“We ready?” I glanced back at Duman, Jane, and Roseline. I was in the cockpit of the Fat Lady. The room was in an isosceles trapezoid shape with a podium in the middle with a wheel to control the airship. The outer walls had a wide but quite narrow rectangular window that allowed me to see forward. Right next to the wheel, there were three levers. One was used to control an air valve. The other was an emergency lever that’d let air out of the balloon rapidly, creating a swift descent. The third one that was a bit further away was the landing gear lever. Nothing was labelled, so only those who were familiar with the controls would be able to handle it.

“Yeah, ready as we'll ever be,” said Duman while Roseline looked mostly uninterested. I did help her with an audience with the king. I didn’t know what kind of outcome she had, and she didn’t say anything about it. And I wasn’t certainly going to pry. Meanwhile, Vojmir decided to stay behind because he was hired as a bodyguard by a noble. He made it clear that he needed money for retirement, which we understood. Duman paid him ten silver coins for his service. It was about two months of training for me. That wasn’t a bad price at all in my opinion. Although he wasn’t going with us, he decided to settle down in Ceres, so I would be able to visit him. Jane was concerned that the four of us wouldn’t be enough. But Duman and Roseline disagreed, especially the latter. She sounded very confident in her magic and claimed that the four of us were enough. Whatever the case, we eventually decided to just depart with the four of us.

“Off we go!”

I pulled a lever up, opening the air valve and letting heated air enter the balloon. It took mayhaps about a minute before the interior jolted a bit, which was a sign that it was about to get airborne. Only Jane was acting odd as the Fat Lady lifted itself up. The three of us were already very used to the weird sensation.

“This feels really weird!” she exclaimed while trying to balance herself awkwardly. She eventually had to lean against a wall for support.

“You will get used to it,” said Duman.

“I will be in the back,” said Roseline, looking uninterested.

Soon enough, the ship stabilized in the air, and I asked probably the most important question which we should have discussed earlier.

“Where do we want to go first?”

“Well? Where do you want to go?” Duman replied promptly.

I gave it a thought. I left Ceres before. It was when I was just starting out as an adventurer. I did want to see the scenery again because it was breathtaking the first time.

“Tantan,” I said.

“Tantan?”

“The first port town I’ve ever been to …,” I mumbled and then looked at Jane. “Jane, you will be shocked. The view is breathtaking!”

Duman beamed a remorseful smile. “Ah, Tantan…, indeed. It’s where shrimps originate, Jane.”

“It is?”

“Yep, shrimp, fishes, and oysters. All kinds of seafood are the norm there.”

There were sparkles in her eyes. To her credit, she did not drool. I was quite positive that she would have if it wasn’t me who had been feeding her goodies nonstop.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go there then!”

“Well, that’s that, Faro. Your wife made the call.”

Nodding gleefully and letting out a chuckle, I turned the wheel in the direction of Tantan. There was no reliable way to tell directions yet, and it had to be done by experience and following landmarks. Thankfully, since it was an airborne travel, it was easy to correct midway. To reach Tantan from Ceres, all I would need to follow was the shoreline after heading to the West while slightly veering to the South. I would pilot the airship until I could spot the river and then would follow it downward until it would reach the sea. Then I would simply follow the shoreline to the West until a settlement came into view. This method meant that we couldn’t travel at night unless we were close to our destination.

image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/4153/WNncCQ.png]

Once the initial excitement was over, Duman had retreated into the back while Jane remained by my side, watching me curiously pilot the airship.

“This has been your job, right? I mean during adventuring,” she asked.

“Yep, I am the designated airship pilot.”

“Do you have to stay here the whole time?”

“The wheel can be locked, but it’s always a good idea to have someone watching the front.”

Due to how narrow the pair of the windows were, it had a rather limited viewing angle. It provided a good enough angle horizontally but had an awful vertical angle. Unfortunately, making it big enough would pose a structural weakness in combat, so there was no helping it.

“Even at night?”

“At night, I generally descend the ship close to the ground and I can drop a few sandbags attached by ropes. This will secure the airship from moving around and prevent monsters from reaching us. It’s also when I go back into the boiler room and check the core mechanisms of the ship to keep it running smoothly.”

