Initially, the concept of sea travel was exciting for Lys.

He’d stare at the open seas for hours. The sun would appear from the waters, and then it would sink back to the bottom of the sea. He would stare at the night skies, as the stars were brighter than he could ever remember. Occasionally exotic fishes, some with wings would jump to the surface. The crews and captains would teach him how to fish, and he’d have fresh, monstrous fishes he caught prepared by a talkative cook as his dinner. His cabin might be dreary and had a few furnishings, but he personally felt that he was satisfied with it.

But he got bored of them pretty quick. In the end Lys would just stay in his cabin all day long, if he wasn’t busy chatting with the crews about the most trivial things. Sure, he got to hear a few strange tales about the seas, about how giant creatures inhabit the depths and how ships would suddenly gone and found later without its crews, but as amusing as the crew stories were, Lys would later found himself running out of sea beers the Keep had given him, and as a result, he was getting weary of the rough rocking by the second.

That was why, when the captain announced that Hexagrund was within sight, he almost jumped in joy.

He rushed out from his cabin, and from the decks, he found himself the sight of a port. There was a surge of excitement and a little hint of anxiety as he saw the red-colored town in front of him.

At last, Iurzemlya appeared before his eyes.

Lys remembered from the history books he read as a child. He remembered that Iurzemlya was supposed to be war-torn, or at least, it had been war-torn for a very long time.

The continent was the cradle that gave birth to the regime, a long-lived empire once encompassed all the lands men had ever known. During the zenith of the regime, Iurzemlya was the center of culture and learning. People would folk and gather to find riches, wealth and knowledge under the regime’s banner.

Alas, however, like anything mortal, no nations would bear the fate to stand for an eternity. The regime, especially Iurzemlya, eventually fell into a continuous civil war after the original imperial line perished. ‘Grand Lunar Regime’ would remain in name only for several centuries, before it eventually fell into the obscurity of history.

The seeds of the long-lived, once-powerful and all-encompassing regime’s demise were in fact, sprouted first in Hexagrund.

Over one thousand years ago, in a startling twist, the ruler of Hexagrund and the regime’s most trusted general, the Duchess of Reamist, raised her arms against her benefactor.

The reason behind her conduct was never made clear and had been a subject of a long debate between historians. What was known were the facts that the conflict was at least ten years long and it split Iurzemlya into two. The Duchess of Hexagrund possessed the eastern half of the continent, and the regime was left with the western half.

Eventually the rebellion was successfully put down, but it came with a hefty price. The long conflict deprived the regime of most of their resources, and it never recovered. A few years later, the imperial bloodline went extinct.

When the Duchy of Reamist declares their independence for the second time two centuries after the conflict, the regime was powerless to put up a fight, and steadily crumbled then after.

The Duchy of Reamist, later known as the Queendom of Reamist, didn’t last long. The passing of its first queen marked the dawn of Reamistian Republic. Nevertheless, like its predecessor which it broke off from, the republic was thrown into another civil war which formed the current outlook of Iurzemlyan political map.

The eastern part of Iurzemlya, which was the republic’s territory, was divided into the northern half and the southern half. The northern half was the pro-republic state, Communion of Hexagrund, and the southern half was the pro-queendom state, the Queendom of Pentagrund.

When the Reamistian bloodline finally died in Pentagrund later, the conflict between the states died with it. However, the two states never reunite. The southern half was now governed by the regency that replaced the Reamistian queens which gave the southern state its present name, the Vulkan Regency. Reinforcing the peace between them was the fact that both of the states were subjugated by the Fymian Empire later, and now both of them were two of the Fymian ten states.

The put it simply, Hexagrund obviously played a central role in the theater of most conflicts in Iurzemlya. From all those information he read, he thought he’d see a depressing, slumped town trying to recover itself from the brink of destruction.

