Ch.208The Navigator’s City. Vecarium (2)

Trudge… trudge…

Trembling…

I was very slowly lifting my spoon to taste the breakfast buffet.

I barely had the energy to move, so all I could do was nibble at the plate my wife had brought me, but the implant wasn’t completely ineffective—I could feel my recovery speed had noticeably improved.

If my skeleton and muscles hadn’t been enhanced, I wouldn’t have been able to even lift a spoon.

“You crazy woman. How much are you going to wring out of your husband?”

“As much as I love him.”

“If your love grows any more, you’ll have one less knight on your hands.”

“It’s Master’s fault for being so delicious(?)!”

Wife, wife, what are you saying?

It’s my fault for being delicious? I feel like you’d squeeze me even harder if I weren’t tasty but just filling.

Such logic could even defend rapists—a very dangerous reasoning that I should have stopped, but at my limit just chewing on a tiny piece of grilled oyster, I couldn’t manage to do so.

“Really… if I get married, will I also live by squeezing my husband like you do?”

“That depends on who your husband is.”

“Then I should choose a less delicious husband.”

Quivering…

These devilish XX chromosome creatures… I trembled in fear, painfully realizing why we men must rule over women.

If we men don’t stand above women, surely all men will end up being devoured by women!

“Tsk tsk tsk… wasting your youth like this…”

At that moment, Simon, who had brought a plate full of salad, clicked his tongue at me and cast a healing spell.

“Whoooa… I feel vitality returning to my body…!”

“Use it sparingly. We need to move around today.”

Simon replied indifferently while munching on his dressing-covered salad.

Is the secret to his lush beard consistent vegetable consumption? I know vegetables are good for the body, but what can I do when meat suits my taste better…

Thanks to his healing spell, I didn’t have to spend the bizarre time of one hour to empty a plate, and I started to finish the breakfast buffet by forcing down the food my wife brought me to recover my strength as much as possible.

“Hahaha! All the alcohol here is ours!”

Meanwhile, the elves and dwarves declared monopoly over the barrels and began drinking various colored clear wines, cloudy wines, fruit wines, and grain wines.

“Sir!!! We can bring you as much alcohol as you want, so please leave the barrels where they are!!!”

And as always, the embarrassment fell on me, the party leader, and Simon, my staff officer.

Elves are supposed to be dignified forest masters! Dwarves are stubborn craftsmen! That’s common sense! Since when did elves and dwarves become friendly demons obsessed with alcohol?

I was about to curse but held back because there were many eyes watching, and then I was surprised that I had restrained my true feelings because of “many eyes watching.”

It was quite surprising that I had become someone who cared about others’ gazes.

“Elven special! Drinking straight from the barrel!!!!”

“Sir!!! Please!!!”

And the cause and culprit was right in front of me, lowering the reputation of all elves.

*

After the alcohol-filled breakfast buffet ended, we mounted our horses, left the hotel, and headed toward the central square.

Now that my strength had fully returned, I threatened Lucia, who had shown such an unsightly display at the buffet.

“Do that one more time and you’re expelled from the party.”

“Give me exclusive supply of premium wine and I won’t cause trouble.”

I raised my fist.

How can she choose only the most annoying things to say? She must have taken expert lessons from Karil on how to cause disruption.

“Fine, I get it!”

And once again, all problems in the world could be solved with violence, with no exceptions.

This time too, Lucia surrendered under my fist and backed down.

“How can she be so consistent even after getting her head smashed?”

“Because her brain wasn’t damaged.”

Casia responded to my dumbfounded comment.

But thinking about it, that was really the case. Only her face was smashed, but the contents(?) remained intact, so there was no change in her personality.

Well, getting your face smashed is a common occurrence, and since it was smashed by none other than me, she probably thinks it’s not a problem as long as she calculates the angle well.

The dwarf brothers were following on horseback, looking blank and muttering something, and Simon went back to them briefly to lightly tell them about the cute little incident between Lucia and me.

“What kind of mischief did she do to get her face smashed?”

“Should have destroyed her brain too, what a shame.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, the dwarves didn’t take my punishment of Lucia too badly.

In fact, as the saying goes that all dwarves are craftsmen, they were born with a very strict sense of hierarchy, so it was natural.

No master in the world would sit back and watch their disciples climb over them.

Moreover, I was the party leader and their life savior (though ambiguously), so the fact that she rebelled against me, who held authority and power, was enough to deal a critical blow to Lucia’s image.

“What do you know!!!”

“That your head got smashed?”

“Ugh!!!”

Lucia fumed and puffed but eventually sank, and she followed me weakly, being comforted by her sister.

Poor elf… if only she could do something about her alcohol dependency, she’s quite good-looking and men would line up for her…

*

And finally, we arrived at the central square.

In the central square, as the receptionist had said, there was a ship in such good condition that you could believe it was newly made—it was so well maintained. However, the ship was quite small for crossing the ocean… by modern standards, it was only about the size of a deep-sea fishing vessel.

“Full load displacement 3,360 tons… length 120 meters, width 22 meters, height 70 meters…”

“By Parcifal Navy standards, this is just a patrol boat level.”

What is a patrol boat? It’s a small vessel that just patrols around the harbor in coastal waters.

In fact, since that ship had no weapons mounted at all, it was meaningless to classify it by military ship grades, and it should really be called just a tub.

“To think they crossed the ocean with a ship like this…”

I muttered, looking at the masts in the form of a brig (two masts with all yards mounted).

Not knowing where the continent was, they couldn’t rashly load a power source, so they navigated with only minimal nuclear batteries that could emit light. I closed my eyes and imagined sailing on a pitch-black sea with no sun or moon, relying only on the dim light of lanterns.

“That’s truly insane…”

Naturally, the terrain of the sea is not gentle. If you get caught in reefs or windless areas, you’re simply dead, and since it was an era without the sun, all kinds of bizarre monsters would have been swarming in the sea.

To break through the pitch-black sea without light, the sea of madness where monsters surge, the sea of death where storms and waterspouts rage—it was beyond the realm of will, into the realm of determination.

It was a symbol of hope that humanity never gives up on progress, even in darkness.

[The Vanguard is the first ship to cross continents from the 13 continents. Three years after the Vanguard departed from Meridia and reached the coast of the Miriam continent, the humans of the Meridia and Miriam continents made first contact, and 30 years later, all humans of the 13 continents became aware of each other’s existence.]

Ancient humans scattered cryogenic pods indiscriminately from spaceships that had transformed into submarines.

Those who were embedded in continents became survivors, and those who sank into the sea became food for monsters.

It took only a moment for humanity, once the rulers of the world, to become exiles in a strange world, and humanity endured the dark ages desperately, looking only at the thread-like hope of salvation.

“Truly a great achievement. It deserves to be included in the 52 wonders of the world.”

“I feel the spirit of craftsmanship. It doesn’t just come from the design. It comes from the hands of thousands and tens of thousands of craftsmen who maintain and care for it. Truly, this ship deserves to be called legendary.”

At the dock, I nurtured my sense of adventure while looking at ships crossing the ocean.

It must have been the same in the dark ages.

People must have eagerly waited for the groups of ships that dimly illuminated the invisible horizon, telling them they were coming.

And gathering those wishes, the Sun ascended as a god.

“Seeing this achievement makes me appreciate even more how great Lord Nariakira Saburo was, who ended the dark age and opened the imperial era.”

“Where does that random worship come from?!”

“From the heavens! You blasphemous elf!”