The Blue Road Home (1)

I retraced a road I had once traveled.

But this time, I did so quietly, making sure no one saw me.

The sight of the Fusang Tree—the symbol of this country—moving to lift me up must have been clearly visible even from some distance, given its immense size.

Chinju, the fortress city serving as the frontline base, was visibly in an uproar, and... if so, that commotion was sure to reach the Central Capital as well.

If it became known that the Fusang Tree had moved for my sake, the commotion might grow even greater.

Since I had decided not to involve myself in Fusang any further, I couldn't afford to be found.

Old Gon and Mizuyo might realize at once that I was the one who had caused the commotion, though.

Still, those two would surely understand and laugh it off.

It took me about a month to return to the port of Kaiyo, where I boarded a ship bound for the continent.

But Fusang traded on the continent only with the Huanggu Empire, so this ship would take me no farther than Qinghai Province.

From there, I would have to change to another ship and head toward the center of the continent.

The center of the continent was far away, so I would probably have to change ships several times along the way.

Apparently, ships did sail directly from Qinghai Province to the center of the continent, but getting aboard one would be difficult.

That was because such ships were large vessels belonging to government-organized fleets.

An unknown traveler couldn't simply board one just because the traveler offered money; besides, such ships didn't depart very often.

If I asked, the immortals of the Huanggu Empire might even gather ships and form a fleet just for my sake, but... I would feel bad asking them to go that far.

I did feel a little homesick, but this wasn't a journey I needed to hurry, so returning home at a leisurely pace—even if it meant changing ships along the way—would be good enough for me.

I might as well enjoy the voyage.

Taking another look around the ship I had boarded, I found its atmosphere somewhat different from that of the ship I had taken to Fusang.

Yes, when I came to Fusang, there had been several men who looked like mercenaries aboard in addition to the crew. On the other hand, on the ship heading to Qinghai Province, I was the only passenger.

I suppose Fusang really was that kind of place.

The crew, and even the captain, kept coming to ask me all sorts of questions, apparently because it was especially unusual for an outsider—an elf, or rather, a forest person—to be returning from Fusang.

"I've traveled all over. I came to Fusang to see the Fusang Tree. It was incredible. It was incomparably larger than any great tree I've ever seen."

When I said that, they were generally satisfied, and the crew members who seemed to be natives of Fusang all smiled happily, then proudly.

Fusang could hardly be called a safe country, but its people must have felt a deep attachment to and pride in their homeland, as well as in its symbol, the Fusang Tree.

Ah, after traveling through that country and having several wonderful encounters there, I could sympathize with that feeling to some extent.

Fusang, receding farther away with every passing moment, was one of the countries I liked.

And perhaps it was because I had interacted with the crew and captain in that way.

The crew agreed to use their connections to find me a ship heading west from Qinghai Province.

Ships varied greatly in quality, even if they were all simply called ships.

Like carriages, they were a means of transporting people, but unlike a carriage, you couldn't simply get off halfway if something happened.

...Well, I could get off a ship in the middle of the sea and make my way back to land on foot, but an ordinary person would have no recourse.

Thus, captains and crews wielded considerable authority at sea.

Sometimes, captains and crew abused their position to force passengers to endure unreasonable treatment.

However, sailors in the same trade could apparently identify such unscrupulous ships, either through their own knowledge or through the rumors circulating among them.

Moreover, ships would apparently treat passengers referred by fellow sailors decently, presumably because they cared about their reputation among their peers.

It was truly something to be grateful for.

Even though this wasn't a journey I needed to hurry, I had no desire to deliberately seek out unpleasant trouble.

I took advantage of the goodwill of the captains who had helped me since I left Fusang, spent two nights in Qinghai Province, and then boarded the ship they had introduced me to.

During those two days, I also sent a letter to the immortals of the Huanggu Empire summarizing what I had seen and heard in Fusang.

The new ship would apparently head west, skirting around Red Mountain Province, south of the Huanggu Empire, then pass through several islands in the Southern Sea before making for Mintar, one of the largest countries along the coast south of the Great Grasslands.

After unloading its cargo there, it would return to Qinghai Province carrying the goods it had purchased, so I would need to find another ship afterward.

By then, the best I could hope for was to deepen my acquaintance with this ship's captain and crew and have them introduce me to another promising vessel heading west.

The wind blowing over the sea was pleasant, and I spread my arms wide to bask in it.

But the safe journeys between the Huanggu Empire and Fusang, along with the good fortune of being introduced to this ship, had made me carelessly forget something.

In fact, trouble at sea wasn't caused solely by the quality of the ship or its crew.

In this world, the seas were home to many monsters as well.

Sea monsters were no different from land monsters: they were powerful, intelligent, and aggressive.

However, compared with ships traveling along rivers, seagoing ships were overwhelmingly large.

In the natural world, monsters included, size almost always meant strength.

Thus, not many monsters were willing to challenge something as large as a seagoing ship.

Of course, such monsters weren't entirely absent, but monsters powerful and huge enough to attack ships rarely left the environments they preferred or the territories they had claimed. Through countless sacrifices, sailors had learned the territories of the giant monsters and discovered safe sea routes.

So even this endless expanse of sea, which seemed to stretch forever from my perspective, must have boundaries of some sort—and routes to follow.

But if the sea routes were limited in order to avoid powerful monsters, then beings that were not monsters yet still attacked people—in other words, pirates and the like—would lie in wait along those limited routes.