Chapter 18 Captain
Graybridge Harbor, Fishtail Street.
It was already night, the heat had dissipated, and sea mist filled the narrow street, which was only a few hundred meters long. Mosquitoes buzzed over the discarded fish scales and internal organs, and stepping in was like sinking into a fishy oil pit.
At the end of the street was the largest gathering place for the lower classes in the port, where the fishermen, shipbuilders, and dock workers lived in these crowded, nearly collapsed shacks. The night was eerily quiet, with only the occasional faint cry of a baby, but it was quickly forced to die away.
The old fisherwoman struggled to move the heavy bucket, wet a rag, and carefully wiped the forehead and lips of the girl lying on the bed. She looked only four or five years old, with a pale face and a flushed cheek.
"Martha, Martha..." She called the girl's name softly and sadly, but her granddaughter was still immersed in this ominous coma.
Suddenly, a sticky sound of shoe soles squeezing against mud came from the door. The old fisherman immediately became alert and quickly covered her granddaughter's small body with the only worn-out quilt in the house.
Odelas, god of the sea, please don't let the sheriff come, she prayed silently. Benny, the porter who lived three shacks away, was roughly dragged out one night by several sheriffs - they said he was "participating in a riot", and then the honest big man never came back.
Her prayers seemed to be ineffective, and the footsteps stopped at the door. The old fisherwoman quietly picked up the sharp harpoon hanging behind the door and decided that if things developed to the worst, she would die together with the beasts.
"Poseidon! It's me, I'm back alive!"
The harpoon fell to the ground with a clang.
Nova stood beside Azuka, watching the scene quietly, with ecstasy, tears, complaints and sobbing. After arriving at the destination, the old doctor and the apprentice said goodbye to them, and Captain Scarpo, feeling a little guilty, invited them to rest for a night at his home.
"The environment may not be very good, but at least there is hot food and a place to stay," he said dryly.
The old fisherwoman calmed down, wiped her tears, and finally saw the two people behind her miraculously returned husband. She immediately bent down in fear and begged tremblingly, "Please forgive me, two kind masters, my eyes are half blind, I really didn't see you just now..."
Although the visitor was not dressed in fancy clothes, his elegant and delicate face, flawless teeth and soft white skin were enough to prove his noble status - especially the blond man - the old fisherwoman was so frightened that she couldn't help but be in a trance for a moment, and almost suspected that the man was the body of the God of Light who came to the world. She was sure that the bishop of the Glorious Church whom she had seen from afar was not as good as him.
Captain Scarpo patted his wife's arm and said, "Don't be afraid. This is Professor Brody, the man I once told you about. He is our family's savior."
After toiling away on the sea for most of his life, Scarpo finally saved up a dozen gold coins and was ready to buy his own big ship that could sail the high seas properly and no longer be criticized by the ship owner.
However, during the registration process, under the intimidation and persuasion of the captain of the harbor sheriff's squad, he muddled through a bunch of debts. After deducting a bunch of taxes, he found that not a single plank of the ship was left, and he still owed the other party three gold coins. Scarpo, realizing something was amiss, went to the other party to reason, but was thrown out. He was also ordered to sell him and his family into slavery in the mines if he didn't pay the outstanding taxes within three days.
Scarpo, who was completely desperate, was about to dive into the sea, but a dark-haired young man was sitting alone on the dock, blocking his way to death.
Captain Scarpo still remembered the other person's appearance when he first met him - tall and thin, dressed simply, with a face as pale and cold as a ghost, as if the whole person was shrouded in dark clouds and mist, but when his pair of smoky gray eyes looked at him, they could almost dig out a person's soul.
The young man looked like a poor student, playing with a shell in his hand. Scarpo was a little worried that he was also seeking death, so after a few tentative words, he learned that he was there because "a certain type of whale was about to appear in large groups in the nearby waters, and he was curious and wanted to see it, but he couldn't find a cheap boat willing to go out to sea."
Scarpo happened to know the traces of the big fish that the other party was chasing. He thought that he might as well go crazy before he died, so he secretly took his men onto the boat that should have belonged to him, went out to sea, and finally saw the migrating whales as he wished.
On the way back, Scarpo had already thought about how to let his family escape secretly, and he would go to the mine to work hard to pay off his debts. However, after listening to his complaints, the other party thought about it and recited the corresponding imperial seaman tax regulations very fluently, and said that he had no money to pay the ship fare, so he could only act as a lawyer and strive to take back the ship that belonged to him as a reward.
Captain Scarpo still remembers the captain's crimson, contorted features—he had clearly not expected a poor sailor to afford a lawyer—and his pallor upon learning that this sharp-tongued, aggressive "lawyer" was actually a nobleman. A mere captain of a small harbor sheriff's squad certainly couldn't afford to offend the son of a distinguished viscount. The ship, later named the Explorer, returned to him, along with the fare. With this capital, he hired a crew and became the true "Captain Scarpo."
