novelraw Chapter 236: 12 Curse (Two in One)
Chapter 236: 12 Curse (Two in One)
"Reporting to the First Mate, it seems the parts of the steam engine in the cabin have taken on water!"
"Reporting to the First Mate, a portion of the supplies fell into the seawater."
"The hull has sustained partial damage, and the walls of the utility room have started leaking water..."
The crew members on the deck of the Iceberg Queen hurried about. After roughly inspecting the battle damage to the Iceberg Queen, they collectively returned to the deck to report their findings to Pakhz.
Hearing the crew's report made Pakhz's expression turn somewhat ugly, having failed the hunt and returning empty-handed. They had chased a Sea Ghost for two days without plucking a single hair from it, and even suffered losses. Moreover, she had just learned from Fisher that even the Siren was killed by this man. This slapped the faces of a ship full of women so hard it stung with a clear "smack," making them wish they could find a hole to crawl into...
That stifled breath of frustration in her chest just wouldn't dissipate, causing her to curse with a rather foul expression,
"How long will it take to repair? We must have everything on the ship repaired before we can get back on our way! I don't want water flooding up to my... belly while we're sailing."
It was unclear what exactly Pakhz wanted to curse about, but when Old Jack and the three Ratman Race girls carried three or four crates of spoiled food from the cabin up to the deck, her words paused for a second before she subconsciously switched to a more civilized phrase.
"It will probably take two to three days. The most critical issue is that there isn't enough food; some food fell into the sea, and some was ruined by freezing. Based on our current progress plus the time required to repair the steam engine, I'm afraid that for the next few days, until we reach the next supply point, we will only be able to eat one meal every two days, though we can grit our teeth and pull through... Oh, wait, we also have a few extra people. If that's the case..."
"Screw your daddy! Stop talking! Just go repair the steam engine first. I'll discuss this with the Captain."Pakhz curled her lip, watching Old Jack and the chef dump basket after basket of frost-ruined food into the sea, rapidly calculating in her mind. Food was already insufficient, and some had been damaged due to the battle. If this continued, it was highly likely they wouldn't even make it to the next supply point.
Thinking of this, she turned to look at Alajina, who was standing at the bow with Fisher examining the island ahead. She held up her binoculars, carefully scrutinized the appearance of that island.
The island in her line of sight was of moderate size, but its height far exceeded that of ordinary islands, as within it stood a rather tall mountain peak covered in verdure. Around the mountain peak, birds circled and water meandered, portraying the whole island as quiet and beautiful...
What truly caught Alajina and Fisher's attention was a massive wooden ship stranded on the island's beach.
The wooden ship was quite large, constructed entirely of wood. In the exact center of its deck stood a massive mast, bearing a fully unfurled sail. This proved the vessel lacked any steam-powered machinery and was an ancient, traditional ship driven entirely by wind.
The structure of the ship was too archaic; its overall sails featured a white base, on which an extremely unfamiliar, massive dark-blue feather-shaped totem was depicted.
The exterior of the entire hull showed no signs of wear or destruction. At a slightly tilted angle, it surged upwards from the sea all the way onto the island's beach. On the beach behind the stern, Alajina also noticed a long, slender drag mark...
If drag marks remained on the sandy beach, it indicated that this ship shouldn't have been ashore for very long. But if it hadn't been long, how could a ship of this design still exist?
Alajina looked at the feather-shaped totem painted on that sail and instantly associated it with the feather stored within the Ice Prince sword. Both feathers were exceedingly similar in shape, color, and the feeling they gave her. And this sword of hers was an heirloom passed down her family for generations. Could it mean this ship was once a possession of her ancestors?
So, the Ice Prince resonated because of that ship, or because of a certain item or person on that ship?
Fisher beside her simultaneously saw the situation on that island, thus speaking to Alajina,
"That island is not right, and the design of that stranded ship is also very bizarre. Even before the Steam Revolution, I've never seen any nation utilize this method of shipbuilding. Even judging solely by the ship's power mode, it couldn't possibly have come ashore within the last few days. What's more, your nautical charts have never recorded this island..."
Alajina nodded, but she subsequently reached back to touch the tattoo on her back, saying,
"I know, but the ship's structure is damaged, and we also need to replenish some food. We can't drop anchor here; continuing to sail forward would likely be dangerous. Furthermore, ever since just now, the Ice Prince tattoo has constantly been calling me to go there; there must be something exceedingly important there. I plan to take Ocie on a small boat first to check the situation. If anything's amiss, you guys can also leave."
Ice Prince?
The Ice Prince had a very deep connection with the Phoenix Race of Northern Border legends. It was once one of the divine weapons bestowed upon her three children by the Phoenix King. If the Ice Prince was resonating with something on that island, didn't that imply it was highly probable that the Phoenix Race existed on that island?
