The breeze was gentle, and the sound of the waves breaking open by the streamlined bow was heard one after another.

The sailors walked and talked on the upper floors, taking care of all sorts of things. The sunlight was shining on the freshly cleaned deck, and some of the slightly protruding parts of the water had dried out and taken on different colors, while the slightly lower ones were still standing up and slightly frosty in the cold weather.

Although the shipbuilders tried their best to straighten the planks with planers, many of them have become slightly uneven over the years of use due to the sun, rain and temperature differences.

The slight arch is slightly raised, and when you walk through, because of the gap, it makes a "pop tower, pop tower" sound, which is acceptable. However, if the arc of the arch is too large, the activity should be suspended, and the ship should be sailed to the repair dock to replace the plank.

Of course, this is only an ideal situation when the funds are sufficient, and the actual voyage is as full of compromises and compromises as the mercenaries travel on land.

Something begins to wear out as soon as it is used, and although ships made of fine wood by the hands of good craftsmen can endure much longer due to their high cost, that doesn't mean they won't break.

Many of the things encountered during a long ocean voyage can shorten the life of a ship.

Sailing in icy waters is extremely challenging for wood and leak-proof coatings, and a poor-quality hull may be able to withstand the mild conditions of the Mobigas Inland Sea, but upon entering the North Rigal Sea, it will crack and seep due to changes in temperature, eventually causing economic losses to the cargo in the hold, or simply sinking. When the planer knife is slightly deviated and not tightly combined, it will become a potential weakness when the planer is processed by the craftsman.

These are by no means places to be sloppy. Just as the best armourers are able to fit the movable pieces of a suit so tightly that not even a piece of paper can be inserted through the gap to protect the wearer from being pried open with a dagger, so the best shipwrights know the tools in their hands, and it is as natural and easy for them to carve a beautiful bow ornament wood carving with a hammer and a chisel as much as eating and drinking.

Due to the high demands of craftsmanship and the fact that not all wood is suitable for shipbuilding, it is understandable that Rigal's world-class shipyards are currently concentrated in a few areas.

The birthplace of the Oriental Moon is the shipyard of the watery city of Ella, the main city of the Southern City-State Alliance.

Like many other ships built in the capital, famous for the "Silver Ella Coin" throughout the world of Rigal, she is a merchant ship. The Southerners had a far wider commercial reach than anyone else ever knew, and the entire world of Rigal was dotted with their footprints, which is why the Silver Ella Coins were accessible on the east and west coasts and even in the Ottolo Empire on the other side of the Tambur Mountains.

The ocean-going sailing vessels they build are meticulously maintained, and they remain reliable even after decades of existence. The profit-seeking nature of these merchants is precisely the fundamental reason why they left behind the public institutions such as the Padrossi Imperial Shipyard.

Although the Padrosi have the largest and most prosperous port in the world today, if you look closely, you will find that at least 70% of the ships moored in them, especially the large ones, were made in the south.

The Padrossi people were not without excellent shipbuilders, and the unrivaled East Coast Empire was a vast empire with many talents. However, after two centuries of commercial reform, while the upper class enjoyed the benefits brought by capital, their heads still did not turn around, and they still stayed in the old era thinking that "commoners serve the aristocracy".

As a result, almost all the personnel of the Imperial shipyards were "recruited", and their remuneration and salaries were not much, and they were often deducted by their aristocratic superiors who did not do anything. As a traditional old empire, after the transformation began to pursue commerce and the aristocracy and the merchant class began to combine in large numbers, almost all resources were occupied by related households. In such a harsh environment, ordinary civilians can hardly expect to rely on their skills to make a difference.

Over time, they will naturally want to seek other livelihoods. And what the Southern City-State Alliance gave them was such an opportunity.

The Empire's Shipyard's capable old craftsman fled with a group of apprentices to the Southern City-State Alliance, where a ship built by the Empire's proud shipyard sank into the harbor on the day of its celebratory launch. The Padrosi nobles still have a shameful experience, but they never think about the reason for what they are doing, and they only try to intimidate the civilians from fleeing with stricter punishments, and even set up a special supervision force to watch over the shipbuilders.

The country is easy to change, but the nature is difficult to change. After all, the people of the empire are the people of the empire, and even if they follow in the footsteps of the alliance of the city-states of the south and start to develop commerce, they will develop a padrosi-style commerce, and it will not be exactly the same as the south.

