Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 23

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As always, I recommend that
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Chapter 23: Drifting with the waves and going with the flow, onto the next stop
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations
Notes at the end

	Huang Siwan walked up to the workbench, and with a look, sighed, "Chen, you really are fearless aren't you? Making a mess of new tech again, can't you just do some honest work for a bit? Do you really want to be Chen Shiwan?"

	Chen smiled a sort of mad smile, and said, "To be a master engineer is to plan and build as one breathes, and I didn't board the boss' ship so I could relax."

	Having said as much, Chen then paused to sigh a deep sorrowful sigh, "It's just a shame that of all the things I could work with aboard this ship, the boss takes away most of it. I'm a magnificent, expert engineer, and yet it's like they're all holographic mascots, things I can only look at, never touch."

	"And what, you want to join the mascots?" Huang ridiculed, while moving to pick up the mechanical arm.

"Not with your filthy hands!" Chen angrily shouted.

	"I'll report you."

	"Ah, Huang, you're free to look as much as you like, and if you have any suggestions I'd be delighted to hear them," Chen said, immediately losing his edge.

	Huang withdrew his hand, and after leaning back and surveying the workbench for a good time, then asked Chen, "Chen, I take no issue with your work, and no doubt you are a master deserving of working with the boss. I just have one question."

	Chen braced himself, "Go ahead."

	"So, you've very meticulously built yourself this arm, what practical purpose does it serve?"

	Shawn nodded at this question. He had been sitting in front of the workbench for awhile, and that was his biggest question too. The mechanical arm was of course incredible, and a highly complex piece of engineering, but it did seem like it wasn't capable of doing anything.

	For example, the five fingers could house seven different sorts of can opener, three kinds of self-cleaning utensils, two dental hygiene implements, a whole set of cosmetics, and a pair of memory sticks for novels.
	Full of righteous indignation, Chen began, "I am not a master engineer because I doggedly pursue only that which is 'useful.' Is this arm not beautiful? Is it not art? Is it not the most brilliant thing you've ever seen? Compared to this, what does 'practicality' even mean?"

	"Ah of course, with your expertise, it's no wonder the boss has you here as Chen Sanwan," Huang said, despite his black kettle calling the pot grey, but nevertheless put the arm down, and returned to sizing Shawn up.

	There was a pregnant pause, before he finally spoke, "Shawn, was it? You're not from around these parts are you? Don't worry, unless you want to talk about, no-one aboard this ship's going to pry into your background. That said, you're unmistakably an outsider, nothing you can do about that. So why not come over to us? Our team's all outsiders, so we're liable to all share a language."

	Shawn hadn't paid much mind to how he was affiliated. Wherever he worked, he'd be earning the same wouldn't he?

	Huang continued, "You stick with laserbrained-Chen here, and you might just go from Xiao Baiwan to Xiao Qianwan. From the backbone of North River Freight's engineering department, with an annual salary of over two million and stock options, all the way down to here aboard the *Silver*, deep in debt. Think about it, do you really want to stay here? We're not like that. I started out as Huang Shiwan, and look at me now..."

	"It only took you five years," Chen said, coldly, "at an average annual rate of twelve hundred Qiankun credits a year, yeah, you've got a real lucrative opportunity on your hands.”

"That wasn't an invitation for your charred kettle to call my potb black!"

	Moving to the heart of the matter, Shawn asked, "When it comes to paying off your debt on this ship, how exactly do you do that?"

	Huang raised an eyebrow, "The boss didn't tell you? There's a detailed procedure, you just wait a moment, I'll see if I can find it for you."

	Huang rummaged through the contents of waist-mounted computer, and produced a "Remuneration Reference," upon which were listed in great deal a number of jobs: Piloting the ship during a battle, gathering minerals in the asteroid belt, collating the business documents, peeling the Kanyuan potatoes in the kitchen.... every detail of every possible job was listed there, along with a very strict corresponding reward.

	So long as one followed the directions on the list, they could cut down the debt they owed. The only question was...

	"You can see just what a particular person the boss is, I assume?" Huang asked, sighing.

	Shawn nodded. The payments listed were particularly unreasonable. Peeling Kanyuan potatoes was something that could be entirely automated, and if you piloted the ship through a life-or-death struggle, if the battle was of a low intensity then the pay wouldn't exceed five hundred Qiankun credits.

	This amount wasn't that much different from a white-collar day's wages after taxes in the Qiankun Corporation.

