Vasen unconsciously reached for his sheath, but he decided against drawing his sword when he noticed that everyone else was casually bringing their luggage on deck.
Theone Itimo said, “It doesn’t seem like your first time seeing an Ogre.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Normally, when someone sees an Ogre for the first time, they become so frightened that they can’t even think about pulling out a sword.”
“I grew up more roughly than one would assume.”
“This is our ship’s first officer.”
Vasen stood up straight and said to Hwae-Sa, “Nice to meet you, Ogre. I am Vasen Lak Orazen.” .
“Nice to meet you, Lizard.”
Vasen didn’t expect the Ogre to notice he was royal. Rather, he found it refreshing that the Ogre classified him by his species. The Ogres that Vasen knew rarely did so.
Hwae-Sa said, “I, I am the first officer.”
“Do you not have a name?”
“I did, have a name. But I, the first officer, didn’t like it, so I abandoned it.”
Vasen was about to ask if First Officer would be their name then, but Theone gave him a look, so he didn’t.
“It’s my first time seeing an Ogre riding a ship. I don’t think it’s common.”
“Why, do you think so, Lizard? You, you are riding a ship for the first time, aren’t you? And, the first time seeing an Ogre work onboard a ship, right?”
Vasen was thrown off by the unexpected logic, but he hadn’t made the comment without thinking it through.
“The ship has a limited amount of food supplies. So wouldn’t it be advantageous to have species that eat little?”
“That’s right. Small friend. There are several. But they all eat, as much as, first officer.”
“Ships are made of wood. Wouldn’t the ship be ruined?”
“Ship, is strong. And first officer, walk carefully.”
Theone stepped in and said, “It may not seem that way, but Hwae-Sa is from Zarin of the northern coast.”
“Ah.”
Vasen nodded.
Zarin was one of the major metropolises of Black Scale and also the primate city where the Elves lived. However, Zarin was also known for something else: all Ogres from Zarin had high intelligence. And of course, there had been records passed down about them. About 150 years ago, the Ogres of the northern coast had a god, and the god had made the Ogres smart.
‘It would have been nice if they lived happily.’
Out of them all, the smartest Ogre and also their king ruled over the Goblins, Elves, and Centaurs in the area, thus posing a threat to Black Scale, but great Lakrak defeated them and made them citizens of Black Scale. After that, the Elves conquered the northern coast and defeated the remaining Ogres, and as time passed, the descendants of the Ogre vagrants became part of Black Scale. That was where the Ogres of Zarin originated.
‘It’s said that the Ogres on the northern coast of the past were smarter, but their intelligence gradually dropped as their blood mixed with wild Ogres from other parts of the continent.’
In other countries, Ogres were seen as no different than monsters, and the armies would even hunt them down in areas where the Ogres resided, claiming they were eliminating vermin. That wasn’t the case in Black Scale.
In Black Scale, Ogres would be treated as people as long as they were dressed, and if they were from Zarin, they would be the preferable hires for employers. They did eat a lot of food, but they worked just as hard.
However, Vasen was surprised that this Ogre was given a station as high as a first officer.
‘Would we be able to use Ogres as left ministers in Black Scale? Probably not.’
Hwae-Sa then said, “And first officer, abandoned land.”
“You abandoned your land? Why?”
“Land, no longer makes first officer scared. Living things on land, aren’t stronger than me. So first officer, ride ship to defeat sea.”
Vasen thought it was a relief that this Ogre had never met Manun.
“I hope you defeat the sea one day.”
Hwae-Sa nodded with a serious expression and left the luggage they had been carrying with one hand before taking their leave. Vasen hoped Hwae-Sa wasn’t his supervisor.
‘Kyle said he wanted to send me on my way without a supervisor, but he couldn’t because of the ministers’ opposition. They secretly put a supervisor among the passengers on board.’
A secret supervisor. Perhaps supervisor was nothing but a title. Even though Vasen had the authority to mobilize soldiers as the leader of the expedition team, he had to get through Alika Yul, who was the general on one of the military ships.
