Nick woke up only before dinner time next day. While enjoying the slight swaying of the “Queen Elizabeth” in the waves, he lied on the bed and recalled events of the previous day. He did save a bunch of people and his report to the king might save some more. That made him quite happy. What surprised him that after he killed seven humans he felt nauseated only because of the sight and smell, not because of the event itself.

‘Is it normal or it’s just the medieval world that is influencing my values this way?’ He wondered. After thinking for a while, he got up, finally cleaned himself and changed his clothes.

Then he went over to the bridge to meet the captain and in two words explained what transpired. Although Clayton Evans didn’t serve directly under his majesty, he was still one of the important people in the kingdom and, who knows, this new information might even help in some way. While the grim looking captain was deep in his thoughts, Nick left to join more cheerful atmosphere at the dinner table.

Although Kate scolded him a bit like an older sister would, none of the present were stupid. They knew Nick for few years and understood that there were some extreme circumstances for him to act that way. The latter explained shortly that he discovered some criminals, disposed of them and sent report to the king, but the rest were clear it was nowhere close of being that simple. Still, they didn’t pester him and soon everyone was cheerfully enjoying the meal.

Everything went back to normal. The weather was pleasant and winds were good, and if it continued like this it would really turn out to be a pleasant holiday voyage. After another good night’s sleep, Nick started to frequent galley again to practice, while the rest of the passengers mostly bored themselves to death.

Three days later the both escorting warships left. First, they came closer, exchanged some signals Nick didn’t understand and then turned back towards Aurora. Kate explained that there was no more risk of getting ambushed by southern forces and the Eastern continent was safe, therefore the escort was not needed anymore. Thus from now on the grand “Queen Elizabeth” lonely but majestically crushed the waves on its way towards the east.

Depending on the weather it could take anywhere from thirty five to fifty days for them to reach the destination, so now they could only patiently wait.

Unfortunately things didn’t go as smoothly as planned.

In the middle of the next night after the escorting warships left, Nick woke up with a weird feeling. It was as if something bad was happening. As Qi masters practiced, it was relatively common for them to develop intuition that foretold the upcoming dangers. Although Nick was not a Qi master yet, his Qi practice and manipulation abilities already exceeded those of many Qi masters.

When he carefully poked his head outside the door, he noticed both Qi master bodyguards with drawn swords standing in front of princess's cabins.

Noticing Nick, the closest Qi master whispered, “Under attack.”

Nick nodded and silently closed the door behind him.

“Check the other entrance.” Qi master told Nick and the latter in crouching position proceeded down the corridor.

There were two entrances to the luxury cabin level. One of the Qi masters went to the left, Nick to the right and the remaining one remained to guard the royalties. Nick could discern some sounds of fighting outside and may be on the lower decks as well. After fifteen or so meters Nick turned to the right just to see an officer with two crew members coming his way, behind them were few burly men in dirty clothes.

Nick knew the officer since they had chatted before, so he whispered, “What’s going on?”

The officer just gave a sign to stay silent and quickly approached him while trying to remain as stealthy as possible and when they were almost side by side, officer whispered, “We’re under attack!” and Nick’s vision turned back.

Nick woke up with excruciating headache. His hands were tied behind his back and there was some person lying on his legs. It was still dark, but few torches illuminated the surroundings.

When he looked around, he saw himself, the other passengers and even crew members tied up and stacked in small piles while several burly man were bringing out more immobilized captives and throwing them on the deck forming new human heaps. People were wailing, crying and some females were trying to scream from time to time. It seemed to annoy the burly attackers a lot and they simply kicked these females in the faces to knock them out again.

“Stop damaging the goods! We need females with all their teeth to get a decent price.” Nick heard a deep and thunderous voice.

“How many more are there?” The voice continued.

“We’ve got almost all.” One of the burly men answered, “Although we had to kill off the Qi master bodyguards and few officers. Also, several crew members got seriously wounded while resisting so we threw them over board. Other than that we should have gotten all of them. Oh, right! The captain is still trying to resist, but we will apprehend him soon.”

“What did you say?” The deep voice was getting more angry.

“I’m sorry, captain! I meant, Clayton Evans is still trying to resist.” The burly person corrected himself.

“Hahaha, that’s better!” The ‘new’ captain laughed in deep voice, “Count everyone and report to me after!”

‘Now then. I can get out, but first I should look for an opportunity to help others.’ Nick thought, ‘Ok, step by step! What do I know? There are invaders and some crew members who work with them, they have a new captain and our Qi masters are dead. What else? Oh! They are treating everyone as wares, that means people should be safe for now. If they are here to get slaves, most likely they are pirates from the Sand kingdom.’

