Chapter 100: We Are Just Pirates
Sidlipha walked the streets of Helsingborg.
After docking, the captain and first mate went to dispose of the stolen goods, while the remaining pirates went off to revel.
Only Sidlipha headed towards the municipal library.
She felt a sense of unreality about her surroundings, though she didn’t know why. A voice in her head kept urging her to remember, but she couldn’t recall what it was.
“Follow your heart…” the voice said.
Follow my heart, Sidlipha told herself.
Explore like a Viking, conquer, become a noble lord, have my own army.
Then I’ll have the power to find the lord who destroyed my village and killed my mother, and take revenge.
It was painful to admit, but she didn’t even know who her enemy was. Old Wilder hadn’t been in the village at the time, so he couldn’t find any clues about the culprit.
By the time he and Sidlipha returned, the entire village had been burned to the ground.
After burying her mother, Sidlipha naturally became a pirate.
Her explosive strength and stamina were astonishing, showing no signs of female physical disadvantage. She could fight the ship’s strongest boatswain with swords, holding her own, and could toss pirates who dared to harass her overboard, then stand with her hands on her hips and laugh heartily.
More importantly, the pirates couldn’t be sure if Sidlipha was their daughter. Although Old Wilder, based on Sidlipha’s birth date, had ruled out most of them as potential fathers, most pirates believed it was Old Wilder’s lie.
His purpose was to raise everyone’s daughter as his own.
The life of a pirate was actually quite boring. Most of the time was spent facing the unchanging sea, with no entertainment to speak of.
Therefore, the pirates were very happy to have a daughter to raise on board. Even when new young pirates tried to make advances towards Sidlipha, they would be beaten by the other pirates, their hands and feet broken, and tied to the mast.
After spending six years on the pirate ship, Sidlipha finally grew into a beautiful young woman with waist-length golden hair, but she was getting further and further away from her mother Sally’s initial hope of “marrying a noble.”
Sidlipha entered the municipal library. The guard couldn’t help but stare at her, because her waist-length golden hair was too dazzling, who knew how many years she had maintained it.
The library was funded by the newly established Solomon Church in Helsingborg, with the aim of spreading the glory of God’s knowledge.
Although there were no restrictions on entry, considering that most Normans in this era were illiterate, few people were willing to come to this library to read.
Sidlipha walked into the library, looking at the clean wooden floors and neat bookshelves, feeling inexplicably timid.
Then she discovered another problem: she couldn’t read, so she didn’t know which book to start with.
After standing in front of the bookshelves for half an hour, a clear voice sounded beside her:
“Excuse me, are you having some trouble?”
Sidlipha turned around. The speaker was a handsome blond young man, wearing clothes that Sidlipha didn’t recognize, but looked very decent and luxurious, with a gentle expression.
“Um, I’m looking for some introductory books,” Sidlipha said.
“You can’t read?” The young man was a little surprised.
He had been attracted by her stunning beauty and guessed that she was the daughter of some local minor noble, which was why he approached her.
Although her clothes were extremely simple, what surprised the young man was that this girl actually admitted that she couldn’t read, so she definitely wasn’t of noble birth.
What a pity about that beautiful waterfall of light golden hair.
Although he immediately lost most of his interest, the young man still patiently picked out a few books and handed them to her:
“Here, these are for noble children, they teach basic letters, pronunciation, the meaning of 1000 common words, and some simple grammar.”
“Thank you.” Sidlipha took the books, found a place to sit down nearby, and began to read carefully.
“You’re holding it upside down,” the young man couldn’t help reminding her.
“Oh.” Sidlipha turned the book around.
“If you can’t read, can you understand it?” The young man asked curiously.
“Of course not!” Sidlipha rolled her eyes at him and said in a “Isn’t that obvious?” tone.
“Let me teach you.” The blond young man’s eyes lit up, and he said with a smile, starting to teach her the pronunciation of a few simple letters.
The two sat in the library for an afternoon. Sidlipha learned that this noble young man was named Leotis, the youngest son of the great noble Claudius in the city, and had recently converted to the Solomon faith.
Solomon Catholicism had recently spread very rapidly in the northern part of the continent, with large numbers of Normans choosing to convert.
When the Church missionaries came to the north, the first thing they did was build power-generating churches. They built large wind power stations along the coastline and connected them to the hydropower grid on the Scandinavian Peninsula across the sea.
Norman commoner believers only needed to declare their conversion, and then they could get an electrical conduit connected from the church, along with a few free light bulbs, so they could enjoy the illumination of light even during the cold polar nights.
As for the nobles, as long as they could afford it, there were even more things to enjoy.
For example, high-quality wine and food, elegant movies and games, etc., made these northern nobles, who were accustomed to barbarism, feel as if they had suddenly entered a high-tech civilized society, and their quality of life had improved qualitatively.
The blond noble young man, Leotis, was a new convert to Solomon Catholicism. While teaching Sidlipha literacy, he also enthusiastically tried to persuade her to convert to God.
However, as Sidlipha yawned several times, Leotis also stopped talking awkwardly, feeling a little embarrassed and annoyed.
After finishing today’s lessons, seeing that it was getting dark outside, Sidlipha said goodbye to Leotis and walked happily towards the port.
In the tavern at the port, Sidlipha found the pirates dead drunk, got a few rooms from the owner, and threw all the pirates inside.
…
This kind of life lasted for about half a month.
From Leotis, Sidlipha learned the spelling of all the letters, as well as some simple vocabulary and grammar.
Although Leotis was still trying to guide her to convert to the Solomon faith, and even showed signs of pursuing her, Sidlipha still didn’t react.
She always had a strange intuition about Leotis, couldn’t pinpoint the specific situation, but felt that something was not right.
Finally, the day came when most of the stolen goods on the ship had been sold, and the money the pirates earned had also been spent in the tavern.
It was time to leave this city.
Sidlipha walked towards the municipal library. She planned to say a proper goodbye to Leotis and thank him.
If Leotis was willing to accept it, she could also pay the tuition fees for this period as compensation for rejecting his advances.
Arriving at the municipal library, Sidlipha was surprised to find it empty.
She waited confusedly for a whole morning, but still didn’t see Leotis.
Wanting to leave him a note, Sidlipha wrote a few words, but found that she couldn’t write the rest.
If only I could have studied for a longer time.
She sighed and threw the crumpled paper into the trash can nearby.
Sidlipha walked out of the library gate. Behind her, unseen, several figures stealthily followed.
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