Robinson's Diary (1)

In the year 4026 (A.D. 1563), the nations of Europe gathered together and began recruiting men for a grand expedition to find Daehan.

A fleet was being assembled, drawing seasoned navigators and sailors by the dozen — even scholars clamored to join.

Three ships, built from the wreckage of a wrecked Daehan Horned Whale, salvaged, studied, and painstakingly rebuilt.

Every sailor aboard had learned the Daehan Language before being assigned to a vessel.

"Are we seriously sailing north, to that insane frozen hell?"

"Why do you think they're paying so much, you idiot?"

Whether you headed to the Middle East or Southeast Asia, it was impossible to sail anywhere without crossing paths with Daehan's warships.

The moment you entered the northern Daehan Sea, a patrol ship would appear out of nowhere, seize your vessel, and toss you back the way you came. So the only option left was to chart a brutal northern route that no one else dared to sail.

"Damn it all… Fine. All I have to do is come back alive!"

Apart from the crown, the kings of several nations had put up prize money — a staggering fortune, enough to buy an entire estate. People hoping to turn their fortunes around were climbing aboard in droves.

"Set sail!"

"Raise the sails!"

Three ships departed from London, England, their hulls cutting through the cold wind as they headed north — into a rough, frigid sea where icy gales blew even in the height of summer.

Three ships. Five hundred souls. The voyage had begun.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"Ah! Coming, sir!"

I am Robinson Crusoe. A twenty-three-year-old aspiring navigator with six years at sea. Compared to sailors who've spent decades on the water, I'm still a green recruit.

Which means I'm still at the errand-boy stage of my career. My days are endlessly busy….

"Scrub the deck, and if there's nothing left to do, go fish!"

"Yes, sir!"

The northern route was truly terrifying. Let your attention slip for even a moment and you could slam into an iceberg and be torn apart.

Three days ago, I watched a ship strike the ice and shatter. It went kwa-kwa-crunch — then a long, splintering groan — and split clean in two in the blink of an eye.

Fall into these freezing waters and you're simply dead, no two ways about it…. The captain didn't even think about sending anyone to search for survivors.

"Yhaaawn."

"Haah… exhausted."

"Tell me about it. The days drag on forever…."

They order me around and then doze off on watch themselves. The ship that sank a while back went under for exactly that reason — someone fell asleep and never saw the ice coming.

"Careful! Slowly!"

"Shut up!"

Everyone's nerves are stretched to breaking. We're all sleeping badly — the light pierces straight through our eyelids no matter how we try.

The scholars informed us recently that it isn't just that the days feel long — the sun genuinely isn't setting at all.

Damn it all. A hell where the sun refuses to set…. Sometimes I wonder if I'm already dead, haunting this place as a ghost.

Bloody hell…. The dates in this diary are probably all wrong, too?

I'd been keeping it faithfully, planning to publish it as a book when I got home and make my fortune….

"GWOOOARRGH!"

"What the—!"

"It's a bear!"

"Madness! Load your muskets!"

A massive ice floe, and on it — insane as it sounds — a polar bear. Everyone yanked the hand cannons from their belts and began ramming in powder.

They'd at least spared no expense on cutting-edge flintlocks, thank God.

"Fire as soon as you're loaded!"

Maybe it was the cold, maybe the terror, but every pair of hands was trembling — mine included.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Click.

And of course, a misfire. But blood began spraying all the same — someone must have hit it.

"GUHOOOARRGH!"

"It's angrier now! Shoot, hurry!"

You get shot, of course you're furious. Any creature would be, right, you humans?

But we couldn't just sit still and let it maul us, so we ran and dodged and fought for our lives — a desperate battle from start to finish.

"Bloody… hell…."

"Hah. Hah."

"Thought I was a dead man."

We brought the bear down with our guns, and today, too, my wretched life goes on. Though, of course, one of our six didn't make it.

He slipped on the slick ice, fell — and became the bear's sacrificial target on the spot.

It bought us the time we needed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to finish the beast.

"Well, at least we got fresh meat out of it. Silver linings, eh?"

"I don't know…."

"Being alive is good enough for me."

We hacked ice for water, hauled the bear aboard, and returned to the ship.

"Oho! Meat!"

"Where did that come from?"

"You magnificent bastards, I could kiss you!"

Nobody seemed to spare a thought for the man who hadn't come back. I'd better be careful not to die myself.

A meat feast broke out on deck for the first time in ages.

True, we had to break up two tables for the fire, but the whole ship — mired in gloom from sleepless nights — came alive again.

Well, out here on this ocean, it's just us anyway….

Of the original three ships, another one vanished just recently, after all.

"Land ho!"

Another one seeing things, apparently.

"No, I'm telling you — it really is land!"

"…?"

"Seriously?"

People were scrambling up the mast, clinging to the rigging, scanning every direction.

Whoa…. He's right. Something that looks like land really is visible away to the south.

"But how do we get there?"

"Do we walk?"

It sounds like lunacy, but it's true — at the far end of an endless sheet of ice, a sliver of land is showing….

"Are you insane? Walk on the ice?!"

"If it cracks open, we all die!"

"Maybe if we sail a bit closer, land will appear?"

Frightened as they were, most of the crew wanted to push on by ship.

"Well, I'm getting off!"

