Chereads / Mortal Emotions / Chapter 7 - Chapter 7 – Black market

Chapter 7 - Chapter 7 – Black market

"Although I have lost my memories, I seem to retain a certain portion of my emotions from earth." Angela said as she shot me another complicated gaze, gulping down another large mouthful of wine as her face turned slightly red.

"This does not mean whatever we used to be at earth will be what we currently are. From the moment you came onto my ship, you were simply a crewmember of mine who shares the same goal as me, nothing else." She said in a serious manner, even though she seemed slightly tipsy from the wine she had drunk.

Her pretty eyes slightly drooped as she sat on her bead. She kept eyeing me with a complicated look as she gulped down wine in hopes that the feelings that she felt would just go away.

"O..Owen" She weakly said in a quiet voice as a tear escaped the corner of her eye. She seemed to be struggling in an internal battle against her own feelings, her instincts of her feelings towards me seemed to be eating at her current personality, giving her a splitting headache and a temporary split personality.

"Angela…." I whispered as my heart melted seeing the tear escape her eye, she seemed so weak and vulnerable, nothing like the captain that the whole crew feared deeply.

I walked up to her in an attempt to console her, extending my arms instinctively in an attempt to embrace her. Just as I was about to touch her, her eyes regained some clarity and she instinctively revolved her energy in an attempt to ward me off, sending a surge of energy resounding through my body. I felt many of my muscles rupture at the sheer intensity of Angela's energy as a little blood escaped my mouth.

Seeing that she injured me, Angela felt pain in her heart as she took her hands back, shocked that she injured me. "I..I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. No man has ever attempted to touch me like that".

Even though she did not injure me on purpose, I still felt sad that she did so, getting hurt by the one you loved was no trivial pain. I also heard somewhere before that only the ones who love you can truly hurt you, and I felt that.

I decided to hide my emotions and simply leave. "Excuse me captain, I wish to rest in my chambers", I said formally and coldly as I left the captain's quarters. I did not see any point in saying further as It would further complicate things. I deeply regretted trying to care for her as I simply ended up getting my body injured.

I left Angela in a complicated state of mine in her cabin. As soon as I entered my cabin, I coughed out a large amount of blood from the ruptured internals I suffered as a result of Angela's surge of energy.

What hurt more was the fact that she couldn't even remember me anymore and simply pushed me away in coldness, a pang of sorrow hit me as I realized that she is no longer the person she used to be, and that there would possibly be no chance that she regains her memories.

I steeled my heart to be unaffected by these emotions, trying my best to push it out of my mind and close my eyes. Some sleep might allow me to gain a better clarity of mind. I changed into a more comfortable set of clothes and placed my spear and the dagger of Talos aside as I rested on the bed, closing my eyes as I revolved the energy of my core to heal my ruptured internals.

Within moments, I swiftly recovered, however, the mental pain stuck in my mind like an adamant leech. I tried to seep, but couldn't sleep for a long time, I kept thinking about Angela and everything that happened today. I saw people die right in front of me for my cause, and the woman I loved coldly injured me. Nothing could stop a couple of tears from streaming out of my eyes in frustration. I felt no shame in being emotional, it was an essential of being human. Before I knew it, I had already drifted to sleep, sparing me from the pains of the day.

I would see a mixed number of images flitting through my dreams, from people I knew to people I have never met before. My dreams seemed to be a kaleidoscope of thoughts.

Time passed by, and before I knew it, sunlight was filtered onto my face through the glass on the top of my room. The sunlight was shaky, as if filtered through the sea. But I knew that my room cant possibly be below the sea, or could it?

I decided to investigate that later.

I got up from my bed, stretching out my arms. The energy in my core revolved once throughout my body before congregating back in my core.

That gave my body a refreshing feeling, the wonders of core energy are truly magnificent. With those thoughts, I left towards the deck.

Entering the deck, there was a busy atmosphere of crewmembers scrubbing the deck and preparing to dock the ship.

I could see a large island in the horizon, and we were getting closer to it by the minute, I estimated that we roughly had half an hour before we reached port.

The fatty supervised some matters on the deck, his longsword gave off a malicious glint as it lay strapped to his back.

My stomach gave off a loud rumble as I caught onto the aroma from the mess hall. Realizing that I was hungry, I expectantly entered the mess hall to see a bunch of crewmembers eating a wholesome breakfast.

"First-mate sire, let me give you some breakfast, please take a seat" an innocent voice sounded out next to me.

The owner of this voice was a cute looking girl who seemed to be too young to work in a pirate ship. She wore a white and black maid uniform that I would normally see in anime back at earth, with buttons at the top her dress on the verge of exploding, she gave me a coquettish look as she noticed where my gaze was fixed at.

