hmm.”

Even though she had easily obtained what could be considered high-quality personnel, Dorothea’s brow remained furrowed.

She had heard rumors that the sea routes in this area were treacherous, but it seemed a bit serious if pirate ships were coming all the way to the coast to engage in skirmishes with naval forces.

The Locrian Federation, not being fools, would know the enormous profits from trade with the Magic State and would have invested in naval power accordingly, yet they couldn’t drive out all the pirates. This meant the pirates were not to be underestimated.

I thought we could just go straight on the ship. Is it more dangerous than I thought? It would be troublesome in many ways if that idiot falls into the sea.

Although the Tin Knight displayed combat prowess close to invincible on land, he had a big weakness: beer bottles.

To be more precise, it’s not that he couldn’t swim at all, but he had to consume enormous amounts of mana to keep his metal body from sinking.

Dorothea took out the animal compass and put mana into one of its characters.

The silver horse that appeared jumped straight into the sea without the slightest hesitation and started swimming.

As if to prove that the sacred treasure Dorothea had to find was beyond this sea.

“Tch, no choice, I guess.”

Dorothea clicked her tongue.

Although she felt uncomfortable in many ways, it didn’t make sense to stop advancing here just because she was afraid the Tin Knight might fall into the sea.

“You, try to be careful with your body if possible. If you happen to fall into the sea, I’m just going to leave you behind. Got it?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ beats his chest saying there’s no need to worry!]

***

The greatest advantage of sailing using undead was undoubtedly its cost-effectiveness.

Undead didn’t eat. Undead didn’t sleep. Undead didn’t get their bodies damaged from rowing too much. No, even if they got damaged, they were quickly repaired with just a bit of mana.

In other words, there was no need to prepare food for the crew, no need to give them rest time, and they didn’t even rebel against or complain about the captain’s orders.

Of course, they consumed that much mana instead, but at least for Dorothea, that was a meaningless drawback.

Operating less than a hundred undead day and night didn’t even count as consumption for Dorothea.

To put it bluntly, the Tin Knight alone consumed far more mana.

Just when it seemed they could arrive at their destination smoothly at this rate.

“It” appeared.

***

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