“Wow, you do know your stuff, don’t you?”

I chuckled. This was one of few things I did know. So, yeah, I did know what I was talking about. Hell, I could even make repairs to the ship if required. Having been a carpenter for a few years, I did have the expertise. Never in a million years had I thought that my youth experience would pay off like that.

“There are rooms downstairs. I think Duman put our names on the doors. Go down there and get some rest.”

“There are rooms?!”

“Six of them in fact. They are tiny, though. It’s got a bed and a small table. That’s it. No windows.”

“This is a literal flying motel!”

It sort of was. As far as I know, the original intent of airships was to transport people.

“Oh, right, before I forget, we’ve got boar jerky, bread, and waterskins inside a barrel in a corner downstairs. We also have a toilet.”

Because of Duman, who was a big guy, the toilet was a bit bigger than it should normally be. Of course, I didn’t let her know that little secret. Jane’s physical stature was about the same as mine, so it was going to be a bit too large for her to use. I am sure she will figure out how to use it on her own. As for where urine and feces would go, it was temporarily stored inside a water-tight compartment. It was my job, as a pilot slash engineer, to dump it somewhere remote with a lever that’d open a small opening at the bottom of the tank. I generally did it when I was taking her off in the morning when we were in the wilderness.

“Go on. Have a look. We will be staying in the airship a lot, so get used to it.”

Nodding along, she approached one of the windows and soon took a step back.

“Oh, my. It’s kinda scary.”

“It’s doozy for sure,” I replied with a chuckle. Was she afraid of heights? It was too early to tell.

“Alright, I am heading back. Keep up the good work, Faro.”

Once left alone, I locked the wheel and took a step back from the podium. Taking a deep breath, I had a good look around the pilot’s chamber. It wasn’t the same as before and that should have been expected. Duman improved the overall design essentially. It was safe to say that it wasn’t the same airship anymore because everything was swapped out. Even parts of its core frame were cracked, so it had to be done. How this ship did not fall apart in midair was a mystery itself basically. Leaning my back to a wall, I casually said -

“Thanks, girl.”

There wasn’t going to be anything for me to do for a while. Therefore, I exited the pilot’s room and entered the main deck where Duman was working with one of his crossbows. Roseline was nowhere to be seen. Jane was probably in the lower deck.

image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/8527/zx4ov3.png]

“Hey, Faro, I forgot to tell you this, but we’ve received a royal mission from the king,” he told me once he looked up to see me exit the pilot’s room.

“We have? What is it?”

“Your highness wants us to explore the North, the frozen tundra when our time permits.”

“What is even there?”

I had absolutely no clue.

“I am from pretty far up the North and even I have no clue. Nobody ventured further up North than where I was.”

There were some stools around, so I grabbed one and sat down nearby him, picking up what looked like a trigger mechanism of some sort for his crossbow. His crossbows weren’t ordinary ones; they were rather complex to allow him to load up bolts in advance so that he wouldn’t need to load up every time he fired. The one he was working on could load up to three bolts. He was dismantling it to oil up its parts. He did this routinely, and it was a time consuming job, which meant this was the perfect time to do this. It was going to take about three days to reach Tantan after all.

“Just how cold is it up there?”

Again, I had absolutely no clue. Yeah, I did go to Siwen mountain during the mission but I was in the airship most of the time, not to mention that the volcano was spewing lava at that time. The volcano had gone dormant ever since. I doubt it wouldn’t be as warm now.

“You would have no idea,” he replied with a chuckle. “During the peak of winter, I could feel my lungs freeze whenever I drew my breath outside. You can get used to it a bit but it won’t change the fact that being outside unshielded for less than half an hour is cold enough to kill you.”

“Yeah, I cannot even imagine.”

“I am sure some tribes could have lived up there, but the Age of Darkness would have finished them off.” He, then, paused for a moment. “There is still a possibility that some could be alive, though. You never know when it comes to humans.”

“So, when are we heading to the North?”

“There is absolutely no rush or so I was told. He simply wanted a more detailed world map.”

“No rush then.”

“Nope, not at all.”

I lowered my voice after looking around to make sure that the main deck was clear. “How is Roseline doing?”

