Black Iron's Glory

Every winter, the return of Captain Altroni’s Shark of Red Sea from whaling was a rare affair to be celebrated. Even though only school students got proper breaks, to the many townsfolk, winter was a season of staying home. It was hard to get work done when it was snowing all the time, much less traveling far away. So, most people basically had nothing better to do than chill out in taverns and drink for the whole day.

As such, the return of Shark of Red Sea became an event that the townsfolk looked forward to every year. They cheered with as much fervor as they did when the niros crocodile was captured. The streets were filled with onlookers and the crowd was huge. Some opportunistic hawkers took the chance to push carts around while selling fruit and smoked meat.

Claude and Welikro managed with great difficulty to squeeze their way to the entrance of the jetty and broke a lot of sweat. Fortunately, Pegg was watching the entrance and hurriedly opened it slightly to let the two of them in.

Shark of Red Sea was still docked at the icy parts of the lake some hundred meters away from the jetty itself. A number of people were standing on the surface of the surface of the ice while hammering their ice picks against the surface.

“What are up to? Are they trying to break the ice so that the ship can sail in closer to dock?” Claude asked Pegg.

It was during the last winter that the former owner of Claude’s body and the other three boys went ice fishing at the lake, only for him to end up falling into the ice water. Fortunately, the three of them managed to catch onto his clothes and pulled him up, but that caused Claude to lay in bed sick for half a year and have his soul replaced by a transmigrator’s.

“No. Ships can’t be docked at the jetty during winter because the water will freeze and trap the ship on the spot. That is greatly damaging to the ships,” Pegg answered, “Fishing boats can only stop outside the frozen parts and also have to move towards the center of the lake,. away from the direction the ice will form to prevent being frozen in place. Currently, they’re testing the thickness of the ice to see whether it can sustain the weight of a whale.”

Whales… Claude looked at the two whales being dragged behind Shark of Red Sea. Other things aside, the parts of the whales that were floating above the surface looked longer than the whole ship. It was hard to imagine truly how large those two whales were. Claude also found out that the whales were different from those he had seen in his previous world. Even though their skin looked gray-blue also, these two whales seemed to have a horn at the front. There was a large protrusion near its head, but the horn seemed to have been removed already, leaving a large hole in the whale’s body.

It’s a narwhal… Claude recalled the whale drawings in his biology textbook. There were seventeen pictures of different discovered whale species of varying sizes. Narwhals were not as huge when compared to other whales. An adult narwhal was probably the size of a young great blue whale, just a little tougher-looking. However, the pictures in the books didn’t provide  the kind of awe Claude felt when he saw the whales in real life. He could only imagine how much bigger a blue whale was.

“With these two whales, Eriksson’s family made it big this winter,” said Welikro enviously.

The biology textbooks described narwhals in great detail. Unlike other whale species, narwhals were the more common type that could be caught for consumption. It was said that during the dark ages, some magi brought fishing folk to the sea to catch whales for experimental ingredients and also use whale meat to solve famine within their dominions.

Legend went that the horn of narwhals was a crucial ingredient in alchemical experiments. Even though no book could prove that to be true, after the magi were exiled from Freia, there was a folk belief that stated that a man’s potency could be revitalized through the use of narwhal horn, making it a greatly valuable ingredient in the medicine market. Any captain that managed to capture narwhals would no doubt earn lots.

“Uncle Pegg, you said they were testing the thickness of the ice, so are they going to bring the whales on shore?” asked Claude.

Pegg shook his head. “No. They’re going to take the whales apart on the ice itself. There’s no need to waste energy and bring whales all the way here. Last year, there was only one whale. We’re much luckier this year to be graced with two. I see that the onlookers will enjoy the benefit of buying some whale meat on the cheap to try out at home.”

Oh, so Eriksson’s family had that kind of tradition. His father, Captain Altroni, would always bring a whale or two back to the town every year and cut it open there and there for the people to watch and sell them cheap whale meat… Even the townsfolk got some benefit out of it. It was no wonder that there was such a huge crowd there. Claude had wondered why some of them were even carrying empty buckets along before he realized that they were going to use it to store their whale meat.

“Wero, Claude!” Eriksson showed up on the ship. He saw the other two on the docks and took his hat off and waved it at them excitedly while calling out to them loudly.

The two of them returned the wave to show that they heard him instead of shouting back. After that, Eriksson climbed down the ship with a thick rope and slipped and fell on the ice like a monkey. He hurriedly got up and ran towards the shore.

“Hey, Claude, Wero, I’ve missed you to death!” Eriksson gave Claude a hug the moment he arrived. He looked around and suddenly seemed disappointed. “Boa’s not here?”

“He won’t be coming,” said Claude, before he explained that Borkal had gone to his aunt’s to spend the new year’s and would only return during the 1st month.

Welikro looked at Eriksson intently before he heaved a sigh of relief and hugged him. “Congratulations on returning safely. You not ending up wounded anywhere is worthy of celebration.”

That wasn’t an exaggeration in the slightest. Whaling was a dangerous affair and newcomers would often end up with broken fingers at the very least, mostly because of frostbite, as well as how dangerous it was during mast climbing, during which they might be wounded by any frozen metal links. However, that paled in comparison to some cases where people would return with broken legs or missing limbs.

