A few days later, Cale took in the salty smell as he got off of the carriage. In front of his eyes was the sea that still had a couple whirlpools roaring fiercely.
"Young master-nim, it is an honor to meet you."
"Are you the one in charge?"
"Yes sir."
The Henituse territory's representative manager greeted Cale.
He was the one responsible for representing the Henituse territory along with the rest of the managers involved in the development of the Naval Base. There were three managers currently located here representing either the crown, the Ubarr territory, or the Henituse territory.
"The development has picked up as some of the whirlpools disappeared, giving us access to more islands."
"Really?"
"Yes. Thanks to that, we were able to quickly develop our ships."
The Henituse family had invested a lot of money into the development of this Naval Base because the Ubarr family wanted to keep the crown's involvement to the minimum. They had wanted a couple of things in return, with one of them being the Henituse family being able to use a part of the shoreline free of charge.
"Then shall I guide you over to the residence?"
"No. Hold on."
Cale looked toward the carriage and motioned with his finger.
The carriage door opened and a small, pale person stepped out.
"Hurry up."
"Yes, yes sir!"
Mueller quickly rushed over and stood between Cale and the manager.
Mueller was now chubbier and wearing fancy clothes. The Countess was doing a good job keeping Mueller under control using luxurious goods.
Cale put his hand on Mueller's shoulder.
"Why don't you show him the phase one blueprints?"
"Gasp. Yes, yes sir!"
Mueller gasped before quickly handing the blueprint over to the manager. As the manager in charge of the construction of this naval base, the manager was knowledgeable about construction and the sea.
"…Huh?"
The manager looked at the blueprint for the ship for a moment before looking past Mueller to look at the person the pale Mueller was staring at.
"Young master-nim, this?"
"Yes, exactly like that."
"I've never seen a ship like this before."
That made Cale flinch before looking down at Mueller. Cale had been shocked when he first saw the blueprints as well.
'This bastard isn't also someone who transmigrated from Korea or something, right?'
Mueller clenched onto the gold ring that the Countess, his mentor of sorts, had given him for support after seeing Cale's angry expression. Cale sighed at Mueller's reaction and then looked toward the manager.
"But don't you think it'll be good once we build it?"
"More than good-"
The manager did not finish his sentence. Rather than good or bad, this was amazing.
Cale casually moved past the question while looking at the manager, who was unable to answer the question.
"Won't it at least be durable?"
"Yes. It'll be very durable, but-"
It would definitely be durable. However, the manager wanted to ask a question.
Is this really a ship for transportation?
It looked more like a battleship.
However, Cale finished the conversation before the manager could ask.
"Then that's all that matters."
The manager could no longer ask the question and just accepted that Cale just wanted a very durable ship for transportation. He then realized that there may be a different problem.
"It looks like it would take a significant amount of money to build, especially this golden turtle section-"
"What are you worried about?"
That problem wasn't a big deal to Cale either.
"Money isn't a problem."
A satisfied smile was on the manager's face.
"I will do my best to create this masterpiece!"
Cale avoided the suddenly passionate manager's face and got back on the carriage.
"I will head to the residence with your subordinate, so you stay here and chat with Mueller."
"Yes sir, I understand."
"Young master-nim, please rest peacefully!"
Cale closed the carriage door after seeing Mueller bow 90 degrees. The carriage started to head toward the residence and the manager could see Mueller's shoulders open up.
"Ahem, you see, this ship will not break even if it gets hit by a magic bomb."
"Yes, it definitely looks like that. But we will probably only be able to make one."
"Our goal is a single ship."
Mueller let out a fake cough. He knew that there was a good chance that he would be in the Henituse Castle as well as this ship, so he had put everything he had into these blueprints so that he would not end up dying.
"To be honest with you, the second phase of the blueprints, which is for the inside of the ship, is almost complete as well."
Mueller shrugged and opened up his shoulders in arrogance.
