Chapter 256 32. Phoenix Feather Armor
Fisher leaned against the window and gently reached out to close the window behind him, completely shutting out the noise of Pat Sulshen Island. He was about to turn around to glance at Aoxi behind him, considering how to study her well, but when he turned, he met her gaze, which was also examining him.
“Stare”
After seeing Fisher look over, she immediately turned her head back without any expression, but her body honestly shifted her buttocks holding the steel knife further away toward the other side of the bed, as if trying to ease the awkwardness of making eye contact with Fisher.
There were two beds in the room, and she was sitting on the inner one while Fisher sat on the one by the window.
Although Aoxi no longer looked at him, the steel knife in her arms was unruly, still poking its head out and examining him in a rather annoying way, as if greeting him, albeit in a rather unfriendly manner.
“Dummy. Dummy”
Hearing the parrot’s voice, Emhart, whose eye was the only thing showing from his pocket, couldn’t help but snicker as if it was him being scolded by the steel knife instead of Fisher. But before he could enjoy the moment for more than a second, Fisher quickly shoved it back into the pocket.
“Don’t do that, Steel Knife.”
Aoxi awkwardly held the colorful parrot closer under her cloak, forcefully turning its head away from Fisher, yet even then, she still sat on the bed without looking at him. Her voice was pitifully small, like the sound of a mosquito buzzing in the distance.
Fisher observed her back and began to imagine how to have a conversation with her to cooperate with his research. However, before he could speak, a very obvious “gurgle” sound came from her stomach.
“Gurgle~”
Her body shook slightly, and her figure on the bed moved further away from Fisher, but noticing that he had no reaction, she thought he hadn’t heard it. So, she quietly turned back to take a glance, only to find him looking at her, clearly having heard the sound from her stomach, causing her to hurriedly turn back and shrink down.
“Are you hungry?”
“.”
Her turned profile made it impossible for Fisher to see her exact expression, only knowing that she didn’t speak.
After hearing Fisher’s words, she pursed her lips and turned back to gently nod at him.
“Mm.”
Since the Iceberg Queen was approaching Pat Sulshen Island that morning, all the crew had gotten up early, busy from around five or six for breakfast, which should be about that time. Now, it was already past noon, so it was normal for her to be hungry.
Also, luckily Aoxi was relatively normal; if it were Jasmine, she probably would have already started craving her third meal by now.
Fisher stood up with a somewhat amused expression, surveying the room’s environment, and then said,
“The hotel has meal delivery service. I can’t show up right now, so you can go ask the staff downstairs for one… no, two lunches. I don’t know when Captain Alagina will be back, but it shouldn’t be soon. We can just take care of ourselves.”
Upon hearing Fisher’s words, Aoxi’s eyes under the cloak brightened a bit, and she nodded, but she still didn’t move her body, maintaining the previous pose while looking at Fisher.
This puzzled Fisher, unsure of what she was up to.
“What’s wrong?”
“I…”
Aoxi’s long legs propped on the edge of the bed fidgeted awkwardly. Her face, which had been mostly hidden under the cloak, shrank a bit more, and she awkwardly said,
“I have no money.”
“No money?”
Now it was truly Fisher’s turn to be surprised. During his time on the Iceberg Queen, he had roughly figured out the ship’s distribution model; although Alagina was the captain, she didn’t take most of the rewards like other pirate captains. She only took slightly more than ordinary crew members, and by extension, the first mate and second mate should be similar.
This distribution model suited Alagina and her loyal followers well, but despite that, it was hard to believe that Aoxi, as the second mate, wouldn’t have any money at all.
Hearing Fisher’s question, Aoxi became even more awkward. She lowered her head a bit and quietly unfastened her cloak, revealing the sailor outfit beneath.
Only at this moment, when she lifted the inner side of her cloak toward Fisher, did he suddenly realize that there were quite a few sharp daggers strapped under her cloak, like a layer of soft armor sticking to the inside of the cloak. For some unknown reason, this arrangement didn’t harm her body, and during their interaction just now, Fisher hadn’t felt the existence of anything concealed beneath her cloak at all.
