The sun was coming up from the horizon. I could see the endless black void turn into a sparkling ocean. The sunrise was beautiful as it appeared over the horizon. This was something I always looked forward to every morning since it showed the end of my night shift at the light tower. I got up from my chair looking out towards the sea and went over the big fire in the center of the tower. I grabbed a huge metal pot and put it over the fire. I removed it once I saw the smoke billowing from the bottom of the pan.

As I set aside the pan, I gathered my things and prepared to climb down the tower, however I was thrown off by something in the distance. Usually, I wouldn't be one for caution, but I became attracted to the strange ship in the distance.

Although I am technically the lord’s troop, I am not really that dedicated. I really don't want to deal with this after the night shift. However, something was nagging at me. So I looked at the object in the distance.

It was unusual since ships would normally not be that far out. We fill most of our port with village ships from villages along the Astra Coastline. But that thing doesn't look like it came from Astra. It doesn't even look like a ship I have ever laid my eyes on.

There were three ships proceeding towards the port. As they got closer fast, I worried a bit. I looked closer and saw a ship leading the formation, which was white and orange. It had a single gun mounted on the front. The other ship looked similar, but was in a strange grey color. The other ship was bigger, but it had no gun at all. It seemed like a cargo ship, if I have ever seen one like that.

They didn't have sails, nor did they look like any conventional ship I have seen before. It truly was a bizarre sight. But wait, what should I do? They never told me anything about this. Only me and my two buddies were in the tower. What if this is an invasion?

Wait, even that is weird. I haven't seen ships from other places coming from over the horizon. Should I just wait?

As I was thinking this, I heard footsteps from behind me; it was Connor.

"Looks like a fine morning to me, Jason. What are you doing?"

I looked at him wearing his dirty white shirt and leather pants. It looked like he just woke up.

"Connor, come look. There are some strange ships on the horizon."

"Hmm, they don't look too far out now. Huh? Those don't look like ships to me, Jason. What the heck are those things?"

"Beats me. Say, do you know what were supposed to do in this situation?"

Connor gave a short thought. But he also didn't know.

"Lets just ask the big guy down there, he’s the most knowledgeable."

Connor shrugged towards the stairway. If I remember correctly, he has done this job longer than both of us combined. Leo will probably know what to do.

I went down the staircase. Connor stayed behind to curiously look at the strange ships in the distance. I could smell a slight stench of sweat as I went below the tower. I caught sight of Leo at the table, pulling apart some weeds and flowers.

"Leo, what the heck are you doing?"

"Haven't you heard? It turns out that some weeds and flowers are edible. Food prices went up again. I can't afford to get the black bread in the market, you know."

"Honestly..."

He is pretty weird, but he is quite knowledgeable about his background. Learning to read and write out of curiosity and hard work, he is the smartest one out of all of us. Although I think there were many unhappy entry guards in his wake. I still see him as weird, but he is pretty smart for someone three years younger than me. I look on as Leo is separating some grass and flowers from the dirt. He noticed me staring at him.

"Where is Connor?"

"Right. He was looking at the strange ships I spotted in the distance."

"Strange how?"

"The ships were in a weird color, and the ships had no sails. Plus, those ships don’t seem to be heavily armed for long distance ships."

"Are you sure they are ships? All ships have some sail, even the magic powered ones rely on wind amplification, you know."

Please don't remind me. I am not for one who is interested in your fascination with magic. I still can't sleep when I am alone with this guy sometimes. Annoying, to be honest.

"They don't have sails. Do we have to do something about this?"

Leo gave a short thought and sighed.

"It looks like we will have to report to the captain about this. Although we don't really have to do this, it would be bad is happened, and we get blamed for it."

"Its not like they won't blame us if something really happened."

"Well, I guess you're right. But I think the captain would appreciate it if we reported it. Take me up to see the ships, I want to give a detailed report."

I went up first, and Leo followed behind me. The height of the stairs only made him even shorter than usual. As we reached the top, I saw Connor still looking out towards the ships.

"Any change on the ships?"

