Chapter 17: Recruitment

Chapter 17: Recruitment

Ding!

The gold coin sprang up softly, tumbled through the air, and landed steadily in Klein’s palm.

Lowering his head to glance at whether the result was heads or tails, Klein pivoted on his heel and smoothly turned into a secluded, shadowed alley.

The wind by the sea was cold and fierce. Within this terrain, it produced crosscurrents, causing his woolen coat to billow backward of its own accord and nearly blowing off his half top hat of silk.

Suddenly, Klein stopped. Turning around, he spoke in a low voice.

“Come out.”

His gaze was sharp, fixed firmly on the shadowed corner.

After four or five seconds of silence, a figure seemed to “grow” out of the darkness. With a soft laugh, he said, “Pretty sharp.”

It was a man wrapped in a black cloak. He appeared to be around thirty, with scorched-yellow brows and deep-blue yet bright eyes. His features were not particularly pronounced, resembling those of people from southern Intis, Lenburg, or Segar.

The moment Klein saw him, images flashed back through his mind.

When he had entered the Flying Fish and Wine, he had professionally swept his gaze around the room, searching for anyone who required attention.

At the time, the answer had been no. The man had been drinking heavily and watching curiously, no different from the other patrons. His appearance had not been especially distinctive either. However, the black cloak had left a certain impression on Klein, allowing him to instantly recognize the follower.

“What do you want?” Klein, maintaining his persona, lowered his back slightly, like a large feline creature gathering itself before a pounce.

The man in the black cloak laughed again.

“Your fighting skill and the way you handled things just now were very much to my taste. I followed you because I wanted to ask one thing: are you interested in joining us?

“Although that fellow named Logan really was pretending to be Ludwell’s informant, White Shark Hamilton is indeed connected to multiple pirate factions and plays a rather dishonorable role. You beat one of his people in his bar, so he will certainly remember you. There may be some trouble afterward, and I can help you solve that problem.

“You are an adventurer, so you must dream of treasure. We are a group of companions gathered together to search for treasure. We pursue legends such as the Ghost Empire, the Legacy of Solomon, the Secret of the Fountain of Youth, Death’s Key, the Sunk Laurel, and Roselle’s Secret Trove. We travel through the Five Seas. To this day, although we have yet to achieve one of our primary goals, we have found many missing pirate ships. Heh, that sounds a bit like what that rat said earlier, doesn’t it?”

He cleared his throat and continued, “To be frank, we are pirates—a pirate crew made up of adventurers. But we only plunder merchant ships and passenger ships when we are especially poor, and we do not harm innocents. Our main energy is spent searching for treasure, and we often gain something from it. Truly. I have once slept on a bed piled from gold coins. If we run into other pirate ships, we also strike them in passing to obtain supplies.

“Oh, right. Our captain has a rule: before recruiting a newcomer, we must explain our principles and treatment.”

Principles? Your captain is somewhat interesting… Klein deliberately softened his tense posture a little, testing whether the other party would take the chance to attack.

The man in the black cloak smiled with complete ease.

“That was the part about principles. Next, I’ll talk about treatment.”

This fellow has quite a lot of confidence… Although he was not a Spectator, Klein could still judge that the other man was very self-assured and did not take the current situation seriously at all.

“We have no weekly salary and no annuity. But whenever we find treasure or plunder wealth, it is distributed according to status. Under normal circumstances, if luck is still decent, even the lowest-ranked sailor can receive two to three hundred pounds in a year. I heard that on land, that is equivalent to the middle class? Heh. If we find the Sunk Laurel, every one of us will become rich!” The man in the black cloak introduced it casually. “According to one’s status, there are also different numbers of days off each month, but they can only be accumulated together, with people taking turns to rest.”

As he spoke, he suddenly cursed in a low voice.

“Shit. The year before last, it was because the captain was on vacation that we missed the best chance to find the Ghost Empire!”

Pirates have annual leave? Klein was momentarily astonished.

He only felt that the pirate crew described by the other party gave off a strong air of absurd comedy, reminding him of a spoof recruitment advertisement for Somali pirates he had seen in his previous life.

Seeing that the other party seemed to have been startled by his words, the black-cloaked man smiled and added, “As an adventurer, are you still chasing after those legendary powers that surpass nature?

“Join us, and you will have the chance to possess them!”

At this point, he coughed and said, “I forgot to introduce myself.”

His expression turned serious, no longer as joking as before.

“A subordinate of Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina Edwards, fourth boatswain of the Golden Dream, Blazing Danitz.”

After reporting his nickname, real name, identity, and origin, Danitz patiently waited for the other man to reveal an expression of panic and fear.

A second later, he heard the adventurer, who looked refined and polite yet acted somewhat mad, speak in a low voice.

“Blazing Danitz, with a bounty of three thousand pounds?”

Just as Danitz was about to answer, he suddenly had an illusion: the person standing in the dark alley had transformed into something indescribable—a monster filled with hunger, drooling over his soul and flesh.

Danitz abruptly clenched his fists. His body lost the ease it had possessed a moment before, becoming so tense that it even trembled faintly.

His intuition told him that he was facing an abyss filled with madness and bloodlust!

In this state, Danitz had no idea how much time passed, until the other party spoke again.

