“Crack.” The crystal whined, breaking upon touching the wooden surface. It split neatly lengthwise, revealing the thin lines of ignivite within its guts.

  The charm was likely manufactured pragmatically as halves, engraved and fused. A common fire magic technique that allowed for mass production of charms such as these.

  And given that the majority of a charm’s value came from the magical labour involved in its craft, Aurelius had just destroyed around 80% of the charm’s value. It would hardly be worth it for him to bring it to a fire mage to fuse back together.

  He could, however, likely sell the ignivite that remained on the charms for a small sum nonetheless.

  “Would have been nice to know the deactivation requirements for the charm.” Aurelius muttered, pocketing half of the charm which held the ignivite in its grooves.

  And looking around the room, he braced himself for the big reveal as to what the charm had hidden.

  He half expected Mr. Tona to have dropped him off at an active pirate hideout, and that some sort of door to a pirate tavern would open up as a result of destroying the charm.

  After all, Mr. Tona was, as most people around Aurelius was, off his damn rocker.

  However, Aurelius was met with… nothing in particular…

  “That… doesn’t seem to have done anything.” Aurelius muttered, squinting at the nooks and crannies around the room, even kneeling down to see if some hidden compartment had magically manifested itself.

  “How does one become so foolish?” Pultris commented, chuckling knowingly at Aurelius’s confusion.

  “It seems that Wally Tona is a far more interesting man that I gave him credit for.” He mused, clearly amused by whatever he was able to sense.

  “Screw you, Pultris. Just tell me what that did.” Aurelius retorted, clicking his tongue impatiently at the djinn’s usual provocation.

  “How about you take a look outside the tiny, insignificant storage room?” Pultris replied, scoffing at Aurelius’s rudeness.

  Aurelius frowned.

  Outside?

  Grumbling to himself, Aurelius looked around once more at the provisions in the room, and took a step onto the ladder into the island sun.

  “...There’s clearly nothing.” Aurelius muttered, squinting at his surroundings impatiently as he emerged above the sand.

  “...You do know that localised charms can be used to conceal things at a distance, right? How about you walk back to the coast?” Pultris responded in exasperation.

  “How about you just bloody tell me what the charm was hiding?” Aurelius complained.

  “You and your snarky response is why I ignore your nonsense all the time. You’re a creepy, corrupt scummy guy, so I don’t know why you’re so insistent on being so condescending. Don’t throw stones in a glass house!” Aurelius scolded, kicking at the sand irritably.

  “So, you prejudice against me for crimes committed centuries before your time, and yet you seek my cooperation.” Pultris scoffed.

  Aurelius rolled his eyes as he climbed out, swearing to curse out at Pultris if he didn’t find anything significant.

  And after manoeuvring under the tropical vines and greenery, Aurelius finally retraced his footprints on the sand back to the beach that he had come from.

  Escaping the cover of the forest, he surveyed his surroundings once more, squinting his eyes as he adjusted his pupils to the mid-afternoon sun of the island, seeing if anything had actually changed from what he had seen prior.

  And unfortunately for Aurelius, Pultris had been right.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I don’t see… Oh.” Aurelius paused, as he finally noticed the pair of strange objects in the water that had not been there prior.

  “I don’t believe this. That geezer seriously has a screw loose.” Aurelius muttered to himself as his jaws dropped at the sight of the item in question.

  In the natural backdrop of the Western Oceans, a beautifully artificial blue hull flickered against the waves as the sun glinted softly against its gentle, welded curves.

  Moored against a small sandbank, it seemed that Aurelius had stumbled across a… pirate submarine.

  ???

  Aurelius grimaced at the coldness of the ocean, and the rather unpleasant sensation of seashells pricking at his feet as he waded carefully towards the submarine.

  His belongings floated next to him, his magic battling against the ocean winds that threatened to blast them away.

  The pirate crew seemed to have created a magic dock for the submarine at the edge of the atoll, with a few rectangular posts cradling the machine precariously above the water.

  The submarine was around 25 meters long, and 5 meters wide at its nose, and featured a ‘steampunkish’ design, with its hull seemingly inspired by a whale.

  Other than its fin-shaped keel, the majority of the ship rested on the cradle of the wires and braces, leaving every part of its well-crafted body visible.