"Nope, only that they got closer."

Me and Leo look out towards the sea and I noticed that the ships were quite close. Since I often look at the ships entering the ports, I always thought they were quite slow, but now these ships made them look like fish that can't swim.

"Your right, these are quite strange ships. The colors and lack of sail make it quite strange. However, what is even weirder is their flag."

I looked and saw their flag. It looked quite elaborate. With different colors of red, white and blue, it looked quite difficult to make. The stars on the flag only made it look even more intricate.

"Do you know what the country of that flag is?"

"No, I don't even see ships from other countries coming into this port. Most ships are coming from villages in the outskirts, they wouldn't be able to put together this kingdom's flag."

"Yeah, your right, but you really don't know then?"

"All I can do is report the description of the flag. Everything about that ship is bizarre. So much so it shouldn't even exist. I wonder how it moves so quickly? Did some country make some magical device to propel the ship?"

"Enough of that, report it to the captain. I don't want to get in trouble."

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"Oi, you didn't even want to report it."

"Hey, I didn't know what to do in this kind of situation. But because smart Leo here figured it out, then I felt you should have the honor of reporting to the captain."

"Fine, I'll go. But could you have to help me separate the flowers and weeds later?"

"Fine, fine. Now off you go."

Leo went down the stairs and I looked off as he went towards the captain’s quarters near the port.

I continued to look towards the ships while Leo was gone. As time passed, I saw the ships get closer and noticed more of their features. They were now really strange. I could clearly see that they were not made of wood, but of some other material. Could it be metal? Nah, it can't be that. If a kingdom could put together a ship made of metal, they would be broke. Just think of the amount of local smiths needed to create that.

Maybe if a kingdom of smiths existed.

However, I was also curious and captivated by the ships coming towards the port. The feeling of being clean and crisp. Unlike anything I have seen before. The shape was also weird. It looked like there was some tower on top of it. And now that it’s closer, it’s much bigger than I expected, even without the sails. As I contemplated this, the ships eventually entered the harbor.

Hmm, should we head down?

"Connor, want to head down and look?"

"Sure, why not? Today seems like a good day to do something."

We both went down the light tower and went towards the harbor. The tower wasn't far, but it was a good 10-minute walk before we saw the harbor. As we got closer, I saw small village ships lined up against the dock. Everyone already noticed the strange ships entering the docks.

Suddenly, there was a loud voice being projected from the ship.

"Salutations. This is the United States Coast Guard. We are requesting to dock. Repeat, requesting to dock to port."

"Oi, Connor. How are we going to answer them? Why are they even asking if they can dock?"

"They are strange, but at least they sound nice. I think."

"You think? Well, lets get them to dock, help me row a boat towards their ship."

"What, but I am still tired, man. I gotta help with the crops after I get back, you know."

"Suck it up Connor, you have the shortest shift out of all of us."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Probably.

As we were contemplating on what to do, I heard Leo from a distance. I also saw a brawny man walking behind Leo's short stature.

"Are these the strange ships you saw?"

"Yes, captain. They seem to request to dock to this port. We were thinking of taking a dingy out to greet them."

"No need, I will just tell them."

Tell them? I saw the captain go to the farthest pier, and I saw him take a deep breath. In the loudest voice, I heard him yell in the loudest voice.

"YOU MAY DOCK!!!!"

The ship went silent. It then moved again. Was that magic? The voice of both my captain and the ship were quite loud.

As I thought, I saw that the ship deployed a small ship with men riding on it. They were in a dark blue uniform and looked quite neat.

They got close to one of the empty piers and leaped on. They threw on some more men onto the other wooden pier. The white ship which was shouting moved in between the piers. The crew on board then threw down some ropes and the men on the pier fastened it to the wooden docks. The boat then secured itself and lowered what looked like stairs.

The captain came towards us.

"Your three, follow me. Lets meet interesting people."

We followed the captain and stopped towards the entrance of the wooden pier. Men were coming off the boat. One man looked different from the others, though. He wore a suit and tie and looked older than the rest of the crew. He came towards us followed by two people in suits while wearing some black eye wear.

