Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!

Chapter 1930 1401: Farewell, Mama—Tonight I Set Sail!

"Almighty bless us! Matim! My old brother, I can understand your anger at losing an eye, I can understand your hatred for the Natives' sneak attack! In fact, my heart that seeks justice and light is exactly the same as your righteous heart!…"Seeing the quartermaster, who had lost one eye and now looked as vicious as a pirate, Bruno sighed and patted his "old brother" on the shoulder. Then, with a solemn expression, he stared into the man's only eye and began to speak.

"But, Pense antes de falar! Before you speak, you have to think first! We are not brainless Castilians, we are rational Portuguese people!…"

"Matim, the suspicions you have about Shushu, I've had them too these past few days; I even had the urge to kill him at one point. But after careful thought, I can confirm that this guide who has converted to the Almighty is not an inside man for the native Great Tribe!…"

"First of all, our guide was captured in the Bahamas by Columbus's fleet! Before that he didn't even know about the Native Kingdom of Cipangu, and he had absolutely no contact with those ferocious Barbarians. Just look at how timid, cowardly, and honest he is—can you see even half a trace of a Barbarian's ferocity and cunning in him?"

"Second, when the Native attack came, he looked completely panic‑stricken, scared like a little Chick, and he certainly didn't jump into the sea together with that damned prisoner. Later he was even knocked unconscious by the Natives' Firearms blast and almost smashed himself to death. Third, he's dull and foolish, knows nothing at all, and no one ever told him the fleet's position. What's more, the night anchorage was changed at the last moment; even if he had wanted to report it, he simply wouldn't have had the time…"

After listing three reasons, Bruno already wore an expression of firm conviction, and even Sailor Chief Haroldo nodded in agreement. The final reason, moreover, was the key that completely dispelled Bruno's doubts!…

"The Almighty is my witness! Most importantly! The Native fleet that launched the surprise attack actually came from the leeward side, sailing half‑against the wind to sneak up on us! How could that possibly be the work of an insider, or foreknowledge? If they'd known our position beforehand, how could they have come from the slowest leeward side? All they'd have to do is swing around to the windward side and strike swiftly… our ships wouldn't have time to raise sail and accelerate; we'd all be dead in the hands of the Natives!!…"

"Uh! A surprise attack from leeward… this!… really is strange… uh! That bunch of sneaking, despicable Natives, they're a pack of damned idiots!…"

Faced with such a soul‑searching question, even as fierce and unreasonable as Matim was, his momentum had to falter. He touched his blinded eye, which throbbed with phantom pain, and for a long time he couldn't say a word.

Given the seasoned level of experience of the Portuguese Navy, they truly could not imagine how hurried and awkward the Kingdom Navy's very first night raid under sail had been, nor how hard it had been for them to hunt for the "Evil Demon Fleet." And the only man who had seen Shushu light the torch—Big John—had already been killed by cannon fire, his body thrown into the sea. On the entire ship, no one knew what had happened that night anymore. Just as no one knew about the torment in Shushu's heart, and the regret he carried for not having leapt into the sea to die…

"Matim, go below and rest and heal properly! The homeward voyage is still very long, and everyone has to stay sharp; nothing must go wrong! We absolutely cannot afford to make any more mistakes!…"

"As for Guide Shushu, after going through this brush with death, according to the rules on board he can be counted as one of our Brothers now. Of course, he's definitely not on the same level as an old brother like you! But you still can't bully him as you please!…"

"Think about it: once we get back, with this Gold and the news from the East, Lord Joao will definitely send more Kingdom Navy ships here!… And among a whole group of ships, only on ours will there be one of our own who can communicate with the local tribes—what a huge advantage that is, and how much more spoils of war can we claim because of it?! There's no way we'd go against money, right? Just like this time, that valuable Red Pearl—didn't it come to us by accident after Shushu talked with the local Natives?…"

At this point, Bruno broke into a smile and squeezed Matim's shoulder firmly. Matim hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded, giving the captain the promise he wanted.

"All right then! That yellow‑skinned monkey got lucky this time!… As long as he can bring Wealth to the fleet, I won't make trouble for him! But according to the old rules, he's made quite a bit this time; once we're back at Lisbon Port, he has to treat everyone to some fun in the taverns and alleys, let us enjoy ourselves properly!…"

"Of course! Even if he doesn't know these shipboard rules, Old Ivo will teach him!… Hah! Once we're back in Lisbon, I'll treat all the Brothers to a whole week of fun first!… Now get back to your duties!…"

Bruno agreed with a laugh, and even wrote an even bigger check in advance to placate his "old Brothers." On this voyage, even if they were to sail straight home now, he already had an extra three pounds of Gold in his hands, all from the flagship's share, of which he alone could take thirty percent!

It was just a pity that that red‑eyed Silvira insisted on keeping the other three pounds of Gold from the Vice Ship himself, and in the end man, ship, and gold all fell back into the Natives' hands! That stupid black fish that swallowed the bait and let the Natives haul him away!

"Peixe-boi! Nothing but muscle and no brains! Dumb as a fish! Burro como um peixe!…"

Thinking of Silvira, captured by the Natives, Bruno cursed twice using Portuguese slang, then spent quite a while regretting those three pounds of Gold. Only after a long time did he, full of yearning yet also apprehension, turn his gaze toward the direction of Haiti Island to the southwest, staring at it with greedy eyes for a long while.