	As Chen carefully explained, "We're not some large-scale enterprise. Put in a nice way, we're a sort of energetic people's brigadec-for-hire. Put in a not-so-nice way, we're little better than those Zhuque pirates. When it comes to the distribution of wealth here in the Qian System, we're the lowest sort of predator, so we're not especially wealthy. Even the boss isn't exempt. He pays himself in accordance with this list, too, so there's at least no question of exploitation.

	Shawn gave it some thought, before indicating his comprehension.

	Huang smiled as he listened, "Even if the list treats us all the same, we're still divided into the rich and the poor. Some people only take a few years to cut their debt in half, and others haven't a skill to their name, and struggle to climb to above the poverty line..."

	Having returned to that topic, Chen seemed to fly into a mix of rage and embarrassment, "Huang, are you about finished!? Shawn's been assigned to me, and if you've got such a problem with that, then you can bring it up with the boss!"

	"Assigned to you? He was assigned to this room, nothing more, who exactly do you think you are? When we get back to pass, then we'll see, this guy, honestly..."

	Reaching this point however, Huang suddenly stopped.

	Chen stared, his eyes round, in expectation for what nonsense that were typical of Huang would soon spill outd.

"Hey, Chen, speaking of you, you don't think the boss means to stick him with the Hongxing squad?"

Chen's round eyes seemed to grow rounder still, "Hongxing squad!?"

"The boss is a particular person, his public and private life are kept quite separate, and he's very exact when it comes to business matters, right?" Huang analyzed.

"You don't say."

"We saved this kid in the middle of an op, wasting material in the process, and we've made enemies of Zhuque as well. These are all losses, costs, am I right?"

Chen had a quick look at Shawn, and seeing his calm and indifferent bearing, nodded, "Right."

"Our squad, the whole ship, even, we're not the boss' personal property. So, he goes about doing his own thing and incurs a loss, there's no way he can make us foot the bill. But you don't think he's going to cover the newbie's debt himself do you? It's never been done before, right? So how exactly is Shawn here going to pay back his million? I'll admit he looks to have promise, but having potential and following you laser-brain with this mechanical arm business, the only way he's heading down the abyss towards Xiao Qianwan.”

Rather than sputter angrily, Chen looked rather pensive, and replied, "The way you've put it, that does make sense."

Huang continued, " And of all our squads, the ones with the highest income are those Hongxing squaddies. If you wanted to get Xiao Baiwan over here out of poverty the quickest, you'd almost certainly send him to where he can make the most cash."

"Hongxing Squad," Chen said, stroking his chin, "Are those kids really that good? Running to them with millions of debt on your back seems like it could go bad easily."

"If he can survive being chased by hundreds of people, then he should be able to handle a bit of bad debt I think?" Huang pointed out.

"If you'd have ever seen the Hongxing Squad in action then you'd know," Chen replied.

The two continued to converse, the point having been completely lost. Shawn continued to listen in, while also moving to more closely examine the mechanical arm's inner workings.

Regardless of whether or not the arm had any use, Chen Sanwan's mechanical expertise was undeniable. Studying all that had been crammed into the arm was going to take some time.

As for the Hongxing Squad? If it meant he could pay back his debt faster, Shawn didn't particularly mind doing a bit extra or working a bit harder.

Regardless of where he worked, it'd give him the opportunity to gather more clues.

——

With their truly unlimited enthusiasm for work, in just two hours Shawn had met with another six sets of curious eyes like Huang's.

Based on the conversations Chen had with them, it wasn't hard to deduce that the Silver Knights seldom admitted members, and this sort of battlefield-recruitment was an occurrence whose number could be counted on one's fingers. Given their apparent trust in Li Yu, it didn't seem that any of them particularly minded his youth, though their curiosity was unavoidable.

In that respect, Shawn was like some rare animal, inviting curious spectators one after another.

While he was being ogled at, Shawn took the opportunity to make his own observations about the crew, as well.

First, it seemed that the overwhelming majority of the crew were quite cordial. Despite Shawn's relative youth, rather than being dismissive, they were all quite pleasant, and in fact some had given him gifts.

Shawn did feel a bit overwhelmed by this——naturally, he didn't have the opportunity to prepare any kind of reciprocation.

Secondly, most of  these friendly crew members seemed unusually strong. Their number seemed to be composed mostly, if not entirely, of those who could be considered the "elite."

This detail confirmed an earlier notion of his. Before, when he and Li Yu were having their talk in the cargo bay, Shawn hadn't been able to sense the presence of all the eavesdroppers just outside.

