The Black Iron Glory
Meat and Whale Tradition

Meat and Whale Tradition

Every winter, Captain Altroni's return of the Red Sea Shark from whaling is a rarely celebrated affair. Although only school students get a decent break, for many city dwellers, winter is home season. It's hard to get work done when it's snowing all the time, let alone traveling long distances. So, most people basically have nothing better than relaxing in a tavern and all day long.

Thus, the return of the Red Sea Shark became an event that the townspeople looked forward to every year. They were cheering with the same spirit as when the crocodile niros was captured. The streets were filled with spectators and crowds of people. Some opportunistic traders took the opportunity to push carts while selling fruit and bacon.

Claude and Welikro managed to painstakingly squeeze the entrance to the pier and let out a lot of sweat. Fortunately, Pegg watched the entrance and hurriedly opened it up a little to let the two of them in.

The Red Sea shark is still docked in the icy part of the lake a few hundred meters away from the pier itself. A number of people stood on the surface of the ice surface while hitting their ice breakers to the surface.

"What the hell is going on? Did they try to break the ice so the ship could sail closer to the dock?" Claude asked Pegg.

It was during the last winter that former body owner Claude and three other boys went fishing in the lake, only for him to eventually fall into the icy water. Fortunately, the three of them managed to put on his clothes and pull him up, but it caused Claude to lie on the sick bed for half a year and his soul was replaced by a transmigrator.

"No. The ship cannot dock at the dock during the winter because the water will freeze and trap the ship in place. It was very damaging to the ship" Pegg replied, "The fishing boat can only stop outside the frozen part and must also move towards the center of the lake, … away from the direction the ice will form to prevent freezing in place. Currently, they are testing the thickness of the ice to see if it can support the weight of the whale. "

Pope . . . Claude looked at the two whales being dragged behind the Shark of Red Sea. In addition to other things, the parts of the whale floating above the surface appeared to be longer than the entire ship. It is hard to imagine how big the two whales were. Claude also discovers that the whale is different from the one he saw in his previous world. Although their skin also appeared blue-gray, these two whales seemed to have horns on the front. There was a large bulge near his head, but the horn seemed to have been removed, leaving a large hole in the whale's body.

It was a narwhal. . . Claude remembered the picture of the whale in his biology textbook. There are seventeen images of different whale species found of different sizes. Narwhals are not as big as when compared to other popes. An adult narwhal may be the size of a large light blue whale, only slightly harder. However, the pictures in the books do not give the admiration Claude felt when he saw the whale in real life. He could only imagine how big the blue whale was.

"With these two popes, the Eriksson family made it big this winter" Welikro said with envy.

Biological textbooks describe narwhals in great detail. Unlike other whale species, narwhals are the more common type that can be caught for consumption. It is said that during the dark ages, some magi brought fishing people to the sea to catch whales for experimental material and also used whale meat to overcome hunger in their territories.

Legend has it that the horn of the narwhals was an important element in alchemical experiments. Although no book can prove that it is true, after the magi were exiled from Freia, there is a belief of people who state that one's potential can be revitalized through the use of narwhal horns, which is the most important, make it a very valuable ingredient in the drug market. . Any captain who manages to catch narwhals will definitely get plenty.

"Uncle Pegg, you said they were testing the thickness of the ice, so are they going to take the whale to shore?" ask Claude.

Pegg shook his head. "No. They will take the whales apart on the ice itself. No need to waste energy and bring the whales here. Last year, there was only one pope. We're much luckier this year to be graced with two. I saw that the audience would enjoy the benefits of buying whale meat at a bargain price to try at home. "

Oh, the Eriksson family has that kind of tradition. His father, Captain Altroni, would always bring one or two whales back to the city every year and cut them here and there for people to notice and sell them cheap whale meat. . . Even the townspeople benefit from it. It is not surprising that there is a huge crowd there. Claude wondered why some of them even carried empty buckets before he realized that they would use them to store their whale meat.

"Whoa, Claude!" Eriksson appeared on the ship. He looked at the other two on the dock and took off his hat and waved it at them excitedly while calling out to them loudly.

The two retaliated to the wave to show that they heard it instead of shouting back. After that, Eriksson got off the ship with a thick rope and slipped and fell on the ice like a monkey. He hurriedly got up and ran towards the beach.

"Hey, Claude, Wero, I missed you to death!" Eriksson hugged Claude as soon as he arrived. He looked around and suddenly looked disappointed. "Boa's not here?"

"She's not coming" Claude said, before he explained that Borkal went to his aunt's house to spend the new year and would only return during the first month.

Welikro looked at Eriksson intently before he heaved a sigh of relief and hugged her. "Welcome back safely. You don't end up hurt anywhere worth celebrating."

