Nick went to the galley and on the way winked towards the still stunned Kate, who finally reacted and soundlessly whispered, “Thank you.”

Then she ran up to her uncle Clayton and started to clean and bandage his wounds with some straps that she tore off her dress.

While being slim and with tender face, the ‘thirteen year old’ Nick didn’t look dangerous at all and the several crew members who turned out to be pirates knew him already, therefore he was quickly released. He had witnessed the cooking for the whole crew multiple times and even fully prepared food on couple occasions alone so he knew the procedure and the most common dishes.

Usually on the long journeys sailors mostly ate salted meat and biscuits and drank some beer or cheap diluted alcohol since that didn’t get stale as fast as the fresh water in barrels. But on this huge vessel it was possible to equip galley with a fireplace that had large iron pot suspended over it on an even a bigger tripod. It had three smaller fireplaces with similar tripod constructions as well, thus cooks were able to prepare better quality meals for the regular and ‘elite’ passengers. There were no roasted animals or fishes, but decent soups, stews and sometimes even desserts were cooked here.

Nick didn’t try to think of anything new or extravagant, he cooked meat and vegetable soup in the big iron pot using simple salted bacon and some fresh vegetables. The difference from the regular cooking was, of course, him continuously infusing the Qi while the pot was boiling and adding some of his ‘good’ spices.

‘Ok, I would like to poison all of them, but I don’t think it will be possible. Not everyone will eat at the same time and they might even test food on some captives first. In fact, I’m pretty sure they will make me taste the food first.’ Nick was trying to think of the possible ways to get rid of pirates.

‘What are the slow working deadly poisons that I am still immune to? No, that won’t work – what if they make some passenger taste it and not me?’ While cutting the ingredients and stirring the pot he was continuously checking his wristband trying to find any possible solutions.

‘Wait! What if … I am sure I can neutralize this thing and if any other passenger tastes it just one time it wont be lethal. This might work!’ When he remembered the four big boxes of elder Jan’s latest creation, Nick smirked.

But he had to make this a long term project. First, every hostile on the ship had to become addicted to his food at least slightly and at the same time he had to become friendly with them or even switch over to pirates. Also he had to find a way to provide healing supplies for the injured. Nick knew that most likely the living conditions of these captives will be worse than those of a farm animals and at least every second of them will soon get some illness or wound inflammation.

‘This trip shouldn’t take longer than ten days, may be fifteen. I don’t think the Sand kingdom’s pirates will have their base too far from the Sun kingdom.’

The main problem in cooking soup for hundred and twenty people was heating up the amount of water that was required. For that Nick used the other three fireplaces and boiled portions of water there – it reduced the time greatly. Although it still took almost three hours, these pirates had waited long enough and it didn’t matter that much. Even more, they still had a lot of things to do, so it was not like they were just sitting and waiting.

When Nick finally finished, it was reported to the captain and few minutes later the big man showed up once again in a bad mood.

“What took you so long?” The huge stature of the captain seemed to be stuck in the doorway as he glanced over the galley. After washing his hair and beard really were more white than gray.

“King White, if you had ordered me to cook only for you, it would have been done in half an hour, may be twenty minutes. But to cook soup on the ship for over hundred people within three hours is already a miracle.” Nick looked back with calm face, “If I may suggest, in the future I prepare meals for you first and then for the rest of the crew.”

“You may!” Captain barked back, “Now give me the food. Wait – give him to taste first.”

As expected captain was weary of Nick trying something ‘funny’, therefore another pirate got to taste the soup first. But when he put the spoon in his mouth, his eyes changed and he started to wolf down the food at incredible speed, even ignoring its almost boiling temperature.

“Give me a bigger bowl.” Captain instructed seeing he how his subordinate acted. He wasn’t afraid of poisons, because as a Qi master he had high tolerance and even ability to expel those. Getting poisoned would be only annoying and he really wanted to eat.

He grabbed the bowl Nick passed over, sat down near the fireplace and started to eat as well. Needless to say, his face changed the same way and his reaction was the similar to his subordinate’s. Nick instructed for his ‘guards’ to bring soup to the rest of the pirate crew and turned back to the captain. It was a funny sight how the large figure, that was almost Nick’s height while still sitting down, wolfed down the soup while it splashed all over the galley, his own clothes and the beard.

“I didn’t have much time, but I managed to prepare some special cookies. You will find it extremely satisfying if you ate them together with the soup.” Nick tried to speak as ‘aristocratically’ as he could while offering a small plate with several simple cookies that were a common dry ratio on any ship.

Captain raised his eyes of the soup bowl and looked at the little cook with a weird face.

“I know they look simple, but trust me, you’ve never tasted anything like this before.” Of this Nick was hundred percent certain.

Captain grabbed few cookies in his big palm and stuffed them all in his mouth in one go. The reaction was even bigger than when he first tasted the soup.

“Hmm! What are these?” He asked with his mouth full.

“King White!” Nick already decided to call the pirate this way to be able to pretend to ‘still’ be a royal chef, “You have your secrets of your trade and I have mine!” He seemed to be proud of his own work.

