Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 79
"The scenery on the sea is very good?"

"Indeed, it's completely different from watching on the shore." Slapping away his big wet hands on his shoulders, the well-dressed young man with blond hair moved a step aside, giving the bow of the boat to someone who came, "If there is less turbulence It's even better."

The sound of retching came from behind, and the man in the uniform of the retinue lay on the side of the boat, weakly spitting out a little acid.The little dry bread I ate in the morning was fed to sea fish before it could be digested, and there was nothing left in my stomach.

He tried to wipe his mouth with his sleeve a few times, but his scruples about brand new clothes stopped him.A thick hemp rope was tied around his waist and tied to the mast, in case any wave would make him disappear directly from the deck.

The sailors passed by him without notice, adjusting the sails, scrubbing the decks, and the ship moved in an orderly manner.

"Ha, it's not really a bump." The bearded captain rolled up his sleeves, revealing his thick arms trained in the wind and waves, and inadvertently showed a large sea wave tattoo from wrist to elbow. It looks like someone with a story .

Most ordinary passengers will be attracted by tattoos, which leads to a half-day of chatting and bragging, dispelling the boring time at sea day after day, and listening to more anecdotes from passengers of different identities by the way.

But the passenger did not give his attention to the captain who was full of desire to communicate, but looked at the boundless sea surface. Under the cover of clouds, the sea surface showed a mixed color of dark blue and lead gray, and the gloomy and ominous colors merged into one at the end of the field of vision.

The remnants of the cold wind from the North Sea ice sheets were pushing them south, but there was no way they could escape the rain.

The captain has seen a lot of passengers, no matter what their status is, they will doubt the small sampan under their feet and have an inevitable sense of fear when they are on the remote sea and facing the scene of approaching wind and rain.

"No need to worry. It looks terrible, it's just rain." He pointed to the submerged sea level on the left side of the ship, as if he could see the distant land, "Besides, we are not far from the coast. Rowing can take you ashore."

"This is really reassuring." The passenger combed the hair that was blown by the sea wind with his hands, pressed them back to their original positions, and continued to look at the undulating sea.Can't tell if he's being perfunctory.

The captain had no idea what he was looking at. It had been three days since he set off, and the monotonous scenery at sea should have dampened the excitement of any young man.What's more, the current scenery is nothing to praise, it is nothing more than the cold sea wind shaving the face, the water and the sky are gray, and if you look at it for a long time, you will have the illusion that the ship is stuck in place without movement.

A slender finger pointed to a small point in the distance, guiding the captain to follow its owner's vision, "What is that?"

"Huh?" The captain looked along his fingertips, and there was indeed a small spot on the sea surface that was not easy to find, with a faint reflection. "Probably a piece of ice floe."

"Is there still ice floe here?"

"Good luck, I haven't seen it for some time. It came from the sea of ​​ice. There are not a few big ones over there, and there are very few that have not melted here. We call it Lucky Star."

This statement aroused the interest of the passengers. He finally glanced at the ice floes hidden in the waves, and turned around as the captain wished, "How do you say it?"

"It was called by the sailors on this route. I heard that a ship caught in a storm lost all its fresh water and beer." The captain licked his lips under his bushy beard. No story.

"Then the sharp-eyed one of them, like you, found something on the surface of the sea that shone like a white crystal, or a morning star. In desperation, they took this as some kind of revelation and decided to take a gamble."

"Of course, those aren't white crystals, nor are they stars that fell into the sea, but they are far more valuable than these things." The captain paused at the right time, and found that the audience was listening attentively, and answered the riddle with satisfaction.

"A piece of freshwater ice, the size of two full wine barrels. It is unbelievable to have drifted here from the Ice Sea, that is, the North Sea, and maybe even further south. Therefore, people who walk this way feel that they have seen floating ice. Ice is a symbol of luck."

"I can imagine it." The passenger nodded and said, this story is something he has never heard before, and it can be added to the collection of stories in the future.Then, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "So you have been to the Ice Sea."

"Of course, I used to deal with those icefield people over there before. This kind of small ice floes are everywhere, and I haven't seen how lucky I am." The captain has always been willing to share his experience, which is different from that of other worlds. There's a striking resemblance to the chatty driver over at Soul.

Whether it’s on a boat or in a tavern, the feeling of being noticed is irresistible. It’s not certain that the unspecified story fee is included in your ticket price, at least you don’t have to buy him until he wants to drink like in a tavern. Open your mouth.

"Aren't there big icebergs or something?"

"No, it's just a lot of small ice floes, and the tallest small iceberg can't be touched from the ship's side. Calling it a 'mountain' is too much of a stretch."

The passenger was a little disappointed, not knowing what to expect, and what kind of plot was rehearsed in his mind, "Really not? Haven't even seen one?"

