By Zephyria =======
As soon as the door opened, the pirate captain’s aura exploded. A seductive moan echoed through the hallway.
“Oh, ah—! Ba, baby…! This is too good! Hueeeeeeng!”
Without even closing the bedroom door and with the bed curtains flung wide open, the pair were devoted to intense physical labor. The iron bed creaked frantically. The pirates who entered the room shouted in unison.
“Charcoal Fire Bear!”
“What! What is it! I’m in the middle of a conquest! Spread wider, damn it!”
“Hwaaaaang! Aaang!”
Various voices tangled together in a chaotic mess. Silver blocked his ears with his fingers.
“It’s nothing much, but we have an applicant for the crew. He washed up on the beach today, and since he’s quite a looker, we told him we’d sell him as a slave to a rich widow, but he’s being stubborn as hell. He says he wants to meet you personally to show you his passion. Take a look and see if he’s fit to be a recruit.”
“Do whatever the hell he wants! If he wants in, let him in!”
“Huing…! Ack, akkuuuung—! Ohok! Eugegeun…!”
“This guy is expensive! At least look at his face!”
“Why bother looking! Just work him as a crew member and then sell him, you idiot!”
“Ah! That’s a way!”
The pirate who had smacked his own head turned to look at Stuffy Field Mouse.
“Hear that? Your admission is confirmed.”
“W-wow…!”
Stuffy Field Mouse cheered. He looked like someone who had gone out in new shoes only to step in dog shit.
“I’ve finally achieved my life’s dream…! Thank you for accepting me as a crew member…!”
“Get lost, brat! I’m busy!”
“Ohhot! Haeeeuuung!”
Leaving the seductive moans behind, they exited the room. The pirates opened a chest sitting in the hallway.
“Take it.”
A pirate pulled ‘it’ out of the chest and flung it at Stuffy Field Mouse. Catching it, Stuffy Field Mouse leaped back with a gasp.
“This! This is…!”
“Stop overreacting. That guy wears one on his face every day too.”
The pirate gestured with his chin toward Silver. Stuffy Field Mouse, dripping with sweat, looked back and forth between the human-skin mask in his hand and Silver.
“New recruits of our Shark Tooth Gang must wear this mask for one year, no matter what. Don’t ask why; I don’t know either. Anyway, put it on.”
“Do I… really have to wear it?”
“It’ll be better. If you walk around with that face exposed, you’ll be summoned to the Captain’s room.”
No sooner had the words fallen than Stuffy Field Mouse slapped the human-skin mask onto his face. With his massive muscular build, half-naked and wearing a human-skin mask, he looked like an executioner from hell. The pirates heading outside patted Silver on the shoulder.
“You’re a month senior to him, so educate him well. We’re off.”
Leaving the two recruits behind, the pirates departed, chatting boisterously. Silver cast a glance toward Stuffy Field Mouse.
“Idiot,” Silver tossed out bluntly. “Why go through all this trouble when you could’ve just been a rich widow’s stud?”
“I never imagined I’d have to wear something like this on my face…”
“Tch.”
Silver turned away. Stuffy Field Mouse followed and held out his hands, which were tightly bound with rope.
“Brother! Please untie this.”
“I’m an only child.”
“That… since we’re crewmates, I meant ‘brother’ in that sense… Anyway, this rope…”
“Solve it with your own strength. You can do it.”
“I guess so.”
Stuffy Field Mouse looked down at the rope wrapped around his wrists. It was a straw rope that looked thick on the outside but was completely rotten inside. Even the binding was sloppy.
“Alright. I’ll untie it.”
Stuffy Field Mouse simply spread his hands. The rope snapped instantly with a loud pop.
“Ah, man. This is going to leave a mark on my wrists. I have sensitive skin.”
Stuffy Field Mouse grinned, shaking his sturdy wrists. Silver suppressed his irritation. Look at this guy.
He diligently sucks up to his seniors’ backsides, but flaunts his strength in front of a fellow recruit. His tone had shifted in an instant. He acted like a typical Stohl warrior. The type to bow before the strong and act arrogant toward those he deemed easy targets. His personality was the polar opposite of Wolf’s, but in a way, he was even more obnoxious.
Stuffy Field Mouse approached, rubbing his shoulder with one hand.
“Brother, let’s go to the cafeteria. My stomach is twisting, saying it’s starving to death.”
“Get lost.”