“Hahaha!” Now when he had gotten some food, captain seemed to be in a good mood again, “Everyone should have figured out this by now that part of us were hidden in the silk cargo and the other was already mixed in between sailors.”

Now that he told his secret, he was looking at Nick, apparently waiting for him to tell the recipe. But the youth just proudly stood there in silence.

The face of the captain started changing again, “Kid, you want some lashes?”

“King White, you can’t be like this! I’m an artist! Culinary is an art!” Nick looked dejected and a little scared, “Alright I’ll tell you, but you must never disclose it to anyone.”

He looked around and saw that no one else was there, “Actually it’s an easy and simple trick! You smear the cookies with a bit of fat and then sprinkle a tiny bit of salt, dried garlic and paprika on it. When eating with soup these cookies would be especially delicious. Also, I think they would go well with the beer.”

It was obviously really simple and captain even wondered how was it that he never came up with such a straightforward recipe himself.

“Sigh, the problem is, I don’t have many spices with me and this ship is like a beggars den.” Nick looked extremely dejected, “I can make them for you few more times, but if the others catch a wind of it, I’ll have nothing to serve you.”

“Hahaha! They won’t dare to try anything funny!” Captain burped and wiped mouth in his sleeve, “Alright, from now on you’ll make me four meals a day, for the boys two will be enough.”

“I need to plan out the little amount of spices I still have.” Nick stated while stealthily observing the captain, “Depending on the travel time I might use spices only on your food and give others something better only from time to time. We might be fine this way if we reach the Sand kingdom in ten, may be fifteen days.”

“Who told you we are going to the Sand kingdom?” Big man had just stopped laughing when he had to start again, “Hahaha! Boy, we are going to Nestri islands and it’ll take at least a month!”

Although Nick was thoroughly shaken, he kept his serious face, nodded and replied, “Alright, the crew then will receive regular meals two times a day and one tasty meal once every three days. This way I’ll be able to provide you with decent food till we reach the Nestri isles. Also, I think I’ll reduce the dry rations for the prisoners and feed them only once every two days.” While playing his act he tried to assume the responsibilities for feeding everyone, including the captives. In their case if he managed to feed them every second day it would already be a miracle.

“Oh? You are not surprised we are from Nestri continent?” Captain got a little startled.

“Why would I care? I’m an artist! I cooked for the king on the Mainland continent and now I’m cooking for the king from Nestri continent. Art has no boundaries and that includes the cooking art! All I need is fire, pot and spices!” Nick proudly stated.

“Hahaha, I like you, boy! You’ll get the best spices when we get home. Work well and you’ll see the things others don’t even dream of!” Captain passed the empty bowl to Nick and left the galley while laughing.

‘F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!’ Nick was cursing while trying to keep himself from kicking utensils and cupboards.

‘How the hell did we land in the hands of the pirates from Nestri empire? Everyone is in such deep sh*t!’

He calmed down a bit only after few minutes.

‘Alright. First, I must check on others and only then I can start to think of a plan. The previous one that was not even complete won’t work anymore.’

When he got out on the deck, sun was already up and he saw few busy pirates managing the ship. Although the wind was strong, the waves were not that high and sea was relatively calm.

Nick went straight up to the closest pirate, “I’m responsible for feeding the prisoners as well. Where are they kept? I need to analyze the situation to calculate distribution of rations so we successfully get to the Nestri isles.”

“There are two hundred and seventy nine prisoners. I think this information should suffice.” Nick heard a voice behind him.

“Thank you! Finally someone competent here!” Nick continued with his ‘I’m an artist’ play and turned around to see one of the former officers, “Oh, a familiar face! At least it will be easier to work now. Have you counted rations as well? If not, please send the information to the galley. I’ll be busy there.”

Nick turned and went back to galley while pretending to murmur under his nose, “So much work, so much work, sigh…”

It was obvious he couldn’t get to prisoners for now and it was not advisable to push his luck at this moment as well. He returned and started to prepare the breakfast for the captain. Most likely the man will take a short nap and then come back again.

And it happened as Nick predicted. There wasn’t really anything special to do on the sea, so captain came to ‘play’ with his new ‘toy’. At least this intelligent toy, while sometimes arrogant, was an interesting conversation partner and definitely knew quite a lot about the Sun kingdom’s politics and economics and detailed information on Mainland continent as well. Thus the king White got a new hobby – he watched how Nick cooked food for him or the crew all day while chatting the time away. He sat there with a gourd of alcohol in hand, sometimes falling asleep and the suddenly waking up and picking a new conversation subject again.

For Nick it was a blessing and a curse at the same time. While he learned a lot of new information and even started to practice the Nestri dialect, he couldn’t move around freely and make any reconnaissance. On the second day he still didn’t know the schedule for shifts, duties and ranks between pirates. There was no other way but to take it slow. On the positive side, after calculating rations, he was tasked to supervise food distribution to the captives and finally got to see the girls, Steven and the still unconscious Clayton.