The Storm Subsides (Part One)

Xia Lun did not answer immediately. He thought fast.

In terms of sheer strength, he was at an overwhelming disadvantage.

He had only two bullets left, and he had already used Heightened Focus as many times as he safely could. He could not face the monster head-on.

But the monster did not know that. As far as it knew, he was still the terrifying marksman with enough firepower to blind it in an instant.

In other words, he and the monster were both frightened of each other.

It was a classic one-round game of chicken with incomplete information—which meant he could not show weakness.

With that in mind, Xia Lun gave a cold laugh. "I'd say you're the one fighting a losing battle. You're in no position to negotiate."

"You have enemies too," the monster shrieked, its speech suddenly growing much smoother. "The mutineers on deck won't let you go. They'll ambush you."

Before Xia Lun could speak, the monster went on. "If you insist on making an enemy of me, I'll set the whale oil in the hold on fire. The sea is vast. If the ship burns, you're dead."

"Besides, if you can work with a pirate captain more cunning than a Human-Faced Rat, you can try working with me." Its shrieks softened a little. "And the people on Perilous Earth Island mean nothing to you. They're all strangers."

Xia Lun blinked, then lowered his gaze.

By now, he was fairly certain this monster had not been born one. It had once been human.

Threats and inducements sounded simple enough, but knowing what to say to whom, and when, was a complex skill honed through years in human society.

If these monsters naturally lived in groups and happened to have a social structure like humanity's, more than one would have boarded the ship. If they were naturally solitary, this one could never have developed such social skills.

And there were certainly no Human-Faced Rats in the deep sea. Sea creatures did not know how to set fires, either. It was easy to deduce that this monster had once been human.

If it had been human, there was room to negotiate.

Finding common interests between seemingly opposed sides had always been Xia Lun's specialty.

After his rebirth, his first earnings upon leaving the orphanage had come from "coordinating and integrating resources"—in other words, acting as a middleman.

"Of course." Xia Lun agreed at once. For the captain, who could not understand the monster, he deliberately repeated, "But it'll take at least six days to reach Perilous Earth Island. What will you eat until then?"

The monster fell silent for a moment, then shrieked, "Human corpses. Fresh corpses!"

This monster used to be human, and it eats people! Xia Lun's heart sank.

It was as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head. Any thought of reaching a mutually beneficial compromise with the monster vanished.

Xia Lun called himself a good man, and those were not empty words. His methods and thinking might be flexible, even slippery, but he had lines he would never cross.

A monster that literally ate people could not be allowed to live. On that point, he had no doubts.

How and when to kill it, however, required careful, rational thought.

His killing intent flashed and disappeared.

Xia Lun suppressed his hostility and replied calmly, "Quite an appetite. But too many people aboard are dead or wounded already. There aren't many left who know how to sail the ship."

"We work together. I won't hurt you or her. Don't worry." The monster caught his meaning at once. "But you must provide me with enough food."

Xia Lun grabbed the First Mate's corpse and threw it toward the monster.

Hearing the body land, the blind monster immediately drove a tentacle into the First Mate's chest and began to drink its fill.

The fleshy appendage writhed inside the First Mate's chest. In seconds, his broad, solid chest had shriveled. The monster withdrew its tentacle and shrieked in satisfaction.

"We cooperate, clever man. Two corpses a day. Fresh ones. I must have them. Feed me through the cargo hatch every afternoon."

"Of course. We're allies, after all. Two fresh corpses a day." Xia Lun repeated the terms with a smile, putting particular emphasis on allies. "But I have a condition too. I want the Wax Book on your back."

The monster froze. Then it roared in fury, like a dragon whose Reverse Scale had been touched.

"No. Never!"

A moment later, it seemed to regain its composure. As if trying too hard to conceal the truth, it shrieked in a low voice, "I don't know what you mean. I've never seen this Wax Book. When we reach Perilous Earth Island, I'll give you riches. Don't get greedy, or I'll ignite the whale oil and take us both down."

Xia Lun's expression did not change. He kept smiling, though his killing intent was boiling.

To cure his illness and survive, he needed the complete Prayerbook of the Drowned. If the monster refused to hand it over, there was nothing left to discuss.

It was no longer just righteous anger between them. Now it was personal, and only one of them could live.

The monster had attacked him on deck, too. That only deepened the grudge.

The firmer his resolve to kill grew, the friendlier Xia Lun looked. "Pirates' worthless lives still count as lives. Don't offer too little for them."

"Don't worry, ally. Wealth means nothing to me." The monster swayed its tentacles. Drops of blood slid slowly from them, a grotesque and terrifying sight. "Cooperation benefits us both. Come my way. It's safe. Above your heads, and at the northern gangway, there are ambushes. I heard them."

Before Xia Lun could answer, the monster withdrew its tentacles from the room. A wet slapping sound came from outside as its flesh moved away. A dozen seconds later, it was gone.

Xia Lun picked up the four flintlock pistols on the floor and their prepared powder charges. After loading the pistols, he tucked them into his weapon belt, then turned back. "Let's go."

"You really intend to work with that thing?" The captain glanced outside and demanded in a low voice, "Fuck, it eats people!"

"Whatever happens, we first need to sail close to Perilous Earth Island. At least our goals align that far." Xia Lun shook his head.

The captain refused to yield. "And after we reach the island? You're just going to let that monster attack people who have no idea it's coming?"

At that, Xia Lun could not help thinking a little better of the pirate captain, despite all the evil she had done.

"We set the whale oil alight and burn it to death, but not yet," Xia Lun said quietly. "Only near Perilous Earth Island will we have a chance of rowing a lifeboat ashore. Otherwise, we both lose."