Chapter 249: 25. Egg
“Hello, my name is Aoxi.”
“Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.”
The Iceberg Queen swayed slightly in the night, and Fischer, holding a kitchen knife and engraving magic on the iron plate, was not alone. After all, in the adjacent room was a girl from the Cangniao Tribe who was practicing dialogues with a parrot.
Previously, Fischer thought she just wanted to avoid communication since she huddled above the mast every day, but it seemed that was not the case.
As a healing magic component in the shape of a ring appeared on the iron plate, Fischer let out a gentle breath, relaxed his fingers, and wiped a bit of magic material powder onto the knife blade before continuing to engrave the main ring.
“Steel Knife, I just saw the captain holding hands with that man. I think it won’t be long before Alagina marries him. But when we were in the Female Nation, Alagina, just like me, didn’t like to talk. Now they are both about to get married, so I feel a bit envious. I want to try communicating with others, I can’t always rely on you as a substitute. What do you think, Steel Knife?”
“Fool. Fool.”
Steel Knife’s response was quite vague, and the words it uttered left Fischer guessing their general meaning, but Aoxi could converse fluently with it. He didn’t know if it was a talent skill of the Cangniao Tribe.
“I know, I will try to communicate with others later, but I still need your help right now. Huh, didn’t I say this to you last month?”
“Goo goo. Goo goo.”
Fischer overheard the conversation between Aoxi and Steel Knife late at night while still engraving magic in the kitchen. He initially had a headache from using the kitchen knife to engrave magic, but now, due to this unexpected gain, his head no longer ached, and his hands felt less sore. The movements of engraving magic had become much smoother.
He remembered that he had been distressed about how to approach researching Aoxi, but hearing her somewhat soliloquized conversations with Steel Knife gave him the impression that he had suddenly grasped a clue.
“Buzz.”
Fischer continued engraving magic, and after a while, the sounds from the adjacent room quieted down slightly. He didn’t know if they had grown tired from practicing, as only the sounds of wind and rain remained outside the ship.
Just when Fischer thought Aoxi might have gone back, a faint sound suddenly came from that side.
“Ugh.”
Fischer’s action of engraving the magic rune with the kitchen knife suddenly stopped; he seemed to have heard Aoxi make a strange sound next door, something akin to a passionate moan, but much more subdued.
Moreover, aside from this, Fischer suddenly had a question.
If Aoxi was practicing dialogues, wouldn’t it be more prudent to practice in her own room rather than in the dining room?
Although there were basically no people at night, the soundproofing where Alagina lived was quite good; unless it was too loud, it wouldn’t be heard.
So, what was Aoxi doing here?
Holding onto this doubt, Fischer quickened his action of engraving the magic rune on the iron plate. As time ticked by, the kitchen knife in his hand became as nimble as his fingers.
Moreover, through analogy, Fischer suddenly thought that if he compared the process of cutting dishes to engraving magic, could the things he made turn out better than before?
“Ugh, so tired. I’ll just leave it here; Peou will handle it. I won’t have to come back once winter arrives.”
“Goo goo. Goo goo.”
“Let’s go, Steel Knife.”
After a long time, Aoxi and Steel Knife’s conversation in the next room finally returned. Aoxi’s voice seemed a bit breathless, and Fischer wondered what had just happened.
He knew Peou; she was the kitchen chef of the Iceberg Queen. Previously, Old Jack was learning the Northern Region’s cuisine from her, and she was also quite interested in Nali’s food, a mutually beneficial arrangement.
After this sentence, the dining room door next door opened. Thankfully, the cabin doors of the Iceberg Queen were very heavy iron doors, which prevented flooding as well as keeping outsiders from noticing that the kitchen lights were still on. If Aoxi found out that Fischer had been eavesdropping on her conversations, she might very well fall into a state of complete seclusion.
As Aoxi left, Fischer’s healing magic was also almost completed. As the last horizontal line of the ring’s tail was drawn by the kitchen knife, the magical circuit within Fischer was reignited, and the five-ring healing magic on the iron plate was instantly finished, transforming into a beautiful pattern shimmering with dim light.
The five-ring healing magic, “Instant Healing,” was completed.
Although the five-ring magic had flaws in both its activation speed and effects, Isabel’s wound wasn’t that severe; it just looked exaggerated on the surface. This magic was completely sufficient for her.
