Prit Strait, an ordinary passenger ship.
On the deck, where the sea wind howled, Miss Dorothy, leaning against the railing, raised her eyebrows slightly after hearing Naifnis's complaint, then asked curiously.
"Shining White Pearl... I think I've seen this ship in some magazines. It seems to be a cruise ship. Is your study tour rich enough to go out on a cruise ship?"
Miss Dorothy said to Naifnis, and the other party responded directly.
"Of course, we are students of Saint Crown University, and our families are basically well-off. For a long-distance trip, the school will naturally arrange some high-class transportation. The ordinary passenger ship we are currently on is only temporary."
Naifnis said this, and Miss Dorothy continued to respond.
"Even if the family conditions are good... it shouldn't be to the point of everyone taking a cruise ship, right? Just the ticket for this kind of cruise ship costs one or two dozen pounds. I remember the total payment for your three-month study tour was only a little over a hundred pounds?"
Miss Dorothy asked Naifnis with a hint of curiosity. Cruise ships were clearly a luxury consumption and didn't feel like a travel method that would be chosen for a study tour. For general tourism, a passenger ship would be sufficient.
"Even good family conditions have their differences, Miss Dorothy. Many of my classmates are born from old Tivian nobles. With their status and family background... they are not very willing to take ordinary passenger ships with commoners. It's also a rare opportunity for them to go on such a long trip, so they paid extra to the school for more travel expenses. Each person paid several hundred pounds more, and the school therefore has more spare money to further improve our travel environment. I'm the kind who benefits from it."
Naifnis quietly said to Miss Dorothy, while saying so, she also glanced at some classmates on the deck in the distance. Many of them were children of nobles, the kind from the old Tivian's main flag.
"So, because of those guys' generosity, others also benefited, huh? As expected of the rich... they even take a cruise ship for a study tour. Is this for fun or for study?"
Listening to Naifnis's words, Miss Dorothy couldn't help but murmur, and Naifnis also answered.
"You can't say that, Miss Dorothy. It is said that the Shining White Pearl, the ship the school arranged for us to take, will hold a grand exhibition after setting sail on the 25th. Maybe we can also learn something on it."
With a hint of anticipation in her tone, Naifnis said this, her eyes sparkling slightly, while Miss Dorothy on the side couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth and think to herself after hearing Naifnis's words.
'You bunch of archaeologists are trying to learn something at a jewelry exhibition, huh...'
Miss Dorothy inwardly scoffed like this. She could also see that for quite a few people, this study tour was probably more about playing.
'It seems that after arriving in Barcelona, I'll also have to go on a cruise ship. I wonder what that jewelry exhibition that even Adele is interested in will be like.'
Looking at the turbulent sea outside the railing, Miss Dorothy thought to herself. At this moment, her first sea journey was about to end.
...
A few days ago, after taking care of everything, Miss Dorothy finally embarked on her journey. Since Vanya's purpose for going to Iweig was pilgrimage and she had a ship arranged by the Church, it was inconvenient for Miss Dorothy to travel with her. So, she first chose to leave with Naifnis and follow their study tour route all the way to Iweig.
Two days after Miss Dorothy left Tivian by ship, she felt a slight weakening of the spiritual thread connected to her. Feeling this, Miss Dorothy immediately confirmed that her theory was correct; she could break the incomplete spiritual thread attached to the bird corpse puppet by increasing the distance.
Although she had traveled for two days, Miss Dorothy had gone a considerable distance, but under the spiritual blessing provided by the Eight Point Nest, the incomplete spiritual thread was only slightly weakened, far from being broken. If Miss Dorothy wanted to achieve her goal, she needed to travel a longer distance.
'This incomplete spiritual thread hasn't been broken even with this level of maintenance. Presumably, the Eight Point Nest must have provided a very sufficient 'cup' of Spirituality to maintain it. Investing so much Spirituality just to preserve a means to deal with me in the future, it seems they value me quite highly. In that case, this spiritual thread must be broken even more.'
With this thought, Miss Dorothy became even more determined to travel far. Four days after she started her journey, one leg of the trip finally ended, and the ship she was on arrived at the Faloro port city of Barcelona.
After a four-day journey at sea, Miss Dorothy was finally able to step onto solid ground again. Since her destination was not Faloro, she didn't have much time to experience the foreign customs here.
Miss Dorothy spent half a day roughly exploring this foreign port city. Although the time was short, she had quite a few feelings.
