"Don't be so quick to define anything. Pirate is merely an identity; it cannot represent everything. Hawkins could be a pirate, but pirates are not necessarily all Hawkins."
Hawkins could not help but laugh. Although Ai Miye did not believe him, it was still an invisible compliment.
The two chatted as they walked and soon returned to the earthen cave. At its entrance, Mark was facing off against several children, swords drawn and bows bent.
Actually, it could not really be called a standoff. Mark simply had not made a move; otherwise, these children would never have had a chance of surviving.
"Ai Miye!"
When the boy at the cave entrance saw Ai Miye behind Hawkins, he immediately cried out anxiously.
Hawkins smiled. "Go on. Your friends seem very worried about you."
Hearing this, Ai Miye immediately ran silently toward the cave.
"Are you all right?" the boy asked at once when Ai Miye came over.
Ai Miye shook her head. She hesitantly looked toward Hawkins, unsure whether she should trust him.
She knew very well that her choice concerned everyone's lives, but she soon recalled what Hawkins had just said.
If Hawkins wanted to do something bad, could people like them really stop him?
The answer was no.
No matter how they resisted, Hawkins could easily deal with them.
Mark moved closer to Hawkins and asked, "Captain, how are you planning to deal with these children?"
"Don't you think they would make excellent subordinates?" Hawkins asked with a smile.
The oldest of these orphans was probably only fourteen or fifteen, while the youngest was just seven or eight. As long as they trained under him for a few years, their combat strength would definitely surpass that of adults by far.
After all, adults had already taken shape and would have difficulty adapting to his teaching methods, whereas these children were different. They were more receptive than adults and easier to teach.
Of course, those reasons were secondary. The main reason was that Hawkins could not bear to see these children continue living such a wandering, unsettled life.
He was not some saint. At the very least, once he decided to kill someone, no matter how that person begged for mercy, he could still act without wavering from his original resolve.
Mark had spent some time with Hawkins and naturally understood his personality. He scratched his head helplessly. "So we've become kings of the children?"
"They're all good children. You'll come to like them soon enough," Hawkins said with a smile.
Ai Miye made her decision then and said, "They're good people. Arthur, tell everyone to put down their weapons."
"Ai Miye, are you sure?" the boy asked.
Ai Miye nodded. "Yes, I'm sure."
Before the boy named Arthur could speak, the other children put down their clubs one after another, all breathing sighs of relief.
Hawkins stepped forward and smiled. "All right, you're safe now. Come out from inside."
"Come out. With Hawkins here, nothing will go wrong," Ai Miye told her other companions.
She was not someone who dragged her feet through mud and water. Since she had decided to trust Hawkins, she would not continue hesitating. Besides, she had already seen Hawkins's sincerity.
Hawkins was very strong. Although she did not know exactly how strong he was, he was definitely far stronger than Jabus.
Yet after arriving at the base, Hawkins had simply stood quietly some distance away, patiently waiting for her to make her decision. It was a display of respect.
Though she did not really understand what Hawkins was thinking, she knew that he respected her. That was why she chose to trust him once.
The interactions that followed went rather smoothly. With Ai Miye taking the lead, the other children quickly came to trust Hawkins. In the end, Hawkins happily invited them aboard the Black Knife to eat.
As they passed through House Town, many of the children could not help crying, but not one of them vomited like Jennie had before.
Even among orphans, circumstances differed enormously across different eras.
Take Earth, for example. Orphans in ancient times were certainly worse off than modern-day orphans, and orphans during wartime were certainly worse off than those in peacetime.
Living in this era, Ai Miye and the others had inevitably endured more trials than modern orphans. They had long grown accustomed to corpses, so naturally they would not be afraid or vomit.
Compared with corpses, what they feared more were living people and monsters.
The group passed through House Town and arrived at the harbor.
The Black Knife was a medium-sized sailing ship. Medium sailing ships had greater tonnage and hulls much taller than small sailing ships, capable of carrying roughly seventy people.
There were thirteen people in Ai Miye's group, so the deck did not feel crowded after they boarded.
"There's a Bat!"
A nine-year-old child saw Julian hanging from the mast and cried out in surprise.
Hawkins smiled. "That's Julian, a Bat that can talk. Though he rarely speaks now."
"It can really talk? You're not lying to me, are you?" the child asked suspiciously.
Hawkins smiled, stepped forward, and poked Julian with a finger. Then he said in surprise, "He seems to have fainted."
"So you really were lying," the child declared with certainty.
Ai Miye grabbed the child's cheek and said sternly, "Don't talk nonsense. Hawkins didn't lie to us. That Bat is a person!"
