The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 242 A Long Voyage
After having a simple dinner consisting of two pieces of bread, Natalia still went up to the deck to take a look.

Night had fallen, the sky was completely dark, and a bright moon gradually rose, the stars in the sky were dazzling, and there was almost no trace of the storm that had struck that afternoon.

She remembered Eric's words about the unpredictable weather at sea and let out a soft sigh.

Storms come quickly and disappear quickly; they are all part of the unpredictable nature of things.

By the moonlight, she could see that there were still quite a few crew members moving around on the deck.

"What are they still busy with?"

"Inspection, cleaning, tidying up." Eric fired a bright ball of light into the air to provide visibility for everyone. "That's what sailors do every day."

"Is it the same at night?"

"I'm not sure, it might be because of the afternoon storm."

Natalia didn't ask any further questions and continued walking. With the help of the brighter light from the illumination orb, she saw several sailors standing on the mast.

"There aren't any lights either," she whispered.

“There isn’t even a proper ship’s priest, so of course they’ll cut corners in that area,” Eric said, glancing at the moon again. “Perhaps this level of light is enough for them… um.”

"What's wrong?" Natalia noticed his change in mood.

“I’m wondering if the illumination will affect their vision,” Eric said. “Suddenly it gets bright, and they need time to adjust. Once the illumination fades, they need to readjust to a less bright environment.”

“If this illumination spell was cast for me, Your Highness can cancel it,” Natalia said quickly.

Eric snapped his fingers, and the illuminating orb high above vanished. He then raised his finger, activating a personal illumination spell.

"This level of power won't disturb others."

"power?"

"Hmm... brightness."

The two walked around the deck, receiving either fawning or indifferent glances from the sailors.

Although the captain patiently explained the afternoon's events to Natalia, he frequently glanced at Eric beside her, and finally ended by telling her not to worry.

“The captain probably wants us to adapt to life at sea as quickly as possible, in every way,” Eric said.

Natalia agreed with his statement.

It wasn't safe on the deck after dark, so the two didn't stay long and quickly returned to their cabins to rest.

On his first night at sea, Eric didn't have many particular feelings, except that the bed was a bit hard and wobbly.

The swaying continued into his sleep. He dreamt that he had returned to the holy city of Lessér, and a group of nuns were carrying him to see the Pope. They swayed all the way, and he felt that he would fall off at any moment. The nuns ignored him.

And Clement XI, whom he met at the Papal Tower, shook his head and questioned him about why he didn't obey the orders of the Papacy.

When Eric woke up, the pope had transformed into someone with a white turban wrapped around his head and reeking of curry.

"What a bizarre dream... It would be blasphemy against the Pope if I told anyone."

The sound of the waves that lingered in my dream became much clearer after I woke up.

Eric looked up at the small glass window; judging from the light, it must have been just sunrise.

He thought he had woken up quite early, but when he went to knock on Natalia's door next door, he found that she had already gotten up and was no longer in the cabin.

Emerging from the cabin and onto the deck, the rising sun had just broken above the horizon, its bright yet still gentle rays spreading in all directions from the east, the sky a clear, deep blue.

Eric looked around for a while and noticed Natalia near the ship's side.

Are you seasick this morning...?

He walked over and found that she was just standing there, her complexion looked normal, and she didn't seem to be in any discomfort.

After spending a day and a night on the ship, she seemed to have finally gotten used to the discrepancy between what she saw and what she felt.

"Good morning, Your Highness."

Natalia's shoulders twitched, and she turned around. "Good morning... Your Highness, why are you so quiet?"

"I think the sound of the waves was too loud and drowned it out."

The morning sea breeze was still a bit chilly. Eric squinted slightly. "Did Your Highness sleep well last night?"

Natalia nodded. "I guess I suffered too much during the day yesterday. I fell asleep very quickly after returning to the cabin. When I woke up, it was still dark."

“That puts my mind at ease,” Eric said.

She glanced at him, then looked towards the sunrise. "If I continue to act like I did yesterday, not only will Your Highness look down on me, but I will also despise myself."

Eric looked surprised. "This is the first time I've realized that I have such a stern image in His Highness's mind."

She chuckled, glanced back at him, and raised her hand to smooth her hair, which had been ruffled by the sea breeze.

"Thinking this way helped me get out of that embarrassing situation as soon as possible... and in the end, it seems to have really worked."

Eric had already made his stance clear, so he didn't say anything more.

The two stood near the ship's railing, watching the sun gradually rise higher.

The sailors on deck were also busy, checking the sails and ropes, cleaning the deck, and doing various daily chores.

Eric followed a sailor as he climbed to the top of the mast, looked up for a moment, and then his stomach suddenly growled.

"Has Your Highness had breakfast?" he asked.

"not yet."

"Let's go see what kind of breakfast they offer on board."

"Okay."

Eric went back to the cabin and called Kasha over. Even though the breakfast was relatively simple, the food provided to them was much more plentiful than that of ordinary passengers.

After breakfast, the three of them went their separate ways.

