yemalu

"It\'s beautiful~" Delmare whispered while looking at the scenery below us.

After I had explained the situation to the other Sirens and what our plan was, I kept my promise to Delmare and picked her up in a princess carry before I flew up into the sky.

Meanwhile, the other Sirens agreed to meet up with me in the waters around the island. While they were aware of the tunnel that led to the open sea, they do not know where exactly around the island the exit was.

Thus, it was up to me to find them after they had emerged, leaving me some time to give Delmare her aerial tour around the island.

Ironically, she was the only one not afraid of heights as the other Sirens weren\'t as keen as she was about the prospect of flying.

Delmare was instantly captivated by the sights below us the moment we were in the air and made \'ooh\' and \'aah\' noises the entire time.

"Not worried about height like your sisters?" I mused, fully extending my wings to level myself in the air.

"I\'m more surprised that my sisters were afraid of it to be honest. We\'ve swam around in underwater caves where the depths stretched further than the light could reach, but we\'re not afraid of falling into those depths. Isn\'t it the same up here? Not to mention Aster trusts me while we\'re swimming because the water is our element, so why would I not trust you when the air is your element?"

I feel like it\'s not as easy as that but I suppose that was one way to think about it.

She turned back to look at the ground, "To think this was how our home looked from above… I would never have imagined the mountain that looked like it stretched all the way to the heavens is below us right now…"

Too bad there isn\'t a good place to land on the summit or I might have brought us there to look around.

I have yet to test out how high I could actually fly but I wasn\'t about to test it without at least someone to catch me should something happen.

At least I know I could go pretty high up since Mother took me flying between the mountains of Dragon Sanctuary before, which had peaks way higher than this one.

I then felt a tug on my arm and I looked down to see Delmare pointing excitedly at the waters below us.

"Look! Look! My sisters are over there, Aster!"

Oh? It looks like they have surfaced close to where we had set up camp on our first day here.

I had wondered why that Merman pirate never found the Sirens but I guess he just never swam around there to find the entrance and I doubt he bothered going to the cave\'s lake either.

Still, I\'m surprised Delmare saw them from all the way up here, we\'re more than six hundred metres, or two thousand feet if you prefer, in the air you know? I guess they all have good eyesight for seeing underwater or something.

Tucking my wings, I dove down towards the sea, causing Delmare to let out a squeak of surprise while hugging me tightly.

"Kyaaa! As… Aster?! Wha… What are you doing?!"

Just as the sea seemed to be rushing up towards us, my wings exploded out from my back and slowed down our descent until we were hovering just above the water.

I giggled, "Ehehe~ How was that?"

Delmare pouted at me, "That\'s so mean, Aster! It felt like my heart was going to jump out of my mouth!"

"Ehehehe~ But it was exciting wasn\'t it?"

"Ngghh… Yes it was…"

Diona groaned from below us, "If you two are done flirting, we can get going to that ship of yours. Otherwise, the day will be dark and we\'ll need to spend another night here."

I knew she was joking so it didn\'t bother me but Delmare had a bigger reaction than I thought she would.

"I… I wasn\'t flirting! What are you talking about, Diona?! Don\'t say silly things ok?!"

The four sisters just stared at the Siren in my arms and even I was surprised at her unexpected outburst.

She also seemed to realise what she did and quickly covered her face with her hands while making \'Awawawa\' noises.

Cute.

I decided to throw her a lifelong by half turning my body away to hide her while addressing the other Sirens, "The cove is this way, just follow me~"

The four Sirens giggled amongst themselves but made no comments before starting to swim after me.

I\'m not dumb of course. If my years of experience in writing told me anything, the few reasons Delmare would react like this would be because she actually harboured some kind of feeling for me.

If you ask me though, I believe she\'s just mistaking her gratitude for me listening to her songs instead of actually liking me that way. We\'ve literally just met today, after all…

Well, she might also realise that fact once we leave this island so I\'ll just keep quiet about it for now.

Delmare was still covering her face when we reached the cove, just as Emilia and Odeta were loading up the last crate filled with that Grey Powder on board.

Odeta gasped the moment she saw me and rushed up to me when I landed on the ground.

"Sister Aster!! I want to be flown too!! Could you fly me like that too?!"

"Ehehe~ Calm down Odeta, I\'ll take you up after we set sail, ok?"

"That\'s a promise!! Yayyy!!"

Cherith emerged from the water and looked up at the ship, "Is that what we will be leaving in?"

Emilia nodded, "That\'s right~ I already did a check and there\'s enough space for everyone! The leader of this band of pirates is a Merman so there\'s also designs to facilitate Mer movement throughout the ship. Unfortunately I didn\'t find any glass tanks that could be filled with water so you\'ll need to sleep in beds."

Allure chuckled, "Oh, we\'re no stranger to sleeping on dry land~ Sometimes we even prefer it since we do some… Fufufu~ Late night activities~"

Odeta, being the innocent Amrap I know, went ahead to ask, "Ohh! Do you do late night training as well?! Can I join too?!"

Allure looked like she was about to agree when I quickly interrupted by clearing my throat loudly, "Is the ship stocked for a voyage already? We should be departing soon before the sky gets dark!"

Emilia caught on to what I was trying to do and answered me just as quickly, "Oh the ship is most definitely ready to depart! Why don\'t all of you come aboard now and we\'ll be able to cast off?"

Ephyra squealed, "Can you believe it sisters? We\'re really leaving the island behind! We don\'t need to fantasise about the outside world anymore! We\'re going to see the world with our own eyes!"

Cherith leapt out of the water to land on the ship, dropping several makeshift bags that looked to be seaweed bundled up together on the deck.

That prompted the other Sirens to leap on board as well, dropping their own bags to marvel at the rest of the ship.

I also dropped off Delmare on the deck as well, the Siren managing to return to her normal self when she saw the ship.

"So this is what a ship looks like when it\'s not sunk underwater," She gasped, looking around with wide eyes. "It\'s so… Dry!"

Diona rolled her eyes, "Well, duh. Because it\'s not underwater, silly."

"I know that! It\'s just my first time seeing a ship in a condition like this! I always wondered how they float on the water instead of sinking."

Emilia perked up, "Ohohoho! My ship is much bigger than this little caravel! Once we get my ship back, I\'ll personally show you around!"

No doubt she was hoping to get even more of those precious stones the Sirens had picked up, but I\'ll just keep my mouth shut.

Emilia then brought us around to help us familiarise ourselves with the ship. There wasn\'t much to show which was unsurprising considering the size of the ship.

The ship had two cannons on each side on the main deck which used a person\'s mana to fire the cannonballs stored in crates next to them.

The captain\'s cabin was located just underneath the quarterdeck which would be given to Emilia considering it also doubled as a navigation room. Since she was the one who would be steering and charting our course, it made sense for her to use it.

Below the decks was where we would stay, which wasn\'t really much considering more than half of the space served as storage for cargo and another quarter of it was taken up by the capstan for the anchor.

At least the beds were bunk beds instead of hammocks so there\'s that. Although that also meant that there was no privacy at all so I sure hope those Sirens don\'t start their night activities while Odeta was around… I\'ll need to remember to tell them about it later.

There was also a basic kitchen at the back that looked like some kind of iron stove or something, which looked similar to the one that Delmare had been using. Apparently it\'s a specific design to be used on ships that helps avoid starting fires by using heat to cook while powered by Mana Crystals.

In other words, it\'s a damned induction stove.

Emilia also gave us a quick lesson on crewing the ship which involved us storing the gangplank, weighing anchor and also unfurling the sails, finally allowing us to leave the island behind.

Time for us to head back out to sea again!