CHAPTER 299: CHAPTER 214: OPEN THE DOOR, DO BUSINESS!_3

You could call this a spectacular sight even by modern standards. After all, nobody in their right mind would build these dumbass giant wooden boats wrapped with copper anymore. If you rolled them out today, they’d totally be a novelty attraction.

He and Ah Man sat together admiring the fleet for a while. Looked like everybody was off to a good start—no ships dropping behind or getting out of formation. That’s when Ah Qing tugged lightly at Harano’s sleeve, hinting the seafood was ready—the signature Water Thieves’ Set Meal. Crude as hell: just toss all sorts of shellfish, crabs, and shrimp into a wooden bucket and pour boiling water over them.

This was basically the traditional way poor folks did it back in the day. No oil, no salt, no flavor, and definitely not nutritious. If you didn’t have it with grains, you’d just get skinnier and skinnier, maybe even straight-up die. But Harano’s regular diet was super healthy—he didn’t miss a little fat or protein, so if it was just about taste, he’d tried it a few times and thought it was honestly alright.

Of course, parasites and all that stuff? Not even on the radar. If you really cared about every little thing, might as well eat plain rice every day and call it a life. No need to ruin your fun worrying about those.

But, seriously, even if there were any, it was fine—he could handle it. These days, his "Retired Death-Squad Workshop" produced all kinds of Antiparasitic Pills, barely breaking even, and sold them inside Wanjin as a kind of social welfare.

Once Harano sat down, he started eating. Ah Qing sat beside him, gentle as ever, peeling shrimp for him, and he’d toss some her way too now and then—giving Ah Man a look that said, "Scram already, stop being such a third wheel."

But Ah Man didn’t scram—Harano wasn’t her Lord anymore, so why should she?

She ate even more than Harano. Between bites, she kept grumbling about wanting some booze, and even when they brought over just plain watermelon—zero sweetness, just for hydration—she tore through half of it anyway. The fresh water on the ships was so terrible that even on coastal voyages it managed to have a funky taste, even if it didn’t actually stink. Turns out those watermelons Harano had people plant finally came in handy—chewing on a slice meant you could skip drinking weird water. Even slightly bitter, it still beat that nasty-tasting stuff.

Now that Ah Man was a frequent sailor, she’d gotten used to munching watermelon instead of drinking. As for how she once teased Harano about the watermelon farming being totally pointless, well, that bit she’d conveniently forgotten.

Harano and the others didn’t have to worry about the navigation stuff—the Wanjin Navy instructors and officers like Yu Da had it covered. The group just floated along the coast, eating seafood and chomping on watermelon, until they hit the tip of the Chita Peninsula, then turned east. Pretty soon, they reached Chenjin Port on the Omei Peninsula.

This used to be Imagawa family’s turf, but after the Battle of Okehazama, the Imagawa family totally tanked. Matsudaira Mototaka had taken over, or more accurately, the local big shots had just switched allegiance and pledged to the Matsudaira family. So when Wanjin rolled in with over a hundred boats—it looked like a swarm of black ants on the horizon—they damn near scared those local powers into peeing themselves. They only had two or three hundred in the Lang Faction, basically side characters in any decent-sized brawl. Did the fleet really need this many people to deal with them?

Once they figured out Harano’s group was just passing through and only planned a stopover for supplies, everyone relaxed. In fact, the move actually fulfilled the alliance terms between Nozawa and Matsudaira—they handed over some fresh water and rice, even though they probably didn’t have to.

Harano wasn’t there for business anyway. If he ever wanted to trade with the Matsudaira family, he’d just go overland. No point looping around the peninsula and crossing the bay by sea. He just wanted to regroup, fix a few glitches that had popped up during the short haul, and send some scouts ahead to check the road.

The Wanjin Navy had trained long enough to know the waters around the Chita Peninsula pretty well, but much farther out and they’d be lost. Plus, no one wanted to get ambushed by a big bunch of Water Thieves, so the scouting teams were a must.

That was just how things worked in this era—you had to inch forward, tortoise-style. Nothing like the convenience of modern times.

While they were stopped, they also took the chance to gather some waterway intel around here—just in case they ever needed a beachhead for a landing in the future, it’d be handy to have options.

The Wanjin fleet spent more than a day resting up before setting sail again, cannons and iron cannons in tow, heading off to the first business target—the Imagawa family.

Open for business!