Ken followed Josh toward the tavern. He wasn't worried about the refugees; Jeremiah had a bad temper, but he was still a reliable captain.
He had only tossed the registration work to Ken, not abandoned everything else. He had probably gone ashore early to look for contacts.
Ken followed Josh to a tavern called Herring Tail. It was getting late, and a few patrons had already taken their seats inside.
Ken was surprised to find that several people greeted Josh. He had only been here a short while, yet he already knew so many people?
"Can't be helped. If you want to do business, you have to deal with all kinds of people," Josh said quietly. He greeted the bartender without saying anything else, and the bartender turned to pour their drinks.
Josh looked around, then led Ken to the corner of the room. He pulled out a chair at a secluded table. "Come on, tell me what happened."
A candle burned in the nearby candlestick. The somewhat old table and chairs wobbled, creaking when they sat down.
Ken paid no attention to that. A worried look appeared in his eyes as he instinctively picked up the ale the bartender had brought over and began recounting everything from the start.
Josh's expression gradually shifted from a smile to seriousness, then finally to utter shock. Even the fingers holding his glass began to tremble.
"Y-You're telling the truth?"
"Absolutely. My navigational knowledge is newly learned, but I could still tell whether Jeremiah was lying. He calculated it with a sextant right in front of me, and I checked the figures again and again myself. It really is true. Castel and Gem Bay... they really disappeared."
As he said this, Ken was overwhelmed by grief. He softly called Gaia and Old Ivan's