Instead, what he saw was a vibrant port city. Its waters were crowded with ships of all sizes, and even from a distance away he could tell there were people of all ages enjoying themselves on its pristine white shores. A lovely red-roofed white castle, adorned with something that looked like stained glass from his distance, sat atop a cliff overlooking the bay and the town, as if it was the jeweled crown of the city. To add to the scenery were peaceful blue skies and white streaming clouds that had a secretive yet serene feel about them.

Perhaps Bravell was not the only proof that men are, indeed, persistent beings.

“Ah, Hexagrund,” the captain clicked his tongue at the sight before him, “One can never grow tired of this scenery.”

“Indeed. I’ve seen a lot of wonderful things. But this… is simply breathtaking.”

It was plain perfection. Lys could feel his expectations of Iurzemlya were rising.

“You’ve been spending your whole life in Bravell before, yes? You’re bound to see even more wonderful things, sir… Oh, and I believe we have the clearance to dock into the VIP piers. Let’s see… must’ve been the ones with the least crowd…”

The captain steered the wheel rightwards and started to sing in good mood.

====v====

When Lys disembarked, there was a group of soldier in light uniform and a distinctive pair of a man and a woman. The man was probably his late teen, was particularly short. He had flawless black hair, and somewhat slanted eyes that were also black in color--- a fitting match to his hair. He dressed in a loose, strange-patterned robe and a tall hat Lys had never seen before. The woman, in the other hand, was presumably in the midst of her twenties. Her stature was average by Serenadian standards, her light blonde hair was tied on both sides, her irises were deep blue colored, her nose was straight-edged, and there was a kittenish warm smile on her face.

The woman carefully inspected Lys’ features for a few minutes before she decided to greet him in a careful tone.

“Tied brown hair, a scar under his brown right eye, then I believe… you are Sir Ravenlicht, yes?”

The lady must’ve had been the one Betta was talking about.

“Indeed I am, greetings, Milady.”

He proceeded to take her right hand and kiss the lady’s palm back.

“Oh my!” she exclaimed in surprise, genuinely looking pleased as she was chuckling lightly afterwards, “Serenadian customs, yes, I almost forgot myself. I’ve been in this continent for so long, I’ve forgotten some of our ways. Then I’ll greet you the same way.”

The lady took a step back and raised her skirt hem a bit.

“I am Haluna Ioshimar. Pleased to make your acquaintance. Sir Ravenlicht. Welcome to Hexagrund.”

Then, she quickly let go of her hand and assumed her normal position, still chuckling.

“Ioshimar? I believe I was supposed to meet Lady Himskarr…”

“Himskarr was my maiden name. I’m married now, see?” with a lively manner, she brandished a white ring on her ring finger, “And how impolite of me… Allow me to introduce you, the gentlemen over here is Lord Charon Feodor, one of four ruling ministers of Hexagrund.”

As Himskarr introduced the man, he slightly bowed as he greeted Lys.

“Charon Feodor, Hexagrund’s ‘Minister of the Left’. Welcome to Hexagrund, sir. How are you feeling?”

“Thank you for your concern, Lord Feodor… Lys Ravenlicht of Serenadia.... and as to how I’m feeling… terrible, actually,” Lys said the truth in a half-joking manner, he didn’t know why he did that, but perhaps it was because that Feodor was obviously younger than him and he felt that it was fine to tell how he truly felt, “Now that I’ve just realized it, but perhaps spending some time on that boat made me a little bit weaker.”

“I believe the physicians called that condition ‘boatman’s illness’, it seems that people are temporarily weaker after spending some time on the seas. Must’ve been all that sun and rocking.” Feodor smiled as he shook his head in confirmation.

“Give it some time and you’ll recover eventually, sir… In fact, actually we would prefer you to stay here and rest for a while, but Lady Haluna here insisted that you must leave immediately…”

That was the first time Lys ever heard about such strange illness, but as much as he’d want to find out more about it, he was pretty sure in that last sentence Feodor implied that he was to continue to his journey as soon as he arrived.

