Apart from the captured slaves, Wood was the only person on deck. Most of them knew what fate awaited them, or were simply too weak from hunger to speak, so they were nearly all silent.
That made Mary's sobbing and Hancock's comforting voice stand out in the crowd.
Hearing the girls talking, Wood turned and went into the cabin. He soon returned with a pile of food and set it down in front of them.
"Go ahead, eat. I just took a look around. Those scumbags from the auction house left plenty of food on the ship.
There should be more than enough, even if we stuff ourselves."
Hancock and the other slaves stared at the mountain of food piled in front of them.
Mary, who had been crying, stopped as soon as she saw all the food and slowly reached out toward it.
But before Mary could take anything, Hancock reached out and slapped her hand away.
"Mary, you can't eat that! It came from those bad people. Who knows what they might have put in it?"
They had been starved for several days, and even Hancock couldn't stop herself from swallowing hard at the sight of all that food.
But her reason told her that the auction house's people wouldn't be so kind—and neither would anyone working for the Celestial Dragons.
She had no idea what the other side might have put in the food, so she couldn't let her sisters take the risk.
Unfortunately, Mary and Sonia were still children, and their stomachs were already painfully empty. They couldn't bring themselves to listen to their sister. They wriggled free of Hancock's grasp and slowly crawled toward the food.
Just as Hancock was about to put on her big-sister act and snap some sense into the disobedient Mary and Sonia, the black-haired man watching over them suddenly reached out, too.
At the slave auction, the sisters had been beaten plenty of times for refusing to obey.
Now, when Wood reached toward them, Mary and Sonia instinctively squeezed their eyes shut and crouched down.
Hancock was scared, too. But as their big sister, she had to protect them, and she resolutely darted in front of her younger sisters.
Her eyes squeezed shut in fear, Hancock still spread her arms and shielded the two girls behind her.
One second, then two... Time passed, but Hancock felt none of the familiar pain.
Before long, she opened her eyes again, puzzled.
The black-haired man stood before her, smiling as he took a big bite of food.
He hadn't reached for them. He'd reached for the food in front of them.
And by eating it right in front of them, he was proving that it hadn't been tampered with.
"Well? Feel better now? I've never thought of myself as a good person, but I wouldn't stoop to a cheap trick like that.
Your sisters must have been hungry for days. It'd be a real headache if you all starved to death before we got anywhere."
Wood didn't immediately try to act like a good person. That would only make the little girl in front of him more wary.
"I want the half-eaten food in your hand!"
Even after hearing Wood out, Hancock still didn't completely trust him. Carefully, she asked for the piece of roasted meat he'd already eaten half of.
"All right, cautious little one. As long as you don't mind."
Hancock cautiously took the half-eaten meat from Wood, then quickly put some distance between them, as though she were afraid he might try something.
She looked at the meat, with its several bite marks, and checked it over repeatedly. Then she hurriedly passed it to her two starving sisters behind her.
Mary and Sonia were famished. When they took the meat from their sister, they couldn't have cared less that someone else had already eaten some. They wolfed it down at once.
Hancock watched her sisters eat with relish, longing written across her face. But as their big sister, she would never take food from Mary and Sonia.
"Here, little girl. I've taken a bite out of this apple, too. You should believe it's safe now, right?"
As Hancock watched the roasted meat in her sisters' hands, her empty stomach rumbled dully.
Just as all her attention was fixed on the meat, an apple with a bite taken out of it suddenly appeared in front of her.
She really wanted to take the apple and throw it away just to prove a point, but her body wasn't in any condition to let her.
Unlike most of the people here, who had completely given up hope for the future, Hancock hadn't given up, even after becoming a slave.
Besides, what would happen to Mary and Sonia if she collapsed first?
With that in mind, Hancock swallowed her disgust for Wood, took the apple from him, and began eating it in big bites.
The auction house's people were afraid the slaves might escape, so they kept them alive but never let them eat their fill.
Hancock and the others had been starved for days, too. A single apple could hardly make her feel full.
Before long, Hancock had eaten almost half of it in just a few bites. When she saw Wood reach toward the food again, she quickly grabbed some herself and began eating.
She could see that the food he'd provided was probably safe. Otherwise, Wood wouldn't be so unconcerned.
And now that she was sure the food was safe, Hancock had no interest in eating someone else's leftovers—especially not food covered in Wood's saliva. She wasn't about to let him keep messing with the food in front of them.
The Boa Sisters ate with gusto, and they seemed perfectly fine.
Before long, the other people locked in the iron cages began to stir, reaching through the bars of Hancock's cage.
Those who were farther away started calling out to Wood for food, completely forgetting how they'd ignored him just moments earlier.
But that was reality. When faced with desperation, not everyone could hold fast to their principles.
They had all been hungry for days. When they couldn't see any hope, they had naturally been tough and defiant.
But as soon as they saw Wood really handing out food, they couldn't escape the "can't resist the temptation" effect, either.
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