WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Wind and a Cluster of Stars
Chapter 7
──────
What Amy Picked Up, a Cat
13. What Amy Picked Up
April 9, noon.
Noon.
I checked with the sextant, and we were heading straight for Hamburg, our destination.
Since we were following the coastline anyway, there was little chance of getting lost.
Ships passed us now and then along this well-known, easy route, sometimes near, sometimes far.
It was a lazy noon hour. Sun-browned sailors chatted idly or whittled bits of wood to pass the time.
"Look at the fish."
Right below the bow, where shards of sunlight broke apart, fish swam just under the surface, following us.
Those curious, plump, streamlined fish caught the light and flashed in rainbow colors.
They darted back and forth as if they were playing.
Then, in an instant, they scattered and disappeared, because a shadow appeared.
The shadow rose from the dark depths. At first it blended into the black water, then slowly climbed toward the surface and took the shape of something long and dark.
-Splash
A whale blew out one great spray, and it was bigger than the Balsa we were riding.
A massive North Sea whale drifted calmly past our ship.
At ease, it rolled its body and sometimes leaped above the surface, throwing up waves as if it were in a good mood.
It looked like the most comfortable creature in the whole sea.
Whales that large usually lived in warm southern waters, so this one was probably in transit.
The cold North Sea was not exactly a suitable place for a giant whale to live.
It would likely keep following the current and head farther south.
...
April 9, 6 p.m.
When the sun hung about a finger joint above the coastline, the Balsa reached Hamburg Harbor.
The large port at the river mouth was well developed, so ships big or small could dock easily, and we berthed without trouble.
As expected of the central city of the Hanseatic League and one of Germany's leading cities, the harbor was packed with merchant and passenger ships.
On the broad river, countless white sails from passing skiffs and small boats glowed orange in the evening light.
The trading posts we needed to visit first took up an entire alley along the harbor, and it was clear the place had been laid out to make trade easier.
"Your seal?"
"I'm not a guild member..."
The trading post clerk asked for the seal first.
He meant proof from the Hanseatic League for trade and security matters between Hamburg and Lübeck.
Local merchants and allied merchants from Lübeck got preferential treatment.
Still, I was lucky. I was English and had no seal, but at least I was not turned away at the door.
The trading post had an impressive range and quantity of goods, fitting for Hamburg, a major industrial city.
Most of it was industrial products, and those tended to be cheap.
Still, most of those goods were bulky or heavy.
So I went around several trading posts first, checking whether we had anything in our cargo worth selling.
Among our goods, the glass beads we had brought from Amsterdam seemed likely to fetch a decent price.
A big city was a big city. Even non-essentials like that had steady demand.
It was not the kind of item that sold for high prices, but I could not promise this situation would last forever.
And if I could not be sure another city would pay more, selling now was the better choice.
Besides, the glass beads were taking up most of the hold.
In the end, the glass beads went into the trading post warehouse for a 3% profit.
Compared to other items, 3% was low, but glass beads were expensive semi-precious goods, so the actual amount was still meaningful.
"Zenon, how many days do you think we should stay here? The wind seems to be shifting a little."
"About two days should do, Captain. We can still sail for London now, but with a headwind we'd barely make any speed."
If we sailed in zigzags against a headwind, our speed would definitely drop.
"Then let's depart the day after tomorrow. It's already getting dark."
"All right."
I told Zenon to pass the word to the crew.
Then I gave him part of the money from the glass bead sale, so he and the sailors could get some proper rest.
...
I felt lighter now.
As promised with Amy, we would stay in the city a few days and wait for the wind.
Until we sailed again, Zenon would take responsibility for the ship and cargo.
Amy and I took a room at an inn by the waterfront, then had dinner at the restaurant next door.
They served Germany's famous stuffed smoked sausages and beer with a deep malty taste.
A nearby tavern burst into loud laughter now and then, but this place stayed quiet, probably because it was favored by a more refined crowd.
Soft conversation, clinking glasses, and the sound of waves.
Soon, rain joined in between those sounds.
At some point, without us noticing when, the rain cast a curtain of sound all around us.
Everything grew darker, and the lamp on the table drew a clear circle of light.
"What should we do tomorrow?"
"How about looking around the market?"
"That sounds good."
"Cheers!"
That night, we ate all kinds of sausage until we were stuffed.
...
-Mew..
It was there on our way back.
In a narrow gap between two houses, mixed in with discarded cabbage leaves.
"I hear something."
As I hurried my steps, I caught a faint sound through the steady rain.
Relying on the yellow lamp light spilling from a window, I narrowed my eyes and searched for the source for quite a while.
