"Ports tend to be the hub of trade in any nation with a coastline. To deliver goods by sea is generally more profitable than doing so by land, as it saves time and money both. As for the dangers involved, that was just part of the package." - Linus Macintyre, Merchant and Ship Captain

Veros Family Mansion

Western Elmaiya

Third Elmaiya Empire

1st day, 2nd week, 11th month, year 95 VA.

"Everything packed up? You made sure you didn't forget anything?" asked Artair's fourth mother to her young daughter, the eleven year old Maria. The young half therian girl cheerfully replied in the affirmative, then was guided by her mother to board the carriage.

The family was about to embark on a trip to Quelos, the southern port city and trade hub of the region. From there they planned to take a ship to the capital, to pay a visit to Illyvich who had remained there due to his duties and responsibilities.

Grigori and Zoya waved the rest of the family farewell, as they remained behind to take care of their territory. Aideen and Artair had ridden in the first carriage, together with Artair's first and second mothers and Tatyana. His fourth mother took the other carriage with Grigori's wife and Marek, along with all the children.

The trip to Quelos would roughly take a week of their time. They would stay a week or so in the city before they left for the capital and visited there for another month or so. The way back would be by the same route as well, as it would save time.

Once everyone had embarked on the carriages, they left the mansion, the same twenty or so guards who had escorted them from the capital served as their escort once more.

Much as expected, they had a rather uneventful week-long trip towards Quelos. The Veros duchy had been well pacified, to the point that even sightings of threatening wildlife had become rare these days, and security was so well preserved that most bandits with a brain would stay away from the region.

They took a relaxed pace for the trip, as they traveled during the day and camped once the sun went down. Even though predatory wildlife had become rare, grazing animals and the likes were still common, and Aideen realized that their number never went out of control simply because the therians themselves took over as predators instead.

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That was made very clear by the way their guards very casually hunted a couple of adult deers within an hour of their stopping to camp. Soon enough those deers were butchered and roasting in large chunks over their campfires.

They reached Quelos right as the week ended, the governor-admiral in charge of the city - his title was admiral rather than general because Quelos mostly had naval forces - one of the aquatic therian breeds, as the man resembled an upright shark with arms and legs.

Aideen had thought that the teeth-baring grins Artair and his family were fond of was intimidating enough at first, but when she saw the governor-admiral grin widely at their arrival, she instantly revised all her thoughts. Compared to his grin full of shark teeth, Artair's grin was quite cute, honestly.

Despite his intimidating appearance - not helped by the way the man was at least as tall as Grigori, and how his muscular build was clearly on display since it had no fur to cover it - the governor-admiral proved to be a polite gentleman, who welcomed the family with genuine fondness.

He seemed quite close to Artair's fourth mother especially, who Aideen later learned was actually his goddaughter, as he had a sworn brother relationship with her father, the Jarl of Gulski. He was the one who introduced her to Illyvich, in fact.

Rather expectedly for a port town, the feast laid out to welcome them was heavy on seafood of various sorts. Aideen had not expected them to hold the feast by a pristine section of the beach, though. That said, she quite enjoyed the refreshing sea breeze that blew as they ate.

Other than fishes, various kinds of shellfish and crustaceans were also served, many of which she was rather unfamiliar with. Aideen had fiddled with a crab for a while before Artair showed her how to crack the shell to get to the supple meat inside. She had not missed how he struggled to keep from laughing as he watched her struggle at first though.

Other things like clams and mussels she was quite familiar with, as the coastal regions of Ptolodecca also had abundant beds of such creatures, and they had been a staple food for the inhabitants there as well.

Even the octopi and squids had not surprised her one bit. They were also quite commonly eaten back at Ptolodecca. Maybe if she had only been at Vitalica she'd not be familiar with them since the old Vitalica was landlocked, but as she was, none of them had surprised her at all, and some of the locals gave her intrigued looks when they noticed her munch away happily at the seafoods.

Usually most people who lived inland balked at the sight of the sea creatures and were always good for a laugh or two after all.

The ones she was not familiar with were the conical shells that contained snail-like creatures within. It would probably have disturbed her, had she not grown up in Vitalica. When they were serfs in the past, their people had to forage for all kinds of things most people did not eat normally, and snails were commonly eaten amongst them.

That outlook had carried over to Vitalica when they gained their independence, and by the time she was born, was pretty much ingrained as part of their culture. Even in Ptolodecca she'd see someone who used to be from Vitalica selling dishes that used them from time to time.

So it was quite natural for her to just munch on what she thought was likely some sort of sea snail. A few eyebrow quirked up when they noticed how she skillfully extracted the meat from the shell with a small pick, and quirked more when they noticed the satisfied expression she had on her face as she chewed.