Chapter 67

From this, it was clear that the captain’s side of the intelligence-gathering mission was not going smoothly—not only was it not going smoothly, but when viewed from another angle, one could also happily discover that Caesar, who had weathered storms across the Mediterranean, had been seriously teased by a lady from a special profession.

Compared to his boss, Rick, the second-in-command of the Wind Fury, wasn’t faring much better… Since the most promising source of information, the special profession, had already been personally occupied by his boss, he had no choice but to try his luck with the motley crew on the streets. Little did he know that this attempt would lead to trouble—as mentioned before, the red-haired first mate was a formidable fighter, but he wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

For the sake of mission secrecy, the entire Wind Fury fleet was conducting their intelligence gathering in secret. Unable to reveal his identity, the first mate had to suppress his immense impatience and squat under the eaves, chatting and cozying up to a yellow-toothed, buck-toothed, one-eyed thief.

Then, in his attempt to dig up some legendary tales, he ended up hearing the most sensational gossip in the Mediterranean at the time:

“Did you know that the captain of the Hornet and the first mate of the Wind Fury are long-lost brothers? Have you seen their hair? Tsk tsk, the same color,” the thief said with absolute certainty. “Brothers, blood-related, but they fell in love, so they fight every time they meet.”

For the first time, the first mate of the Wind Fury, faced with his own scandal, felt a sense of bewildered confusion.

First, why was the connecting word between “fell in love” and “fight every time they meet” “so”?

Second, even if he were killed ten thousand times, he couldn’t imagine having a brother as scheming as Leoza. If Leoza were his brother, he would have strangled the little bastard in his crib the moment he was born—this was also one of the reasons Rick admired Caesar. Sometimes he would ask the captain in confusion why he hadn’t just killed the little bastard yet. Usually, the captain would hesitate for a moment, then give a hypocritical answer along the lines of “blood ties” or some other unreliable excuse…

At least Caesar was willing to be hypocritical. If it were Laozi… Tsk tsk, forget about falling in love with him in the end. How could two redheads fall in love? What would their kids even look like (…)?

“Besides, Laozi is a tall and handsome German,” Rick muttered to himself as he watched the thief’s retreating back, his hand touching the red hair wrapped in rags. “That guy is Spanish, where did this long-lost brother come from… Huh?”

When the first mate’s hand slid to his waist, he realized his money pouch was gone.

It contained a hundred gold coins—ten were the “activity funds” issued by Caesar, and the other ninety were his own savings.

At this moment, under the scorching noon sun, the thief was already nowhere to be seen.

And it was only then that Rick remembered that the guy he had been talking to, aside from being ugly and spouting nonsense, was also a thief.

…

Compared to his bunch of pig-like teammates, being seriously teased by a lady from a special profession didn’t seem so bad—these notorious pirates among them included a once-feared mad dog first mate, a charge captain who could scare the piss out of his opponents just by stepping forward, a navigator who could calculate sailing times with precision down to the half-hour, deckhands who could scrub the deck until it looked like it had just been painted, and even a magical navigator who could tell you whether to bring in the laundry or wash the sheets just by looking at the sky…

But in the end, the only one who managed to keep those ten gold coins intact and gather some useful information was the cunning and clever ship’s doctor, Bakir—the fleet arrived at the port at midnight, the gossip squad swarmed out of the ship at dawn, and by the time the sun was blazing at noon, Bakir had already obtained enough to report back, spending not a single coin before returning to the ship to drink coffee.

As a successful man, Bakir couldn’t understand the trials and tribulations of the others.

And as a simple follower, at first, Miguel didn’t understand either.

Let’s pull the camera back to focus on the best tavern in Menorca—when Caesar began drinking sullenly, absentmindedly watching the unimpressive dance performance on stage, Miguel began to feel bored. Fiddling with the ten gold coins in his pocket, he itched to go out and “explore the world.” To his surprise, the captain waved his hand and actually approved it.

Under Zhizhi’s reluctant gaze, the black-haired young man scampered out of the tavern on his own.

Standing under the midday sun, Miguel couldn’t help but feel a bit excited—this was the first time he had wandered around the docks without Caesar’s supervision. Ever since he had accidentally met Leoza last time, whenever the Wind Fury made port, the captain had never allowed him to leave his sight again.

Of course, it wasn’t to protect him.

The man was clearly just tired of cleaning up his messes.

But there were still good people in this world. Accepting a cup of clear, free spring water from a girl helping her parents at their stall, Miguel strolled through the bustling market with a smile. He used his own money to buy a simple, ugly metal ornament from the girl’s stall—a dog’s head. Leaving the stall, he flipped through some jars and bottles of fresh herbs, remembering that the bandages in Caesar’s medical kit were running low, so he bought some more. He was also quite interested in the cheap weapons at the stalls—though the craftsmanship was rough and the gemstone decorations couldn’t hold a candle to Ghost Slayer, the navigator still squatted in front of the stall with great interest, picking and choosing for a long time before buying a dagger that was nowhere near as good as Ghost Slayer, and placed it in the other side of his boot’s sheath.

He even managed to shake off two or three thieves who were clearly following him with ill intentions.

Then he ran into the dejected Rick in the market, happily mocked him for his foolish experience of being robbed, and boasted about his own feat of shaking off three thieves.