He lowered his voice equally as well. “She is acting normally.”

“Where should we go after Tantan? Is there somewhere she’d like to visit?”

He shrugged. “Visiting her hometown might do good, but it’s been wiped out.”

Ah, yeah, right. Fuck, silly me. His hometown was gone as well. In fact, the whole Northern part was gone although I’ve been hearing from merchants that the land was recovering fast.

“Don’t worry too much about us, Faro,” he said with a grin. “Just be happy with Jane. We are adults, and I am sure that you have your own things to occupy yourself with.”

He wasn’t wrong. I had a lot of things going on. My house was being built, and my money was down to about five gold coins. Money was starting to get tight although he didn’t know that I invested ten gold coins into JnE Co. He didn’t need to know, either. They were my own problems.

“True, but you two are like my extended family members. I just want you two to be happy.”

“I will get over, eventually,” he said while continuing to work with his crossbow parts. “Roseline isn’t a kid, either. Let us be.”

There wasn’t much for me to argue further with him shutting me down firmly like that, so I eventually stood back up, went back into the pilot’s room to check the area just in case. I did spot an airship heading to Ceres. Given the fact that it was one of the old models, it was probably carrying passengers. As far as I knew, the city had two dedicated passenger-carrying airships.

“Hang on…, it’s heading to the city? Does that mean they flew the ship through the night?”

It wasn’t impossible. As long as the pilot knew the path well enough, it was certainly doable. It was also possible that they stayed still overnight. They did probably fly overnight due to a simple reason: food and water. Passenger ships carried as many people as possible and had no space to carry food and water required for them. It was in their best interest to reach their destination as fast as possible. Therefore, passengers were asked to carry their own food and water. It didn’t mean they did, however. I used such passenger ships two times during the exploration of the Labyrinth of Ceres. I saw some not having their food and water on them, who ended up begging for water. It was a really early era of airship travel, though, and the situation could have improved.

“They really should carry at least a barrel of water, though. I feel like that is essential.”

We were carrying two barrels of water, but that was only possible because we had only four people aboard and that this was a modern airship that had a better carrying capacity. We were able to carry two more people since we had two spare rooms. Of course, we could take on more but had no reason to. Supply wise, without ever landing, we could easily last well over a month with the current level of food and water. The lack of veggies was an issue. Mom told me that Macomaco tea can substitute for vegetables, though.

“Well, it looks clear enough.” And I walked away from the window, exited the pilot room, and went to the lower deck to check on things. Although I kept on forgetting, I did manage to get a bag of Macomaco tea for Jane to taste. It was still hanging on my belt. Standing in front of a door with “Jane” written on it, I carefully knocked on the door.

“Yes?” It was her voice behind it. She sounded startled.

“Jane, it’s me. Come to the upper deck. I’ve got something for you to taste.”

“Taste?”

“Just come on up.”

Boiling water was easy in an airship. After all, there was the boiler room. The door to the boiler room was generally closed because it got hot in there. I’ve prepared Macomaco tea before, so I knew exactly what I was doing. After pouring boiling water into a cup, I dropped mayhaps six leaves into it. The curled up, dried, leaves came to life immediately, releasing waves of dark colored substance which became orange-ish once diluted enough. I quickly got the leaves out with a spoon. It was crucial to keep the tea to a certain color, which I was very well educated about. What I was aiming for was bright orange. Anything darker than that, I risked the tea tasting over too sweet or even bitter.

“Perfect.”

Once I got back to the main deck, there was Jane sitting by a round table. She looked in my direction, mildly curious about what I was making her taste. Duman was minding his own business meanwhile, paying absolutely no attention to us.

“Here you go.” I placed the cup down on the table like a waiter.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“What is this?” She was clueless. She took a sniff and said, “It smells kind of sweet.”

“It’s Macomaco tea.”

There was a brief pause before her eyes went wide. “The Macomaco tea?”

“Yep, have you forgotten who my parents are? I actually forgot to give you the tea.”

“T, This is my first time ever tasting such luxurious tea…,” she mumbled. Blinking her eyes a few times, she carefully took the cup and had a sip. “It’s … sweet.”

