At dawn, the mist over the sea had yet to disperse. The sailors on deck began bustling about, and their chatter and laughter left Flodin wide awake.
He pushed away the Half-Elf woman tangled around him like an octopus, tossed the thin blanket that had fallen beneath the bed over her skin, smooth as congealed fat. He had heard that Silver Moon Elf women had even more delicate skin, though Cassi Flodin had never tried one.
It was not that he had never been to the Silver Moon Elf Kingdom. It was simply difficult to strike up conversations with Silver Moon Elf women in those cities.
As far as Flodin was concerned, nothing he could offer held any appeal for Silver Moon Elf women who lacked neither food nor clothing. Those women preferred men who were poets, musicians, or artists.
By comparison, the endlessly varied Half-Elf beauties were much easier to get into bed with.
He had met this Half-Elf woman, who had been fooling around with him aboard his ship for over two months, at Murayaki Port.
Flodin pressed one hand against his lower back and decided he ought to have oysters with lemon juice for lunch to properly replenish himself...
Wearing only a pair of cropped trousers and bare from the waist up, he pushed open the window and looked outside.
A faint mist swept into his room with the wind, filling it with the fishy, salty scent of the sea. His elf companion muttered something in dissatisfaction, rolled deeper into the bed wrapped in the thin blanket, and exposed a stretch of smooth back.
Flodin discovered that the merchant ship had already left St. Margaret Port and was raising its third sail with the sailors' cooperation.
The sea wind was pushing the merchant ship out into the