Chapter 277: Prince Aesril: Journey, III

The prince can't predict the weather, that's a given. But he can feel the patterns in the wind, the humid, the salt lingering in the air as the wind blew from West. It was all a lie, a lie Prince Aesril must maintain to achieve their goal.

"What?" Prince Aesril asked seeing that Gelethorn in his human form almost burst in laughter.

Seeing Prince Aesril in a raised hand as though embracing someone, Gelethorn held his breath to break himself from laughing.

"I never knew," the Wood elf said, "that the Prince of Elves could maintain a lie this good. Were you forming a new religion, my Prince?"

He would never lie, as the Prince of Elves, Prince Aesril could never put out a lie when speaking to his fellow elves. Unless they were of other races.

"Stop it," Prince Aesril said, poking his nose as they stood at the edge of the ship. Since when did Gelethorn speak to his prince almost near nonchalantly, perhaps he was more excited than the prince himself. "Let me focus."

Through his magic proficiency, Prince Aesril could read the patterns the wind was giving.

Three days after their talk with the Captain and the merchant Jack, they were moved into a nice and cozy room in the middle level of the ship.

Although a merchant ship, Dacota was built more of a luxurious kind of ship with its iron railings, and rare types of woods were used. There were three levels in the ship: The first level was where the deck and the captain's cabin. The second level was where the passengers of profession stayed along with the merchant Jack and other merchants, while the bottom level were the sailors maintaining the ship.

Aside from them, there were other passengers. Prince Aesril heard a couple bickering about something called Quest, while on the other side of the ship (to his far-right, near the captain's cabin) were other merchants with their circle of another merchant, and in the middle, was a mast, under it was a man sitting with crossed legs and arms, and closed eyes as though he was sleeping.

After they have made a deal with merchant Jack, they were also given the proper clothing. There were less than a hundred passengers in Dacota, and almost all of them mistook Prince Aesril and Gelethorn to be one of a high class noble. Thanks to Captain Creft's explanation that they were able to understand the pair's circumstances.

"We're nearing the Under Current," Gele informed.

Under Current was a pressurized belt of water under the ocean that ran through a specific spot. This Current was used by sailors to travel faster. But due to its natural pressure, it causes the surface to have abnormal weather—unable to be predicted by any sailors. Most of the time, the Current was calm, but if it started to change its pattern, it causes a tremendous amount of damage to the passing ships.

Above this Current, it may cause the wind to blow in many different and unpredictable directions. It could rain ice, and sometimes snow.

What makes the Under Current dangerous were the creatures using it. Not just humans.

"It's here," Prince Aesril said, manipulating his mana over his palms to feel even the slightest change of temperature in the air. "Tell Captain Creft to stop the ship. This is bigger than I have felt so far."

"Yes, my Prince," Gele bowed and left before Prince Aesril could scold him.

Aesril shook his head from Gele's remark as he kept on using the prince's title.

Then the mana he was constantly releasing bent behind him. The mana he was releasing was acting like a barrier that whoever entered the radius of ten meters around him would alert him of their location and their intentions. So far, only Gele could feel the constant barrier.

Prince Aesril nonchalantly took a quick step to his left, precisely avoiding the hand that was about to grab him by his shoulder.

The man jumped from his surprise. It was the man sitting under the mast, dagger was concealed under his black coat. Prince Aesril counted there were 20 of them, all imbued of magic with the strength of Tier 1 to Tier 3. There was also a ring to his left that Aesril felt a pulsating Mana. He smirked from the mana the ring was giving off, it was impure and almost unusable for Elves. But Aesril learned from old man Elliose that these Mana were being used by humans to conjure their magic. He was even surprised that they could use this impure Mana. Around the invisible mana, Prince Aesril could feel and see everything.

The man stopped sneaking, the hunter turned prey. He took a good minute before speaking in a shaky voice.

"Did you just... " The man took a quick step backward and raised his hand to shield him from the chill he felt from the prince.

But Aesril was disguising. All of their Elven pieces of equipment were left at the Kingdom of Elves, except one—two with the Mask of Careé included. A copper ring, too old, nobody would suspect that it was a ring hiding his magic level. He wore it to his left ring finger.

Prince Aesril faked his surprise as he faced the man.

"By the Maker," the prince said, "you are a sneaker."

