Path of light

Chapter 3 3. The gift of the sea

Blue sky, white birds.

Only where the sea and the sky are connected are there some faint clouds like smoke and mist...

The reef area here is almost completely submerged by sea water at high tide, and is only exposed above the sea surface at low tide. Therefore, the reef is crowded with oysters and sea rainbows. The elves do not like to eat shellfish, causing the shore to The reef area is almost entirely occupied by oysters.

Every once in a while, Roy has to clean up the shellfish growing in the fishing position, but this is a reef area and there are abundant shellfish, so there are also many fish hiding in the rock crevices.

When fishing here, except that you have to be careful about the hook hanging on the bottom, it is almost the best place.

The wind was a bit strong and the tide had not yet risen, but the waves hit the rocks on the shore one after another, turning into countless splashes and foam. The fine seawater drifted away with the wind, filling the entire coastline with the smell of the sea.

Roy hung a piece of sandworm on the fishhook, and threw the fishing line in his hand into a relatively narrow sea surface under the reef with both hands. Every time the waves came in along the narrow rock crack, they would flow out again after a while. go out.

If there is a strong tide, you will find that there is a dark pit surrounded by rocks, only about ten square meters in size, and there will be some black snappers in it.

When elves prepare fish delicacies, they prefer to peel off the skin of the fish, pick the fish meat from the spine, marinate it with salt and pepper for a while, fry it, and then pour some prepared sauce on it, but they Eat fish with fewer spines so that cooking is less troublesome.

This kind of black sea bream is a bit troublesome to cook. When it was brought to the market on the pier, only two fish shops were willing to buy it.

Normally, Roy would occasionally put buckets at the entrance of the fish market and sell them to the elves who came to buy fish at the fish market. However, those elves were picky, so Roy would usually rather sell the fish for less money and send the fish directly to the fish shop. Go, you can go anytime.

In just one morning, Roy caught half a bucket of fish. In addition to some black sea bream, there was also a three-sword fish with beautiful colors. Roy planned to steam the three-sword fish in the evening.

As it was approaching noon, the tide began to rise again. The sea water came in one wave after another, constantly hitting the reef walls and swallowing the reef area bit by bit.

Roy knew that if he didn't leave here, it would be very troublesome to wait until the water rose before wading into the water. There were shells as sharp as knives everywhere.

Then he put away the fishing rod, carried the heavy bucket, carefully climbed down from the reef, and walked on the soft sand towards the fish market on the pier.

…

The pier of Castletown Port is not very big. There are rows of large and small fishing boats moored on the pier of less than 300 meters. Some are wooden boats that can only fish offshore, and some can fish farther away. Fishing sailboat.

What is incompatible with these fishing boats are the large sailing ships anchored in the deep water area. Most of these three-masted sailing ships are merchant ships.

They not only brought Dalildo's spices and gems from the south, but also brought various magical herbs and delicious mushrooms from the Evernight Forest in the north.

The entire elven continent is occupied by three forces. Occupying a large area of ​​land in the south is a group of wood elves who believe in the Son of Nature. Most of the wood elves live in a huge world tree. It is said that the crown of that big tree is an extremely prosperous city ​​of.

The central region has the largest territory, and this is the territory of the Silver Moon elves. The Silver Moon elves have always believed that their tribe is the royal family of elves, but they are not recognized by the other two elven races.

The Eternal Night Forest in the north has always been the territory of the Dark Moon Elves. They are used to living in darkness, and many assassins come from the Eternal Night Forest.

Castletown Port is the territory of the Silver Moon Elves. It faces the sea on three sides and is close to the Gab Trench, so it is a natural harbor.

In the lively fish market, there are not only local elves selecting fresh fish, but also some merchant ships from Buenos City. They will pack the fresh sea fish from the fish market into wooden boxes filled with ice and then transport them to Go to Buenos City.

The elves and the Janna Sea Tribe signed a non-aggression contract in the coastal waters. Therefore, Castletown Port has slowly developed from a remote fishing village into a lively fishing port in the past hundred years.

On the east side of the pier is a lively fish market.

Many elves don't like the fishy smell, so when the elves come back from fishing in the sea, they sell them on the sandy hill near the seaside with relatively high terrain, which is very close to the pier.

This place was originally just a deserted beach. Later, the number of elves trading here gradually increased, and it slowly transformed into a prosperous fish market.

There are now some flagstones here and there are even cabins or awnings in some places.

Ms. Angeli's fish stall has an awning, but she is more willing to buy large sea fish brought back from the distant sea by large fishing boats. She is not very interested in black sea bream like Roy, and Roy usually won't catch it. Send the fish to her.

Roy has his own sales channel. The stall owner who is willing to buy his goods is a restaurateur. In addition to having a stall at the fish market, he also opened a restaurant in the city. One of the characteristics of that restaurant is One is the dish 'Steamed Snapper'.

