Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 409 Salt-soaked Letter Paper

To my best partner at sea, and my most trusted friend on land:
When you receive this letter, I will probably still be on my way back, missing the midnight bells of Holy Day. I can only send my blessings in advance: May the land beneath your feet be calmer than the sea where I am.

This year's main dividends have been arranged to be delivered to Woodtown by reliable sailors, and the remainder will be brought by the guild with a letter. Please be sure to count them again in person in the presence of a third party, just in case.

I guess you probably don't even remember this meager income. Even in Wenden, the northernmost remote part of the kingdom, one can hear of the generosity of some distinguished figures.

There are many rumors that there are unspeakable secret reasons behind this.

However, anyone with even a slight understanding of the inside story should not be surprised. A capable vessel, like a keel made of giant wood, is born to be used on the most challenging routes and deserves the widest deck and the sturdiest sails. No amount of investment is too much.

Irregular assets merely satisfy hoarding tendencies, while truly worthwhile investments are rare. I believe that anyone who has secured a high position through their own abilities possesses basic foresight.

Of course, this also means bigger storms and longer trials. But since you were able to bring us back from the hell beneath the southern hills, what could be more difficult than that experience?

Speaking of the boat, I must introduce you to my new home. "Xuesong"—that's what they call her, a young woman who has weathered five long years of storms.

The first time I saw her was in Comfort Harbor. I was on the ship waiting for those bastards who went out to have fun to return. It was as if it were a preordained encounter by God, and she was docked on the outermost side of the harbor.

So huge, so quiet, towering over all the nearby ships, I even paused for a few seconds to make sure it wasn't the shadow of Christensen Mountain cast on the sea.

I personally launched the small boat and rowed to her side, just to get a closer look at the three towering masts, like a lighthouse. The supporting barricades were thick and strong, with old but sturdy double-layered canvas rolled up, as thick as animal hides dried on an ice field, enough to withstand the most violent wind walls.

With just one glance, I didn't hesitate to overturn all my previous plans to order a new ship.

She is the type of woman I, and every captain, dream of; a seafaring career without her would be incomplete. The ocean cannot lose her, just as the church cannot lose its holy city.

The next day at dawn, I found her captain and was able to board her oak body.

The astonishing height comes from the vertically rising bulwarks on both sides, and the deck is a whole floor higher than similar decks. When standing on it and looking down at the sea, one almost feels a sense of uneasy dizziness.

The hull was reinforced with pine wood lining, and the spaces between the planks were filled with pine resin, showing no signs of leakage. The cargo hold was wide and deep, with multiple layers, allowing for the separate storage of various goods requiring different preservation methods.

The stepped superstructure at the stern is also divided into two levels. The upper level houses the helm and lookout platform, while the lower level is a spacious captain's cabin. In addition to a large bed and a long table for displaying nautical charts, there is still space for cabinets, and it does not feel crowded, making one almost forget that they are still at sea.

I cannot describe to you how I felt at that moment. The original sin of jealousy consumed my reason, causing my tongue to uncontrollably ask that question:

Is there any way to get her?

At the time, I regretted it. Such a ship is usually only funded by large chambers of commerce or well-funded families, and is custom-made for bulk cargo transportation or other special purposes. It is rarely resold unless absolutely necessary, so this question was undoubtedly offensive.

However, I must now admit that even if the devil spoke those words for me, he was still a devil with some human compassion.

The captain hesitated, and I saw an opportunity.

As expected, she did come from an ambitious merchant guild that had spent years designing and building the ship, all in an effort to gain a share of the trade between the kingdom and the continental nations. But business at sea is ever-changing, and building a ship like that takes too long; no one can predict what will happen on the other side of the horizon tomorrow.

In short, after a series of unexpected but not entirely new changes, the Chamber of Commerce has fallen into a predicament due to excessive and overly "ambitious" investments. It urgently needs a large sum of readily available funds for working capital, otherwise it will inevitably face the risk of bankruptcy.

Other chambers of commerce have no intention of offering assistance at the moment, and ordinary captains are unlikely to provide the necessary funds.

Perhaps it was a desperate attempt to cure an illness, or perhaps it was a joke to find humor in hardship, but the captain offered me a price—a price that was rather low, but still far beyond what an ordinary merchant could afford.

She was never meant to belong to me.

Fate made her choose me, not the other way around.

As you know, I have always been God's most devout believer, and a devout believer would never reject the destiny ordained by the Lord.

With your and Father Adrian's investment, I have just enough money to buy her, with a little to spare. I don't even need to sell my Iceberg; I wouldn't have time to do so anyway.

So now I'm not just a captain, but the helmsman of a fleet, even though it's only a fleet of two ships.

Correspondingly, I also have the responsibility to support her and dozens of crew members.

The expenses of owning a large ship are not the same as usual, and the course must be adjusted to achieve sufficient profits. As an investor, you also have the right to know the details.

As mentioned earlier, long-distance trade with continental countries is currently unreliable, and there are few connections available there.

Therefore, I decided to turn my attention back to the ice plains, where my old friends, unlike my counterparts, were not fickle and were always willing to fill my warehouses with animal hides and ores.

The trip between "Snow Frost" and "Iceberg" emptied their entire year's worth of stock, and they returned home fully loaded.

However, there's no need to worry about returning empty-handed next time, as old friends have already helped contact other tribes to supply the fleet together.

They were even clever enough to send some ore samples for selection. The blacksmiths and the guild determined that a small portion of them were quite valuable, while others were rather peculiar, even the old craftsmen had never seen anything like them before.

Presumably, scarcity increases value. I heard that you have dealings with the Xiguo family in Dunling, so I sent some fragments with my letter, hoping to use your channels to authenticate them.

As the year draws to a close, brown bears have already retreated to their winter dens, and even the most diligent craftsmen are preparing to rest. But a good captain will never let go of his rudder.

I plan to make one last trip of the year before the winter blizzards arrive. A timely shipment of grain will greatly improve our relationship with new customers and also add to next year's dividends.

Bless me, may your blessings fall upon me, and also upon her wooden frame. When Feast Day arrives, my belly will be filled with dry biscuits and beer, while she will swallow a cargo of gold and silver for us.

To my friend who is still at sea, and will always be at sea:
William
(End of this chapter)