The day after we arrived in the city, Nia and I woke to indulge ourselves in touristic activities.

It was a new city, and we were bound to discover new things here. The quest for breakfast itself was one such thing; instead of eating at the inn where we stayed, we took it as an opportunity to discover a new place across the city.

It was while doing so that we stumbled upon a stall in the middle of the city, where a strong and tasty odor of grilled meat attracted our attention. The stall, which was also a sort of outdoor restaurant, had its chairs and tables set up in the open air, so I, upon Nia having taken a seat, went to the stall owner to place our order.

"What can I do for you, brother?" The stall-keeper asked.

"I don’t know yet. What do you propose?"

"I don’t know, Sir. Are you really hungry? Or is it for breakfast?"

"It is for breakfast, but I’ll have this rotisserie," I said, pointing at a grotesque yet hunger-inducing grilled pile of meat displayed vertically on a grill.

"You mean Kebab?"

"Kebab? Yes... that thing. "

"Understood, so what sauce will it be?"

"Sauce? What do you have?"

"Sauce white, red, ink, Beaumont, Lilith, avignon, sinou."

"… I don’t know..."

"Brother, I personally prefer Lilith, that’s the best we have."

"Then, we’ll take that then."

"What kind of accompaniment will you take? Salade or rice?"

"..."

"I recommend rice, Brother. You’re in Lilith after all."

"We’ll take rice."

"You want something to drink?"

"Listen, I really don’t know-"

"We have water, boiled water, and golden water, which is water that has been boiled inside a kettle of rice."

"Boiled water."

"Do you want some dessert?"

"No, it will be fine, thank you."

"Do you want fries with it?"

"..."

"With fries then."

"Thanks."

I couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief as I left the man's stall. I never imagined ordering food would be such a tedious task.

"Their food had better be delicious. Because otherwise–"

"Otherwise?"

"It is another calamity that I will unleash upon them."

"You’d better refrain yourself. I still have the truth to restore here, so before that interdiction to do anything to this city," she said while sorting through papers she had typed the night before.

"So you’re going to the place where she said she would perform afterward?"

"Yes, you won’t?"

"I was thinking about going to the mailing company and visiting the shore."

"Ah…"

"No need to change anything about our respective programs, you go to Junhua while I go to the mailing company."

"But I want to see the shore too."

"Don’t take it like this... Let’s just say, I’m scouting for when we’ll go to–"

"Here’s your order. Bon appetit to you two," the waiter said, deposing our food command at our table.

"You were saying?"

"Let’s eat first before this place turns me insane."

***

After our meaty breakfast, Nia and I split up, with her going over to where Junhua told us yesterday she would perform, whereas I would be wandering around in a not-so-intensive search for clues about the current fourteen ruling these lands.

Well, to be fair, I was just mostly, in my curiosity, wandering around with no great hope of finding clues about anything.

This was something Nia and I agreed on. There was no need for us to rush into anything. Discovering and enjoying things are essential parts of this journey we promised to travel together.

So here I am, wandering the streets of the city without a specific destination. Well, maybe not without a specific destination, since I was currently looking for a specific place.

After having asked passersby, I finally managed to find the place I was looking for after getting lost a few times.

Amidst the colorful structures that are the houses of this city, a particular building stood out for its stern and homogenic outer appearance of red brick and gray cinder block.

Seeing the ink, coin, and pen emblems along with the initial "PV" hanging outside, I was certain I was in the right place.

Getting in, I was greeted by a lively sight. I arrived at what appeared to be the reception hall, where I noticed several neatly arranged guichets behind which people, mostly in uniform, were discussing with their customers; some people, also in uniform, but different, were carrying a huge pile of envellope here and there; I heard people talking across the room, but I also heard the familiar mechanical clapping noise of typewriters from every possible corner of the room.

"Good morning and welcome to the Performing Voyage Mailing Company, Sir. What can I help you with? Is it to receive a package or to send one? " the person receiving me asked.

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When I turned to face the person speaking, I noticed a man wearing the same uniform as the others.

"Good morning. I’m here because I was told I could buy a mailbox here. "

"Of course, our company offers rental and selling services, it’s this way," the man said, escorting me to a guichet, before asking, "Is it for yourself, Sir?"

"Yes, it is for me," Remembering the instruction I had received, I asked, "is it possible for me to put it not under my name but under an alias?"

"Yes, very much, but only if it is purchased," the man explained.

"Then I would like to buy one."

"Understood, we’ll take care of your order immediately. Under what name would you like to put this mailbox?"

***

I was done with the papers that were to be filled for the mailing company, so I left the building to resume my vacant activities. I soon found myself walking down the slope, toward the shore.

"Come and try our freshly harvested shrimp." I heard being shouted, "Fresh fish! "Cheap and fresh!"

I hadn't yet reached the shore, but I had reached the mercantile district, whose products were mainly products of the great saltine lake. Fish, salts, crustaceans, mollusca, and other products of the lake were laid bare on the vendor’s shelves. After walking past the mercantile street, I finally reached the vicinity of the great lake.

Similar to the Nia's ocean, the lake appeared to be endlessly spreading, but this time, owing to the dwellings littering the shore and the countless floating on the surface, the lake appeared to be finite.

Following the embankment that littered the shore, I soon found myself in the portuary part of the city. A port where several dozens, if not hundreds, of boats were docked.

This part was by far the most lively part of the city I was given to witness. Shouts, dogs barking, birds crying, each equally louder than the other.

Sailors and dockers were unloading their ships with merchandise at an alluring speed, so I, as a passerby whilst continuing my exploration, hastened my pace to not bother those hard-working men.

"What exactly am I looking for?" I started asking myself, after starting to feel something rising within me, without Nia around: boredom.

