Felicia's Second Life Chapter 5 Part 1

A Sailing We Will Go (Part 1)

The loading of supplies took place for the whole day the next day. We had extra sails and timber placed in the bottom deck. Canned goods such as food and fruits were placed on the deck above it, kept tightly bound in wooden crates that were tied and locked firmly to the floor. Above it were the offices of ship officers, you know, like quartermaster, boatswain, carpenter and sailmaker as well as some trade goods, since we might as well go trade some stuff.

 

 

The deck above that was crew quarters with a large number of hammocks tied all over the place. On the aft side of the same deck were private quarters, originally designed for people who would pay for transportation. Now the private quarters were taken by the nobles and their staffs who would be handling the ransom negotiations instead.

On the deck above it were the oar houses and more crew accommodations as well as the game deck for bored crews and a kitchen in front. The oar houses were actually not houses, but simply an area along the hull with two levels, with each level on each side having ten oars and seats for oarsmen. It would be used at times of no wind and also during a port approach. It was tight, but the crew would just have to deal with it. It's a ship after all.

******

"Captain, we are sailing close to the port city of Hollehafen. Would you like to come on deck and have a look?"

I looked up from my desk to the doorway and standing there was a large man with a noticeable horizontal scar on the left of his neck. He was pretty big, twice my size. Hanging on the left side of his waist belt was a cutlass that looked too big to be wieldy and a whip was on the other side of his belt. This man was one of the guardsmen that grandfather lent me for this mission. He was also my first mate, with extensive experience in grandfather's war fleet of three ships (lol), Mr. Lustri.

"I see. So we have reached Rotenheim's border. Are we docking in Hollehafen?"

"Not unless you wish it, captain."

"Are we good for supplies?"

"Gani informed me that we have enough supplies for a whole month at sea, but we won't be at sea for that long."

"Ah right, I forgot I made Gani the quartermaster. Is he doing his job well, Mr. Lustri?"

"As well as any that I've seen, captain. He's right at home with my men too."

By 'his men', he referred to the men that grandfather lent me, obviously. As we had no adult men left at the village and even the former bandits were taken to the battlefield, we had to make do somehow. The ship still needed to be crewed.

Originally, I only asked grandfather for twenty guardsmen with sailing experience. Grandfather gave me eighty instead, but only thirty-three of them had sailing experience. The rest were noobs or in pirate (yarr!) terms landlubbers. At least they were useful in manning the forty sweeps and could be counted on in cases of boardings.

Therefore, I enlisted the wives and daughters of the barony's fishermen to assist. Their jobs were generally in the realm of cooking, cleaning and if needed, fighting as well. Unfortunately, I knew nothing of naval hand-to-hand battles, so I had Mr. Lustri, who had been a veteran in grandfather's naval fleet of three ships (lol) teach them sea fighting techniques. With most of them being my spear sentries, I had confidence in their abilities. It would be hard to switch to cutlasses though, especially since they've been drilled in phalanx formations. The women on board numbered twenty-six people, not counting Lili and me.

Since those obviously weren't enough to crew such a large ship, I had to find another source. So I had boys too young to go to war become my crewmen. They ranged from nine year olds to 14 year olds. Their tasks were generally to assist in odd jobs, to climb the mast posts and to tie the sails. In battles, they would likely be positioned in the inner decks to protect the nobles we were transporting. These boys numbered fifty-five.

Yup, we're transporting nobles. Now, I assure you, this wasn't part of the plan. Apparently, grandfather had already finished discussion on the matter of the ransom expedition. They were planning on travelling by the river route using grandfather's fleet of three ships (lol) since travel by land would take far too long and would bring them right in the middle of enemy camp. The decision to use my ship was made hastily after they discovered that my ship would be far more comfortable, safe and stylish than the biremes that passed as warships (lol) in grandfather's port.

"I'll be up on the top deck in a while. Please go ahead, Mr. Lustri."

"Aye, captain. By your leave." he said as he left, closing the door quietly behind him.