Even though the aristocracy was united with the merchant class, they still disdained the southern merchants who were "superficial and had no noble traditions". thinks that they are only bent on profit, have no greater ideals and ambitions, and their status is not as good as their naturally noble self.

Ironically, however, even these imperial aristocrats, with a high sense of inner superiority, still preferred the products produced by the Ella Shipyard when choosing their own private ships.

These things are quite indicative of the strength of the Ella Shipyard - the profit-seeking Southerners may have a small calculation in various ways, but if you are smart enough to find the right people and spend the right money, you will get undoubted top-notch products.

But even so, the world's best ocean-going sailing ship in the whole of Rigal, after this long voyage, inevitably added many new scars.

The large dark black stains on the blood-soaked foredeck could not be washed away, and although the stench did not come from the weather due to the weather, the appearance of the dirt was very annoying.

Several decks had begun to arch in the cold weather, and in addition to the fact that some parts had been damaged by the slapping of the storm, and the craters had been punched by the whaling forks fired by the pirate clippers, the Oriental Moon, which had been maintained and renovated in Marina in Suao only a month earlier, was now scarred again before it had even entered the Great East Sea.

Replacing damaged ship planks and carrying out various aspects of refurbishment work costs a lot of money: taking the unit that Henry and Mira are most familiar with, converted into 150 Danno Silver Ella coins as a model, the daily living needs of the Imperial burghers on the East Coast are about half a Silver Ella coin, which is about 75 to 80 Danno - this level is far higher than the daily expenditure of about 30 Danno on the West Coast - The price of the Dwarven Briggan Floor Armor on our Sage and the Roan Maiden is 200 Silver Ella, which is one gram of the money concept of the Confederacy of the South.

That's 30,000 in Danno, which is enough to give an average Padrossi citizen a year's life, or a West Coaster's life for more than two years and nearly three years. And that's just a plate armor, and it was during Parnilla's special time, where dwarven artisans sold them to humans for little to no profit.

For comparison, the price of a set of Imperial Knight's standard full-body plate armor made by human craftsmen is about 2.5 grams, or 600 silver Ella coins, which translates to 90,000 denols. For this price, you can build a small civil sentry fort, but keep in mind that the full-body plate armor used by the knight class is tailor-made. In contrast, the price of mass-produced armor and even second-hand armor used by the soldier class has not even been heat-treated, and the hardness is worrying, has plummeted.

A brand-new mass-produced cuirass costs anywhere from 15 to 20 silver Ella coins, depending on the size and style, which means that the average Padrosi citizen can buy one in about a month's worth of living expenses. A simple helmet costs around 8 to 10 silver coins, and the wealthy Padrosi burghers who wish to pursue a career as adventurers are usually able to afford to purchase steel armor for them, including the matching swords and other armor.

For those who are shy of money, the vast second-hand market will provide all kinds of obsolete weapons and equipment that are about one-third to half cheaper than brand new products.

Based on this rough idea of how much money an individual spends, for comparison, a maintenance job on the Eastern Moon costs one gram - 240 silver Ella coins or 36,000 denores, and it doubles if there is a need to replace the ship's planks or perform some other work that requires material maintenance.

After that, combined with the supplies needed for the voyage, a kilogram of cured bacon that can be preserved for a long time without any water is worth about 300 denos for two silver coins, and a two-month voyage of more than 120 passengers, including sailors, had to prepare at least 150 kilograms of bacon with other food—an expenditure of 45,000 denores alone, plus the equally expensive fresh fruit of lemon, bread as a staple food, seasonings, fuel, ale and rum, Skin creams made from whale fat and various other maintenance supplies that sailors need. A voyage can cost between 200,000 and 280,000 denols - the largest amount of money our Sage and the Luoan Maiden have received so far is only 5 grams, which translates to 180,000 denols, and every trip of the Eastern Moon already costs more money than this for basic material preparation.

It's no wonder that their tickets are so expensive, because they are costly and risky, and if they don't, they will lose their money.

And perhaps it is for this reason that Captain Francisco, when he encounters a situation where he can exchange money for money, will take a certain risk and decide to take a little more detour.

The sound of "zizi-" came from the large iron pot, and the brick chimney channeled the heat of cooking into the interior of the ship to combat the freezing temperatures. In addition to the fact that the interior of the wooden hull is not always ready for cooking, in addition to the fire that can be easily caused, the heat and steam generated by cooking can also cause the wood to bend and deform if applied directly to the plank.

This is similar to the process used by the knights when the shields are curved and curled, and the wood is softened by boiling it with water at high temperatures in order to enhance its extensibility and prevent it from breaking during the shaping process. Although the planks are thicker and heavier in comparison, the long-term heat of cooking can also damage the structure of the hull.

