The outside was made of ice, and so was the inside.
The corridor, the walls, the ceiling were made of transparent ice. Even the door, the handle and the bolts on the hinges were of the same material. Some of the items inside would make one wonder whether they could even work or not. The inside of the cabin, which was made of ice, was just like the outside, the walls and floor giving off a faint white glow. Was it the effect of moonlight being reflected like crazy?
The glow wasn't as bright as sunlight, and though the walls and ceiling could be seen clearly, the space itself was rather dark. It felt like the weak lights in a cinema.
Kamijou and Orsola opened the hatchway linking the deck to the inside of the ship and ran into the nearest room. Nobody was stopping them. Basically, if they were found out, they would be finished. But even without anyone around, Kamijou felt that there was an invisible pressure attacking them. Maybe it was the psychological effect of wanting to hide for safety.
Both of them entered the room, closed the door and leaned on the wall inside. Suddenly, they heard the hatchway being opened and closed. Besides footsteps, they could hear growling in some foreign language. One could hear that they were all males. However, because Kamijou didn't know anything about the language, and since he was unable to understand the situation from the voices, this made him even more worried.
"Damn it, what's going on?"
Kamijou muttered.
He had finally gotten a ticket to Italy and came here, and not only had he been attacked by some weird dude, he was forced to ride on this huge ship. It was too unfortunate.
The place where he and Orsola were hiding in should be the fort. A row of cannons were arranged on the wall of the ship, such that they looked like small separated rooms.
From here, one could see the base of the cannons. There were several chairs in front of the cannons, a shelf on the wall, and some large buckets. These were all made of white translucent material—in other words, that was all inside the room. He couldn't see the gunpowder for the cannons that should be in some buckets or the volleyball-sized shells. Kamijou was unable to tell whether it was because the cannons were all duplicates or if it was because these were magic cannons that would ignore the laws of physics.
From the inside walls to the furniture, the entire body of the ship was glowing. As the texture was the same, it gave a sense of slipperiness. Light was everywhere, but it was hard to read in this situation. This was truly an abnormal space.
"I'm rather mindful about this ship — why must they use such a huge thing to attack us?"
Orsola said uncomfortably. She did have a reason for saying this because the enemy was after her life. When this kind of situation happened, it was naturally hard to counter.
Kamijou remembered the spear-wielding man that had appeared out of the river.
"That idiot who just attacked you… he seemed to be wearing a male version of your nun's habit."
"Yes, that is priest's attire. If so, the enemy should be the Roman Catholic Church, right?"
"Is it because of The Book of the Law? I can't think of other reasons that would cause any conflict."
"But that case should be over ever since I was transferred to the Anglican Church… according to the current situation, if they kill me, it'll be disadvantageous to the Roman Catholic Church… would they specially make a vessel out of ice, destroy the banks of Chioggia and the Vigo bridge just to get me?"
"Yeah, that's a bit too much of an overkill…"
Kamijou cupped his head and thought.
In all the magic commotions that had occurred in Academy City and Japan, the magicians seemed like they wanted to avoid exposing the event. But this time it was different; the ship basically had appeared outright, destroyed everything, and then left just like that. Orsola should be quite confused now. Basically, even if a giant ice ship was to emerge from a narrow canal and destroy the streets, nobody would believe it. If they did, wouldn't the existence of magicians be revealed?
"Where's this ship going?"
"If the ship is going north from Chioggia, maybe Venice? If not, the only way out to the Mediterranean Sea is south… ah, there's a window over there."
The window that Orsola was pointing at was one that allowed a person to aim the cannon, but all they could see was the darkness of the sea. Everything in the horizon was water, and at the end, it was the dark sky; there was no clue to tell them where they were.
Suddenly,
'BOOM' an explosion could be heard from the surface of the sea. With that sound, an ice ship, similar to the one Kamijou and Orsola were riding, emerged from the water as if it was a killer whale. After that, 5, 10 translucent ships also appeared. They could only see in one direction, but it was likely that the same thing was happening all around.