He had been doing nothing but resting in his cabin for the last few days, but he could tell that he was exhausted after that long voyage. He’d like to stay in Hexagrund to recuperate before he’d head to Rosenfeld for a few days, but it seems it wasn’t happening.

He couldn’t understand why Himskarr would want him to leave immediately, so he asked her about it.

“Lady Himskarr, can you elaborate on this?”

“Yes, I can… But before that…” Himskarr extended her hand as if she was asking something from Lys.

“Milady?”

Lys knitted his eyebrows in confusion.

“You have something for me, right? Like… a letter from Min… Lady Taknash?”

“Oh, that.” Lys made an awkward laugh as he reached out his hand to the left side of his pocket bag where he had put the two scrolls from Betta, he grabbed one of them and handed it over to Himskarr.

“Hmm, hmm... Yes. This one. Let’s see…”

Himskarr received the scroll, hastily unrolled it and carefully read its contents. She nodded a few times and mumbled incomprehensible words before she rolled the scroll back as she made her comment.

“I see. I thought the scribe had made some sort of a mistake. But it’s true. They’re really sending you to Rosenfeld.” She made a grave look as she put the scroll away, “I can’t figure out why someone on his first diplomatic mission would end up there... but if you’ve heard the news about them, I can assure you it’s actually not that bad there… maybe.”

“… Maybe?”

“Yes, in some ways, maybe.” She rolled her eyes as she replied Lys with a vague and confusing answer, “Anyway, since I’m accompanying you there, we’d better get a move on. You asked me earlier as of why we should leave now. It’s because, in a few days the rainy season would come… and when it rains, the roads to Rosenfeld would be too muddy and difficult to travel… but that’s the least of the concerns.”

Perhaps she was trying to imply that the roads were littered by bandits during those times, or some sort of other bad things worse than a road with a certain difficulty to travel.

But Lys wasn’t going to give in just yet.

“If it’s just for today it won’t matter right? You said that the rainy season might be a few days away, but it’s not like it’ll come tomorrow. Since I’ve just been here, and I’d like to look around for a while so…”

“…… That’s a little troubling for me.”

“Maybe you should let him, Lady Haluna.” Feodor stepped in, perhaps he also felt that there was actually no rush needed, “At least let him stay for the afternoon. Although he isn’t the ambassador to our state, he’s still an honoured guest here. If he wishes to look around Hexagrund, I don’t see a reason why he shouldn’t.”

Himskarr didn’t seem to agree right away, she was still lost in her thoughts and didn’t respond to Feodor.

“I heard that you come from a family of traders, Sir Lys,” Feodor turned his attention to Lys once again, abruptly changing the course of the conversation, “Have you perchance heard of ‘mermaid’s silk’ before?”

Lys pondered for a few seconds.

“Only in passing, but yes. I believe my father talked about it once…”

It was not the first time he had heard that. But he couldn’t remember what it was. He did, however, remember several miscellaneous things about it, like that it was not available anywhere in Bravell due to a certain issue he couldn’t recall as well

“Then I assume your merchant blood in you would find interest in what I’m about to say… Bear with me for a while please, Lady Haluna.”

He stole a quick glance at Himskarr, and then continued.

“It is a commodity only known in the far east until very recently. Fairly the strange material, it is… They are most fine, truly delicate, and very rare too… as they lie exclusively in the deepest depths of the oceans south to the Atlaean islands. Only after literally thousand dives could you get a few of them… While I’m not one for delicate fabric myself, there’s a reason why people has been willing to pay a fortune for them. It’s quite intricate to weave, yes, but if a master tailor were to treat it with the right herbs and essence, then any dress weaved from it will give you this shimmer no prime silk could ever emulate. Let the sunlight shine upon it and, oh, that golden colour, beautiful sight, I assure you… shame that you can’t wear it in the north because of this certain moth unique to your land that seems to love it to bits…”

Before Lys realised it, Himskarr had already stopped being lost in her own thoughts and was now listening to Feodor intently.

