The next day.
The Flame set sail on schedule, heading for the new islands.
The new islands' nautical coordinates had already been marked. They lay roughly 800 kilometers south-southeast of Black Horse Island, and another 400 kilometers from the southernmost island Sapphire had explored—a place Grand Duke Sapphire had once claimed made him master of all islands upon the sea, though that could no longer be said.
Apart from the waters containing the Sapphire Archipelago, which belonged to Grand Duke Sapphire, all other islands were unclaimed.
Now that Liszt had discovered these islands, he was their master—only strength could decide ownership of an island.
Just minutes after setting sail, the magic platform received new information.
The Discovery exploration ship had found two more islands, one large and one small. The large island's area was unknown, but judging by its distant outline, it was probably smaller than Black Horse Island; the smaller island was only half as large in outline. The two lay very close together, and one could see the other from either island.
In fact, counting the island found earlier, all three islands were not far apart from one another.
When A Ke translated the message, Liszt immediately smiled. "Excellent!"
He had thought the Smoke mission would take a long time to complete, but it had been finished so quickly. The three islands had been found in just twelve days.
The exploration fleet had set out on January 20. It was now February 2—exactly twelve days.
With a soft summons, hazy Smoke silently appeared before him. Like real smoke yet also like an illusory phantom, it slowly formed a passage of Snake Script.
"Mission complete. Reward: agitation of the Rubber Elf Bug Triplets."
"How many times have the Rubber Bug Triplets agitated now?" Every time a Rubber Bug agitated,