"Shush—!" Danitz lunged forward, covering Luo En's mouth, and nervously looked around.
Only after confirming there were no other Sailors on deck did he release his hand and whisper, "Let me explain…"
"Uh." Luo En made no move, just looked at him with a speechless expression.
After confirming again that no one was looking, Danitz began:
"If I didn't say that, how would the Captain and them believe that I, along with an unrelated person, took down 'Claw' and then were chased together, and I was then tweezered… Ahem, in short, the starting point of all these messy events was just a card game…"
"Do you think anyone would believe it?"
Actually, what Danitz was thinking was… I can't say I was scammed by a rookie, that would be too embarrassing.
If that got out, how could his title of "Blazing" survive at sea?
"Then where do I stay?" Luo En was too lazy to expose him.
"Come with me." He pulled Luo En into the ship's cabin, arriving at a small compartment in the living area. "You'll stay here. The other Sailors in here are all my subordinates."
"You really are treating me as your subordinate," Luo En frowned slightly upon hearing Danitz's words.
In fact, he didn't have many demands for his living quarters, but he didn't like Danitz's attitude.
A moment later, he thought of something and turned to look at Danitz, "As a Boatswain, you should have your own room, right? I'll just make do and stay in your room."
Upon hearing this, Danitz shook his head decisively:
"Bullshit, don't even think about it."
"Alright then…" Luo En shrugged helplessly, "However, I have a habit of talking in my sleep.
If I accidentally blurt out recent events after falling asleep…"
"You! You're actually threatening me…" Danitz's fingers trembled with anger.
"This is our territory, you…"
"Ahem…" Luo En cleared his throat, imitating Danitz's previous tone, "Quick saw, quick saw off my leg…"
"Bullshit!" Danitz's face flushed red as he stopped him.
"Brando! You are even more evil than I imagined!"
Luo En shrugged and said nothing.
Looking at Luo En's forced smile, Danitz finally slumped his shoulders in defeat:
"If you stayed directly in my room, it would be a bit too conspicuous. Most importantly, your cat doesn't like me either."
As he spoke, he pointed to Luo En's bulging satchel, where Lachi was lying.
His previous experience of being ambushed by Lachi was still vivid in his mind.
"Besides, two men living together, you wouldn't want people to misunderstand anything, right?"
"Hmm… that makes sense…" Luo En feigned deep thought, resting his chin.
"Right, right." Danitz nodded quickly.
"Why don't you just move out?"
"You!"
Just as Danitz was about to adopt a desperate stance, Luo En chuckled awkwardly:
"Haha, just kidding, don't get agitated."
Finally, the two took a step back, and as a consequence of altering the facts, Danitz found Luo En a clean storage room to use as a private room.
"A hammock? Very characteristic of the sea…" Luo En surveyed the bed in front of him.
Due to the rough waves at sea, beds during this era were mostly hammocks.
"Lachi, what do you think?" The Orange Cat in the satchel poked its head out, looked around, sniffed, and then retreated back in disdain, clearly finding its own cat bed more comfortable.
Luo En, lying in the hammock, gazed at the ceiling and couldn't help but sigh, "It's truly amazing to think about… I actually ended up in pirate territory."
…
The next day
"Danitz?" Luo En was startled awake by violent shaking.
He groggily opened his eyes and stretched.
He wasn't used to sleeping in the hammock, and combined with the ship's rocking, he didn't fall asleep until midnight.
"Why are you still sleeping? It's almost time for morning class."
"Morning class?" Luo En was a bit confused. "What time is it?"
"Uh… A little past six in the morning."
What! Morning class at six something, that's more painful than eight AM!
Though unwilling, Luo En still got out of bed, quickly washed up, and followed Danitz to the morning class location.
When Luo En followed Danitz onto the deck, the sight before him instantly sobered him up: dozens of muscular pirates were sitting neatly on the deck, each holding a book… They were actually doing morning reading.
Luo En's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
This scene was just too incongruous; those burly, calloused pirates were now carefully turning yellowed pages.
Was this really a pirate ship and not a cram school?
"You're late, Mr. Brando," a cold voice came from behind.
Edwina appeared at the gangway at some point.
She handed him a thick tome, its brown cover embossed with "Etymological Dictionary of Ancient Hermes."
"Memorize the first 100 pages," she said, her tone as if stating the weather was nice today.
"This is the most basic course."
"You can ask questions anytime," Edwina added, "but there will be a test later."
100 pages? Test… Luo En stiffly turned to look at Danitz, who was gleefully winking at him.
However, before he could gloat for long, he heard Edwina say:
"Oh, and Danitz, your vacation is over, you also need to study…"
Ah… Danitz's expression also turned to stone.
Luo En didn't mock Danitz by kicking him while he was down; instead, he slumped into an empty chair, clutching the dictionary.
He felt like he was back in his busy high school days.
Fortunately, the Robot itself had an enhancement to memory, though not to the extent of photographic memory, he could basically remember things after flipping through them a few times.
'As expected of a Beyonder, although there are no intuitive abilities, the enhancement of basic attributes is real.
If only there were potions in the original world, with this memory, who would be afraid of memorizing books…'
Although he had always complained that the Monster Pathway's abilities weren't flashy enough, at this moment, Luo En praised this Pathway from the bottom of his heart.
…
Approaching noon, since he wasn't a Sailor and didn't need to work, Luo En went to the pirate mess hall for lunch after finishing his memorization.
He saw a young man in a white shirt, black vest, and patterned tie, looking more like an office worker than a pirate. The man seemed to notice him.
The man's eyes were a very light lake green, his nose bridge was high, and his lips were thin, giving him a trustworthy aura.
"Guest, would you like to try this?" He came over to Luo En and elegantly offered him a yogurt-like drink.
"Thank you." Luo En took the cup and politely thanked him.
After the man left, Danitz, who had entered the pirate restaurant at some point, stealthily approached and whispered:
"Don't be fooled by this guy's appearance, he's a wolf fish can, full of stench!"
"He is?"
"Third Mate, Flowery Tie, Yodsen," Danitz replied concisely.
"I'll guess he's a playboy?" Luo En spooned a mouthful of yogurt and savored it… The taste was good.
"How did you know?" Danitz was a bit surprised.
"A guess! That man has a dissolute aura."
"I'll guess again, that Yodsen wouldn't be trying to make a move on your Captain, would he?"
"What, did I guess right?" Luo En glanced at the speechless Danitz.
A moment later, Danitz spoke:
"You're right, Yodsen once said he wanted to steal our Captain's heart, but he got beaten up and was left behind to receive education, what a piece of shit!"
Then he looked at Luo En, somewhat curious: "How did you guess?"
"Intuition." Luo En acted mysterious, and spooned another mouthful of yogurt.
It was actually very easy to guess; besides a woman, what else could make a playboy stay…
"I suddenly have a question." Luo En put down his cup and looked at Danitz:
"Your adventure group, it wouldn't be just because you admire your Captain, would it?"