Seeing the sailors, dock workers, and almost everyone else in the port each working on their own, an idea, or to be exact, a desire, slowly bloomed within me.

I wanted to sail off with one of those boats onto the lake.

And I will, but I understood that surely the big ships that have already sailed won’t take me nowhere, so I kept wandering, following the shoreline to end up at a modest marina, where I found a boat and men that were ready to sail off for the horizon.

It was then, in my quest for a boat to sail off in, a few hundred meters away, that my eyes stumbled upon a dhow that was, from the look of it, just about to set out into the lake.

I jumped down the embankment and charged straight at it, asking the three men on board. "Hello, Brothers. Would you mind if I joined in? "

***

"Like that?"

"Yes, now all you have left to do is to tie the rope."

Following the instruction I was given, I tied the rope to the mat.

Just as I was done with it, on the other side of the ship, I heard four loud splashes of water.

Heading to that corner of the boat, gazing into the water depths, "Will they be alright?" I asked the only man left on board.

"Yes, they will be alright. They are used to it. "

"I see."

With the boat gently swaying to the dynamic of the lake's current, we were now floating in the middle of the lake. It took me a little bit of negotiating, but they ultimately agreed to take me in. So here I was, just like the fishermen, bare chested, for my outfit wasn’t really appropriate for this kind of activity.

"Can I try diving too?" I asked.

"Do you know how to swim?"

"... Yes," I answered the man, while also remembering that one last experience.

"No, you can’t," the man flatly refused.

"Okay," I simply said, not pursuing the matter any further.

"You’re not insisting?"

"Should I?"

"I mean, you paid us, so,..."

Okay, I admit that to accelerate the negotiation, I quickly pulled out my secret card, money.

"If it's just to be a bother to others, it’s not worth it." I simply said, "Besides, I just said that I wanted to ride your boat. That was the money for. Our deal didn't make mention of anything else. "

Seemingly convinced, the man silently nodded.

Looking at the littoral from where we were in the middle, all we could see were dots on the horizon. There was nothing but the lake and the numerous boats, small and large, scattered across the vast horizon.

"Say, Brother, is there some sort of demarcation line between you and the other fishermen?" I asked, pointing to the nearest boat, whose men were most likely doing the same thing as ours.

"No there is not. You fish where you can. This part of the lake is no one's property. "

"It’s first-come, first-served then?

"Yes, there is plenty of room for everyone to set boundaries, so we just respect each other's harvesting distance."

"I see, that’s beautiful and quite heartwarming to hear—hum..."

I suddenly recalled something he had just made mention of.

"You earlier made mention of "this part of the lake." Is this implying that there is that out there is a part of the lake that is someone’s property."

The man looked at me with an expression I couldn’t help but somewhat immediately decipher, having spent more than one month in the Auberge of Belltower.

"Yes," pointing eastward, the man said, "if you head where the sun rises, you’ll find an isle. We are not allowed to approach it, for that isle marks the beginning of the territorial borders of the Eastern folks."

"The eastern folk,..."

Though confused at first, I soon realized that the Eastern folks were nothing but a local appellation for nobles.

"I see. So you guys are not allowed to make it past that said isle?"

"Yes, only ships that are given authorization are allowed to make it past it. But even they aren’t allowed to get remotely close to the place, let alone board it. "

"Will there be some sort of punishment if someone were, let’s say—, for the sake of argument, to break that rule?"

"I don’t know..., but truth to be said, in almost fifteen years of being a fisherman. I’ve yet to reach a place from which I could even see that isle from a distance, I only heard the legend of it. "

"I see."

"I've heard, when I was still a child, that once, five men challenged themselves to visit the isle. I ignored what they found on that isle. They were caught, and their punishment was made clear in a message to anyone that would try to commit the offense as they were. "

"Mmh... scary."

"But it worked. No one has ever dared to trespass again since. To be honest, that isle is said to be so far away that finding it would be impossible unless one went out of their way. So, if you were to trespass, the fault would be yours and yours alone. "

"I guess… that’s fair. But you know, when put like that, it makes me even more curious about what there is on that isle. Don’t you think so?"

Upon uttering these words, the man looked at me with a dreary expression.

"Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to take me to that isle." I laughed. "But come on, aren’t you curious about what could be there?"

"I... you are not someone from the Eastern shore, aren’t you, Sir?" He asked, suspicion shaking his voice.

"Relax, no, I’m not a noble. Do I look like one?"

Assessing whether or not I was lying, he took a moment to carefully respond, "You were dressed in fancy clothes like the one noble I was once given the opportunity to see. Besides, you seem very carefree with your money. "

"Fair enough, but even if I were a noble, I wouldn’t come this far to just ask you a "question trap" and frame you for just voicing an opinion, right?"

"I guess that’s right."

"So my answer?"

"I admit that I often wonder what could be there, and I believe that everyone who knows about that isle does as well, but it's just a fleeting thought," the man stiffly explained.

"As I explained previously, there is no need to be this serious with me."

The man didn’t answer, simply nodded, but then, after a while, asked, "You sir, if it were you, what would you hide on an isle like that if it belonged to you?"

"That's a good question,... If it were mine, the first thing that comes to mind here is... I think that isle is the perfect place to hide a child born from an extramarital affair."

"What?"

"Just kidding, don’t mind what I said. And you, what would you hide there if it was yours?"

"I don’t know. I personally don’t see what could be worth hiding there in the middle of nowhere. Besides, those from the other side of the lake are very different from us. I understand that, which is why I try not to ask myself those questions, and if I do, I most certainly keep them to myself. They have their reasons for keeping this place a no-go zone, reasons we don’t and don’t have to understand. "

"I see, that's fair..."

I simply said, concluding the discussion. I saw the men who had plunged resurfacing from the lake, dragging a net full of fish with them.