The last time I checked, which was fairly recently, a pouch of Macomaco tea cost more than ten silver coins. It was mind bogglingly expensive. How anyone could drink this on a regular basis, I had no fucking clue. My five gold coins would run out in half a year. That was how expensive it was.

“Should be. That’s why it’s popular.”

After taking several sips, it looked like she wanted to take bigger sips but it was a bit too hot for that.

“Thank you, Faro.”

Leaving her be so that she could enjoy her tea in peace, I went back to the pilot’s room and checked on surroundings. It was very much clear. Our journey to Tantan was smooth. Well, it was expected to be smooth. Airborne monsters were found only in the North anyway. It was on our third day when I could see the town from afar.

“Yeah, that’s the town,” I said to myself from the podium. Locking the wheel, I stepped into the main deck to find Duman and Roseline having a casual conversation at the round table. They were having Macomaco tea.

“Guys, we will be in Tantan shortly.”

“Oh, that was quick,” Duman remarked as he took a sip.

“What are we doing in Tantan?” Roseline asked. “Are we going to visit The labyrinth?”

“The labyrinth?” I repeated after her. I had completely forgotten about that place. “Oh, the dungeon.”

“It might be too much for just the three of us,” Duman replied.

“I still want to visit the labyrinth,” she insisted.

“That’s fine as long as we don’t enter the place.”

“The first floor should be fine, right?”

I didn’t have time to listen to their conversation because I needed to make preparations to land. Having gone back to the podium, I pulled the airvalue lever up, shutting down the heated air supply. And then I briefly lowered the emergency lever to release some of the heated air. This made the airship lose its attitude.

“Hmm, the landing platforms seem quite busy…”

There were two landing platforms in the outskirts of the town and there were four airships circling around them, waiting for their turn to land. The two platforms already had an airship each. It was at this point that I realized that we had an issue. Airships were meant to land and then get back up right away. Our airship was going to land and then stay landed for days probably. That would occupy one of its landing platforms.

“Duman! We have an issue! Come here!” I exclaimed. I explained the situation to him when he came into the pilot’s room.

“Hmm, you are right. We can’t occupy one of their two landing platforms. Don’t land and let me down somewhere close to the town. I will go speak to Lord Weber and make an arrangement to land somewhere for several days.”

“Got it.”

We got pretty close to the town, and Duman went down with a rope ladder. I saw him running into the town when Jane’s voice hit my ear drums.

“Are we there? It felt like the ship was descending.”

“Yeah, almost. We can’t land yet. Duman is out there to talk to someone.”

“How come?”

I explained our current situation to her briefly. “They’ve got two airship landing platforms, and it looks like it’s busy. We can’t occupy one of them. It will cause a traffic jam.”

She approached one of the windows to look ahead. “Do we have to land on those platforms?”

As far as I knew, I didn’t think it was a rule. At the same time, as far as I knew, all airships landed on those platforms. As for why, I had no idea.

“I don’t think we have to? I have no clue.”

“Wasn’t this ship parked in the guild backyard?”

Well, it was because it was essentially rebuilt, and Duman had the ownership. Come to think of it, he was probably the first person to own an airship privately. How much is an airship anyway? He returned a while later.

“I was told to land this airship west of the city where there is some flat ground,” he told us. The two landing platforms were located on the east side because the majority of air traffic was coming from the east.

“Got it.”

Tantan was a very … green town. All roofs in the town were green for some reason. Green was a pretty rare color for a roof, I’d say. Of course, I have been here previously. It was Brian the guildmaster who brought me here the first time as well. Back then I was a looter whose job was to collect loot and keep it safe. And then I visited this place a few more times before … I ruined my knee. I almost died at that time after running into dire orcs. Man, it feels like it has been eons ever since. I had mixed feelings about this town to be honest.

“Plenty of flat spots by the bamboo forest,” I said, to which Jane replied.

“Bamboo?”

She wouldn’t know what that was.

“You will see them soon enough. It’s some weird tree.”

After landing the ship, I locked the wheel and shut it down by closing the airvalue. I also had to turn off the boiler. We needed to have at least one person remain on the ship ideally because of a possibility of an intruder.

“I will stay aboard,” Roseline volunteered. “I need to work on some things anyway.”