Alika Yul was the descendant of the famous head general, Yur. But Alika wasn’t like Yur. She was upright but indecisive, and she seemed to have gotten on board for a particular reason.
‘Since no one can plot a rebellion alone.’
Above all, Vasen had never thought about plotting treason. If he had even entertained the idea, he wouldn’t have given up his seat as crown prince in the first place. He held no selfish desire for the throne since he trusted his younger brother, Kyle, and judged that Kyle would be a better king.
‘The problem is that even if I insist so, they don’t believe me.’
In the end, only someone of Lakrak’s bloodline could become king. So there could still be people who doubted Vasen or wanted to use him.
‘Of course Kyle would have thought that it would be safer to put me in a closed off space rather than a rigorous rural area.’?
However, the supervisor would be speculating Vasen’s intention on their own, so a minor act could be interpreted as an act of rebellion.
‘And if that’s not it, they can make an excuse to kill me for whatever reason.’
Vasen couldn’t think of a reason for them to do so, but he thought it was a possibility. The solar eclipse ceremony was a good example. Even though the Astronomy Minister had really done wrong, who would have thought that Salusin Oh, who had been the Administration Minister for a long time, would be discharged and exiled to a hamlet? That incident left a strong impression on many ministers, as well as the noblemen working under them.
The ministers had mistaken Kyle as soft-hearted even after he became king because he treated Vasen, the former crown prince, with kindness, but they must be seeing Kyle in a different light now.
‘Veiled enmity within the palace is not so simple. They might think killing me is a way to weaken Kyle’s power.’
When he thought about it, it sounded quite plausible. Kyle trusted Vasen, but nothing could be done if the supervisor killed Vasen and told Kyle that Vasen had tried to plot a rebellion. The dead had no chance to justify themselves.
‘That might be the reason there weren’t many issues in putting together the convoy in the first place.’
Vasen wondered if he should get off the ship right now and tell Kyle his theory, but he thought that Kyle was likely to have thought about all that since he was the one proposing the idea.
Theone then said, “By the way, Prince Vasen.”
“…Just call me Vasen.”
“It’s a bit odd to call someone so noble that way…”
“Or call me Team Leader.”
“That sounds good. Team Leader, do you know what our next destination is?”
Vasen looked back at Theone.
As far as Vasen knew, there were a few hamlets that were used as harbors when going south from Orazen. There was a Lizardmen village as well, and even a clan village. They weren’t as big as a primate city where certain species lived though. Vasen didn’t know their names. He barely knew anything about sailing.
“I don’t know exactly. Don’t we just need to sail south past Maganen at the southern end. And then we’ll move east from Maganen and go straight up along the coastline?”
“That would be our overall route, but our next destination is Bavrin.”
“Bavrin?”
Vasen knew of Bavrin. Outside of Orazen, it was the biggest harbor city in the area, but that wasn’t the reason why Vasen knew the name of the city.
“Isn’t that abroad?”
“Yes. It’s Danyum’s harbor city.”
“But shouldn’t we be going west rather than south or east then?”
It wasn’t a city too far away. However, given Danyum was close to the center of the continent, its coastline was west of Orazen.
“But we’re a merchant ship, right?”
“Hmm…?”
“I’ll let you know the specifics once we leave the harbor. First, I’ll tell you where you will be staying, so follow me. Oh, should I help you carry your luggage? No, Hwae-Sa should have taken them inside…”
“No, it’s okay.”
Vasen lifted his luggage with both arms. The Ogre had carried it with only one hand, but the luggage was heavy enough that a regular serviceman wouldn’t be able to carry it alone. Theone looked at Vasen, impressed.
“I’ll lead the way.”
***
The voyage was smooth.
When there wasn’t much for Vasen to do, he would go out onto the deck and watch the sailors work or look at the distant horizon.
Theone was a seafarer, while Vasen had never been on a ship in the sea. She was worried that he would become seasick. Contrary to her concern, though, Vasen experienced no seasickness at all.
