When the open sea appeared before them, Bill gathered everyone on the main deck.
Ricky was still in his Cloak of Justice, Fia had put on her white chef's coat, and the other three wore the standard Sailors' uniform with blue and white stripes.
Bill decided that now, being a captain, he needed a new suit, but it cost money, so for now, he was content with what he had.
Holding several papers in his hands, Bill looked at the four standing around him in a circle and began distributing the first document.
"As I explained earlier, our destination is the Island of the Clockwork Mechanism in East Blue. Here is our approximate course."
Looking at the diagram, which showed that they needed to cross only about ten islands along the way, Fia was the first to say, "The map is clearly approximate..."
Agreeing with her, Bill was forced to reply, "The maps I had access to aren't perfect. There might be better maps, but they're likely not available to an ordinary captain."
Hearing this, Rance shook his head and said, "I wouldn't be surprised if they don't exist at all. Sure, somewhere there must be good maps for each region, but the Sailor patrols don't visit every island.
One thing Fia and I noticed is that patrols are very routine, and they all follow local trade routes."
Sasha and Ricky seemed to agree with this statement, and Sasha added, "Sailors only visit the major islands or kingdoms to collect tribute. Then those major islands collect tribute from the smaller ones around them, and so on. There are maps that show the positions of kingdoms and major islands, but I don't think anyone has ever mapped the whole world in detail."
Bill didn't believe it, but he saw no point in discussing it. Regardless of whether such maps exist, they didn't have access to them.
"So, we only have this approximate map, but until we find an experienced navigator, it's the best we have."
With that, he handed out wanted posters.
"Let's continue. Our primary task in the Research Division is to make money. I hope we don't have to earn it solely by capturing pirates, but for now, we need to procure Beli by any means available.
If we spot an appropriate pirate ship, Rance and I will handle its capture. While we're away, Sasha will take command of the ship and act according to the situation.
It will be tough with five people, but even if it's just a small pirate ship, we can sell it for one to five million Beli, and that's too good a sum to pass up."
The others simply nodded in response, and then Ricky raised a question that had come up earlier: "So if we can recruit these mechanics from the Island of the Clockwork Mechanism, how do you plan to establish a trade network?"
Bill looked to the sky, collected his thoughts, and answered the group: "An unregistered Eternal Log Pose will cost us a million Beli, and as Ricky mentioned, we can't afford an Eternal Log Pose for every island we need to trade with.
Many of the islands we'll trade with will be so small that regular traders don't visit them, and again, on these small islands, we're more interested in raw materials than Beli.
So the simplest solution will be: once we set up our laboratory, we'll find a suitable island to place an Eternal Log Pose, and then map the neighboring islands using a regular Log Pose."
With these words, Bill started gesturing with his hand and continued: "In the future, we won't travel to specific islands for raw materials until we gather much more information, so we'll create a trade convoy that will follow from one island to another, and when the route is complete, return to base. Over time, we'll find islands that excel in producing specific fabrics, silks, metals, and the like, but initially, we'll trade whatever brings us profit.Upon hearing this, the others more or less understood the goal, and their journey began.
Life in the open ocean was boring, and on an almost empty ship, this feeling was even stronger.
Holding the Eternal Log Pose to the Lesser East Blue in one hand, Bill leaned over the upper deck, watching the horizon with one eye while observing Rance training with Sasha with the other.
Bill had to keep an eye on these sparring sessions because, although she used a wooden longsword and he didn't use his guns, their duels always tended to reach a dangerous phase.
This time, they decided to take turns attacking and defending, moving at a quarter speed, but even that was quite fast, Bill thought, and it was easy to imagine how "quarter" speed could turn into "half" and so on.
Using her longsword with both hands, Sasha began the match in the Plow stance, holding the sword hilt at her waist level, standing sideways with her left shoulder slightly forward, waiting for his strike.
Rance wasted no time, using a slow version of the Razor Technique to position himself on the opposite side of her body, where the sword was, and when she counterattacked, he swept her leg.