Nick quickly analyzed the situation while trying to reposition himself so he could take a better look around. With so many people moving on the deck or even rolling in pain, no one noticed how Nick sat up and started to observe his surroundings. He noticed the both unconscious princesses and Steven with a cut on his left shoulder. Next to them was Kate sitting and glaring angrily at the attackers with a blood on her chin. Seemed like the Evans family daughter tried to resist before getting a hit.

‘I hope she doesn’t do anything stupid with that character of hers.’ Nick thought while observing his surroundings.

Then he noticed the owner of the deep voice. The new captain could be said to be a huge, over two meters tall, man with a gray beard and hair, dressed in similar dirty clothes as the other attackers.

Pirates quickly counted everyone and, when they were almost done, a bloodied and miserable looking figure was thrown at the feet of the gray bearded giant.

Clayton Evans was unconscious, but still was trying to resist the attackers even while lying down badly wounded.

The pirate captain kicked him in the stomach and ordered, “Throw him out so he can join his crew!”

‘F*ck!’ Nick noticed Kate intending to jump up and protect her uncle.

“Stop! You can’t do that!” Suddenly the pirate captain heard a clear loud voice. Looking to his right he saw a blond young boy standing with his hands tied behind back, looking at him with clear blue eyes.

“Who the f*ck are you? Throw them both over board!” Captain got angry.

Kate, remaining crew members and some conscious passengers were looking at Nick with stupefied faces.

Although his actions were brave, he now had to die for sure. Even Kate understood that, it’s just she wanted to do something because Clayton was the brother of her father, a family, but he was not in any way related to Nick!

Suddenly one of the former ship officers run up to the captain and whispered, “Captain, we should keep him alive.”

“Wait!” Captain ordered, then turned to the officer, “Why?”

“He is the cook for the princesses. It is no wonder they brought him along, because the food he made is the best we have ever tasted.” Officer reported, “Although he is a moody kid, for example, sometimes he didn’t even cook for royalties, but only for the crew, we still should keep him at least till we get back to the base.”

Captain listened, then thought for a bit, “So you’re a cook? What’s your name?”

“Nick.”

“And why can’t I kill him?” Captain pointed down at the bloodied figure of Clayton Evans.

“Because of the promise.” Nick calmly answered.

While the former officer and captain were speaking, the gears in his head were rolling at lightning speed as he tried to figure out how to save Clayton, girls, himself and may be someone else along as well.

“Explain!” Captain smirked.

“Before this trip I promised his majesty to cook for Clayton Evans and the crew till the end of this trip. You see, if I had promised only to cook for the captain and the crew, it would be fine, since we have you now, right? But if Clayton dies … basically, a man can’t break his promise.” Nick convincingly explained.

“Boy, do you even know who you are talking to?” Captain was getting angry from this quibble.

“Of course, I know! You’re the captain!” Nick seriously nodded, “But do you know who are you talking to?”

“Are you looking to die, boy? I can help you with that!” The huge captain drew his sword and took couple of steps towards Nick.

“I don’t think you are that stupid to kill the best cook of the Mainland!” Nick confidently looked up to stare the captain in the eyes.

“We will see about that. You will have your chance.” Captain paused for a second and then sheathed his sword back, “Every time I won’t like your food, I’ll chop off one of your fingers, if any crew member doesn’t like your food, you’ll get ten lashes. And after you make the first meal, you will get introductory ten lashes for running your moth.”

“Alright, as long as I got to keep my promise.” Nick seriously nodded again, “How should I address you? Captain? Or boss?”

“Call me captain White or king White!” The huge pirate puffed out his chest.

“Ok.” Nick carelessly nodded while some captives around him gasped in shock. Apparently the figure in front of him was quite famous.

“You are not scared? Don’t you know who I am? Are you sure you haven’t heard of the pirate king White?” The huge figure looked at the blond kid with a weird look.

“The world is big. You haven’t heard of the royal cook Nick and I haven’t heard of the pirate king White.” Nick shrugged and then asked, “May I ask a question please? But only if I won’t get extra lashes, I am small and I could die from that.”

“Alright.” Captain White nodded.

“Shouldn’t you be called ‘gray’?” Nick motioned with his chin towards the huge mans beard.

“Hahaha!” Captain started to laugh and then gave commands, “Go and quickly cook us some food, we have been starving for days! You there – go with him and see that he doesn’t try anything funny. You two, prepare me some water. Although this kid is cocky, he is right, I am too dirty.”

Pirates who were stopped with this small interlude, returned to their duties and continued to count the captives, gather loot and clean up the blood stains.

“Oh, right, captain!” Nick had already walked few steps when he turned back, “May be you can give me a couple of boys to help out, otherwise I’ll have to peel potatoes till the next evening. Also, how many customers will I have?”

“Alright, I’ll send you two helpers over.” Captain White nodded while still laughing, “And prepare food for sixty people. No, wait, prepare food for hundred and twenty – we are starving. If you are quick enough, may be I’ll spare the lashes!”