Lastly, these crewmembers all seemed to hold a great deal of loyalty and reverence for Li Yu. Of course, it was all couched in banter and jabs at his expense, but the Jedi Apprentice was able to hear their true feelings on the matter.

When it came to their Knight Commander, it seemed that no-one would hesitate to lay down their life for his sake.

This ship, these knights, this whole organization, it was all rather refreshing.

It was hard to imagine these people being part of the same raid as those pirates. Actually, in comparison, the Knights seemed positively divine. That made Shawn think, why exactly were they on the asteroid then?

The other pirates had been in a mad rush to grab everything inside the manor, all except for that silver ship that calmly sat floating outside.

Too bad he wasn't likely to get any answers until the ship arrived at their base.

Chen seemed nice enough, and had been happy to discuss mechanical engineering with Shawn, as well as covering topics on the Silver Knights, but never anything related to their presence at the manor.

"Generally speaking, when it's time to recruit, the boss likes to do it in person. For example, when I got picked up, the boss came to tell me personally that not only had my old boss been shorting me my patent royalties, but also that had planted evidence against me in order to do so, and that I had nowhere left to go."

"And he was willing to take me on, because as it just so happens, he had been commissioned by someone who had been in a similar situation. If the boss hasn't told you anything, it means he doesn't think there's anything worth saying."

"The boss has his place, and we have ours, it wouldn't do to try and overstep that. The most important thing is that even though the boss rarely ever tells us the specific purpose of our operations, that we all do our bit. We're like individual pieces of a great jigsaw puzzle, with only a few people being able to see the whole picture."

Having put it so mysteriously, it made Shawn all the more curious. That said, he understood with great clarity that this was not something he should investigate blindly, he would have to be patient. To do otherwise would be like starting on calculus before one had mastered basic algebra.

The organization itself was of far greater interest than their mission statement.

The name "Silver Knights" was naturally something Li Yu had just come up with on the spot and blurted out, but as his word was law, even such an outburst would've been legally binding, and so the organization officially became the "Silver Knights."

At least until Li Yu's next whim.

In reality, the organization didn't really have a strictly enforced designation, at least not under Li Yu, who had deliberately downplayed any sense of rigidity and ceremony.

As it currently was, the whole organization revolved around Li Yu, having become an extension of his will.

Because he wanted them to be the Silver Knights, they were the Silver Knights. If he were suddenly struck with madness and wished for it to be a maid cafe, then they would be the Silver Maid Cafe.

The strange thing was, despite the rather dictatorial power structure, they hadn't become a particularly extreme organization.

Li Yu wielded supreme power, yet not total ownership. Everyone, including him, could only accumulate wealth through the work list, with the rest going into the Knights' coffers, not for personal use.

Even though the work list system was something that Li Yu himself had come up with, it seemed to work just fine.

Additionally, every person in the organization had the right to freely leave, or even to challenge Li Yu to his position——provided they also had the ability to bear the weight of the responsibility.

Thus was produced a unique dictatorial-yet-free style, held together by Li Yu himself. It was hardly a surprise then that the crew seemed to view him with such reverence. In all his years travelling the galaxy, Shawn had never met anyone stranger.

So, what was the point of all this?

"To be honest, I have no idea either." Chen answered, "Sometimes, it feels like the boss is just some kind of strange scavenger, travelling around to collect people of all sorts, like you and I, for example. But then sometimes, it's like the boss sees us as torpedoes to fire at our enemies. When we have the chance, I'll take you to see our mausoleum. It's a sight to behold."

"And then sometimes, we're like a well-oiled penny-pinching machine, aimed solely at the acquisition of wealth——not just for the boss, mind you, but for the organization as a whole. Being the particular person that he is, the boss has never treated us like some cheap labour force. Since we do have a bit of a reputation in the Qian System, there haven't been a few missions where we've been able to ask a high price. And yet, as you've been able to clearly see, we are a cheap labour force, the boss himself included."

"So, if you want to understand us, you have to live us——Don't be so quick to reject us. The boss likes to pick up all sorts of people, so we're open to newcomers, but you've really got to understand how things work first. There's a limit to what I can just tell you, you've really got to experience it for yourself."

Chen's long spiel ended at about the same time as the Silver's journey through space, at last landing at their base in the asteroid belt.

The base was a simple affair, consisting of a gigantic, hollowed-out asteroid, with all the requisite facilities stuffed inside.

Simple as it was, it was no doubt effective. As long as they were hidden here in the asteroid belt, their existence was completely unnoticeable to the outside world.

