Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Great Route

In many ways, luck was good.

- Don’t, make me, talk! Idiot!

The jar ghost, whose battery quickly runs out from the high-dimensional brain activity of ‘conversation with a human’, lamented. I wasn’t saying it for you to hear, so be quiet for a bit.

The seawater was warm.

Thinking about how countless people died of hypothermia during the famous Titanic sinking, the fact that the seawater wasn’t cold was tremendous luck. If it had been a cold sea, even if the Dragon King grandpa had helped, I would have shivered and died.

I squeezed my hair as tightly as possible to shake off the water and organized my thoughts. I had heard from Manager Kim in the past that if hair is wet, it steals body heat and is good for dying. But if the jar ghost is going to help anyway, he should have let me ride a whale instead of a turtle.

- Whales! Are hard, to handle!

Yeah, I see.

And.

A few days passed.

“I, I’m going to die...”

- Hold on a bit more! If you go a bit more in this direction, there’s a ship!

The Dragon King said he would use some method and stayed attached to the turtle much longer than usual, and thanks to that, the turtle didn’t suddenly dive into the sea and make me go glug glug.

But.

I’m going to starve to death.

I moistened my throat with rainwater so I wouldn’t die, but in the vast ocean there was really no solution for food.

Eating fish raw? I couldn’t guess at all whether it would be advantageous to intake food that way or whether the danger of eating the saltwater soaked in the meat would be more serious.

Thoughts like ‘I should have died there with my parents instead’ did not come to mind.

Whether previous life’s parents or current life’s parents, they would have wanted me to live, not asked me to die together.

So I had to keep struggling until the end.

But I’m too hungry.

This sea turtle... wouldn’t it taste good?

- What?

Robinson Crusoe also highly praised sea turtles as such a delicacy, hey Dragon King. It’s finally time for us to become one. Just as Arthur put on the helmet and became the rich king, if I eat your flesh and we become one, we can change history...

- Ship! A ship is visible!

Let’s become one, turtle.

Now, we, are one-

- Look over there! It’s really a ship!

Ship?

A ship?

How long did I stare fixedly at the horizon for a few minutes instead of tearing into the turtle.

Truly far away.

Something presumed to be a ship began to appear.

Fuck.

Fuck!!

“Please save me...”

This is bad.

My throat is all cracked so my voice doesn’t come out properly.

The Dragon King turtle seemed to understand my intention and began advancing precisely toward the ship, and as time passed, the shape of not a Western-style sailing ship but clearly that ‘Oriental-looking but not a Joseon ship, that Chinese-style ship’ that appears in various movies became clearly visible even to my eyes.

How much longer did I wait.

The sailors on the ship discovered me and started chattering about something. It was hard to understand, but from the tone and gestures, roughly...

“A person? Looks like a person?”

“He’s probably dead.”

“No! It’s a kid! A living kid is floating on the sea!”

“Lower something, no. I’ll go down!”

One sailor slid down from the ship, was startled upon seeing the turtle, and lifted me and the turtle up together.

I had truly survived.

As the tension released, I immediately fainted.

***

When it comes to ethnic groups famous for commerce, the first one usually mentioned is the Jews, but the Chinese are also people who absolutely do not fall behind anywhere. The overseas Chinese network and capital power spread across the world are very famous even in the 21st century, right?

Even now in the 19th century, the 1800s, the vigorous adventurous spirit and desire for wealth and glory of the Chinese never stopped.

Especially at this time, Guangdong merchants were conducting very vigorous commercial activities.

“Hyat ha! Waste is for incineration!”

“I’ll spare your life so hand over everything you have!”

“Hi hi ho!”

“Kill the women and rape the men!”

“Ton ton-”

Yes.

Just as the commercial activities of the British Empire, the country where the sun never sets, are like that, a considerable number of these Guangdong merchants’ ‘overseas trade’ was also conducted with great elegance.

I understand well why merchants were regarded as lowly fellows regardless of East or West, past or present.

Guangdong merchants.

In other words... Guangdong pirates.

This South China Sea and the seas of Southeast Asia were no different from the Great Route except for the lack of Devil Fruits.

“Boss. Why are you keeping the kid alive?”

“He’s a milk-smelling kid who can’t even earn his keep, right?”