Currently, all Phoenix Races in the Northern Border had already vanished without a trace. Could a small remnant of them have fled here?
Thinking of this, Fisher also harbored a slight desire to explore that island. However, he didn't reply immediately, merely glancing down at her bandaged right hand injury. The implication was approximately, "Given your current injury, it's probably unsuitable for just you and Ocie to explore there, right?"
Anyway, Fisher thought his implication was quite obvious. Who knew that upon feeling Fisher's gaze, Alajina actually gently hid her right hand behind her back, and then looked at Fisher very seriously, saying,
"I can do it."
"..."
It seemed that, much like those male gentlemen of Saint-Nazareth, when it came to expressing that they too had vulnerabilities, the women of the Sardin Woman's Country were equally somewhat stubborn, even approaching the point of obstinacy, making Fisher unable to help laughing.
In the Sardin Woman's Country, a woman could not say she couldn't do it; she had to power through no matter what.
He had no choice but to shake his head, pointing behind her, and said,
"Setting aside whether it's safe for just you and Ocie to go, even if you want to, your crew will absolutely not agree to it..."
Alajina turned to look at the deck, only to see Pakhz twirling the harmonica in her hand, smiling as she looked at Alajina and Fisher beside her. Behind her, many crew members who were about to leave the deck also subconsciously looked over here. Seemingly having heard Alajina's words as well, they were waiting for her orders.
In truth, as early as when they left the Sardin Woman's Country, they were deeply bound to Alajina. The sailing goal of this legendary pirate ship named Iceberg Queen had always been only one: wherever Alajina wanted to go.
Losing Alajina meant this ship essentially equated to having sunk.
Seeing the figures of the crew members standing on the deck, Alajina silently retracted her gaze, while simultaneously bringing out the right hand hidden behind her back.
"I understand... My right hand is injured, so I cannot complete the exploration of the island alone. But I faintly sense there will be an item extremely important to me on that island, connected to the Ice Prince. Since the ship is damaged, the Iceberg Queen will first dock to repair the vessel, and then assign some people to land on the island with me."
"At your service, my Captain."
Upon receiving Alajina's orders, Pakhz spun the harmonica in her hand a full circle, performing a bizarre imitation of a Naris gentleman's bow. Then her expression slightly changed as she shouted loudly at the crew members behind her,
"You heard her, the Captain has given the order. Get the ship moving, we'll head to the coastal waters of that island before repairing the ship! Along the way, we must figure out how to fill the starving bellies of you lot for the next few dozen days... Hurry up and work! Hurry up and work! Oh, Mr. Jack, hold off on throwing out that bunch of grapes..."
"Buzz, buzz..."
As the Iceberg Queen began to stir once more, sailing toward the island's direction, the tattoo on Alajina's back also grew increasingly hot, as if it became exceedingly joyful and jumping for joy as the distance between it and the island shrank.
Seeing Alajina focusing intensely on the distant island, Fisher suddenly thought of something.
Previously, Eimhart had told him the origin of the Ice Prince, but at that time he didn't tell Alajina about this matter, so she probably merely thought this sword was just a treasure passed down through her family.
Fisher glanced at Eimhart, who had returned to his shoulder. Upon seeing that Fisher had returned safely, this guy had come running back following eagerly. He originally wanted to boast to Fisher about how important his mental assistance was, but seeing him "flirting" with Alajina again, he decided not to speak up.
Facing the sea breeze, Fisher looked at Alajina beside him and told her the story of the Northern Border's Phoenix Race,
"Right, I almost forgot to tell you about the origin of your 【Ice Prince】 estoc..."
Hearing Fisher's words, Alajina's blue eyes showed intense concentration, clearly immersed in the story... Or rather, was she so immersed because the man before her was telling this story?
After listening to the entire history, Alajina summoned the true body of the Ice Prince. She looked down at the transparent blue feather quietly glowing within the blade of the elegant estoc in her hand. So, that was a feather belonging to one of the three Children of the Phoenix. That feather was what forged this powerful relic...
"A Phoenix, huh? This is already an extremely ancient matter to us. The majority of Northern Border people revere them as gods rather than any existing physical entity, much like the Mother Goddess revered in your West Continent. If this sword belongs to the legendary Phoenix Race, does that mean my ancestors once had contact with the Phoenixes..."
She gazed at the estoc in her hand, ultimately receiving no answer, because she didn't know much about her own family. The reason for this was, of course, her mother.
She resented her mother, and by extension resented her family. Initially, she naturally wouldn't feel any sense of belonging towards it. However, besides her mother, there were other good people within the family who had taken care of her... just like Pakhz. If not for her, she absolutely would not have been able to escape the Northern Border.
