XV. Wheelbarrow

In the morning, the rays of sunlight filtered into the cave, the sea's orange-red waves shimmering.

Rein's face changed extremely fast, just yesterday he was eager to see Swan dead, and today he was already grinning, leaning on the railing beside Swan with the sea breeze blowing, chatting amiably. The stuff Swan had stolen was the real heavyweight, as if getting respiratory care from a heavyweight's mother, so damn heavy it could choke you.

Swan was officially part of the crew now and wasn't as cautious about what he said. He spoke his mind, even delving into sensitive topics, as they gossiped about how the ship had gathered so many lunatics.

When Rein talked about his own experience joining the ship, it was with a sense of nostalgia.

"That time, I had no money for a hostel and got kicked out at night. With nothing better to do, I was just wandering around.

Out of the blue, a heavy rain started, and without a copper coin in my pocket, I was about ready to slip into depression, a fast track to a 'try not to laugh' challenge."

Rein started to brag without boundaries.

"Uh... I don't really get it."

Swan looked confused.

Rein waved his hand dismissively, took a drag from his cigarette, and continued, "I figured I'd find somewhere to take shelter from the rain, so I turned into a deserted alley, thinking I'd just sit by someone's porch where the awning was big enough to keep me dry.

Instead of finding a damn awning, I ran into three harbingers of doom.

Liszt, that's the Captain, along with Shadi and Mika, were in the dark alley moving dead bodies.

They stared straight at me, and I pretended I didn't see them, ready to turn and leave.

That was five years ago. You wouldn't know it now to see him so quiet, but Shadi, that son of a gun, was fiery as hell back then, his every other word about killing someone's whole family. He was a butcher among butchers, an energetic young lad, you know? Without being cruel and ruthless, how could he paint such a picturesque world?

He ordered me to 'roll on over', and I just exploded, having just been rolled out of a hostel, and now told to roll again?"

Rein was a natural storyteller as he vividly recounted his tale.

At the major harbor of Londen City, the goal was to recruit legitimate sailors. One needed proof of one's background, and the checkpoints were quite strict. Many fugitives with a past, though, would spend money to find someone local to direct them to a secret port, to mix among the pirates.

In other words, below SS Fuma Keqing Revenge was a talent market—Boss was directly hiring.

Naturally, the sooner the sailors were ready, the better. Even though they had just thrown a share-out feast, this bunch's efficiency still surprised Swan.

Swan watched Shadi on the pier recruiting. At that moment, he was loudly hawking.

"Joining pirates and not becoming part of the Black Sail Pirate Group is like reading without looking at 'Acania Travelogue'. It shows a lack of literary depth and personal cultivation, an inability to grasp the highbrow art of 'elegant simplicity', failing to penetrate its profound spiritual core. Stuck at that level, one can only live a relatively failed life."

Shadi was repeating the classic lines used by Liszt in the early days of recruiting for Black Sail.

Surprisingly to Swan, a few people actually approached and started asking questions. Ox was sitting aside, scrutinizing them; anyone old, weak, disabled, or sickly, or who hadn't mingled on a ship before, was outright rejected.

Swan thought Shadi and Mika were among the few aboard with whom one could have a reasonable conversation. He hadn't expected Shadi to have had that kind of past and wondered if it was true—as all the tales were coming from Rein.

Rein added, "I didn't care about all that; I was just enraged and coincidentally broke, so I might as well skin some folks for some money to spend.

I walked straight over, ready to rob someone, and that's why Liszt is the Captain.

He acted like a total goody-two-shoes, 'brother' this and 'brother' that, asking for help to take these bodies out to the sea and dump them, offering me a Golden Dragon.

I was stunned, such good fortune? Just move a couple of corpses, easy! Taking a closer look, I could tell these guys weren't easy to kill. If they could flaunt wealth, they must have had some skills. Figuring that, I agreed, but when I turned the corner, there were ten more bloody corpses waiting."

"I can't help with that," I said, but he insisted it was doable and told me to head to the nearby night market that was still open to borrow a unicycle."