Natalia prepared to take another look at the various areas she hadn't been able to observe carefully yesterday due to seasickness, Eric watched the sailors work on the stern deck, and Kasha transformed into a raven and flew off to communicate with the druid in mid-air.

The first few days of the voyage were spent in the novelty of the unfamiliar environment.

However, without deeply engaging with the sailors' work, this fleeting sense of novelty can only last for a few days.

As the journey progressed to the halfway point, Eric and Natalia gradually realized that what they truly had to contend with at sea was the boredom of doing nothing—for them alone, the sailors had no time to feel bored.

All around was seawater, and overhead was either blue sky or overcast sky. There were no islands or mainland in sight. The filter of novelty had worn off, and even the sunlight seemed harsh.

Therefore, except for the early morning and evening, the two spent most of their time in the cabin.

"We've been on our journey for about two weeks now."

"If you're not fully awake, you can go back to sleep for a while."

Eric belatedly realized what he had said, coughed lightly, and apologized to Natalia.

She glared at him, but it wasn't that she really cared.

The result of spending time together in the dullness of doing nothing is that each of them quickly overlooks the other's outwardly glamorous identity.

Eric felt that if things continued like this, he would soon be able to do what he did to Molly, bumping into Natalia with his arm when she squeezed in front of him.

“To be precise, today is the fifth day since we left Sunset Harbor.” Eric paused, then added the honorific, “Your Highness.”

"Only halfway there..." Natalia's eyes were a little glazed over.

It would take about ten days to get from Sunset Harbor to Westwind City Port in Coos, that was the exact number the captain had told them, but Eric remembered him saying yesterday that they had been delayed again by going around a large storm zone along the route.

“We’ve been away from the mainland for so many days and haven’t received a single piece of news,” Natalia sighed.

When they are on land, they are either in big cities or traveling along Hero's Avenue. Winged people can always find their traces if they spend a little more time. But at sea, they are completely nowhere to be found.

"Nothing major should happen in less than two weeks," Eric reassured her, assuming she was worried about the situation at the front.

Natalia nodded, stared blankly at the glass window in the cabin for a while, then looked at Eric and the book spread out in front of him.

He hasn't turned the page for over an hour.

"Would you like to change to another one?"

"……Need not."

Eric simply closed the book. "I've read them all. All the books His Highness brought are equally tedious. Heaven knows why I thought the sea was a good place to study these kinds of books."

Natalia deeply agreed, and then glanced at the book "In-Depth History of Cus" in front of him, which she had brought along to demonstrate the depth of her reading—which wasn't actually that deep.

"Does Your Highness wish to see it?" Eric asked.

Natalia gestured with her eyes to the book in front of her, which she had also only turned a few pages of.

“Okay.” Eric put the book back in the cabinet, but instead of sitting back down, he said, “I’m going back to my room to rest for a while.”

Natalia nodded.

After Eric closed the door and left, she also lay down on the bed—her serious demeanor when she had nothing to do was purely self-torture; if it weren't for the impact on her image, she would have already gone to bed.

Being too proud to admit defeat...

Natalia looked up at the low ceiling and sighed.

The sound of the waves came one after another, never ceasing.

She lay in bed, listening to the waves outside with one ear, while intentionally or unintentionally listening to the noises in the corridor with the other.

The ordinary passengers didn't dare to bother them, but after so many days, they had become quite familiar with each other, and occasionally forgot to control their voices when they talked.

"I wonder what price my dozen or so boxes of spices will fetch when we get to Goddess Bay..."

"Spices hold their value very well, so the prices of your stuff won't fluctuate much. But it's hard to say about the stuff I brought."

"That was in the past. The current situation is really hard to predict. Sigh, although sea freight is cheap, it's slow and there's no communication. If we were still on land, I could know the market prices in another place thousands of miles away every morning when I woke up."

"Don't overthink it. The most useful thing I learned from the boss who made me successful is..."

Natalia instinctively pricked up her ears, but the people outside seemed to be deliberately keeping their voices down, so she had no chance to learn what that useful tip was. Instead, she heard the door to the next cabin opening and closing.

That's Eric's room.

He went out?

Natalia turned her head and pointed her ear in that direction.

Or did someone else go in?
For example, Kasha.

"So, is the weather going to change?"

Eric opened his eyes and saw that it was Kasha who had entered, then closed them again.

“There’s a storm raging in the sea ahead of our route, we’ll detour,” Kasha said, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

"Are we going to take another detour? No wonder the captain always says there's no fixed time for this voyage, only an approximate one." Eric sighed, then felt himself being squeezed in.

Kasha lay down beside him, facing him.

"Are you bored? I can turn into a reindeer and carry you to the deck to play."

“…Forget it.” Eric also turned to the side and put his hand on her waist. “I don’t want to be stared at with strange looks by those sailors.”

“I don’t care,” Kasha said.

"Yes, I do care, little sister."

"I'm older than you..."

"..."

Eric took a breath, hugged her waist tighter, and closed his eyes again. "Lie down for a while."

Kasha then fell silent.

She lay down beside him, stared at his face for a while, then leaned in and kissed him a few times.

