Black Iron's Glory

When daybreak came and the skies started to be colored red, Claude finally ended his second Hexagram Meditation and woke up.

Good, those three are still sound asleep. Welikro was even munching, perhaps dreaming about eating something. Borkal on the other hand kept quiet the whole time after he passed out from drinking without a sound. Looks like the blueberry wine is more expensive than rough liquor for a reason… At least, he didn’t get up during the middle of the night for something to relieve his thirst.

Eriksson was rolled up in a pile of blankets and slept like a baby. He was the one who went to sleep first. Welikro didn’t feel like sleeping at that time and took up night duty during midnight so that Claude could rest before his turn. Since it was already around one in the middle of the night, Claude agreed.

However, he didn’t fall asleep and instead used that opportunity to meditate once. When he reawakened, one and a half hour had passed and Welikro was still fishing. However, he was left with only two candles for the fish skin lanterns after seven more catches.

Considering the result of their fishing, they did relatively well. Not including the catch they got from the purse seine, they caught more than 60 fishes through fishing alone, which was estimated to be worth around seven to eight riyases. It was no wonder that the fishermen said a lucky nighttime fishing session was much more profitable than fishing during the day. It was too bad that they wouldn’t be able to get that many fish every single night like that.

Claude washed his face with cold water and asked Welikro to get some rest while he took over the two fishing rods. Welikro fell asleep rather quickly and started snoring not long after he put his blanket on.

His fishing skills weren’t as good as Welikro’s. There were many times when he got a bite, but the fish always managed to escape. Even so, he did manage to get four in the end. One of them was also a relatively pricey fish, known as the money fish. Even though it was a freshwater fish, the texture of its flesh was decent and it was not that bony. Additionally, the scales that resembled little gold coins made it a symbol for prosperity. Many a tavern owner would spend quite a lot to buy a money fish. Claude’s weighed about one and a half catties and could sell for around six sunars.

When Claude finished using the two remaining candles, there was no way he could continue fishing. Looking at the sandglass, he found that it was only around four twenty. That was the darkest time of the night. The moon seemed to be obscured by the clouds in the sky, blocking the stream of continuous silver moonlight. The lake was completely dark, with the only source of light being the candle in the fish skin lantern that stained the lakewater in the area in a dark red.

He thought that the lake should be safe, and his friends were sound asleep anyway. So, he began meditating again. This time around, he woke up to a significantly brightened sky. Dawn had already come.

Standing up to stretch and wipe his face, he took the linen towel hanging on the side of the ship, wet it in the lake, and wiped his face with it, before washing the iron pot in the lake and getting a large wooden bucket from the cabin. The bucket contained some spring water they got from a mountain stream yesterday. He filled half of the pot with water and put it on the iron rack to heat it up.

The bucket of spring water was something Claude insisted they brought along. Eriksson thought that it was unnecessary since they were going to sail in a lake anyway and wouldn’t lack any water to drink. Lakewater was freshwater after all. But Claude said that the fishermen washed their faces and feet in the lake and even excreted within it. How could anyone drink from the lake? So, they agreed to purchase a large bucket of spring water for one sunar.

Claude prepared to make half a pot of red tea. He bought some milk and honey yesterday and emptied them all into the pot. A large cup of honeyed red milk tea was enough to keep one relatively full and sated for a while and energized for the whole day.

However, before Claude could finish a cup from the heat, Eriksson woke up from the fragrance. Wiping his eyes, he said, “What’s smelling so good?”

Claude poured him a cup too. The The two of them sipped their tea slowly as they watched the mountains and hills and the wetlands near the lake.

Dawn seemed like a beautiful veil that was swayed gently about in the sky, coloring the plain white clouds into varying gradients and the sky red. It was getting rather bright and a refreshing breeze blew across the surface of the lake, bringing with it the crisp calls of the birds flying about in the wetlands. They twirled around in the sky, with some spreading their wings to ascend higher while others descending into the reed.

“The weather seems rather great tonight,” said Eriksson.

Just as Claude was about to agree, Eriksson asked, “What are we having for breakfast?”

“Umm…” Claude didn’t know how Eriksson related good weather to what they would eat for breakfast, causing him to be unable to come up with a timely response.

“Well… Eyke, there’s a lot of ingredients in the cabin, but there isn’t much we can eat for breakfast,” Claude said with a sigh, “We forgot to bring a pan. I thought of making some steak and eggs during the morning, but I didn’t find any pans just now. We did bring a pot, a barbecue rack, and a stove, but I forgot the pan completely.”

Eriksson was speechless. That was supposed to be his responsibility. Everything in the cabin was his and he had forgotten to bring his pan on board. His mind was filled with the thought of enjoying roast wings, so he only remembered to bring the barbecue rack and some other things. It truly was a tragedy.

“When the two of them wake up and finish the tea, I’ll cook another pot of flour soup,” said Claude after some consideration. They couldn’t have a roast in the morning as that would upset their stomach. They were only limited to what they could make with the pot.

Borkal finally woke up and seemed well-rested. He greeted the other two loudly and poured himself a large cup of tea and started gulping it down.

Eriksson gave him an angry stare before going all the way to the stern with an audible humph.

Puzzled, Borkal asked, “What’s up with him?”

Claude shook his head. “Boa, is this the nighttime fishing event you envisioned? You only got yourself drunk with a bottle of blueberry wine and slept for the whole time without helping out at all. The three of us were tired out from what we did last night. Do you know why Eriksson is mad at you now?”

