Hawkins's Hidden Agenda

"Don't be so quick to define anything. Pirate is only an identity; it can't represent everything. Hawkins can be a pirate, but pirates aren't necessarily all Hawkins."

Hawkins could not help but laugh. Although Ai Miye did not believe him, it was an invisible sort of compliment.

The two chatted as they walked and soon returned to the entrance of the underground den. There, Mark was locked in a tense standoff with several children.

Calling it a standoff was not quite right. Mark simply had not made a move; otherwise, those children would never have had a chance to survive.

"Ai Miye!"

When the boy at the entrance saw Ai Miye behind Hawkins, he immediately cried out anxiously.

Hawkins smiled. "Go on. Your friends seem very worried about you."

At those words, Ai Miye immediately ran silently toward the underground den.

"Are you all right?" the boy asked at once when Ai Miye came over.

Ai Miye shook her head. She looked hesitantly at Hawkins, unsure whether she should believe him.

She knew very well that her choice concerned everyone's lives, but then she recalled what Hawkins had just said.

If Hawkins truly 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 do you plan to handle 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 merely seven or eight. If they studied under him for a few years, their fighting strength would definitely surpass that of adults by far.

After all, adults had already taken shape and found it difficult to adapt to his teaching methods. These children were different; they learned faster than adults and were easier to teach.

Of course, those reasons were secondary. The real reason was that Hawkins could not bear to see these children continue living such a wandering, displaced life.

He was not a saint. At the very least, once he decided to kill someone, no matter how that person begged for mercy, he could still carry through without wavering from his original resolve.

Mark had spent some time with Hawkins and naturally understood his personality. He scratched his head and said 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. "They're good people. Arthur, tell everyone to put down their weapons."

"Ai Miye, are you sure?" the boy asked.

Ai Miye nodded. "Mm. I'm sure."

Before the boy named Arthur could speak, the other children lowered the clubs in their hands one after another, all of them 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 companions.

She was not someone who dragged her feet through mud and water. Since she had decided to trust Hawkins, she would no longer hesitate. Besides, she had already seen Hawkins's sincerity.

Hawkins was strong. Though she did not know exactly how strong he was, he was definitely far stronger than Jabus.

Yet after arriving at their base, Hawkins had merely stood quietly some distance away, patiently waiting for her to make her choice. That was a sign of respect.

Although she did not quite understand Hawkins's thoughts, she knew that he respected her. That was why she chose to trust him once.

The following interactions went rather smoothly. With Ai Miye taking the lead, the other children quickly came to trust Hawkins, and in the end, Hawkins happily invited them to eat aboard the Black Knife.

As they passed through House Town, many of the children could not help crying, yet 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, while orphans during wartime were certainly worse off than those in peaceful times.

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 frightened or vomit at the sight of them.

Compared to corpses, they were more afraid of 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-sized sailing ships had greater tonnage and hulls much taller than those of small sailing ships, capable of holding around seventy people.

There were thirteen people in Ai Miye's group, so the deck did not feel crowded after they came aboard.

"There's a bat!"

A nine-year-old child spotted Julian hanging from the mast and cried out in surprise.

Hawkins smiled. "That's Julian, a talking bat. Though he rarely talks these days."

"It really talks? 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 passed out."

"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, he had been able to discover that Julian had transformed from a human because Julian gave off the aura of a curse.

The problem was that Ai Miye had no cursed aura around her. That meant she was just an ordinary person, so how had she determined that Julian was human?

Ai Miye replied flatly, "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.

There was the Meteor Hammer capable of breaking through his Curse Power, the utterly unreasonable Captain Hawkins, 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 endure it.

At that moment, several naval soldiers left aboard the Black Knife brought up grilled fish, steamed fish, fruit, skewers, fruit juice, and other foods.

"All right, let's eat first."

Hawkins gave up investigating Julian's condition and turned around with a smile.

The moment they had met, he had noticed that Ai Miye and the others were all starving. They probably had not eaten properly these past few days.

"This... is this really for us?"

Ai Miye secretly swallowed, looking at the food laid out on the table as she asked cautiously.

They had never received such treatment before.

Poverty breeds crooked schemes; wealth nurtures conscience.

That saying might not always be correct, but it did contain some truth.

If one could not even solve one's own food and shelter, it was naturally difficult to help others.

The people of House Town were not necessarily all bad people, but they could not possibly take out their precious food to feed a group of orphans.

Thus, from childhood to adulthood, Ai Miye and the others had lived difficult lives. They often went without meals, and sometimes hunger drove them to eat even tree roots and bark.

Even so, not all of them 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, picking 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 unspeakable secret.

He walked over to Ai Miye, pretended to pick up a piece of roasted meat, and whispered, "Ai Miye, are you sure there's really nothing wrong with him? What if he plans to sell us all to noble families as servants? I heard nobles are especially cruel. Every few days, they beat a servant to death. If we get sold to nobles, wouldn't we be dead for sure?"

"He... probably isn't that kind of person," Ai Miye retorted uncertainly.

But she also felt that Hawkins was being too kind, so kind 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 rather fast, and drinking could help 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."

Hawkins might have made becoming a Curse Caster look easy, but in truth, becoming one was difficult! Difficult! Difficult!

Mental Shock alone was enough to block countless people at the threshold, and Mental Shock was only the first trial. There was an even more difficult second trial.

Not everyone could make an outrageous wish beyond outrageous and still return safely to the real world like Hawkins had.

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 undergone specialized training. Whether in combat skills or control over their inner selves, they were completely lacking. That was why Mark did not believe they could become Curse Casters.

"Then we'll train them as sailors and support staff first. If anyone has talent, we'll talk about it then."

Hawkins knew very well that he was merely an exception. He did not demand that Ai Miye and the others become strong.

Although he had already begun studying matters related to Curse Casters, he certainly could not compare to Mark, who had been trained 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 asked with a smile, "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 gave them delicious food, so Hawkins was a good person.

At that moment, Arthur nervously nudged Ai Miye. Ai Miye also looked nervously at Hawkins, afraid that he would finally reveal his dagger when the map was exhausted and show his "true face."

"Since you're full, I have something I'd like to discuss with everyone," Hawkins said with a beaming smile.

Ai Miye's face instantly turned pale. As expected, Hawkins had harbored no good intentions. Inviting them to eat had truly been an act with ulterior motives!