“By the way, Theone. Why is the ship named The Humiliation of Pirates?”
“Oh, it’s quite boring. You’d think it would have been better not to know once you hear the reason.”
“Better boring than not being able to sleep out of curiosity.”
“Haha. It’s not anything special. It’s only because we took the ship from a pirate.”
“Oh, really?”
Theone said, “I think the pirate had also taken the ship from someone else, but the other merchants said that the shape of the ship was quite unfamiliar, and thus they thought it must be made somewhere far away. The technology itself isn’t different from ours though.”
“Interesting.”
“Anyways, the ship was in good condition, but it was cheap because of the story, and I was able to buy it.”
Vasen nodded.
“Oh, and you said you were a merchant?”
“Yes.”
“How did you end up doing this kind of work?”
Theone looked at Vasen with a puzzled look on her face, as if she was wondering why he would ask such a thing.
“What?”
“It makes money. Black Scale is always generous. Especially when it comes to dealing with the palace. And the trade can be trusted. When working with Black Scale, most merchants ask for only small deposits in advance so that they will get greater payment after the work is done. They aren’t worried about not getting paid.”
Vasen took pride in the trust the merchants had in them.
Theone continued to say, “I received a good deposit this time.”
“What did you receive?”
“A glasswork from Black Scale.”
“Does that make money?”
Vasen asked because he was curious. The palace was full of objects made of glass, so he didn’t think much of it. And when he was younger, he often broke them. The dismayed look on the left ministers’ faces didn’t exactly leave him with many good memories.
“Are you kidding? Black Scale’s glassworks are valued higher than those of Golden Eye or Stone Cave. Bavrin is just the middle distributor. The Satyrs sell the ones from Asbestos or Danly at such a high price.”
“Merchant work seems hard.”
“No, it’s simple. Buy cheap and sell expensive. Black Scale’s glassworks come from Black Scale, so they’re cheaper than those in other countries. And because there aren’t any glass craftsmen in Dayum, Asbestos, or Danly, and the glassworks are prettier than the decorations made in Stone Cave or Golden Eye, they sell more expensively. Plus, glass breaks easily, and more are bought when they are used and broken.”
“Hm.”
“Anyways, we don’t have many opportunities to trade for glass since we can only make such trades with Black Scale. Wealthy merchants take turns making deals, so we were able to take this opportunity and fill the ship with wares.”
After seeing Theone’s passion for glass, Vasen decided not to tell her that he often broke them.
Then Theone said, “Anyway, some of the leftover money from the trades will be used to feed the oarsmen and the soldiers of the three military ships you see over there. They’re military ships, so there isn’t much space available, and we have to fill our ship with their food supplies and water. Of course, we’re going to continue to trade until we get to Maganen.”
“Oh, so are we going after buying something from Bavrin?”
“Of course! How could we leave the ship empty?”
Vasen wondered why that wouldn’t be possible, but he decided to go with it since Theone, who was the captain of the ship, said so.
“That makes me wonder. Once you sell the glass craftwork, what will you fill the ship with?”
“Oh, usually we buy expensive things of that area since the prices of goods vary from time to time. And depending on where you go, you could get more.”
“I guess so.”
“But we have made an agreement with the palace, so what the ship will be filled with has already been decided.”
“And what is that?”
“Uh, they told me to keep it a secret…but it should be fine if I’m telling the expedition team leader, not the prince. We’re trading for Niter. We are going to buy it from Bavrin and sell them at Sashian.”
Vasen didn’t know what that was, so he asked, “Niter?”
“Apparently there’s a lot in Mangul, but I don’t know too much about it either. I heard they’re good for farming? That it increases the fertility of soil.”
“Really? Sashian is a Lizardmen village, and they do have a large plain. Are they planning to make a big farm? Is it similar to the way chosen ones struck the ground with lightning at the beginning of the year?”
“Thunder power? Wow, I saw it when I was young. It was amazing.”
However, Vasen couldn’t quite understand why they were secretly purchasing such a thing.
𝘳𝘦.𝒸𝑜𝘮