After dinner it was time to rest, and West, in a good mood, walked towards the crew lounge.
He is not yet a formal helmsman, so he does not have to work night shifts and can rest like other sailors.
The sailors on the deck crew do not need to be on duty 24 hours a day like the turbine crew and the navigation crew.
This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that their rest is very regular, and the disadvantage is that this is the only benefit for the sailors, and they have the lowest salary on the entire ship.
As soon as he pushed open the door of the lounge, the smell of stinky feet and pungent tobacco hit him in the face. Fortunately, West was already used to this smell. Don't expect it to be clean when seven or eight men gather together.
The crew lounge is the largest cabin in the Narwhal, but with four double beds, a table, and all the crew's miscellaneous items, it seems extremely crowded.
In the misty room, he saw Second Mate Feuerbach gambling with the crew members who had just finished their meal. He was the banker, and judging by the smile on his face, he must have won a lot.
Normally, except for the vampire Audric who bet with blood, he seldom gambled with others. His salary was used to buy a house for his family and he absolutely could not waste it on such a place.
He took off his boots, lay down on his own upper bunk bed, picked up a thick novel on the bedside table and began to read.
He used to like reading sea adventure novels, but when he actually became a sailor, he turned to reading various love stories on the island.
He had already read this book once, but the plot was so exciting that he wanted to read it again before going to bed.
"Ha! 19 points! I win again. Give me money, give me money, give me money!" Feuerbach's excited shouting came into his ears.
West wanted to move farther away, but the crew lounge was so small that his companions' voices still reached his ears.
"Hey, you guys. Haven't you heard? The telegram we just installed is about to be taken away by those lunatics of the Church of Light."
Feuerbach interrupted, and he said with a hint of complaint in his tone: "I don't know what these guys are crazy about. I finally got a telegraph on the ship. I wanted to contact my son more often, but now it's completely hopeless. I'm out at sea every day, and my son doesn't even recognize me anymore."
West immediately sat up, rushed to the table with a nervous look on his face and said, "Is this true? Why was it demolished?? I never sent a telegram to my mother!"
"Then you'd better go quickly. I heard that they are already demolishing it."
West, who was very anxious, immediately threw down the novel in his hand and rushed towards the direction of the telegram.
When he walked along the narrow corridor to the telegraph cabin, he saw several people from the Church of Light already dismantling it.
"Wait, everyone! Let me send one more telegram!! Just one!!"
West said as he picked up the telegraph code analysis book on the wall. But he was pushed back by a bald man with a face full of hostility. "The Pope has ordered that no one is allowed to send telegrams anymore."
"There's really only one friend. If I suddenly get lost, my mother will be very worried!" West rushed over again, but was pushed back by the other party with even greater force.
This time, West hit the wall heavily. Before he could fall down from the wall, a cold big hand directly clamped on his neck, and a pair of murderous eyes stared at him.
"Why did you have to send a telegram? Are you the spy?"
West struggled desperately, his face flushed red. "Ahem... I... I don't know what you... are talking about, ahem! I just want to tell my mother that I'm safe..."
"Really? Then let me try whether what you said is true or false." Wright sneered and turned his tongue, and a long sharp needle was pulled out by him.
Just as the long needle was getting closer and closer to West's eyes, an emerald green branch twisted and blocked the two of them.
"Let him... send..." Wright turned his head and found that a guy covered in bandages had appeared in the corridor at some point, and the green branch had come out of the gap.
"No one can disobey the Pope's order! No one can do it!!"
As soon as Wright's arrogant words came out, more plants grew wildly from the bandage. This time they were no longer branches, but various sharp vines covered with barbs.
In just a second, the vines instantly covered the entire room. The center of the vines was the bandage, and a slow voice came from his mouth. "I am... the first mate of this ship... Let him send..."
Although the voice is not loud, it is full of domineering power.
There was a hint of anger on Wright's face, and the joints of his hands deformed rapidly. Just when the situation became tense, a believer of the Church of Light behind him gently pulled.
"Wright, calm down. Have you forgotten what the Pope said? We can't have a conflict with the people on this ship. Don't you even listen to the Pope's words?"
Looking at the thorny vines pointing at him, and then looking at the young man in his hand, he snorted coldly, put down West in his hand, and stepped aside with a grim face.
West didn't care about anything else at this moment, and quickly ran to the telegraph station to send it.
The vines extending from the bandaged body quickly withered and fell off. He swept his two dark eyes across the faces of everyone present, then turned and left.
"Mr. First Mate! Thank you!" West's grateful voice came from behind.
Hearing this, the scene of West saying goodbye to his mother flashed through Bandage's mind, and a trace of confusion appeared in his eyes.
Without stopping, he walked along the corridor back to the cockpit.
"There are still... two hundred nautical miles... to go..." Bandage muttered to himself as he looked at the nautical chart on the wall.
His bandaged hand slowly touched the destination on the nautical chart.
"Bandage, what's wrong with you? Did you find anything?" Dipper, who was at the helm, asked curiously.
"I seem to have been to this place before... I seem to remember... something..."
"Hey, can you be more accurate? I've been to the sea with you many times. You've been to the place nine times, if not ten times. Is the Earth Sea your home?"
“No… This time it’s different… Different…” The brows beneath the bandage slowly frowned.
"So... should we talk to the captain about this?" Dipper asked hesitantly.
"No... never mind... maybe I... remembered it wrongly... maybe."
Dipper rolled his eyes, then held the steering wheel steadily and continued to steer the boat.
There is one more chapter
(End of this chapter)