The nickname ‘Troublemaker’ quickly became the form everyone on ‘Aisha’ addressed Alex. While he wasn’t really found of it, he had to agree it fit him well – not only he was the youngest on the ship, he was also the smallest and that made him look particularly active no matter what he did. Even when he curiously threw glances around trying to learn new things about being a sailor, from the outsider’s perspective it looked like he was up to some mischief.

“Troublemaker! The shift is over – let’s go eat!” Uwe shouted at Alex poking his head out the door that led to galley.

Alex sighed, secured his bucket at the taffrail and joined his team.

Before the departure sergeant Nur appointed him as the seventh member of the team seven. Sailors on ‘Aisha’ were divided in seven teams of six, with Alex being the only extra. The teams had their shifts together, ate and slept together, and practiced the drills together under the sergeant’s strict command.

Alex was fed up with the system on the third day and finally realized his theory about people serving in the army to only die protecting the interests of the rich was not the only reason he disliked the institution of armed forces with passion.

It was one thing to take a job and complete it under the instructions of his client – he was still the master of his own life and called the shots when and what he should do. Now, on the other hand, he had no free will whatsoever. They even had a schedule deciding when it was his turn to hit the head, but at least it was not that strict, especially considering that some recruits had stomach problems caused by the constant swaying of the ship, disgusting salted meat, fish and biscuits, and alcohol.

The last part was the biggest surprise for Alex. He never imagined that the sailors and pirates that were depicted as drunkards in movies were actual drunkards! After several days of sailing the freshwater was not drinkable anymore and the crew clenched their thirst by drinking diluted alcohol.

Alex had never been much of a drinker, although he loved a glass of a good whiskey after a job well done. But currently he was a child! Even though he claimed he was sixteen, his body was not even eight years old and any consumption of alcohol had a serious damaging effect, at least according to his own understanding. Therefore from the day they were out of freshwater, he constantly kept revolving Qi through his body, even while laying down in the uncomfortable hammock to prevent any lasting consequences from consuming the unhealthy drink and food.

Unfortunately he was the only one. The rest of the crew enjoyed the slight buzz caused by the ‘drink’ and called it ‘ale’. Obviously Alex had a real ale before and could swear this piss-water was nothing even close to it.

“So how long till we get something normal to drink?” Almost out of habit Alex asked and sipped the ale with disgust after they were done with the meal.

“First mate Ilyas said, around six days.” Finn, one of his team mates, replied with a grin, “We should reach the Golden archipelago by then. What? You can’t wait to see it as well? Do you really believe sergeant has softened up to you and will let you step off the ship?”

The Golden archipelago was a large group of islands somewhere on the half way to Halil continent. It was an independent kingdom and for some reason the mighty Empire of Armenidia never conquered the place.

Alex already had heard more than enough stories about the beauties of the Golden archipelago every recruit dreamed about, but obviously had no interest in that. All he wanted was a solid soil below his feet and a glass of fresh water.

“And then?” Alex asked with a sigh, “How long to Halil?”

“What do you mean, how long?” Daud laughed back, “What made you think we were going there?”

Daud was the leader of their seventh recruit team and the only one who originally cam from Armenidia while the rest of them – Uwe, Finn, Kaspar, Jan and Walter were the local boys from Haldenburg.

“I thought … since we’re escorting ‘Halil star’ …” Alex realized his mistake in making a seemingly logical assumption and was interrupted by Daud’s laugh.

“Hahaha! We never go beyond the Golden archipelago. Our empire is mighty, but Sarani kingdom are no slouches either and refuse the entrance for our warships to what they consider their waters. But it’s only a matter of time.”

“Ye, I’ve heard this escort is actually a surveillance mission given directly from the emperor!” Uwe added.

“So we’re going back to Haldenburg in a few days?” Alex was completely disappointed by the perspective of a useless month long voyage. The idea of gaining sailor’s experience as a reward was laughable.

“Probably.” Daud nodded, but Uwe shook his head.

“No. We’ll go to the south of the empire.” He said, “There is some kind of a problem, but I’m not certain exactly what. But it’s a sure thing – as you guys know, I don’t spread rumors.”

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The last statement sounded hilarious coming from the blabbermouth, but while the rest of the boys laughed, Alex was not amused at all. He made plans based on logical assumptions, but this information changed everything.

He cursed himself inwardly for not asking Uwe more details earlier, before they left Haldenburg, but then realized he couldn’t really leave the ship at the time and would’ve found himself in the same spot regardless.

There was only one positive side to this endeavor – they were constantly going south east and after ten days of sailing Alex could confirm – it was becoming considerably warmer. Because he cultivated Qi, he didn’t really suffer from the cold northern climate, but he wasn’t very found of it either and this was a pleasant change.