"Uh…Yes! Get me some food" My face reddened in embarrassment as I went down to take a seat by the tables. The maid gave me a seductive look before turning around and walking to the kitchens. I tried so hard not to stare at her walking figure and focused on the table and pretended to appreciate the fine wood that the table was made out of.

In a while, the maid brought out a generous amount of breakfast. My eyes lit up as I drooled at the sheer quantity of the food.

Mistaking my drooling at the food to me drooling at something else, the maid placed down the food and whispered into my ears; "I can give you a lot more than food to eat" she said as she walked away in a hot manner.

My hand that was outstretched to grab the food stopped in midair as my brain fell into havoc, "Oh lord, I just wanted to eat breakfast. What in the nine heavens is going on" I thought to myself as I glanced at the disappearing figure of the maid.

This world surely does put my self restraint to the test..

I calmed myself down and began wolfing down the food, I seemed to be able to eat a lot as I kept on throwing food into my mouth.

A mug of beer was loudly placed next to me, and a figure sat down beside me.

"Didn't see ya around much today lad, grab a beer" the familiar voice of Jack said as he fervently drunk a mug of beer as he bit off a whole chunk of beast meat from his plate before sitting next to me.

"I just woke up" I smiled at Jack as my mood lightened up. He was one of the few people I respected from the bottom of my heart in this ship.

I conversed with him while wolfing down my food with a great appetite. He told me of matters around this world, talking about islands and travelling.

From his detailed information, I learnt a great deal.. He told how he was a simple sailor that transported goods, but he became a pirate soon after a major event that happened in his life, he didn't really explain much but I knew not to ask too much.

We finally heard the ship docking at the harbor "It seems like we ought to get down the ship" Jack said with a glint in his eye. I nodded with a hint of excitement before setting out of the ship with Jack.

We were supposed to be back on the ship by sundown. Most pirate ships regularly stopped at the docks so that they could re-stock on their supplies or simply to spend the day in the tavern, eating and drinking with the occasional skirmishes with strangers.

Many of the crewmembers held bags of gold, their eyes shining in thought of what they would do with the money.

A large signpost was on the dock; 'Blue river dock' carved elegantly on the post.

There were rows of different buildings in the town past the dock. A few taverns, and simple houses were in this town. Merchants were spread out all across the street, selling items of different varieties.

I walked along the street, frequently checking the goods in the different stall. One particular stall caught my eye, there were strange stones of varying colors placed on a wide piece of cloth. A particular stone caught my eye, it was a black stone with elegant swirls around it. My core energy throbbed and heated up as it seemed to resonate with the stone for some reason. I felt the need to obtain this stone by hook or by crook. The old man that was manning the stalls was asleep, his straw hat covered his face and he was sleeping in a meditating position, elegantly crossing his legs.

"This…. Sir please wake up, what are these things" I said loud enough so that he would wake up.

The old man slowly roused as he moved the straw hat away from his face, revealing a wizened face that seemed to hold many tales of wisdom.

"Screw you kid! Don't you see I was having my nap" The old man berated.

My impression of him being a wise man turned to dust as I appraised him once more.

I couldn't bother with squabbling with him, so I simply picked up the dark stone that I was eyeing and asked him how much it was. MY core energy seemed to revolve around in excitement as the stone was withing my grasp.

The old man glanced at the stone and his face darkened. "Kid, what you hold is a sacred stone passed down through ages, it is rumored to have been thrown by a god at a demon, killing the demon and having its blood become absorbed by the stone, hence it's dark color" .

My face changed into one of laughter as I struggled to believe that this weird old man would have such a treasure.

"Old man, don't play with me, what's your price" I asked lightheartedly as I clearly knew that he would try to take advantage of me. That's what would happen in stalls like this, the owners would always try to scam the buyers.

The old man gave me a look of disdain as he realized that he may not be able to fool me. He raised 5 fingers as he smiled at me, baring a set of teeth that seemed like they haven't been brushed for days.

"Five gold?" I asked with surprise as that seemed pretty low and reasonable. I needed this stone as my energy resonates with it, so I would mind paying ten times the price

"No child, fifty gold!" The old man smiled at me as he stared at me greedily.

Knowing the art of bargaining, I simply shook my head and prepared to leave as I dropped the stone back on the piece of cloth.

"Wait Wait! Kid, how about fifteen gold? I'll do you a favor as you seem like a good child" the old man said in a flustered manner as he clearly wanted to sell this stone off badly.

With a feeling of victory, I smiled as I paid the fifteen gold and took away the stone. I was glad that I had the skill of bargaining, I would usually bargain at roadside stalls back on earth too, I was also glad that I hadn't been scammed.