Miss Dorothy found that although it was still late winter, the weather in Faloro seemed warmer than in Tivian. The urban landscape of Faloro also had many differences from Prit. Various artistic decorations and sculptures seemed more common on the streets of Faloro, and the styles were also very different. Many sculptures had bolder artistic forms, and the clothing of people in high society walking on the streets was more complicated and flashy. Compared to the dark colors of Tivian, the colors of this Faloro port city were more vibrant.
What surprised Miss Dorothy was that the restaurants in this foreign city tasted very good. Miss Dorothy tasted many delicious dishes here. The cheese, truffles, beef, onion soup... and many other dishes here satisfied Miss Dorothy. Overall, in terms of both variety and taste, she felt that Faloro's cuisine was better than Prit's.
Miss Dorothy had previously studied Faloro language in the Crown University library and had mastered the general pronunciation based on phonetic symbols. Although she had a good grasp of the Faloro language, she had never practiced it. Now was a good time to practice speaking.
Relying on the strong learning ability of an 'enlightenment' Extraordinary, Miss Dorothy began to self-study other countries' languages while in the Crown University library. The main reason for this was to exchange for more Dragon Language.
However, what Miss Dorothy did not expect was that after mastering a large part of the Faloro language, using it for exchange did not yield new Dragon Language characters, but a useless language from an unknown world that had no mysterious power.
Miss Dorothy had previously successfully exchanged for Dragon Language characters using Prit language and Spirit Seal Language, but failed with Faloro language. Regarding this situation, Miss Dorothy was also very confused for a while. After analyzing it, she came to a possible conclusion.
That is, the Faloro language is too close to the Prit language!
According to Miss Dorothy's previous conclusion, including Prit language and Faloro language, the languages of all the countries on the Main Continent evolved from the Empire language branches, and they are all different languages within the same language family. Therefore, although there are differences between the languages of Prit and Faloro, which are separated by the sea, there are also many common similarities.
After Miss Dorothy exchanged for Dragon Language characters using Prit language, she had already consumed a considerable amount of content within this language family. Therefore, the part of the Faloro language that is common and repetitive with the Prit language cannot be exchanged again, resulting in insufficient content when Miss Dorothy used Faloro language for exchange, making it impossible to exchange for Dragon Language characters.
On the other hand, since the Spirit Seal Language of the New World is not a branch of the Empire language, and is fundamentally different from Prit language and Farano language, it is an independent language family or even language system, and therefore has sufficient content for Miss Dorothy to exchange for Dragon Language.
Unless she obtains sufficient non-repetitive content, it would probably be quite difficult for Dorothy to exchange other languages under the empire language family for Dragon language.
After touring Basse for half a day, Dorothy stayed at a hotel near the port. At noon the next day, following the instructions from the ship ticket she had already bought, she manipulated a Corpse Puppet in the image of a middle-aged overweight man to act as her parent, picked up her luggage, and set off for the designated location at the port, where she saw a colossal object moored.
This was a giant cruise ship, at least twice as large as the passenger ship Dorothy had taken before. Dorothy stood beneath the giant ship and looked up, estimating its length to be around two hundred meters and its height above the waterline to be over thirty meters. The hull was black, while the superstructure on the deck was painted white. Three huge chimneys emerged from the four-story high superstructure, pointing silently towards the sky.
Beside this giant ship at this time, countless brightly dressed men and women were gathered with their luggage, chatting and laughing as they ascended the several boarding ramps set up beside the ship to reach the giant vessel. Beside the boarding ramps, there was also a wooden platform where a band was playing cheerful music to celebrate the moment of boarding. There were also countless security guards maintaining order at the scene.
"Is this the shining white pearl? Whether it's the ship or the spectacle, it's a bit grand..."
Looking at the scene before her, Dorothy couldn't help but murmur with emotion. Then, she manipulated the parent Corpse Puppet disguised as her father beside her to walk forward with the luggage, entering the queue of people preparing to board.
Following the long boarding queue, Dorothy had the parent Corpse Puppet show an adult ticket and a child ticket, which cost twenty pound, at the ticket gate. She then ascended the high boarding ramp and, after climbing for a while, finally arrived on the deck of the shining white pearl.
The spacious deck was bustling with people. The moment Dorothy and the parent Corpse Puppet stepped onto the deck, a smiling service attendant in uniform came forward, greeted them warmly in Faloro, and then diligently helped the parent Corpse Puppet with their luggage, leading them to their cabin.
Led by the service attendant, Dorothy and her parent Corpse Puppet walked along the lively deck. Dorothy curiously looked around and noticed large posters for the Massimo jewelry exhibition in many places on the ship. After seeing these posters, Dorothy had the parent Corpse Puppet ask the service attendant who was helping carry the boxes beside them in not-so-standard Faloro.