"Hello, it is a pleasure to meet you. As you can probably tell, it’s our first time here."

"Yes, that is the case. Why were you requesting to dock, anyway? You could have just done it."

"It’s a custom from our country. Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is John Stuart. You can just call me John.”

"I'm Captain Glen, I am the fellow who screamed earlier."

"Oh, that was you. I apologize if we annoyed you."

"Ah, no worries, I needed to test out the old lungs a bit. Tell me, who are you and why are you here?"

I also was interested who these people were.

"I am the secretary of state John Stuart of the United States of America. I am in charge of a diplomatic mission to this country."

"Oh, so you are an envoy? But I haven't heard of your country before. I assume you want to head over to the capital then?"

"Yes, we would like to meet with your government to talk about trade and other topics of discussion. Do you know where it is?"

"Yes, although it’s far from here. It’s a month’s travel by horse and 3 months by walking. If you keep following the coast north, you’?ll eventually reach the capital."

"Thank you for that information. Is it alright if we stay docked for a couple of days though?"

"Yes, that would be fine. We just need to collect a small fee for your stay."

"What kind of payments are accepted?"

"We care little for coinage, but we will accept it. If you have food, we can also take that?"

"How much food or coinage?"

"About a bag of food or 2 silver coins."

John thought about it.

"Would a crate of food work?"

"A crate?"

"Yes, around this size I think."

He roughly measured out the size of the crate with his hands. It was quite large.

"That is fine."

Wow, the captain is greedy today.

"Alright then, I'll get them to offload a crate."

The long cargo looking ship also docked and off loaded a crate. It was actually much bigger than the description he gave.

"I hope this will suffice."

The captain looked at the crate.

"What is inside?"

"Our country’s home grown crops. Soybeans, corn, nuts, and a variety of other crops. Do you recognize any of those?"

"Hmm, lemme have a look."

The crate was opened, and he saw an enormous amount of food inside. They were packaged in weird metal cylinders and other containers.

"What are these?"

"The food is packed inside these cans. You can open them using can openers. Actually, could someone get me one?"

"Ah, no need."

The captain took out a knife and drove it into the can. The two people behind John were tense and looked like they were grabbing something from their pocket.

However, the captain paid no heed and continued to open the can with his knife. He looked inside first and started pouring the contents into his mouth.

"Wow, this stuff is good. Tastes really fresh. What is this called?"

"We call it corn. It’s the 2nd highest crop export of my country."

Corn, I never heard of that. I am pretty sure the captain also doesn't know what that crop is. I got curious and also picked out a metal can and drove my knife into it. I looked inside to see a bunch of yellow grains. I ate some of it and was immediately impressed by the taste.

"Oi, Connor, try some of this."

I passed the can to Connor, and he ate some.

"Wow, this tastes superb. Leo, try some."

He passed it to Leo, and it stunned him.

"How.... How is this possible?"

"Right? Its so much better than the black bread from the marketplace. No wood chips either."

"No, that it not what I meant. This thing looks to comprise metal. At such precision and size, it would require much skill and work to make one can. And they use it only for storing food?"

"I mean, that why it tastes good right?"

"Yes, but its pointless if its more expensive to make the container than the actual product. Unless.. that is, if they can make this container cheaply."

"Or maybe corn is a delicacy?"

"Even more troubling. I don't know if the captain realized it yet, but this country called the United States might be very wealthy if they can just use metal to package food like this. Look, they make even their ships of metal."

I looked and saw that Leo was right. The ship is unmistakably made of metal. I couldn't find any wooded beams or wooden floors. All of it was metal. Something which struck a chord in me as I struggle to even afford a new sword.

"Oi, what are you three gawking at, help me move this crate to my quarters."

"Yes, captain."

We helped the captain move the crate to the captain’s quarters. Eventually, we were let off for the day and we all returned to our homes. I heard later on that the ship eventually left the port to head towards the capital. But I will never forget the taste of that corn, nor will I ever give up the one can I snatched from the crate.