Sahashi Minato looked up at the towering cruise ship with clear apprehension in his eyes.
"What am I even doing here?" He muttered to himself in a volume too low for anyone else to properly hear. After a moment of brooding, he squared his shoulders and resolutely stared up at the massive behemoth of steel and manufactured happiness.
The Carnival Argentum was Europe's premier cruise ship. Weighing in at around 220,000 tons, it had a total of eighteen restaurants, two shopping centers, nine swimming pools, four theatres, and a host of other amenities that Minato didn't quite get to because his eyes started glazing over halfway through reading the welcome brochure. In short, it was a pretty big ship and definitely not something that he would normally be able to afford.
Not that Minato even wanted to go on this trip in the first place. The only reason he was even here was because of the ticket that he had received from his friend. It had been a gift, and as much as he loathed accepting said gift, it would have been rude not to use it.
As for the trip itself, it was to take place on the Aegean Sea.
Lasting for a total of three weeks, they were scheduled to visit the various port towns that dotted the shores of both Greece and Turkey. The general plan was to have the Carnival Argentum circumnavigate the entire stretch of water, before exiting out into the greater Mediterranean. Their final destination was the island of Sicily, in Italy.
It was going to be a long trip, and while the other passengers may find that idea appealing, Minato merely thought it troublesome. He was particularly concerned about the three days they were going to spend out in the open water.
Minato held back a bitter sigh. Now that he really thought about it, his current predicament could be traced all the way back to his most recent personal failure.
Well, calling it recent might be a bit of a stretch. After all, it happened nearly two years ago.
For context, Minato was a somewhat intelligent individual. Calling him a prodigy may not be quite accurate, but he was certainly a cut above the rest of the rabble.
At the tender age of sixteen, he graduated high school with a near-perfect GPA. It was an impressive feat, yet Minato wanted more out of life than just some fancy diploma. That's why he set his sights on Tokyo University. It was considered the number one learning institution in all of Japan, but more than just its reputation, it had also been the college that his mother had graduated from. He didn't quite know what he wanted to do with his life, but there was a decent possibility that he would follow in his mother's footsteps and become a scientist or researcher of some kind. Besides, you can never go wrong with a STEM degree.
Getting in certainly wouldn't be easy, but Minato was nothing if not capable. In fact, from a purely academic standpoint, he was more than good enough to get in.
Unfortunately, setbacks come in all shapes in sizes.
To the surprise of almost everyone, Minato failed Tokyo University's entrance exams.
His failure was not due to a lack of intelligence. Rather, Minato failed due to an unexpected bout of severe test anxiety.
For all of his intelligence, at the end of the day, Minato was still just an overly insecure teenage boy with abysmal self-confidence.
His personality was a byproduct of the environment that he grew up in. More specifically, it was a byproduct of the people that he grew up with. While Minato was shy and passive, the women in his family were the exact opposite. His mother was harsh and totalitarian, his sister was brash and outgoing, and even his grandmother had enough steel in her to cow most men into submission.
Minato grew up under the heel of very demanding women. Even after graduation, things never really seemed to change. As a result, Minato himself never really developed the necessary self-confidence needed to stand up for himself. This also made him somewhat mentally weak, especially during stressful situations.
He wallowed in self-pity for a good while after his failure. The situation probably would have stayed the same were it not for some unlikely advice that his sister had inadvertently given him.
"Just learn to not be so nervous all the time, Nii-san!"
Her words were a bit callous, but he never really expected anything different from her. Still, it gave him something to think about.
There was some truth to her "advice". As he was now, Minato's greatest weakness was undoubtedly his own personality. Specifically, his low self-esteem and general anxiety issues. Things had been somewhat manageable during high school, but now that he was stepping out into the real world, he could no longer afford to be complacent. He needed to change.
While completely changing his personality probably wasn't possible, he could at least temper his mindset so that he wasn't so damn nervous all the time.
It was with this thought in mind that on the eve of his seventeenth birthday, Sahashi Minato set out to do something truly reckless for once in his short life.
Instead of following through with his original plan and prepping for another shot at Tokyo U's entrance exams, Minato decided to take an indefinite break from all things school-related. In fact, he didn't want to just take a break from school; he wanted to take a break from everything, including (especially) his overbearing family.
Hopefully, some time away from home would help him find some inner peace. Or at the very least, something resembling inner peace. He hadn't quite hashed out the specifics yet.
Regardless, so long as it cured his test anxiety, Minato was game for pretty much anything.
