WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Wind and a Cluster of Stars

Chapter 2

──────

An Old Ship, Off the Coast of London

A different version of the prologue.

...

Under the darkened sky, beneath those densely scattered stars, stars on the ground began to light up one by one.

"What... is this?"

Light was shining from the dozens of termite towers around us.

Large and small lights leaked out through the holes we had seen in daylight.

When I slowly stood, every tower was crowded with hundreds of lights.

It looked like someone had put paper covers over green candles, then punched hundreds of holes in them with a needle...

The dark grassland looked like a pitch-black universe, with pillars of light reaching up to the sky...

The place where the campfire burned held a little color and became Earth, while the pillars of light around us felt like outer space.

I walked through this garden of stars glittering with countless lights and enjoyed the faint border of their glow.

Even with nothing in my hands, starlight gave me that clear white glow, and when a light tower was close, its pale green softness sank into my face.

So many stars that looked ready to spill over, and countless stars filling this land...

I floated between them and looked at the stars around me.

How many more stars could we find?

I walked under these towers of light and the Milky Way hanging right above our heads, trying to savor this moment.

Because I knew this too would disappear before long...

"How did I end up all the way here?"

And how did I come to walk through such a brilliant forest of stars?

"Ego fui sola in silva, Et dilexi loca secreta."

Everyone studied Latin as part of a basic education, but I had never learned Latin.

Still, Amy knew Spanish, a Latin language, so she understood it and explained it to me.

"I went alone into the wood, and was delighted by the hidden places." [I was alone in the woods, and loved hidden places.]

A smile slipped out before I knew it.

Then I passed between the sparkling Milky Way and the pillars of light.

"How far will our journey go?"

Zenon, faintly glowing beside a shining pillar, continued.

"Till the stars lose their sparkle and the ice melts away." [Until the stars lose their shine and the ice melts away.]

Amy too, her glasses and eyes full of stars.

"Till the raindrops stop falling and the wind never blows." [Until raindrops no longer fall and the wind no longer blows.]

The grassland wind was lukewarm like body heat, and riding it made me feel as if I were gently lifting into the air.

"I think my wish has come true now."

Amy whispered softly.

I found myself smiling again.

"When will our journey come to an end?"

At my words, Amy stood between the pillars and looked up at the sky.

"Till the moon never beams but in the sky tries to hide." [Until the moon no longer shines and the sky tries to hide.]

It felt like my soul and all my thoughts were flying into that distant sky.

Our adventure...

"Till my heart stops its beating till the stars burn away." [Until my heart stops beating and all the stars burn away.]*

I wished it could go on forever.

Until we found every star in this mysterious, vast world.

The brilliant river of stars slowly flowed toward the horizon of that green sea of stars, and even the time of this magical night moved slowly, granting us mercy tonight at least.

A starry night.

And us, quietly floating in the middle of it.

I wished this journey would go on forever.

(♬Lesiem - Fides)

--------

1. Old Ship

April 2...

"Wanting a big ship from the start is too much. Our finances are what they are, for now..."

Amy, my mate, stood with her arms crossed in a corner of the London dock, watching a ship being lifted by crane.

"At least it doesn't leak, so maybe that's lucky."

Maybe I really did have to call it lucky, just like she said.

A tiny, worn-out old merchant Balsa sat at the outermost edge of the dock.

*(A small boat usually used for fishing, also called a Balsa.)

Truthfully, as Amy and I walked across the cobblestone square today, I had wondered what kind of ship it would be.

I did not have much money on hand, so I did not expect too much...

Still, part of me was disappointed.

The small Balsa was pulled up easily by crane.

Coin-sized barnacles and seaweed were caked all over the bottom,

a clear sign of how long it had sat there.

As soon as the still Balsa moved, schools of fry that had been playing beneath it scattered in every direction.

The North Sea was cold and clear, so sea life grew more slowly than in other places,

but it had stayed a long time in the relatively warm shallow water inside the harbor, so the biggest barnacles were nearly the size of oysters.

"We definitely need to fix this up."

Even someone who knew nothing about ships would have said that.

With this much stuck on it, there was no way the ship could make good speed.

When Amy paid the crane operator a small silver coin from her leather pouch, he said the same thing.

"Captain, we should tow this to the shipyard, scrape off the barnacles, and buy a proper set of sailcloth too."

Amy wiped sea spray from her glasses as she spoke.

Amy had turned twenty-one this year, and she was a mate freshly graduated from Navigation School,

a lively young woman with blue eyes and blond hair.

To be fair, Amy was not exactly an outstanding mate.

She did not have much sailing experience, and her grades at school had not been very good either.

But because of that, I had been able to hire a mate even with my thin budget.