Alajina, having received no answer, gently lowered the estoc in her hand and said to Fisher,
"You know a lot, Fisher..."
Alajina looked at Fisher with slightly brightened eyes. In the Sardin Woman's Country, when women took husbands, they certainly had preferences. Among them, the term "well-read and well-mannered" was typically used to describe a perfect gentleman. Alajina clearly agreed deeply with this, so from the very beginning, she was quite fond of the scholarly aura surrounding Fisher.
On Fisher's shoulder, Eimhart looked at Fisher in disbelief, then looked at Alajina beside him, his eyes bulging with anger. Just as he was about to speak, Fisher shook his head and explained,
"A friend of mine told me this. Before that, I knew nothing about it either."
This time, it was Eimhart's turn to have his eyes brighten up. He silently puffed out his chest, looking proud.
"You only told me that after understanding it yourself. Otherwise, with my level of understanding, I probably wouldn't be able to grasp this dust-covered history so clearly..."
Hearing Alajina's polite words, Eimhart's expression turned noticeably fouler. He even sneaked a rather disdainful look at Alajina beside him.
Hah, you foolish woman, I'm on Fisher's side now. Even if you get fooled by this bad man later, I won't stand on the moral high ground with you to condemn him. I will solely stand in the winner's position alongside him to mock you!
"Buzz, buzz, buzz..."
As the ship moved closer and closer to that island, the island's size constantly expanded in their field of vision until its complete shape was revealed.
The Iceberg Queen swiftly arrived at a position several hundred meters from the island's beach and dropped anchor there. Most of the crew needed to stay there to repair the steam engine and clean up the mess left by the battle with the Siren just now. Meanwhile, Alajina took a small portion of the crew to land on the island via a small boat.
"One! Two! Three!"
A small boat was slowly lowered. Alajina, Pakhz, Fisher, and two of the strongest crew members boarded the boat, watching the crew on the ship gradually lower the ropes to let them down.
Not many weapons remained on the ship. Cutlery was plentiful, but some of the muskets were waterlogged, while others had directly fallen into the sea. Rounding them up only yielded about seven or eight. Fisher and Alajina didn't need them, so they were left for the remaining three.
"Ocie, observe the surroundings."
Standing on the deck, Ocie nodded upon hearing Alajina's order. Simultaneously spreading her wings once again, she took flight, her massive silhouette swiftly sweeping across the surrounding sea area.
On the boat, Fisher subconsciously picked up a rowing oar. Consequently, before he could grip it firmly, the two crew members in front of him had already reached out with sheepish smiles to take that pair of oars from him,
"We'll do it, we'll do it. How can women let a man row?"
"..."
Fisher merely handed the oars to the two of them, sizing up the island that was getting closer and closer, but noticed nothing.
Beside him, Pakhz pulled a small wine flask from her bosom, subconsciously taking a swig. As a result, she caught Alajina glaring at her. She blinked, deeply understanding she couldn't leave Fisher with a bad impression of alcoholism. Thus, she put the wine flask back and instead took out that small harmonica,
"Right, I almost forgot to ask you, Mr. Fisher, what's the deal with those three Ratman Race individuals, races from the Southern Continent? I haven't seen them with my own eyes before."
Fisher cast a glance at her, seemingly having seen through what she truly wanted to ask long ago. Therefore, he smiled and said,
"Those three Ratman Race individuals are children adopted by Old Jack's son. Ever since his son passed away, he's been taking care of them in his stead... Although verbally he claims to hate those three kids very much, in reality he's quite fond of them. He's a good man with a sharp tongue but a soft heart, just a bit old. He's already nearing fifty this year."
"Heh, I knew he was that kind of person long ago. You don't know, back when I was in the Woman's Country, I was known as having the 'Godly Eye for Judging Men'. Just one glance is all it takes for me to tell if a proper man from whichever family is suitable to marry me... Besides, what does age matter? How does the saying go, a man three years older is like holding a gold brick..."
"Cough, cough."
Alajina coughed gently, interrupting Pakhz's passionate speech. Her first-love husband had been dead for many years. Having served in the military for over a decade and then followed her out to sea, she hadn't seen many men over these years, so for a moment...
At this moment, Ocie in the sky twisted her body somewhat, flapping her wings toward Alajina in mid-air. The meaning was "No danger found, safe."
Alajina nodded and pointed at the coastline ahead, saying,
"Let's stop talking for now. Gather your spirits, we're almost there..."
"No problem, no problem, I'm already prepared."
The sea waves aggressively thrust this small boat toward the edge of the coast. Waiting for the small boat to come to a complete stop, Alajina reached out and touched the sandy beach that was scorched hot by the sunlight. Only after confirming that all of this was real did she disembark.