But for some reason, even though he had won, Mr. Brody didn't look very happy at the time.
In the shabby shack, the old fisherwoman excitedly wanted to kiss the black-haired noble's hand, but was worried about dirtying his clothes: "So it's you, kind sir - may the sea god protect you from the storms for the rest of your life!"
Her gaze turned to the blond young man beside her, and she showed a hesitant expression.
"I'm Professor Brody's assistant, just call me Azuka." The God-favored One smiled gently at Captain Scarpo's devilish look.
The professor glanced at him but didn't object.
Captain Scarpo, who had finally calmed down, looked around the shabby and messy house and finally felt a sense of foreboding: "Is Manny out? Where is little Martha?"
The captain and his wife's only son died in a shipwreck, leaving behind only their daughter-in-law, Manny, and granddaughter, Martha. To support their family, Manny and his wife supplemented their income by mending fishing nets, while Captain Scarpo traveled from port to port, desperately fishing, often only returning home once every several dozen days.
This time, Captain Scarpo happened to meet the professor who was coming to Graybridge Port in White Tower Town. Captain Scarpo invited his savior to travel with him, but they encountered a nightmarish shipwreck.
The old fisherwoman was silent for a while, then gently pulled back the quilt, revealing her still unconscious granddaughter. She slowly collapsed to the ground, and in a hoarse and mournful voice, she recounted the series of misfortunes that had occurred in her family since her husband left.
The Dawn Festival was approaching, and the sheriff suddenly arrived. Because the foul odor near Fishtail Street was disturbing the arrival of distinguished nobles and clergy, he demanded that the residents pay a "pollution tax" per head, even newborns. Fishtail Street was populated by poor people who sold their labor and hands, so how could they afford the tax? A few strong men clashed with the sheriff, but the group allied with the port navy, arrested the ringleaders, and then went door to door to collect the money.
Little Martha was old enough to attend a church school. After paying the exorbitant tuition, the Scarpo family had no money left, so the group abducted Manny, claiming they would sell her to a brothel for money. An old fisherwoman grabbed their trouser legs to prevent them from leaving, attempting to save her daughter-in-law, but was met with a vicious kick in the heart, nearly killing her. Little Martha, the granddaughter, developed a high fever and fell into a coma. Neighbors helped her by obtaining holy water, but her condition remained unresolved.
The old woman couldn't help crying as she spoke: "I went to Mrs. Barron's store and then to Pink Lisa, but they told me to get out and kicked me out... My poor Manny..."
Captain Scarpo was so angry that his hands were shaking and he was cursing, but his wife covered his mouth in panic and told him that there would be sheriffs patrolling nearby at night these few days.
Nova took off his gloves, tentatively touched the little girl's forehead, then lifted her eyelids to examine her pupils. Azuka, as if on cue, began to dig around, quickly pulling out a small bottle of powdered medicine. He handed it to the Scarpo couple, instructing them to boil it in water before administering it. The elderly couple nearly burst into tears, thanking them profusely as they boiled the medicine.
The smell of the Natalin people's medicine was still as explosive as ever. The shack was already filled with the stench of fish, and now it was mixed with the bitter and strange smell of medicine, which was simply disgusting.
The professor simply found an opportunity to slip outside for some fresh air. At his feet lay the silent slums, the weeping and wailing of the lower classes swallowed by the swampy darkness. He gazed at the starry sky, at the bright and dazzling lights in the distance. The Dawn Festival commemorated the birth of the God of Light and Glory. The Church of Radiance would place countless exquisitely shaped hollow crystal lilies on the streets. The lilies were fueled by the newly discovered, highly efficient energy source, jet, which could burn for months without extinguishing. It was a truly magnificent sight. The coins needed to buy a fingernail-sized piece of jet were enough to feed a fisherman's family for an entire year.
A man lifted the door curtain, walked to his side, and also gazed at the brilliant glow.
"What are you going to do?" the God-favored One asked softly, as if he was certain that the other person would not turn a blind eye.
The professor replied expressionlessly, "The simplest and most direct method is to find the sheriff, show your noble status, buy Manny, and then leave some money for Captain Scarpo. Before I left, I went to the barter station and exchanged a lot of large pearls for quite a cheap price."
"So, what are you worried about?" Azuka stared intently at the black-haired young man's gloomy and furrowed brows, dull and dry lips, and pale and sickly profile, and his voice became softer, even soft to the point of being affectionate.
The man who was always talkative fell silent again, until something hot and rough flowed slowly from his chest to his throat like magma, and then cooled in the air filled with the stench of death.
"...All this shouldn't have happened." Finally, the professor said almost to himself, and then closed his lips tightly again.
He wanted a cup of coffee.
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