Chapter Seven: The Shelves

Early the next morning.

Maud opened his eyes, exhaustion etched across his face. Sorting through intelligence last night, he had unwittingly worked until dawn. He fell into a weary sleep, only to wake less than two hours later. Fortunately, he had completed a hunt yesterday; otherwise, his body would hardly be up to this strain.

Once awake, sleep eluded him entirely. He threw off the thin blanket and rose from the bed. He wondered what sort of work Saul would assign him today. In any case, for the sake of settling in quickly, he had already accepted the role of laborer in his mind.

Rubbing his cheeks, Maud opened the door and stepped out. The corridor was so quiet that the slightest creak of his footsteps on the wooden floor seemed magnified. At the end of the hallway, in the dead corner, a window boarded up with planks let morning sunlight slip through its cracks, casting mottled beams onto the floor.

He glanced at the other tightly closed doors, lingered not, and made his way to the stairs. Descending, he reached the first floor. The corridor to the right led straight to the shop, while the left went to the living room and kitchen.

Perhaps it was still early—the shop door remained shut. Yet Sunny was already awake, sitting at the dining table, eating breakfast.

Maud took a moment to wash up, then entered the dining room connected to the kitchen. Hunger gnawed at him. Yesterday he could still bear it, but today was unbearable—perhaps a sign his body was recovering well.

Sunny glanced up at the famished Maud, pushed a glass of milk toward the seat, and gestured for him to sit and eat.

Maud did not stand on ceremony. He pulled out the chair and sat. From the corner of his eye, he noticed another empty seat with dishes bearing remnants—presumably left by Saul after his meal.

He lifted the wooden cup and drank some milk, frowning as his mouth filled with the pungent raw taste unique to fresh milk. Enduring the discomfort, he finished it, then picked up a cutlet and devoured it in a few bites, feeling as if life itself had returned to him.

One had to admit, the shop appeared shabby, but the meals were unexpectedly good.

What Maud found most comforting, though, was the casual manner of Saul and Sunny—so different from the pirates he had imagined. In a sense, Saul was his savior.

After swallowing several more cutlets, Maud slowed down. He glanced at Sunny, who had nearly finished eating, and recalled the note from yesterday warning against going out both day and night. A thought occurred to him.

“Sunny, what kind of place is Mad Hatter Town?”

“Why don’t you go out and see for yourself?”

Maud was bewildered. The note’s warnings from yesterday were still fresh in his mind. Watching Sunny’s expressionless face, he wondered if she was getting back at him for brushing her off yesterday.

The sound of a chair scraping interrupted his thoughts.

“Clean up everything after you finish, then tidy up the shop. You have half an hour,” Sunny said, tossing the words over her shoulder as she headed upstairs.

Maud shook his head, finished off the rest of his breakfast, then began cleaning up.

If his only task was cleaning, the job of a laborer seemed too easy.

Once the dining table was cleared, Maud grabbed cleaning tools and entered the shop. As he cleaned the shelves, he took particular care. After all, among Sunny’s list of rules was one forbidding him from touching the weapons for sale.

He couldn’t touch them, but he could certainly look.

There were three shelves in the shop. The first displayed various swords, the second held flintlock guns of differing lengths, and the third mixed swords and firearms.

If he remembered correctly, yesterday the bloodstained long blade from Watt had been cleaned by Saul and placed on the third shelf.

Noting the overwhelming number of items on the third shelf, Maud recalled Saul’s practiced movements yesterday and fell into silence.

A shelf dedicated to second-hand goods?

And as for their source—there was little need to elaborate.

Strictly speaking, as long as swords weren’t physically damaged, it hardly mattered whether they were second-hand or not.

He moved his gaze from the third shelf to the one with a dozen or so guns. Their small number made the shelf appear rather empty.

Maud examined the guns. On both Earth and in the Hunter’s world, firearms always had a stronger presence than cold weapons. He was more familiar with guns than with swords and the like.

Even though his skills in the Hunter’s world had reached a level where he no longer needed to depend on guns, he still always carried a pistol.

In marksmanship, he didn’t claim mastery, but could guarantee basic accuracy.

However, he knew well that in the world of pirates, swords and other cold weapons played a far greater role than firearms.

Among those who had trained to a certain formidable level, most wielded cold weapons, not guns.

That wasn’t to say the potential of firearms was lacking—rather, those who could fully exploit their range advantage were exceedingly rare in the original tale.

“Is Kid’s pistol among these?” Maud suddenly recalled the Kid who had visited the shop yesterday.

That so-called Kid’s pistol must be of considerable quality, given Kid’s persistence.

He scrutinized the handful of guns on the shelf, but with his familiarity limited to modern firearms, Maud couldn’t discern their qualities.

With what he knew of flintlocks, he simply couldn’t judge the merits of these dozen weapons, let alone pick out Kid’s pistol.

“I need to get one as soon as possible,” he thought.

Although flintlocks lacked the power of modern guns, Maud still valued them.

His eyes greedily swept over the shelf of flintlocks, his mind restless.

In the early days of hunting, such simple, brutal tools were the most sorely needed.

He resisted the urge to swipe a second-hand flintlock from the third shelf and quickly finished cleaning.

When his work was done, he put the tools back in the storeroom—right on time after half an hour.

Sunny descended promptly, arriving in the shop.

Maud keenly sensed that Sunny was in a good mood.

He had no idea her happiness stemmed from the thought that, for the foreseeable future, she wouldn’t have to do any of the dirty, tiring chores herself.

If Maud didn’t meet an untimely end, this arrangement could last indefinitely.

Under Maud’s gaze, Sunny drew a measuring stick from behind the counter, walked to the shelves, and began comparing the goods with meticulous care.

Her actions made Maud’s scalp tingle.

What was she up to?

He thought Sunny was measuring the items to check whether he had touched anything.

But as he watched, he realized that wasn’t the case.

He silently observed as Sunny, after measuring, carefully straightened each item, making Maud’s scalp tingle even more.

Not daring to disturb her, Maud waited patiently at the side.

An hour later, Sunny finally finished and started the new day’s business.

“Where’s Saul?” Maud asked, puzzled that Saul hadn’t come down yet.

Sunny glanced at him from behind the counter, her expression flat. “Saul went to Flower Street for his morning exercise. He usually returns before lunch.”

“Oh, out for his morning routine,” Maud said, suddenly understanding. No wonder Saul, despite his age, maintained such strength.

Wait—

Something didn’t seem quite right.