Episode 10: The Planner

At the start of the day, only one thought rang in his mind. 'Put on a show.'

Ryuk's threat—no, warning—put Light in a fight or a fight situation. And as there was no way to escape an entity literally embedded within your soul, Light decided to fight.

There was a lot of work to do before that, though; only two men were managing the ship after all. But it wasn't all bad, as winds were on their side and they effortlessly sailed in the same direction as the ship they were tracking.

Lieutenant Scarn used this opportunity to invite Light into the steering room. It wasn't exactly very spacious, but it was efficiently made with all the proper tools in the proper place on top of the wooden interior.

At the centre front stood the steering wheel, and beside it was Scarn. He looked at Light with a contemplative look and said, "Spar with me, recruit Ray."

Light looked back at him with a crooked smile. 'Impressed him a bit too much with my swordsmanship, huh?'

Light went to the armoury looking for blunt swords. Even though it was full of dynamite, guns and cannons, there weren't any blunt or practice swords.

So he just gave his opponent a real sword and decided to use his old, mangled katana that was shot at by a shotgun for practice. The katana had lost chunks of its edge, with even small holes and cracks appearing on the previously beautiful blade.

Looking at the damaged sword, he shivered a bit, 'can't imagine how bad my face would've been if I couldn't heal'

They started sparring without wasting much time. At first, Light kept up with the scary lieutenant, but he soon realised Scarn was only warming up. As soon as he got serious, Light folded like a paper towel.

After sparring for a few rounds, Jangwar Scarn proved far better at swordsmanship than Light's crude and senseless fighting style. He was also much stronger and faster than a normal soldier should have been.

Light got battered and bruised beyond recognition from the flat side of the lieutenant's blade. If he had any illusions about beating Scarn in combat before, then they were already shattered.

…

The next few days came and passed much the same.

The duo worked to secure the ship, clean up the mess from the last battle, and practice swordsmanship.

In the meantime, Light sometimes visited the lieutenant's private room. He was surprised to see that a man as hard-boiled as he was also an aesthete. He brought along exquisite statues, artistic cutlery, and expensive jewellery, as well as whatever the man could carry on his ship.

At the same time, Jangwar Scarn had also taken a step back from sparring, he realised that the difference in Light and his prowess was simply too great for a proper spar. 'Took him long enough'

Instead, he observed Light practising his swings, held on to the steering wheel, and tracked the pirate Ter's ship with his monocular.

Today, while observing the distant pirate ship, the lieutenant had a dire frown on his face.

Light stopped his swinging and walked to stand beside him. "What's the problem, sir?" He asked.

Scarn sighed, "I knew we would lose track of that wretched Ter's pirate ship in the coming days. I had hoped to follow it for at least a bit longer, but today will end up being the last day we get to see his hideous Jolly Roger."

Light narrowed his eyes, "Why is that?"

Scarn sighed and handed his monocular to Light before saying, "Look for yourself."

Light looked at him contemplatively and then used the monocular to look forward. Through his zoomed-in vision, he saw a terrible sight.

A colossal ocean whirlpool awaited them further ahead. One that could devour the duo's ship in an instant if it came near its maw.

Light shivered, "Holy crap! There is no way we can avoid that thing. Do we need to turn around?"

Scarn shook his head, "No, the whirlpool is deadly, but also dying on its own. It's about a two-day journey ahead. It will soon be small enough for us to completely avoid it. But the detour to go around it will cost us a great deal of time, enough for Ter to escape our gaze."

'Two-day journey ahead? How can he look that far ahead? Doesn't the Earth's curvature prevent that? Wait… this isn't my human realm! 

'Don't tell me this world is flat… oh no, the flat earthers here would be far more popular! Wait, no, if this world is actually flat, then the flat earthers would be the scientifically accurate ones… So the maniacal, attention-seeking, wannabe different cultists would actually be the globe earthers…

'Wait, there is another possibility. It's a subtle difference, but I have been feeling a bit weaker ever since I came to this world. Could it be… that this world is indeed a planet, but one slightly bigger than Earth? That would explain why I'm feeling a bit weaker; the higher gravity is probably messing up my earthly motions.

