B4 Chapter 468: Lost Treasures, Finale

“Wait!” Kenva cried as Kaius took a step towards the entrance to their new Arachnacine Landyacht.

“What?” he said, looking back. Her face was aghast; what could possibly have her so frazzled?

“We can’t just enter! Every caravan needs a name, and this is a damned landyacht!”

Kaius cocked his brow. He didn’t get it.

“A name?” he questioned.

“By the matriarchs, why would we give it a name? It’s an artefact,” Porkchop added, echoing Kaius’ sentiment.

Kenva looked at them like they’d spat in her food. “Because it’s bad luck, you fools! Every good caravan has one. Besides, this isn’t just a caravan — it’s a boat, too, which means it’s double bad luck.”

“People name boats?” Kaius said, blinking. That was ridiculous. Why would people name boats? Or caravans, for that matter?

He searched for a voice of reason, but Ianmus was only looking at him like he’d just asked if houses had roofs.

“You didn’t know that people name boats?” Ianmus asked.

“Why in all the hells would I? It’s not like they have damn boats in the Sea.”

He snapped his mouth shut, narrowing his eyes as he visibly watched delight spread across Ianmus’ and Kenva’s faces. “Don’t you fucking dare. You know what I meant,” he said.

His teammates held it together for all of three seconds before they howled with laughter.

Even Porkchop laughed, low rumbles that filled the tunnel.

At least the Castellan had tact. Though with how common it was for it to play at statue, he had no way of knowing what the automaton was thinking.

“Seriously, Kaius. You did not just say that,” Kenva gasped, doubled over as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“No boats in the Sea? Really, man?” Ianmus choked out, trying to stifle his laughter.

Heat bloomed on the backs of Kaius’ ears. “I said, shush.”

“You do have to admit that you walked nose-first into that one,” Porkchop added.

Kaius narrowed his eyes at the betrayal.

But he did catch himself smiling at his friends’ damned infectious mirth.

“Ah, I needed that,” Ianmus said, rubbing his face. “Still, the fact remains that it is tradition. Kenva is right. We should name it before we take a look inside. Any ideas?”

Kaius looked at the landyacht and the long, heavily armoured metal limbs that kept it supported in the air. A moment later, he looked down at his own.

“Pegleg,” he said decisively.

Kenva made a sound like she’d been strangled, choking as her laughter redoubled. “That is terrible. I love it.”

“Pegleg it is,” Porkchop replied. “Can we go on board now? I want to see what it’s like inside.”

Sharing a round of excited grins, they rushed to the stairs.

Rushing into Pegleg, Kaius entered a wide open room that must have filled the back third of the landyacht. Where the rear of the vessel rounded out in a gentle curve, there was a singular wraparound seating area: a deep and thickly padded bench that looked like it could easily sit twelve people. Both ends protruded towards the centre of the room, creating a wide, flattened area large enough that even Porkchop would fit.

Across from it, the far wall held a small kitchenette and cabinetry, with a wooden table and chairs. The varnished things were polished to a fine sheen, as were the ceiling and walls of the place. The care that had gone into the delicate filigree engravings on the finish was obvious. There was none of the militaristic austerity that was visible on the vessel’s exterior. Beyond those two defining features, there was a door leading further into Pegleg, and a grand table in the centre of the room. It was an oval thing, likely designed for expedition planning.

It took bare moments before his team split up, Porkchop sniffing around the padded bench at the vessel’s rear, while Ianmus and Kenva searched deeper through the door.

Kaius only had eyes for that table — there was something engraved into its surface and sealed in varnish.

Stepping closer, he saw that it was a map of Vaastivar — though one far larger than he had ever seen before. He blinked in shock. It was the entire damned continent, most of it was completely unfamiliar to him.

The Sea was there, a massive splotch that spread across the eastern edge of the centre of the map, and there, to the south of it, he saw the Drozag rendered as a bumpy ridge that split the continent in half. There was the Frontier and the Dukedoms, though he knew the edges of those barely reached the centre of the continent. Beyond them were more kingdoms, Franlen and others he didn’t know the names of.

Yet it was so small.

Everything he had known, the extent of his knowledge — hells, his entire world — was contained in a thin sliver just to the south of the map’s centre. Perhaps a fifth or less of the total landmass.

The Sea was larger than he’d ever realised, and there was so much more beyond it. Mountains, forests, plains — before the landscape inevitably succumbed to the gripping touch of ice.

South, beyond the Drozags, there was only an arid waste of nothing, and then the jungle; a humid, green hell that consumed all and took no prisoners. It was one of the most famous dangers he’d heard of, dominating a third or more of the continent and, in times past, one of the most potent high-mana zones.

Once he got over his shock, Kaius felt a glimmer of excitement as he realised that there were markers on the map. There was no key, but it was not hard to infer that they were major settlements. There were so damn many of them — perhaps there were facilities as well? Some, even, were scattered through the jungle. Had the Empire managed to tame even that place?

“Come check this out,” Kaius said.

Porkchop poked up his head from where he was lying on the couch. Ianmus and Kenva filed back into the room, curious looks on their faces.

When Ianmus saw what he was looking at, the mage hurried over.

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“A complete map. You don’t see those very often.”

So it wasn’t new knowledge. Kaius had been unsure.

“Is it valuable?” he asked.

“Maybe,” Kenva said, leaning on her hands as she looked at the table with interest. “General landscape details aren’t exactly a secret, because enough map fragments have been recovered to piece them together. But accuracy is always in question. It might be worth something with these settlement markings. It’s hard to tell whether they’ll be known sites or new knowledge until we check them out. We won’t exactly be able to compare them — if anyone else has similar information, they’ll be holding it close to their chest. As we’ve found, an untouched Imperial ruin can be a profitable venture for an expedition.”

“I guess we’ll have to invest in a tablecloth,” Kaius muttered. In reality, he had very little plan to flaunt their latest acquisition. It would be silly of them not to take such simple precautions.

“It’s still a rare find,” Ianmus confirmed. “This detail is astounding. Most continent maps are only vague impressions of coastlines and major landscape features. I haven’t seen anything like this before.”