After lunch, with the ten gold coins in his pocket, Miguel, having eaten and drunk his fill and had his fun, decided to return to the original tavern to find his pet dog.

Everything had been going smoothly, and a perfect day seemed to be coming to an end…

But who would have thought that on the way to that tavern, there happened to be a privately run gambling den—Miguel didn’t like gambling, so when he passed by, even though the cheers, curses, and shouts of excitement came from inside, our navigator didn’t even turn his head…

Until a wild card appeared.

“—Hey, buddy!”

Just as Miguel was about to pass by the gambling den, the dirty rag hanging over the door was pulled aside, and out came a shabbily dressed man with an eyepatch. Seeing Miguel, he called out.

Miguel turned around, puzzled. When he saw the stranger’s unfamiliar face, the navigator’s first thought was that he didn’t know this guy—he looked unfamiliar.

The one-eyed man moved, pretending to be familiar, and said, “You heading back?”

Huh?

Miguel was stunned for a moment, unable to recall who this was, but out of politeness, he finally nodded with great effort, pretending to be familiar and asked, “…Uh, I know you, you’re from Rick’s ship, right? Not going back yet? Dinner’s almost ready.”

The man was silent for a moment, then flashed a bright smile and walked up, slinging an arm around the navigator’s shoulder. The stench of someone who hadn’t bathed in millions of years made the somewhat fastidious navigator, who had been trained by Caesar, wrinkle his nose. But since the guy was one of his own, he couldn’t bring himself to push him away, so he just tilted his head, took a deep breath of fresh air, and said, “You better get back soon, or your boss is gonna skin you again.”

The one-eyed man turned his head and glanced at Miguel, “I’m going back now, ah, you don’t remember me, do you?”

Miguel was embarrassed, “…I-I remember! You’re from the deck, right?”

The one-eyed man looked delighted and nodded repeatedly, “Yes, yes, I’m from the deck, I thought you’d forgotten about me, you jerk!”

The navigator breathed a sigh of relief. “From the deck” was a very broad term—within those four words, it could encompass over a dozen job positions, even a navigator. Saying “from the deck” was perfectly acceptable.

With his guard down, Miguel was quite pleased, “You coming back with me? I’ll go find the boss first, then we can head back to the ship together…”

The man hesitated for a moment, a clear look of uncertainty on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Laozi got itchy and went in to play a few rounds earlier,” the one-eyed man said dejectedly. “Now I’ve lost a lot, and those guys are demanding I come up with the money right now, or else—or else they’ll report it to the captain!”

Miguel’s balls ached, “…How much do you need?”

The one-eyed man, “How much do you have?!”

…Huh? Miguel raised an eyebrow, thinking, what kind of answer is that? But he still pondered and said, “I only have the ten gold coins the captain gave me when we left, if you…”

The one-eyed man was overjoyed, “Ah, that’s perfect, I just owe them ten gold coins!”

Miguel, “…”

The one-eyed man, “Lend them to me! I’ll definitely pay you back, I’ll borrow from Rick if I have to, I swear I’ll pay you back!—”

Miguel sighed, thinking he couldn’t just let this guy get beaten to death by these gamblers or have the matter reported back to Caesar, who would then beat him to death. He fished out the last ten gold coins from his pocket and placed them in the eager palm of the man before him. However, just as the last coin reached the man’s hand, someone called out “Miguel” from behind.

Miguel was startled and turned to look. The man approaching from not far away, hands in his pockets, walking with a lazy, swaying gait, was none other than Rick.

“Rick!” Miguel waved cheerfully at the red-haired first mate slowly approaching him, “Come here, take a look at your crewman, he’s lost everything down to his underwear, lucky he ran into me—”

Rick, not far away, was also stunned, thinking, damn, I don’t remember having a gambling addict on my ship? As the first mate of the Wind Fury got closer, the one-eyed man clearly took a step back, glancing guiltily at Miguel, his face turning pale, not at all like someone who should be seeing his boss.

By the time Rick got close.

The money-conscious Miguel waved, “Hurry up and pay me back for your crewman! Ten gold coins!”

“…” After a moment of silence, the red-haired first mate said expressionlessly to the navigator, “There’s no such person on my ship.”

Miguel, “…=__=?”

It was a cruel truth.

At the very least, the navigator’s bright smile froze on his face, then shattered in the air.

“He’s run off,” Rick gestured with his chin toward the direction behind them, calmly telling the petrified navigator, “He ran fast, seems like a professional scammer, I doubt you’ll catch him.”

Miguel, “…”

Rick, “…Your IQ isn’t much higher than mine, huh.”

Miguel, “…”

Reaching out, he patted the black-haired young man who was in a state of disarray in the wind. The red-haired first mate slung an arm around his shoulder, his eyes curving into crescent moons as he said with a brotherly affection, “When you laughed at me for getting scammed by a thief earlier, our friendship was almost over, but now you’ve saved it with your actions.”

Miguel, “Ahhhhhhh!”

Rick, “Hahahahahahahahaha o(*≧▽≦)ツ, I’m deeply moved, thank you, lifelong friend!”

…

And so, this was the so-called joy of the foolish child.

During the summary meeting that night, faced with a group of subordinates who were only good at fighting and clearly lacked public relations skills, the captain’s assessment was—

“A bunch of pigs.”

Miguel believed that, based on today’s performance, this probably included the “pig leader” himself, Caesar.

He was just a bit less obvious about it.