Upon closer inspection, the shape of those daggers appeared somewhat peculiar, seemingly made of some mysterious material, emitting a faint bluish hue, as cold as frost and as light as a feather.
These characteristics undoubtedly indicated to Fisher that these daggers were not ordinary items.
“Is this a relic?”
Feeling Fisher’s gaze penetrating her cloak, Aoxi awkwardly lowered the cloak she had partially raised, then nodded slightly and explained,
“Mm, relic feather armor. I’m collecting them, so I’ve spent a lot of money.”
Just then, Emhart in Fisher’s pocket seemed to have caught the scent of the relics and quickly squirmed out, one eye gleaming as he looked at the blades clinging to Aoxi’s cloak.
“Fisher, Fisher! Those are not just ordinary holy items, but part of the [Phoenix Feather Armor], one of the holy artifacts created for the Phoenix by the Holy Spawn.”
Upon hearing Emhart’s sudden words, Fisher glanced at him and asked,
“…Wait, how many relics did the angel race actually make for the Phoenix? Didn’t you say only the Phoenix King and her three children have them?”
Aoxi wasn’t clear about the history of the Northern region, but she was still attracted by Emhart’s words, looking with the steel knife at Sir Book, who appeared quite excited standing on Fisher’s shoulder.
“What I mean is, there are only four holy artifacts of the Phoenix! It’s not that the Holy Spawn only made four for the Phoenix! Don’t you remember? The Phoenix King divided the Northern territory among her three children, and there were another six subhuman races loyal to her beneath her children. Every race that participated in the war received a reward, and that’s proof of their loyalty.”
“The holy item granted to the Cangniao tribe is this [Phoenix Feather Armor]. A skilled Holy Spawn replicated the forging process using high-purity magical ore hundreds of times accurately, ultimately forming a hundred blades into one entity. But precisely because of the special composition of this relic, it has scattered this way now. The number you have on you is roughly only half of a complete Phoenix Feather Armor, mm, although it can’t completely cover your feathers, it should still be usable.”
Fisher glanced at the daggers under Aoxi’s cloak and suddenly understood why this girl was so poor. The reason was that the angel who forged the relic used over a hundred perfect daggers to create a single feather armor, but with the passage of time, these daggers became scattered, and for those who didn’t know anything about it, each dagger turned into a separate relic.
In other words, this unfortunate Aoxi paid for dozens of relics to collect these daggers, and in the end, she still only had half the number of a complete feather armor.
“Why do you want to collect these relics?”
Unable to come up with anything to comfort her, and since the relic given to the Cangniao tribe by the Phoenix was so peculiar, Fisher could only change the topic and inquired.
However, Aoxi shook her head at this and calmly replied,
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t know?”
“Mm, my mother is a guard of the [Hammond Family], while my father lives in a tribe in the snowy mountains. Dad is collecting these relics, which is how he met my mom in the Southern Sardinia kingdom of the Northern region. After I was born, my dad set off again to search for these relics and left the relics he had collected so far beside me before he left.”
“So, maybe if I continue to search for these relics, I will meet my dad. But I don’t know if that’s possible. And these relics are also very useful, fitting my fighting style.”
Fisher crossed his arms and watched as Aoxi gradually wrapped her cloak around herself a bit tighter. As expected, there was not a sound of metal clashing inside when she moved her cloak, making it hard to notice the rows of dangerous dagger relics hidden inside.
Last time, when facing the sirens, she brought her back to the ship like this. At that time, he was too busy admiring what her Cangniao body looked like to notice the anomalies beneath her cloak.
“Alagina never mentioned this to me.”
“She doesn’t know; I haven’t told her about these matters.”
“But you’re telling me this?”
“Mm, I saw you help that blonde Nali girl, helping her integrate into this ship, reconciling her with the crew she had conflicts with. I noticed that after you came on board, Alagina and Paz were both in good spirits, cheerful. I’m the only one who wants that too; I want you to help me.”