The empty horizon of the Adriatic Sea was now covered with numerous ships.
The dark surface of the sea was now illuminated by these weak white lights. The light caused by a ship wasn't that bright, but it was a different matter when there were that many of them.
"…This ship isn't the enemy base, but one of them?"
"The main brigade is here, perhaps they couldn't launch because Chioggia's too small?"
Said Kamijou as he gritted his teeth.
One ship was already hard for them to handle. Now that the scale had increased, it felt like it was harder for them to escape. Now, they would have to abandon the idea of getting off the ship and hide till the ship reached port.
"Really, Index shouldn't have any problems now. Handphone… nope. It's alright even if a phone made by Academy City drops into the water — I can honestly praise that…that kid's 0-yen phone probably hasn't been on ever since I turned it off before our flight. Can the electromagnetic waves pass through the sea?"
"Ah, my luggage got washed away. All the contents of the luggage got spilled onto the roof, and then this ship forced the canal water out…"
The trunk should have had quite a lot of women cosmetics. Orsola looked a bit awkward, and Kamijou replied in a slightly irritated yet impressed tone,
"…You're really strong, to think of anything after this is over."
"Oh my, cuttlefish isn't Chioggia's specialty, but of Venice."
Hearing Orsola ignore him as she changed the topic, Kamijou really felt weak, but he couldn't keep this up for long.
Ka chang.
The handle of the cabin door twisted.
"!?"
Kamijou and Orsola, who were standing beside the door, were shocked.
Both of them turned towards the door.
It wasn't just a single door being opened.
Numerous doors were being opened. It was likely that all the doors on this level could be automatically opened at the same time, as the sounds could be heard from right to left.
There was nowhere to hide inside the room.
And outside, the person checking through the corridor made of ice with changed melting temperature was suddenly standing in front of Kamijou.
This person wasn't one of those mere grunts.
The one opening the door was a nun. What made her special were her pencil-thick braids of red hair. She had the cheeky expression of a naughty child with a body even more petite than Index. Though she was wearing a similar nun's habit as Orsola's, her outfit revealed a lot more skin, like a mini-skirt. The thing that made them recognize her was the pair of 30cm thick sandals.
"Agnese!?"
Kamijou couldn't help but shout out.
Agnese Sanctis.
A battle nun who had led a company of Roman Catholics to try and assassinate Orsola Aquinas because of the incident involving The Book of the Law.
Oi, this is no time for a joke! Why is she on this ship!? Don't tell me that she's involved in the incident when Orsola got attacked just now!!
Stunned, Kamijou couldn't say anything.
"—"
She didn't seem to notice that the people inside were Kamijou and Orsola. She slightly widened her eyes, and after staring at that boy's face—
BAM!!
She punched Kamijou's face without any hesitation.
"ACK…!?"
Being hit like this, Kamijou's vision started to waver. He could hear Orsola's little cry. He was almost unconscious, not due to pain, but due to him being unable to react in time. Right away, Agnese stepped forward and punched his waist. Then, when Kamijou was unable to guard himself, Agnese's small fist targeted the youth's flank from below.
DONG!! A blunt sound could be heard, as if a hammer smashed into luggage.
An irritating sound reverberated inside Kamijou. After that, Agnese punched down on Kamijou's back as he was bent in a '<' shape. Kamijou was unable to fight back, and was only capable of lying down on the ground. After Agnese backed away from him, she turned to look at Orsola.
"Erm…please hold on for a moment…!?"
Orsola frantically opened her hands. On seeing this, Agnese frowned, but she didn't swing her fist. While she was still alert, she heard…
"…I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. No, I'm really shocked. The back of your nun's habit had such a large hole that I nearly saw your butt — even on your abdomen, there are hand-sized holes; you're revealing a lot of skin…"
The boy lying on the floor and remaining in the '<' position muttered as if he was reciting a chant.
In this narrow room, Agnese moved away while maintaining her distance from Kamijou and Orsola.
"EH! Over there!!"
She shouted, using the thick soles of her sandals to step on Kamijou's leg, and pulled up his pants.