I shouted it with total confidence. Sailing these brutal waters had taught me one thing: this ship wasn't going to last much longer.

Scrubbing the deck every day, taking in the hull from every angle — you could see it was one bad knock away from splitting apart.

"The young pup's gone mad, has he?"

"Bold of you, boy. Awfully bold."

Everyone was too busy sneering at me….

"I want off as well."

"I'll go too!"

A few of the scholars and some of the men shared my thinking. Worst case, if it was unclaimed land and we could establish even a small settlement — wouldn't it become ours?

Though might it be too cold for even that?

In the end the party split, and twenty-six of us agreed to disembark here.

Cowards, the lot of them. No reward without the risk.

"Whew…."

"Let's go!"

Boats ferried us ashore in trips, and the ship was already unfurling its sails, preparing to abandon us and run.

KKUDUDUDUK.

"Whoa…. That's terrifying."

"That's just the ice cracking or grinding against itself. It doesn't give way all at once — don't worry. Let's move."

Coming from a scholar, that was oddly reassuring.

And so our band of twenty-six — sailors, soldiers, and scholars jumbled together — set off on foot toward that distant land.

"Would be nice if there was food to forage. Or game to hunt."

"It's land, isn't it? There'll be something."

Water we could manage — dig up snow and ice around us — and we had roughly a month of provisions, so for now the journey was at least feasible.

Plenty of men kept wandering off somewhere, complaining their stomachs hurt, but with no actual deaths, surely that much was normal?

One blessing of this cold: nobody smells. Small mercies.

The whole company wore expressions of hollow despair. We'd at least managed some hunting along the way, so we wouldn't starve immediately — but still, this was bad.

"We can't give up here. I'm pressing on."

I couldn't stop. I simply turned and walked, forward and nothing but forward.

"Well, no one's coming to fetch us, so I suppose we have no choice."

"Let's go."

Scholars really are clever — stopping here made no sense anyway. It was nowhere fit to live.

You'd need at least a few trees before anyone could call a place home, wouldn't you?

"Let's gather what branches we can, at least!"

"Right — rest a while, then move on!"

No big timber for building houses or boats, but small, dead trees were scattered about in decent numbers.

We collected withered, frost-brittled branches from all around, built a fire, and thawed ourselves out yet again.

"Haah… how many days has it even been? It keeps getting colder, doesn't it?"

"Doesn't it? With the sun refusing to set, who can even tell what day it is."

Everyone seemed as lost as I was. Apparently even the clever scholars had no answer for that one.

"Hey. You there?"

"…."

"Oh…."

Frail creatures, scholars. Someone froze to death in the night.

Still, he died more peacefully than the poor devil a while back who was dragged off by wolves in his sleep.

"Should we bury him?"

"With what, exactly…."

He had a point. The ground here is harder than stone — you can barely chip it with a pick. So we took his belongings and simply left him where he lay….

Four more days of trudging south, and….

"Haah… bloody hell."

"Pack ice again…."

"Isn't the ice thinner this time, though? That must mean land is close."

That means it's more dangerous, you fool…. Does nobody think about the ice breaking apart underfoot?

But there was no alternative. Unless we wanted to live out our days on that island with the wolves and freeze to death, forward was the only way.

KKWADUDUK.

"Gah…."

"Eek!"

Genuinely terrifying. Was that cracking under our feet — or splitting?

"Let's spread out a bit as we go…."

"Not that it accomplishes much, but better than doing nothing, I suppose?"

The selfish bastards. Look at them scattering with their own light packs, leaving the heavy lifting behind.

Those of us hauling the main cargo on sleds — me and the sailors — weren't even worth a glance.

"Tch…. Shall we, then?"

"Let's."

See? Feelings hurt already. When a real crisis comes, no one's going to help anyone.

And so we set out walking again, across pack ice that seemed to stretch on forever.

By the way — it is freezing out here. That Kkalkkali thermal jacket from Daehan? If I hadn't bought one before leaving, I'd have frozen solid ages ago.

"Whoa… do you think it's really land this time? We've walked what, six days?"

"About that, I'd say."

An environment perfectly designed to drive a man insane. Nothing to see in any direction but pack ice and that wretched sun bobbing up and down on the horizon.

"Ah! Land!"

"Yes! Quickly, let's move!"

Haha…. Bloody hell. Please, this time, let it be a continent. Not another island.

"We've hit two islands already, so it has to be the mainland, right?"

"When will we ever find a place with trees?"

We could see it now, at least — call it an hour's walk before we touched solid ground. No sense getting impatient. Just keep walking.

But then — had we somehow offended the heavens?

WOODUDUDUK.

"Huh?"

The sound rising from beneath us was wrong. Wrong in a way that curdled the blood — like some colossal monster stretching its limbs.

Like something enormous was tearing free and drifting apart.

"You don't mean—?"

"RUN!"

"The ice is splitting!"

I don't fully know what happened, but the ice ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was cleaving apart, and the whole world felt like it was sliding sideways.

This sea really does have a few tricks up its sleeve, doesn't it?

"Run!"

"Grab only what you need!"

Shouldering nothing but our packs and a few basic tools, we broke into a sprint.

Because it felt — I could feel it — like the ice itself was being carried out to sea on the current.

We had to cross the widening fissure before it swallowed the way forward.