Valentia had the biggest harbour in the Carpa Kingdom.

　　This famous large city was technically ruled by the “Duke of Valentia”, but most of the time, it was actually registered to be under the direct control of the monarch.

　　And this extended to Aura as well, the current Queen.

　　She was the Queen and the Duke of Valentia at the same time.

　　After all, Valentia was the largest commercial harbour in the Kingdom as well as an important source area for salt. Depending on the season, it sometimes had an even greater circulation of people, goods and money than the royal capital.

　　It stood to reason that the previous monarchs took the view that only an extremely trustworthy somebody with adequate skill and personality could be entrusted with that region.

　　Having said this, Aura actually had no one to appoint, even if she wanted to, since all members of the royal family besides her died in the previous war.

　　Anyway, the city of Valentia was currently under the nominal control of Queen Aura, because of these circ.u.mstances. Needless to say, she was extremely busy with her duties in the capital, so she obviously had no time to take its governance matters into her hands. All affairs in Valentia were actually managed by the appointed “governor”.

　　Normally the governors of detached lands used their appointments to illegally ama.s.s a fortune and build a private army and nothing else, but the Carpa Kingdom was relatively free from that worry.

　　After all, the bloodline magic of the Carpa Royal Family was “s.p.a.ce-Time Magic”. That meant they could use “Teleport”.

　　As such, the governor would naturally hesitate to do anything illegal under these circ.u.mstances, in which a trusted retainer of the Queen could suddenly drop by at any moment.

　　In Valentia the majority of money and manpower was obviously expended to the harbour.

　　Numerous piers extended from a beautiful terraformed coast. Each of them was solidly built from stone and were wide enough to allow large dragon carriages to pa.s.s by each other without any problems.

　　Moreover, the water was so deep that even the big s.h.i.+ps from the North Continent with a very large draft could moor with no problems whatsoever.

　　And on top of that, breakwaters were constructed off the coast behind one another in a three-layered fas.h.i.+on, so that they were overlapping by turns. That prevented waves from advancing into the harbour, but at the same time, it allowed an easy entry and departure for s.h.i.+ps.

　　Thanks to that, not a single harboured s.h.i.+p had capsized in the dock of Valentia in the last decades, not even during the typhoons of the rain season.

　　The large lighthouse standing at the edge of a headland topped the whole thing off.

　　It was a columnar building, looking like a candle, with an height that would pa.s.s into oblivion amongst the buildings of a modern metropolis, but overwhelmed here, since there was nothing on par with it.

　　The piers, the breakwaters and the lighthouse.

　　All of them were beautifully built from stone to such an extent that anyone, who saw the spent budget and manpower, would feel giddy. It was not for nothing that it was the biggest harbour in the western part of the South Continent.

　　Even now, Valentia was overflowing with activity.

　　Accompanied by a cleared up blue sky and a pleasant sea breeze, a great deal of sailors and dockworkers were shouting and running around sedulous in the harbour.

　　“Please let me through, I got an urgent delivery!”

　　“Hey, are these really the barrels with the dried meat? They’re rather light.”

　　“You there, no fighting on the pier! Otherwise you get the sack.”

　　One wrong step in this buzzy atmosphere could lead to a quarrel and soldiers armed with short spears were mediating in loud voices.

　　The guards in the capital were only wearing leather armours, too, but in consideration for the nearby sea, the soldiers here just wore s.h.i.+rts and trousers too thin to expect any protection.

　　And on a closer look, it became apparent that the spearheads of their equipped spears were not reflecting the dazzling sunlight at all. Most likely, the spears utilized sharpened dragon bones instead of iron.

　　When guarding a harbour, they were naturally exposed to the sea breeze, but it was not unusual either that they sometimes got dashed with sea water. Therefore iron would start to rust in no time, unless maintained effortful.

　　Roughly speaking, it was a specific equipment for coast areas in a way.

　　Another thing worth mentioning was that amongst the dockworkers, who carried stuff around on the piers, were a few that used a “handcart”.

　　On sale at the merchants of the capital quite recently, that wooden gadget was quite valuable in the harbour, where large amounts of goods had to be moved around on a daily basis. The ground had to be at least somewhat even to use the handcart, which only had small wooden wheels, but fortunately enough, Port Valentia fulfilled that requirement completely.

　　The handcart was spa.r.s.ely showing up right now, because of its high prize, but at this rate it might only be a matter of time until it became a regular equipment at the harbour.

　　In fact, its usefulness was painfully obvious once you used it. The majority of dockworkers worked up a good sweat by shouldering wooden crates or hemp bags. In contrast, the dockworkers with a handcart easily pushed a multiple of that weight, so its utility was beyond question.