Of course, there are also some tips from Roy to make this dish have a special taste.

The black snapper Roy caught has a stable market, but the purchase price is still very low.

Two kohls for one, no matter how big or small.

Of course, even if Roy caught a black snapper smaller than two palms in size, he would throw it back into the sea.

Roy carried a bucket through the fish market in the lively Castletown Harbor and would take the initiative to say hello to some familiar faces he saw.

The elves in the fish market are ordinary people. Nobles will not come to this dirty and smelly fish market. Many of the elves here are mixed-races with low status.

For the Silver Moon elves, their tolerance for half-elves like Roy, who look more like humans, is much higher than that of some mixed-blood elves.

The elves have a unified name for mixed-blood elves, which is 'blood elves'.

However, the characters of elves are so "literary", and it is easy for them to devote themselves wholeheartedly to a new relationship.

And in the face of new feelings, love has no boundaries...

Roy heard that a large number of mixed-blood elves could not stand the discrimination in the Elf Continent, so they left the Elf Continent in batches by boat.

Speaking of which, the two daughters of Roy's neighbor Ms. Gillian are like this. The eldest daughter Sabrina has a little bit of wood elf blood, and the younger daughter Moira has a bit of dark moon elf blood. Ms. Gillian Like her mother Belinda, she is a Silver Moon Elf...

Among the elves in the fish market, everyone has long been familiar with Roy, and some elves even greeted Roy familiarly.

"Roy, are you going fishing again?"

"Well, Giroud, how was business today?"

"Forget it, the fishmongers in Buenos keep the prices too low!"

"..."

Whenever this happens, Roy doesn't know what to say.

But the fish stall owner wearing waterproof leather pants didn't mind at all. He just wanted to complain. I have to say that Roy was a good listener.

Giroud continued to chatter:

"Our fish market should unite and resist those foreign fishmongers. Hey, look over there, it seems that another big ship has docked."

Roy followed Giroud's gaze and saw that another large ship had indeed docked in the deep water area of ​​the pier thanks to the tide.

Not only is the style of this ship very unusual, even the sails are not made of white silk fabric commonly used by elves, but are made of dark gray, and the half of the sail that is raised is clearly embroidered with patterns of swords, shields and griffons.

Although the five-masted sailing ship was several hundred meters away, Roy could still clearly see that the sailors on the ship were not elves with pointy ears, but a group of humans who looked somewhat similar to him.

These human sailors also stood on the side of the ship extremely excitedly, cheering and waving to the shore...

…

Roy soon carried the bucket to a fish stall. Different from other fish stalls, the types of marine fish at this fish stall were very diverse. There were almost no traders among the customers who gathered around to choose the marine fish.

The stall owner is an old elf. Although time rarely leaves traces on elves, his age can still be judged from the sparse white hair on the top of his head and some subtle wrinkles on his face. Very big.

The lifespan of elves is about 800 years, which does not mean that they will live forever...

Time will also take away their lives, but an old elf represents a rich life experience, even if he is just a stall owner in the fish market.

"Going fishing again?" the old elf asked Roy kindly.

Compared with other young elves, Roy is more pragmatic and understands life better.

The elves in Castletown Harbor live in an environment of abundant supplies, and even the poorest elves can afford breadfruit.

The elves do not have high demands for food, and most young elves will choose to pursue higher artistic attainments.

It's okay to let them face the sea and recite poems. There are few young elves who would go to the beach to fish specifically like Roy.

"Only seven, fourteen kolers."

Roy placed the bucket at the old elf's feet.

"Pour it in!" the old elf said without counting the quantity.

Then he counted fourteen white shells from the money bag. Here is the smallest denomination currency circulating in the Silver Moon Elf Kingdom. It is an uncommon shell.

Roy had searched the coastline around Castletown Harbor, and at least no shells of this style were found on this beach.

Roy put the fourteen Kohler in his hand into his wallet. This kind of thinly polished shell was very light. Roy couldn't help but pat his pocket. If the luck tomorrow is the same as today, the appraisal fee will be considered as the final reward. It's settled.

But what worries Roy more is another thing.

Roy carried the bucket with only one saury fish left, and turned around to see the five-masted sailing ship at the deep-water dock. This huge sea ship looked very dilapidated. The front corner of the hull was a bronze statue of a griffon. It's just that the left wing is broken, and it's actually covered in green patina. It looks like it should be repaired.

Different from the exquisite streamlined hulls of the elves, the front of this sea-going ship is relatively pointed, while the back of the hull is somewhat square. At a glance, you can tell that it can carry a lot of cargo.

Roy didn't rush home, but walked towards the deep water pier with the bucket.