Voyage

Life aboard the ship was actually rather boring. At first, the scenery along the banks had indeed been quite nice. As the largest river in Amn, the Athkatla River had been heavily developed, at least along its lower reaches. Villages and towns dotted both banks, with piers standing everywhere—a perfect blend of human civilization and natural beauty.

And this was the time of year when Amn's weather was at its finest: crisp autumn skies and refreshing air. Standing by the rail and admiring the scenery was truly pleasant.

But that was only if you weren't looking at the same scenery nonstop for a month and a half. By now, Solam had completely lost interest.

"Had I known, I should've taken the land route. At least I might've found something entertaining to do," Solam grumbled boredly at the white clouds overhead as he lay in a deck chair.

Traveling upstream by river was not a popular way to get around in Amn. It was simply too slow. This was an inland region, where the winds were nowhere near as strong as at sea. Combined with sailing against the current, speed was naturally out of the question.

That was why merchants had always disliked traveling east by water. It was an issue of efficiency, nothing more. On the other hand, plenty of merchants preferred going downstream, since it was not only faster but also safer. The Athkatla River was extremely broad and deep enough, making inland travel quite secure. At the very least, monsters and bandits rarely charged into the river to trouble merchants.

As for river monsters, there were hardly any aquatic monsters in the latter half of the Athkatla River. After Amn's long-term extermination campaigns, they had either vanished entirely or migrated upstream, to the stretches where the current ran