Chapter 77: JACOBS POV.

"Urrgh..." I rubbed my head as I slowly regained consciousness.

The world felt like it was spinning in slow circles, and my brain felt heavy, like it had been soaked in water. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, trying to make the dizziness go away.

Once again, I was out for a while. It was becoming a bit of a pattern. I just don’t know why I seemed to always fall unconscious after every troublesome situation.

Was it some kind of curse or something? It was as if every time I did something heroic or survived a big fight, my body just decided to quit on me and pull the plug.

It was getting a bit embarrassing, honestly. I was supposed to be this powerful guy, yet here I was, waking up on a random bed for the third time in a row.

I let out a long sigh, sitting up straight. I expected to feel the sharp, stinging pain of the bullet wounds, or at least the dull ache of bruised ribs.

I remembered the heat of the guns and the lead tearing into my skin.

But as I moved, I realized something was different.

I blinked in surprise as I took in my surroundings. I wasn’t in that dark, smelly hole anymore.

I seemed to be in some kind of cabin. It was a nice room, made of polished wood with a large window that let in the bright sunlight. I looked down at myself and saw that I was wrapped in clean bandages.

Not only that, but I was dressed in new, better clothes. They were soft and made of good fabric, much more sublime than the dirty rags I’d worn last time I’d woken up.

"Is this that captain’s own clothes?" I reasoned.

It made sense.

Only a captain of a ship could possess such sublime attire in a place like this.

The previous captain was currently bobbing around in the ocean somewhere, so he definitely didn’t need them anymore.

"Guess those guys took care of me after I took care of those filthy pirates," I muttered, a light smile on my face.

A warm feeling spread through my chest. It was nice to know that the men I saved hadn’t just left me there to rot or tossed me overboard.

They had actually stepped up and looked after me. At least some good things happened after all.

I raised my leg, placing them down over the edge of the bed and standing up. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

I waited for the world to tilt or for my legs to give out, but I felt surprisingly steady. I stood all the way up and began stretching my limbs, reaching my arms high above my head.

I let out a wide yawn that made my jaw crack. To my amazement, I felt no pain whatsoever.

Once more, my supernatural healing capabilities had saved my life. The holes the bullets had made must have closed up while I was sleeping.

I poked at my shoulder where I remembered being hit, but there was nothing but smooth skin under the bandages. It was a scary power mk doubt, but I wasn’t going to complain about it.

Feeling refreshed and full of energy, I decided to get some fresh air and see where we were.

I walked over to the cabin door and pushed it open.

The bright light of the midday sun hit me, and for a second, I had to shield my eyes.

"B-BOSS, YOU’RE AWAKE?!"

"WHAT?! THE BOSS IS AWAKE?!"

"SO SOON?!"

"I TOLD YOU THERE WAS NOTHING THAT COULD STOP OUR BOSS."

On the main deck, I saw the captives all looking at me with surprised expressions as I stepped out from the captain’s quarters.

They stopped whatever they were doing whether scrubbing the deck, fixing ropes, or just resting, and stared at me like I was a ghost.

It felt a bit weird being called "Boss," but I guess after I cleared the deck of pirates, I had earned the title in their eyes.

"Lad, you keep on surprising me more and more." Dinklehimer walked up to me and gave me a hearty pat on the back.

The old man looked much better now that he wasn’t in chains. He had a bit of color in his face, and his eyes were bright.

I smiled awkwardly at his remark, scratching the back of my head. "I guess I just have a thick skull, Dinklehimer," I joked.

But my chuckling quickly died down as my attention shifted to something else. My eyes moved past the crowd of freed men and landed on the horizon.

"Old man... Care to tell me what’s going on?" I asked. The wry smile on my face turned into a look of concern as I stared at a large ship sailing right ahead of ours.

But it wasn’t like the small trafficking boat I had just taken over. This ship was massive. It was so large that it looked like ours was a mere dingy in comparison to it.

It had multiple decks, dozens of cannons peeking out from the sides, and sails that looked like great black wings.

"Ahhh... About that." Dinklehimer let out an awkward sigh, rubbing the back of his neck as if he didn’t know how to explain it. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.

’Was it those darn slave trafficking pirates? Did they get help and return while I was unconscious?’ I wondered. But I quickly realized that couldn’t be true.

If they were the same guys, they would have killed me in my sleep or put me back in the darkest cage they had. They wouldn’t have put me in the captain’s bed and given me fancy clothes.

Just when I thought it might be something else, maybe a different group of pirates who had found a drifting ship, the sound of metal grinding against metal echoed across the deck.

It was the sound of boots grinding against the heavy chain.