"Don't—Captain, spare me! I'm really scared—"
"Stop screaming and shut your mouth. If you make the others misunderstand, I'll beat you to death." Though the bearded captain spoke fiercely, his grip loosened slightly.
Dragging the still-whimpering skinny man along, he pushed open the door.
Outside was a stretch of dimness, the exact situation impossible to make out. Yet the bearded captain showed no reaction, clearly long accustomed to such an environment.
His feet creaked over the ruined wooden corridor as he walked, while the bearded captain continued warning the skinny man to clamp that babbling mouth of his shut.
"If you scream again and catch Lunke's attention, then there'll be nothing left for us."
Perhaps the bearded captain's words worked. The skinny man's voice indeed grew quieter.
However, the skinny man had screamed far too loudly inside the room earlier, and it had ultimately aroused some people's suspicions. The bearded captain had not gone far, nor had he even crossed the broken wooden corridor, when a tall silhouette emerged from the gray fog ahead.
Seeing the figure before him, the bearded captain cursed under his breath. He viciously pinched the skinny man's neck flesh and shoved him aside. Then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
When the bearded captain opened his eyes again, the fierce wolfish gaze in them had become ordinary smoothness. His bearing shifted directly from that of a brutish man into that of an honest, kindly fellow.
"Captain Barro?" A pleasant, elegant voice came from ahead.
"Yes, Mr. Lunke. You haven't gone to rest yet?" Captain Barro, the bearded captain, said with a genial smile.
"I just returned from the experimental fields. I was planning to record the growth of the red carrots before going to rest." The figure in the darkness stepped out.