“Okay, I will bring some food to you later,” Duman said. “Faro and Jane, you two go out and take some time off.”

“I have a few things to do before leaving, like turning off the boiler. We are not staying at an inn, are we?”

“No, well, you two may,” he replied with a smirk, indirectly telling me that we were free to have sex.

“No, it’s fine,” Jane said. “We will come back to the ship later.”

Well, that’s that. She made the decision. I would have liked to, but whatever. After turning off the boiler by removing active fire crystals with tongs, I destroyed the crystals with a hammer. Leaving them inside was never a good idea with its air valve shut off. I had to be careful with how I was destroying them as well since doing it violently would simply make it explode. It’d release heat rapidly, so I threw them into an iron pot with four long legs. We had boxes of spare fire and wind crystals in the storage.

“Okay, done.”

Jane was waiting for me at the exit and grabbed my arm as we headed for the town.

“Wow, that’s … a huge lake!” she exclaimed with flapping hair. Tantan always had strong winds. Thankfully, she knew what a lake was at least. Ceres had Lake Laufeld. I am not sure whether it’s true, but I was told that the king created the lake. How, I don’t have a clue. It’s probably false that he created it.

“Eh, that’s called sea actually.”

A breathtaking scenery unfolded before our eyes. Sparkling sea with its iconic sound of waves came to our view. When I saw this for the first time, I think I had my jaw dropped for a good while. Her reaction wasn’t as overblown as mine was, but she did look positively taken away needless to say. The town was built on a slope, and where we were was pretty much the top of a large hill, thus we had a very good view of the sea.

“Wow…, the view is … something.”

That I agreed wholeheartedly.

“Seafood is really dirt cheap here. In fact, it’s their staple food.”

It had to be because the land here wasn’t ideal for growing crops. In fact, there was no farm at all in the town as far as I knew.

“Shrimps…,” she whispered.

“Not just shrimps. Oysters, fishes, and … oh! They consume fish raw sometimes.”

She frowned immediately. “What? Raw?”

“I’ve eaten it. Amusingly nice.”

They cherished fish skins especially for some reason and ate it raw. I did wonder what they tasted like and asked for it, but they refused, telling me that it was only for the locals. I didn’t press to know why but did wonder. Maybe, I will ask this time.

“Anyway, let’s go eat some seafood!”

“Yeah!” She duly agreed with excitement. She was mildly surprised to see that the locals looked a bit different. For one, their skin was fairly brown although a lot of them had pale skin like us. The real locals had brown skin, pitch black hair and darker eyes, like black or brown. She looked a bit unsettled by them initially. But, since I was showing no sign of disdain, she eased up soon enough. Additionally, the houses were completely different. In Ceres, houses were made of wood. In Tantan, houses were made entirely of stone with their distinctive green roof. It was easy to understand why they used stones. They had no forests nearby, and the bamboo trees must have not been adequate as a building material to them. I didn’t know what their roof was made of, though.

“Welcome! Welcome! A table for two?” A waitress asked us gleefully when we entered an eatery.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Come this way please!”

The place was half full, and something that was immediately noticeable was -

“They are sitting down?” Jane wondered aloud. She had been sticking very close to me ever since we got off the airship as if she was afraid, afraid of the unknown perhaps. Anyway, even their tables were made of stones but the cushions to sit down on were made of thinly cut bamboo, woven into a square mat. I couldn’t do that with ordinary wood, so this was one of the characteristics of the bamboo tree. I sat down with my legs crossed once the waitress pointed at a small table for two. But Jane looked confused.

“How do I sit down?”

It was actually a valid question. Before visiting Tantan, I couldn’t remember sitting down like this because we always used chairs or something to sit on. We never really sat down on the ground, and I knew that men and women sat down differently here.

“Jane, look around and copy,” I whispered to her. Her eyes darted around to see a woman in a seated position. When she did find one, she awkwardly copied her sitting position. She kneeled down hesitantly, folding her legs underneath her thighs, and eventually resting her butt on her heels.

“Aw, this is uncomfortable,” she remarked at once.

“You can probably sit like me? I mean, who cares?”

Meanwhile, the waitress placed a rectangle piece of paper. “Here is the menu,” she said. “Should I wait here or give you some time?”

