Extraordinary Voyage - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Gull Cowper

Although Gary had grown very quickly in this period of time, not even Kruger, the previous first mate of the Blood Anchor, who was equipped with a machete, would dare to fall into a siege of sailors, let alone Gary, who was barehanded.

30 people were over his limits.

When the veterans saw Alvin rush in to help, they did not care that he was the alternate officer and the superior of all of them. They immediately sent some people to take care of Alvin.

Gary, who had already taken a few punches and kicks, immediately went all out when Alvin joined him. Based on what Alvin had taught him, he could only fight up to three people at one time, so he constantly moved around the deck to put himself in an advantageous position. He should turn and run if there were more than three people.

Bang—

“Aiyo…”

The veterans were defeated one by one.

Needless to say, on Alvin’s side, since agility was his forte, he could easily defend against his opponents’ attacks even if he was surrounded by them.

Alvin grabbed one of the veteran’s wrists and twisted it slightly, taking the opportunity of his reaction due to pain to punch him in the ribs, causing the veteran to fall immediately.

“Ah!!!”

The veterans screamed in pain, but none of their injuries were actually serious. Alvin and Gary purposely targeted their soft spots, so although the pain was so great that it could make them pass out, they would be fine after a night’s rest.

The group of people in the middle of the scuffle, no, a one-sided “slaughter”, did not notice that a tall, middle-aged man wearing a uniform and a cloak had been watching them from the poop deck for a while.

“What energy the young men have!” Colonel Gull, who had returned to the ship, exclaimed.

Colonel Gull was a tall, middle-aged man with short, gray hair. He stood on the poop deck of the ship with a straight posture like a towering cliff that had been standing by the sea for hundreds of millions of years; even the stormy waves could not move him in the slightest.

In his career, as long as he was on board, the crew would be incredibly relieved. Even if they experienced the most treacherous weather, they believed that he would be able to lead them back safely.

Seeing how both sides were not going overboard, Captain Gull did not want to get involved. Moreover, competition in the military was not a bad thing. He would not let the guys continue to be like that when they actually went out to sea.

“Chris, let the winning party be in charge of throwing the losers back in their cabins and cleaning the decks along the way,” Ger instructed the sailing master behind him as he turned to return to his own captain’s cabin.

“Aye, Your Excellency! By the way, here’s the list of people added in today. Would you like to see it?” Instead of a sailor’s cap, Sailing Master Chris was wrapped in a blue cloth bandana. He handed Gull papers that included the names and biographies of the sailors.

“Alright, I will take over. You have worked hard, Chris.” Gull took the list and turned to walk out of the poop deck.

Gull was slightly distracted by the sound of the young men fighting outside when he returned to his cabin.

He looked up at a portrait that was hung prominently in the captain’s cabin.

A two-masted expedition ship was sailing on the sea. The sky was somewhat dark and the wind and waves were strong. However, there were two vigorous young men on board talking to each other excitedly from a distance away.

One of them was a tall man with gray hair, obviously the appearance of Colonel Gull when he was young. The other was a little shorter and had brown hair and black eyes. He did not look like the typical citizen of Fallettis, but had some of the appearance of the minority ethnic group of Ilia in the next country.

However, just by looking at the painting, one could tell that the two were on excellent terms, and their origins did not affect their friendship. What’s more, with both belonging to the Tulip Alliance, intercultural marriage was common in the past centuries of both the upper echelons and among the ordinary people. It had been long since a particular ethnic group had a unique ethnic characteristic.

“Oh old friend, if not for the accident, your son should be old enough to join the army, right? Will he fight at every turn like the energetic brats out there? Will he follow you and have the courage to write a love letter to the girl he loves? Hehe…

“No, no, if both of you were still alive, you’d never let him join the army. You would only let him inherit your expeditionary ship and continue to be a great explorer, just like how we were back then, am I right?

“You said it was the blood of explorers that runs through your family’s veins, and I know all about it, Freeman… Garriott!”

Touched by the young men’s fight, Gull remembered his good friend who had shared the same interests as him but had died young.

After a long while, Gull looked away from the painting and slowly turned to the list of recruits that had been sitting on the table for a long time.

Tim Sparks, 20 years old, five years of service, served on the Sunflower. Evaluation: Excellent…

Oliver Judd, 19 years old, three years of service, served on the Reef…

…

Gull flipped through the pages and read carefully. He had submitted his requirements to the logistics office, and these men did meet the requirements. However, none of them was a talent that stood out.

“Gary Farman, 15 years old, new recruit (2nd overall in training camp), Rank: Late stage apprentice knight,”

Gull’s eyes lit up. A talent who was a late stage apprentice knight could already be cultivated as the backbone of melee combat. Even on a battleship, there were only a few people who became Extraordinaries.

Why didn’t the armies of various countries cultivate Extraordinary armies on a large scale? In addition to the few external factors mentioned earlier, factors such as one’s qualifications, one’s compatibility with the Extraordinary Path, and the resources available for training in the later stages all made this idealized approach unworkable.

However, he did not know about Gary, who was born with a constitution as high as 0.7 instead of obtaining it through the Knight Training Method.

Gull was satisfied and continued to read on.

“Alvin Garriott, 15 years old, Warrant Officer…”

Gull felt as though he had been struck by lightning and stood up immediately after reading Alvin’s name. How could he not be disoriented when he was just remembering his old friend and his heir earlier on, and immediately saw the familiar yet unfamiliar name?

Then he pinched his brow in amusement. Was he still the same Gull Cowper who could be unfazed in the face of a landslide and tsunami?

“It’s supposed to be just a renaming. After Freeman died of illness, his territory was invaded by a group of bandits.

“All of Freeman’s children died in the invasion, I went to check personally. The town manager collected their bodies and erected tombstones, and they are buried in the same cemetery as the Freeman couple.

“Just a few years ago, I also gave the town manager a fee to take care of the cemetery for them.

“They… They’re really not around anymore …?”

Some strange self-talk echoed in the captain’s cabin.

…

The brawl was over, and Sailing Master Chris, as instructed by the Captain, put the two victors, Alvin and Gary, in charge of cleaning up the deck that they had made a mess of.

Then he returned to his room located next to the Captain’s cabin.

After running errands with the captain all day today at the naval base, it was already late afternoon, and he was about to rest before going ashore to find a place to have a drink.

“Chris!!!” Suddenly, a loud shout rang in the sailing master’s ears, and he jumped in shock. He ran out immediately as the captain would not call him in that tone if there was no emergency.

Bamp!

“Captain!” Rushing into the captain’s cabin, the sailing master realized that nothing major had happened.

The expression on Captain Gull’s face was not serious either. Instead, he had an expression that he had never seen before. He was… Uneasy?

“Take me to this recruit’s room, now! Now!” No matter how small the possibility was, Gull didn’t want to let it go.

“Yes, Captain!”

Chris had seen the name “Alvin Garriott” at the end of the list. Although he did not know what had happened, he could not question his captain’s order.

The dutiful sailing master immediately stood at attention and saluted before leading the way to Alvin’s room.