"Fresh cod fillet~ drizzled with lemon juice, seared for seven minutes on low heat, topped with hot oyster sauce..."

In the ship's kitchen, Nora was humming softly while skillfully flipping pieces of cod in the frying pan, allowing the low heat to continue reducing the sauce.

A sea breeze blew in through the open porthole, carrying away the kitchen fumes. She comfortably pinned her hair behind her ears, then slightly turned down the flame to prevent it from being disturbed by the wind.

Suddenly, the ship accelerated abruptly. The skillet on the stove, propelled by inertia, was flung up, and Nora instinctively dodged to the side. As a result, the skillet crashed against the wall behind her, splattering her with its contents.

Nora: ......

Okay, she was not hurt by the scalding sauce, but her clothes were stained, the fish was ruined, and her good mood was completely destroyed.

Silently, she cleaned up the floor, tossed the ruined fish pieces into the bin, then picked up the skillet and put it back in its place.

Then Nora left the kitchen without a word and headed towards the captain's quarters.

In the captain's quarters, Peggy was nearly in tears, frantically flipping through the manual and checking various parts of the control panel, afraid of making things worse despite wanting to try; it was indeed a pitiable sight.

"Peggy?" Nora's voice came from behind.

"Nora!" Like seeing a savior, Peggy quickly pulled her over, explaining in a flustered manner, "I just... nudged the speed lever, and then the ship suddenly sped up... I didn't do anything!"

"Let me see." Nora carefully observed the power gauge, "It's true, the power is only at level one. But why is the ship moving so fast..."

"What are you doing?" Thira's voice came from outside the door.

Both turned around and saw Thira standing outside the captain's quarters, looking disgruntled with her hair also wet... Thinking of the skillet of fish back in the kitchen and remembering that she had seen Thira sitting in the lounge area earlier, holding a cup of tea and reading, Nora guessed what might have happened.

Ah, fellow sufferers; they would wash off together later at Fire Island.

"It's not a steering issue." Nora stared out at the racing sea through the porthole, "It must be some external force pushing the ship forward."

"External force?" Thira looked slightly astonished, then opened the porthole to peer out.

As soon as she opened the porthole, the intense sound of waves crashing, the splashing of water, and faint cries instantly hit her; Thira listened in silence.

Sigrdrifa, it seemed like Sigrdrifa's laughter.

"They're on the deck," Thira turned back and reported.

The three girls reached the deck and saw Aske, hesitating to speak, while Sigrdrifa was ecstatically laughing into the wind on the railing, clutching a steel cable tightly.

One end of the steel cable was affixed to the ship's whaling gun, and the other end extended into the sea ahead, where a massive figure was frantically swimming at breakneck speed beneath them, towing the entire ship rapidly forward as if it were a speedboat on full throttle.

"Is that..." Nora paused slightly, "a whale?"

"Yes." Sigrdrifa stopped laughing, turned around, and explained to everyone, "After it's exhausted and bled out, we'll have whale meat for dinner tonight!"

As she watched the crimson spread over the surface of the sea, and sensed the agonizing, fearful helplessness of the sea behemoth, Nora felt somewhat reluctant, gently persuading Sigrdrifa:

"It's kind of sad; why don't we just let it go? We aren't exactly short on food."

"Why?" Sigrdrifa immediately became unhappy. "Prey that has fallen into a trap should never be let go! Otherwise, it might come back for revenge!"

Revenge? Nora was a bit angry and found it somewhat amusing. "You've injured it this badly, and you think it will come back to get you? I don't believe it."

"Nora, if someone stabbed me with a sword and didn't kill me, I'd definitely seek revenge!" Sigrdrifa asserted naturally.

Nora: .........

Alright, given Sigrdrifa's personality, that was indeed the case; but whales were just unintelligent animals, weren't they? How could they hold grudges like humans?

Seeing that she couldn't persuade Sigrdrifa, Nora turned her pleading gaze toward Aske.

Aske: ????

So, don't drag me into your argument!

Of course, it was a bit petty to think like that because a leader indeed has the responsibility to mediate conflicts among subordinates, so he didn't complain out loud.

But your dispute is too simple and crude.

Aske himself was neither an animal protectionist nor a whaling enthusiast. To him, whales were generally just a source of food, which could be killed or not, it didn't matter.

Yet, in this situation, stopping the whale hunt would offend Sigrdrifa, and not stopping it would offend Nora, so he was unsure how to make a decision for a while.

If it were just the whale, that'd be one thing, but he was afraid they might interpret it as how he ranked their favorability in his heart. For example, if he chose Sigrdrifa, then Nora would feel slighted, and that would complicate things even more… Thinking of this, Aske felt a headache coming on.

Suddenly, a radiance-condensed Long Spear shot from behind, severing the taut steel cable and causing the speeding ship to drop heavily into the sea, raising a massive splash.

"Eleanor!" Sigrdrifa turned and yelled angrily. You actually let my prey go!

"Look ahead before you speak," Eleanor said as she leapt down from the bridge, landing steadily on the deck.

Everyone looked ahead. As the severely injured whale fled in panic, the "curtain wall" of splashing water also collapsed thunderously, revealing an island not far in front.

If the whale continued in this direction, it could likely drag the entire ship to strand on the island… Stranding wasn't really that terrifying, but what was terrifying was hitting a rock and holing the ship, then everyone would have to build rafts and row back to the continent.

"Ah, this…" Sigrdrifa was also somewhat at a loss for words, having never encountered such a "fierce" whale willing to risk stranding itself to pull down the whale hunters' ship to Hell.

Well done! Aske silently gave Eleanor a thumbs up... of course, in his mind.

"That should be the Azores Islands," Thira looked toward the distance and estimated the ship's journey. "It's also the western boundary of the civilized world."

"Further west lies the endless Atlantis Ocean, about two thousand kilometers to the edge of the storm. As for our destination, based on the deceased's memories, it is probably more than three thousand kilometers from the continent."

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this. From Constantinople to the westernmost tip of Lusitania was also about three thousand kilometers; now drifting at sea for so long was indeed a bit worrying and frightening.

"Let's resupply on the Azores Islands," Aske decided.

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