'But still, the distance this ship could travel in two to three days is quite a lot. If the curvature of the planet isn't even making a noticeable difference at this point, it might be much, much bigger than Earth. 

'Then how am I only feeling slightly weaker? Maybe it's because I transmigrated into the body of one of the planet's local inhabitants. My new body might be far more resilient to the amplified gravity.'

Light's reverie was broken when he didn't sense Scarn nearby. Dejected, Scarn turned around and started walking away. The gritting of his teeth was loud enough for Light to hear.

The lieutenant didn't show it, but this mission symbolised more than just following an order for him, and leaving it halfway through was hard to accept.

As he was leaving the steering room, Light slowly grinned while the monocle was still on top of his eye. "Wait, Lieutenant."

He turned around, his expression a bit annoyed. "What is it, recruit?"

"We might still be able to follow the pirate ship. No, a bit more than just follow..."

Scarn raised an eyebrow, "Elaborate."

Light took the monocular off his face and turned around. Slightly grinning, he said, "Have you ever played Frisbee before?"

"Frisbee? What's that?" Scarn asked, perplexed.

"Uhm, I might need some of your wooden cutlery to demonstrate."

"What? Why?" Scarn frowned heavily.

Light was surprised to see his usually stoic lieutenant have a noticeably animated expression, yet he insisted.

Finally, after a bit of convincing, the lieutenant agreed.

Both of them walked to Jangwar Scarn's private room. And he took out the exquisite wooden plates.

Reluctantly handing one of them to Light, the middle-aged man with brown hair and dark blue eyes looked at the Navy recruit expectantly.

Light flipped the plate in his hand and frowned, "Nope, too heavy." As he turned to look back at the lieutenant, for the first time, he saw him look… angry?

He pretended to cough and elaborated, "Ah, lieutenant, I meant that these exquisite wooden plates are a bit too heavy for what I intend to do. I might need to buy all of these off of you."

Scarn's unrelenting gaze didn't shift. He replied in an emotionless tone, "I am not trying to be rude, Ray, but I doubt a marine recruit's salary is going to be able to afford a single one of these plates, let alone all of them."

'Don't tell me I am broke in this world…'

He continued, "Also, they aren't for sale. And again, why the hell do you need them?"

"To destroy Ter's Pirate ship, of course!" He shrugged.

Scarn stared at him for a while, then shook his head, "You're not making any sense, Marine Recruit Rayburn."

"Okay, okay, let me explain what I have in mind."

…

Light went on to explain all of his plan in detail, with each minute of his explanation. The lieutenant's face grew darker and darker.

After Light's monologue finished, Scarn shouted, "You're crazy! Batsh*t insane!"

Light laughed, "Well, it's either my plan, or we let that wretched pirate run free. What would you like to choose?"

Scarn shook his head, "You think I don't want to avenge my own crew? Of course I fu*king do! But you'd have to be crazy to think this plan would go smoothly. No, how did you even think of this in the first place? You're crazy to begin with!"

Light lingered for a bit, then answered. "For me, it's the only option to move forward."

Scarn forced himself to look away, beyond the window of his room. He took a long time to reply, but at last said in a broken tone, "You youngins burn with a flame hot enough to burn your own souls. But I cannot deny, it brings warmth to the people who stand beside you."

…

The next morning, Light woke up with an excited look on his face. He stood up and stretched his arms out. Feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep, the warm sunlight enhanced his skin. He said to himself in his empty room:

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty, the show is about to start!"

[Is it now?]

"Watch me."

…

[The last time you said "Watch me," So proudly, you just lazed around all day, and not a single interesting thing happened for many days after.]

"Uhm" *coughs* "No, I'll definitely do something interesting today, I mean soon…"

…