“What if the British bastards pick a fight again saying the kid is a hostage or whatever. Shouldn’t we just send him back to the sea?”

Owners of faces that looked very far from merchants lined up creepy lines just from hearing them.

But there was a separate reason I didn’t die.

“Crazy bastards. Didn’t you see that?”

“Isn’t that just a coincidence?”

“I saw it clearly with these two eyes! A sea turtle the size of a house was putting this kid right on its shell and going around! No doubt! The South Sea Dragon King is protecting this kid!”

Originally, people who work at sea being immersed in superstition is a common thing regardless of East or West, past or present.

My appearance had so much impact that many sailors foamed at the mouth and raised counterarguments saying ‘if we kill this kid and the Dragon King gets angry, will you take responsibility’.

- Crazy bastards! How! How can you eat me! Kyaaaaak!!

It’s a bit absurd, but the pirate bastards who were so afraid of the Dragon King’s wrath actually cooked and ate the Dragon King turtle I had ridden on deliciously. As expected of Chinese people who eat everything with four legs except the table.

“Boss!”

“Leader!”

“Quiet, you guys! We’re not bad people, so are we going to kill a kid who barely survived in the middle of the sea? Will you sleep well?!”

Finally the boss reached a conclusion.

“Instead, if he’s an orphan without parents, he has to earn his own keep.”

“As expected of the boss!”

“Right. He should know how to take care of himself to some extent.”

“If it’s a kid protected by the Dragon King, he’ll eat well and live well on his own, right?”

Hey.

Hey hey.

I’m going to get fucked like this. Hurry and do something!

- I’ve lived and lived and even experienced being eaten, and now what else do you want me to do? Huh?

It really looks like I’m going to get fucked!

The jar ghost who received my emergency SOS fell silent for a moment.

***

“So, there’s nothing special to show sympathy to this kid... what. Why is everyone spaced out?”

“Captain. Captain.”

“Why?”

“Look over there.”

Various birds commonly found around the coast too.

The cats that eat the food waste or fish heads they leave behind too.

Even the dog that guards the house.

A few animals that were nearby approached the surviving child and took a polite posture as if offering a deep bow.

When the child slowly raised his hand, the birds flew over and perched together on his small arm.

The pirates who witnessed this bizarre, no, divine spectacle all froze in place like petrified wood.

And.

When the child with mysterious-looking blue eyes that were so different from theirs stared intently at the boss, they now felt like they would stop breathing.

“Can you speak our language? Hmm hmm, no?”

He slowly shakes his head side to side.

“Uh. Um. Right. You’ll roughly understand, right? I’ll feed you and let you sleep, so earn your keep!”

The sight was truly ridiculous, but right now they were overwhelmed by this bizarre spectacle.

They might be able to say a bit of the language of those with yellowish hair and blue eyes, but the idea of bringing an interpreter or something didn’t come to mind at all right now.

The boss decided to break up this place for now.

“Jang Sam-ah. You take care of that kid a bit. Prepare a spot at home and let him sleep for now.”

“Yes, yep!!”

The child waved his hand.

The various beasts scattered to their places as if they understood.

Until the designated youngest escorted the child to his house like a eunuch escorting royalty, continuously looking awed, their surprise did not ease.

“...If anyone touches that kid needlessly, I’ll pull their head off, so take note.”

The boss added a remark afterward as if wanting to show his boldness.

But not a single pirate properly heard that remark.

***

Time flowed very quickly.

And roughly one or two years was enough to know about their lifestyle or way of living.

Even just a few decades ago, Chinese pirates had a terrifying scale and tremendous combat power comparable to the Whitebeard Pirates, but they could not overcome the continuous suppression attempts and appeasement by the Qing Dynasty and various Western countries, and most of the giant pirate group leaders submitted to the Qing. Yes, the Seven Warlords would be convenient.

The current ‘pirates’ were a kind of side job.

Full-time piracy is a waste of life and the earnings aren’t great, so they operate as ordinary merchants or ordinary smugglers, and if the opponent looks easy, they trade with lead bullets instead of money.

“Can you slowly let me go now?”

“Hahaha. That would be difficult.”

“I want to return to my hometown.”

“Once you get attached, this is home! Should I find you a nice wife?”

Wrong. We can’t communicate.

To survive I acted a bit like I had some mysterious power, and these guys won’t let me go.

