The Sea, Fishermen, and Sailors (5)

Once the octopus's innards have been removed, rub it repeatedly with salt to remove the slime, then wash it thoroughly with water before boiling it.

Then cut it into bite-sized pieces, and it's ready.

Soy sauce would make it perfect, but it's delicious enough without it.

"Mmm, delicious. The texture is great. And that subtle saltiness and flavor... Yeah. It makes me want a drink."

Ignoring Doryze, whose face had gone pale at the thought that I was really going to eat it, I kept stuffing octopus into my mouth.

If I wanted to introduce people to the deliciousness of octopus, I should probably prepare it in a way that hid its appearance, but this was perfectly fine for me.

Even if I did make takoyaki, it would honestly be a pain to hole up in the forge now, work on it, and prepare a dimpled iron griddle.

Ah, come to think of it, a copper plate was better because of its heat conductivity, wasn't it?

"Yeah, I had a little taste. It really is good. I bet you could make all sorts of things with the eight-legged ones if you studied them."

The person who said that and set a bottle of dry cider on the table was Grand, the proprietor who had cooked the octopus.

Apparently, being a cook, he had tasted it before serving it to me.

"Ugh, seriously? ... Hey, elf. Can I have a little?"

Perhaps Grand's words had piqued Doryze's interest. Apparently, the two were childhood friends, and Doryze hesitantly reached for the octopus.

Since it was originally something Doryze had caught and brought back, I had no objection to him eating a little.

I'd be seriously angry if he ate it all, though.

"There's squid, too... The ten-legged ones, right? They're delicious as well. Remove the innards and suckers, wash them in salt water, dry them in the sun, then grill them before eating them."

As Doryze stared wide-eyed at the unfamiliar texture and the flavor spreading through his mouth, I explained it to Grand.

Sadly, Doryze had only brought back octopus, saying something stupid like the eight-legged and ten-legged ones were basically the same.

I was grateful that he had brought back octopus at all, but, well, he really was a careless fellow.

At my words, curiosity gleamed in Grand's eyes.

"Hey, Doryze. Why didn't you bring back any ten-legged ones? Go get some. Right now. I mean it."

Though he was making an unreasonable demand, I was fine with waiting until another day for squid if it meant I could eat it then.

The octopus was so delicious that I was already satisfied for today.

Besides, I intended to stay here for a while, at least until I grew tired of eating seafood.

To that end, I wanted Doryze to devote himself to fishing without being bothered by trivial matters.

After asking around at the inn and the market, it didn't take long to learn about the problem unfolding in Saurote.

Apparently, a serious conflict had arisen in Saurote between merchants who conducted trade using large ships and fishermen who practiced nearshore fishing in small boats, with the right to use the harbor at stake.

Saurote had long been a town whose people made their living from fishing.

The prominent family that had long led Saurote's fishermen was the Pasteri family.

The Pasteri family held a seat in the parliament of the Republic of Virestrica and was highly respected locally.

However, the Pasteri family's control over Saurote was greatly shaken when another prominent family, the Toritorine family, established a base in the town.

Like the Pasteri family, the Toritorine family also held a seat in parliament, but its livelihood lay not in fishing but in commerce.

The Toritorine family, which brought together numerous merchants, including the Laret Trading Company, had set its sights on Saurote as a new trading hub.

Even so, at first, the Pasteri and Toritorine families apparently worked hand in hand to develop the town of Saurote.

As more people visited the town for trade, the fish they caught could be sold as food.

When the fish sold, the fishermen prospered.

But when did things begin to change?

Little by little, cracks began to form in the relationship between the two sides that had once joined hands.

For example, trading ships had deep drafts, so they wanted construction work done to deepen the harbor.

They wanted to be allowed to use more of the harbor so that more merchant ships could be welcomed.

Small fishing boats could go out to sea from the beach instead of using the harbor.

If the harbor were expanded, more merchant ships would surely come to the area.

Then they should turn the beach into a harbor.

...That sort of thing.

I didn't know whether these were common problems in seaside towns, but in Saurote at least, they had become sparks that ignited a conflict.

If only one prominent family had held a seat in parliament, one side would have driven out the other, and the problem would probably have been settled quickly.

But there were now two prominent families in Saurote, and their positions were diametrically opposed.

As a result, the conflict had grown serious, sometimes even erupting into violence.

Doryze was quick-tempered but physically strong, and his caring nature had also made him something like a leader among the younger fishermen.

That was probably why the Laret Trading Company planned to have him lynched in retaliation, making an example of him to cow the fishermen.

It was an extremely troublesome problem.

What made it troublesome was that, while lynching someone was the worst possible approach, there was no clear villain at the heart of the problem.

Both the merchants and the fishermen were only trying to protect and improve their own livelihoods, and that in itself was not evil.

Moreover, though merchants and fishermen were opposed to each other, neither side could afford for the other to disappear completely.

For example, if all the merchants withdrew, Saurote would return to being a town that lived solely on fishing.

Yet the fishermen had tasted the town's prosperity, and it would take them a long time to forget it and return to their old way of life.

Conversely, if the fishermen were driven out, there would not be enough food to feed the crews of merchant ships visiting the town and the merchants who came with them.

Of course, food could be brought in from other towns, but that would certainly reduce the advantages of using this town as a trading hub.

Besides, Saurote's security was also maintained because the Pasteri family used its tough fishermen to help keep order, even as all sorts of people arrived by ship.

In other words, the two sides depended on each other despite their conflict.

That was why the problem never showed any sign of being resolved.