It was a brief moment of rest.

I stood on the bow of the ship, as it sailed into the sea.

I was worked to the maximum of my ability for the past few days. Some crew members even acknowledged my abilities. The captain acknowledged them as well but is yet to decide on my promotion. At least the payment is good enough.

The crew was mostly good to me, like there were no mistreatments or forcing me to work just for the sake of bullying. Of course, there were extreme cases.

“Hey, Beast! Are you going to stand there forever, or what?” I looked behind.

“I did what I was tasked. If you have any problems with this, then tell them to the captain.”

“Tch, whatever. At least stop being a thorn in the eye.” I felt like being sarcastic.

“It is nice not to be a thorn, just don’t forget to remove the log from your own eye.” I hid from the wet air at the lower deck.

The ship has three decks: the deck where the sails are, the deck below it, and the cargo deck where the goods are stored. I was forbidden to go to the cargo deck, in case an unproven newbie, like myself, steals something.

“Oh, Kuro! Done with your work?” The ship cook asked me. Weirdly he was one of the few people that were actually friendly with me. Most of the crew is somewhat neutral when it comes to making friends with me.

“I am. Do you need help?”

“I might use some help cutting the meat.” For those who have no idea, that salty jerk meat is so hard, that even the katana has trouble cutting it.

“I see…”

I took a cutting board and the meat, and started working. Actually I was mostly sawing the salted meat that tastes like a sole. It is terrifyingly bad but it is the only meat we can see in the sea. Fishing is impossible from a fast moving ship, and stopping to fish would only be done in case of an emergency.

“It’s done.”

“Thanks! Twice the meal for you!” I did my best at cutting the meat but it was surely cut bad. However, nobody would give it a thought. Since this meat is too hard for anybody to care how well it was cut.

While I had nothing to do, I returned to the upper deck and checked on the cannons.

This ship has 4 cannons, which are a necessity to fight against the sea monsters. At least the sharks are on the outer side of the hull. It was already a blessing for me.

“How’s it going?” I approached the poor souls who were cleaning and oiling the cannons, which tend to rust easily.

“Same as yesterday. Nothing prevents the rust. Literally nothing…” I grew used to their whining.

“Try rubbing it harder~?”

“Go away, you smarta*…” The gunners could only sigh.

I felt like I play around too much so I continued cleaning the floors.

After the dinner I was somewhat free of duties. Most of the job was already done, and the remaining jobs were guarding against monsters.

I sat in the mess room and started reading a book. Just when I was properly immersed in reading…

‘DING-DING-DING’

I walked out to the deck and when I looked up, I saw a number of flying objects. They were attacking the ship.

“Keep them away! Keep them away!”

“Don’t let ‘em pile up on you!”

The weird bird-like creatures were attacking in a flock, and like hungry ravens were going for the eyes and back.

With an animal-like grace I evaded the hysterical swinging of the sailors, and rushed into the largest flock that was close to the deck.

I did not destroy all of the birds but I gave the surrounded men enough breathing space. Only then I proceeded to attack the flocks above.

Tra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta

Tra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta

The sky was lit with machine gun tracers. It was just there to break the flocks apart, since it was hard to aim and fight at the same time. Yet, the attacking birds were forced to fly away.

I felt that I actually accomplished something useful and was about to relax, when I heard noises from below.

Some birds were stuck below the deck, and were furiously fighting against the sailors there.

A moment later, four sailors flashed out of there.

“There are birds down below!” While everybody was thinking of what to do, I seized the initiative.

“I will go there. Just tell me how cut you want them.” Without waiting for a reaction I rushed to the stairs and attacked the unwanted visitors.