"Yes. I have not shown it to the young master-nim, yet but the concept has been completed."
"What is the concept?"
Mueller confidently answered.
"The greatest defense is a strong offense!"
Hit before you are hit.
Of course, this was just Mueller's own thoughts, as he had not received Cale's permission yet.
***
Cale quietly observed the people gathered in the office once they arrived at the residence.
"It will not be easy this time."
Everybody other than Ron, whom Cale had sent to his room, and Beacrox, who was taking care of Ron, were present.
The three children averaging 7-years of age, Choi Han, Rosalyn, Lock, and even Vice Captain Hilsman and the ten Wolf children all quickly arrived in Cale's office.
Cale had gathered up everyone in his arsenal.
'It's not like I'm going to go destroy a kingdom or something.'
Cale felt like it might be too much, but he didn't have enough information about the enemy. It was better to be overprepared.
Rosalyn looked toward Cale and started to speak.
"Young master Cale, then are we taking a ship to Hais Island?"
"Yes. We will probably go somewhere around Hais Island 5."
Hais Island was the term for the group of islands between the Western and Eastern continent. The numbers represented the order they were discovered.
Cale's destination was Hais Island 5.
It was the fifth island to be discovered, as well as the largest island in the group.
It was also the closest island to the Western Continent, making it possible to travel by ship easily. That was why even Ron could go with them.
"I heard that there is a mermaid base on the island."
"It is weird that they have a base on top of an island."
"That is why it is probably one of Arm's bases. This is why our first destination…"
Cale had already decided where they would go.
"Will be Hais Island 12."
Hais Island 12 was a very small island that was the twelfth to be discovered.
It was the closest island to Hais Island 5.
"Umm, excuse me, young master-nim."
Vice Captain Hilsman cautiously started to speak. Cale motioned for him to continue.
"Didn't you say that we will be fighting against the Mermaids? Aren't the Whales currently fighting against the Mermaids?"
"Yes."
Hilsman was very serious, unlike his usual goofy self. It was because he knew Ron's life was on the line. Cale continued to observe Hilsman as he recalled what his father had said.
'Whether he is an assassin or not, he is still one of my people. Save him. It will not be too late to worry about it after you save his life.'
Other people may think that Count Deruth was saving just another servant and wonder why he would spend so much effort on him. However, it was because Ron had watched over Cale for over ten years while Cale shunned the rest of his family. He was thinking more as a father than as the Count.
"Young master-nim, will we be okay? I heard that the Mermaids are creatures of the dark and are currently stronger due to the dead mana and poison."
Hilsman was worried about their darkness attribute and the dead mana.
Rosalyn answered the question instead of Cale.
"We will be fine. Young master Cale knows how to cure the mermaid poison and we just need to oppress the dead mana with an even stronger power."
The usual strategy when fighting against creatures of the dark that use dead mana was to oppress them with a single attack in order to limit the amount of battle time.
They needed to use a stronger mana or aura, or even a very strong attack in order to suppress the dead mana.
And there was a power that was extremely strong against dead mana.
Cale knew about that power.
Life.
'There is a stupid method that would work very well against it.'
It was actually pretty simple.
Living beings were stronger than the dead. There was something that most accurately proved that something was alive.
Rosalyn started to speak.
"Of course, it is most effective to use blood when fighting against creatures of the dark that use dead mana, but that is dangerous."
Yes, blood.
And they would need quite a lot of blood.
Even a weak human would be able to hold back creatures of the dark for a short amount of time if they sprayed them with their blood.
However, there was a high chance that they would die from too much blood loss. You couldn't fight against the strong creatures of the dark using a small amount of blood.
'Although, blood is useless against Dark Elves or Vampires.'
Dark Elves were still children of nature as they are living beings with blood even though they use dead mana, while Vampires drink blood on a normal basis.
The ancient texts described that the demonic races had dyed human hearts with dead mana in order to make them continue to beat even after the human had died.
