Path of Light.

Chapter 3 3. The Gift of the Sea

Blue sky, white birds.

Only in the place where the sea and the sky connect, there are some faint clouds like smoke and mist...

The reef area here is almost completely submerged by seawater at high tide, and only appears above the sea surface at low tide, so the reefs are crowded with oysters and sea rainbows. The elves don't like to eat shellfish, causing the shore The reef area is almost entirely occupied by oysters.

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

Fishing here is almost the best place except to be careful about the bottom of the hook.

The wind is a bit strong, and the tide has not yet risen, but the waves hit the rocks on the shore wave after wave, turning into countless sprays and foams. The fine sea water drifts away with the wind, and the whole coastline is filled with the smell of the sea.

Roy hung a piece of sandworm on the hook, and threw the fishing line in his hands into a relatively narrow sea below the reef. Every time the waves rushed in along the narrow rock cracks, they would flow again after a while. go out.

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

The elves cook fish delicacies. They prefer to peel off the skin of the fish, remove the fish meat from the spine, marinate it with salt and pepper for a while, then fry it, and then pour some prepared sauce, but they Eat some fish with few spines, so that it will not be so troublesome when cooking.

This kind of black sea bream is troublesome to cook, and only two fish shops are willing to buy it in the market on the pier.

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

In just one morning, Roy caught half a bucket of fish. In addition to some black bream, there was also a salmon with a beautiful pattern and color. Roy planned to steam the salmon for dinner at night.

Seeing that when it was almost noon, the tide began to rise again, and the sea water beat over one after another, hitting the rock wall of the reef continuously, swallowing the reef area little by little.

Roy knew that if he didn't leave here, it would be very troublesome to wait for the sea to rise up and wade in the water. There were sharp shells everywhere.

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

……

The wharf in Castleton Port is not too big. There are rows of fishing boats, large and small, moored on the wharf less than 300 meters away. Fish sailboat.

Incompatible with these fishing boats are the large sailing ships moored in deep waters. Most of these three-masted sailing ships are merchant ships.

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

The entire elf continent is occupied by three forces. A group of wood elves occupy a large area in the south. They believe in the children of nature. Most of the wood elves live on a huge world tree. It is said that the crown of the big tree is an extremely prosperous city ​​of.

The central region has the largest territory, and this is the territory of the Silvermoon Elves. The Silvermoon Elves always think that they are the royal family of elves, but they are not recognized by the other two elves.

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

Castletown Port is the territory of the Silvermoon Elves. It faces the sea on three sides and is close to the Gabu Great Trench, so it is a good natural port.

In the bustling fish market, not only local elves are picking fresh fish, but also some merchant ships from Buenos City, who will pack the fresh sea fish in the fish market into wooden boxes covered with ice cubes, and then transport them to Go to Buenos City.

The elves signed a non-aggression contract with the Jana Sea Clan, so the port of Castleton has slowly developed from a remote fishing village to a bustling 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 it on this high seaside sand hill, which is very close to the pier.

It was just a desolate beach at first, but the number of elves trading here gradually increased, and it slowly transformed into a prosperous fish market.

Now some stone slabs have been laid here, and even cabins or sunshades have been built in some places.

Ms. Angeli's fish stall has a sunshade, but she is more willing to buy large sea fish brought back from the far sea by a big fishing boat. She is not very interested in Roy's black bream, and Roy usually does not catch them. fish to her.

Roy has his own sales channels, and the stall owner who is willing to buy his goods is a restaurant owner. In addition to having a stall in 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 is also a little suggestion from Roy, which will make this dish more interesting.

The black snapper that Roy caught had a stable market, but the purchase price was still very low.

Two kohlers and one, regardless of size.

Of course, even if Roy catches a black snapper that is less than two palms in size, he will throw it back into the sea.

Roy walked through the lively fish market in Castleton Harbor with a bucket in his hand, and would greet familiar faces whenever he saw them.

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

For the Silver Moon Elves, their tolerance for Roy, a half-elf who looked more like a human, was much higher than that of some half-blood elves.

The elves have a unified title for the mixed-blood elves, that is 'blood elves'.

However, the characters of the elves are so "artistic", they can easily devote themselves to a new relationship.

And in front of new feelings, love has no boundaries...

Roy heard that a large number of mixed elves left the elf continent by boat because they couldn't bear the discrimination of the elf continent.

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

The elves in the fish market have long been familiar with Roy, and some elves even greeted Roy familiarly.

"Roy, are you going fishing again?"

"Well, Giroud, how is business today?"

"Forget it, the Buenos fishmongers keep the prices down!"

"..."

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

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

Giroud continued to babble:

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

Roy followed Giroud's gaze, and there was indeed another large ship docking in the deep water area of ​​the pier due to the tide.

The style of this ship is not only very different, even the sail is not the white silk fabric commonly used by elves, but a dark gray color, and half of the sail that is uplifted is clearly embroidered with patterns of swords, shields and griffins.

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

These human sailors were also standing on the side of the ship with great excitement, cheering and waving to the shore...

……

Soon Roy carried the bucket to a fish stall. Unlike other fish stalls, the types of sea fish on this fish stall were very diverse, and there were hardly any vendors among the customers who gathered here to pick sea fish.

The stall owner is an elderly elf. Although it is difficult for the years to leave traces on the elves, his age can still be judged from the thin white hair on the top of his head and some small wrinkles on his face. very big.

The lifespan of elves is about [-] years old, which does not mean that they will live forever...

Years will also take their lives, but an old elf represents a wealth of 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 of Castletown Harbor live in an environment of abundance, and even the poorest elves can afford breadfruit.

The elves do not have a high demand for food, and most young elves will choose to pursue higher artistic literacy.

It's okay to let them read poems facing the sea. Few young elves would go to the seaside to fish like Roy.

"Only seven, fourteen kohlers."

Roy put 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. This is the currency with the smallest denomination in circulation in the Silver Moon Elf Kingdom, and it is an uncommon shell.

Roy had scoured the coastline around Castletown Harbour, and at least this beach hadn't found shells of this type.

Roy put the fourteen Kohlers in his hand into his wallet. This thinly polished shell is very light. Roy couldn't help but patted his pocket. If tomorrow's luck is the same as today, the appraisal fee will be considered a final It's gone.

But what made Roy more concerned was something else.

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

Different from the delicate and streamlined hulls of the elves, the front of this ship is sharp, but the rear of the hull is somewhat square. At a glance, it can be seen that it can carry a lot of cargo.

Roy was not in a hurry to go home, but walked towards the deep water pier with a bucket.

(End of this chapter)