HEO 91

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In a case like this, the simplest solution would be to open the door and smash the threshold. However, this kitchen was a building constructed as if it had been shoved into a sunken plot of land. The moment the threshold was destroyed, the communal kitchen would likely have to be repurposed as a communal bathhouse.

The kitchen floor was flooded with water reaching about two palms’ height above a person’s ankle. Buckets floated here and there. The firewood piled in one corner was half-soaked, its bottom half turned pitch black. The charcoal beneath the largest pot emitted a faint orange glow. In human terms, it was like the brief moment of clarity in the eyes just before death.

Wolf swallowed a curse. If it weren’t for being on an island, he would have bolted long ago, damn it.

The cook on duty, who had been scooping water, let out a loud roar.

“You finally show up, you pieces of shit! Half the firewood is soaked—!”

“We brought the rookies! One is fast and one is big!”

One of the senior pirates shouted. The cook waved his arm without even looking this way.

“Fine! The fast one scoops the water! The big one pushes the pillar!”

The seniors joined in, barking like sheepdogs.

“Silver! Clean the drain first! Then scoop out the overflowing water on the floor!”

“Stuffy Field Mouse! You push the pillar!”

“If the pillar collapses, support it with your head!”

Wolf trudged toward the pillar. Silver kicked a bucket, sending it flying into the air, then snatched the handle and walked toward the drain.

Squatting down and dipping his hand into the water, Silver spat out a curse.

“Fuck. It really is fish guts.”

“Out of all the places, they dumped it in the rain gutter. That’s a talent in itself.”

Wolf muttered as he placed both hands on the pillar. Silver shot back.

“It’s your brothers’ talent.”

“What?”

Wolf glanced at Silver from the corner of his eye.

“What are you talking about? My brothers?”

“Aren’t they? All the pirates here are your brothers.”

Silver ripped out a handful of visit [unauthorized copy]our siteguts and flung them. The mass flew through Read on Read BL Novelsthe air and landed with a wet splat on the backside of a chatting senior.

“Hey! You little—!”

Silver didn’t even lift his head. The seniors pointed at Silver, raising their voices.

“Watch your step, brat. You’ll slip.”

“That bastard did that on purpose!”

“No, he just threw it without looking back. It was a mistake, a mistake.”

Watching this, Wolf suppressed a smirk. Silver, huh? Now that I look at him, he has a funny side.

Regardless, he didn’t want to spend another second in this sea of water. Wolf twisted his body opposite to the tilt of the pillar. One foot directly in front of the pillar, the other half a step behind. He bent his knees to lower his center of gravity and pushed with all his might, as if supporting the pillar with both hands. The moment the wood grain slid with friction against his palms, the pillar snapped upright with a loud crack.

“Mission accomplished!”

Wolf dusted off his hands and stepped back. The seniors stopped their chatter and stared. Every one of them had their mouth agape, as if their jaws might hit the floor. Wolf shrugged.

“I told you I could do the work of five people.”

“In one go… This isn’t the work of five people; it’s the work of fifty.”

“The inside of the wooden pillar was rotten! No matter how much energy you have, you can’t set a pillar that big upright in one go.”

Whether the seniors babbled or not, Wolf looked over Silver’s shoulder at the drain. The flow of water was the problem. Instead of following the slope of the floor and rushing into the drain, the water was swirling violently.

Wolf shifted his gaze to the broken wall. There was a palm-sized hole about ankle-height from the kitchen floor. Due to the rapidly swirling current, not much was leaking out through there.

Wolf tapped Silver’s shoulder with his knee.

“Hey.”

“Want me to break your leg?”

Silver didn’t even look back. Wolf placed both hands on his hips.

“I thought you said you hated being treated like a brother? Anyway, to the point. If you just dig out the drain like that, you won’t finish even if you stay up all night.”

“So? You got another way?”

“I do. Just wait a second.”

Wolf stepped outside, splashing through the water. Doing this reminded him of the time he did the assignment. He kicked through the mud once and pushed the nightmare away.

He scanned the surroundings. Wooden planks, fist-sized stones, broken roof tiles. Useful things were scattered everywhere.

Wolf picked out a sturdy wooden plank. He placed several large stones on the plank. [unauthorized copy]