Read Novel Full Chapter 391
Chapter 391
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Chapter 391 – Night Watch
When the sun went down, we divided up the watch duties, and those of us who were free went to bed. The watch and engineering teams also took turns going to bed. The sleeping quarters were narrow triple bunk beds lined up in a row, but no one complained. Wandering around, I found a very plain private room that I thought was either the officers’ quarters or the infirmary. There were three simple beds lined up, so I let the women sleep there for the time being. Louis and Eino-san from Battle Cry, as well as Myrril.
Marquis Yerkel was given a slightly more luxurious private room that looked like the Captain’s quarters―though it was a bare room with only a built-in desk, bookshelves, and a bed.
“You don’t have to go to such trouble.”
“I thought you would say that, but I think the others will be the ones to feel uncomfortable.”
The Marquis accepted this as well. Lui, the only female member of the Surz, couldn’t sleep without her friends, so I had no choice but to set up a bed for her at the end of the large room.
There was only a military blanket, but the ship was heated, so it wasn’t a problem. Or rather, it was a bit hot.
“The drinking water is here. You’ve checked the location of the toilets, and the watch rotation is as follows: the Surz group until midnight and then the Battle Cry party until morning.”
“Understood.”
It seemed that the engine room had decided to increase power, and I could tell that the engine noise had changed during the night. It seems that the ship’s speed has also increased, but I couldn’t really tell. It seems that the intervals between the waves have shortened a bit… well, it’s just a feeling.
Myrril and I join the Battle Cry watch, which takes over at midnight. Even among the members of the Battle Cry group, we are assigned to the late shift, which lasts until dawn. Tig and McCain, who were on the early shift, gave us rubberized coats for use on the ship.
“You’re going to get splashed outside, so you better put them on properly.”
“The floor in the stern is frozen. Make sure you work in pairs and stay as far away from the edge as possible.”
“Got it.”
“Roger that.”
In Captain Rinko’s judgment, being out in the open on a winter sea was a high-risk situation, so the crew was assigned to the bridge and the interior space at the stern of the ship. Unlike in my former world, there were no ships at sea at night, and the only enemies that would attack a cruising frigate were sea monsters. External threats were rare, and it was more dangerous to fall into the sea by accident.
“That aside…”
Myrril and I cocked our heads in the huge storeroom on the aft deck. We were told to keep watch here except during the regular patrol rotation…
“Why is this storeroom built this way?”
Yes, there was a mysterious raised platform behind the frigate’s funnel, overlooking the 100mm naval gun at the stern, and it was installed there. Myrril called it a storeroom, but it is quite large, measuring four meters square and just over two meters high. It is surprisingly solidly built, and it seems to have been designed to be watertight and airtight. That’s fine, but I don’t understand the need to build a storeroom in a place that’s so inconvenient to get to and from. I can understand if it was a rear cabin in the days of sailing ships, but judging by the things placed inside, it’s clearly a storeroom. There seems to be no food or other supplies stored here, as there was a storeroom on the ship, but there are a lot of heavy things here. Bringing things in and out would mean carrying them up and down the stairs by hand.
“This is the aft lookout…or was it originally a gun emplacement?”
“That’s right.”
Looking out the window Myrril was pointing to, all that was left next to the cabin was what looked like the base of a machine gun or something that had been removed. Judging by its size, it seemed to have been quite large.
“I wonder if they decided they didn’t need it anymore now that they had the machine gun up front?”
Myrril was referring to the machine guns positioned on either side of the funnel a short distance forward from where we were. I don’t know anything about naval ships, so I’m just guessing, but I think they’re probably one of the pieces of equipment that were removed from the Navy and given to the Coast Guard when they were transferred, like torpedoes and depth charges.
Anyway, we enter the temporary watchtower that used to be the gun emplacement. There are windows on both sides, so we can at least keep an eye on the outside. The luggage is in the way, though. Myrril sits down on a metal box by the window.
Hmm. Maybe it was just right for her.
“Yoshua, isn’t that the writing from where you were?”
“Yes, I can understand the English on this box. I can’t read the writing on this wooden box either.”
Cyrillic characters. It’s Russian. I can’t read anything except numbers. I can’t read anything except English, Japanese, and a little Chinese.
“So we won’t know until we open it.”
“That’s right.”
The inside of the storeroom was packed to the rafters with wooden boxes, cardboard boxes, metal boxes, and equipment wrapped in bubble wrap, making it look like a small supply warehouse. It was probably some of the “huge pile of freebies” that Simon had mentioned, in other words, various entertainment goods that were left over, unpopular, or difficult to get rid of in his country.
Near the entrance was a wooden box with Russian writing on it. I couldn’t read the writing, but I knew what was inside because I had bought one before. It’s a sealed ammunition box, commonly known as a spam can, and it contains 700 rounds of 7.62×39mm assault rifle ammunition used in AKMs and RPKs. There were more than 50 of these boxes, each containing two cans.
What is that amount? It’s enough to start a business.
I was a little surprised by the number, so I opened the long, thin wooden box next to it and found it packed full of automatic rifles.
“Hoh, it’s an AK. It looks a little different than the one Yoshua uses.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
It’s an AK47. It’s in good condition, so I’m grateful, but I’m sure Simon just wanted to send it to a place far away from his own country. How many of these are there? In the smaller wooden box next to it are metal magazines. There are also extended magazines and drum-type magazines. If such a large quantity were to fall into the hands of illegal organizations or hostile forces, it would be a national crisis.
Oh well, never mind. There are also some mysterious big boxes and big-looking machines at the end of the row. When I have time, I’ll check out the other boxes as well.
“Well, it’s time to go.”
Without anything special happening, our two-hour surveillance mission came to an end. We left the storeroom where we had been acting as temporary guards in time to hear the ship’s bell give a short signal.
From above, we could see a young dwarf working on the aft gun emplacement. It looked like things were going well, and when he noticed us, he waved at us with a smile.
We went around to the starboard side and headed for the bridge. The bridge crew, Louis, Eino-san, and Colon, went around to the port side and to the stern, where we were. We had decided on this patrol method after discussing it together, but somehow, it felt more like a sea school dare than a watch.
“Watch out for that slippery surface over there.”
“Got it.”
The night sea, without lights, is so vast and unreal. Occasionally, you see the shadow of a huge fish in the waves, but it’s not clear if you really saw it or if it was an illusion.
As I “watched” the pitch-black surface of the sea, I listened in silence to the roar of the sea as it came and went. The repeated sound of the waves numbed my hearing like white noise, and I felt like I was about to be sucked into the surface of the sea. What was even more disturbing was the strange feeling I had around me. I think it was probably just my imagination, but I couldn’t shake it.
When I told Myrril about it, she giggled.
“I felt the same way. It was like some kind of illusion conjured up by a sly fox. Do people who live by the sea get used to it?”
As we stood together, watching for anything, the thick clouds above us parted, and the starry sky appeared.
“Hmm?”
Myrril noticed something had changed and looked around. The sound of the waves suddenly grew louder, and the cries of seabirds could be heard in the distance as the sun began to rise over the horizon.
It was as if the magical illusion had worn off, and whatever had surrounded them was gone. The view cleared, the world opened, and a sense of reality returned.
It’s so strange.
I’ve never experienced a nighttime sea voyage in my former world, so I don’t know if this is a common occurrence on the nighttime sea or a phenomenon unique to this world. I wonder if people in ancient times who believed in monsters felt this way.
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