I don't know when the wind stopped.
The air was unusually dull and the sea unusually calm. Dark cumulus clouds form rolling mountains at the junction of the sky and the sea. The highest peak stretches straight through the sky and the earth, just like the legendary residence of the gods.
"It looks like a storm is coming."
Janus closed the account book in his hand, patted the dusty cover a few times, and gently flattened the rolled-up corners. Then he walked out of the captain's cabin with slow and elegant steps. Came to the deck.
He was the most trusted captain of Hermann, the mayor of Lübeck. He had led merchant ships on many voyages from Lübeck in the North Sea to Alexandria in the Mediterranean. Therefore, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Vinland expedition. His blond hair, which always smelled faintly of roses, was his most striking feature. It was very long, hanging down from both sides to his shoulders, and the few bangs on his forehead also went far beyond the bridge of his nose.
"Captain, I still haven't seen land!" The sailor on the observation deck shouted to Janus, "It's been so many days and there's not even an island except the sea!"
"It's just that you can't see it." Janus smiled slightly, "We have been away from Ireland for less than a month. If we can find Vinland in this way, then there is no value in searching for Vinland."
"Captain, having said that, I think our sailors are a little panicked these days." The first mate on the ship came over and said, "We have not been sailing for a month, but we have not seen land for a month. This is unprecedented. Something that has never happened before. The most important thing is that for Vinland, we only know that it is in the west, but we don’t know the specific location. If we continue sailing like this, if we cross Vinland and sail all the way to the border of the world, we will start from the border of the world. The waterfall fell into the abyss!"
"Isn't there a chart?" Janus said, "Let's compare it and see where we are?"
So the first mate unfolded the chart full of monsters on the deck and showed it to Janus with his finger.
"A month ago, we left Ireland. According to the chart, we would encounter spiny rays, sea worms, many-legged monsters, sword-beaked whales, and finally an evil dragon. According to the information given to us by the mayor, we encountered After arriving at the Evil Dragon, continue west and you will reach Vinland. But Captain, we have been sailing for more than a month and we haven’t even encountered the Spinyback Ray yet!"
"Just because we didn't encounter it doesn't mean we didn't pass it by. The crew members prayed all the way, so it should have some effect."
"But if we don't see these monsters, we won't be able to confirm where we are." The first mate said, "There is nothing but sea around here!"
Janus smiled and shook his head.
"It doesn't matter if we encounter it. First of all, our ship's speed remains unchanged..."
"Isn't it?" the first mate said, "It changes every day. A few days ago it was a headwind, these days it is a tailwind, and the wind strength is also different."
"That's true, but if calculated on a monthly basis, the average speed is not much different..."
"Isn't it much different?" the first mate said, "The wind last month was not as strong as this month's wind."
Janus's face twitched.
"Of course we can't calculate precise speeds, but given the vastness of the land, the deviations in these speeds are negligible. Well, hear me out. It took us about a month to get from Lübeck to Ireland , but another month has passed since leaving Ireland. If you calculate it this way..."
He placed his thumb on Ireland and his index finger on Lübeck. Then, with Ireland as the center of the circle, keeping his thumb still, he turned his index finger to the west of Ireland. In this way, the index finger pointed out a new point on the chart.
"Look, we are about to enter the sea of big sea worms, and we are still far from the border of the world."
He patted the first mate on the shoulder to signal him not to panic. Then he looked up at the sea - after that unusual calm, the sea began to ripple again.
"The wind has picked up again, which is not good. Let the sailor take down the sail first."
"Captain!" The sailor on the observation deck shouted to Janus again, "Behind! There is a ship behind us!"
"Ship?" the first mate shouted towards the observation tower, "How can there be a ship in this sea area? Look carefully, what kind of ship is it?"
"I guess that's the army of the King of Sweden." Janus smiled and said to the first mate, "I can bet a Nomisma."
"It's more believable that you said it was the fleet of the Tianfang Empire. Yes, I'll take a bet." The first mate responded, "From the motive, it should indeed be the fleet of the King of Sweden. But Janus, you can't just consider the motive. . We set out from Lübeck and escaped the King of Sweden's patrol in the English Channel twenty days later. Even if the patrol went back to report immediately, and the King of Sweden immediately led a team to pursue them, back and forth, they left the sea nearly four days later than us. Ten days, it’s impossible to catch up so quickly!”
"Report, that ship has a black sail that we have never seen before!" shouted the sailor on the observation deck, "and there is a skull painted on it!"
The first mate spreads his hand to Janus proudly.
"And it's very big!" the sailor continued to shout, "Although it's far away, it's really very big! If you get close, it will probably be the same as a fortress!"
"How about it?" Janus smiled and extended his hand to the first mate, "The twenty days are based on our ship's speed. With the pirate kingdom's ship's speed, it doesn't take that long to get from Lübeck to the English Channel. More What’s more, we stayed in Ireland for ten days. This is the King of Sweden. If he comes up with some technologies we haven’t seen before, it won’t be surprising to catch up with our fleet at this time.”
"Damn it." The first mate reluctantly took out the money bag, picked out a Nomisma from it and patted it in Janus' hand, "It's okay to catch up, she even has time to change the color of the sail. , and draw a skull on it.”
"The intention is obvious. She has made up her mind not to recognize that this is the Swedish army. The Swedish flag we spent money to buy may no longer be of much use."
"Then what should we do?" The first mate was frightened by Janus's words. "The combined number of people in our ten ships is not as large as the number of people in one ship of the Flying Sealander! The Flying Sealander is packed with a lot of people." A battleship with weapons, but we are just merchant ships. We are not as fast as the other party, can’t we even run away?”
"If it had been a few days ago or a few days later, then it would have been as you said, and we would have had no choice but to surrender honestly. But that may not be the case today."
As he spoke, Janus raised his head and shouted to the sailor who had climbed onto the mast:
"Come down, don't furl the sails yet!"
The waves rolled more and more violently, and the black cloud mountain was completely shattered at some point, and the fragments were splashed towards Janus's fleet.
This is a sign of the coming storm. Janus looked at all this, his face finally added a bit of solemnity:
"King of Sweden, I won't furl my sails, what about you?"