Right next to where they docked, that stranded giant sailing ship lay quietly on the beach. Eimhart, standing on Fisher's shoulder, saw that massive flag and then secretly whispered to Fisher,
"That symbol is the totem of one of the three Children of the Phoenix. Which one specifically, I'm not sure. This ship is a Northern Border ship from that era, but why would it appear here like this?"
Eimhart additionally experienced bewilderment regarding this vessel materializing here simultaneously navigating this chronology. Should this vessel portray a Northern Border aquatic construct originating encompassing that Phoenix era, consequently isolating the chronological disparity characterizing the present spans measuring profoundly extending potentially millennia. Under absolute conditions, nautical conveyances originating maintaining functional operations during those epochs uniformly lack mathematical possibilities manifesting holistic structural integrities surviving enduring translating seamlessly into modern eras.
Pakhz, chewing on a wooden stick, stepped ahead of the group, carrying a musket, and walked beside the ship. She reached out and knocked on the hull, then pressed her ear against the ship's wall, frowning and listening for a long while. As she tapped along the hull, she said,
"There are no living people inside... no, it should be that there are no living creatures at all. No breathing, no signs of activity, but the ship's materials still look very new. Did the people on board disembark?"
Just as she was walking along the hull, her tapping suddenly stopped. As if she had discovered something, she hurriedly walked to the side, waving frantically at Alajina's group and saying,
"Come look, come look, my god, there's a hole in the bottom of the ship!"
Alajina and Fisher walked toward Pakhz's direction. On the hull of that massive ship facing the beach, there was surprisingly a rather large irregular hole. It didn't look like something hard struck it from the outside to create it, but rather...
"This hole was broken from the inside. Someone from inside walked out of the ship and landed on the island."
Alajina quickly noticed that there were many hacking marks on the inner side of the hull's hole, proving that people inside actively split the hull open with an axe.
At this moment, the interior of the hull was pitch black. However, Fisher suddenly noticed faint glows shimmering within that darkness. He lowered his head and followed the sunlight to see the quiet rooms inside. He suddenly noticed grayish-white feathers scattered everywhere on the floor inside.
It wasn't just the floor; the walls and ceiling were also covered with these scattered feathers. And the reason there were feathers on the walls was entirely because a considerable amount of blood remained there. The viscous blood stuck the feathers onto the walls. The room, paved with numerous feathers, was as messy as a chicken farm.
"Feathers? How could it all be feathers? Is this a ship of the Cangniao-zhong?"
Alajina scrutinized those feathers and similarly felt they didn't resemble the feather embedded within the Ice Prince sword much. Consequently, she suspected whether this was a vessel belonging to the Cangniao-zhong. When she glanced at Ocie in confusion, she discovered her vigilantly watching the direction of the woods.
There, a figure entirely covered completely by a black robe, walking staggeringly, paused briefly upon seeing the people on the coast. Subsequently, he behaved purely manically, charging dashing madly towards them,
"Who goes there?! Back off!"
Everyone raised their weapons intending aiming targeting directly towards the figure running approaching hither. Nonetheless, the figure possessed absolutely zero halt intention, merely stumbling dashing forward, while simultaneously continuously vocally shouting formulating particular syllables originating from his oral cavity.
But after running merely several strides, he abruptly plunged descending kneeling down possessing distance marginally remote relating Alajina's entourage, subsequently executing frantic kowtowing bows towards them. Amidst the kowtowing bows, he identically persistently remembered reiterating articulating precedent statements unconditionally.
Among those present who heard the words, everyone except Fisher experienced a change in expression, because this guy was speaking the Northern Border language, which Fisher happened not to know.
Alajina, leading the group, listened and then exchanged an unbelievable glance with Pakhz. Subsequently, she took a step forward and spoke to the man in the Northern Border language,
"What did you say?"
The man continuously kowtowed. Upon hearing Alajina's words, he finally raised his head. The face revealed scared everyone.
Underneath that black cloak appeared the face of a human man. The only difference from a normal person was that his eyes were completely overgrown with a layer of white feathers, as if sprouting out from the eyeballs themselves, completely occupying the space where his eyes originally were.
Looking further down the slit of his cloak, many feathers also grew on his neck, among which there were quite a few shorter ones. These feathers were all stained with a lot of blood, looking like things drilling out of flesh and blood, making one's scalp tingle.
"..."
He kowtowed several more times to Alajina and repeated what he had said before. This caused Alajina to furrow her brows slightly, then turn her head to look at Fisher beside her.
"What did he say?"
"He said, 'Respected Lord Phoenix, this sinner who deserves ten thousand deaths dares not forget the mission you bestowed, and has waited here a long time. Finally, I have waited until you came here to retrieve that treasure, and we can finally be freed from this curse of eternal damnation.'"
(End of this chapter)