"You mean, those pirates have been buying slaves since last month?" Austin squatted on the deck so that his eyesight could be level with Poble, who was hanging upside down.
"Yes, sir. At first, they only traded with cripples. Later, I accidentally broke the news and I joined them."
Poble knew that his life was in the hands of this young man, so he knew everything about Austin's problems.
"Do you know what they buy slaves for?"
"I don't know, sir, I really don't know. I just transport the slaves to the dock in a small boat. I really don't know anything else." As he spoke, Bob's nose and tears had flowed all over the floor.
"What did the cripple say?" Austin looked at his first mate.
"Almost unanimous." Oliver nodded.
Austin suddenly remembered the sea chart in the illusion, so he patted Poble's chubby face and said, "Let's go find the lame man. Henry, you can sort out what this guy said and send it to the captain's cabin."
"Okay Captain! Mr. Poble and I will definitely have a lot to talk about." Henry agreed enthusiastically. He was the most literate person on the ship besides Austin, so he also served as the secretary.
The cripple was locked in the storage room, where Muffy watched him. When Austin arrived, the young acting boatswain was rubbing his chin, seemingly deep in thought.
"Captain! I made a discovery!" Seeing Austin come in, Ma Fei became excited instantly and couldn't wait to share his discovery. "According to both of them, the observation posts of the two ships did not detect us and did not issue an early warning."
"Yeah." Austin frowned, hearing something wrong, but he still couldn't grasp what was wrong.
Seeing that Ma Fei was hesitant to speak, he asked, "Is there anything else?"
Ma Fei glanced at the lame man who was pretending to be dead with his eyes closed, and whispered into Austin's ear: "If they are both telling the truth, then the number of crew members on the two ships is not what they said. It seems that during the battle, We didn’t find that there were that many of them. Maybe, I mean maybe, some of their crew members were missing, such as the people at the observation post, so we weren’t discovered right away.”
Austin looked at the lame man, who seemed to feel something and raised his head slightly. This was the first time Austin looked at the "experienced" captain's face, and a glimmer of light seemed to flash when his cloudy eyes met Austin's gaze.
"What's your name?" Austin was confused for no reason, and he couldn't help but ask this question.
The cripple didn't answer, but turned his head and glanced at Ma Fei next to him.
"Maffei, go to the bridge to find the first mate and tell him to go to the captain's cabin later. I have something to discuss with him."
Ma Fei glanced at the lame man suspiciously and reluctantly left the storage room.
"Okay, there are only two of us now." Austin stepped back, sitting on a barrel, looking down at the lame man, "What's your name? Answer me."
The cripple kept staring at Austin's face, and after a while he closed his eyes again, sighing: "Austin, Austin Doug, I didn't expect you to go to the sea."
"This is not my wish." Austin tapped the edge of the barrel with his fingers, "Do you know me?"
"maybe."
"What's the meaning?"
The lame man made no sound and sat quietly.
Austin frowned and took out the pirate gold coin: "Is this pirate gold coin yours?"
The lame man opened his eyes again and stared at the gold coin: "It's mine."
"What's your relationship with Benjamin? Do you know where the Mariano is?" Austin's breathing thickened slightly, "Please answer me."
The lame man tilted his head slightly, as if he was thinking about something, then smiled slightly and said: "My name is Maurice Mold, first mate of the Traitor Mariano. I wish you all the best."
After saying that, he lowered his head.
Something seemed to be touched in Austin's mind, and he was about to ask again, but he felt something. Looking carefully, the lame man's body seemed to be slowly disappearing.
"Damn it!" Austin was startled, opened the copper pipe on the wall and shouted, "First officer, come to the storage room quickly! The cripple is dying!"
"It's useless. I'm not dead, I'm just going to disappear." The lame man smiled with his head lowered. "I didn't fulfill the captain's instructions, and I also betrayed the promise I made."
The skinny old man who called himself Morris breathed out a long breath: "Go to the Maelstrom, Austin, go, find Benjamin, and find yourself."
"What do you mean? What does it mean to find myself?" Austin knelt on the ground, grabbed Morris' shoulders and shook him hard, "I have seen the Mariano! I have seen her! What is your purpose?"
"Have you seen...Mariannu?" Morris was a little surprised, "I thought she was dead."
"What is your purpose? To awaken that evil god?" Austin felt that Morris' shoulders had become hollow, as if there was only a piece of skin left, "Why me?"
"Go to the Maelstrom, the answer to everything lies in the Maelstrom." Morris's eyes became firm for the first time, as if he had finally made up his mind as he was about to die.
"You are Austin Doug, you are the son of the ocean." After saying this nonsense, Morris disappeared completely.
Austin knelt on the spot, feeling turbulent in his heart.
"What happened? Where is the cripple?" Oliver pushed open the door suddenly, but only saw Austin kneeling on the ground.
The first mate raised his eyebrows, stopped Henry and Martin who were trying to come in behind him, pulled out the flintlock gun from his waist, pointed it at Austin, and asked: "What has been modified with the alchemical cannon of the August Lion?"
