According to the instructions on the nautical chart, it would take Lu Ban about five days of sailing to reach the end of the Akiyama Channel, where the boundary between the open sea and the near sea meets. After passing Akiyama Island, what remains are numerous archipelago chains. Each island has many residents, which is completely different from this desolate area.

When Lu Ban was bored, he looked for the location of Ge Island on the sea and found that it was very far away from him, almost on the other side of the sea.

"I wonder what the current state of Utajima is?"

He muttered to himself and glanced at Amber who was sitting across from him.

The pirates' food was not very good, and the island's storage technology was not well developed. Most of the protein supply was dried fish, seabird meat, etc. There was a lack of vegetables, and only marine plants such as kelp were inexhaustible.

The most common thing is wine.

But I don’t know if it’s because the island itself lacks winemaking technology or the pirates’ crude production techniques, the wine tastes very light, like juice.

At sea, water sometimes becomes corrupt due to storage reasons. Unless it is an official large ship with good logistics, people drifting on the sea often use alcohol instead of water. After all, alcohol can be used for disinfection, and at least they will not be infected by some strange germs.

"I don't drink."

Amber said.

"I heard that some shrine maidens chew rice and use the chewed rice to make wine, which is called chewed rice wine. Is it true?"

Lu Ban asked curiously.

"???"

Amber was full of question marks.

"There is no such custom!"

"It is said that wine is made by crushing the flesh of young girls with their feet, and fermenting it with the help of microorganisms on the feet."

Lu Ban looked at the wine-like liquid in his glass and took a sip.

"Can you really eat like this?"

Amber felt that Lu Ban didn't consider himself an outsider.

The fine tradition of Hedao is to be subtle and restrained. Even when men and women confess their love, they cannot just say "I like you". Instead, they have to say "the moonlight is so beautiful". Amber has been educated to be dignified and virtuous since she was a child. Lu Ban talks about any topic casually, which really leaves Amber speechless.

"I once went to an island where all the people had turned into monsters. Their food was all kinds of flesh, tentacles, eyeballs, rotten remains, and so on. In order to avoid exposing myself, I ate those things as well."

Lu Ban suddenly started telling a story.

"Then what?"

Amber felt a little curious and a little sympathetic.

"Then everyone on the island was burned to death. I escaped and am still alive today in good health."

Lu Ban said.

"so?"

Amber didn't understand the meaning of Lu Ban's story.

She tried to think if this was some kind of reference or suggestion, but eventually gave up.

"What I mean is that people are not as fragile as you think. In many cases, you are stronger than you realize."

Lu Ban bit off a piece of dried fish that was almost as hard as wood.

"Yeah……"

Amber was thoughtful.

In the past few days, she has indeed experienced things that she has never experienced before, and has done many things that may be unique in her life. In the past, she certainly didn't think she could be so strong.

"So, you can actually try chewed sake, it might taste better than these foot-stomped wines."

Lu Ban advised seriously.

“…”

Amber felt a little stupid for being seriously angry.

At this moment, a horn sounded suddenly from outside.

Lu Ban put down the food in his hand and took a look from the window.

Under the cover of night, two ships were fighting.

Both ships looked like pirate ships, with skulls on their fluttering flags, but the skulls looked different. One of them had two knives under its head, while the other had two knives standing on both sides.

They had already entered the stage of boarding combat. The pirates pulled ropes and floated to the opposite deck to fight. There was roar of artillery fire and clashing of swords, and it was extremely brutal.

In this kind of battle between pirates, usually one side would surrender collectively when it could no longer fight. Every time there were more people on the ship, in the end there might be more people surrendering than the original number of people.

It has a bit of the meaning of the Ship of Theseus.

Lu Ban originally didn't want to care about these people and just planned to run away quickly.

But from someone unknown source, a cannonball flew directly over and almost hit Lu Ban's boat.

"?"

Lu Ban thought fighting was not a good idea and decided to stop them.

He raised his hand, and the bullet of [Last Words] was ready.

Silent gunshots rang out, and silent bullets hit the hull structures of the pirate ships.

The next moment, the ship, which had already been riddled with holes in the battle, collapsed in an instant.

The pirates who were still arguing fell into the water one after another, trying to hold on to the floating wooden planks.

“What the hell!!?”

The pirates were confused by this sudden and powerful attack. They looked around and saw a ship not far away.

Unlike normal ships, this pirate ship has no lights on and looks pitch black.

In the moonlight, there was no skull and crossbones flag on the mast, only a black flag.

On the bow of that ship, stood a man.

Next to the man, there was a strange creature.

Behind the creature, there seemed to be a short dwarf captain.

"...Ghost ship? It's a ghost ship!"

The pirates soon remembered the legends on the sea. Some ships that strayed into the nameless fog turned into ghost ships, wandering aimlessly on the sea, sinking any ship they encountered and killing all the sailors.

In an instant, the pirates on both sides lost the desire to continue fighting.

Encountering this kind of indescribable monster, it's good enough to survive!!!

"Run, go!"

Both pirate ships were shattered, but there were still some small boats left. On this night when the waves were not high, they could at least use the small boats to row to the island where their base was located.

They began to swim rapidly.

However, the pirate ship was heading this way.

It was moving very fast and without lowering its sails. It glided over silently as if it was being pushed by something.

“No, no, no!”

The pirates were in hysterics, struggling with each other and trying to escape from the ship.

At this moment, the ship suddenly stopped.

As if without any inertia, the ship was frozen in the sea, floating up and down with the waves.

Those pirates who were originally extremely vicious were now holding on to the wooden boards floating in the water with pale faces, staring blankly at the man at the bow.

He had a handsomeness that did not belong to this world, like a perfect creature carved by gods, reminding people of some immortal monster.

The creature at his feet looked like a dog, but now it looked like some hideous and terrifying monster.

Even the woman behind them looked eerie and terrifying, as if she had crawled out of hell.

The man stood at the bow, glanced at the pirates who fell into the water, and stretched out a finger.

"Only one can survive?"

"No, please, spare us!"

"I don't want to die, I don't want to die!"

"As long as you kill others, you can live. How cruel..."

While the pirates were talking in a flurry, Lu Ban, who was standing at the bow, spoke.

"Don't fight. Fighting is bad."

"???"

The pirates were speechless for a moment, not knowing whether this was a test or something else.

Then, without any warning, the ship turned around and sailed away into the distance, never looking back.

The pirates looked at each other, not knowing what to do.