The Lord Demon King is Unfathomable!

At least there is order here.

He humbled himself, bowing his head, and said nervously.

"I'm very sorry, Baron. We... truly did not know that this forest belonged to you, the esteemed one. We encountered a tsunami, and for survival's sake, had to use the resources of your territory. We are willing to compensate for your loss..."

Watching Captain Kaidesen's humble demeanor, Ticky relished in the moment like a noble.

He did not recognize this fellow.

But having mingled in the Imperial colonies for so many years, he knew these types too well.

They're all the same——

Earned a bit of money and forgot their own name.

Right, they don't even have surnames.

Feeling the piercing gazes from behind, Ticky coughed lightly and continued his act with feigned generosity.

"Alright, since it was due to a storm, there's nothing to be done. Considering your politeness and the fact it wasn't intentional, I shall absolve you of responsibility..."

At last, Kaidesen felt relieved, knowing this fellow wasn't a true noble but at least reasonable, unlike those unreasonable pirates.

He respectfully offered a bow befitting a commoner to a noble and murmured "Thank you," with genuine gratitude in his tone.

Ticky looked at him and continued saying.

"So tell me, Captain Kaidesen. How did you end up on the mountaintop?"

As he spoke, Ticky turned his gaze toward the steamship stranded mid-mountainside not too far away, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"It's quite a long story..."

Kaidesen sighed, following Ticky's gaze to the wreck of his Traveler, narrating their ordeal without any concealment.

According to their original plan, they intended to head to Seldo Port to assist with rebuilding efforts there while looking for business opportunities, but unexpectedly encountered an unprecedented natural disaster——

"It wasn't just an ordinary storm...but the entire sea and sky flipped over, and our ship was like sand caught in the neck of an hourglass, swept from one whirlpool to another..." Describing the scene of that time, Kaidesen still felt afraid, his voice low, "I've traveled the Vast Ocean for over ten years and never seen such terrifying weather. We thought we were doomed, but at the critical moment, we saw a beam of light..."

As he spoke, his face was full of devoutness.

"Saint Sis above... it must have been Saint Sis who protected us."

Saint Sis...

Ticky chuckled internally, but his facial expression remained unchanged, listening on with knitted eyebrows as if empathizing with the hardship Kaidesen suffered.

"That's terrifying."

"Yes, truly terrifying... I assure you everything I said is true."

Kaidesen swallowed a mouthful of spit and continued.

"And afterward, even more incredible things happened to our ship. I distinctly remember, after breaking through the waves, we reached another sea, but when we climbed from the deck, we found our ship stranded here."

Seeing the Baron Ticky's astonished expression, he added.

"It's like something tossed us here..."

Ticky remained silent for a long time, then appeared to piously draw a cross on his chest and remarked.

"Perhaps Saint Sis heard your prayers."

"I believe so too..."

Kaidesen swallowed in fear.

And at that moment, he suddenly remembered something, looked at Ticky, and his tone turned probing.

"Speaking of which, this land... Where exactly are we? I've never seen it, and there are no markings on the Imperial maps."

Ticky was unsurprised by his query and responded directly.

"Maps? Of course, there's nothing on your maps. This is the new territory that the esteemed Prince Colin has personally funded to develop for the Empire... Those stingy folks of the New Continent wouldn't allocate a penny to us, so we have to rely on ourselves, and only recently have made some progress. Until now, the entire continent has only Withered Wood Port as a coastal fishing port; not even a proper deep-water port has been established yet. Our Master hopes you can chart the course over here."

Most Imperial civilian ships' maps come from the adventurer guild and merchant guild, two "transnational organizations" established with Church support, and since outgoing voyages often take months or even a year, the dissemination of information lags far behind the pace of change; thus, there is no so-called standard map.

Lumier doesn't understand these intricacies, but as a native noble of the Empire, Ticky knew these rules well.

As expected, Kaidesen showed no suspicion of this story, just some embarrassment.

"This... I am just a captain, and cannot influence the decisions of the guild. But I can relay your expectations to Jerral Casdier; he might help negotiate if I manage to return from here..."

"Let's leave this for later," Ticky took a glance at the ship behind Kaidesen, a hint of mockery in his voice, "it might be a bit difficult for you to go back."

Kaidesen said with a bitter smile.

"Yes... We humbly ask you to lend a hand. If there's a teleportation array—"

"Don't even think about it," Ticky shook his head, "there are intense subspace turbulences around here, the open channels are tiny, sending messages is feasible, even slightly larger packages must be split and transported in batches, let alone people... Otherwise, our development here wouldn't be so slow."