Chapter 49 Ship Doctor

"I agree to the deal," Charles said to the doctor as he stitched up the wound.

The doctor paused, his scar-riddled mouth curling into a terrifying smile. "Really? That's wonderful, I will definitely use the best medicine to restore your brain to health."

"But there has to be a change in the terms of the deal; I can give you my hand and the 'Black Mirror,' but you must become my ship doctor."

If he had learned anything from his previous battles, it was that having a ship doctor on board was crucial. Last time, if there had been a skilled ship doctor, the casualties would have been greatly reduced.

The doctor lowered his head and resumed stitching the flesh. "You're not the first to want me as a ship doctor. Their ships were bigger, their power stronger. Why should I choose you?"

"Because I have what you want, and given how much you value the Black Mirror, you must want more than just the object—you probably want to know its origin?"

"I know all about it, and as long as you become my ship doctor, I will tell you everything about it, assuming you believe what I say."

After finishing the stitching, the doctor stepped back and scrutinized Charles intently, as if trying to read his thoughts from his face. "Show me the Black Mirror again."

Charles tossed his phone over. Watching the doctor gently caress the black screen, his face unexpectedly softened with tenderness.

Seeing him like that, Charles was curious about what he was remembering. "Could he have had a phone before?"

"Thump!" The doctor smashed his metal hand against the bedframe. "Two years. I'll stay on your ship for two years. You tell me everything."

"Deal, the object is yours now. Anything you want to know about it, you can ask me once you're aboard."

As long as he became the ship doctor of the Unicorne, this would ensure the phone wouldn't be handed to anyone else. Moreover, two years was enough for Charles to understand the doctor's character before planning the next step.

"nglui mglw... nafh..."

The murmuring echoed in Charles's ears as he watched the doctor before him rapidly transform into an even more grotesque monster. At that moment, he felt his consciousness spinning uncontrollably, as if it were clothes tumbling in a washing machine, ready to tear apart at any moment.

Charles, trembling, reached for the gel inside his clothes but the ghastly creature before him swatted it away with a tentacle, then handed him a cup of potion.

Staring at the shape-shifting monster before him, Charles knew it was the doctor. With trembling hands, he took the potion and drank it down.

The monster left, and moments later, it brought more potions along with various pills and plasters.

The strange flavors washed over Charles's taste buds repeatedly, nearly causing him to lose his sense of taste.

"Doctor! How much longer?" Charles, holding his head in pain, yelled at the deformed creature before him. The potion hadn't worked instantly.

The eel-like jaws on the belly of the creature spoke something, but Charles couldn't hear anything else over the whispers.

At that moment, the distortion began to contract slowly, and Rasto Herman's hideous gargantuan face reappeared before Charles.

"Am I cured?"

The doctor looked anxious and agitated, scratching his half-white hair with his iron hand, dandruff flying. "Impossible! How could Silence Salt be ineffective?!"

Seeing him like this, Charles realized that his hallucinatory symptoms were not going to be easy to cure.

Rasto suddenly approached Charles neurotically, staring intently into his eyes.

Charles instinctively tried to dodge, but the doctor firmly held his head in place. "Don't move!"

After several seconds, the doctor released his grip and nervously asked, "Have you seen something incredible at sea?"

"God? Twice, once eight years ago and recently."

This answer seemed to agitate Rasto; he trembled and furiously stomped his steel leg on the floor. "I knew it, I should have guessed—my medicine is not the problem! My medicine is definitely fine!"

"So, this illness is related to God?"

"God?"

The doctor scoffed, "I don't know if that's some damn God, but I know that anyone who gets involved with them ends up in a bad way."

"Can you cure this disease?"

"It's not a disease, you understand? It's a curse! Damned thing! Just one look can be fatal, let alone God! Hmph!"

The doctor's ugly countenance loomed closer again, his quivering eyes intently fixed on Charles.

"I can suppress the symptoms, but that's just a temporary control. If you want to survive, you must find a way to break the curse yourself. I'm not good at that sort of thing."

Thinking of the auction taking place in half a month, Charles made a decision. "Then suppress it for now; I need to take care of some personal matters."

With the search for Earth's surface reaching a critical moment, he couldn't afford to be distracted by other matters. As long as he could return to Earth's surface, everything would be manageable.

The doctor fetched a fist-sized sea spider from a bottle under the bed and went to a table to start preparing the medicine. "Let's get this straight, Captain, if you die within two years, that still counts as my fulfilling the promise."

"Fine, just don't poison me in order to fulfill your task ahead of time."

"Poison!? That's an insult to a medic!!"

Over the next several days, Charles continued to try the variety of bizarre potions concocted by the old man.

Although the flavors were barely passable, Charles's mental state improved significantly. Even when the whispers appeared, they were mere mosquito-sized, and the hallucinations never returned.

Additionally, with the enhanced regeneration from Black Blade, in just over ten days, Charles's wounds had nearly healed, and he was back in peak condition.

"Captain, are you sure that guy is our ship doctor? I secretly saw him adding gunpowder to the pills he gave you," the Second Officer, Krona, asked worriedly.

As Charles was writing in his diary, he paused for a moment before continuing to write. "Take care of your own duties. How are the crew's spirits?"

"Alright, they know not to wander around given the reputation of this place. Captain, how much longer do we stay here?"

"Not much longer." Charles's words had just finished when a bat broke through the door, transforming into Audric's form. "Captain, the auction in Sodoma is about to start!"

Charles put on his captain's coat and walked out of the Captain's Room.

Led by Audric, Charles quickly arrived at a wooden boat lying sideways, with an entrance carved out where the keel should be; this was now the venue for the auction in Sodoma.