Aoxi crossed her legs, and for some reason, she could feel her heart rate quickening.
It wasn’t a shy embarrassment from being moved, but a nervousness in revealing secrets. She felt like she said too much in front of Fisher.
However, he seemed very interested in her story.
“I grew up under the training of the Hammond Family, loyal to Alagina, wanting to protect her safety; it’s that simple. But this relationship seems to have become a bit strange since we left the Southern Sardinia kingdom. She’s as close as sisters with her original subordinates, yet I can’t achieve that.”
“I’m the only subhuman on the ship. Even though they don’t look down on me because of the Frost Phoenix, in the end… I’m still different from them. I just feel a bit lonely and want to change, but everyone else has already grown accustomed to the way I am.”
“Sometimes, I sneakily practice talking with the steel knife, letting it replace me in communication with the other crew members, but most of the time… I can only watch them, so…”
Fisher gazed at Aoxi, who was sitting on the bed. He then took out Eil’s Nali gold pouch from his pocket and placed several gold coins on the table beside him. Then, under Aoxi’s somewhat puzzled gaze, Fisher looked at her and said,
“I understand now, so let’s make a secret deal.”
“A secret deal?”
Aoxi and the steel knife simultaneously tilted their heads at Fisher, although one tilted left and the other tilted right.
“Mm, let me help you communicate normally with the Iceberg Queen’s crew, help you integrate with them. In return, I need you to satisfy my curiosity about the Cangniao tribe.”
Emhart’s eyes turned into dead fish eyes, and he quickly glanced at Aoxi, gesturing for her to notice him. But at this moment, Aoxi had already been drawn in by Fisher’s words and completely ignored him; only the parrot in her arms looked at it, not understanding what he meant at all.
“As I mentioned before, I’m a scholar studying subhumans, and I’ve always been very interested in the subhumans of the Northern region. I want to gain some information about the Cangniao tribe from you.”
“Is that all?”
Aoxi appeared somewhat incredulous; she felt Fisher’s request seemed no different from helping her for free, or perhaps he felt sorry for her and wanted to help her in the form of a transaction?
Seeing her careful and tentative demeanor, Fisher stacked the gold coins he had just placed out and nodded, saying,
“That’s all; just cooperate with me to study your external features.”
Aoxi wanted to nod but nervously glanced at the window and door, and after waiting several seconds, she nervously said,
“Okay, fine, but… this absolutely cannot let Alagina know. She really likes you, and I just want a little bit of help; I don’t want her to misunderstand.”
Originally, Fisher intended for Aoxi to keep this matter a secret. Even though with her socially anxious personality, she wouldn’t initiate to tell anyone, her proactive request now gave him a twinge of guilt over his plot.
Just as he had observed earlier, the naive Aoxi was simply a breath of fresh air among the bunch of butch girls of the Sardinia kingdom.
“It’s a deal. Now the first step is to take this money and go downstairs to buy some food. When you come back, we can study and discuss how to assist you together.”
Aoxi looked at the gold coins in Fisher’s hand, extended her wing-like hands to receive the coins, and after placing them back in her pocket, Fisher was unclear how she was so agile with her wings, as if using them like hands. Could it be a racial trait of the Cangniao tribe?
By extension, if the Cangniao’s appearance is like this, then is the legendary Phoenix race the same?
After receiving the coins, Aoxi slowly stood up, nodded, and walked toward the door. Just as she was about to reach the door, she suddenly remembered something and turned back to look at Fisher, who was sitting on the bed, asking,
“Um… what is the research about? Will it hurt?”
“It won’t. Just consider it chatting while lying down with me, and it’ll be over soon.”
Aoxi’s small face hidden under her cloak flushed, her conviction that Fisher was only looking for an excuse to help her became even more resolute.
Indeed, Fisher is a good person.
She somewhat bashfully shrank her face and didn’t respond to Fisher’s words, just turned and opened the door, leaving the room.
Sorry, I’ve been working overtime these past few days, so I can only guarantee 4000 words daily. I will return to 6000 words and increase updates next week. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
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(End of this chapter)