On a dark, rainy night without moonlight, it was very hard to spot.
-Mew...
It was a tiny kitten.
Poor thing, it was soaked through, trembling all over as it looked up at us.
"Poor little thing..."
The kitten was mixed in with discarded cabbage, so at a glance it looked like part of the same trash.
Amy felt sorry for it, wrapped it in a handkerchief, and lifted it into her arms.
14. Cat
April 9, night.
The little kitten kept shivering even in front of the fireplace.
Amy had already dried it carefully with a towel.
Its sparse fur puffed up in the warmth of the fire.
The kitten was a typical yellow tabby, with white paws, a white chin, and brown stripes.
It only managed to drink a little milk we got from the tavern owner.
It was probably because it had already been weak for a long time, then got drenched in rain on top of that.
"Captain, let's keep this cat. Please?"
"..."
I hesitated a little, because I was not used to keeping animals.
Well, except for Crab, the red crab living on the ship. That one was a special case.
"Cats catch mice well. And they don't even eat much."
"All right, then."
I could not turn down the look in Amy's eyes, and I could not leave it somewhere or let it die either.
So I finally gave in.
"Eek! Thank you!"
...
April 10, morning.
The cat kept trembling so badly that I thought it would not be strange if it died at any moment.
It sneezed now and then too, and even those sneezes were so weak they barely sounded alive.
Still, it made it through the night.
It seemed to have a bad cold. I was no doctor and definitely no veterinarian, but with the runny nose and constant shivering, that was what it looked like.
The cat had stayed near Amy's pillow all night. The innkeeper did not look pleased when he saw Amy carrying it downstairs in her arms.
Since early morning, while I was still asleep, Amy had been clumsily working on clothes for the little kitten.
"What's its name?"
"Cabbage."
"Good lord... Out of all the names, Cabbage..."
Anyway, Amy made clothes for the cat, clumsy but sincere.
Maybe because of that, its shivering seemed to calm down a little.
"This... feels like familiar fabric..."
It turned out to be a pillowcase.
Amy awkwardly stitched one of her spare bluish pillowcases, cut holes for the head and legs, and made something like clothes.
The cat had eaten and rested a bit, and it definitely looked healthier than yesterday.
Part of that might have been the difference between seeing it soaked by rain in front of a dark fireplace and seeing it now under sunlight.
"Try this."
The cat, named Cabbage after where it had been found, sat on Amy's lap and ate all the flaked white cod she fed it.
So much for Amy saying, "Cats don't eat much."
It ate without end.
After finishing all the fish she picked apart for it, it even licked up a little milk she poured into a saucer.
Then, wearing its blue pillowcase outfit, it nestled in Amy's arms and came along to the market.
...
We spent time looking around the German market.
Turnips piled up like mountains, fish and meat everywhere. It was loud and crowded with people coming and going, but unlike London, it was surprisingly clean.
Amy and I bought preserved salted pork and smoked ham.
Those were very useful on a ship, so we had workers bring them aboard.
People glanced at the yellow cat in blue clothes as they passed us, but fortunately most of them just thought Amy really liked cats and did not make a big deal of it.
Then, while searching around for goods, I stopped by a perfume shop and found something worthwhile.
It was perfume that captured the scent of lily-of-the-valley perfume in clear refined oil.
They said the scent of hundreds of lily of the valley blossoms was concentrated into a single drop.
After hearing about the process, I understood why it was expensive.
On top of that, it was a Hamburg specialty, not sold elsewhere.
Even with the stopper sealed tight on the small glass bottle, the elegant perfume gave off a soft fragrance.
I liked it very much.
It was clearly a high-end good, the kind noble ladies or refined gentlemen would use.
The problem was the price.
The difficult production process and its status as a specialty item both pushed the price up.
Still, luck was on our side. Lily of the valley harvesting began in May, and now was the time they had to clear old stock.
Soon, more people would look for the fresh season's product, and old stock would naturally drop in price.
"There are twenty boxes in the shop."
"I want to buy forty-five boxes. Can't you lower the price a little more?"
The shop owner knew I was English, so he deliberately spoke slowly and used simple words.
"Cutting the price is a little difficult..."
"You're clearing inventory anyway, right? Give me a better price.
I'll buy everything in your shop, and if there's more, I'll buy that too."
"In that case."
I wrote out an order slip, and the owner sent it to the trading post, saying he needed twenty-five more boxes.
In the end, I bought all forty-five boxes at about 80% of the usual price.
Nearly half my funds disappeared, but the ship was filled with lily-of-the-valley perfume and cotton fabric.
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