"You! As expected, you brought a weapon onto the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea…!!"
The suspicious voice of Agnese suddenly stopped.
What was strapped tightly onto his leg was a backup wallet, as if Kamijou was declaring that he was not used to travelling overseas.
"…"
Agnese remained silent, instead of saying that she felt awkward that her guess was wrong; it was more like she was suspicious of them because she didn't understand their intentions. After that, she slowly re-estimated the distance between her and the rest.
Though Agnese hadn't let down her guard, the sticky situation now could be counted as 'we can communicate without fighting each other'. Orsola gently sighed, and said more than she normally did,
"I… was attacked by Roman Catholics as I was moving houses, and after that, I had to ride on this ship. 'The Queen of the Adriatic Sea'…is it the name of this ice ship?"
Seeing Orsola ask in surprise, Agnese relaxed her shoulders. But she continued to keep her eyes on Kamijou, who was on the floor.
"She's still… is it still a character flaw?"
There was a sense of irritation in her tone, but Kamijou was unable to hear anyone as he continued to lie on the floor.
"—So I'm really sorry, Agnese, and I'll take this chance to confess that during the first time I met you, you looked rather perverted wearing that mini-skirt nun's habit…!?"
Being kicked in the flank by the 30cm thick sandals, Kamijou bounced up. Agnese repeated her question again, and Kamijou coughed as he got up, saying,
"No… eh, why… why are you angry? Did Orsola say something weird again? Queen of the Adriatic Sea? What's that? I think I heard of it before."
"Really, I did explain it to you clearly, you know?"
As both of them didn't know what the question to that answer was, both of them decided to ignore Orsola first. Agnese looked like she finally let her guard down, saying in a relaxed manner,
"…The name of the fleet is the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'. This is just one frigate ship. Seems like you really do not know what's going on. Either you don't know how to negotiate or something, I can tell from your expression that you really do not know anything. If this is also an act, I'm really impressed."
"What on earth are you doing here…"
"You don't have the right to ask me that. I'm helping to look for an intruder."
Agnese then proceeded to say something astonishing.
"However, if you're the intruders, I can make use of that. If it's me alone, it'll be hard to settle this troublesome problem, but it may be faster if I make use of you."
"Wait a sec…"
Kamijou couldn't help but blurt out.
Troublesome, problem, hard to settle, make use, it'll be faster—no matter what the keyword was, it was still dangerous.
"I have an irritating premonition. First, Orsola got attacked, and then I'm forced to ride on this weird ship. We're just involved in this somehow, and we don't know what you're doing here—"
"If you continue to chatter like this, you're going to get louder and louder. I advise you not to anger me if you want to escape this place. That is, if you want to escape 'The Queen's fleet'."
Kamijou and Orsola stared at Agnese in surprise.
Agnese didn't mind as she continued,
"However, it's alright if you don't want to escape. I can call people to come here and let you die here. How about you jump into the water and swim all the way back to the shore? I don't know how many kilometers is though, and once there's a sound on the sea, they'll fire the cannons immediately."
Now that she was reminding him, Kamijou had nothing to argue back with.
That was right, this was the sea; there was no way for them to escape. Forget about swimming, even if they were to get a lifeboat, they would be shot down quickly.
Just as Kamijou was pondering, Orsola asked,
"…Is there any benefit for you if you help us?"
"Benefits? We'll have a lot to talk about if you can think about it."
Agnese immediately replied.
This already troublesome situation seemed to have taken a turn for the worst. Agnese and the gruff sounding men should be of the same search party, but they seemed to have different motives. Orsola sighed before turning back to Kamijou.
"Looks like we can only listen to what she says. No matter what, if we don't assist her, we can't escape, and if she gets angry, the rest of them will rush in here."
"Humph, at least you're clear about that."
Seeing Agnese reveal such a competitive smile, Kamijou carelessly let his jaw drop.
Though the situation had now gotten complicated, he still said in a reluctant manner,
"I'm not really motivated for this, but let's see what you have to say."