“Give us some time, please.”

“Got it.”

“No, I am a woman. I will not sit like a man,” she said while trying to adjust her position a bit to make herself more comfortable. While giving her a moment to find herself comfortable, I took the menu and looked over. Boiled shrimp was on the menu. We probably shouldn't pick that since it was available in Ceres. Others were raw fish, cooked fish with spices, oysters, and then there was bread which was way overpriced in my eyes. A while bread was about an iron coin back in Ceres. Here, though, it was three iron coins.

I told her as I handed over the menu to her who was still trying to find the most comfortable position. “You choose.”

“Oh? Okay.”

She ended up sitting with her legs a bit sideways. Her eyes went wide soon enough. “A big plate of boiled shrimp is only two iron coins?! Doesn’t it cost like 10 iron coins in Ceres?!”

“Well, look at the price of bread. I think moving stuff adds to the overall cost.”

“Damn… Fish?… What is a fish?”

“They are creatures that live exclusively in the sea. They cannot live on the surface.”

“So…, they breathe water?”

I … actually didn’t think about that.

“I guess so, yeah.”

“Let’s try spiced fish first. I want to try the others later.”

“Okie, dokie.” Raising my hand, I called a waitress over and ordered two plates of spiced fish.”

“Do you have any preference on which fish you want? And spices?”

Blinking eyes, Jane looked at me cluelessly. I didn’t know much, either.

“Nothing too hot for spices, and … I don’t know about fishes. We aren’t from around here.”

“Mackerel is the most commonly consumed one. It’s a medium-sized fish. Generally, two of them are perfect for a person. It has a rather unique taste.”

We nodded along, neither of us having a clue.

“Then there is sardine. It’s a bit smaller but a lot more oily in taste. Five of them are about enough for an adult.”

She continued on.

“There is tuna which is a giant fish. It’s like five times larger than us. It should only be eaten raw due to its very unique texture when consumed raw. When cooked, it sucks.”

And…

“There is salmon which should be eaten raw also. And then there is tout…”

We had no fucking clue as to what she was talking about.

“W, We will take sardines. Give us five of them each,” I hurriedly interjected.

“Okay, it shouldn’t take long.”

By the way, the waitress was wearing a somewhat short dress that exposed her lower legs. My eyes inadvertently noticed her lower bare legs and apparently tracked them. I knew this because -

“Faro!”

Jumping up and down subtly, I was startled by Jane’s high-pitched voice.

“Yeah?” I answered innocently.

“Don’t look at other women now,” she warned with a glare.

“I didn’t mean to. My eyes just moved.” I spoke truthfully.

“I know. I know that. I haven’t worked as a guild receptionist for years and learned nothing. Men always look at women. But you have me. At least, try not to look.”

Well, she did have a point, and we were newly wed.

“I am sorry. I will try.”

“Good.”

Really, I was at fault, so I wasn’t even going to make a case out of it. It did kill a bit of the mood between us while we waited for our meal to arrive, and we didn’t talk much. Very fortunately, the bad blood didn’t last long. When we wasted those sardines, we were flabbergasted in a very positive way.

“Wow, very ‘oily’ indeed,” I remarked. It was quite hard to describe the taste. But it felt like the fish was kind of melting in my mouth with lots of sticky substance coming out of it. It tasted very … meaty? Its texture in my mouth felt like heavily stewed meat, like it was literally falling apart in my mouth without having to actually chew.

“I don’t even know how to describe the taste,” she agreed with a nod. “It’s good, though. What are somewhat solid things in this?”

I knew what she was talking about. There were some solid bits of stuff inside, and these were something I had to actually chew. Using a fork, I picked apart an uneaten one.

“It’s bones, I think,” I concluded.

“Bones?”

You’d never think about being able to chew bones of a wild boar.

“Well, these fishes are small enough, and I think these have been heavily boiled.”

One thing was clear soon enough. Five wasn’t enough. I was eating a whole thing at a time, and Jane was eating it in two bites. In the blink of an eye, they were gone. However, we were reluctant to order another plate because it didn’t sit well in our stomach.

“It tasted good, but something isn’t feeling right,” she remarked with a subtle frown. I was feeling exactly the same. Maybe too much spice or oil?