Surprisingly, his mother was all for the idea. In fact, she even proposed extending his trip. Originally, Minato planned out his trip with a roughly one-year timeline. His mother wanted him gone for three.
In his opinion, three years was simply too long. The fact that his mother was the one to propose the idea also made him more than just a little suspicious. She was never the type of person to do something out of a whim. There was always a reason for her actions, no matter how unclear they may be. If he didn't know any better, it almost felt as if she was trying to kick him out of the country.
Of course, Minato didn't know any better. In the end, he tentatively agreed to her terms.
All things considered, her suggestion wasn't without merit. Despite his academic standing, Minato was not someone who actually enjoyed being cooped up in a classroom. At the end of the day, he was still a hot-blooded young man. A three-year-long vacation was right up his alley.
While he was in the midst of preparing for the trip, his mother once again dropped another bombshell proposal. This time, she suggested taking his trip overseas.
She did not really have any specific destination in mind, just anywhere out of the country, preferably as far away from Tokyo as possible. As she so eloquently put it, "Maybe this way, you'll finally grow a backbone."
The comment kind of hurt, but it was just another reason for Minato to get out of the house. Suspicious motives aside, he didn't really have any reason not to accept her suggestion. Plus, it helped that she was willing to pay for the whole thing.
In either case, that was how Minato found himself stuck in the middle of Europe with no real idea of what to do next.
In hindsight, he probably should have planned for the trip better. Even with his mother's "blessings", Minato didn't really have much of a plan other than "fix anxiety issues". Even his target destination was a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing.
Fortunately, Minato would not stay aimless for long.
After about a week or so of wandering the streets of Germany (it was the first country he visited), he was fortunate enough to encounter a Professor Johannes Wagner. Professor Wagner was an archeologist and a historian working at the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich. He specialized in ancient history and mythology.
They met at an outlet mall in downtown Munich. Despite being total strangers, they hit it off surprisingly well. By the end of the night, Professor Wagner had offered him a position as a junior assistant.
It was a bit unorthodox, but Minato found no reason to refuse. Besides, while he was originally aiming for a STEM degree, Minato did have a certain fondness for mythology.
Ever since then, he has worked with the good professor on a variety of different things. He visited various dig sites across Europe, helped out with artifact research, and translated a few ancient texts. Outside of work hours, Minato even did some late-night studying of his own.
After more than a year and a half of this lifestyle, Minato's head was filled with all sorts of information pertaining to both popular and obscure myth and legend.
Professor Wagner was impressed with his diligence, to the point where he even offered Minato a full-time apprenticeship.
That moment was a point of pride for him. For what felt like the first time, someone actually appreciated the things that he did. Despite that, Minato ultimately refused the offer. He still had plans to continue his studies in Japan. Nevertheless, he was thankful to the professor.
Overall, the experience was good for him.
In fact, his time as a junior assistant actually improved some of his self-confidence issues. This was mostly thanks to the positive reinforcement that he received from his peers, as well as the time he spent away from his family.
Well, it was more the latter than the former. Without them around to constantly boss him around, Minato felt unshackled, like a bird free from its cage. Such a feeling was addicting.
It by no means meant that he was now overflowing with confidence, but he was certainly better off than when he first left Japan.
Unfortunately, all good things eventually come to an end.
In Minato's case, this end came in the form of an archeological dig site in Albania.
Professor Wagner was the one put in charge of the team and like always, Minato was there to accompany him. The group they were with did not really expect to find much of anything, but to their surprise, the site actually held within it a fully preserved temple dedicated to the goddess Athena.
After a bit more digging, they discovered that the site dated all the way back to the classical era, back to when Athens still controlled the region.
This was apparently big news since the temple was located in Albania of all places, the furthest inland that any Greek temple had ever been found before.
Professor Wagner was credited with the temple's discovery, which earned him quite a bit of fame and recognition within the archeological community.
His success eventually led the good professor to a teaching offer in Oxford. Unfortunately, Minato could not follow him there. Oxford's policies did not allow for "independents" like him to work as assistants to their school's professors.
Not wanting to get in the way of such an opportunity for his friend, Minato voluntarily quit his job as a junior assistant.
In the end, the Professor accepted the offer, but he was overcome with guilt regarding Minato's situation. As a token of apology, Professor Wagner gifted him with a ticket to the Carnival Argentum. Not wanting to make the man feel any worse than he already felt, Minato begrudgingly accepted said gift.
And that brings the situation back to the present day.
Minato breathed out an exasperated sigh.
As he stepped onto the ship's gangway, he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding.
This trip was bound to end badly. Fortunately, he brought some motion sickness pills with him.