"Almighty! On this trip, we lost fifty men… in exchange for just over three pounds of Gold, a small pouch of Pearl, and one 'Eastern booklet'… was this voyage really worth it? Will Lord Joao be pleased?…"

Thinking of the gleaming Gold and the bright Pearls, Bruno lowered his eyes slightly. Though his face still wore an expression of grief and anger, in his heart he was already roaring with excitement, giving an answer of absolute certainty!

"Worth it! Of course it's worth it! …Just that Gold alone can be turned into 400 Portuguese Gold Coins at the mint in Lisbon! And with those Pearls, we can surely get another 300 coins at least…that's 700 Gold Coins, and I can get at least over 200 of them!"

"This is the grace of the Almighty! Faced with such bright Wealth and profits, the deaths of fifty lowly Sailors at the bottom, the loss of a batch of the Kingdom's weapons, what do those even matter?!…Those humble lives are far less important than that captured Light Sailing Ship, they're not even worth as much as that sunken 8-pound cannon!…"

"Will Lord Joao be pleased? He will definitely be overjoyed! We discovered the wide Great River, discovered the New Continent, discovered a boundless Wilderness waiting for the Kingdom to occupy! Not to mention, we even brought back the 'Eastern booklet' written in square characters!…"

"This is the hope of the New Continent and the new sea route. The great Lord Joao will surely reward me richly, he might even entrust an even larger fleet to my command! As long as…I can live to return to Lisbon, to return to Sintra Palace and make my report!…"

"Holy Mother! The only trouble is that Scholar Martin fell overboard…all I can do is report his death to the Kingdom! Dying at sea in sacrifice to the Lord is better than being missing, possibly captured by the Natives…better for everyone that way! But the Governor of the Azores, as Martin's father-in-law, what will he think? Will Lord Joao punish me?"

Bruno's heart was seized with unease, his gaze drifting and unfocused. At this moment, even though he had struggled upward for ten‐odd years, he could still only be counted as a minor Nnobility, or a "Royal Knight," that is, "a loyal hound of the Royal Family." As for the struggles among the Kingdom's upper ranks, he still knew far, far too little—unless he could climb higher!

Just like the lookout on the ship, only by standing high up on the mast can one see a wider panorama, see the darker sea of power beneath!…

"Ah!…Chief Divine, Ancestor, Abba!…You're right before my eyes, and yet so very, very far away!…"

At the same time, high up on the mast, Shushu's eyes were wide as he gazed out over the Bahamas waters to the Western side. The ship was sorely short of hands; even he, the guide Translator, had been grabbed to work all over the place.

Old carpenter Ivo was all old Bone now and had no wish to climb so high to keep watch. So after teaching Shushu the lookout tricks of the Sailors, he let this thin and nimble young Native do the job. Just as he had passed on the craft of handling the sails to Shushu as well! In his words, that was…

"Holy Mother have mercy! Little Rat, we rolled out of the waves together. You've got quite the tough life, eh—be my Apprentice from now on! If I've got a bite of biscuit, you'll have a mouthful of bran! Carpenter's work, sail-handling, lookout duty…a youngster learning more skills is a good thing; crafts won't work you to death!"

"Look at you, grinning like an idiot—you really are dumb! Aren't you going to thank me? If it weren't for that attack, with so many dead, all my Apprentices wouldn't be lying at the bottom of the sea, who'd be willing to teach you the real tricks, eh?…"

"You should know, only with a craft can you live comfortably on a ship! Those drudge Sailors, one batch after another comes aboard, doing the hardest, heaviest work, and another batch after batch turns into corpses, tossed overboard to feed the fish…they're just Firewood to be burned!…"

"…"

At this moment, Shushu stood on the lookout platform, the whipping wind blowing his hair into a wild tangle. He was like a thin little sea swallow, wanting to fly up into the clouds in the sky!

And Old carpenter's words surfaced in his heart again, drawing those bloody memories swirling before his eyes, as if even the pure white sea clouds were stained with a sheen of blood.

"Yes! One batch after another comes aboard, and one batch after another turns into corpses! Tossed into the sea to feed the fish—when that happens, they're actually lucky! Some of them…what gets thrown overboard are Bones, white Bones gnawed clean…"

"Man-eating Evil Demon Large Ships! And man-eating lairs! My warm home is so close, I can see it!…But it's so far, in a place I can never go back to!…"

"When will I be able to go home? To eat Ma's Cassava porridge, to smoke tobacco with Abba, to ride big sea turtles and run wild with little Sis?…In dreams, in the kind good dreams of the 'Taino People'!…"

On the hanging lookout platform, Shushu silently closed his eyes, and two lines of tears slipped into the sea wind. In the language of the tribes, the meaning of "Taino People" is "kind good people."

"I'm leaving…Ma, Abba…I'm going to the eastern side now…I will come back! Even if I die out there, my Spirit will float back…"

The Sea Ship sailed east, but Shushu's heart drifted westward, brushing past his homeland in the Bahamas and the faintly visible islands. He dared not reveal the location of his own tribes, afraid of drawing the White-skinned Demons there and bringing yet another brutal slaughter…

He could only leave, only keep that foolish smile, keep enduring, keep lying low! All of this was not for the rumored salvation of the Chief Divine, but for those dead Taino people, for a true hope of going home!~~