"You've been quiet, Lili. Is something the matter?" I asked towards Lili who had been standing next to the desk. I told her earlier she could sit, it must be tiring to remain standing on the swaying deck, but she refused.

"Why did you make Mr. Lustri your assistant, my lady? True, he was recommended by the duke, but we know nothing about him. He could be an assassin sent by the enemy or paid to deliver you to the enemy, my lady."

"Lili, please tell me, who are my enemies?"

"Surfes would be the most obvious. The bandit group that you destroyed will most likely want to kill you. The greedy merchants whom you banished from Mruna probably hold a grudge. And it seems like your recent changes in Mruna aren't very popular with the other nobles as well."

"My my, you've definitely done your homework, Lili," I said as I opened my notebook and wrote some stuff inside it, "But Lili, you're too paranoid. In Surfes's eyes, I'm a non-entity, they probably don't even know I exist. The bandit groups can't touch me, I have my loyal spear sentries for that. The greedy merchants can fume all they want, I'll kick them out a second time if they try to pull their scams in Mruna again. And as for attempts from the nobles, I have grandfather and YOU to take care of that, don't I?"

"My lady, I'm very flattered that you think I who am in training would be able to protect you, but that may not be the case when confronted with highly skilled-"

"Lili."

"Yes, my lady?"

"I know Suin trained you to be paranoid and to think the worst of everything, but I believe in you. So believe in yourself. Besides, I'm not important enough to be assassinated unless I somehow insult our culture and religion. You can rest easy."

"What about your brother, my lady?"

My writing hand stopped abruptly, before I moved the quill back into the ink bottle.

"Yucks is not a threat. Why are you mentioning him all of a sudden?"

"Not Sir Yox, my lady. You know who I'm talking about. He sent you a letter telling you not to go to Lytis."

Without realizing it, my body trembled violently, recalling the face of the person I loathed the most.

"Do not speak of him, Lili." My voice trembled as my fingers crushed the quill.

"Even he told you not to go. Don't you think it's a clear threat, my lady? Stay in Mruna or die in Lytis?”

"I SAID DO NOT SPEAK OF HIM!" I stood up in anger, without noticing my quill hand hit the bottle of ink violently, throwing it against the wooden wall of my cabin and painting black my new floor and wall.

Lili remained quiet this time and my anger slowly subsided.

"He can try, Lili," I said as I sat back down on my chair, trying to continue writing, but then I found that my quill had broken into two and the bottle of ink that was on my desk was nowhere to be seen. While taking out a new bottle and quill from the drawer, I told her, "No matter what he does, regardless if he can see the future, I will not stay quiet in Mruna because of this fear he put into me."

I wrote a few more words into my notebook before adding, "He will not control me. I will NOT remain afraid of him or his strange powers."

"Then I shall stay with you and protect you with all that I have, my lady. If he makes his moves, I will be there to take your place."

"Stop. You're talking as if he's going to kill me. You know he won't. Probably won't, at least. No, he probably would. Let’s not talk about him anymore."

"I beg forgiveness for bringing that up, my lady."

"It's fine..." I said as I finished the last of my entry and closed the notebook before placing it into a locked drawer. "Shall we go to see the famous port of Hollehafen then?"

"I will be right behind you, my lady."

******

Sorry, I forgot to do this earlier. Let's do a little bit of introduction.

Hi everyone, it's the reincarnated Lady Felicia again. How are you doing? Ah, but for now, don't call me Lady Felicia, call me Captain Felicia, okay? Because we are on a ship!

This ship is a 6 deck brig, with 40 sweeps, three ballistae and crewed by 161 men, women and boys. That's right, although grandfather lent me eighty sailors, there was still not enough crew, so I had to get some others too, you know. That was why I had to get the wives, daughters and sons of the fishermen to become my crew. Naturally, since the nobles handling the negotiations are here too and insisted on bringing their own staff, I had them volunteer their non-essential helpers as crewmen too. Otherwise, they'd just be a waste of space.

