Humans are truly contradictory creatures.

Even though I understand that some secrets are not for me to know, I can't suppress my gossipy soul. I always want to find out the truth, otherwise my heart feels like it has a million ants crawling on it, making me extremely uncomfortable.

That's right, I'm talking to you who's reading this, so why aren't you raising your hand and standing up straight!

Of course, Joey was one of them.

"It's all your fault!"

Upon hearing the name of the great magician Melder, Catherine felt even more confident and turned to glare angrily at Joey.

"If you hadn't carried me down Tigerstone Mountain, Meld would have already taken me back to Ashfurnace City!"

I've seen unreasonable people before, but I've never seen anyone this unreasonable. This Catherine is the epitome of a spoiled rich girl. Hindsight is 20/20. If Joey were truly so shrewd, he would never have messed with this lady.

"Heaven and earth bear witness, Lady Catherine, I carried you all the way here without taking a break. Grand Secretary Daines can testify to that. Even if I didn't do anything special, I certainly put in the effort!"

"Besides, the situation was so urgent at the time that we might have been skinned alive by these orcs before the great mage Meld even found you!"

Although I was dissatisfied with Lady Catherine, I still had to put on a show.

Joey put on an extremely aggrieved expression, which even the bearded man couldn't stand.

"Exactly, Joey carried you without letting me take over. I bet your big ass is pretty heavy!"

The bearded man's words left Joey speechless. If you can't speak properly, then don't speak at all. This is truly a case of saying something outrageous!

Catherine's face flushed red instantly, whether from anger or embarrassment, it was hard to tell.

"Lady Catherine, Meld has not found you, he will surely search everywhere, but we have already come to sea, so I guess he will have to go back empty-handed!"

Daines analyzed the current situation for Catherine.

"The orcs have already occupied Lin Hai Town, and the land route to Ashfury City will definitely be blocked. There's not much point in us returning now, and it's extremely dangerous!"

"Once we reach the nearest port on the continent of Budalas, it will only be three or four days' journey to Baron City. We can seek refuge there and wait for the people from Ashfurnace City to come!"

Catherine rested her chin on her left hand, pretending to be deep in thought.

Joey looked at the white clouds in the sky and stopped looking at her.

The bearded man was about to speak when he found the ship's rudder in his hand quite interesting, so he turned his attention to it and began to study it.

It was my first time sailing a boat, so it was quite an experience.

...

Days passed by, or rather, twenty-six days were "endured" by the end of the day.

The four men were crammed into a small sailboat, having run out of ammunition and food.

The dry sea breeze was biting, and the red sun in the sky was like a raging fire on a stove. The only difference was that one was in the sky and the other was on the ground. The small sailboat was like a dumpling in a pot, about to be cooked.

The fact that the occasional seabirds flying by did not choose to perch on their sailboats is enough to show that the nearest land is still very far away.

Catherine held a water bottle in her hand and shook it a few times towards her mouth. A drop of water fell from the rim of the bottle into her parched mouth. She couldn't help but swallow, but she had no saliva left.

She stuck out her tongue and stirred it in the kettle before reluctantly putting it down.

"Joey, I'm thirsty!"

Her voice was weak and feeble, completely lacking the arrogance she had displayed when she first boarded the ship.

"Six days ago, he was all arrogant and domineering. Why isn't he showing off now?"

Joey rolled his eyes at Catherine. He had been pretending to be a pushover for twenty days, but after Catherine snatched the last pot of water from him, he had no intention of continuing.

There's no way around it; if this grandson keeps pretending, he'll only become a "dead" grandson.

It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality.

After eating and drinking like crazy for the past twenty days, how could these supplies possibly be enough to keep up with this?

If Joey hadn't turned on them again six days ago, forcibly taking inventory of the remaining supplies and implementing a planned economy, the entire ship would probably have been dead three days ago, turned into dried fish.

Knowing she was in the wrong, Catherine didn't dare say anything more.

When it really came down to life and death, her spoiled princess temper seemed to hibernate, and she didn't dare to take over her mind and go against Joey.

"Just bear the thirst and keep quiet!"

"We have no water left, and we're giving you the last bit!"

"There are four loaves of bread left. Let's divide them equally, one for each person!"

After Joey finished speaking, he took out four fist-sized loaves of bread that were as hard as rocks.

He handed one to the bearded man, then one to Daines, and then...

Then he returned to his original position.

"What about mine?"

After being scolded by Joey, Catherine originally planned to keep quiet, but when she heard Joey say that there were four loaves of bread left to be divided equally, but he didn't give any to her, she couldn't help but feel a little resentful. Although she had somewhat accepted the possibility of dying of thirst, she had not yet accepted the possibility of starving to death.

"I'll keep yours safe to prevent you from eating all the remaining rations in one go!"

Joey stuffed the bread into his arms, really not intending to give it to Catherine right now.

"Lady Catherine, I'm too old to eat that much. I'll share half with you!"

Daines was still thinking about Lady Catherine. He had never seen her so down on her luck, so he took out his bread and suggested that they be divided in two.

Catherine didn't stand on ceremony and readily agreed.

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