Mystery: Mr. Witch and Ms. Hunter

Chapter 162 Whaling
While Adele was taming the rebellious sailors on the "Little War Horse" in the cabin, Vinata was on the deck with Sophie watching the sailors busy.

Unlike Adele, although she was a mountain dweller and much slimmer than the women on the coast of Feysac—the latter's figure often reminded people of a mother bear with cubs—she still had a considerable degree of intimidation. If you had to compare her to something, she felt like an upright female leopard or a large cat like a lioness.

The lady with pale gold and blue eyes stood beside Sophie, watching the little girl running around on the deck excitedly. Her agile figure and the gun holster exposed on her waist made the sailors who were tempted by her beauty think twice.

Although Wendy did warn Adele and Vinata not to go to the deck during the day, as they might be spotted by the sailors, this remark was only applicable to ordinary people who looked and dressed the same. For a Mid-Sequence Beyonder like Vinata, just standing there, the sailors felt like a tiger or leopard was staring at their backs, and they didn't even have time to stay away from her, let alone approach her to chat her up.

Vinata just stood there, only showing a slightly alert attitude when Sophie ran to the railing.

To be honest, she didn't like the sea or boats. The last time she took a boat was when she took a troop transport ship from Feysac to Loen. Everyone was crowded together, and the air was mixed with the smell of sweat and secretions. However, since Sophie wanted to go out and play, she had to go out with her.

Sailors say that whaling is a very patience-consuming business. Sometimes you can sail for a long time at sea without seeing any whales, and sometimes you see waves of whales so large that the boats can hardly carry them all...

Vinata yawned in boredom. In her opinion, Sophie's interest would slowly fade away during the long wait, just like an ordinary child - after all, when she first started hunting, she could hardly stand the process of waiting for the prey to appear.

Yet, perhaps with some symbolic significance, the whale made its dramatic appearance.

The first person to notice it was not the sailor on top of the watchtower, but Sophie, who was standing on the railing overlooking the sea. When Venata noticed that Sophie's shoulders suddenly hunched up like a frightened kitten, she realized that something was going to happen.

Then, bubbles suddenly appeared in her eyes, which were watery from yawning. About a hundred meters away from her, a huge sperm whale was rolling in the water, like an upturned warship. The whale was lazily rising and falling in the trough of the waves, and from time to time it leisurely sprayed water mist.

The sailors on the watchtower shouted loudly, and the whaler and everyone on board woke up.

"Untie the boat! Keep to leeward!"

Captain Basque appeared on the deck at some point and gave orders to his men.

Perhaps the sailors' sudden shouting startled it, and before the boat was launched, the whale slowly turned around and swam to leeward. It seemed to have fully understood its situation. Its head was tilted forward, and in front of us was a large pile of sticky water foam it had sprayed out.

However, the sailors were ready, including Wagner. Although many of them were still in a messy state, they came to the deck at the first opportunity and lowered the small boat with the whale harpoon and heavy whale line.

The whale line is made of hemp, and a little tar is sprayed on the surface to make it easier to coil up when not in use. The general length of the whale line is more than 400 meters, and it is coiled in the rope barrel at the stern of the boat, but it is not coiled like the snake-shaped tube on the distiller, but is coiled from the inside to the outside layer by layer, leaving no gaps in the middle.

Because when loosening the rope, if there is a slight kink or entanglement, the huge force will strangle the sailor's hands, feet or even the entire body, so the process of winding the rope must be very careful. Some sailors even take a whole morning to finish the task. They lift the rope high, pass it through a pulley, and then wind it down into the bucket to avoid any possible kinks.

The sailors screamed, and the sea was filled with shouts mixed with Feysac, Loen, the Intersea dialect, and various languages ​​of the southern colonies. There were orders, curses, and prayers, all in a mess.

Amid the noise, Adele came to the deck silently, moving her wrists slightly, with a look of annoyance on her face, like a trainer who was interrupted during training.

"It seems that this fleet seems to have good luck."

Adele said to Vinata as she held Sophie in her arms.

"Indeed, according to the sailors' description, they were extremely lucky to encounter prey so quickly, especially after the large-scale hunting, they were able to encounter whales near the common shipping route."

Vinata shrugged. "Perhaps after the passenger ship ban for a while, the whales felt that this sea area was no longer dangerous... Look, the sailors caught up with the whales."

As they were talking, the boats rowed by the desperate sailors had already caught up with the whale. The harpoons were thrown out, and the oarsmen were rowing backwards at a rapid speed.

The whale rope flew past their ears. As the whale line spun faster and faster, Adele and the others could almost see the hemp smoke rising from the rope fixed on the reel, mixing with the smoke from Wagner's pipe.

"Wet the ropes!"

"Pull up the rope--pull up the rope quickly!"

There were mixed shouts and men scooped up seawater with their hats and poured it over the smoking ropes, which were dangerously taut as the helmsman drew in the ropes and brought the boat closer to the whale.

Wagner held the harpoon, propped his knees against the non-slip wood, and stabbed the tumbling whale with one shot after another. Blood flowed from the whale's body like a rising tide, surging and bubbling behind the boat for hundreds of meters.

Seeing that the whale's strength was getting weaker and weaker, Wagner leaned out from the bow of the boat and raised his sharp long-handled spear to pierce the whale's body. He was not in a hurry to pull it out, but gently shook the handle of the spear to stir it.

The big whale came back to life from its coma, rolling in its own blood, its entire body covered in blood, forcing the small boat to retreat.

Its blowholes spasmed, opening and closing, making a gurgling, rapid breathing sound. Finally, streams of coagulated blood spurted out like purple residue from red wine, flowing slowly into the sea along the dead body.

(End of this chapter)