Thankfully, I had grandfather draft a contract with the nobles, in that I, Felicia, am the captain and everyone on board must obey my orders or the orders of those I give power to. The nobles are not allowed to override my orders as long as their safety or privileges aren't at risk. In exchange, I would carry them to and back from the enemy city. Grandfather had all of the nobles sign the contract and I kept a copy with me at all times.

With me right now are Gani and Lili. Lemy wanted to come too but I told him to stay in Mruna because he was the manager of my businesses. Somme still couldn't get out of bed because of the injuries he suffered at the bandit camp, so I had him stay home too. I had Serin stay in Mruna because her training as medicus was still not yet done and taking her with me would be counter-productive to my future plans. Lili had completed her basic training with Suin and Suin advised me to take her with me so that Lili could gain experience about the world at large. With the completion of this ship, Gani had nothing to do, so of course, I brought him with me.

Maybe you're wondering what the name of this ship is? Muhahahaha! I got the perfect name for it. The name of the ship is ‘The Abundance of Lollipops’! Amazing, right? Fufu, my naming sense is top-notch! You're asking me why I'm naming the biggest, most imposing ship of this age something like ‘The Abundance of Lollipops’? Well, Gani asked me that too.

"This is a lollipop," I told him as I opened a box filled with a swirly-coloured circular sugar on a stick and put it into my mouth.

"A candy?" Gani asked.

"And this," I said as I opened another box, filled with twelve pieces of what at first glance looked like a WW2 Stielhandgranate but with stabilizer fins on the stick end and a bodkin arrowhead on the explosive end. Instead of a pull cord, it had a long fuse ignitable by fire.

"It's not even the same shape, my lady."

True, the one in my mouth was of the typical lollipop shape. The other was more like an ice pop or popsicle. "Don't mind it, they're both lollipops, in a way," I told him.

The stick grenade was actually a weapon, a type of concussion grenade. It could be thrown by hand or placed on a ballista and fired at an enemy's ship for medium range firepower. I had plans to make a stick grenade that burned instead of exploded, but I didn't have the time to do the research with what I had on hand. I have already drawn the plans for a small scale synth-gas plant, but I haven't actually built it as I ran out of space on my land. Now I understand why in fantasy stories, wizards always live in towers. They must've easily run out of space too.

I couldn't use the name The Abundance of Popsicles because it was a brand of ice pop and I could get sued for it. Naming my ship The Abundance of Ice Pops simply wouldn't sound as good and what would the ice refer to? Naming it lollipop however, was awesome, as we were transporting lollipops after all. If we're going to an enemy port, might as well go trade some stuff too, am I right? Money is good. Money is great. Money makes the best sounds. Cha-ching!

Plus, I just knew I would laugh whenever I hear conversations concerning my ship. Such as "Captain, we are being attacked by Abundance of Lollipops!" or "Captain, we are being burned down by Abundance of Lollipops!" Ahh, lollipops. You have no idea how much you're going to make me laugh.

(EDN:The Ullapool Caber from TF2!)

A german stielhandgranate. Just imagine lollipop as having 4 fins on the stick side, longer explosive side and a single bodkin arrowhead sticking out on top of the explosive end.

 

 A lollipop. See the similarities? No? Your loss.

******

"It's nice, don't you think, Lili?" I said with one hand on the wheel that controlled the ship's rudder.

"It's relaxing, my lady," Lili agreed.

"True, now if only those annoying noblemen weren’t on board," I sighed.

"I heard they made demands for special provisions from Gani this morning. Gani complained that he was barely able to hold his anger."

"Give it time. With Gani's temper, I bet he would blow up soon."

"I bet 3 days, my lady."

"2 days. Whoever closest gets to tell the other to do whatever."

"Are you serious, my lady?"

"Absolutely."

"Anything?"

"Yes... okay maybe not anything. You're talking as if you already know that you've won."

"Maybe," Lili said with a giggle.

"Ships ahoy!" the kid in the bird's nest announced.

Meeting ships by itself is normal, this is a river trade route after all, even if the river is wide enough to be called a sea. What the boy meant must be an anomaly. Such as a ship with unusual speed heading towards us or ships in a battle.