Martin dragged Henry out, who was about to speak, leaving Oliver alone blocking the door.
Austin sighed, stood up slowly, cut his fingers with the knife he carried, and showed the bright red blood. At the same time, he replied: "Henry strengthened the power of the magic crystal, increased the range of the artillery and the initial impact of the shells. speed."
Oliver breathed a sigh of relief, but still didn't put down the gun and asked, "What happened?"
"Cripple, that's right. He said his name was Maurice Mold, and he was the first mate of the Traitor Mariano. He just disappeared. His whole person became blurred and then disappeared." Austin's face was filled with confusion and sadness. "He said he didn't fulfill his duties as captain, broke his promise, and then just disappeared."
Oliver nodded slightly, put down the gun, and said: "It should be that he broke the promise he made under the gaze of the gods. Disappearance is a punishment. With the disappearance of his body, his soul will also completely dissipate. There will be no more Morris in this world." .”
Austin sighed and said, "Let's go to the captain's room first. I found something."
After gathering his mood, Austin told Martin and Oliver about Maffei's discovery, and told them that Bahar Island is also called Debris Mountain - Austin pushed this matter to Morris, and he did not intend to see what he saw in the illusion for the time being. Say whatever comes to mind.
"The Shard Mountain... seems to be an ancient legend spread among pirates." Oliver touched the scar on the back of his neck.
"Oh?" Martin and Austin heard this for the first time and looked at Oliver curiously.
"You have all heard of the creation legend, right?"
Austin and Martin both nodded. The so-called creation legends are legends about the origin of the world that have been passed down from ancient times to the present. Legend has it that there was an ancient giant in the period of chaos. He fought with the giant beasts in the starry sky for countless years and then died together with the giant beasts. The corpse of the ancient giant was torn apart, and only the head remained to form this planet. His two eyes turned into Tryonsu and Tryonsu, his mouth turned into a large whirlpool, and the broken skull turned into the northern ice sea. , the solidified blood clot on the neck turned into the eternal freezing point, and the torn spirit turned into seven gods to rule the world.
"In the pirate circle, there are some additions to the creation legend. Among them, it is mentioned that after the death of the giant beast in the starry sky, its core was broken into several pieces and scattered around the world. Those places are called Mountain of Shards.”
"In other words, is this one of the Shard Mountains?" Austin frowned, "If the pirates knew the location of the Shard Mountains, they would have started a massive treasure hunt long ago, right? Why haven't they heard anything about it all this time? ?”
"Not all pirates know the specific location of the Shard Mountain. Maybe some big pirates know, but they will definitely find ways to cover up such a thing."
"So, this time the pirates suddenly came to this barren island and bought so many slaves, in order to find the core fragment of the giant beast?" Martin scratched his bald head.
"This possibility cannot be ruled out." Oliver didn't say it too fully.
Austin tapped his index finger on the table, and an idea flashed in his mind: "When we discovered the pirate ship before, what was their reaction?"
Oliver and Martin were startled when they heard this, and then recalled it carefully. Within a few minutes, Martin was the first to speak: "There seems to be no reaction. Maybe we are too far away, and they have never seen a new type of battleship like ours." ?”
"That's not right. If they do something shady on the island, as long as they see other boats, they will react to some extent." Oliver gave his own point of view, "Remember what happened on the boat of Boble and Cripple? I suspect that the pirate ship may also have had its crew go missing.”
Austin frowned, called Ma Fei, and asked him to count all the crew members, and arranged for the crew members to watch each other in pairs in case someone disappeared suddenly.
"We have to figure out the purpose of that group of pirates, the purpose and situation of Morris, and the possible disappearance of the crew. We still have to find a way to go to the island to have a look." Austin looked at his powerful helpers, " This is too close to the kingdom to leave it alone.”
"It makes sense. My suggestion is to ask for help from Fleming Port first. We are only conducting basic intelligence exploration. With our current strength, it is difficult to independently solve such an incident involving strange forces. The new First Fleet also has ships. Perform the mission nearby and support will arrive quickly." Oliver nodded slightly and put forward his own suggestion.
"Okay." Austin agreed with Oliver's idea, "Let's think about how to get to the island first. Mafei, go and send a message to Port Fleming."
"How about pretending to be slaves?" Martin scratched his head and came up with an idea. "Let's go to a few people, get some information, and then decide the next step based on the situation. I just asked, there are only the last slaves left today. One batch was not delivered.”
The two ends of Bahar Island are far apart, so the battle that took place here was not noticed by the pirates on the other side. However, the boat transporting slaves never returned, which still made the pirates a little suspicious.
Carl, the first mate of the pirate ship "Sea Monster Fang", stood on the deck, looking at the calm sea. His patience was passing by. Just when he wanted to send a small boat to explore the situation, the small boat full of slaves finally appeared in his field of vision again.
"These courageous money-grubbers are hiding on the other side because they are afraid of being discovered colluding with pirates. Can that be used to remove suspicion? How stupid!" Karl looked at Poble standing at the bow of the ship and revealed smiled contemptuously.