That's not an exaggeration in the least. Whaling is a dangerous affair and newcomers often end up with the least broken fingers, mostly due to frostbite, as well as how dangerous it is during pole climbing, where they may be injured by a frozen metal chain. However, it paled in comparison to some cases where people would come back with a broken leg or a missing leg.

Eriksson nudged Welikro in the chest. "What did you say? You underestimate me, you know. Who do you think I am? I'm the future captain of the Whitestag! Eriksson!

Eriksson described his month-long papal hunting experience to two of his friends excitedly and spoke for an hour non-stop. He only stopped after Claude gave him a cup of water.

"Thank you .. My mouth dried up ..." Eriksson finished the water in one go and just realized that he was following the other two to Pegg's little house. The cup he held in his hand belonged to Pegg.

Claude looked at her in annoyance and said, "You've splashed our faces full of saliva. No wonder you are thirsty. You seemed mute during the entire trip and couldn't talk to anyone until now. "

"Well, come on .. I'm happy to see you and want to chat, that's all," Eriksson said with an awkward smile.

At present, one of the whales was dragged to the ice surface and several sailors used large axes and logging saws to cut the whale's belly. Some of them transported some whale meat to the dock by sled. Pegg, Captain Altroni and several other sailors had prepared several wooden tables at the dock and laid the freshly cut whale meat on top of them.

There is a long and regular line outside the pier. The spectators put their money into a large wooden box placed beside the table and took a piece of whale meat back home.

"How much is that selling price?" ask Claude.

"It's pretty cheap. Five kati for one sunar" replied Eriksson.

That's cheap. One catty only costs about two fennies, which is about 20 cents. So, five catties is only worth a dollar. Claude got a good idea about the price of food in the city because he was often asked to buy groceries by his mother during the holidays.

The current price of one catties of beef is one sunar and four fennies. It costs one sunar for one catty of goat meat, while smoked goat meat costs about one sunar and eight fennies per catties and pork costs five sunars per catties. Wild boar meat on the other hand goes for eight sunars per catties and one catties of longtail swordfish costs six sunars. Other cheap fish mostly cost about four sunars and eight fennies for each catties.

Since Morssen's daily salary was about one riyas, he could feed his entire family comfortably each day by spending only five or six sunars. But for ordinary townspeople who only produced one or two thales a month, it was already good enough if they were able to eat meat once or twice a week. Most of the time, they choose to eat cheap fish from the lake.

According to some experts, narwhal meat is comparable to beef in both taste and nutrition, so buying one kati of whale meat with just two fennies is perfect for city dwellers. Even the poorest people will certainly be able to earn two years after working hard all day, so that whale meat is also not affordable to them.

Captain Altroni held his own butcher's knife and cut off piece by piece the whale meat at the pier. Pegg on the other hand weighs the meat before handing it over to the buyer.

Many people threw one sunar into a wooden box and claimed a piece of whale meat weighing five catties before thanking the captain and leaving.

Captain Altroni smiled as he listened to the words of gratitude he had received all along while continuing to cut the whale meat with his balding.

Welikro nudged Claude and pointed to the captain's knife. It was only then that Claude noticed that the cut of meat by Eriksson's father was not at all different in size. "Five catties and two taels, hold it well" Pegg said. The weights he reported were mostly the same.

Eriksson did not appear surprised at all. "That's nothing new. He had been splitting fish in the sea for over twenty years and had plenty of time in the world to practice. I'll be at least as good in the future as well."

"Why do people just buy a five-kati piece that your father cut? Can't they buy some more?" ask Claude. The weather is cold during the winter and the meat can be stored for quite a long time. So why does no one buy more for the stock, especially considering the price?

"They didn't dare" Eriksson said happily. Whale meat cutting is an Altroni tradition that began with Eriksson's grandfather, who was also a captain and whaler. Back then, Red Sea Sharks did not exist and they used smaller fishing boats for the task. Every whaling attempt is a gamble with one's life. Quite a number of sailors were killed or injured for the sake of whaling.

Eriksson's grandfather always came back with a whale and he started splitting meat for family members of dead sailors so they would spend a good year in the future. Only after that would he sell meat to the poor people of the city at a cheap price.

But when it came to Eriksson's father, the family bought a long-distance fishing boat, the Red Sea Shark and whaling were no longer as dangerous as they once were. The family members of the elderly sailors who died were adults and giving them free whale meat was nothing to be sorry for. Anyone with dignity would reject the offer and they would rather buy meat like other poor people.

So, the Altronist tradition also changed. Instead of giving out meat for free, they sell whale meat at a low price. It's not that people don't want to buy more. Some people want to buy it in bulk. However, they were all rejected by the Altroni Captain and each household was only allowed to purchase a certain amount of catties. The sailors at the docks also knew very well how much each family got. No one would be able to take advantage of Altronis' good intentions.