"Ships ahoy, west by northwest!" he said with more details after grabbing our attention.

I quickly pulled out the telescope at my belt and looked at the direction specified. Now, before you guys say anything, I didn't 'invent' the telescope, they already had telescopes about a hundred years before I was even born. They even had eyeglasses since before I was born. So it was nothing new and I didn't know enough about them to improve the designs, not that I would have had the time anyway.

"What are you seeing, my lady?" Lili asked.

"A merchant ship is being attacked by river pirates. Call Mr. Lustri."

A short while later, Mr. Lustri arrived, bringing up his own telescope as he approached me. Looking through his own telescope, he remarked, "That's a Surfesian ship, captain."

"It's still a merchant ship."

"We have no obligation to help them, captain."

"Mr. Lustri, set course towards the merchant ship. Full speed ahead."

"Aye, captain. Mr. Kolle, hard to starboard. Mr. Lars, ring the bell. Oarmaster Gael, have the oars manned and prepare for full ramming speed," Mr. Lustri commanded but then he said to me with a whisper, "Captain, that's a Surfesian ship."

"You have already made that clear."

"We're at war with Surfes."

"I'm quite clear about that."

"Why are we saving them?"

"We're not saving them."

"We're not?"

"We won't even get to fight. Just watch."

My prediction proved true. Instead of a battle, the moment the pirates noticed our approach, they quickly went back into their longboat and escaped. Of course, I could understand their fear. With a ship this size, what else could it be other than a warship? Even if we were a merchant ship, we'd have at least a hundred crewmen just from looking at the number of oars alone. The crew of a single longboat couldn't possible defeat a fully manned ship of this size. Naturally, no other ship in this area was as big as this, so of course, they would be afraid of facing the unknown. That fear made the decision for them, so they escaped without putting up any fight. Nobody would want to die pointlessly.

It was similar to how pirates of the Caribbean would run away from the sight of an approaching frigate.

Seeing this, Mr. Lustri bowed and humbly told me he still had a lot to learn.

The moment we approached, however, the fighters on the merchant ship that  consisted of twelve men still standing, threw down their weapons and surrendered. Even the merchant who appeared to be one of the men fighting, threw his cutlass on the deck and knelt in surrender.

Ah, it's because we fly the Forlendian flag. They think we're here to seize their goods. They're also feeling the same fear as the pirates.

"Please, my lord, spare my ship and crew. Life has been hard for us ever since the war started," the merchant who wore better clothes than the others pleaded on his knees.

Except that he was pleading to Mr. Lustri. Unless he had the squints, he was pleading to the wrong guy.

"What do you think, captain?" Mr. Lustri asked noticing that he had become the center of attention.

"Where are you headed to, merchant?" I asked the merchant directly.

The merchant appeared confused when I was the one who spoke, but he quickly recovered and said with his eyes towards me, "We are on our way to the port of Kaliche in Surfes from Hollehafen, my lady."

"What is your name, merchant?" I asked again.

"My name is Karlus, son of Ferasta, my lady."

"I am Captain Felicia of The Abundance of Lollipops, we are going the same way. We shall escort you there."

"Captain? But..." he looked at Mr. Lustri.

"I am Lustri, son of Rowl. I am first mate of The Abundance of Lollipops. The captain just made you an offer, what do you say?"

The merchant turned to look at me again, this time with a tinge of fear. "Captain, please forgive my rudeness, but I only have twenty gold in hand, I can't possibly afford to-"

"Twenty gold is enough. Hand it over to Mr. Lustri and we can be on our way," I said as I turned around and disappeared into my cabin in the aftcastle of the ship.

Lili closed the door behind me before she said, "My lady, did you just threaten the man into giving you twenty gold for free?"

"Threaten? What nonsense! Hehehehehe. I didn't threaten him into doing anything. It's not my fault that he was intimidated by my big ship, fully armed crews and the fear that I could just take his life and his stuff if he refused. Ahahahahahahah!!! This is too good! Ahahahahahaha!"

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm serving a villain, my lady," Lili whispered hoping that I didn't hear.

