The Sea, Fishermen, and Sailors (4)

The next day, I headed for the harbor Doryze had told me about, and learned the answer to the question I'd been pondering the night before.

When I arrived at the harbor, Doryze and his fellow fishermen were surrounded by a large group of men who looked like sailors.

Among them was a man with a blue-black bruise on his face and a build that looked faintly familiar.

Rather than an even standoff, it seemed I'd arrived just as a large group of sailors were about to gang up on the fishermen and beat them senseless.

Ah, no—not in a bad way. It would be more accurate to say I'd arrived just in time.

"Elf brother! Don't come over here! This has nothing to do with you, so run!!!"

It was Doryze, who had noticed my approach before anyone else.

Hearing him, I had no idea what was going on, but I decided to take the side of someone I'd only met yesterday.

The sailors and fishermen both turned their attention toward me for a moment at the sound of his voice.

"Hey, Doryze. I've come to get my fish. Things look pretty serious, but are you all right? There are actually a few things I'd like you to catch for me."

Even as all those eyes watched me, I kept walking toward Doryze.

In fact, the circumstances didn't matter to me.

Ever since entering this town of Saurote, I'd done nothing but run into incidents involving violence.

So I would follow this town's customs and not hold back from using a little violence myself.

I wouldn't punch anyone barehanded and injure my hand, though. I'd learned my lesson yesterday.

I already knew that Doryze was short-tempered and quick to resort to violence, but he didn't seem to be a bad person at heart.

And if he was going to catch seafood for me, then of course I would help him.

"Hey, wait, elf. This has nothing to do with you, so—whoa?!"

The sailor who tried to stand in my way was blown away by a mass of water that suddenly came flying out of the sea.

Since it was only water that struck him, the impact might have knocked him unconscious, but he probably hadn't suffered any serious injuries.

"Huh? What? You're in the way. I have something important to take care of with Doryze right now, so if you get in my way, it'll hurt a little."

It was, at least, a warning given out of kindness.

The sea was right beside us, even though we were still within the harbor.

The spirit dwelling in the sea's vast waters was majestic and immensely powerful.

I intended to take that into account and hold back sufficiently, but even so, the water would probably be somewhat more powerful than usual.

"They were the ones who started it! We're here to get revenge because they hurt one of our own! Don't stick your nose in this, outsider!!!"

And yet the sailors ignored my warning and surrounded us, their hostility laid bare.

Ah, I see.

So yesterday's commotion had been a deliberate attempt to provoke Doryze and create an excuse for retaliation.

In that case, I certainly wasn't uninvolved.

"Ah, you mean yesterday. That guy over there knocked over the food I was eating. Uninvolved? You picked a fight with me by dragging me into it!"

Thinking about the fish that had been ruined made me angry all over again.

Apparently, the spirit had sensed the fighting intent in my anger.

The waves of the sea grew higher, and the moored ships began to rock violently.

...I haven't even asked for anything yet. Isn't the water spirit dwelling in the sea being a little too eager for a fight?

"Don't screw ar—guh?!"

The sailors who charged at me while shouting abuse were blown away one after another by several masses of water.

Some fell and rolled across the ground, while others were unlucky enough to fall into the sea.

Realizing they couldn't win, the sailors' morale collapsed in an instant. Without even stopping to help their fallen comrades, they ran away as fast as they could.

The only ones left standing were Doryze and the fishermen, all staring in stunned amazement.

"For now, even if we're going to turn them over to the guards, shouldn't we rescue the people who fell into the sea? Or... should we use them as fish food?"

When I asked this half jokingly, they came to their senses and hurried to rescue the sailors who had fallen into the sea.

"E-Elf brother, you were insanely strong. ...But if you were that strong, why did you let me hit you yesterday? If you'd used that power just now, I would've gone down in one punch."

Doryze seemed to have his reasons for releasing the sailors they'd rescued instead of turning them over to the guards, and he asked me this question with a puzzled look.

Several of the fishermen around us had also been at the tavern at that hour yesterday, and perhaps they had wondered the same thing, because they nodded.

"...Huh? It was a one-on-one fight at a tavern, and no weapons had been drawn, so I wasn't going to ask the spirits for help. If you were in a drunken brawl, and your opponent was alone and came at you barehanded, would you beat him down with your friends? That'd be taking things a little too far."

To me, the spirits were close friends and comrades.

But even so, bringing the spirits' power into a fight between a couple of drunks was obviously out of the question.

That had been a fair fight.

Well, yesterday had been the first time in my life I'd ever gotten drunk and gotten into a fistfight.

If Doryze had called for help from the fishermen around us and had them surround me, that would have been an entirely different matter, and I would have borrowed the spirits' power without hesitation.

Perhaps my words had convinced him, because a bright smile spread across Doryze's face.

Yes, he had probably been wondering whether I'd held back during our fight yesterday.

I hadn't held back at all. It hurt!

"I see. You really are an interesting elf brother! Ah, I've got another debt to repay now. I'm heading out fishing right away, but is there any particular fish you want to eat? It depends on the mood of the sea god, but I can take requests."

Those words, which seemed intended to change the subject, apparently served to keep me from getting involved in whatever trouble existed between the sailors and the fishermen.

But if Doryze intended to keep it hidden, then sticking my nose in and prying every detail out of him would be going too far.

So I played along with his evasion, describing what octopuses and squid looked like and telling him that I wanted to eat them.

"The eight-legged and ten-legged ones, huh? You eat those, elf brother? They spit pitch-black liquid out of their mouths, you know. Wouldn't eating one of those kill you?"

As expected, Doryze frowned in surprise.

Just as I'd expected, octopuses and squid seemed to be considered bizarre food by the people of this world.

Even so, calling them eight-legged and ten-legged was about as crude a naming scheme as one could imagine.

"I'm an elf, after all. I know how to eat seafood that humans don't. They probably don't sell it at the market, so if you don't catch some for me, I'll just have to give up, though..."

When I said that with a slightly disappointed air, Doryze frantically shook his head, boarded his boat with his fellow fishermen, and headed out of the harbor.

I didn't know what fishing was like in this world, but since he wasn't refusing, he must have been confident he could catch them.

I was looking forward to it.

Doryze really was a good-natured fellow.

So unless he told me about it himself, I wouldn't force him to talk about it, but... I would quietly investigate the trouble between the sailors and fishermen myself.

That was partly out of curiosity, but the other half was concern for the safety of the new acquaintance I'd only just made in this town.

The sea breeze was refreshing, but the air in the harbor was somehow laden with an ominous tension.