The Blue Road Home (9)

Once again, I take to the open sea.

Ever since leaving Fuso, I've been aboard a ship, rocking on the waves.

Even during the three days I spent in Mintar's harbor, I couldn't shake the feeling that the ground was swaying beneath me.

It goes without saying, but sea travel is surprisingly inconvenient in many ways.

For starters, the amount of water we can load is limited because it has to be balanced against the other cargo.

It feels a little absurd when we're surrounded by a vast expanse of water, but for ordinary humans, seawater and fresh water must be entirely different things.

I can easily get fresh water by asking the water spirits, but with all the eyes around me, I can't exactly take a bath whenever I please.

At most, I can secure enough water to wipe myself down.

Of course, the ship has no forge, so forging iron is impossible as well.

For me, smithing is a means of making a living, a hobby, and perhaps by now, an inseparable part of how I live.

The last time I did any smithing was during my travels through Fuso, and... in short, enough time has passed that my urge is starting to build.

It's not yet unbearable, but the more I think about how there's no way to smith aboard ship, the more I want to do it. I suppose that's one of my contrary traits.

Of course, what's impossible is impossible.

But just because I can't smith doesn't mean I have no way to pass the time.

As far as training myself goes, a constantly swaying environment is something hard to find on land.

Even when I'm merely standing, I find myself thinking about where to place my center of gravity and how to swing my sword.

It's surprisingly interesting.

Besides, gazing at the sky and feeling the wind while listening to the sound of the waves has been interesting too, because the spirits tell me all sorts of things.

The water spirits dwelling in the sea tell me about schools of little fish gathering and swimming, or the movements of the larger fish that prey on them.

The spirits dwelling in the wind tell me about people living on distant islands, seabirds wheeling through the sky, and their cries.

Of course, these are sights and sounds as perceived and felt from the spirits' perspectives, so they're vague and abstract.

But perhaps because of that—or rather, precisely because of it—their stories are somehow endearing and fun to hear.

I'm enjoying this voyage, inconveniences and all.

Still, as I'd thought before, I'm starting to want to hunt.

I want to gorge myself on fresh meat from a kill.

...It's probably not a very high-elf-like desire, but for me, that's nothing new.

I'm beginning to get a little tired of the salted meat packed into barrels, as well as fish.

When I think of the problems with food aboard ship, the lack of fresh vegetables and fruit comes to mind, along with the scurvy that results from it.

Indeed, scurvy exists in this world too. It's feared as the sailors' disease, and its cause is unknown.

However, although the sailors' disease is considered to have no known cause, people have long known that eating fresh vegetables and fruit keeps it at bay. So while that may be difficult aboard ship, they can eat plenty at port.

Meat, on the other hand, is purely a matter of taste. More than anything, since fish is what people commonly eat in port towns—in other words, along the coast—the meals served even at ports we stopped at during the voyage inevitably centered on fish.

Well, I only have to endure it a little longer.

Once I'm back on land, I think I'll find an opportunity to go into a forest.

The game I hunt should be monsters like wild boars—full of flavor despite their strong, distinctive taste—not birds or crocodiles with bland meat.

It should be fun to really put my archery skills to use for a change.

At Mintar's harbor, Suin had arranged for me to board one of the ships belonging to a large fleet.

Apparently, this fleet had been organized by the nation of Mintar, which meant it was part of the military.

It feels a little strange for a ship to be both a merchant vessel and a warship, but when I think about it, the idea of a warship that was also a pirate ship never sat right with me either. It's a little late to worry about it now.

Among the large fleet were warships that presumably had escort as their primary purpose.

With a fleet this large, neither ordinary monsters nor military vessels from other countries would dare approach, so there was no way any trouble could arise.

A powerful storm would make it difficult for even a large fleet to continue its voyage, but there was no chance the ship I was on would get caught in a storm.

Under warm sunlight—or hot, really—the fleet sailed across the sea as though it owned the place.

The voyage was steadier than any I'd experienced before, but for some reason, that made it feel a little lacking.

Perhaps it was because all the tension and excitement of traveling through the dangerous sea had vanished.

The fleet then spent more than a month traveling west, stopping at ports along the way to replenish its water and food. After passing the Man-Eating Great Marsh and the Southern Sea, it reached the central part of the continent.

The port we entered was in Dolbogarde, one of the countries southeast of the small states.

Located along the coast and blessed with a well-maintained port, the country prospered through trade with the eastern part of the continent, though not to the same extent as the Republic of Vilestrica.

...Well, the Republic of Vilestrica even trades with other continents, so apparently that country is in a league of its own when it comes to maritime trade.

Of course, the fleet that had brought me this far was ultimately bound for the Republic of Vilestrica as well, but I decided to disembark at Dolbogarde.

The reason was that the situation in the central part of the continent had apparently changed greatly during the dozen or so years I'd spent traveling through its eastern regions, and I wanted to travel around and see those transformed countries with my own eyes.

It would be a little while before I paid my respects at Kaeha's grave, but by now, my feet had already touched the soil of the central continent.

If that meant arriving a little later—perhaps even several years later—then that would still be within the margin of error.

Kaeha had waited for me all that time, so they wouldn't hold a delay like this against me.