  It had an adjustable and swept-back lateral fins in its midsection, together with 2 additional horizontal stabilisers attached to the upright tail.

  Its belly held the modular engine section, with 5 mana engines mounted solidly against its hull, which blended in with the two torpedo launchers that were placed above them.

  The machine’s nose led to a slight hump for the bridge in the mid-section, coupled with 4 magic cannons sprouting from its sides.

  Its name was proudly calligraphed on its nose, spelling a rather fitting name of, ‘Wind-Blessed’.

  “Manus, moveo.” Aurelius chanted, casting the locomotion spell to lift himself up the sides of the majestic ship, taking special care to avoid the wires surrounding it.

  As he stepped inside the hatch on the hump of the submarine, he found the unpleasant tang of salt topping itself off with the light seasoning of rust.

  “Wall on the left.” Pultris advised, guiding him to the electrical switch for the lights.

  With a sequence of ‘zapping’ noises, the ship’s lights flickered on to reveal its surprisingly organised and tidy interior.

  2 neat crates of ammunition and material were placed neatly on each side on their respective racks bolted to the metal grill of the floor within convenient reach of the magic cannons.

  The handles on the front section of the bridge rolled smoothly aside to reveal the windows, created from reinforced magic-glass.

  As Aurelius made his way down the stairs to the main floor of the submarine, he found the control room, a small dining room, toilet, and storage.

  The control room had several humming instruments, with wires connecting them across the entirety of the ship, and a pane of engraved crystal in decent condition.

  Even though pirates had access to magic, it was still made up of a majority who were not able to wield them. This meant that relying on magic alone like the ships of the Commission navy for their ships was out of the question.

  Therefore, they opted for the route of the Royal Fleets, replacing much of the functionality of their ships to electricity coupled with an ignivite electrical generator.

  That lessened the requirement of mages in their fleets to nearly 1 in 10 members of the crew, a good thing, given the reduced impact of losing a mage in the capture of a single ship.

  “So, the nose is storage for ammunition and supplies… and there is no direct access to the engines…” Aurelius thought aloud, wondering about the mechanisms of the ship.

  “Half of the nose is also a water ballast. You need to fill that up if you want to submerge the ship.” Pultris commented.

  “It seems that the engines are modular, and I would still check the parts in the turbines before we set sail. I do not fully trust the anti-corrosion charms of pirates.” He added wisely.

  “How the hell do you know so much about submarines?” Aurelius asked curiously, poking and tracing the wires and pipes that ran across the ergonomic interior of the control room.

  “I’ll tell you if you let me have access to your arm right now as promised.” Pultris retorted greasily.

  Aurelius rolled his eyes, as he re-entered the cabin once more.

  The quarters on the ship were composed of 2 bunk beds, and a slightly larger captain’s room with enough room for a small desk and a cabinet overhead.

  And on this particular desk lay a rather interesting note labeled, ‘from Mr. Tona’.

  With a deep sigh, Aurelius took the note and read it carefully.

  Welcome aboard, apprentice of my apprentice! This nice hunk of metal is a submarine. One of my junior teams managed to report it, and leave it stranded on such a beautiful place during a raid on a splinter faction of Pirate King Imaris.

  Aurelius frowned, feeling a headache coming in. He could swear that he heard Mr. Tona directly in his head as he read it!

  The particular subsidiary has already been taken care of, so no-one should have really missed it. Plus, the baby’s got almost no miles on it, so I expect most of it to be in good shape. It’s a pirate submarine after all. You gotta admire their craftsmanship! So, I will pick you up in 12 days, so I expect… 12 pirates captured, or 1 ship sunk! Good luck! Also, check the cabinet~

  With a sigh, Aurelius reluctantly reached towards the cabinet and found that it was locked.

  “Manus moveo.” Aurelius chanted again, this time using the locomotion magic to carefully pry open the locking mechanisms inside the lock.

  “Click.” The cabinet announced, opening itself up to reveal a few drab and pragmatic things.

  There were 2 bottles of mid-range wine, and 2 books.

  One seemed to be a… ledger, and the other was something Mr. Tona likely intended for him to find.

  Its title was innocuous, yet impactful.

  “A Pirate’s Manual to Submarine Model 67.” Aurelius recited, sighing at his ridiculous, nonsensical predicament.