“Let’s eat bread,” I suggested.

“It’s three iron coins, though…!”

“We are going to earn some money soon.” I sort of lied because I didn’t know what Duman’s plans were. She conceded because she was increasingly not feeling well. When we ordered bread while not looking well, the waitress explained the reason to us.

“You are outsiders, right? Spiced sardines never sit well with first timers. It’s an oily fish, and the spice doesn’t help. You should have eaten Mackerel. We will give you some loaves of bread for free.”

Should have told us earlier… Anyway, when she came back with a plate, there was a roasted fish along with some loaves of bread.

“What is this fish?”

“That is a roasted Mackerel. Have a bite. You will like it much more than sardines.”

So I did, and indeed it was much, MUCH, better. It felt almost like a roasted piece of meat but drier.

“Jane, have a bite, This is so much better.”

Reluctantly, she took a bite as well, and her eyes lit up at once.

“It tastes very much like meat but drier,” she remarked.

“Exactly.”

“We should have eaten this earlier.”

“Do you have veggie soup by any chance?” Jane asked the waitress who was about to leave.

“Veggie? Vegetables? Those are delicacies around here.”

“Seriously?”

“We can’t grow them. We’ve been importing them from Ceres, but I don’t think you are willing to pay the odds.”

Given the fact that they were charging more than three times for bread, I was inclined to agree. Jane looked to have thought the same.

“Thank you for your help and generosity,” she said, sending the waitress away. After eating some bread and the roasted fish, she said, “This town is very different.”

“No vegetables around here, yet so much seafood,” I added.

“I still think roasted boar hind legs are the best.”

I didn’t disagree although the raw tuna I had some years ago was amazing. I wanted to suggest that she try, but it looked like we were done with meals for today. We ended up spending four iron coins in the end. Considering how much a large plate of boiled shrimps back in Ceres, this wasn’t much.

“Phew, I am full,” I declared. “Where do you wanna go?”

“The sea,” she replied, looking in the direction of the sea.

“Oh, yeah, of course.”

The reason I chose this place as our first destination was the sea after all. We walked casually and slowly while taking in the new environment. Tantan was very different from Ceres after all. How people behaved was even different. Everyone in Ceres was almost always busy. They were either working or sleeping. In contrast, folks in this town were much more laid back. The only busier part of the town was the dock which we needed to take long and somewhat scary stairs along a cliff to reach. Jane was quite scared walking down the stairs. I couldn’t blame her because the height was doozy, and there were no rails. If you slip, you’d be a goner. There were over ten people at the dock along with two fishing boats. I had seen boats before while sailing the airship although this would be my first time seeing one up close. They were apparently unloading their catches.

“I am sorry, but you must be outsiders, correct?” A man clad in studded leather armor approached us at once. There were two more of them with him. All of them were armed.

“Yes, we are.”

“Outsiders aren’t allowed here. This is our livelihood. We cannot allow anyone to disturb us while we are working.”

Well, duh, they should have told us at the top of the stairs. It took a while to get down here. But I wasn’t going to say that out loud.

“Fine, we will go back.”

“Thank you for your understanding.” Giving us a nod, he turned around and went back to his group while still maintaining vigilant eyes on us. I wasn’t going to pull anything.

“Let’s go back, Jane.”

“Yeah.”

Before leaving, I had just one question to ask the guard.

“Have there been many outsiders in the town?”

“Yes, it’s both good and bad for us. The outsiders want to explore every part of the town but they also enrich us.”

“We had to draw a line eventually,” another guard added with the third one nodding along.

“I see, thank you.”

After we made a good distance away from them, I told Jane.

“We can still look at the sea from the top.”

“Yeah, no worries. Let’s go back to the airship.”

While walking our way back, I wondered how we could make some money. There was no guild in the town as far as I knew. There was no need for a guild since there were no merchant wagons coming in and out. And, because there were no farms, they had no need to venture out and hunt down monsters, either. The town guards protecting the close proximity was all they needed.

“The labyrinth…,” I mumbled. Yeah, that was the only place I could think of to make some money. I wasn’t sure what was left of that place. The dungeon might not even be there anymore, but it was close enough to check it out.