CHAPTER 18

'I hate ships. Why bother using them when you can swim, you know?'

'Yes, we do. And this is probably the fiftieth time you are telling this in the last hour.'

Brik angrily replied to Aqua. She had been pestering them the entire day, asking them to abandon their idea of crossing the sea on a ship. It made no sense for her, and Atlantean who had been swimming across the Great Ocean her entire childhood. Why would you cross a small body of water on a flimsy piece of wood, when you could swim across with even more ease? Why Brik yelled at her, she had no idea, but she did not really care. All she cared about was that X was not convinced yet about her ship-abandoning plan.

It was irritating. Brik did not like this girl, who acted like she was useless. She had the most demon kills in the Academy Entrance Exam, she had the highest score in all the other exams, and she was the most loved student, a literal teacher's pet. And yet, she complained about how weak she was. She was saying "I can swim across an entire ocean, you know" and "I am the weakest in the group, and the Academy, you know" in basically the same sentence. She was just extremely irritating, and he had no idea why X did not bother stopping her. He even hated the way Aqua was staring at X.

'We all can't swim across an ocean, or breathe underwater, you know?'

Brik mimicked Aqua in order to piss her off, but it was lost on her. She knitted her eyebrows, and after thinking for a while, answered sincerely

'If you can not swim across an ocean, it's fine. There is only a sea, and it's kind of a small one, you know. I know it's one of the seven seas, but the red one is larger, so it does not matter.'

'Swim across a sea, are you mad or something?'

X stopped the two from bickering anymore. He did not understand much of their conversation if you could call it that. Dusan Sinclair Rubeus was floating towards them, after having a conversation with his Grandfather. Turns out that they were good friends back in their prime, but had not met much since Grandfather's retirement. As he inched closer, X voiced a question that had been on his mind throughout their conversation.

'What is a sea? And a ship. And why is it hard to swim across it?'

It was a genuine doubt, but he did not get any answers. Brik and Aqua stared at him for a while, trying to find out if he was making a joke or not.

'If you are being serious, well I'm sorry. I would never want to be you. You know about dragons, and demons, and fighting styles, but you have never heard of a sea. If I was in your place, I would cry, you know.'

Brik spoke, simultaneously teasing both X and Aqua. Aqua confirmed, not identifying the attack on her.

'For the first time, I agree with Brik. You don't know anything about seas, or ships? You know nothing about the world's pleasures, you know.'

Just then, the Tower Master landed and asked them if they were ready to leave for the Floating City, Nevice. X obviously did not know what it was, but he was excited to go there. And if he could quench the burning question of what is a sea and a ship, it would be nice. So, he gave a slight nod and stood in line beside his comrades. One moment, they were in the woods behind his house, the next they were standing on a bridge in the Floating City, Nevice. The others on the bridge ran away in fear since they had just teleported in. The Tower Master whispered a goodbye, before teleporting away.

X could not reply. He could not even nod at him. All he could do was stare out in wonder at the city, his mouth wide open.

Tall stone buildings rose in orderly rows on both sides of the bridge. Small roads were between the buildings, pathways for the citizens to walk. No carts were moving through any road. Most importantly, there was a stream, larger than any he had seen in the village. The bridge they were on was built over that stream, and other bridges were made at similar distances. The clear, blue stream flowed slowly, and on top of the waters were people, riding on wood, carved into a hollow cup-like object. They held wooden sticks in their hands, flattened at the end.

'What... is that?'

X pointed at the floating piece of wood, and for the next five minutes, all he could hear was laughter from both Brik and Aqua. They howled with laughter, apparently forgetting the animosity they held just a moment ago. Tears streamed out of Aqua's eyes. Finally, Brik replied

'That's a boat, you idiot.'

X walked away, unable to handle the embarrassment. Brik and Aqua followed, bursting into laughter at random intervals. X was mesmerized by the city. It was tiny in comparison to the Fortress City, Rossenberg, but made up for the lack of size with beauty. The crystal clear water reflected the sun's light onto the streets. A large statue stood at the intersection, giant lions with the feathery wings of an eagle. The front paws of the statues were talons, while the back paws were paws. There were inscriptions on the pedestal, mentioning how great the half-lion half-eagles were.

'What are these things? I have never heard of them, and honestly, they look kinda odd, you know.'

Aqua asked a sensible question since these things were definitely rarer than boats. X obviously did not know the answer and shut his mouth to escape embarrassment. Just because he did not feel awkward talking to these people did not mean that he could just answer anything, that just felt wrong to him. Brik replied immediately

'That is a Griffin.'

Just then, a local of the city approached them and spoke in a feeble voice

'A creature from the legends. One of the three lords of the sky, alongside Dragons. The kings of all animals. The great Griffins. They are the protectors of Nevice, which is why we have placed statues of them. Whenever the city is in mortal danger, they have appeared to protect it, and we worship them in return.'

As she spoke, her voice changed, becoming more proud of her tone. X simply nodded and walked away as the others followed him. Aqua was surprised by the fact that Brik knew what that thing was. So she asked

'How do you know what that Griffin was?'

'I am not an idiot.'

Brik roared in anger, and the pigeons sitting on the tops of the buildings flew away, squawking at Brik. X chuckled at seeing that. Brik might be the most knowledgeable among the three of them, but he was still the one with the shortest temper. They walked forward in silence since none of them wanted to be embarrassed even more. It was peaceful, slowly walking through the quiet city, watching the streams flow slowly, boats streaming through them. To see the countless Griffin statues, brightened by the light reflected from the waters. 

They asked the locals for the location of the dock, and walked straight to it, much to Aqua's dismay. She kept trying to persuade the two of them, but they simply ignored her. They crossed a couple of bridges, took a couple of turns, and even jumped across the stream when there wasn't a bridge in their path. Finally, they reached the docks, and again X did not utter a word, simply staring at the sea in wonder.

The greenish-blue waters of the Middle Sea glittered under the afternoon sun, an endless expanse of blue. The streams of Nevice all joined together into a single river and flowed into the sea. The river was massive in size, literally containing almost all of the water in the city, but in comparison to the sea, it was tiny. Waves were formed from the giant body of water, crashing onto the sandy lan where many large boats were kept. Giant pieces of cloth were placed on top of the big boats, the rest of the boats were made of wood and steel. The big boats were really big compared to the ones they had just seen, just like how the streams were insignificant compared to the sea. 

Aqua gave a disheveled grunt on seeing the sea, unimpressed by its crystal clear, greenish-blue waters. The Great Ocean was much bigger after all. But on seeing her companions just staring at the waters, she decided to join them. She looked at X, who was looking at this small pond with so much wonder, that she was afraid he would die of shock when he saw her ocean. But he did look good staring like that. So while her friends stared at the waters, Aqua stared at X. 

Brik broke the long moment of silence, asking if they should enter one of those ships. It was only then that X realized what ships were, and what seas were. The large boats were ships, and the massive body of water was the Middle Sea. He moved his head until he was right beside Brik's ear, and whispered

'Thank you.'

Brik simply nodded, and they walked forward towards the ship side by side. Brik called out to the person responsible for the biggest ship, and X showed him the new badge he had acquired for being the leader of a Stage 2 knight squad. After a while of bickering, the three of them were allowed to enter the ship for a ride across the Middle Sea for free. After a few minutes, all the passengers of the ship entered it, and off they went, ready to face their first mission.