Right now I was roughly... living like a shaman or priest in a primitive tribal society. That kind of thing where I predict fortune and misfortune before setting sail.

“No, you’re always worried that if I’m discovered, the army from my hometown might invade.”

“That’s right.”

“So if I quietly go to Whampoa even now and meet people from my home country, it’ll be resolved, right?”

“Hahahaha. You’re still young so you don’t know. Originally, you don’t trust the court and officials. If we just don’t get discovered in the first place, why should we bear that risk?”

Ah shit. I can’t deny this either. These liberals.

But I can’t stay here.

Right now it’s fine because I’m still young, but later when my head gets bigger, won’t I become not ‘a British person kidnapped by pirates’ but ‘a British person who became friends with Chinese pirates’?

If news of me spreads everywhere through newspapers or something, what will they think. Cultured British people might be fine, but foreigners will have no suspicion at all upon hearing the story that a British person chose piracy as a career.

And the reason that neither these pirate guys nor I ever say out loud.

I already know too much.

Things like their smuggling routes, tasty goods, when and how they make contact.

- Well, isn’t it natural for China at this time to do this and that smuggling? Is it that dangerous a level?

If I blow the whistle, others might be fine but these friends will definitely die. Even I wouldn’t let me go. I’d either kill and wipe out the family. If it weren’t for the fear of ‘if I kill him I might be cursed’, I think they would have really killed me.

Anyway, I learned a lot about the mysteries of 19th century international trade.

This mysterious international trade where Americans (not British) buy opium from the Ottoman Turks and sell it to the Qing Dynasty secretly from the East India Company or other guys.

This is the global value chain. Surprisingly, Turkish opium has worse quality than Indian opium but better price competitiveness, so even after adding transport and distribution costs, it can be sold cheaper in China. Wow, I really learned something good!

- Is that so great...?

Of course it’s great. A huge smuggling festival circling the Earth is happening in the 19th century, and honestly it’s wondrous.

Anyway, now I really have to escape.

If I stay here any longer, a bad future will definitely come soon.

Extremely.

An extremely terrible future in many ways.

“To settle and live in a new land, you need someone to live skin to skin with. Do you have someone in mind?”

“I’m not even ten years old so I don’t know about that.”

“What do you mean you don’t know! You’re much more adult-like than most greenhorns! I can’t even guess how old I’m dealing with. Fine. I’ll personally pick a sturdy and strong friend for you. How about Wei? Broad shoulders and muscles. This is first-class. Wei, your thoughts, um. No need to even ask.”

“Ton ton-”

“No, seriously, that’s a bit.”

Guangdong pirates have increased their comrades in a very unique way.

They capture unfortunate civilians taken as prisoners and film 19+ hardcore gay content.

Surprisingly, the method of ‘I was captured by pirates and defiled so I can’t return home, sob sob’ worked much better than weak century people expected, and these pirate bastards, perhaps because their origin is ancient Greece, had become a strange group that stays away from women and seeks men. How well it worked, I’ll say it worked so fucking well that even if a woman jumped into the pirate group, the threat to her chastity was much less.

- Oh, this. That, it’s fine. Originally male-male love is that, what is it, cultural relativity? That kind of thing, right? I know Chinese emperors well and even their ultimate end of pleasure-

Shut up a bit.

I absolutely must not stay here long.

“Boss.”

“Even you call me boss?”

“I have a request.”

“I said I can’t let you go.”

“The Dragon King is angry. If I don’t board the ship going out this time, something big will happen!”

“What kind of nonsense... are you joking?”

Now this is the only way.

Unconditionally.

Unconditionally, I run...!

(Notes)

1. The homosexual tendency of the pirates in this area goes back as far as the Ming Dynasty.

It is presumed to be a combination of the special nature of not being able to take women on ships + the difficulty of those forcibly joined to pirates blending back into their hometown society under the pretext of ‘having been defiled’ even if they escape.

2. Surprisingly, the East India Company set a quota on opium exports to China and limited the quantity. It was not for health but of course for price defense.

But the vicious Americans brought large quantities of opium at cheap prices and crashed the market price, and eventually the East India Company abolished the quota system and launched into unlimited opium sales.

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Author's note

Thank you for reading enjoyably.

Have a good day ^^