'What crazy nonsense.'
It sounded crazy to Cale.
At the same time, Cale had a sudden thought that he mumbled without thinking about.
"My blood would probably be extremely effective."
His blood was powered by the Vitality of the Heart. With the regenerative abilities of the Vitality of the Heart, his blood would have more life than any other blood. The blood would also continue to spurt out without stop thanks to the Vitality of the Heart working to resupply blood and heal him. There would be nothing that was more effective against the creatures of the dark than his blood.
Although he would need to test it out to be sure, he could probably last a while against the Mermaids.
Most importantly, ancient powers were powers born from nature and humans. That meant that the Vitality of the Heart held attributes of both nature and life. There was a good chance that it would be strong against the dark.
Cale started to imagine.
"Mm, if I spray my blood-"
What if he covered himself in blood and spurted his enemies with it?
Cale started to frown.
'How disgusting.'
It sounded very disgusting.
Cale noticed that the room was silent as he looked around. A loud voice suddenly filled the silent room.
"What a crazy idea! Why would a weakling like you think about such a thing?! We do not need your weak blood!"
Raon was very angry.
"I wish you would stop having such weird thoughts."
"Very weird. It is a very weird thought."
On and Hong were looking at Cale like he was crazy.
That response made Cale look toward Rosalyn, who was also shaking her head. She looked like she was saying that there was no way they would let him do that.
"There is no need to do that."
Cale looked around at everyone and stopped after seeing Hilsman's face, that seemed to be full of admiration for some reason.
Cale responded back with a bit of anxiety.
"Of course I have no plans of doing that."
'Why would I use my precious blood?'
He had many cards to play other than his own blood.
Why would he use his own blood when he hated pain? He would rather run away than do something like that. He could heal Ron if he just grabbed a mermaid corpse and ran away.
Raon flew over near the couch Cale was sitting on and spoke angrily.
"I will make sure you don't do such a thing."
Nobody believed that he wouldn't do such a thing.
Cale scoffed at their reactions, but quickly decided to forget about it. There was no way such a thing would happen, so he didn't feel the need to waste any more of his energy thinking about it.
Instead, he stood up.
"Where are you going?"
Cale responded to Raon.
"The Cliff of Winds."
The steepest cliff on this shoreline. Cale headed to that cliff with a whirlpool underneath it.
He looked down once he got to the top of the cliff. The shoreline was busy with the construction of the Naval Base. However, his gaze soon moved away, toward the horizon.
"What are you trying to do, Cale-nim?"
Cale shrugged his shoulders at Choi Han's question before he took out a conch shell that looked like a horn flute out of his magic bag. Choi Han had seen this item before.
It was one of the items Cale had received from Witira when they had met the Whale King on their way to the Whipper Kingdom.
"…What?"
Choi Han thought he might know what Cale was trying to do.
Cale put his mouth on the smaller opening of the conch and started to blow.
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-
A quiet yet high pitched noise started to come out before the conch shell was covered with a blue light.
It was so quiet that the people down below could not hear it, but there were people far away who were able to hear it clearly.
Two days later, Cale was standing at the Cliff of Winds while watching the sunset. The sun was slowly going down across the horizon.
He then suddenly put the still glowing conch shell to his ear.
Giiiiiiiiiii-
He heard something inside the conch shell.
"They're here."
Raon pointed toward the horizon as Cale said that and shouted as well.
"They're here!"
"Ha."
"…Wow."
Choi Han, who had assumed this might be the case, let out a gasp while Rosalyn, who had no idea, was shocked.
Splash, splash.
The ocean seemed to be moving far in the horizon. The cause of it was two large Whales and a smaller third Whale.
Cale turned around to look at the rest of the group. They were all focused on the red-haired Cale rather than the red sunset. They could see that Cale had a smile on his face.
"Time to go."
Their guides had arrived.
'Might as well ride the Whales if I have to move.'