Chapter 83

This is the place that will one day become the state of Delaware. The people who live here are the Lenape[1], sometimes also called the Delaware people. We had traveled up from the lands of their Great Chief, visiting the territories of the various tribes under his command.

“…Coming this far north, I’ve noticed that people want potatoes just as much as they want luxury goods.” 

“Well, that’s to be expected in the north.”

The climate here was already colder than in Virginia, and with the Little Ice Age[2] bearing down, conflicts were erupting frequently.

“I heard there was talk of attacking the nearby Susquehannock, but that the priest dispatched to this region managed to stop it.” 

“I heard the same. But it is a settled matter, so please do not worry too much.” 

“…I suppose so. It seems my worries were needless. Thank you, Walter.” 

“Not at all. I am simply glad to have been of help.”

Listening to Raleigh, I quietly looked around. Yes. The people here were slowly learning to farm potatoes, and they were also learning how to build carts and pave roads. As their productivity increases in a place with such a low population density, they will not starve. And even if they did, we would soon win over the Susquehannock people into our gift-exchange network. Then they too would be bound by a large-scale peace treaty, whether they liked it or not, and conflict would naturally be prevented.

There was nothing that would become an immediate problem. We had been here for three days, and it was evident that the situation, be it the food supply or anything else, had improved compared to before. As mentioned, the food situation had improved with the import of potatoes and various other food resources. In hunting, too, with the import of ‘guns,’ they were now able to take down all sorts of beasts they couldn’t have touched before. In terms of securing lumber and other resources, their productivity had also improved dramatically with steel axes, steel knives, and steel sickles, and it was clear their lives had changed quite a bit.

These people, the native peoples of this place, would not meet an untimely death.

***

They would not die for the reasons I was thinking of.

As I smiled in satisfaction, Raleigh moved a little way off to light his tobacco. A ring of white smoke, carrying that pungent smell, quietly dissolved into the night sky like sugar in water. Nearby, a river flowed majestically, and around it, small lights flickered from sparsely scattered huts. It seemed the people were going to bed late today. Probably because of their unfamiliar guests.

Bonfires were lit between the Porter and the other wagons, and the Lenape people and the Virginians were laughing and playing, sharing food with each other.

Yes. They would not die for the reasons I was thinking of.

Hmm… Unless it was a hurricane.

Yes. Aren’t hurricanes… common in this area? And the most destructive of all the natural disasters in this region. A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that forms in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, with maximum wind speeds reaching 64 knots, or about 118 kilometers per hour. The word ‘hurricane’ is derived from hurakan, the Taíno word for a powerful wind, and was spread by the Spaniards and incorporated into the English vocabulary.

A hurricane. 

Tropical cyclones like hurricanes form in the Intertropical Convergence Zone where the trade winds of the Southern and Northern Hemispheres meet. Inside this low-pressure system, heated air rises, forming a large amount of clouds, which begin to rotate due to the influence of the Earth’s rotation. The intense thunderstorm thus formed can grow or shrink under the influence of various factors, becoming a tropical storm, and then developing into a hurricane that inflicts enormous damage…

…Huh? What was I just thinking?

Ah. I was thinking about hurricanes. I was thinking about how the main difference between a hurricane and a typhoon is location, with storms that form northeast of the International Date Line being called hurricanes and those that form to the northwest being called typhoons. And I was thinking about the fact that the reason the damage from hurricanes is so great is because the water temperature of the North Atlantic, where hurricanes pass, is higher than that of the North Pacific. Also, the reason the North Atlantic’s water temperature is so high is…

****

…I was thinking about how tropical cyclones like hurricanes help maintain the Earth’s thermal equilibrium by moving warm tropical air to higher latitudes, but also destroy ecosystems by carrying saltwater into coastal areas, and how natural coastal ecosystems like wetlands, coral reefs, or mangrove forests can reduce the damage from hurricanes…

Slap!

“Hah, huuk… Hahk…”

Wh-what was that? 

For a moment, I felt knowledge that had been buried in my memory come surging up like vomit. It wasn’t unpleasant, so much as it was alien. An alien feeling that came from my body, my mind, not moving the way it was supposed to. That alien feeling filled my head completely, then vanished as if it had been washed away.

Wh-where, where did I see that? Right. The catalog. Information I had read in the catalog about the climate of the East Coast of the US had mixed with content I had looked up in related educational comics and burst out. But… why?

I tried to recall what situations make my body want to vomit. When I’m under excessive stress. When something is caught in my throat. When my body is… tense, threatened, afraid.

“W-Walter, I’m sorry. I suddenly felt dizzy, so I just…” 

“…” 

“…Walter?”

Huh? I looked to my side. Raleigh wasn’t there. Just a moment ago, Raleigh had been standing right there. Smoking his tobacco next to me.

And when I looked at the sky, the stars and moon had also disappeared. It had been night just a moment ago, the surroundings dark, but now when I looked around… it was gray. As if the world had been plunged into milk stirred with cigarette ash. The surroundings were hazy, and the atmosphere was howling ominously. It felt as if the entire world were screaming.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!”

And then, I heard a real scream. I turned dumbly, and in that direction, someone’s arm… went flying. Like a speck of dust.

I could only stare at the surreal sight. For an instant, I couldn’t think at all.

“S-Sir Nemo!”

I turned my head at the sound of someone calling me. Raleigh, his eyes completely bloodshot, was running toward me and grabbed my arm. “A-are you all right? Everyone is taking shelter on the high ground! You have to come too, Sir Nemo…”

WHOOOOOOOOSH!

Thwack.