"Generally speaking, there are no big icebergs." The captain didn't say anything dead, how could a well-informed navigator have content that he couldn't continue with?Since there is "usually", there is also "but".

Very cooperatively, the audience answered him: "Is it as rare as the ice floes in the south?"

"Yes, it's so rare that almost no one has seen it, but the meaning is completely opposite." The captain looked around the endless deep sea, and left the side of the ship, as if he didn't want to continue talking here, and extended an invitation to his passengers. "It's a long story, and you don't want to hear the second half in the rain. Have a drink in the cabin?"

"Sounds more interesting than beer." Passengers gladly accepted the invitation.

"Water is also fine, you have to drink something?"

……

……

Almost five years ago in the summer, a fairly mature ice plain trade line suddenly became vacant, connecting with a long-established ice plain tribe.

Generally speaking, this is impossible. An ice tribe willing to communicate with outsiders means an extremely stable and safe exchange relationship.

When the captain, who is rarely recognized by them, decides to leave the sea, he will only introduce his closest heirs to the tribe, which will continue like inheriting family wealth and become a constant source of wealth.

The middle-aged captain named Becker was willing to transfer this opportunity at a very favorable price. He even sold the intact empty ship and replaced it with a fixed property in Wendeng Port.

The preferential price has its price. Becker refused to personally introduce the purchaser, only willing to give some things that can be regarded as "tokens", and he couldn't even send a crew member who was familiar with the ice field people to go there again.

This has to make people suspect that he had a conflict with the Icelanders, so he used this method to make a fortune in the end.

But after side-kicking the crew members who were drunk in the tavern in private, the mover came to a negative conclusion, unless the sailors can remember to cover up the truth for the captain when the snot bubbles smell of wine.

During the short waking hours during the day, they refused to talk about this issue. From the ordinary sailors to the chief mate, they all made it clear that they did not want to take this route even once, no matter how much money they had.

As a result, there were rumors that some ships were cursed, which couldn't stop several young second-generation ships who were adventurous and had their own ships to compete for this opportunity.

After some competition, one of them won all the tokens of Captain Baker, as well as the secret communication tips and customs details.

He did not set sail immediately, but patiently waited and observed, until the bad habits of Becker's crew squandered the last penny in their pockets, and even ran into debts, and had to accept a sober meeting in exchange for a little reward.

Thus, from the mouth of a sailor whose finger was threatened by the lender, in exchange for paying part of his debt, drew a deranged description of the voyage.

Even at this point, the sailor would rather lose his fingers than let go and go to the ice field with him again.

It wasn't until just before departure that he recorded the sailor's intermittent narration one after another, roughly restoring the incomplete half of his face.

From the perspective of Sailor Seaman.

The return trip was the same as every time before, starting with the return of Captain Becker with the people who carried the fur and metal ore.

The companion stopped joking about the similar-sounding names of Seaman and San Simeon, and climbed up the mast to look at the approaching black spot in the distance, which was the procession returning to the ship.

Several Icelanders dragged a human-powered sleigh to help them deliver part of the cargo. The leader had a good chat with the first mate. Before leaving, he gave each of the captain and the first mate a piece of raw gem ore from the local area, saying it was a hunting trip. Picked it up by hand.

It’s rare for people in the Ice Plains to remember the preferences of North’s visitors. Captain Becker laughed from boarding the ship until he weighed anchor, playing with the first officer with the stones with beautiful crystals in their hands, and talking about whether there would be any stones that could be made into large jewelry. material.

Seaman didn't know anything about it, just looked at it enviously, and then went to work on moving the goods.

The sailors should allocate the goods in the cabin, and the heaviest ore should be evenly pressed into the bottom tank and placed together with the ballast.

The fur is stored in a place as dry as possible, leaving enough space to spread out, and a little blemish may greatly reduce the value of a perfect fur.If it happened, the captain would want to skin them.

The work was tiring, but fortunately there was supplementary animal meat from the ice tribes, and the captain generously used these frozen meat as part of the extra meal as usual.After calming his stomach that had been tortured by the long-distance diet for more than two months, Seaman returned to the cabin and fell asleep while shaking.

Sleep at sea was not very good, and in the middle of the night he heard footsteps and conversations on the deck faintly.The companion who was awakened next to him cursed, turned over and covered his ears.A dignified voice stopped the commotion, probably from the boatswain on the night watch.

Then the sound subsided, he slept peacefully through the second half of the night, and went to pick up the superior's shift in the morning.

The atmosphere on the deck was a bit strange. Just as Seaman wanted to complain about the noise last night, he was interrupted by his eyes.He took the cable and looked that way, the bosun's face was very ugly.

"Don't ask." The man whispered, "It's just an iceberg, it's not a big deal."

(End of this chapter)