4

The ship had three masts and a total of eight sails.
At the top of the mast at the top, a flag with a chicken head is fluttering.
The face was blown by the wind and wavy in various shapes, expressing emotions and emotions at random.
All sails were not cloth, were open mesh woven with fine wire.
At first glance, they seem to be swollen forward due to the wind from the rear, but they do not generate the propulsive force of the ship.
The propulsion device of the ship was a huge propeller consisting of 12 blades.
The propeller is linked to 60 shafts, 300 gears, and 5 mainsprings, and it was driving by people called "mantis".
"Mantis" has metal arm protectors called "hard-line" attached to both arms.
This protector has teeth in the shape of a saw that fits perfectly with the gears they are in charge of, and this rotates each gear.
One of the man "Mantis" noticed my existence and asked, "Are you newcomer?"
I answer yes.
Another "mantis" appeared from behind, and I took one of the "hard-line" I had in my hand and wear it on my right arm.
The weight makes my shoulder seem to come off for a moment.
When the gears are turned by this "hard-line", not only the power is accumulated in the mainspring, but the wages paid when getting off the ship are also accumulated.
"How soon does the ship reach its destination?" I asked.
While wearing another "hard-line" on my left arm, "Mantis" said, "It's just one year."
The "mantis" was a woman.
Then she said, "But each person feel an another time. Some people feel it in a moment, and some feel it forever. Which one are you?"
After she left, when I looked at my arms, the "hard-line" was integrated with the arms and the boundaries disappeared …

5

Every day, every day, I turned my gear and my arms were getting thicker before I knew it.
At first, I was counting the number of days I boarded this ship, but I stopped it within a month.
Not only did the ship have no clock or calendar, but it didn't even have anything that could be used as a writing instrument.
I can't even scratch and mark a wall like a prisoner.
If I intentionally hurt the ship, a whip will fly out of nowhere and flay me.
It always flies from the blind spot, and when it hits the target, it flies away in a blink of an eye, so no one has seen the whipper.
I once got a whip when I was frustrated and kicked a wall, but that's the first and last so far.
At that time, I felt like a bacterium attacked by white blood cells.
Since then, I've been paying attention to everything so that I can coexist in this giant creature.
Other than that, and of course, I couldn't escape outside the ship, I was free.
I could sleep at any time, wake up at any time, and sleep for as long as I like.
Of course it was both OK I turn the gears as much as I wanted, or not at all.
However, strangely, it seems that the ship arrives at the destination in exactly one year every time, no matter how much the individual workload varies...

6

Despite spending more than 300 days on this ship, I had only one acquaintance in men ... his name is Jack.
He was healthy and well-built when he first met, but as the days went by, his body became more injured, and now he is full of bandages like a mummy and slender like a malnourished person.
Every time he had more bandages on the prominent part, he said, "I was caught again," but I was thinking he was caught in the gear.
If I hadn't done that just before arriving at the ship's final destination (that is, the starting point), I wouldn't know anything.

It was Jack who told me that the ship would arrive in three days.
The keel of this ship seemed to molt once a year for three days just before arriving at the final destination, and it was said that molting has begun now.
It was true that the curved keel that looks like the bow was uneven like the scales of a large snake, and its surface was translucent and floats.

The year on board for me was quick.
The work of turning the gears was not a pain at all, and it seemed as if I was being manipulated by "hard-line", and even I was able to continue while taking a nap.
In fact, I think that not only the arm but also the consciousness was manipulated.
Even though my eyes were open, the events that were happening around me were dreamy, and there were many days when I couldn't remember anything that happened on that day.

However, when I heard from Jack that there were only three days left, I regained the clear consciousness I had when I boarded the ship.
At the same time, I remembered when I asked Jack, "Who is that whipping person?".
At that time, he replied, "That is the captain".
I asked where he was, and he pointed to the chicken's head on the flag of the mast.

I also remembered another thing.
There is only one female acquaintance on this ship ... the name is Echo.
That "mantis" that gave me "hard-line".
When I asked what would happen if I turned the gears in the opposite direction, she replied, "Don't do it, it's absolute. It will reverse the subjective and objective."
At that time, I had only a vague impression that "dangerous things would happen", but I didn't even think about doing that.
However, in the last three days, I was dominated by the question, "What if I turn the gear in the opposite direction?"
The only way to confirm that was to do it in the last three days.

When I had two days left, I thought, "maybe If I rotate the gears in the opposite direction, all the wages I've earned so far will disappear in an instant".
But at the end of the day, even if the wages were zero. Even so, I came to think that it was better than spending the rest of my life with the enigma.

When I had one day left, I thought, "maybe If I rotate the gears in the opposite direction, the ship will sink and everyone will die".
But at the end of the day, if the ship sinks even a little, I came to think that it might be a chance to see the captain.
And on the last day, I finally turned the gear in the opposite direction...