Star Illusion | ATEEZ Pirate AU

Chapter 9 - Double standard

Not sure how long the time has passed but once I step out of the room, the sun is already high up. The blue sky is spotless, no trace of storm from this morning.

Padding my growling stomach for the umpteenth time, I feel like I lost entire energy in that room.

I told them how the map were traded but I made sure to leave some details to not appear too suspicious.

However, the crew kept interrogating me like I'm a criminal, well, at least they were not pointing a dagger at my neck.

I hope I didn't slip out too much because I don't know how this knowledge will affect the storyline.

When they were done with investigation, Aurora and I were asked to leave the room while Ateez members continued discussing their plan inside the bridge.

Aurora stands quite far away from me. She doesn't have a better expression than mine. Although she didn't utter a single word in a room, she looked terrified the whole time, probably from Ateez presence and my story. I guess she freaks out and is scared of me now.

Then the young boy from before shows up.

He escorts Aurora and me to the kitchen. Fortunately, the muscular cook isn't in the room.
Or else, I'm afraid he'll poison us both.

We sit down on a table while the boy serves us food and then sits down on the opposite side of Aurora and me.

Scanning on the plate, there's a piece of meat and bread that reminds me of a rock and no vegetable at all. I use a fork to poke on them. Yup, it's indeed a rock.

Next to the plate is a bowl of soup which contains brown and green thingy floating on top. I'm afraid to know what those are.

But I'm too hungry to be picky. If these pirates eat and survive, it wouldn't be so bad right?

Sipping on a soup, I throw a spoon away to grab on a glass of water.
Eww, so salty. My tongue is crying.

I drink water and immediately spit out. What the hell is this?

"What's this!?" I ask the boy.

"That's grog." Eww! It's rum mixed with water.

"Can I have water?"

"Um..I dunno, I gotta ask quartermaster permission. Water is scarce on the ship. Not everyone has the privilege to drink so much water, even the captain." The boy explains.

Ugh!! I wanna scream. Anything can be bad but not the food and water!
Isn't the pirate king need to be rich? Why is there not enough water?

And the boy seems to read my mind as he answers, "I dunno if I can tell you this but we barely have time to go on the land to get fresh water for the past month."

I see. Because they were hell-bent on chasing after the map.

"Nevermind." Sighing loudly, I reluctantly resume eating.

Aurora nips on her food a little and stops eating right away.
She must hate the food too.

She then turns to talk with the young boy. I keep munching on the rubber...I mean the meat, listening to their conversation.

We learn that his name is Jack, a cabin boy who runs errands for higher rank crew.

"How old are you?" Aurora asks Jack.

"I'm 13." His brown eyes shining while staring at Aurora. He must be enchanted by the female lead halo effect.

"So young!" Aurora gasps. "How did you end up on this ship?"