******

"You woke me up for this?" I looked at Mr. Lustri from the corner of my eye after confirming the object in question.

"It's very peculiar, captain. They're simply following us while making no attempt to approach. It's probably the same pirate longboat that we scared off this morning."

"So they're watching us, sizing us up, but they won't dare approach. We're too big and well-armed."

"It's still worrying, captain. Should I send boats of fighters to get rid of them?"

"Lili, get me a lollipop."

"Yes, my lady," Lili said as she went below-deck to fetch me my request.

"You worry too much, Mr. Lustri. You'll grow old faster. How old are you anyway?"

"I'm twenty-eight summers this year, captain."

"Twenty-eight? And you already have a full head of grey hairs?"

"I was told it was in my blood, captain. My old man was the same."

"My lady, here you are," Lili returned handing me a piece of lollipop with both hands.

"Thanks Lili," I said as I tore off the waxed paper covering the lollipop before putting the candy into my mouth.

Then I moved to the ballista, took out the lollipop in my mouth and was about to place it on the ballista before I realized, "Waaaait! It's wroonggg! This isn't the lollipop that I meant! I mean the big lollipops, the one that goes boom, Lili!"

"Eh? I apologize for the misunderstanding, my lady. I'll fetch it right away. Do you want me to put the lollipop back, my lady?"

I looked at the lollipop in my hand and put it back into my mouth. "Never mind about this, it had already went inside my mouth. Darn, eating candy at night, I'm definitely going to get cavities like this. I need to invent a toothbrush."

While I was licking the lollipop, Lili returned with the one I asked for, a one and a half-foot long concussion grenade in the form of stielhandgranate but with stabilizer fins on its stick side and a bodkin head in front of the explosive side. I told Mr. Lustri to have the rear port ballista wound up.

"Salis, Freben, you heard the captain."

After saluting, they went ahead with winding up one of our two rear ballista. They hadn't had much training with it, so their movements were a little awkward. Ballistae weren't a new invention, but they usually had skilled elite soldiers manning them and were usually well protected in the rear of the battlefield, being used only to take down castle gates where a battering ram would be too risky to attempt. So most new recruits would never have even touched one, and it was unheard of to carry ballistae as armament on a ship, since they were too heavy for an average ship to carry. However, my ship was no average ship. I could probably put six more ballistae on my ship if I wanted to, though I only had time to build three.

When they were done, I placed the lollipop onto the ballista, setting it firmly into the groove meant for the fins. Then I estimated the range and the possible strength of the tension in the ballista before snapping off a length of fuse. I lighted up the snapped off fuse on a lantern and used it to light up the fuse still attached to the lollipop. Then I released the hook attached to the ballista's string and gave them direction in aiming the ballista while the fuse became shorter with every second that passed.

I hear someone mentioning ‘cannons’. Okay, let me make it clear from the start. Yes, I can build cannon, they’re not that hard anyway, especially since I know how to make steel. The reason I didn’t was because of two reasons. One, I don’t want to push technology too far ahead. I want to be the ONLY one to have gunpowder technology so that it won’t be used against me. I know eventually they’d discover gunpowder anyway, but as long as I maintain secrecy, they won’t hear it from me. The second was because cannons were heavy. This translates to the inability to hit swiftly-moving targets, such as the agile biremes and triremes. What’s the point of having power if it can’t hit the target?

"Fire!" I ordered once I was satisfied with the ballista's aim. The lollipop and its sparking fuse flew in the night sky, before the light from the fuse disappeared and the lollipop itself fell into the cold water.

"It missed," Mr. Lustri stated.

"Doesn't matter," I said while looking through my telescope, "It's hollow, it floats."

Not long after I said that, something exploded against the longboat's port-side, capsizing it and throwing the men in the boat into the water. It probably didn't have enough power to make a hole in the hull since it didn't hit, but the impact from the shockwave was enough to turn the ship over. If it wasn't enough, I would just fire a second one. I still had eleven.

"Captain, I am again humbled by your tactics," Mr. Lustri bowed respectfully.

Fufufu. Yes, praise me more.

 

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