Back then, she had been able to tell that Julian had been transformed from a human because he gave off the aura of a curse.
The problem was that Ai Miye did not carry the aura of a curse, meaning she was merely an ordinary person. So how had she determined that Julian was human?
Ai Miye said blandly, "A feeling."
"A feeling?"
Mark was a little dizzy.
Ever since leaving the Red Sea for the Seven Seas, too many things had overturned his common sense.
The Meteor Hammer that could break through his Curse Power, Captain Hawkins who utterly defied all logic, and now a little brat whose intuition was even sharper than a Cursed Relic.
Even if he encountered stranger people in the future, he felt that he would be able to take it.
At that moment, several marines left behind on the Black Knife brought over food such as grilled fish, steamed fish, fruit, skewers, and fruit juice.
"All right, let's eat first."
Hawkins gave up studying Julian's condition and turned around with a smile.
The moment he first met them, he had noticed that Ai Miye and the others were all hungry. They probably had not eaten properly for the past few days.
"This... this is really for us?"
Ai Miye quietly swallowed, looking at the food laid out on the table as she asked cautiously.
They had never received such treatment before.
Poverty bred crooked schemes; wealth nurtured conscience.
The saying might not always be right, but it did contain some truth.
If one could not even solve one's own food and warmth, it was naturally difficult to help others.
The people of House Town were not necessarily all bad, but they could not possibly take out their own precious food to give a group of orphans.
Thus, from childhood until now, Ai Miye and the others had lived very difficult lives. They often went without regular meals, and sometimes, when hunger struck, they even had to eat tree roots and bark.
Even so, not all of them had survived. Every year, several companions would die from hunger and the bitter winter.
Hawkins picked up a meat skewer and smiled. "Eat. If you're worried, I can eat first!"
"Thank you," Ai Miye said softly, then picked up a chicken leg as well.
With Ai Miye taking the lead, the other children finally dared to start eating.
However, Arthur still frowned. He always felt that Hawkins had some hidden secret that could not be revealed.
He walked over to Ai Miye's side, pretended to pick up a piece of grilled meat, and whispered, "Ai Miye, are you sure there's really nothing wrong with him? Could he be planning to sell us all to nobles as servants? I heard nobles are especially brutal. They beat a servant to death every other day. If we get sold to nobles, aren't we doomed?"
"He... probably isn't that kind of person," Ai Miye retorted, though she was not very certain.
But she also felt that Hawkins was too good—so good that it made her uneasy. She had never met anyone like Hawkins before.
Hawkins sat on the ship's rail with a bottle of home-brewed beer in hand. His metabolism was relatively fast, and drinking helped him accumulate energy more easily.
"How many of them do you think can become Curse Casters?" Hawkins asked Mark beside him.
Mark observed Ai Miye and the others, then said pessimistically, "Not one. Not everyone is as powerful as you, Captain. Becoming a Curse Caster isn't that easy."
It might look as if Hawkins had become a Curse Caster easily, but becoming a Curse Caster was difficult! Difficult! Difficult!
Mental Shock alone was enough to block countless people outside the threshold, and Mental Shock was only the first trial. There was an even harder second trial after it.
Not everyone could make an exaggerated wish beyond exaggeration itself like Hawkins, then still return safely to the real world.
Once most people failed to control the desires in their hearts, they would inevitably die during the trial. Miracles practically did not exist.
Ai Miye and the others had never received specialized training. Whether in combat skills or control over their own hearts, they were completely inadequate. Thus, Mark did not believe they could become Curse Casters.
"Then we'll train them as sailors and logistics personnel first. If anyone has talent, we'll talk about it then."
Hawkins knew very well that he himself was merely an exception. He did not demand that Ai Miye and the others become strong.
Although he had already begun researching matters related to Curse Casters, he certainly could not compare to Mark, who had been raised as a Curse Caster since childhood. Therefore, he valued Mark's opinion greatly.
After Ai Miye and the others had eaten and drunk their fill, Hawkins stepped forward and smiled. "Are you all full?"
"We're full!"
Several of the younger children answered loudly. They were no longer afraid of Hawkins at all.
A child's world was simple. Bad was bad, and good was good.
Hawkins had given them delicious food, so Hawkins was a good person.
At that moment, Arthur nervously nudged Ai Miye. Ai Miye looked at Hawkins with the same nervousness, afraid that Hawkins would finally reveal his dagger when the map was exhausted and expose his "true colors."
"Since you're full, there's something I'd like to discuss with everyone," Hawkins said with a beaming smile.
Ai Miye's face immediately turned deathly pale. Sure enough, Hawkins had not meant well. Treating them to a meal truly had a hidden agenda!