About two seconds. A whistling sound. Raleigh and I turning our heads. And something flying and lodging itself in Raleigh’s forehead. Two seconds.

I caught his falling body and slowly lowered him to the ground. “…Walter?” It was the first time I had ever seen the focus disappear from a person’s eyes so quickly. “Sir Raleigh…?” Naturally, there was no answer.

Thump.

Something slammed into my side, bringing a wave of pain. But even that pain felt like a distant, nonsensical fantasy to me. Th-this doesn’t make sense. It was night just a little while ago. Raleigh was laughing and talking with me. A better future than being executed by James I was waiting for him. Days of living and enjoying the glory of being a pioneer of the New World, for all the hard work he had done for me, were waiting for him. Just a little while ago… this place… was like that…

I unconsciously turned on my phone. The date appeared. It was different from the date I remembered. It was the same as the last day of the period we had planned to stay here. We were supposed to stay here for about a month. This was the land of the last remaining member tribe of the Lenape, so we were going to use this as a base to contact the various other member tribes again. We were going to decide the locations of the trading posts and churches with them. And then we were scheduled to leave. That was the plan. It had to be.

“…H-high ground.” 

Everyone had been taking shelter on the high ground, he’d said. I looked down below. The place that had been a village was now completely submerged in muddy water from a flooded river, and our wagons and the Porter were floating away, half-destroyed. I couldn’t delay any longer. I slung Raleigh’s body… his still-warm body… over my shoulder and began to run like a madman toward a nearby hill.

“W-Walter, just wait a moment. We’ll be on high ground soon!”

I felt like I was about to lose my mind. I ran, shouting meaningless words at Raleigh’s lifeless body. I just had to. I had to.

“Is-is that Sir Nemo! It’s Sir Nemo!”

And soon, I heard the voices of others in the fierce wind. In the distance, I could see people lying flat on the ground, trembling. They were too afraid to even move properly, for fear of being blown away by the wind. I tried to go to them. I tried to tell them I was safe.

My clothes, soaked with water, clung to my body. Raleigh’s cold, blue lips brushed against my ear. The chill of death. A shiver ran down my spine. But I had to go.

Splash.

I was walking toward the high hill when I came upon a shallow, wide stream. I looked around, but there was no way to go around it, so I gritted my teeth and stepped into the stream.

Tug.

“…Huh?”

The current of the stream, deeper than I thought, threw me off balance. It was just for an instant. The moment my body tilted, I felt Raleigh’s body slip from my back. I tried to use all my strength to hold on to him, but my whole body fell backward.

WHOOOOSH!

“W-Walter!”

Walter’s body was instantly swept far away. At the same time, I was plunged under the water. Choking and sputtering on the muddy water that had entered my eyes, ears, and throat, I struggled to my feet. A giant log was rolling toward me. It slammed into my body. And for a moment, I lost consciousness.

My body, like a broken toy, like a stuffed doll whose seams had burst, was flung about in a gruesome state, piece by piece. The relentless current carried me endlessly somewhere. Whenever I flailed, the heavy log pinned to my body restricted my movements. And then. I sink. I. To a place I do not know.

Everything was hazy. The water was both salty and fresh. The fish were taking advantage of the chaos, tearing at the flesh of all the things that had lived on land and died. And… time passes. I suffocate. But I do not die. There was no more oxygen to sustain my body’s life. My lungs were completely filled with saltwater. But I do not die. My body grew heavy and would not move. I could not see a way to escape this cold, wet prison. My consciousness grew dim. But it never broke. I do not die.

And so. I… endure an eon of silence.

***

Light. 

A light that illuminates the world. 

And. …a voice.

“…Are you all right!”

I open my eyes again. My respiratory system instinctively makes me cough, to expel the water that filled my body. 

“Keoheok…! Heok…!”

“S-Sir Nemo!”

But funnily enough, it was a dry cough. As I was struggling to breathe, Raleigh, just as I had taught him, grabbed me from behind and attempted the Heimlich maneuver. There was actually nothing caught in my throat, so it was useless. But thanks to Raleigh’s actions, I was able to come to my senses again. I looked around. The world was still night. With a hand that was trembling as if I were freezing to death, I pulled my phone from my pocket. And checked the date. It was ‘today’ again.

“…”

“S-Sir Nemo? Are you all right? You suddenly stumbled and were having trouble breathing…”

I wanted to say it was nothing. I wanted to say I was fine. Whether it was because of my cheat or my own mental fortitude, I could endure having my heart stabbed, having my entire body slashed. I could forget it quickly. But after experiencing that moment, I realized. This… I wouldn’t be able to forget for a long time.

What had just happened was not ‘nothing.’ It was not a simple nightmare or a hallucination. I gathered the visions and the fragments of intense emotion that were scattered like vomit in my mind. Through them, I tried to gauge what I had seen, what in the world was going on. And.

—‘O immortal…’

A very familiar voice echoed in my head.

—‘…Thou shalt have eyes to avoid death.’

***

Raleigh saw His Grace’s body suddenly falter. He rushed to catch him just as he was about to collapse. 

“Sir Nemo, are you truly all right?” 

“…”

His Grace’s breathing slowly calmed. And then. He met Raleigh’s eyes. In His ever-calm eyes was an emotion rarely seen before. 

“…” 

“…”

Bewilderment and fear.

Just as Walter was about to say something, He briefly covered his face with both hands… and then wiped them down. And the serene smile from before returned. But for some reason, it was a smile tinged with a transcendent, unknowable sorrow and resolve.

“…Walter.” 

“Uh, wh-what is i…”

He looked at Raleigh. 

“I have received a revelation.”