After finishing the tour of the ship, Ed and Hamo arrived on the open deck.
At this time, half the sun had sunk below the horizon, leaving only a beautiful, dim afterglow shining on the sea, while a handful of stars were already visible in the sky.
At that moment, Ed suddenly felt the ship vibrate.
Feeling the vibration, Hamo quickly said, "It's time to sail."
"Huh?"
Hearing this, Ed immediately expressed his confusion. He couldn'thelp but look up and observe the three tall masts and the surrounding cables. There were no sailors on the furled sails or the masts, and no one was pushing the capstan.
"You're telling me this is what sailing looks like?" Ed had hardly finished speaking when he heard a series of metal collision sounds.
"Dang, dang, dang!"
The winch in the middle turned slowly as if it had come to life, with no one pushing it.
With the sound, the anchor was slowly pulled up from the seabed without any help as well.
Swish!
Hearing the sound, Ed looked up. At some point, the sails had automatically lowered without any human control.
A pair of crossed fists were depicted on the blue sail. With a clicking sound, the ship slowly withdrew from the port.
The shaking of the ship indicated that they had begun sailing on the sea.
Ed just stood there in a daze, watching the entire ship start sailing on its own with a dumbfounded expression, his mouth wide open.
"It's really… it's fully automatic! F*ck, how is this even possible?" He couldn't help but exclaim in shock. He looked at Hamo behind him, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him wildly while watching the ropes on the ship's deck move by themselves like snakes.
Although Ed knew this treasure-hunting group was not normal and might have some magical powers, a fully automatic ship was simply unbelievable.
F*ck, how is this ship moving itself? It's not powered by ghosts, is it?* To behave naturally like a guy who had never come into contact with magic should, Ed asked Hamo, who was giving him a smug smile.
"I've also just started learning about this, and I don't understand many things. Before coming on this ship, I was just an ordinary person like you."
Saying that, Hamo slapped his own head with a look of understanding. He had only now realized the answer Ed had been looking for with his earlier question.
"I'm sorry, I thought you knew this. After all, most of the trainees on board have a certain understanding of these things."
Then he started to explain.
"This is a spell-casting ship. As for what specific spells were used, I don't know. However, with the help of these spells, the entire ship can automatically furl the sails, arrange the cables, raise the anchor, and steer without any human control. However, the automated navigation can only be used on routes that have been sailed many times. If it's an unfamiliar route, the captain or helmsman must take control."
Hearing Hamo's explanation, Ed keenly identified the main force at work here: spell-casting. The only thing he knew about spells was from Jack's book on spell analysis.
But there were only three spells described in it, with only some of their descriptions and functions written in detail. There was no mention of the basics or what spells were in a broader sense.
Ed only knew that everyone had a certain amount of magical power within them, and a spell should be a way of using that magic power, knowledge that came from his previous life, where in novels and movies, wizards used magic power to mess everything up, especially science.
After saying this, Hamo paused for a moment. Seeing that Ed wasn't speaking, he thought about it and probably felt that Ed might not understand what spells were, so he continued explaining, "As for spells, I don't know much about them either. After all, I'm not a trainee crew member. I just know a little bit from having sharp ears."
"A spell is something like a graphic text that can be used to exert magical power through mana or other means."
After a brief explanation, Hamo shrugged helplessly, indicating that this was all he knew.
After all, he was just a secondary member, an ordinary person who had gained some understanding of these supernatural powers by chance; he wasn't as lucky as Ed, who had received someone's inheritance.
Then he smiled and patted Ed on the shoulder. "You should go find the captain first. I have to go count the supplies we just got on the island and also calculate the funds... Huh? What's wrong?"
Just as Hamo was about to walk away in a cool manner, he suddenly noticed Ed strangely staring in a certain direction. He followed his gaze and saw, on a cliff of the island, a lady wearing a beautiful blue dress waving her hand at them as if saying goodbye.
Hamo only felt a gust of wind passing by, and before he could understand anything, he saw Ed climbing the rope stairs on the main mast that led to the lookout point at the top.
"Hey, what happened?" Hamo didn't know what was going on, but as a responsible senior, he quickly followed Ed and soon climbed the mast to the lookout point... There he saw Ed also waving at the blue-dressed lady, who seemed to have noticed him and was now waving with both arms.
Because Hamo didn't know the situation and thought Ed might be saying goodbye to his mother, due to Raila's apparent age, he didn't disturb him and just looked at the beautiful, darkening sky.
It wasn't until about ten minutes later, when the ship had put enough distance between itself and the island that both Raila and Ed could no longer see each other, that Ed finally stopped waving his sore arms and sighed softly.
"Who was she? Your mother or sister?" Seeing that Ed had calmed down, Hamo, who was always very curious about gossip, asked while they were getting down from the lookout point.
However, it wasn't until they landed on the deck, and when Hamo had disappointment written all over his face, that Ed showed him the golden ring on his right ring finger and said with a playful smile,
"She is my wife," Saying that, he ignored Hamo's wide-open mouth of disbelief and walked toward the captain's cabin, nodding his head in satisfaction.
Hamo, whose mental age was nearly a decade less than Ed's, still wanted to act smart in front of him despite knowing practically nothing. It was only natural for Ed to take a small revenge by giving him the greatest shock of his life.
In this world, where most people's thinking was simple, they didn't believe a young man could marry an older woman. After all, in 99% of cases, only older men married younger women, and women of a certain age didn't have much power or respect. So, it was no different than completely shattering Hamo's worldview by telling him he had a wife who was a decade older than him.
After teasing Hamo, Ed came to the captain's cabin, which had a nice-looking wooden door, and knocked three times.
"Come in."
Hearing the familiar voice from inside, Ed opened the door and walked in, observing the captain's cabin in the same way a student acts when called into the principal's office for the first time, reacting as if he had entered a completely different world.
The decoration was very bright, with a big colorful glass window at the back, some strange ornaments placed on the desks, and some unknown books in the bookcase next to it. Various documents and materials were piled up nearby. Ed also saw many maps stacked in the corner.
Then Ed saw a stone statue on the table, which he recognized instantly.
"Stone Mother?"
Well, you could say that after seeing her magical power, and after seeing the original owner's mother's soul go to the reincarnation circle, he started reciting her name when he was with people from the island, switching from his default, empty god's name to hers.
This was especially true when he wanted to force Raila or Sigurd to do something they were too lazy to do. For example, with Raila: "For Stone Mother's sake, if you don't let me eat, I will start looking for another woman." And in Sigurd's case: "You have a Stone Mother's oath! If you don't buy those things from the market..."
Because these two were die-hard believers of the Stone Mother, her name really worked wonders. So, you could say he was also a big fan of hers.