The Heir Who Wouldn’t Drown
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 21: The Price of Hunger
A little earlier.
“Burp...”
A drunken figure staggered up the wooden stairs from belowdecks. In the fine drizzle, he climbed onto the bulwark and undid his belt without opening his eyes.
Urine splashed into the sea.
He reeked of alcohol. There was no telling how much he had drunk. Somewhere in that drunken haze, he had plainly forgotten the commandments and come on deck without so much as opening his eyes to check the time.
Most people in this era had little understanding of hygiene. Many cities were little more than enormous cesspits. Even among sovereigns, there was no shortage of eccentrics who bathed only a handful of times in their entire lives. Given the choice, plenty of sailors would have relieved themselves right beside their hammocks.
Aboard a sailing vessel, however, that was absolutely forbidden.
Every deck required careful maintenance. Whenever the sailors had time to spare, the pirate officers generally put them to work scrubbing the decks and applying tung oil. Otherwise, mold, rot, and mushrooms could weaken the wood until the vessel capsized. In the powder magazine, where safety mattered most, they even laid copper and tin flooring to prevent sparks.
If anyone dared piss and shit wherever he pleased, as people did in the cities, his shipmates would have been perfectly willing to cut off his cock and stuff it into his mouth.
Even in the middle of the night, still thoroughly drunk, the man instinctively avoided that dreadful consequence.
That instinct ran deeper than the [Ten Pirate Commandments]!
Unfortunately...
One particular rule maker had no intention of forgiving his carelessness.
Another brilliant flash of lightning split the night, revealing a massive, inhuman silhouette against the tall sterncastle. Beside it, the pirate looked almost delicate.
The shadow crouched low in an unnatural posture. Sheltered by the rainy darkness, it crept soundlessly toward the pirate as he pulled up his trousers.
Ten paces. Seven. Four. One...
“What stinks? Which bastard took a shit on deck?”
The pirate wrinkled his nose and muttered a curse.
He turned his head and found a horrifying “monster” right beside him.
His eyes flew wide. Terror instantly sobered him halfway.
“Hel...”
A pale claw smothered his cry before he could get it out.
Desperate, he tried to stamp on the deck and alert his shipmates. Instead, that basket-sized claw seized his head and lifted him off his feet.
The monster opened a mouth bristling with dagger-sharp teeth and sank them into his neck.
Gulp. Gulp...
It swallowed great mouthfuls of hot blood laced with alcohol and [Blood of Transmutation].
As rapid blood loss sent darkness pulsing across the pirate’s vision, he finally saw the monster clearly at close range.
Its once ball-shaped body, barely a meter and a half tall, had doubled in size. It was hunched, its skin grayish white, with gleaming claws jutting from its hands and feet. Dense clusters of gouty deposits still covered its two deformed hands.
The stench of a corpse poured from its body.
Its face, however, retained traces of its former appearance. Most unmistakable were those blood-red eyes, their pupils now the vertical slits of a beast.
“C-Captain? No, please ... spare me...”
Only the pirate himself could make out the thin plea emerging from his throat. It did nothing to sway Oswald’s iron will.
“Gulp ... The supernatural power I grant you is to become one with me. Welcome your ascension with joy. Heh heh heh...”
The [Ten Pirate Commandments] were a projection of the power of law, bound by the invisible [Pirate Code].
Few pirate captains dared openly violate that Code and have the law record an offense against them. Already outlawed by the nations, anyone who also offended the pirates’ greatest source of protection was certain to die horribly.
But if a captain induced a crew member to violate some harsh commandment, he could punish the offender openly and legitimately.
Conveniently, the sailors of the Age of Exploration were notoriously coarse, and most had little respect for rules. This was especially true aboard pirate vessels, where discipline was at its loosest. Men were forever forgetting a shipboard rule and breaking a commandment.
In this era, severe punishments for minor offenses were common aboard the ships of almost every nation.
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