　　When the dockworkers were carrying a heavy cargo, they were sweating all over their bodies and could only look in front of them. The handcart dockworkers, on the other hand, could take it easy and look around while they pushed the cart.

　　Therefore it was probably inevitable that it was someone pus.h.i.+ng a handcart noticed a certain something first.

　　“Hm? What’s that?”

　　The young dockworker looked beyond the horizon and stopped in his track.

　　“Hey, what’cha doing? Don’t stop dead, it’s dangerous.”

　　Behind him, a middle-aged worker carrying a largo cargo over his shoulders called out to him, whereon the young dockworker started walking again while replying to the man walking behind him.

　　“Ah, sorry. It’s just, I saw an unfamiliar s.h.i.+p over there.”

　　“Huh? An unfamiliar s.h.i.+p?”

　　Without stopping in his track, the middle-aged worker, incited by these words, looked in the same direction.

　　Unfortunately however, he only saw the wide open sea like always.

　　“Dun see anything.”

　　“No, it’s there. It was just a mast appearing above the horizon, though.”

　　Thereat the middle-aged worker nodded his a.s.sent once, still carrying the large hemp bag over his right shoulder.

　　“Oh right, you’ve good eyesight.”

　　“Yes, it’s my only redeeming virtue. Anyway, it must be one heck of a big s.h.i.+p when I can make out its shape so clearly, even though its barely above the horizon. I’ve never seen such a big s.h.i.+p before.”

　　“Oho, I see. Then it’s probably a large sailing boat from the North Continent.”

　　“Large? You mean it’s even bigger than the sailing boats docked here?”

　　“Yeah. Whether fore-and-aft sail or square sail, the sailing s.h.i.+ps here only have one mast. But you see, the North Continent has large s.h.i.+ps with three masts.”

　　In order to prevent the forehead sweat from running into his eyes, the middle-aged dockworker wiped the sweat with the back of his left hand as he said that. Then he narrowed his eyes to slits and looked at the glistening sea to confirm it with his own eyes.

　　With his eyesight however, he could barely make a small dot out in the distant sea.

　　Left with no other choice, he asked his young co-worker with the superior eyesight.

　　“Can you tell?”

　　“Hmm, from here it’s a bit hard… wait, I see it! Ah! It really has more masts. One, two, three… four? What? It has four, not three.”

　　The young dockworker tilted his head puzzled as he spoke, whereupon the middle-aged dockworker was baffled.

　　“FOUR!? Are you sure!?”

　　Surprised by the shocked question of his senior, the youngster looked carefully at the s.h.i.+p again, but the number of masts still counted the same.

　　“Yes, I am. It definitely has four masts.”

　　The dockworker of middle age acted fast upon hearing his answer.

　　“Here, take this!”

　　As soon as he said this, he threw the hemp bag from his shoulder onto the wooden crates loaded on the handcart of the young dockworker.

　　“Hey! Don’t do that! The wheels will crack when it’s overloaded! Do you know how many days I’ll have to work for free if the cart breaks?”

　　The youngster protested desperately, but the old stager was too fl.u.s.tered to pay it any mind.

　　“Dun have time for this! I’ve gotta report this to the governor! If it breaks, you can blame it all on me!”

　　“The governor? Doesn’t he have a lookout on the lighthouse? I would say they notice it way earlier than me.”

　　“Just to be on the safe side. Later!”

　　After saying that, the middle-aged dockworker ran off at full speed.

　　He pa.s.sed through the crowded pier in no time while repeatedly saying “Please let me through!”.

　　Left behind, the young dockworker stood in front of his now heavily laden cart with a gaping mouth and no clue about what was going on.

　　Who could blame him? Unaware of the circ.u.mstances, it only appeared to him as if the middle-aged man had abandoned his work in a grand fas.h.i.+on.

　　However, anyone, who knew what a “large sailing s.h.i.+p with four masts” signified, would sympathize with his action.

　　The s.h.i.+pbuilding was kind of inferior on the South Continent, so small s.h.i.+ps with one mast were the norm.

　　Basically all large s.h.i.+ps with three masts could be considered intercontinental cargo vessels from the North Continent. And even there, the s.h.i.+ps were something like a leading-edge product and accordingly expensive. If someone from the plebeain could purchase it, it was because he was a wealthy merchant with influence all over the country.

　　On this basis, it was easy to imagine how significant a s.h.i.+p with one more mast, namely four, was. It was truly the cream of the crop and a state property that was not available to the private sector. Moreover, even on the North Continent, the only countries that could build and maintain these s.h.i.+ps were major powers with a development above average.

　　And now, such a four-master had appeared in the harbour of Valentia of the Carpa Kingdom.

　　At the same time, that meant that a key figure of a major power on the North Continent had come over.