The unruly northern seas soon became simply unruly and only on the evening of the thirteenth day Alex heard a distant whistle coming from ‘Halil star’. Immediately after the merchant ship raised a yellow-white flag on the central mast signifying they have spotted the land and crews of all three ships became increasingly excited.

Finally Alex realized why ‘Aisha’s’ captain didn’t bother to appoint anyone to sit on the mast and stare at the horizon looking for land. ‘Halil star’ was larger and its masts were taller – obviously the land would be spotted from there first.

A couple of hours later Alex could also discern the sandy beach and the treeline in the distance. It wasn’t a small tropical island or an island group how he expected it to be from the name ‘Golden archipelago’.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Uwe interrupted Alex’s thoughts, “Let’s hope we’ll get to step off the ship already tonight!”

Alex nodded in agreement. He finally had a choice whether he should stay on ‘Aisha’ or escape and he intended to investigate the situation first before making a rash decision.

Unfortunately the leadership of the three ships didn’t care for Alex’s worries. After the three captains met on ‘Halil star’, they decided to continue to sail through the night and only in the morning send someone to look for freshwater. According to Uwe, it was because the unknown waters were too dangerous and there was no reason to run on a reef just because of impatience. Contrary to Alex, most sailors were eager to sooner hit the local brothels and were fine with drinking ale for few more days.

In the middle of the night Alex opened his eyes having an intense feeling of unease. Something was not right, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

‘F*ck it!’ He cursed to himself after making a quick decision and got out of the hammock.

Sergeant already didn’t like him much and the biggest punishment he would get was to skip another disgusting meal – he had to scrub the deck every day anyway.

“Get up!” Alex kicked the sleeping Uwe and proceeded towards the exit to the deck.

But the moment he poked his head in the hallway connecting the cabins, he understood why he felt the strange unease. Even though their cabin and hallway were dark, he could smell someone sneaking there, someone who didn’t belong to the crew.

“Phweeeeeeee!” Alex immediately let out a long, loud whistle waking up everyone on the ‘Aisha’ and after instinctively avoiding a slash to his head jumped back and screamed out his lungs, “Intruders!”

The serene peace of the night was broken in an instant and people rushed out the cabins, but what greeted them were slashes of swords from the darkness. Alex could hear wails of pain and agony not too far away indicating his crew mates were getting slayed, but he had his own problems. The earlier attacker currently pressed forward chaotically slashing in front of him, but from the back Daud and Uwe tried to get out of the cabin not letting Alex retreat.

“F*ck you!” With a shout Alex squatted and at the same kicked towards the spot where the attacker’s knee should be located and after a cracking sound of bones braking was heard, the man dropped on the floor.

Daud immediately proved he was the most experienced in the team and a spit second later jumped over Alex and broke the attacker’s neck.

“Teams! Defensive formations! Assemble on the deck!” Suddenly sergeant Nur’s voice echoed in everyone’s ears and for the first time no one found it annoying.

Alex didn’t intend to play a hero and fell back to the middle of the cabin, where the boys already stood shoulder to shoulder.

“Light!” Daud commanded and Uwe immediately lit up the weak oil lamp illuminating the cabin and throwing light on the dead body at the entrance.

The whole group got out the cabin and saw others do the same, but unfortunately besides the dead attackers lie bodies of several crew members as well.

Sounds of fighting could be heard on the deck and that could only mean the attackers were strong, otherwise the experienced Qi warriors like the first and second mates, and sergeant would’ve cleaned up the place long ago. Of course, to not speak of the captain, who, according to Uwe, could take a small garrison on by himself.

The seventh team was one of the last groups to arrive on the main deck, but what Alex saw seemed surreal. Attackers with knives and swords in their teeth kept crawling up from both sides while ‘Aisha’s’ crew members continuously slashed at them, kicking their dead bodies back in the water.

Sergeant’s training was not for naught – the seven recruit teams kept neatly together each protecting their own spot and the guys who stood in the middle holding oil lamps that were the only source of light in this cloudy night. The problem was – the weaponry of the defenders was just too crude to effectively kill. In addition they were too stacked together to be able to fight freely thus artificially restraining themselves while the opponents continued to come.

Everything would be fine, but the relentlessness of the attackers made Alex believe the status quo would not last for long and the crew would bleed out sooner or later. It was also weird to not see any officer on the deck that currently was defended only by the recruit groups.

‘Motherf*ckers!’ Alex cursed and grabbed a longer sword from attacker’s body that just fell nearby.

“Daud! Keep them safe!” He shouted and with wide steps ran towards the bridge.

Judging from the sound, the fighting there was much more intense and if the ship lost its officers, the whole fight would be instantly lost at the same time. Thus Alex immediately rushed towards the most important place on the ship.