Money was tight, but sailing alone was more frightening than being short on funds.

Even so, she had the drive and hardworking spirit of a rookie, and to me,

she looked like someone who would be a huge help.

...

The commercial Balsa was hauled onto land, and shipwrights swarmed over it, chiseling off every barnacle and other marine life, then coating it thickly with hot tar.

While that dried, I went to the trading post for a commission from the Merchants' Guild, and Amy went to the tavern to see the sailors we had hired last night.

"You said you're from the Guild?"

"Yes. Here are the papers."

The owner of the trading post checked the Guild certificate I handed over and signed at the bottom, then had workers bring out twenty sacks of salt for me to take responsibility for.

"Sacks of salt... at current rates, this much each... times twenty. The rate the Guild gave you is correct."

Since the Guild's quoted price was right, I bought the salt with my own money.

I could receive the salt payment in Dover, and the commission fee after returning from Dover.

It was no good pushing too hard from the start, so I had taken a nearby, easy route to Dover first.

My sailing experience was that limited, and the burden was too much by myself, so I truly needed Amy's help.

"Then I leave it to you."

We carried the sacks one by one and stacked them in the market yard in front of the trading post, then waited a moment,

and I saw Amy coming with the sailors we had contracted yesterday.

"Move the salt to Dock B7-27. The ship should be ready by now."

Amy was younger than them, but by ship rank she addressed the sailors in a commanding tone.

Following her order, the sailors hoisted the salt and started toward the dock.

Watching their backs, I kept worrying about our lack of funds.

Maybe we could make up for it with this Dover run...

The sailors crossed the gangplank with heavy sacks of salt on their shoulders.

Staggering, the plank rose and dipped from the dock, swaying dangerously.

I sat on a dock post and watched in silence.

All we had left now were a few coins.

Could we avoid ending up on the street?

I had no choice but to head to sea to find a way to live. Could I make it back again?

2. Off the Coast of London

April 3.

Salt was one of the heavier cargoes, so seawater rose close to the load line that marked the weight limit.

The Balsa had a low hull and a structure made for oars, so it settled quickly.

On top of that, it was small and the hold was small too, so what it could carry was limited, and it was not suited for long open-sea voyages.

For nearby offshore waters or city coasts, sure.

"Weigh anchor and set sail!"

-ting ting ting

At the order, the sailors raised the anchor and unfurled the sails.

The sailcloth on the mast tightened as it caught the wind, then we began to move forward slowly.

The ship, which had been tilting a little to both sides, gradually stabilized, and the harbor slowly began to fall behind us.

...

The fog near London had been famous since old times.

Until sunrise, fog ruled the North Sea, and around this season it was even worse.

-ting ting ting ting!

-ting ting ting!

So at this hour, whenever ships spotted another vessel approaching within arm's reach, they rang bells to signal their positions

and passed each other that way.

The fog was so damp it seeped into our lungs, and even the Balsa's single mast was covered in droplets.

"Ah, it won't light..."

A sailor tried to spark a fire with flint to light his tobacco, but after striking it over and over, he gave up because the tinder had long been soaked.

There were four sailors total, and one of them had been hired specifically as a seasoned hand.

Yesterday afternoon, Amy had stopped by the tavern and pointed to someone sitting in a corner.

He was an older sailor, and when we spoke, he said he would only join nearby voyages or trips that took just a few days.

His skin was rough from sea wind and his deep wrinkles made him look very experienced, but he said he was too old now for the hard labor of a sailor.

At the same time, his body ached if he tried to leave the sea that had soaked into him like second nature.

That was how we hired him, a man named Zenon, a name with the scent of a foreign land.

I did not know what kind of work he had done before, but he was clearly experienced and seasoned, and from his strange aura and eyes, I thought he might have been a naval seaman.

I only learned later that he had once been a naval noncommissioned officer...

...

Appointed as both boatswain and navigator, Zenon took the helm and pushed through the North Sea as the sun rose and the fog lifted.

Morning off the coast of London put on a rare spectacle.

Ships of the line with as many as three decks of guns, and frigates escorting them, probably warships of the Kingdom or privateers.

Those warships stood aligned in the harbor as if measured with a ruler, like trained soldiers in formation.

Farther out at sea, merchant ships heading north from the Dover Strait toward the Netherlands and Germany were moving up.

Every vessel passing nearby threw up spray and showed how heavily loaded its cargo was.

...

With little else to do, the sailors each started fishing.

I also took out a fishing rod from the hold and baited it.

This spot had the coastline in view and was close to London, so there was no fear of pirates, and the weather was clear, good for sailing.

For a first voyage, things were going very smoothly.

Still, even though I had learned nearby geography and basic skills at Navigation School, the burden of a first voyage kept me tense.

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