With a slight pause, he carried on,

“Earlier this morning, a crate full of this precious fabric came from Atlae. A friend of mine and a major merchant in the town, Mr. Heisler Sycs--- maybe you’ve heard of him----, was apparently the one who brought it into the town. He bought quite a large amount of them, which is exceptional, considering how rare this commodity is. As I said, it’s given that it’ll still be sold at a fortune, but despite its outrageous price from what I’ve heard he has been flooded with orders, probably from speculators or some socialites--- I’m not sure. Anyway, it’s still available if you go to his place right now…. but give it five, no four days, and it will all be gone. Then you will have to wait for years until another crate of them could grace our port.”

After Feodor was done with his exposition, there was an odd glint in Himskarr’s eyes.

“… For someone who fancies things like that, that would truly be a shame now, wouldn’t it?”

He added.

“Ah…. that sounds…. really interesting.”

For some reason, what Feodor had said seemed to have some sort of a special effect on her, as her tone was suddenly filled with all the desire in the world.

For a moment there, Lys thought she’d start sprinting or something.

“Ca-can’t be helped then! Just for the afternoon, okay? We’ll be leaving when the sun sets! Feodor will take you to my carriage once it starts to get dark, anyway for now, please excuse me!”

She hurriedly bowed and left Lys and Feodor in a rush.

As Lys witnessed Himskarr getting further away, he wondered why Feodor wouldn’t tell Himskarr that the shipment was coming tomorrow instead.

====v====

Thanks to Feodor, that afternoon Lys found himself relaxingly walking the streets of Hexagrund with Feodor himself as a guide. As they were walking around the town, Feodor would explain a few bits about Hexagrund.

From what he heard from Feodor, apparently Hexagrund saw very little changes during its course of years. Unlike Bravell, which had been destroyed and rebuilt many times over, the layout of Hexagrund remained unchanged from its original design when it was built by the city’s founder.

The city was thoroughly planned. Built on an elevation that served as a natural fort, it was still fortified by a six hundred arvina (about twelve metres) tall wall from six equal sides, which was probably the origin of the city’s name. The city proper was divided into three wards, the upper Eva ward, the middle Freya ward, and the lower Lisa ward. Each named respectively for the first queen, the first prime minister and the first hero of the Reamistian state. A wall with the same height of the outer wall marked the borders between the wards, each with its own reinforced gate. Apparently the idea was to make the city a three-layered fortress before a hostile force could besiege the castle.

Historically, during the reign of the monarchy, each ward would be dedicated for a specific class of people. Noblemen and their family would inhabit the Eva ward. Affluent commoners, like major merchants or famous artists, and high-ranking officers would find their refuge in the Freya ward. The rest of the mass, meanwhile, would live their lives in the Lisa ward. The first thing the republicans did when Hexagrund fell to their control was to remove such restrictions and encourage the citizens of each wards to blend and forced some people to move between each wards in order to hasten such process. But apparently, according to Feodor, although the less prosperous could now access the upper ward and the castle, they were still sometimes seen with a special kind of contempt by their more affluent neighbours, even after all these centuries after the policy was enacted.

Feodor brought Lys into an unassuming eatery in a certain corner of the Freya ward for lunch. There was hardly a sign on the building, save for a tiny wooden plaque near its entrance. What written on the plaque was unintelligible for Lys, so he didn’t know the name of the place, but he was indeed taken aback when he got inside.

While not big, the interior of the eatery was truly bright and sophisticated. The placement of their desks and the choice of their furniture gave off a formal yet comfortable feeling about them. There were only a few desks in there, which accentuated a cosy atmosphere, and it may be a sign that the owner prioritised a customer’s individual dining experience rather than potential numbers of customers served at a time. But the highlight of it all was the wide window that provided them with a crystal-clear view of the shores and the seas. It did make the eatery a little bit warm, but it wasn’t something Lys couldn’t bear.