Seeing the magic completed, Fischer let out a sigh of relief, then washed the kitchen knife—likely the first one in history used to carve magic—and put it back in the knife holder, carrying the engraved iron plate out of the kitchen.
The corridor outside was pitch black, and the entire lower deck might only have Fischer left; Aoxi had long since left with Steel Knife. In Fischer’s line of sight, there was only the quiet corridor and the gentle swaying of the whole ship.
He moved forward with the magical steel plate, and just as he was about to pass by the dining room where Aoxi had been, his footsteps suddenly stopped, and he curiously looked toward the adjacent dining room.
After hesitating for a second, he gently reached out and grasped the iron door handle, pushing the door open.
“Creak.”
As the iron door opened, revealing the dimness inside, Fischer scanned the surroundings and found that the scene in the dining room seemed unchanged from when he arrived in the afternoon. However, when he turned on the lights in the room, he unexpectedly noticed a small basket in front of the corner where the ingredients were placed.
The small basket was entirely made of wood and seemed to contain something heavy, but a pink cloth covered the item, blocking Fischer’s view.
Fischer raised his eyebrows, approached the wooden basket, crouched down, and gently lifted the covering cloth. Inside, a rather large, smooth egg suddenly caught his eye.
The shell of the egg in the basket was very smooth, and upon closer inspection, he could even see traces of water on its surface, indicating it still held warmth from when it was laid, lying quietly in the wooden basket.
Just seeing this egg, Fischer suddenly realized what Aoxi had been doing here.
He felt relieved that Aoxi hadn’t noticed him when she came out earlier. Otherwise, eavesdropping on her conversation along with discovering that she was laying an egg might genuinely embarrass her enough to jump into the sea.
Most Subhuman Races are mammals, but a few unique cases differ; the Cangniao Tribe is currently one of the few Fischer knows.
Both the Cangniao Tribes in the Northern Region and Southern Continent share this characteristic: they do nurse their young, but their offspring are born from eggs.
Meanwhile, female Cangniao usually lay unfertilized eggs periodically; especially after prolonged absence from contact with males, this phenomenon intensifies.
Normally, the breeding season for regular Cangniao only happens twice a year, but according to Aoxi’s earlier conversation, it seemed her biological clock had become disrupted due to extended time at sea, accelerating the breeding rate from the original two seasons a year to two to three seasons a month. That would explain why she frequently laid unfertilized eggs.
Although unfertilized eggs don’t hold special significance for Cangniao, as they would cook and eat them, looking at the water-stained bird egg in front of him, for some reason, Fischer still felt slightly strange.
He decided not to have the egg custard from the ship tomorrow.
Fischer silently muttered a “Blessed by the Mother,” then replaced the covering cloth on the basket, concealing Aoxi’s egg, turned, and left the dining room while turning off the lights.
When Fischer arrived at Isabel’s door with the healing magic, braving the rain, he casually glanced at Aoxi’s room next door, where the lights were still on. Following the silhouette projected onto the small window by the light, he saw Steel Knife the parrot tilted its head in the room. It seemed to have heard Fischer’s footsteps outside but did not speak.
“Knock knock.”
“Isabel.”
Fischer withdrew his gaze and knocked on Isabel’s door. Shortly after, a somewhat flustered voice responded from inside,
“Ah, Teacher Fischer. Wait a moment, I’ll be right there.”
After her response, she waited several seconds, and when the door finally opened, Fischer was startled by the sight of Isabel peeking through the crack of the door.
The reason was simple; inside the room, Isabel, clad in crew clothing with bandages on her face, partially opened the door. In the visible portion, her head, which used to have smooth golden hair, now only reached about shoulder length, and the ends of her hair looked particularly rough, appearing unevenly cut, which messed up her beautiful hair.
Sensing Fischer’s gaze lingering on her hair, Isabel blushed and retreated a bit behind the door. Fischer did not pursue her gaze and just asked,
“Why did you cut your hair?”
“I can’t train well with long hair, and besides, the other female crew members have short hair.”
“Is that so?”
Fischer looked at the rough ends of her hair and speculated,
“Did you use scissors?”
“Yes, there wasn’t anything else useful on the ship, so… ah, the rain outside is too heavy. Come in.”
Fischer nodded and stepped into Isabel’s half-open door. As the sound of the iron door closing echoed, Steel Knife’s silhouette on Aoxi’s window twitched a few times before hopping back into the room.
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(The end of this chapter)
