This wasn't Lee's first time on a ship. In fact, it was the second. The first one was when after the Phnom Penh scam he chased Lisa from Cambodia to Bangkok, then to Istanbul and afterwards through half of Europe until he finally caught her on a cruise liner in the Adriatic sea.
Even after all these lives he could still clearly remember the dumbfounded look on her pretty face when she realized he was the creator of the item in her backpack, and it wasn't some otherworldly ancient treasure. That was how they first met, well, face to face. Seeing her vanishing stature from the hotel balcony in the capital of Cambodia didn't count, though it was the reason he chased her without a second thought, and not the fake feng shui compass she stole – he could reproduce those en masse if needed.
Now though, Lee and the other two members of his new family were on a wooden vessel, a large three-mast ship named Isabella. He had no clue about seafaring and how one should categorize the ship – caravel, barque or schooner – to him, they were all the same. Even the only clue he got from Tess was completely useless.
Upon boarding, his stepmother, slightly out of breath, asked him with the sweetest smile, "Are you excited? We'll travel on this big-ass boat from now on! Isn't it great?"
The term big-ass boat was fine, Lee didn't care. Just like his stepmother, after rushing for several days straight on foot, he was delighted to finally rest. Of course, she was the one rushing, and he was merely dangling in the sling on her chest, but as it turned out, for him nothing changed. On the ship he was almost in similar state, except the sensation of swaying was caused by the sea waves.
The most annoying part was that the stepmother never let him out of her grasp, literally. Lee longed to finally lie on a solid ground, even if it was a wooden deck, and start practicing the silly toddler exercises he invented in the previous life. Unfortunately his physical advancement had to wait.
At first, Captain Freewon was delighted to accept both Tess and Alan on board. Turns out the two were some kind of big shots in the Cloud Kingdom and part of something called the Royal Council. Alan used his status to commandeer the ship, but from what Lee could tell, the captain complied too eagerly. Clearly, he, similar to the crew, was long bored out of their mind on the anchored Isabella, waiting for the royal army to return.
His vessel belonged to the fifty-odd ship fleet that had been given to the crown princess to complete the current expedition. But, contrary to the rest, it departed under the envious eyes of those who remained behind, still waiting for the princess and the army. Lee had to admit, the sight of dozens of warships anchored in the large bay was impressive and wondered what did it look like when they arrived in full sail. It was probably the artistic part of his soul that, from time to time, forced him to paint pictures in his head, but he had buried it somewhere deep in his consciousness several lifetimes ago.
Captain's enthusiasm quickly died down a few days later, when the first mate voiced a suggestion to hunt some beasts, but Alan pointed out that he and Tess were royal healers and were not going to spend their power healing someone who got injured only because of an itch to stretch their limbs. Because of the strict no, for a few days the relationship between Captain Freewon and Alan became tense. Luckily the regular sailors didn't catch the wind of it.
They passionately discussed potential targets and ways to hunt safely until Lee realized no one was actually going to do anything. The sailors, including the captain and his mates, only engaged in endless discussions while drinking their diluted alcohol and no real action followed.
In the previous life, Lee was born in a simple family of hunters and actually did hunt with the other villagers in local mountains for a few years before the Cloud Kingdom's cavalry killed him. Now, he was delighted by the chance to observe how people in this world hunted beasts at the sea, especially if the captain and maybe few others turned out to be superhumans similar to the youths who destroyed Pine Village. Unfortunately, Lee was left disappointed.
The sea voyage itself also wasn't what he expected. They sailed for three months straight, but never really left the coastline. Even Lee, with his still developing vision, could always see land on one or the other side of the ship, and wondered whether it would've been more effective to travel on foot.
Of course, he was not going to complain – there was no telling what conditions they would have if they had to spend a month in the open sea. Now, though, the crew always had fresh water and food, and were drinking the diluted alcohol by choice, not by necessity.
With how leisurely the time on Isabella was, within the first half month Lee's new family became something like furniture, and no one really payed them any attention. The trio spent most of the time together on the main deck, generally with Tess talking some nonsense. Only then Lee learned that, despite their peculiar ways of expressing themselves, his new step-parents loved each other dearly.
The only actual disagreements were about Tess using her powers, but since she claimed it was for their child, Alan learned to accept that, at least outwardly. Of course, he put an end to it the moment Lee was fully cured, apart from the strange mark on his right palm, that is. But even Lee, who knew its origins, didn't fully understand it after several lifetimes, to not mention his step parents.
While Tess was pissed at Alan for limiting her expressions of motherly love, Lee was slightly annoyed that, even after spending three months together, he couldn't figure out what her powers actually were. He guessed it had something to do with the faint blue light that, from time to time, shone from the middle of her chest and the water with rejuvenating properties that she could summon at will from who knows where to wash him, usually when Alan didn't see it, of course.
Her abilities were different from the youths in Pine Cillage, though, to not speak of the monsters he and Lisa encountered back then. But Lee was not in a rush. Just like in his previous life, he had no real goal in this one – only waiting for death so he could see Lisa once again. In the meantime, he would entertain himself and learn a bit about the superhumans, if there was a chance.
Unexpectedly, it arrived sooner than Lee could imagine. It turns out the captain took quite a detour, and either because he didn't care for the consequences or it was a regular example of a bad decision caused by constant alcohol consumption, the crew finally went hunting. Alan reminded them they would be on their own, but only got few snorts in return. The captain had a plan.
"Looks like they are set on losing people ..." Alan said after joining Tess on the main deck. As always, she held Lee in her arms, and their son was the only thing she cared about.
"It's fine as long as we have enough left to get home." Tess nonchalantly said, poking Lee's nose, "We don't care about few morons dying, right?"
"They are still people … our people …" Alan sighed.
Normally she would've thrown a tantrum and at least tried to stop the captain, but now all her attention was on Lee. Of course, it wasn't Alan's obligation to stop a person from committing suicide. From the very first day he stepped into the palace, his sole responsibility was always the well-being of the king. This expedition was an exception, and they took part in it as a personal favor to His Majesty since he asked to look after his only daughter.
Contrary to Alan, Tess didn't have any ethical struggles, and used the opportunity to badmouth the others.
"See those idiots in the little boats?" She giggled, pointing at the three dinghies full of Isabella's crew members, "It's likely we'll witness a few of them dying. You know why? I'll tell you why! It's because of the fucking greed! It's endless! They have this moronic illusion they can hunt a beast for the score of a lifetime, but they don't even realize they're throwing their lives away!"
Lee furrowed his brows in confusion. The captain's plan was simple and straightforward, even he understood it.
Isabella was anchored not too far from the shore where lie a bunch of beasts that resembled sea lions. It was hard to discern the details from the distance, but if they were anything like the sea lions Lee knew, the long pikes the crew members were equipped with had to be enough.
Seeing Lee's funny expression, Tess giggled and continued, "You see, the toothpicks the clowns brought have no chance of penetrating a leoramus's skin, let alone killing it! And there's a whole pack of them! Good thing we're so far away, otherwise the beasts could easily sink the ship."
The explanation made Lee more confused, but as the time passed, his eyes grew wider with ever increasing shock. In fact, soon enough, he had the urge to pinch himself to verify whether he was seeing things.