"Achoo..."
Covered in chili powder and looking utterly bedraggled, though he had at least kept his life, the pot-bellied merchant came scrambling and rolling over, red-faced and thick-necked. After shouting for the steward to hold on, he dove beneath the deck without looking back.
The Desert Boat was constructed entirely from ironwood, so it was not afraid of impacts from those small sandworms.
After thinking it over, Green gained some insight. Chili peppers loved sunlight but could not endure excessive heat; they liked water, yet easily died from waterlogging. They were quite demanding of their environment. Added to the harsh soil conditions and dwindling natural resources of this world, where even food was scarce, these seasonings from the Wizard World were naturally even rarer. Perhaps only nobles would carefully cultivate and collect them, both as special seasonings and as special tools for fighting sandworms.
About an hourglass later, the caravan gradually returned to calm. The adult female sandworm had died, and the young sandworms scattered.
Of the four merchant ships, the largest and sturdiest lead ship had suffered devastating damage. Its prow was twisted out of shape, and its water tank developed a slight leak, though it was repaired in time. Of fifty-four people, only forty-one remained. The losses could not be called anything but severe. This was the enormous risk behind the caravan's high profits—slightly worse luck, and they would have been wiped out to the last man.
"Honored Lady Milly, my apologies for frightening you."
While the people above were still using sand to clean the deck, Nita, now dressed in neat, clean clothes, returned to Milly's room. He served tea in exquisite porcelain, its fragrance soothing to the soul.
"These evil sandworms... If not for them, my warriors would not have been buried in the sea of