Chapter 497: Brown and Green
“Give me a moment. I’ll hurry, but we can’t set sail until the ship is fixed,” I said.
“Sure, sure,” came the reply.
The contract stated, “As soon as possible, without overdoing it.”
There’s a section for the duration, but I have no idea how many days would be appropriate.
“So? You thought you could hide the amount you transported, which means you have other means for large shipments, right?” Captain Cat asked, his eyes half-closed.
After finishing the business discussions, he asked me again. Business comes first; Soleil and I seem to get along well. He even agreed to include a clause in the contract with other captains that prohibits disclosing the owner of the Mail Wheat, which is helpful since he’s quick to get things done.
The woman lying in this room and the large man in the corner, who’s much further away than before, will abide by the contract Captain Cat has made. This is a contract between Captain Cat and his crew.
As long as the contract is in place, it doesn’t matter if they get drunk on land and start spilling secrets. They don’t drink much on the ship, but when they’re on land, they drink until they lose their senses. By the way, the first night on land is on Captain Cat.
“Well, yeah. If it gets found out, I’ll just do this. It’s good to keep the crew fed,” he said, dumping a pile of lemons onto the floor.
One lemon contains about as much vitamin C as four lemons. There seems to be a guideline that states 20 milligrams of juice counts as one lemon, and if you eat the whole thing, including the peel, it’s equivalent to four. Of course, that wouldn’t make sense in this world, so I can’t say it.
“If you’re eating something like this here, it’s suspicious, don’t you think? Isn’t there something else that wouldn’t raise eyebrows?” Captain Cat complained, but he didn’t refuse.
If the crew’s health is at risk, I’d be more worried if he turned it down.
“Alright, then,” I said, putting away the fresh lemons and pulling out some candied lemons instead. I don’t have as much stock of those, so half of it is dried orange. Both are products from our island.
There are various options like chocolate-covered dried oranges, lemon peels simmered in white wine, and apple jam, but they all come with effects that I can’t justify.
“Thanks. I’ll pay for this later with money or by working it off,” he said, asking if he could give some to others from different ships if they looked like they needed it, and I agreed as long as the source wouldn’t be investigated.
Captain Cat seems to be quite pragmatic about strange phenomena; he’s the type to accept useful things. We wrapped up the conversation quickly and headed out to the deck.
“Wasn’t brown a good choice?” the spirit that first recommended it floated over to me.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Brown is a nice color,” it said dreamily, drifting toward the brown-stained canvas.
Anything brown is good!?
No, surely it must have recommended something specific within the brown spectrum. Yeah, let’s go with that.
I’ll ask the mailman to rent a building for storing the Mail Wheat. Then, we can have Captain Cat lead the transport from there.
“Excuse me, I have a favor to ask,” I said as I entered the town and approached a mailman.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I need a warehouse to store wheat until the ship repairs are finished.”
“Sure! You brought me that rare flower nectar, after all. Is a warehouse suitable for those sea folk over there okay?”
“Yes, that would be great. Thank you.”
I think this mailman is different from the one I gave the flower nectar to, but he knows I brought it. I guess there’s some level of shared awareness among them?
Following the mailman, we headed toward the building where I first received the Mail Wheat. He asked if it was alright to use a place closer to the town entrance than the one I got.
“This wheat is already given away, so it’s empty. Feel free to use it,” he said.
“Thank you. Here’s something for the warehouse fee,” I said, handing over several green stones.
“I’m not sure what kind of green you prefer. If you could let me know, that would be great.”
When it comes to green gemstones, emeralds come to mind. This magic stone often has many inclusions or small grains. Next, I thought of peridot, which has a slightly olive hue.
Then there’s jade. Thanks to the giant lizards, I have plenty of that. It’s a deep green basalt that has turned into a green rock. Whether it’s a gemstone or not doesn’t matter; sometimes, I prefer lower transparency, so I mixed them together.
I kept pulling out stones and handing them to the mailman. Each time I presented a new green stone, he passed it to the mailman next to him.
“And this isn’t a stone, but glass,” I said, showing him a piece of dark green glass.
“This one, this is it. I like this,” the mailmen said, peering at the glass resting in my hand.
“But it’s a bit different. Still, this is the closest,” they said, gazing at the glass with sparkling eyes.
A bit different?
“Is it the color?” I asked.
“No, no. The color can be dark or light. I don’t know, but it’s just a little different.”
What could it be? Is it the difference in craftsmanship or something? I’ve been pondering colors like brown and green, but I can’t seem to reach a conclusion…!