The man in short ashen hair gulp as though relieved. Maybe it was just his imagination that someone evaded his sneaking moves, perhaps he was getting rusty.

"Forgive my intrusion," the sneaking man said with a smile and feeling cold as sweat formed on his forehead. "You must be the navigator the Captain hired."

"Yes," he replied. He felt awkward as the afternoon sun was reflecting from the beads of his cloth to the man's eyes. He let the wind ruffle his hair and said, "I am Ely."

Prince Aesril has read books about humans, their history, customs of different ethnicities. But now that someone approached him, all his accumulated knowledge has gone off as this was the first human he encountered outside of his interest.

Before hesitation took him, Prince Aesril reached out his hand for proper human greetings. Perhaps it wasn't, since the man in ashen hair let his hand hanging in the air.

"We don't do that kind of things here," the man said. "But it seemed that this was your first time in the ocean, I'll let it pass. I'm Edok, just Edok."

Edok reached out for the Prince's hands and shook them.

Prince Aesril doesn't hate humans same as Gele hated them, but he does not like them either.

"I'm Ely—oh wait, already said it."

Edok lifted a lip. If Prince Aesril was acting to get his attention, he was doing a fine job as Edok gave him a good nod in response to his human introduction.

"Definitely your first time in the seas," Edok said and darted his dark eyes from the Prince to the blue sky. "Captain said you could predict thunderstorm. At first, I was skeptical, but seeing you always here at the edges of the ship for three days, made me realize that, indeed, there were no thunderstorms this past few days. Might be a coincidence but, you sure are doing a good job guiding us."

Prince Aesril was not sure yet if Edok was praising him. But judging from his blank expression, Prince Aesril took it as it is.

"Thank you," the prince said, "I'm only doing this since we don't have much of coins."

"I think we all are," Edok said and nodded, rubbing his chin. "Better ask Captain Creft for Picas rather than gold. People of the Eastern sea don't take gold from landlubbers."

"Landlubbers?"

"Were you familiar with the seas?"

"No. These were the first I and my brother went sailing into the seas."

"Then you're a landlubber."

Prince Aesril nodded. It seemed that their knowledge, not even books could provide.

A series of shouting and bell ringing was then heard at the bottom part of the ship. Dacota stopped slowly.

Edok frowned.

"Is something wrong?" Prince Aesril asked.

"We stopped, yet again."

"Yes," Prince Aesril said. "I asked for it."

Another wind from the East dampens the cheeks of Prince Aesril in his human form. Passengers on the deck went silent as Dacota stopped completely.

But to Prince Aesril's surprise, the ship started to sail, and much faster this time.

"Pr—Ely," Gele said behind them along with a series of footsteps running and crowds murmuring. "The ship can't stop."

Prince Aesril frowned. Mask of Careé could imitate all of his expressions even to the smallest detail.

"Why is that, Enrol?"

"We must sail forward," a voice trailed Gele. It was merchant Jack. "It's either we sail forward or battle the beast following us."

Prince Aesril tilted his head. And soon after, Gele came to his side and whispered: "A mere group Cht'lukwart was following the ship."

"Stop the ship." Prince Aesril insisted. "It is my advice and I have chosen and carefully weighted both differences. We must stop the ship."

"You must be out of your mind, navigator Ely."

Captain Creft came out of the captain's cabin along with his other crew.

The deck below them was crowded with sailors trying to push the ship faster as it could, and it seemed that they were afraid of the Cht'lukwarts following them rather than the incoming storm.

"Do you know what Zealots could do to my ship? Their saw like head could tear Dacota in a mere minute. And let's say we could fend them off, do you know how much it would cost us from the ship's maintenance alone? Now let's not say that we could fend them off because it is near impossible to even capture one of the Zealots let alone kill. And you're trying to stop the ship?"

Gele leaned forward. "It seemed that Cht'lukwart was called Zealot by the humans," he whispered.

Prince Aesril nodded. No matter how he thought of it, Zealots were a mere beast even Gele could take a hundred of them. Prince Aesril sighed, and it seemed that as time passes by humans were becoming weak that even Zealots could shake their cores.

Edok walked closer to Prince Aesril but was blocked by Gele as he further advances. "Not a step closer."

Edok's silver necklace gleamed white under the shining sun. He smiled. "Or what?" He said and looked over Gele's shoulder. "Oi, landlubber. You trying to kill us all?"