The only downside was due to the emphasis on concealment, the space within the asteroid was quite limited. When the Silver landed, since there was already another ship in the main hangar, they very nearly had an accident.

That ship was an ashy-grey, olive-shaped ship, a bit bigger than the Silver. With such a basic hull, and the sparse armaments, mean that this ship was unlikely to be anything other than a cargo freighter

Shawn however wasn't given much opportunity to closely examine it, as he was quickly given a task and sent off.

The Silver was only to remain for about half a day. For this duration, Li Yu had sent for half the crew to help with base operations, and kept the other half aboard to keep tabs on their affairs.

 Shawn's first task: Accompany Chen Sanwan on his maintenance rounds.

The work wasn't hard; Even if the machinery was unfamiliar, he had an experienced guide. The entire exercise was to be to Shawn an educational experience, and after he had finished with it, he felt as though he deepened his comprehension of the ship.

The only downside was the pay was quite paltry. For half a day's labour, he was awarded only 100 Qiankun credits. This was about enough to get a mediocre glass of liquor at that bar he had met Xia Yan at.

"Don't lose heart, pay for newbies is always like this." Chen smiled, trying to comfort Shawn, "I myself only made 300 credits, but aboard our ship, 300 is enough. If you don't find the Hongxing Squad to your fancy, you just find me. You've got a natural aptitude for this stuff, it wouldn't take long for you to replace me. Though we're not much alike, you're young, and on top of that you're an outsider, so I'm afraid you'll not be able to take this old fart's money, haha."

Shawn nodded in thanks, appreciative of Chen's attempts to be comforting, his mind focusing on that ashy-grey, olive-shaped ship.

Barring accidents, that ship was likely the Silver's employer.
The reason why the Silver would accompany some pirates to the Nan family's villa would seem to be that they were commissioned to do so. Judging from the cargo crates in the hold, they were sent to find something.

Something invaluable.

Actually, there was a lot of value in the single crate that Shawn had opened, though its contents were now entirely worthless. Yet Li Yu's gaze swept over the valuable components that Shawn had made his mattress, and didn't seem in the least bit bothered.

It was clear that in Li Yu's mind, the components weren't of any particular importance.

This made Shawn even more curious, what was it that Li Yu had taken that he did deem valuable?

Put another way, what exactly was hidden in that manor? Xia Yan had specifically arranged for Shawn and his Master to be house arrested there, did that have anything to do with this mysterious goal?

When his Master was there by herself, did she discover anything?

A myriad of thoughts swam through Shawn's mind, yet none connecting or revealing to him any new insights.

Shawn dwelled on this until the ship once again set off, though entirely fruitlessly, and just as he grew irritated, they had arrived at their next destination.


















Translation Notes
a 一百步笑五十步 (yībǎi bù xiào wǔshí bù, "one hundred paces mocks fifty paces) is an inverted form of the idiom 五十步笑百步. The original idiom references an anecdote regarding the Confucian philosopher Mencius. Mencius was asked by King Hui of Wei, who was a bit of a warmonger, why despite treating his people well, his kingdom did not seem to be any more or less prosperous than its neighbours. Mencius asked the king to think on a hypothetical: If two men chose to flee from a battle, and the first fled fifty paces while the other fled a hundred, would it seem reasonable that the first man mocks the second? The King replied that of course it wouldn't be, they both ultimately chose to run away. Mencius replied that this was his point: The King might've been directly kind to his people, but in warmongering, still subjected his people to hardships as cruel as any tyrant.
In the chapter, the idiom is reversed because as *siwan* (fourty thousand), Huang's is in noticable more debt than Chen's *sanwan* (thirty thousand). While this imbalance is immediately obvious with the reversal of phrasing in Chinese, in English, I didn't feel that a kettle calling the pot black really communicated the hypocrisy there. It's still just a black thing pointing out another black thing. Thus, I embellished the English phrasing a little bit.

b as with the previous, the English idiom is not as easily intensified. In Chinese, Huang accuses Chen of having retreated ten thousand paces, who was now laughing at his fifty.

c Brigade as in "military company," but having just as “company” or “military company” either sent the wrong message or didn’t sound right.

d 狗嘴里吐象牙 - gǒu zuǐlǐ tǔ xiàngyá "Ivory from a dog's mouth," a slight alteration of 狗嘴里吐不出象牙 -  gǒu zuǐlǐ tǔ bù xiàngyá, meaning "ivory cannot come from a dog's mouth," which is just to mean that a filthy mouth can't produce pleasant words.

At any rate,

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Thanks for reading!