"When exactly is the Massimo jewelry exhibition being held?"
"It will be held on the twenty-eighth, which is three days after the ship departs, on the foredeck. Mr. Massimo's jewelry exhibition will be the highlight of this voyage. We will host a grand banquet then, and I'm sure Captain will enjoy a wonderful evening."
The service attendant who was helping carry the luggage answered the parent Corpse Puppet respectfully. Upon hearing this, Dorothy cast her gaze towards the spacious foredeck of the shining white pearl, a hint of interest appearing in her eyes.
"Holding an exhibition on the deck? Heh... It's still January, isn't it? The temperature at sea at night isn't high. Does it really have to be held like this?" Dorothy controlled the parent Corpse Puppet to ask the service attendant, who continued to answer respectfully.
"According to Mr. Massimo, this is mainly to better display the highlight of the exhibition—the deep blue heart. According to Mr. Massimo, the deep blue heart needs to be displayed between the night sky and the sea to achieve the best effect, so the exhibition was arranged on the deck."
As the service attendant spoke, he pointed towards the bow section at the far end of the foredeck. There, a large bronze statue of an angel was installed on the bow. The female angel with outstretched wings held her hands towards the sky, facing the heavens and the waves.
"Captain, have Captain seen that Holy Mother angel statue? That will be the exhibition stand for the deep blue heart later. It was custom-made by Mr. Massimo at great expense. After the exhibition, the deep blue heart will be permanently installed in the angel statue's hands for everyone to see. This is Mr. Massimo's creative idea to display his most cherished jewelry."
The service attendant vividly described the upcoming jewelry exhibition to Dorothy's parent Corpse Puppet. Dorothy, standing beside him, listened and then re-examined the large bronze angel statue on the bow, muttering to herself with a silent nod.
"An angel under the Holy Mother, holding the deep blue heart? What a creative way to exhibit it."
Dorothy sighed in this manner. She didn't ask any further questions but continued walking forward with the service attendant and entered the ship's cabin.
After walking through a long corridor, Dorothy was led by the service attendant to her cabin. After bidding farewell to the service attendant, Dorothy closed the cabin door. After examining the luxurious, fully functional, and well-lit cabin, which was several grades higher than the previous passenger ship, she couldn't help but sigh with relief.
"Phew... Traveling is great..."
As she spoke, Dorothy took off her shoes and rushed to the soft bed, rolling around a couple of times.
...
After several hours of boarding, the shining white pearl finally set sail. With the boarding ramps pushed away and thick black smoke billowing from the chimneys, this ten-thousand-ton giant ship began to weigh anchor and set sail. Amidst the hum of the whistle, the ship gradually left the port. Dorothy, sitting in her cabin, watched the port recede further and further.
After the cruise ship left the port, Dorothy began to experience the luxurious cruise life. She would occasionally visit the ship's luxurious restaurants to experience various cuisines, or go to the ballroom to enjoy music or even dance a few times. She also sometimes observed Neff and her classmates when they had history lessons on the ship.
Sometimes, Dorothy would manipulate the parent Corpse Puppet to chat with some other gentlemen on the ship, learning about their countries and cultures while also practicing her spoken languages other than prite language. When she was in a good mood, she would even have the parent Corpse Puppet go to the casino with those gentlemen to play a few hands of cards and win a few rounds.
In this comfortable and pleasant environment, Dorothy spent two days on the shining white pearl. On the evening of the second day, she sat in her cabin, looking at the world map she always carried, confirming her current location.
"Based on the ship's speed, after two days, we should have rounded the Far-Looking Cape and entered the Conquest Sea by now. To go to Iweig, we should be sailing east..."
Sitting on the bed in her cabin, Dorothy murmured as she looked at the unfolded world map before her. Out of boredom, she wanted to figure out her position at sea in this era without satellite positioning.
According to Dorothy's judgment, the shining white pearl should have just entered the Conquest Sea and be sailing east towards Iweig. If it was indeed sailing east now, then Dorothy's previous judgment was not wrong.
Next, Dorothy began to determine the ship's heading. Determining direction on the dark sea requires a compass, but fortunately, Dorothy, who had simulated the ability of a Summoning Thunder Master, could determine direction without any tools.
She could directly sense the planet's magnetic field using her ability, thus determining north and south.
Dorothy closed her eyes and sensed carefully. After a while, she finished sensing and then opened her slightly confused eyes.
"This ship... seems to be heading south..."