“Why are you here?”

“I—I am on vacation…” Blazing Danitz’s dignity made him disdain answering this question, but instinct caused him to blurt out the reason.

The moment he finished speaking, he felt the other party’s gaze withdraw. The hunger that wanted to gnaw at his flesh and soul vanished along with it.

He stood there, watching the young adventurer in a black woolen coat and half top hat turn and walk toward the other side of the alley. Just as the man was about to turn the corner, he stopped, half turned his head, and asked, “Where is White Shark?”

“He—he lives at 1 Seawall Avenue, but most of the time he stays on the second floor of the Flying Fish and Wine. Today is the same,” Blazing Danitz answered truthfully.

Only after that figure vanished in the distance did Danitz straighten his back and tug at his cloak.

“A terrifying fellow…” he sighed soundlessly.

Then he regained his thoughts and muttered inwardly, I must inform the captain. There is another terrifying fellow at sea.

A fellow who looks like a gentleman on the outside, but is a lunatic within. Unless one has both the determination and certainty to kill him, it would be best not to deal with him.

Danitz pulled up the hood of his black cloak and decided to return to the hotel to sleep, waiting for the telegraph office to open the next morning so he could pass the information to the intermediary contact living in the Rorsted Archipelago.

As for what would happen to White Shark, he did not care at all.

…

At the corner of another secluded street, Klein stood in the shadows and lowered his head to examine the black glove on his left hand.

He discovered that although Creeping Hunger had been sealed to a certain extent by Mr. Azik, its craving for flesh and souls still existed at its core and attempted to display itself.

Under normal circumstances, Klein was not worried that the sealed item would cause any problems. But when he himself also had the impulse to kill, he would be affected accordingly, allowing the hunger that could devour even himself to seep out.

Just now, upon hearing that the other party was a famous pirate on the bounty list, the desire long present in his heart had instantly stirred into killing intent, causing Creeping Hunger to become as active as a fish returning to water.

Fortunately, Klein had always possessed good self-control in this area. Judging from the other party’s previous words that he was not the sort of pirate drenched in sin, Klein easily restrained the impulse within him.

“With Creeping Hunger, the persona of Gehrman Sparrow has no flaws…” Klein took a few seconds to calm himself, then pulled out a gold coin and performed two consecutive divinations. The first concerned whether Blazing Danitz had lied; the second concerned whether White Shark Hamilton could endanger him.

The revelation from the first divination showed that Blazing Danitz had no need to lie. The second indicated that White Shark Hamilton could not pose a threat.

Klein put away the coin. As he pressed down on his hat, his hand slid down and swept over his face.

In an instant, his appearance changed: blond hair, blue eyes, and ordinary features.

Immediately after, Klein unbuttoned his woolen coat and pulled up the shirt beneath, leaving it untucked from his trousers.

After making these simple changes to his clothing, Klein—who had not brought his cane—felt sweat rise on his forehead and dryness spread across his lips. He identified the direction and headed back toward the Flying Fish and Wine.

On the way, he ran into Blazing Danitz again. The other man merely glanced at him, then withdrew his gaze and walked toward the hotel on the other side of the bar.

After briefly examining the bounty wall, Klein calmly reached out, pushed open the door, and walked in.

At this point, less than ten minutes had passed since he had fled the place.

Inside the bar, quite a few patrons had dispersed, but many drunkards remained to watch the spectacle.

Their gazes turned in unison toward the new customer, then withdrew one after another. Klein made his way to the bar counter without obstruction.

He saw the bartender standing beside a fat man with a frightened expression. A thick layer of white bandage covered his forehead, soft paper was stuffed into his nostrils, and bruises covered much of his face.

The fat man was tall and large, his skin pale, as though a real great white shark had swum onto land.

He touched his gleaming bald head and said to Elland, who stood on the other side wearing a dark-red coat and a captain’s straight sword, “Someone told me that you know the fellow from just now?

“Only three passenger ships arrived at port today. There cannot be too many unfamiliar outsiders. Do not try to lie!”

Elland patted the hilt of his sword and smiled with ease.

“Yes, he is my passenger.

“But today’s problem very clearly lies with your people.”

“Therefore, I only want him to return here, apologize to me, and compensate me for the damaged bar counter,” the tall, pale fat man said with a frown.

Elland laughed.

“White Shark, in my hometown, there is a proverb: do not hate a stray dog passing by because of the rats in your warehouse.”

“…Fair Elland, is this your attitude?” White Shark Hamilton narrowed his eyes.

Elland grasped the wooden handle of his hand cannon, took a step forward, and said in a deep voice, “Yes. This is my attitude!”

The captain is quite forceful… Klein was somewhat surprised by Elland’s performance.

After silently staring at each other for a few seconds, White Shark Hamilton drew in a breath and said, “You have helped me before. I can forgo the apology, but he must compensate half the loss, and you will hand it over on his behalf.”

“A good proposal.” Elland smiled.

White Shark Hamilton’s expression darkened as he looked left and right.

He suddenly swung his hand and slapped the bartender across the face.

The bartender flew out, teeth scattering across the floor.

Klein, standing just five meters away, watched quietly, as though all of this had nothing to do with him.