With a light touch, it moved to another spot, giving Eric the feeling of being asleep in the wild, being licked by passing small animals to confirm whether he was dead or not.

He opened his eyes, and the little animal in front of him smiled, as if finally confirming that he was still alive.

Eric leaned in and kissed her deeply for a while.

In the midst of extreme boredom, certain desires are suddenly ignited.

He sat up and glanced at the door.

"Kasha, close the door."

She looked at the door, then at him. "Is it closed?"

"I'm talking about the bolt inside."

Kasha got out of bed, pushed the bolt behind the door to the other side, then returned to the bedside and sat down in front of him at his prompting.

Eric hugged her from behind, his hand slipping inside her clothes.

“Eric… um…”

Surprise, silence, and then submission—Kasha lay back in his arms, closed her eyes, and let him gradually peel her away to her primal, natural state.

She may lack experience, but that doesn't mean she doesn't understand that this is the prelude to natural reproduction, something she has seen many times in the forest.

Humans are just another kind of animal, she thought, only they live in the city.

"..."

The two fingers that were pulled out looked as if they had just been pulled out of the sea.

Eric's gaze shifted to Kasha's face, and he noticed that her eyes were moist and misty, and there was drool unconsciously dripping from the corner of her mouth.

He turned her around, and the two kissed deeply for a while. Then, under each other's gaze, they prepared for their first connection between their different faiths.

Tuk-tuk-tuk——

There was a sudden knock on the door, and Natalia's voice came through at the same time: "Your Highness, are you still awake? Would you like to go for a walk on the deck?"

"..."

Eric looked towards the doorway, then at Kasha.

This is not the time to stop.

He raised his finger.

Kasha understood, covered her mouth tightly, and looked down at him as he placed his hands on her waist, filling her flaws with his prominent features.

"Well!"

Eric kissed away the tears that welled up in her eyes from the pain.

Kasha released her hand from her mouth and instead wrapped her arms around his neck.

This level of pain was well within her tolerance.

“I continued,” Eric whispered in her ear.

"Hmm..." Kasha responded, leaning against him and looking at the closed door.

Tuk-tuk-tuk——

"Your Highness?"

Natalia knocked and called out, but received no response. She thought for a moment, then pushed the door, but it didn't budge.

"..."

The bolt on the inside door was fastened.

The bolt on the inside door was actually fastened?
Although the crew on the ship was a mixed bunch, only Eric and Kasha dared to enter her cabin, and she would only bolt the door shut at night when she went to sleep.

In her memory, Eric never closed his bedroom door completely; she always opened it with a push.

There was no response or movement from inside the room.

Natalia stood outside the door for a while, bewildered and suspicious. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone looking at her. She turned her head and saw that the merchants all avoided her gaze.

She returned to her cabin, stared at the wall separating the two rooms for a while, but ultimately did not lean in to listen. Instead, she sat back down on the bed.

The sounds of other passengers talking in the corridor drifted in again.

She reopened the book on the table.

It was just an ordinary afternoon at sea, as dull and aimless as the past few days... and so was the restlessness.

"..."

Natalia exhaled and spread her hands out, placing them on the table.

Kasha placed her hands on the table.

Natalia couldn't get into any book, which was even more boring than a tedious sea voyage, so she lay back down on the bed.

Kasha lay down with her legs spread apart by the bed.

After staring blankly at the ceiling for a while, Natalia began to ponder the source of her anxiety—the lack of communication from the next room was just a temporary lull, while she had been out of contact with the mainland, especially the Lutia front, for five days.

Natalia sat up again and looked out at the vast sea through the glass window.

Kasha, who was sitting on the waist of the person beneath her, suddenly straightened her body.

After an unknown amount of time, Natalia came to her senses and noticed that the sea was shimmering with gold—it was almost sunset, and another afternoon was drawing to a close in idleness.

She vaguely heard the door to the next room open, and a little while later, there was a knock on her door.

"Your Highness, the sun is about to set. Shall we go up to the deck for a look?"

“…Okay.” Natalia said, realizing that she hadn’t spoken in a long time and her voice was a little hoarse.

Eric pushed open the door and looked at her from the doorway, looking full of energy.

"Your Highness?"

Natalia stood up. "How did Your Highness rest?"

“Very good.” Eric exchanged a brief glance with her.

Natalia walked out of the cabin and glanced into the next room as she passed by. Kasha was lying on his bed, his back to the door, flipping through a book.

It looks the same as usual.

And yet, something is different from usual.

She couldn't tell for the time being.

“Kasha spent most of the morning on deck, saying she didn’t want to go out,” Eric said, closing the door behind her.

Natalia didn't say anything.

The two left the cabin and went onto the deck.

The sun wasn't hanging too low; it wasn't quite setting yet, but it looked even more magnificent than when it was about to set on land.

Natalia understood that this was because she was now closer to the surface of the sea.

She wanted to say the sunset was brilliant and the evening glow was beautiful, but what came out of her mouth was, "When Your Highness is resting, is Kasha also in your room?"

Eric looked at her.

"Yes."

"...What are you doing?"

"Get into bed."

(End of this chapter)