After a while, the sailor made another announcement.
"Attention passengers. This ship will soon arrive at Kenli. Please make sure you haven't left any belongings on board. Thank you for your cooperation."
So we were finally reaching Kenli. I looked diagonally toward the horizon and could already see the island. At the same time, I pulled out my pocket watch to check the time. It read 12:33 p.m. Rounding up, that meant about thirty-five minutes total travel time.
Thirty-five minutes sounded long at first, but considering the distance between Bares and Kenli, it was actually incredibly short. The two islands were so far apart that you couldn't even see one shore from the other. For a trip like that, thirty-five minutes felt closer to a miracle than transportation.
At 12:35, the ship docked. Harbor workers rolled over a set of mobile stairs, and after the sailors secured them in place, passengers began filing off in an orderly stream.
I grabbed Alice by the wrist and blended into the crowd as we disembarked. After all, we were stowaways. The moment our boots hit solid ground, I let go of her hand. Scanning the pier, I spotted them immediately: two anxious adults and one girl standing as calm as a mountain.
Alice and I walked toward them. They noticed us at the same time and hurried over.
Grace reacted first. She shifted from a fast walk into a full sprint, charging straight at us—more precisely, straight at Alice. She wrapped Alice in a crushing hug and burst into dramatic sobs.
"Ms. Alice! Thank goodness you're safe! I was so worried about you! Waaaah!"
Was that level of panic really necessary? A little trust in me would've been nice. Then again… even if she trusted me, she'd still worry. That was just how people were. Hearts were complicated things.
Jacob and Ethefelis stepped up to me while Grace continued her tearful reunion. Jacob grinned with relief.
"Karen, I'm glad you managed to buy tickets. Otherwise we wouldn't see you until tomorrow."
"We didn't buy tickets."
"Huh?"
Jacob froze, his brain visibly buffering. Alice turned to me, eyes wide with shock.
"Mr. Karen, we boarded without buying tickets? Isn't that a cri—mmph?!"
I clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Quiet. Don't say that so loudly. The entire harbor is our enemy. Is that my fault?"
"Enemy? What did you two do?" Jacob asked.
I gave them the short version. Alice had been kidnapped by traffickers. I rescued her. The traffickers didn't appreciate that. Suddenly half the city was chasing me, and we ended up hiding in an alley before sneaking onto the ship.
Grace's sobbing intensified.
"Waaah… thank goodness Mr. Karen saved you in time! It's such a relief you're here!"
"Ms. Grace, I'm sorry for making you worry," Alice said softly.
Watching the two of them, I decided that from now on, Alice's daily care would probably fall to Grace. Honestly, that arrangement felt right.
Jacob crossed his arms. "So how did you even get on the ship?"
"Optical camouflage. Nobody could see us."
"That's amazing."
"I didn't even think of that," he admitted. "There are probably only two people in this world who could pull that off—you and Alice."
"Don't say things like that. It's embarrassing." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Anyway, I'm starving. Have you eaten yet?"
His praise made my skin crawl. I had no idea how to respond, so I changed the subject.
"Not yet," Ethefelis answered immediately.
That was the fastest I'd ever heard her speak. She must've been dangerously hungry.
"Then let's fix that."
After finishing a very late lunch, we headed toward the central district.
And then it rained.
For two straight days.
We didn't make any progress at all. Worse, our food supplies were running dangerously low. If we didn't restock soon, the next meal might not exist. But we had no idea when the rain would stop or how far the next town was.
At that point, there was only one option left: fight nature directly.
I looked over at Jacob, who was absorbed in a romance novel Grace had recommended, and gave him an order.
"Jacob. Stop the rain."
He looked up. "What's wrong?"
"We can't stay here any longer. Everyone get ready. We're leaving."
Once the preparations were finished, Jacob stepped outside, raised a hand toward the sky, and spoke the magic.
"Stop Rain"
The rain immediately ceased in a perfect circle around our travel house. The dark clouds remained overhead, heavy and swollen, because the magic didn't disperse them—it literally just stopped the rain. Simple and brutally literal.
The problem was that the water stayed trapped in the clouds. Cancel the spell, and all that stored rain would crash down at once in a violent downpour. Fortunately, the range of the magic could be adjusted.
The dry zone expanded outward from Jacob and followed him as he moved. If we didn't want this area to turn into a flood the moment the magic ended, we had to keep walking.
"Alright," I said. "Let's move."
"Mr. Karen, why the rush? We're traveling under a stopped-rain spell," Grace asked.
"Because we're almost out of food. Our next meal might not exist."
"Then hurry," Ethefelis said instantly.
The moment food was mentioned, her concern skyrocketed. I finally understood what motivated her: eating… and invisibility.
Whenever I talked about using optical camouflage, she lit up with pure envy and enthusiasm. Was that a professional assassin thing? A dream skill she wished she had?
I'd actually been trying to create a light magic core capable of optical camouflage.
Because the difficulty was distance control—if you got too close to someone without noticing, the illusion failed instantly. I managed to produce a white magic core that looked perfect… but it didn't function at all.
I couldn't understand why. Electric magic cores worked fine. So what was missing?
(If only I knew an expert in magic core crafting…)
I looked at my companions: a knight, a merchant, an assassin, and a priest. I sighed. Asking them would be pointless.
I packed away the travel house, and we set off.
Eventually we reached the central district. After Jacob finished selling soap to a surprisingly enthusiastic crowd, we retraced our route and boarded another ship bound for Asoya.
By the time we arrived at the capital, ten full days had passed since we first set out.