The Scholar's Sailing Diary, the Salt Creek Tribe's Salt Fields, His Majesty's Royal Way

"Blessings of the Main God! By mid-March, not a single scrap of drift ice could be seen in Whale Port. The sea near the shore was a clear, brilliant blue, as if it were the reflection of the sky hanging down... In truth, the entire area around Whale Port had only been noticeably frozen over during December, January, and February. In November and early March, there were merely floating chunks of ice in the deep waters west of the harbor. What surprised me even more was that these floes would follow the current, flow northwest along the coast, and then gradually melt... That drifting and melting process gave me the faint stirrings of a guess: the current that would lead the fleet westward was a long, warm current!... Perhaps it was because the Main God's divine radiance had fallen from the sky and was hidden in the depths of the sea, making the seawater warm?..."

"I told Zuwaro my guess, but he did not seem very interested. Over the past half a year, he personally experienced the wind and snow of the northern lands, and his whole person seemed to have aged a great deal... I looked closely at his face and felt that, like a moose in the northern mountain forests, many wrinkles and folds had appeared, especially around his eyes, making him seem sorrowful, kindly, and weathered all at once..."

"Mm, it seemed that everyone who stayed behind on the ship at Whale Port had undergone this sort of change, and several had even fallen ill. It appeared that the cold winters of the northern coast were still far too harsh for the Kingdom's warriors and sailors. I feel His Majesty was right! If we want to continue westward, we must recruit more able-bodied men from the northern