Chapter 88 Boat Builders
Then, he smiled and said in a carefree tone:
She turned to him, her face bleak and full of confusion.
"It's a tier six awakened Memory. One of its traits is to make the wearer less likely to draw the enemy's attention."
"If anything happens, take Cassie and flee. Don't… don't…"
Nephis was very surprised by his question, but eventually agreed to help him. Sunny didn't tell her why exactly he wanted to build a boat, dodging the questions with practiced finesse. His Flaw was not making things easy, but with the state Neph was in, persuading her was not very hard.
"So, how are we going to make the boat?"
Even Sunny was having trouble keeping his lucidity intact. Every time he felt that his mind was beginning to slip, he had to inflict pain on himself to get a few moments of reprieve. Even so, his thoughts were slow and fragile. Keeping them together was taking a heavy toll on him.
He was gnawing on himself to prevent himself from being eaten. What a funny contradiction.
Racing against time, Sunny frantically thought of another question.
Nephis glanced at him with reproach.
"You've seen the creatures that dwell under these waves. Do you really want to swim across them?"
"That… I will have to think about."
They had to flee the island as soon as possible. Sunny was determined to be ready by the time the dark sea returned.
"Anything can float, Sunny. You just have to make sure that you're displacing more water than the weight of the floating object. That's how boats work."
"Sunny? Oh… when did you get here?"
Manipulating her felt a little strange, but explaining everything once again would have taken too much time. Not to mention that he wasn't sure that it would work again.
Nephis looked at him, struggling to hold onto the last shreds of lucidity. For a moment, her eyes became clear again. White flames ignited in their depths, illuminating her pale, beautiful face.
And there was not much time left. With every hour, their condition worsened.
"Hey, Neph."
Changing Star was silent for a few seconds, then sighed.
Turning away from Nephis to not let her see the pained expression on his face, Sunny bit his hand once again. Feeling the bitter taste of blood on his tongue, he let the wave of pain clear his mind and blinked, amused at the irony of the situation.
"We are damned either way, Sunny. What do we have to lose?"
He blinked.
Sunny had no knowledge of shipbuilding, so he decided to trust her judgment. Looking up from the ground, he asked:
***
As the result, the carcass was largely intact.
She hesitated for a moment, then answered without looking at him:
A strange sentence to say with a smile, but not the strangest one he had to say to convince Neph to help him.
"We will have to use the materials at hand. For the hull, we will have to use the dead demon's carapace. We can strip several armor plates of suitable shape and tie them together with the golden rope…"
Sunny glanced at Neph and asked:
Strangely, the demon's corpse had not begun to rot. Only the metal of its carapace slowly deteriorated, losing its luster and shine, then turning less and less durable. By now, its surface was marred by large patches of rust.
"The… the Carapace Demon's armor? It's made out of some strange steel. Can steel even float?"
"What's so special about Cassie's armor?"
A few minutes later, they reached the giant carcass of the Carapace Demon. It was towering above them like a small hill of polished metal. After that first day when the strange winged abominations had circled around the island for several hours, never daring to approach, nothing else had shown up to lay claim to the fearsome creature's meat.
"Alright. While you're thinking, I'll go fetch Cassie to keep you company…"
Starting to lose the grip on her thoughts, she turned away and added after a short pause, her voice steady and even:
Sunny sat by her side for some time, waiting. After a while, he shifted a little and said:
"Aster... Song... Vale. Say those words to me, and I will listen."
Changing Star gave him a strange look.
Nephis climbed up on top of the carcass and walked from side to side, looking under her feet. Then, she gestured at several spots:
Sunny smiled.
"Do you even know how to build a boat?"
"Hey, can I ask you something? Do you know how to build a boat?"
Trying to gather his courage, Sunny looked into the distance and said in a raspy voice:
Changing Star simply nodded, letting him know that she did. Her expression was slowly turning lost and dull again.
Sunny raised his eyebrows:
"How do I convince you to leave the island once your memory is gone?"
Then, the light in her eyes slowly dimmed, and soon, Changing Star was staring west once again, all memory of their conversation gone from her mind.
He blinked, startled. Then, knowing that there was not much time left, Sunny asked the first thing that came to his mind:
She fell silent for a moment and grimaced, pale flames dancing in her eyes. Then, in a quiet voice, she added:
"Great! Let's go butcher the demon, then!"
"Ah… okay. About the sail, I think we can ask Cassie to lend us her cloak. What do you think?"
"A while ago."
"We will not light any fires, relying on your eyes to guide us west. We will hope that Cassie's armor will protect us. Maybe it will be enough."
"I am at my limit. My mind is… fading. If you have any questions left… better… ask them fast."
"What about the mast?"
Hiding his bleeding hand behind his back, Sunny turned to Neph and asked:
While Sunny was digesting this information, Nephis suddenly trembled. Closing her eyes, she said through gritted teeth:
Changing Star scowled.
"These curved plates will be perfect if we can fit them together tight enough. Each one is long enough to form the entirety of the hull, leaving enough space for the three of us to sit side by side."
"I mean… yes? I still don't understand what got you so excited about boat building, but I'm sure she'll be willing to help you out with this… uh… passion project."
She thought about it for some time, then said indifferently:
Sunny smiled.