Meeting

Before Little Spiky Head lay a nearly abandoned dockyard. Its gantry crane was covered in rust, and some of the cables had deteriorated so badly that their copper cores were exposed.

Su Ming looked up and saw that the old ship listed for sale had been propped high off the ground, its hull maintenance only half finished.

He found a place to hide Little Spiky Head and sent Miao Xin inside to investigate. It was indeed a steamship, but its engine room had been dismantled piecemeal, and its propulsion system had serious faults-in other words, the ship was actually a wreck.

Su Ming examined the faults carefully and found that, serious as they were, he could repair them. The ship was indeed old, far more than ten years old, but that didn't matter. When it came to civilian steam engines, newer models weren't necessarily any better, apart from being troublesome to control.

After looking everything over, Su Ming began to form a plan.

He split his field of vision, watching the dockyard with his left eye and returning to the Zhiyuan with his right. Then he began drawing up a list on his portable computer.

The white skeleton finished making breakfast and carried it into the control room.

"Good morning, Zijin!" Su Ming greeted the scholar, who came in behind it.

"Good morning. I found some sea grapes to give you a change of taste," Zijin said. Su Ming turned and saw the skeleton holding a plate piled with little green balls.

Su Ming tried some. They still tasted of seaweed, but they had a crisp texture and popped in his mouth.

The radar beeped a few times. Su Ming leaned over to look. "Airborne contacts. Three Dragonhawks incoming."

Zijin assessed whether her suit and skirt were suitable for a fight. After some thought, she added a layer of Reinforcement Spell to them, then went out on deck and looked around.

She noted the factors that might be put to use-the wind direction, sea conditions, cloud cover, and position of the sun-then modified several of the ship's magic arrays.

Su Ming understood what Zijin was doing. Sure enough, anyone who could survive enemies chasing and cornering her like that was no ordinary person.

The scholar waited until the three Dragonhawks had flown closer before firing a signal flare to inquire about their intentions.

"We can't reveal our true aerial detection range," she explained to Su Ming.

"...I think you should just let me be an idiot when it comes to war."

"There's no need to belittle yourself. You're very talented," Zijin said. "Have you really never received combat training?"

Does Hell Let Loose count? What about Call of Duty? Su Ming grumbled inwardly.

After several exchanges of signal flares, Zijin told Su Ming, "The Four Seas Chamber of Commerce's liaison flew here directly."

She went to the stern deck and inscribed landing guidance runes.

"This spot is quite spacious. It's suitable for Dragonhawks to land." Zijin found the design strange; an ordinary ship had no need for anything like it.

"It was a helicopter deck to begin with," Su Ming explained. After all, the original ship design had been copied from the 056A. "Don't you need to wait in the reception room?" he asked.

"Good order is the greatest display of authority. There's no need to put on an act," Zijin replied.

Amid the gusts from their beating wings, the three Dragonhawks landed on the aft deck one after another.

"Good day, Scholar Bay Owl!" A young man in formal attire was the first to leap off a Dragonhawk, followed closely by two guards. All three pressed one hand to their chests and bowed. "I am Charles Kegan, vice president of the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce."

"Good day, President Charles." Zijin nodded slightly in return, her expression impassive.

The scholar led them to the audience chamber and took the seat at the head of the long table.

The two guards did not enter. Charles walked straight to a seat at the side of the table rather than choosing the one opposite her.

He took out an exquisitely wrapped gift box and placed it on the table. "For our first meeting, some fragrant strawberries from Long Island!"

"Thank you for going to the trouble." Zijin accepted the gift box.

The white skeleton servant brought out tea-green seaweed tea, with a little crushed instant noodles on the side as a snack.

Charles gave a discreet twist of his mouth at the seaweed in his cup, but the skeleton servant struck him as familiar. He took a closer look and shuddered in fright, nearly dropping the teacup in his hand.

He steadied the cup and set it down, struggling to act as though nothing had happened. Then he took out a rolled-up nautical chart and turned to Zijin. "Scholar Bay Owl, may I get straight to the point?"

"That's not the style the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce is known for." Zijin leaned back in her chair, a hint of amusement in her eyes. "You're skipping the usual rounds of haggling?"

"I've come to ask for help today, not to do business." After Zijin gave permission, Charles stood and unrolled the chart. "I'm not representing the Four Directions Chamber of Commerce."

Su Ming stood as well and looked at the chart. It showed the nearby waters and was covered in densely packed annotations.

Su Ming looked at one that had clearly been added recently. "September, year 272 of the Star Calendar. Merchant ship Quail, 2,500 tons, sunk." He scanned the rest and found quite a few similar entries-more than thirty in all! The destroyed ships totaled as much as fifty thousand tons!

Su Ming even saw several armed warships, all of which had also sunk. The dates were all within the past three months.

Zijin reached out and laid a hand on the chart. "It has completely cut off maritime trade between the eastern and western continents. Just what is it?"

"According to eyewitnesses, it's a sea creature with enormous tentacles." Charles took out a painting depicting a battered cargo ship entangled by seven or eight enormous tentacles rising from the water. The tentacles bore mottled patterns, and some had already reached into the cabins, while large numbers of sailors were wrapped up and dragged into the sea. "A mentalist recreated this from the survivors' impressions."

"Can't a team of mages do anything about it?" Zijin asked. "And what about the navy?"

"We've tried everything." Charles pulled out a stack of documents. "These are the detailed records of the eight tracking operations and five suppression operations conducted so far." He handed the documents to Zijin.

Zijin said nothing. She opened the documents to find densely packed battle reports, and Su Ming leaned in to read them with her.

"I'll summarize the results: they all failed. The target has very high magic resistance, conventional attacks barely hurt it, and it can dive at any time," Charles said.

Underwater burst speed close to twenty knots, Su Ming read in one line of the report. Considering the agility unique to living creatures, that really did put it beyond what sailing warships could deal with.

"So?"

"Your recent series of stunning displays has given those of us in this predicament hope." Charles stated his purpose directly. "I've come on behalf of all the affected parties to ask for your assistance!"

Zijin continued reading without answering. Clearly, she needed time to digest the information in her hands.

Charles glanced at Su Ming, who was leaning close to Zijin and reading the documents with her. He wore a garment with many pockets and carried a faint smell of machine oil.

He must be this ship's mechanic, Charles concluded. There was really no telling where the man came from, and he looked excessively young.