Borkal seemed incredibly awkward. “Sorry, Claude. I didn’t know that I would get drunk. The blueberry wine tasted too good and I drank a little too much before I realized it.”

“It’s not like you can drink much anyway…” Welikro woke up and joined them for some tea. The warmth was just right, perfect for swallowing it in big gulps.

“There’s still half a bottle of blueberry wine inside. Eyke and I didn’t drink any, so there’s still two bottles in the cabin. You can bring them back and enjoy them at home. That sweet wine is something women like. I didn’t know it would tickle your fancy either, so feel free to keep the rest. Your tolerance for alcohol is too weak for you to get drunk from half a bottle. I really don’t know why you’re the one who keeps bugging us to drink all day,” mocked Welikro.

By then, Borkal was completely humiliated. He sipped his red tea with his head lowered and pretended not to hear anything.

Claude decided to step in an mediate between them. “Alright, Wero, finish your tea and keep some of your words to yourself. We still have to use this pot for breakfast. We forgot to bring a pan.”

After another hour of busy work, they finally finished breakfast. After packing their stuff, Eriksson sailed the boat to collect the nets they deployed. Their haul this time around was rather decent. They caught around 20 fishes and had more than a hundred in total inside their live well.

After dropping the purse seine into the lake, they proceeded to approach the wetlands to hunt some water birds and wild ducks. Claude took out the two guns from the cabin and asked, “Who wants to go first?”

Welikro said, “Let Boa start first. I’ll fish for a while.”

Eriksson put the boat at half sail and used the wind to maneuver them closer to the reeds. They all quieted down and laid flat flat on the boat, looking beyond the sides at the front to prevent catching the attention of the birds feeding between the reeds.

“Over there,” whispered Welikro. There was a bunch of egrets searching for food in the water some hundred meters away.

Being in a parallel world sure is wonderful… In his previous life, hunting an egret was punishable with three years in jail. Claude leaned on the side of the boat with his gun and aimed with a kneeling posture. He reminded Borkal quietly, “I’ll shoot the one on the left and you take the right one. Remember it.”

At a hundred meters away, the egret appeared to Claude to be no bigger than a little soy bean, despite being rather large in size. The reeds that danced with the wind only made aiming much harder.

When he heard a bang, Claude hurriedly pulled the trigger and caused the slow match to contact the flash pan cover.

Bam! Two loud bangs could be heard as white smoke wafted up from the guns

“It didn’t hit!” cried Welikro in dismay.

Both their shots didn’t hit the enemy and disrupted the silence in the nearby area, causing countless birds to squawk and flutter about.

“Why did you fire before aiming properly?!” cried Claude angrily. Had it not been for Borkal pulling the trigger first, he could aim better before firing instead of pulling the trigger in a panic.

“I… I already tried to aim…” Borkal tried to make an excuse for himself.

“Whatever, let me fire first next.” Claude didn’t want to argue with him. They hadn’t practiced firing from a distance of a hundred meters often, so it was only expected for them to miss. “Eyke, move forward a bit more. I think the birds stopped deeper among the reeds.”

Claude fired seven shots in total and only got one wild duck and one egret. Borkal on the other hand fired ten and didn’t hit anything. In the end, he flung his gun down in a fit of anger and grabbed Welikro’s fishing rod from him. During the hunt, Welikro managed to catch more than ten fishes.

Eriksson was maneuvering the fishing boat through the reeds and finally managed to retrieve the two prey Claude shot. Thankfully, they had a punt pole more than four meters in length which they used to pull the dead birds towards them out from the reeds.

Welikro then removed the sights from the gun. Now that Claude and him were the ones doing the hunting, their effectiveness grew considerably. The wetlands were indeed a haven of birds. Even though many of them were startled by the loud bangs, they oon settled back down, giving Claude and Welikro more than enough targets to shoot at. However, they appeared really small from a far distance.

After a lot of work, the two of them only killed seven more birds in total. They missed more often than they hit. Eriksson also came over to make a few shots and didn’t hit anything just like Borkal.

Borkal already stopped fishing and mocked Eriksson after he didn’t hit a single bird. The two of them started arguing again.

By then, Claude and Welikro were picking the last bird out of the water into the boat. Most of the birds had already flown away by then, so they decided to take a rest.

Hearing Borkal and Eriksson arguing nonstop, Welikro said, “Hey, just compete to find out who’s the blind one.”

While that sounded like a good idea, they had no target to aim at. Borkal looked around and finally spotted something. He pointed at the front of the boat and said, “Look, there! There’s a piece of wood in the water ahead. Let’s aim for that and fire.”

The long piece of wood appeared to be a bark. It floated barely above the surface of the water and not much of its area was exposed. It was around 200 meters away from the boat.

“Alright, let’s aim for that piece of wood then,” Eriksson agreed, “The one who scores the least hits is the blind one.”

Welikro put the sights back on and recalibrated them while Claude handed his gun to Eriksson. The two of them then fired more than ten shots at the piece of wood. However, it was too far away and the piece of wood looked more like a line than a proper target. It was hard to tell whether they hit it or not, so the two started arguing again.

After a while, Borkal looked up and said, “That’s weird… Why is that piece of wood coming closer and closer? There’s no wind here at all.”

Welikro turned to look and was flabbergasted, but he quickly snapped out of his stupor. “Quick, leave! This isn’t a piece of wood! It’s a niros crocodile!”

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