Rein took a deep drag on his cigarette, and even now he found the whole thing absurd.

Swan was also seriously impressed, "A unicycle, huh? Brilliant, just brilliant."

Rein continued, "Liszt shoved five silver coins in my hand, saying it was a deposit and told me to bring it back as soon as I got it.

I wasn't one to say no to free money, so I took it and walked off, never intending to borrow any damn unicycle, it was just ridiculous.

I don't even know what I was thinking at the time, but as I walked, I figured five silver coins wouldn't last me many days anyway. Have a few drinks, stay in a hotel for a couple of nights, see a girl, and that's it, gone. But, damned if I didn't actually go borrow a unicycle and bring it back.

Liszt even threw in a gold coin, and that wasn't the end of it. He asked me to join him on a trip to the beach, saying the roads there were rough and an extra hand might be useful. He offered another gold coin for that.

I fell for his wicked scheme, might as well do him the full favor, I thought. So I handled all of it, pushing the thing through the woods, up hills, over several miles of bad road, until at last everything got dumped into the sea.

With two gold coins pocketed, I planned to return the unicycle—five silver coins was no small amount—when Liszt kicked the damn thing into the ocean.

He said that since I didn't return the unicycle and they had the deposit, they probably wouldn't go to the police, but if word got out, me being a big Werewolf and all, I'd surely get pinned for those dozen-odd bodies that vanished into thin air. He suggested I might as well join his pirate gang, fuck it."

Rein stubbed out the cigarette and unceremoniously threw the butt into the sea.

Swan tried his hardest to suppress his laughter with all his self-taught skills and managed to keep a straight face. After a long pause, he just said two words, "Sounds good."

Rein smirked bitterly, about to talk about how Morison came aboard in such a badass style, an entrance at his peak, and how he hasn't come down from that high even after more than a year, truly a damn hero sent from above.

At that moment, Liszt and Fen came up from the second deck to the first, and Liszt immediately saw Rein and Swan in a lively conversation.

Liszt had nothing to say; he could read the minds of everyone on the ship. Rein truly had a talent for flipping faces like in Sichuan opera, one day ready to flay a man, the next instant cozying up to Swan after realizing his talent in theft could be quite refined.

He scanned the deck and saw two brawny men greasing the sail ropes.

To put it simply, in these times, whether you're a Military Master or a bandit, it's all about scraping by. Everyone's dead broke, and many ships don't even pay a salary; they just provide room and board. Migrants from inland towns were killing each other to get on board. But his ship was different; not only did they serve broth with meat every day, but they also paid a naval wage of eight silver coins a month from the East Shore army, with a generous bonus on performance. It's the company of companies.

"We need to hire a few more kitchen hands, a sous-chef; I can't do all this work by myself," Archer called out to two sailors on the pier while drinking his booze.

"Where's Mika?"

Liszt turned around, saw everyone else was present—Shadi and Ox were recruiting—then asked Rein about the missing doctor.

"At the brothel, I bet. Probably wants to take advantage of the quiet morning to get some, especially since we've just split the loot. He must be hitting the fanciest spot," Rein replied.

Fen's face changed immediately, voiced his frustration, "Didn't anyone stop him? We just set the rules."

Liszt thought Fen was being too sensitive. He pulled him aside and whispered, "You can't watch him every day. Mika joined the ship even before you did, and after all these years, don't you trust him? No one's betraying you."

"I'll be heading into town with Fen, anyone interested can sign up."

Liszt planned to check with the adventurer's guild, gather some intelligence about the Thief Guild's moves, and while he was at it, buy a newspaper to see if there was any big news. After so many years in exile, he figured others must feel the same, that many must have perished in this chaotic world. Although it's a long shot, as long as there's a sliver of hope to find everyone, it would be best to... all together, take out that Magician. As for going home, that was no longer a hope.

"I'm in. The alcohol here tastes like horse piss."

Archer was in a state of confusion; he woke up to find that new rules had suddenly appeared on the ship. Run and you leave your life behind, coupled with gemstones and some broken tablets, he had no idea what was going on.