Insistent Assistant 17 (Patreon)

Insistent Assistant

Chapter 17

-VB-

Her name was Jeanne, and she had been a victim for a very long time.

What she did when I released her was not a show of her somehow still living spark of defiance. No, it was an emotional outburst that flowed over and sent her out of control. She spent weeks throwing up her meals over the side and then crying for hours.

She wasn’t the only one to cry among the ex-prisoners and -slaves we rescued.

For the span of a full month, my ship became a temporary hospital ship as I spent supplies fixing up the people to the best of my abilities. Traumatized didn’t cover half of them. Their experience gnawed at every single moment they spent awake, and many … couldn’t handle it. We woke up every week with one less person on the ship who decided to end it all silently.

Though it had been unintentional, simply seeing the devastation slavery and piracy wrought upon people fired something in many of my crew, and their training intensified.

“Step into the blow like you mean it!”

And, to my surprise, Jack took up one of the teaching roles for the poor saps.

Jeanne grunted as she tried to strike at Jack while others in her group watched the spar while on the other end of the deck, someone else was trying their hand at hitting Jacobe, a crewmate who was fast becoming one of my more trusted and more able fighters. He was also very enthusiastic in wanting to help and actually helping.

“Use your hips, girl! That’s what the girls are known best for!” Jack taunted, and Jeanne tried to tear into him as she fell for it.

Unfortunately, Jack was certainly a product of his time, and sexual, sexist, and downright aggressive remarks like that came out frequently and normally. It was fortunate that most of the people were also people of a time similar to his era.

“RAAAHHHH!!”

“Nope, nope, nope!” Jack laughed as he parried one attack after another before-.

He didn’t even bother using his training saber to lay her out. Instead, he just stepped into her guard, hooked his feet around the back of her feet, and let her trip herself. When she tried to rebalance, he pushed her over with a smile on his face.

I rolled my eyes at that.

Jack loved to defeat his sparring partners in unconventional ways. For someone so used to killing, he never went for killing strikes during spars. He would rather play them like a fiddle and toss them overboard.

Jacobe, on the other hand, went full out, overwhelming his partner the moment they showed any opening.

The result was that those who learned under Jacobe learned to be defensive while those who learned under Jack tended to watch out for their partner’s footing, swordplay, and eyes in an effort to predict what they might do.

Still, everyone got learn how to fight if they wanted to learn, and that was a good thing in my opinion.

-VB-

Jack pulled me aside in the captain’s quarter as we came close to our next port.

“What is it?” I asked him as he closed the door behind him.

“I think it’s time I teach you how to use … this!”

And then fished out a -.

“That’s your compass.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The one that can find anything.”

“Technically, yes, sir.”

“Technically?”

“Well,” Jack grinned. “You have to know how to use it now, don’t you? Otherwise, it won’t work.”

“What do you mean you have to know how to use it?” I asked him as I sat down in my chair. Unlike what many would expect of a brig, my quarters were not big and it also doubled as my office. Because of that, it filled with a table, the biggest and most detailed map of the West Blue I could find back in the Ilisia Kingdom, half a dozen chairs, documents related to my ship’s ownership and the commodities aboard, my hammock, and far more. All of that sat in a room no bigger than seven meters by four meters or roughly three hundred square feet. The table alone took up ten percent of that.

It was a cramped place and reflected how I often felt about my new life and journey. It sucked to be stuck on a ship no bigger than eight apartment studios, half of which was used as storage and filled to the brim most of the time. I wanted to go out and do something but most of my time was spent preparing, learning, and being stuck on this boat.

Learning swordsmanship from Jack, one of many things I was learning, was not enough to keep my mind occupied lately. I think that Jack also noticed this, which was why he was bringing this up.

… And I loved the idea of having my own Jack’s Compass that I was willing to ignore my own frustration in favor of it.

“Do you truly think,” he asked me, tilting his chin down and staring at me like a teach looking at a particularly stupid child. “That a magical item like my compass can be used by anyone?” He set the compass down on the table and slowly dragged his index finger around the compass’s lapis lazuli cover. “This compass is not a tool.”

“... what?”

“It is not a tool because it is alive. Not alive like we are, no,” he drawled. “But it is alive in its own way. It demands respect and loyalty to it as it gives you. It will help you attain your inner desire and expect you to work for it. Break that trust, Alan, and you will be in for a hell of a time. My compass is easily the most powerful item I can give you,” he grinned before pushing the compass toward me. “... And the moment you take this compass is the moment I will cease to exist. It is too powerful for me to give it to you without a price.”

I looked at him in surprise.

“... Then not yet. I still need you to help me with being what a seaman is like.”

He grinned.

“Glad to hear that.” And the compass disappeared back into his red sash. “Bu-”

“Also, you’re better at bartering than I am. We’re supposed to be landing soon. I’m not letting you just get away after lazying for half of the voyage.”

Jack froze for a second before laughing nervously. “R-Right, right! I was totally not going to just run away-”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Hurk-!”

I snorted in amusement at our byplay.

“Alright, let’s get back to work.”

-VB-

A/N: 1~2 chapters left in this arc.