[h2]Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus[/h2]

Ah, the ship that they would have to board wasn't the small dinghy that the man had lead them to, instead one further off shore. She had been about to say--a rowing boat was both completely unsuitable for someone of her stature and hardly efficient. Yet this new vessel provided greater challenges... though she and the others here could unquestionably captain a ship and perform the necessary duties, there were but three of them. It would undoubtedly be easier with more people to fill the rowing benches...

Ozymandias' sweeping the drunks off the deck was hardly conducive to such a thing, and the Rider got a rather unexpected poke to the chest from an irate blonde: "Praefectus, three people is too few to man a galley. These men might be pirates but they will be more than able to manage the sails and row."

[hr]

[h2]Meran[/h2]

Maybe it wouldn't have been apparent to the others--certainly, she didn't think this batch of Servants could be called experts on naval history and nor were the Masters--but to an alchemist such as herself, it was second nature to consider the construction of items and their manufacture. This ship was... odd. The old man said that it had been ages since it sailed or had received any attention, yet it sat in pristine condition. Not that wooden ships were delicate creatures, yet it was odd...

Nor was it the ship's strangest thing. Naval designs hardly underwent rapid development in such an era but... it would be possible to have an early multiple-deck ship during the Trojan War but it was very unexpected. And the construction was far more solid than Meran expected of a ship left for years or even decades.

The expressionless girl's eyes tracked to the old man. Just who was he, and what was this ship?