They took a seat and Feodor called an attending waiter right away. Rather than letting Lys choose his own meal, he asked Lys whether he disliked a particular thing, to which Lys answered no, and then started a barrage of orders. Among them were dishes that Lys had never heard of. The waiter nodded and then left for the kitchen.

Lys and Feodor made small talk for approximately an hour until four waiters brought in a bronze platter each. Among the dishes they brought was an herby grilled fish dish with soft, edible bones, a roasted bird dish with glistening crispy brown skin, and a selection of fresh garden salad with a touch of with what might’ve been olive oil. The winning entry, however, was the unpretentious clear reddish soup he sampled for the last. At first mouthful, the soup tasted peppery and a bit sour, and that was about it. But then he realised there was a fair amount of tiny meat chunks on the base of the bowl, and when he took it with the soup, it was a different experience altogether.

Perhaps it was the inherent flavour of the meat, the perfect timing when it was cooked, and the amount of salt in it. The tiny irregular bits presented a wondrous balance of flavour when taken together with the slightly sour stock. He ate it with so much vigour and focus that when he realised that he had emptied his bowl, he realised that it was the first time for him to eat something so quickly, much to his shame. Though Feodor himself was focusing on his food and did not make a remark about it.

Lys wasn’t a peculiar man when it comes to food, he would eat what Betta cook without a question and that was the extent of it. He never asked for or about a particular dish, but apparently he had discovered a new favourite. So much so that he forgot that he was still feeling terrible due to the time he had spent on the seas, and contrary to his usual indifferent attitude to food, he asked Feodor about the soup.

“The soup was made with a certain fish as the main component of its broth. The name of the fish in the local tongue is hard to pronounce, but I’ll tell you its name in the common tongue. It’s called ‘quartzfish’. It’s a bony fish with shiny, crystal-like scales that mainly lives beneath the craggy shallow seabed a bit west of the city’s coasts. Fishermen used to toss them back to the sea, because they were, well, inedible.”

And apparently they sold for very little too. That was, until a poor certain chef decided to make a stock from it after breaking its hard scale. It wasn’t a one-time attempt, but according to Feodor’s accounts, by the time the chef released the dish for the public after he was sure he had perfected the recipe, it swiftly became the new star of the town. After a few generations, all three wards had developed their own version of the dish, and the elite restaurants in Eva ward would sell their fancy take on the dish for at least three gold coins per portion, which amounted to a month’s wage of a typical manual labourer.

To Feodor’s palate, however, the Freya ward’s version of the soup was the most flavourful among the three. This version would commonly be prepared with tiny chunks of spiced pheasant meat, which he thought went well with the quartzfish broth and its aromatic herbs. An opinion which Lys agreed with, although he never tried the other two versions before.

He later added that the soup that Lys had was not actually the most excellent in the ward. There was another eatery that specialised on the soup, but he thought that it would be better bring Lys there for a dining experience with the best possible view of the seas in Freya’s ward instead.

“… And I feel that in this occasion, this eatery would be the best place to host you, but… it seems that you’ve taken a liking to the dish. Glad to know that, maybe I should’ve taken you to that place instead…”

“No, no. This is a lovely place, Lord Feodor. Bravell is a coastal town, too, so I thought I’ve had seen enough of the shores and the seas for the rest of my natural life… but I must say I’m pleased to learn that I was wrong. The vistas of Hexagrund have been breathtaking for me, and the dishes you’ve treated me this afternoon----- while I’m no gourmet---- was more than merely decent. I’d like to come here again… when I’m off duty.”

‘Probably with Betta’, Lys thought, she probably could emulate this quartzfish soup so he could enjoy it every day until he had enough of it, though at this point, he didn’t think that a day when he’d find the dish unexciting would ever come.

“Please do,” Feodor made a small nod and politely smiled, “During your tenure, you may actually take a few weeks of vacation if you ask the archduke. Provided that she’s willing, of course, but I can’t see why she wouldn’t allow you to. Ah, let us go to that place I mentioned the next time your grace us a visit.”

Feodor wiped his mouth and called the waiter once again to settle the bills.