Silver pushed Stuffy Field Mouse aside with his shoulder and walked away.
“Brother! Food!”
The sound of footsteps followed.
“I said let’s eat!”
Stuffy Field Mouse stuck close to Silver’s side.
“My stomach is full of nothing but saltwater! Is this some kind of pirate training? It’s actually effective; if you give me a single piece of bread right now, I could chop anyone with an axe.”
Ignored.
“Where do I sleep tonight? Is there a hot spring here? I’m not being greedy; even a rain puddle is welcome, as long as I can wash off all these damn grains of sand clinging to my body.”
Ignored.
“Do recruits share a room? What’s your name, brother? Fuck, hey—! Is there a rule that recruits don’t talk to each other! The seniors entrusted you with me, but if you keep acting like this…!”
Igno…
Silver stopped walking and looked at Stuffy Field Mouse. His face wasn’t visible because of the human-skin mask. His expression couldn’t be read.
“What did you just say? ‘Hey’?”
“Yeah,” Stuffy Field Mouse replied brazenly. “I was just being friendly. Brother, don’t you feel sorry for me? I lost my parents and siblings and barely survived to drift to this pirate island. The only person I can rely on here is a fellow recruit like you… sob sob…”
The executioner from hell pretended to wipe tears with the back of his hand, sobbing. Silver hurriedly looked away. Ugh!
This bastard is making me nauseous. I’ll pay him back.
“Follow me or don’t. Do whatever you want.”
“I’m following! Let’s go, cafeteria! Food! Food!”
Sure enough, a loud gurgling sound echoed from the guy’s stomach. Stuffy Field Mouse continued to chatter.
“How did you become a pirate, brother? Did you drift here on the waves like I did?”
Silver simply nodded.
“But you didn’t volunteer for admission like I did, right? The seniors took the initiative to bring you in?”
Again, he simply nodded.
“What did you do before, brother? When you pulled out that dagger earlier, the way you held the blade was different; someone unskilled can’t draw it like that. You know how to fight, don’t you?”
“No.”
This time, he gave an answer.
“I can’t fight. I’m a nobody.”
“Huh?”
Stuffy Field Mouse tilted his head. His slightly frowning face was cast in shadow by the backlight.
“A nobody? Brother, weren’t you recruited for your fighting skills?”
“Did you forget already? The senior said the Shark Tooth Gang only takes people whose value isn’t worth a single penny. I’m one of those people.”
“But the way you handle a blade… No, forget it.”
Stuffy Field Mouse shut his mouth. To be able to recognize skill just by body movement meant the guy had a decent eye, but Silver ignored him.
Revealing superior skills within a group only leads to annoyance. At the very least, people will challenge you to a fight, and if necessary, you’ll likely be thrown into the vanguard. He had learned this knack from his biological father.
‘I found out when I was nine. That I possessed monstrous strength that could only be explained as thunder. But I told no one and hid my power. Why? Because back then, I was eating and living well in my tribe. In a group, the talented ones only end up exhausted.’
They entered an alley in the pirate village. A thick, pale smoke hung in the air. Pirates were sprawled everywhere like discarded blankets. Some were swimming on the ground, while others meticulously licked broken pottery shards rolling on the street as if they were gold coins. There was even one guy passionately kissing a broken oar.
“For you… I could even break the ocean…”
“More, more! The shark is chasing us from behind, you idiot!”
Someone leaning against a wall was desperately pretending to row. At some point, Stuffy Field Mouse had stuck close to Silver’s side. Contrary to his slowed pace, his eyes were darting around busily. It was understandable. Even Silver, who had visited a den of evil spirits, was surprised to see this sight for the first time.
“Hey, brother. Are those people seriously dating pottery? Or is it rehearsal for a play?”
“This place doubles as a drug island. They don’t just grow vegetables for soup in their gardens. If you stay here long enough, you’ll end up sharing love with a pot too.”
“Whoa, now I get it. I thought it was strange from the moment the seniors tied my wrists with rotten rope…”
“In their eyes, it probably looked like iron chains.”
The reason the Shark Tooth Gang members were exceptionally bizarre was the drugs. In Silver’s view, the brains of every pirate here were fried. The fact that the seniors had clumsily bound Stuffy Field Mouse—whose physique was threatening at a glance—and obediently delivered him to Charcoal Fire Bear was a prime example.
83 – Hell Execution Order