Eriksson nudged Welikro in the chest. “What are you saying? You look down on me too much, you know. Who do you think I am? I’m the future captain of Whitestag! Eriksson!

“By the way, Claude, Wero, this voyage out to sea was eye-opening for me! I’m sure you can’t imagine how calm the stormy seas are during winter. The sun rises at dawn from the east and covers the ocean in a golden glow. If it wasn’t for how the ocean stretched limitlessly, I would’ve thought that I was still in Lake Balinga! The sight is far too beautiful and majestic…”

Eriksson described his whaling experiences throughout the month to his two friends animatedly and talked for one hour nonstop. He only paused after Claude handed him a cup of water.

“Thank you… My mouth was drying up…” Eriksson finished the water in one go and only just realized that he had followed the other two into Pegg’s little house. The cup he held in his hand was Pegg’s.

Claude looked at him with annoyance and said, “You’ve splattered our faces full of saliva. It’s no wonder you’re thirsty. You seem like you were mute during the whole voyage and didn’t get to talk to anyone until now.”

“Well, come on… I was just happy to see you and was in the mood for chatting, that’s all,” said Eriksson with an awkward smile.

Currently, one of the whales were dragged onto the ice surface and a few sailors were using large axes and logging saws to cut open the belly of the whale. Some of them transported some whale meat to the docks with sleds. Pegg, Captain Altroni and a few other sailors had already set up some wooden tables at the docks and placed freshly cut whale meat on top of them.

There was a long, orderly line outside the docks. The onlookers stuffed their money into a large wooden box placed beside the tables and took a piece of whale meat back home.

“How much do those sell for?” asked Claude.

“These are quite cheap. Five catties for one sunar,” replied Eriksson.

It is cheap. One catty only costs around two fennies, which is roughly 20 cents. So, five catties cost only one buck. Claude got a good idea of food prices in town as he was often asked to buy groceries by his mother during the break.

The current price of one catty of beef was one sunar and four fennies. It cost one sunar for one catty of mutton, while smoked mutton cost around one sunar and eight fennies per catty and pork cost five sunars per catty. Wild boar meat on the other hand went for eight sunars per catty and one catty of longtail swordfish cost six sunars. Other cheap fish mostly cost around four sunars and eight fennies for each catty.

As Morssen’s daily salary was around one riyas, he could feed his whole family comfortably every day by spending only five or six sunars. But for the common townsfolk that only earned one or two thales a month, it was already quite good if they could afford to eat meat once or twice a week. Most of the time, they chose to eat cheap fish from the lake.

According to some experts, narwhal meat was comparable to beef in both taste and nutrition, so purchasing one catty of whale meat for only two fennies was a great deal for the townsfolk. Even the poorest of people would definitely be able to earn two fennies after a hard day’s work, so whale meat was not out of reach for them either.

Captain Altroni wielded the butcher’s knife himself and cut up piece after piece of whale meat at the jetty. Pegg on the other hand weighed the meat before handing it to the buyers.

Many people tossed one sunar into the wooden box and claimed a piece of whale meat five catties in weight before thanking the captain and leaving.

Captain Altroni smiled as he listened to the words of gratitude he received all the while he continued to cut whale meat with his balde.

Welikro nudged Claude and pointed at the captain’s blade. It was only then when Claude noticed that the meat cut by Eriksson’s father didn’t vary much in size at all. “Five catties and two taels, hold it well,” said Pegg. The weights he reported were mostly the same.

Eriksson didn’t look surprised in the slightest. “That’s nothing new. He’s been splitting fish at sea for more than twenty years and got all the time in the world to practice. I’ll be at least as good as that in the future too.”

“Why do the people only buy a five-catty piece your father cuts out? Can’t they buy a few more?” asked Claude. The weather was cold during winter and meat could be kept for quite a long time. So why didn’t anybody buy more to stock up, especially given the price?

“They don’t dare,” said Eriksson gladly. Cutting up whale meat was an Altroni tradition that started with Eriksson’s grandfather, who was also a captain and whaler. Back then, Shark of Red Sea didn’t exist yet and they used smaller fishing boats for the task. Each whaling attempt was a gamble with one’s life. Quite a number of sailors died or gotten injured for the sake of whaling.

Eriksson’s grandfather always returned with one whale and he started splitting the meat for the family members of the dead sailors so that they would spend a good year ahead. Only after that would he sell the meat to the poor folk in town at a low price.

But when it came to Eriksson’s father, the family bought a long-distance fishing boat, Shark of Red Sea and whaling was no longer as dangerous as it used to be. The family members of the elderly sailors who died were already grown up and giving them free whale meat was unnecessary pity. Anyone with some dignity would refuse the offer and they’d rather buy the meat like the other poor folk.

So, the tradition of the Altronis also changed. Instead of giving away meat for free, they sold whale meat cheaply. It wasn’t that people didn’t want to buy more. There were some who wanted to buy them in bulk. However, they were all rejected by Captain altroni and each household was only allowed to buy a set amount of five catties. The sailors at the jetty also knew well how much each family got. Nobody would be able to take advantage of the Altronis’ goodwill.

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