Therefore, it is common to attach insulated ceramic or sand bricks to the interior of the cabin, and to arrange the galley on the upper deck to avoid damage to the load-bearing structure caused by heat or fire.

This, together with a brick platform with a layer of sand as a brazier, on top of which various pots and pans are shelf, is the only cooking station on board that can be used for an open flame.

Smaller, less dedicated galleys cook directly on deck in the open air on a clay charcoal stove. But all in all, when the chef in charge of the ship starts cooking, because of the location of the kitchen, the taste is always quickly appreciated by everyone.

There are three chefs and followers on the Oriental Moon, and it obviously takes a lot of experience and fast hand speed to make a meal of about a hundred people. The ship's crew was dominated by the Lamanites and Suomirs, and as a result, their cooking style was quite northwestern Padero – characterized by high heat and quick processing, always piling the flame high and then stir-frying in a hot cauldron to quickly prepare the food.

However, the extremely dry salted meat used for sailing is very different from the one that the land adventurers bought with some moisture, and a kilogram of fresh beef and mutton will only be 30% of the original volume and weight after being drained of water with coarse salt. Adventurers use slightly higher moisture, as it's usually easier to find supplies when traveling by land. Although the weather can help store these ocean-going voyages, they still try to choose the type that can be stored for a longer period of time when they buy them.

This kind of bacon cannot be eaten directly, and it must be blanched at least twice. On the one hand, it is because it is too dry and hard to make your gums bleed and you have to rehydrate before you can eat it, and on the other hand, because the salt content is too high, you can't eat it at all.

After doing so, some of them are added to the saucepan and simmered with the beans and other things. The other part is placed in a large wok and stir-fried with sun-dried seasonings and flour products, as well as a large number of chili peppers.

Not even the cold air could hide the irritating spicy smell that quickly wafted on the top deck of the ship, and spicy was the most common taste in the recipes of ocean-going sailors, as chili peppers also prevented scurvy to some extent and neutralized the salty taste of shelf-stable foods.

Henry, Mira, and Galeva were a little uncomfortable. Although the young porter came from a port town like Polusaro, and it was not uncommon for dishes to be served with chili peppers to suit the sailors' tastes, he himself was not a fan of the hot and stinging texture.

However, when sailing in the icy waters of winter, as other kinds of taste buds seem to be frozen by ice, hot and spicy dishes provide essential calories and are popular on board.

In less than half an hour, the chefs prepared a huge number of dishes. They were carried by sailors and passengers in small pots and in small pots, and then they were placed on top of a hollowed out hole in the center of the table, under which was a small iron shelf, in which a small candle was placed to provide a little heat to keep the iron pot warm.

In this cold weather, even indoors, things will cool down quickly as soon as they leave the pot.

If they don't, they'll have to eat cold food.

The passengers and sailors sat down in groups and began to eat, but before that others had brought the surplus food to the bottom of the cabin.

That's where the captives were, and Captain Francisco kept them, as we mentioned earlier, to make a fortune.

Time passed, and a few hours after lunch, in the distant sky, in addition to the sound of the wind and waves, and the walking and talking of the people on board, there began to be some sounds that felt like they had not been heard for a long time.

The chirping of seagulls indicates the presence of landing.

After such a long voyage, they finally saw land again. However, it is not the territory of any country, but the lair of the most vicious pirates in the northernmost part of the country.

Captain Francisco called it "Chili Island", a word that is said to mean "fog" in the local dialect – and as the name suggests, this island at the southernmost tip of the North Rigalo Sea is always surrounded by fog all year round.

"Forty-seven people, go to their pirate leader, and you should be able to exchange a lot of ransom. The sailors talked, and Captain Francisco held the kitten in one hand and waved the other: "Stop, ready to put down the dinghy!"

As he spoke, the whole ship sailed into the other party's lair, apparently in the mouth of a sheep's mouth, so in order to protect their own interests, they had to escort these men in small boats in exchange.

There are few people, but they must all be clever and powerful, so as to ensure that if the transaction goes wrong, they can at least save themselves.

"Convert it into local money that you can use at that time, and accept such conditions, right?" The captain looked at Henry and Mira, the Loan girl hesitated for a moment, and the sage shrugged: "Okay." ”

"Prepare to put on the plate armor. Kaleva—" "Huh?" replied the young man in a daze.

"Come here, too. The sage said.